322,934 research outputs found
The Plio-Pleistocene sequence of Oued Boucherit (Algeria): A unique chronologically-constrained archaeological and palaeontological record in North Africa
No full textLocated within the Beni Fouda intramontane basin, the Oued Boucherit area (Guelta Zerga, North East Algeria) hosts a unique succession of archaeological and palaeontological deposits spanning from the late Pliocene to the Early Pleistocene. While the recent work by Sahnouni et al., (2018) mostly focused on the two Oldowan archaeological levels AB-Lw and AB-Up, we present here an updated overview of the entire Oued Boucherit sequence, resulting from a long-term multidisciplinary investigation that started in 1992. In particular, we report for the first time a description of the oldest palaeontological levels dated to >3 Ma, and of the uppermost archaeological level hosting Acheulean artefacts. The age-depth model initially proposed by Sahnouni et al. (2018) was further extended to chronologically constrain the whole sequence, which spans from ∼3.93 Ma at the bottom to ∼1.65 Ma at the top. The Oued Boucherit sedimentary sequence records the earliest evolutionary steps of lithic technology, with early Oldowan assemblages at Ain Boucherit dated to about 2.44 Ma (AB-Lw) and 1.92 Ma (AB-Up) Ma, followed by the ∼1.77-1.72 Ma assemblages of Ain Hanech and El Kherba showing more derived features, and the appearance of the Acheulean technology, dated to ∼1.67 Ma. This chonostratigraphic framework indicates that the Oued Boucherit area (<1 km) hosts the oldest Oldowan and Acheulean assemblages identified so far in North Africa. It is also especially striking that their chronology is somewhat close to the earliest Oldowan and Acheulean evidence found in East Africa and South Africa. Moreover, at least six fossiliferous levels ranging from ∼3.78 to 1.77-1.72 Ma have been identified and stratigraphically positioned within the sequence. They represent a unique opportunity to study not only the evolution of large mammal faunal assemblages in North Africa, but may also give some key insights about the evolution of palaeoecological and palaeoenvironmental conditions in the region throughout the Late Pliocene to the Early Pleistocene. While the number of well-dated Plio-Quaternary faunal assemblages in North Africa remains somewhat limited, the Oued Boucherit sequence may be used as a reference for regional biochronological inferences.Research grants are awarded to M. Sahnouni and/or J. van der Made and/or J.M. Parés by CNRPAH, MINICIU (PGC 2018-095489-B-I00), MINECO (HAR 2013-41351-P & CGL 2017-89603-R) (Spain), The L.S.B. Leakey Foundation (San Francisco, CA, USA), Wenner-Gren Foundation (New York, USA), European Research Council (FP7-People-CIG2993581) (Brussels, Belgium), and Stone Age Institute (Bloomington, IN, USA). Mathieu Duval's research has been funded by the Australian Research Council Future Fellowship Grant FT150100215 and Spanish Ramón y Cajal Fellowship RYC 2018-025221-I
Effects of Climatic Conditions on Performance of Innovative Prefabricated Movable Buildings for Smart/Co-Working in Small Villages of Southern Italy
No full textSmart/co-working spaces are growing significantly, involving 16 million workers. Many small villages, representing 11 million citizens, are facing depopulation, job opportunities scarcity and services lack. Using prefabricated movable buildings (PMBs) could represent an opportunity to create smart/co-working spaces in a regenerative contest, allowing to save energy, CO2 emissions, and costs, as well as enhance worker’s perception of surroundings, and support the rebirth of small villages with high regenerative potential. In this paper, the performance of an innovative PMB for smart/co-working have been analyzed in 5 small villages of the Campania region (southern Italy) via the software TRNSYS. The PMB accommodates up to six workers and is equipped with smart windows and roof-mounted photovoltaic panels. The produced electricity can be stored in a battery and/or used to operate an electric reversing heat pump (EHP) for heating/cooling purposes. Its dynamic performance have been compared with a conventional PMB, highlighting that the utilization of smart windows reduces the cooling demand (at least by 47.77%) and the EHP electric consumption (at least by 41.26%); the integration of both photovoltaic panels and battery allows to fully cover the energy needs (so that the PMB is totally energy independent thanks to renewable sources)
Exploring perception through an immersive experience of visually impaired people in 360° video and 3D ambisonic audio
No full textPhysical and perceptual dimensions of open urban spaces in Biskra
No full textThe sound dimension is a constitutive element of the architectural, urban, and environmental projects of open spaces. In combination with other physical stimuli, such as vision, thermoigrometric conditions, odors, the sound can contribute to fulfill the expectation and it can improve the well-being of the citizens who are the users of these spaces. Many researches attempted to find out correlation between quantitative multisensorial physical features of open spaces and subjective qualitative evaluation by users. In many cases these attempts were successful, however few research considered specifically special categories such as older citizens or visually impaired citizens.
