Benthic community ecology for Algerian river Seybouse

The Seybouse is the second largest river basin in Algeria, hosting an important biodiversity and providing various ecosystem services. This watershed is highly influenced by agricultural and industrial activities, which threaten its biodiversity and ecosystem integrity. The use of benthic macroinvertebrates as biological indicators has a long tradition in developed countries and integrated into all assessments of the ecological quality of river systems. However, the macroinvertebrates of many North African regions are still not well studied, including those of the Seybouse river. The aim of this study is to assess the inventory and ecological role of benthic macroinvertebrates in inland waters of the Seybouse River and determine the impact of pollution on their spatial distributions. We sampled the benthic macrofauna of Wadi Seybouse and its affluents using regular surveys in three sites, of which one was in the upper Seybouse Bouhamdane in Medjez Amar and two in the middle Seybouse. Between December 2019 and May 2020, 10 physico-chemical parameters (pH, EC, OD, water speed, NO3, Salinity, NO2, MES, turbidity, depth) were measured in order to establish a health state diagnosis of these aquatic ecosystems. The complementary biological approach by the analysis of populations of macroinvertebrates identified 7482 individuals and 40 taxa divided into five classes: Crustaceans which were the most dominant, insects with the main orders (Ephemeroptera, Diptera, Trichoptera, Heteroptera and Odonata), Molluscs, Nematodes and Annelids. The physico-chemical analyzes and the application of the organic pollution indices indicated a strong to excessive pollution for all sites, especially in Seybouse upstream

A 15-Gbps BiCMOS XNOR gate for fast recognition of COVID-19 in binarized neural networks

The COVID-19 pandemic is spreading around the world causing more than 177 million cases and over 3.8 million deaths according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. The virus has devastating effects on economies, health, and well-being of worldwide population. Due to the high increase in daily cases, the available number of COVID-19 test kits in under-developed countries is scarce. Hence, it is vital to implement an effective screening method of patients using chest radiography since the equipment already exists. With the presence of automatic detection systems, any abnormalities in chest radiography that characterizes COVID-19 can be identified. Several artificial-intelligence algorithms have been proposed to detect the virus. However, neural networks training is considered to be time-consuming. Since computations in training neural networks are spent on floating-point multiplications, high computational power is required. Multipliers consume the most space and power among all arithmetic operators in deep neural networks. This paper proposes a 15 Gbps high-speed bipolar-complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor (BiCMOS) exclusive-nor (XNOR) gate to replace multipliers in binarized neural networks. The proposed gate can be implemented on BiCMOS-based field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). This will significantly improve the response time in identifying chest abnormalities in CT scans and X-rays.

Recovery of base and precious metals from PCBs (Printed Circuit Boards) in waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE)

Natural minerals are a powerful tool in politics when some have a major role in production. Its depletion is now a hot topic worldwide. Thus, the safety of the environment, natural surface water, groundwater and the protection of soils from chronic contamination by metallic and inorganic elements is a global concern. Indeed, industrialization and development have led to the generation of huge and varied amounts of waste, including electronic waste (e-waste), which is released into the environment. Although e-waste is classified as hazardous, most of it is not recycled and developed countries with strict environmental protection legislation send most of their e-waste to developing countries where regulations are lax. These electronic devices and components after being used are simply dumped into the environment due to lack of treatment and recycling strategy. As a result, they become a threat to the environment, ecosystems and humans. African countries are among the most vulnerable nations. But they are unfortunately ignored and underestimated. To date, there is no e-waste recycling unit (factory) in most African countries and mainly in the Republic of Benin. In response to this challenge, this study explored the different techniques used for the recycling of waste electrical/electronic equipment in order to develop a new environmentally friendly approach in future work, for the extraction and recycling of the usual and valuable metallic elements contained in electronic waste (printed circuit boards) released into the environment. For this purpose, a bibliographic research was carried out from 20 April to 16 October 2021. The results obtained allowed us to identify the advantages and disadvantages of existing recycling methods.

