The oldest African bat from the early Eocene of El Kohol (Algeria)

The Afro-Arabian Paleogene fossil record of Chiroptera is very poor. In North Africa and Arabia, this record is limited, thus far, to a few localities mainly in Tunisia (Chambi, late early Eocene), Egypt (Fayum, late Eocene to early Oligocene), and Sultanate of Oman (Taqah, early Oligocene). It consists primarily of isolated teeth or mandible fragments. Interestingly, these African fossil bats document two modern groups (Vespertilionoidea and Rhinolophoidea) from the early Eocene, while the bat fossil record of the same epoch of North America, Eurasia, and Australia principally includes members of the ??Eochiroptera.?? This paraphyletic group contains all primitive microbats excluding modern families. In Algeria, the region of Brezina, southeast of the Atlas Mountains, is famous for the early Eocene El Kohol Formation, which has yielded one of the earliest mammalian faunas of the African landmass. Recent fieldwork in the same area has led to the discovery of a new vertebrate locality, including isolated teeth of Chiroptera. These fossils represent the oldest occurrence of Chiroptera in Africa, thus extending back the record of the group to the middle early Eocene (Ypresian) on that continent. The material consists of an upper molar and two fragments of lower molars. The dental character association matches that of ??Eochiroptera.?? As such, although very fragmentary, the material testifies to the first occurrence of ??Eochiroptera?? in Algeria, and by extension in Africa. This discovery demonstrates that this basal group of Chiroptera had a worldwide distribution during the early Paleogene.     

Isolation and characterization of facultative mixotrophic ammonia-oxidizing bacteria from constructed wetlands

Autotrophic ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) have been widely studied in constructed wetlands systems, while mixotrophic AOB have been less thoroughly examined. Heterotrophic bacteria were isolated from wastewater and rhizospheres of macrophytes of constructed wetlands, and then cultivated in a mixotrophic medium containing ammonium and acetic acid. A molecular characterization was accomplished using ITS-PCR amplification, and phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences. Results showed the presence of 35 bacteria, among 400 initially heterotrophic isolates, that were able to remove ammonia. These 35 isolates were classified into 10 genetically different groups based on ITS pattern. Then, a collection of 10 isolates were selected because of their relatively high ammonia removal efficiencies (ARE ≥ 80%) and their phylogenetic diversity. In conditions of mixotrophy, these strains were shown to be able to grow (increase of optical density OD₆₆₀ during incubation with assimilation of nitrogen into cellular biomass) and to oxidize ammonia (important ammonia oxidation efficiencies, AOE between 79% and 87%). Among these facultative mixotrophic AOB, four isolates were genetically related to Firmicutes (Bacillus and Exiguobacterium), three isolates were affiliated to Actinobacteria (Arthrobacter) and three other isolates were associated with Proteobacteria (Pseudomonas, Ochrobactrum and Bordetella).     

Elaboration of a Bio-Colored Material Based on Natural Dye and Polybutylene Succinate: Comparative Study with Colored Polylactic Acid

Journal of Polymers and the Environment - In the context of sustainable development and natural products valorization, new ecological materials enter a logic aimed at removing the causes of...     

GIS ASSESSMENT OF THE VULNERABILITY OF THE ROSETTA AREA, EGYPT TO IMPACTS OF SEA RISE

A study of the area, including Rosetta city and the estuary of the river Nile (Rosetta branch), has been carried out for assessment of the impact of sea level rise (slr). A geographic information system (GIS) has been built including layers of land use, topography, archeological sites, land cover and population. Analysis of data has been carried out to assess vulnerability of various land use and land cover classes to the impact of sea level rise.Because the area under study has geomorphic relief profiles just over the sea level, inundation of total land could reach 26% of total study area due to only half a meter rise in sea level. This lost area includes 32% of urban clusters mainly used for human shelter and contains 52% of present monuments, 25% of valuable high quality dense palm trees cultivation, 75% of beaches and 19% of lands suitable, 25% of valuable high quality dense palm trees cultivation, 75% of beaches and 19% of lands suitable for agricultural reclamation (although suffering from salt water intrusion and soil salinization). This is expected to cause a significant impact on the present population, economic activities, total regional revenue, and also on tourism. At 1.1 m sea level rise, 72% to total study area could be inundated. This area contains all beaches, half of the palm cultivation, 43% of total urban clusters, which includes 81% of the monumental sites and historic buildings.Other environmental problems such as solid waste management, sanitary disposal network, deteriorating conditions of some monumental structures, in addition to the sea level rise act negatively on the environmental quality of the urban community. Future plans for urban expansion in the area must be studied carefully in order to preserve valuable palm lands and maintain and protect monuments and historic sites which help the promotion of tourism. An environmental management program is essential for upgrading tourism, promoting urban development and protecting coastal lands.     

