The genus Segestria Latreille, 1804 and the species Segestria florentina (Rossi, 1790) are recorded in Libya for the first time, based on a single adult female specimen

Seven male specimens (one immature and six adults) of a rare species of Loureedia jerbae (El-Hennawy, 2005), are recorded for the first time in Libya, representing the first record of this species outside of Tunisia. Illustrations and a description are provided. Only the most recent adult of the specimens captured in October/November of 2019 to 2022 was examined, identified and described. Although Libya has one of the least recorded spider species in the Mediterranean region, it is promising to reveal more undiscovered and undocumented species through extensive research in this large country.

Keywords: Araneae, North Africa, Joker Spiders, Libya, Rare Species.

The battle against COVID-19 does not always end when recovery is declared. Many individuals confirmed recovered from COVID-19 continue to experience a variety of symptoms. The aim of this study was to shed more light on COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 symptoms in Libya. Two hundred and twenty Libyan individuals (58% female; 42% male), who recovered from COVID‐19, were asked to answer a questionnaire that was performed to inquire about the presence of COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 symptoms. Additionally, comorbidities and demographic data were included. The most common comorbidities were hypertension (20%), diabetes (16%), and lung disease (08%). The main COVID-19 symptoms were headache (56%), anosmia and ageusia (52%), Arthralgia (48%), cough (46%) and fever (41%). While the post-COVID-19 symptoms were fatigue (64%), sleep disorders (52%), insomnia, anxiety, depression (42%), and anosmia and ageusia (32%). Persistent COVID and its related long-term complications may continue to affect patients and their families.

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Using macroinvertebrate-based biotic indices and diversity indices to assess water quality: A case study on the Karasu Stream (Kastamonu, Türkiye)

İbrahim Küçükbasmacı, Abdulhamed M Omar Etriieki

Biomonitoring is an approach that uses indicators or sentinel species to assess the health or pollution of an environment, combining diversity based on specific taxonomic groups with the taxa’s indicator of pollution into a single index or score. Benthic macroinvertebrates are among the most preferred and valuable indicators of the biotic index. Our study aims to evaluate water quality and ecological status using biotic and diversity indices based on benthic macroinvertebrates. The macroinvertebrate samples used in this study were collected seasonally from 16 stations determined in Karasu Stream. These samples consist of 14747 specimens belonging to 9 orders and 40 families of Insecta, Malacostraca, Hirudinea and Oligochaeta. In addition, some physicochemical parameters were measured at the stations. The data obtained were analyzed using the Turkey-Biological Monitoring Working Group (TR-BMWP), Average Score per Taxon (ASPT), Family Biotic Index (FBI), Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera (EPT) taxon richness index, and Shannon-Wiener (SWDI), Simpson (SDI) and Hill’s diversity indices. Our results showed that the last six stations of Karasu Stream were under pressure due to various anthropogenic effects. According to biotic indexes, the ecological quality status of the water in the stations was determined to be High or Good in the first ten stations and Average, Poor, or Bad in the last six stations. The results of our study showed that TR-BMWP, FBI, and EPT indices are more reliable in determining water quality than the ASPT index and reflect the environmental situation better. Since the TR-BMWP index is adapted to macroinvertebrate taxa distributed in Türkiye, it can be used as a suitable tool for evaluating other rivers’ water quality in Türkiye.

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Using macroinvertebrate‐based biotic indices and diversity indices to assess water quality: A case study on the Karasu Stream (Kastamonu, Türkiye)

Abdulhamed M Omar Etriieki, İbrahim Küçükbasmacı

Ecohydrology, e2627, 2024

Biomonitoring is an approach that uses indicators or sentinel species to assess the health or pollution of an environment, combining diversity based on specific taxonomic groups with the taxa's indicator of pollution into a single index or score. Benthic macroinvertebrates are among the most preferred and valuable indicators of the biotic index. Our study aims to evaluate water quality and ecological status using biotic and diversity indices based on benthic macroinvertebrates. The macroinvertebrate samples used in this study were collected seasonally from 16 stations determined in Karasu Stream. These samples consist of 14,747 specimens belonging to 9 orders and 40 families of Insecta, Malacostraca, Hirudinea and Oligochaeta. In addition, some physicochemical parameters were measured at the stations. The data obtained were analysed using the Turkey‐Biological Monitoring Working Group (TR‐BMWP), Average Score per Taxon (ASPT), Family Biotic Index (FBI), Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera (EPT) taxon richness index, and Shannon–Wiener, Simpson and Hill's diversity indices. Our results showed that the last six stations of Karasu Stream were under pressure due to various anthropogenic effects. According to biotic indexes, the ecological quality status of the water in the stations was determined to be high or good in the first 10 stations and average, poor or bad in the last 6 stations. The results of our study showed that TR‐BMWP, FBI and EPT indices are more reliable in determining water quality than the ASPT index and reflect the environmental situation better. Since the TR‐BMWP index is adapted to macroinvertebrate taxa distributed in Türkiye, it can be used as a suitable tool for evaluating other rivers' water quality in Türkiye.