International Research Progress and Evolution Trend of Interpersonal Trust—Prospects under COVID-19 Pandemic

Retrospecting articles on interpersonal trust is of great importance for understanding its current status and future development in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially, with the widespread use of Big Data and Blockchain. In total, 1532 articles related to interpersonal trust were collected as research database to draw keyword co-occurrence mapping and timeline mapping by VOSviewer and CiteSpace. On this basis, the research content and evolution trend of interpersonal trust were systematically analyzed. The results show that: (1) Data cleaning by code was first integrated with Knowledge Mapping and then used to review the research of interpersonal trust; (2) Developed countries have contributed the most to the research of interpersonal trust; (3) Social capital, knowledge sharing, job and organizational performance, Chinese Guanxi are the research hotspots of interpersonal trust; (4) The research hotspots on interpersonal trust evolve from the level of individual psychology and behavior to the level of social stability and development and then to the level of organization operation and management; (5) At present, the research on interpersonal trust is in the outbreak period; fMRI technology and Big Data and Blockchain technology gradually become vital research tools of interpersonal trust, which provides significant prospects for the following research of interpersonal trust under the COVID-19 pandemic.

Strategies to improve the quality of midwifery care and developing midwife-centered care in Iran: analyzing the attitudes of midwifery experts

Background In recent years, extensive studies have been designed and performed in the context of providing midwifery care in developed countries, which has been unfortunately neglected in some low resources and upper middle-income countries such as Iran. This study was conducted to identify the best strategies for improving the quality of midwifery care and developing midwife-centered care in Iran. Methods This was a qualitative study using focus group discussion and content analysis method. Data were collected from 121 participants including midwifery board members, gynecologists, heads of midwifery departments, midwifery students, in charge midwives in hospitals, and midwives in the private sector. Focused-group discussions were used for data collection, and data were analyzed using content analysis method. Results The main themes extracted from the participants’ statements regarding improving the quality of midwifery care were as follows: Promotion and development of education, Manpower management, Rules, and regulations and standards for midwifery services, and Policy making. Conclusion This study showed that to improve midwifery care, health policy makers should take into account both the quality and quantity of midwifery education, and promote midwifery human resources through employment. Furthermore, insurance support, encouragement, supporting and motivating midwives, enhancing and improving the facilities, providing hospitals and maternity wards with cutting-edge equipment, promoting and reinforcing the position of midwives in the family doctor program, and using a referral system were the strategies proposed by participants for improving midwifery care. Finally, establishing an efficient and powerful monitoring system to control the practice of gynecologists and midwives, promoting the collaborative practice of midwives and gynecologists, and encouraging team-work with respect to midwifery care were other strategies to improve the midwifery services in Iran. Authorities and policymakers may set the stage for developing high quality and affordable midwifery care by relying on the strategies presented in this study.

How COVID-19 Has Influenced the Purchase Patterns of Young Adults in Developed and Developing Economies: Factor Analysis of Shopping Behavior Roots

The paper presents survey results from shopping behavior transformation in developed and developing countries due to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in spring 2020. The survey includes the polling process that covered 515 and 117 young adults, respectively, for two economies and factor analysis to determine the latent intentions of purchase behavior. Shopping patterns were studied for food, medicine, goods of first priority, electronics, clothing, and shoes. According to factor analysis results, we determined nine factors that reveal some similarities in shopping behavior as pro-safe purchases and belt-tightening patterns for both economies. Along with that, we revealed that people from developed countries perceived the greater danger and fear due to the COVID-19 crisis than young adults from developing economy. Based on polling results, the post–COVID-19 shopping channel choice behavior was evaluated for developed and developing economies.

Probiotics in the Prevention of the Calcium Oxalate Urolithiasis

Nephrolithiasis ranks third among urological diseases in terms of prevalence, making up about 15% of cases. The continued increase in the incidence of nephrolithiasis is most probably due to changes in eating habits (high protein, sodium, and sugar diets) and lifestyle (reduced physical activity) in all developed countries. Some 80% of all kidney stones cases are oxalate urolithiasis, which is also characterized by the highest risk of recurrence. Frequent relapses of nephrolithiasis contribute to severe complications and high treatment costs. Unfortunately, there is no known effective way to prevent urolithiasis at present. In cases of diet-related urolithiasis, dietary changes may prevent recurrence. However, in some patients, the condition is unrelated to diet; in such cases, there is evidence to support the use of stone-related medications. Interestingly, a growing body of evidence indicates the potential of the microbiome to reduce the risk of developing renal colic. Previous studies have primarily focused on the use of Oxalobacterformigenes in patients with urolithiasis. Unfortunately, this bacterium is not an ideal probiotic due to its antibiotic sensitivity and low pH. Therefore, subsequent studies sought to find bacteria which are capable of oxalate degradation, focusing on well-known probiotics including Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium strains, Eubacterium lentum, Enterococcus faecalis, and Escherichia coli.