Phosphogypsum Waste Used as Reinforcing Fillers in Polypropylene Based Composites: Structural,Mechanical and Thermal Properties

The industrial production of wet phosphoric acid in Morocco led to controversial stockpiling of waste phosphogypsum by-products resulting in the release of significant amounts of toxic impurities in salt marshes. In the framework of fighting against global climate change and efforts to reduce toxic industrial wastes (phosphate industry), this work presents a new polymer composite based on phosphogypsum (PhG) and polypropylene (PP).The compounds were produced by twin-screw extrusion and injection molding. The morphological results show that good affinity between PhG and PP led to good particle dispersion/distribution in the polymer matrix. Thermal characterizations showed that PhG particles improved the thermal stability of PP with a 50 °C increase at 40 wt%. The optimum tensile modulus was also obtained at 40 wt% with a 74 % increase over neat PP. Dynamical mechanical analysis showed that PhG addition can improve the viscoelastic properties of PP for potential applications under dynamic stress. Overall, it can be concluded that PhG is potential reinforcing filler for the production of PP composites and represents a promising avenue for the valorization of this waste as a new raw material while resolving some environmental issues.     

Investigation on the effect of impact location height on pedestrian safety using a legform impactor dynamic model

Because of rapid increase in the urban population and hence road traffic, the vehicle–pedestrian crashes are more frequent and have become a major concern in road traffic safety. Though the bumper of a vehicle plays an important role to protect the vehicle body damage in low speed impacts, many bumpers particularly in larger vehicles are too stiff for pedestrian protection and safety. To prevent lower extremity injuries in car–pedestrian collisions, it is important to determine the loadings that car front structures impart on the lower extremities and the mechanisms by which injuries are caused. In the present work, a dynamic legform impactor model is introduced and validated against EEVC/WG17 criteria. The collision mechanism between a GMT bumper and the legform impactor model is investigated numerically using LS-DYNA software. The effect of the height of the impact point of bumper assembly to lower extremity injuries is also investigated. In this paper, it is shown that changing the local stiffness of bumper assembly due to the change in the height of the bumper and distribution of stiffness from upper parts of the bumper assembly to lower parts are the most important parameters in the pedestrian’s leg injuries. As lower extremity injuries are related to the lower bumper height, developing special legform impactors for different countries with different average person height seems essential in investigating the effect of people’s height on lower extremity injuries.     

Treatment of domestic wastewater using an anaerobic baffled reactor followed by a duckweed pond for agricultural purposes

The treatment and reuse of domestic wastewater using an anaerobic baffled reactor (ABR) followed by a duckweed pond (DWP) were the main theme of the present study. The ABR was fed continuously with domestic wastewater at four HRTs ranging from 8 to 24 h and corresponds to organic loading rates ranging from 0.67 to 2.1 kg COD/m³/day. The ABR effluent was fed to a DWP operating at 10 and 15 days. The performance of the ABR at the four HRTs gave satisfactory results. Chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal was between 68 and 82%. Fecal coliform removal was between 1 to 2 logs. The 12- and 18-h hydraulic retention times (HRTs) gave close results, as indication of the possible selection of the 12-h HRT as the optimum operation for the ABR based on economic advantage. The ABR compartmentalized structure gave results higher than those produced by the one-stage digester and similar to those produced by the two-phase anaerobic digestion process. Duckweed ponds as post-treatment operated at 10 days and 15 days gave the best results at 15-day HRT, where it was possible to remove 73.4% of nitrogen and 65% of phosphorus and produce protein-rich dry duckweed of 105 kg/ha/day on average. The removal of fecal coliform (FC) in duckweed ponds was 3–4 logs. The final treated domestic sewage characteristics proved its compliance with the Egyptian standards for reuse in restricted irrigation.