Description

Background and aims

The physical parameters and the occurrence and abundance of zooplankton in Ain-Zayanah lagoon, Benghazi, Libya, were studied from August, 2005–July, 2006, as a part of detailed investigation on the feasibility of converting the lagoon into an aquaculture farm for captive breeding and culturing of different economically important edible fish, fish fry, molluscan and crustacean animals, and for culturing the zooplankton which form the food of these organisms.

Methods

Five different sites located near to the shore were selected in the lagoon for water and zooplankton monthly sampling and analyses. The physical parameters of the water included air and water temperatures, transparency, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids, pH, dissolved oxygen and total hardness; they were analysed using standard methods. Various differences were revealed in the relationships of these parameters in and between sites, months and seasons.

Results

Seven major groups of zooplankton inhabited Ain-Zayanah lagoon; rotifers formed the dominant one (40.50%), followed by rhabtida (21.61%), crustacean larva (14.55%), foraminifera (13.23%), ostracoda (5.97%), copepoda (4.13%) and cladocera (0.01%). Air and water temperatures, pH, DO, electrical conductivity, TDS and hardness had different relationships with the seven zooplankton groups in Ain-Zayanah lagoon.

Conclusion

The results obtained were discussed extensively in the light of available literature in the fields, and suitable conclusions, suggestions and precautions to be taken were given in connection with the establishment of Aquaculture farm in Ain-Zayanah lagoon

Background and aims

In recent years, the education sector in Libya have been affected by wars and political fluctuations, impacting the quality and availability of education. There have been challenges in providing the necessary educational resources, as well as in training and qualifying teachers. E-learning, it can be an effective tool in improving education under difficult circumstances. Online education can provide opportunities for students to access educational resources easily, and can contribute to enhancing communication between teachers and students. E-learning can also play a role in developing students’ technology skills, which is important in our modern era. In 2019, the Faculty of Science at the University of Gharyan partially implemented online learning as a response to COVID-19 pandemic, and this program continued for two academic terms. Therefore, the paper aims to highlights both the advantages and limitations of E-learning within the environment of university education in Libya

A new robust blind image watermarking method based on lifting wavelet transform (LWT), and Schur decomposition in combination with discrete cosine transform (DCT), and entropy analysis for copyright protection of multimedia information is introduced in this paper. At first, the 2-level LWT is applied to the original image to improve the invisibility of the watermarking method and then the high-frequency sub-band of 2-level LWT is decomposed by DCT. Then, the DCT coefficients are divided into 4×4 non-overlapping blocks. After that, Schur decomposition applies to each selected block, while the first row, the first column element of the upper triangular matrix is used to embed the watermark. For evaluation, the invisibility and robustness of the proposed watermarking method, the peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR), and normalized cross-correlation (NC) are used to measure the quality and the ability of the proposed watermarking method to be robust against signal processing operations and geometric attacks. Experimental results have demonstrated that the proposed method is achieved a very good tradeoff between invisibility and robustness. The comparisons with other scheme have shown that the proposed digital watermarking scheme has a superior performance in terms of invisibility than other. 

The goal of this study was to investigate the vegetation composition and structure of the Al-Orban area in Gharyan district, Libya over two continues growing seasons from the first of January 2020 to the first of Jaunary 2022. During this period, a total of 309 plant species were identified and collected in the field. These species belonged to 43 families, with 39 families of dicotyledons and 4 families of monocotyledons. The most dominant family was Asteraceae with 60 species, followed by Fabaceae with 32 species, Poaceae with 33 species, and Brassicaceae with 35 species. The most dominant genera were Plantago and Euphorbia, each represented by 6 species, followed by Erodium and Chenopodiun with 5 species each, and Astragalus, Centaurea, Rumex, Concolvulus, and Stipa each represented by 4 species. Life-form spectrum analysis indicated that Therophytes were the most predominant with 189 species, followed by Hemicryptophytes with 47 species, and geophytes with 40 species. Furthermore, chorotype spectrum analysis showed the dominance of Mediterranean species with 128 species, followed by Mediterranean/Iranian-Turanian with 66 species. These findings provide valuable insight into the plant diversity and distribution in the Al-Orban area of Gharyan district, Libya.