In order to receive information to make the sensory urban architecture approach more inclusive as possible, in this preliminary study several relevant urban sites such as gardens, main streets and open markets in the city of the Biskra in Algeria have been characterized in terms of physical properties and in these sites, through specific surveys, the response of users was collected. Among the users, different categories of citizens with specific needs were contemplated for the subjective assessment
Assessment of the types of catheter infectivity caused by Candida species and their biofilm formation. First study in an intensive care unit in Algeria
No full textSidi Mohammed Lahbib Seddiki,1 Zahia Boucherit-Otmani,1 Kebir Boucherit,1 Souad Badsi-Amir,2 Mourad Taleb,3 Dennis Kunkel41Laboratory: Antifungal Antibiotic, Physico-Chemical Synthesis and Biological Activity, University of Tlemcen, Algeria; 2Department of Anesthesiology, 3Department of Epidemiology, University Hospital of Sidi Bel Abbes, Algeria; 4Dennis Kunkel Microscopy Inc, Kailua, HI, USAAbstract: Nosocomial candidiasis remains a potential risk in intensive care units (ICUs), wherein Candida albicans is most responsible for its occurrence. Equally, non-C. albicans species, especially C. glabrata, are also involved. These infections are frequently associated with biofilms that contaminate medical devices, such as catheters. These biofilms constitute a significant clinical problem, and cause therapeutic failures, because they can escape the immune response and considerably decrease sensitivity to antifungal therapy. The diagnosis of catheter-related candidiasis is difficult; however, the differentiation between an infection of the catheter (or other medical implant) and a simple contamination is essential to start an antifungal treatment. Among the methods used for this type of study is the Brun-Buisson method, but this method only examines the infectivity of catheters caused by bacteria. For this reason, we wanted to adapt this method to the yeast cells of Candida spp. To assess the various types of infectivity of catheters (contamination, colonization, or infection) and their corresponding rates, as well as the responsible yeast species, we conducted our study, between February 2011 and January 2012, in the ICU at the University Hospital Center of Sidi Bel Abbes, Algeria; during this study, we took photographic images of the tongue of one patient and of that patient&#39;s implanted orobronchial catheter. In addition, catheters contaminated by C. albicans biofilms were observed by scanning electron microscopy.Keywords: ICU, contamination, colonization, infectio
Correlation Between Acoustic, Luminous, Thermal Dimensions of A Urban Park In an Oasis Settlement and emotional response of Visually Impaired Users
No full textOccupants' interaction with urban spaces and their behavior is often influenced by environmental dimensions: thermal, visual, acoustic or air quality. Many studies have investigated the relationships between occupants' behavior and these dimensions, but just few of them have addressed occupants with special needs, such as the visually impaired. This study, based on measurements' campaign and research activities conducted at Biskra (Algeria) inside an urban park in an oasis settlement, provides further investigations about the relationship between acoustic, luminous, thermal dimensions and the emotional response of visually impaired users as a basis for validating and improving their wellbeing in important spaces of the urban environment such as the public parks. The methodological approach is based on both quantitative and qualitative assessment. The objective study is based on evaluating the physical dimensions of the site, while the subjective one is based on conducting in-situ questionnaires such as a multi-items Likert scale and multi-sensory evaluation towards the environment. Findings obtained from this study could offer a new vision to planners and designers to improve the wellbeing of visually impaired users by including the multisensory dimensions as constitutive elements of architectural, urban and environmental projects
Diffusive author(s), cohesive author: Analysis of S/N (1994)
No full textThis study indicates the ways in which various aspects of the author(s) are brought forth in Dumb type’s performance art, the S/N production. Previous research has suggested a non-hierarchical organization of Dumb type and the absence of a “privileged author” in Dumb type’s collaborative work, S/N. However, the results that I have investigated from member’s interviews on the creative process of S/N along with my analysis of the recorded images of S/N, indicate a different aspect of the author(s). First, S/N was created through, so to speak, the collective ideas of the members of Dumb type. Further, S/N has at least nine quotations from previous performances, installations, and printed writings, besides the work-in-progress technique. Explicating one of the “author functions” as given by Michel Foucault, each text has plural subjects of the author. However, it has been revealed from members’ interviews that Teiji Furuhashi had a decision-making role in selecting the members’ ideas within the performance. Since then, S/N has had plural subjects of creation; however, Furuhashi is one of the subjects of creation along with the “privileged author.” S/N has plural authors (diffusive authors) yet at the same time, it has a “privileged author,” Teiji Furuhashi (cohesive author)
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
No full textThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
No full textWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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