Is it one Nile? Civic engagement and hydropolitics in the Eastern Nile Basin: the case of Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia

This dissertation argues that civil society actors have engaged in Eastern Nile politics despite the dominance of states and intergovernmental organisations. There are different characteristics of civil engagement in Nile politics. There are structured organisations including non-governmental organisations and think tanks, others act through initiatives and loosely structured arrangements such as diaspora groups and youth-based initiatives. The analysis of this dissertation focuses on transnational activities of civil society actors in the Eastern Nile Basin countries: Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia. It investigates how an intergovernmental organisation (the Nile Basin Initiative) interacts with different civil society actors (e.g. the Nile Basin Discourse). Network analysis has been applied to understand interconnections among civil society actors on the one hand and relations with national governments and donor agencies on the other hand. Several interviews have been conducted in Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia with a variety of actors to discern their positions on the issues and connections with other actors. The research findings show a clustered network as civil society actors operating in small groups rather than covering the whole Eastern Nile Basin. The network has this feature because the majority of organised civil society actors employ depoliticized activities, such as capacity building programs, water service provision and awareness raising. Nevertheless, unstructured civil society activism (e.g. diaspora groups and anti-dam movements) has been able to contest water policies and projects as determined on national levels. The research shows civil society actors often take similar positions as their respective governments regarding contested politics (e.g. water shares), despite the fact that they may conduct joint activities with other civil society actors in transnational networks across the Eastern Nile Basin. But enhanced patterns of civil society engagement and transnational patterns of collaboration could constitute a counterweight to nationally determined agendas that often lead to clashing visions on water governance in the region and among the riparian communities. Security and Global Affair

Imagining the Nile: Knowledge-Power Nexus in the 19th Century Anthropocene

The Nile River has featured prominently in both nationalist memoirs and foreigners' travelogues. This paper explores human interventions in the Nile, not in the physical changes in the landscape but rather in the imagination, discourses and knowledge production of the nineteenth century European and Ottoman Empires. We show how the emergence of the 'modern river' was made possible by two crucial strains of Nile imaginaries and knowledge. The paper examines writings by European travellers and nationalist writing by Egypt's modernist, Alī Mubārak. Through our analysis we show how the Nile was co-constituted by two principal story-telling ventures: European travelogues and Egyptian modernist writing

Routing Protocols for Wireless Multimedia Sensor Network: A Survey

Multimedia applications have become an essential part of our daily lives, and their use is flourishing day by day. The area of wireless sensor network is not an exception where the multimedia sensors are attracting the attention of the researchers increasingly, and it has shifted the focus from traditional scalar sensors to sensors equipped with multimedia devices. The multimedia sensors have the ability to capture video, image, audio, and scalar sensor data and deliver the multimedia content through sensors network. Due to the resource constraints nature of WSN introducing multimedia will add more challenges, so the protocols designed for multimedia wireless sensor network should be aware of the resource constraints nature of WSN and multimedia transmission requirement. This paper discusses the design challenges of routing protocols proposed for WMSN. A survey and comprehensive discussion are given for proposed protocols of WMSN followed by their limitations and features

Mining association rules from structured XML data

XML has become the standard for data representation on the web. This expansion in reputation has prompted the need for a technique to access XML documents. Many techniques have been proposed to tackle the problem of mining XML data. We study the various techniques to mine XML data and yet We presented a java based implementation of FLEX algorithm for mining XML data

Scalable approach for mining association rules from structured XML data

XML has become the standard for data representation on the Web. This expansion in reputation has prompted the need for a technique to access XML documents. Many techniques have been proposed to tackle the problem of mining XML data we study the various techniques to mine XML data and yet We presented a java based implementation of FLEX algorithm for mining XML data

A Reconfigurable Multipurpose SoC Mobile Platform for metal detection

Background and Objectives One of the key problems in mobile robotics is the ability to understand and analyze the surrounding environment in a useful way. This is especially important in dangerous applications where human involvement should be avoided. A clear example of employing the robots in dangerous applications is mine detection which is mostly done through metal detection techniques. Among the various types of walking robots, Hexapod walking robots offer a good static stability margin and faster movement especially in rough terrain applications [1] Thus, the “Hexapod Terasic Spider Robot” is a suitable platform for the metal detection purpose especially that it is equipped with Altera DE0-Nano field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) SoC which allows for extremely high performance and accuracy. This work introduces a novel implementation of a metal detection module on the Terasic Spider Robot; the metal detection module is designed and interfaced with the robot in order to perform the metal detection. The user can control the robot and receive the feedback through a Bluetooth-enabled android phone. In addition, a general-purpose design flow that can be used to implement other applications on this platform is proposed. This proves the versatility of the platform as well.Method The designed metal detection module (MDM) is mainly based on an oscillator and a coil, its operation principle is that when the coil approaches a metal, the frequency of the oscillator will change [2]. This frequency change can be accurately monitored in real time using the FPGA SoC board. Thus, the module can be used for detecting metals. The metal detection module is interfaced with DE0-Nano SoC board where the detection algorithm is implemented. The development of the algorithm is carried out on the board available on this robot. The board includes a FPGA, which provides a high-performance and real-time implementation of parts of the algorithm, and a hard processor system (HPS) running Linux OS which can be used to easily interface the board with other computer systems and peripherals such as mobile phones and cameras[3]. As shown in Fig. 1, the detection algorithm is based on hardware/software co-design; the output of the MDM is provided to the FPGA part of the board in order to achieve an accurate and real-time monitoring. Upon detection, the FPGA sends a detection signal through the shared memory interface to the HPS part of the board. The HPS is then responsible for sending a warning to the mobile through multi-threaded communication application that is running on the HPS. Figure 1 General architecture of the metal detection system In order to implement the metal detection algorithm on the Terasic Spider Robot, it was necessary to formulate and follow the design flow provided in Fig. 2. This design flow can be used to implement other applications that can utilize the hardware/software co-design approach for better performance. Figure 2 General purpose design flow for the Altera Terasic Spider Robot Platform. Results and discussion Due to the coil specification and the circuit design. The frequency captured at normal situations is (no metal presence) is 2155 ± 20 Hz. The frequency increases Inversely proportional to the distance of the metal from the coil. In other words, the frequency increases when the distance between the metal and the coil decrease. When a metal whose size is at least the same size as the coil is present at 7 cm distance from the detection coil, the frequency will exceed 2200 Hz Regardless of the medium. The tested medium is wood. However, similar results were obtained with air medium. These numbers are specific to the proposed system. Changing the circuit parameters will increase the detection distance if desired. For example, having more coil turns and bigger diameter as well as faster oscillation will increase the detection distance. To avoid any interference between the robot body and the metal detection circuit readings, a 15 inches plastic arm is used to connect the metal detection module to the body of the robot. The electronics components is attached to this arm to the nearest possible point to the coil. The metal detection module attached to a plastic arm and then to the robot. the metal detection module and the spider robot is shown in Fig. 3 and 4 respectively. Figure 3 The Metal Detection Circuit Combined with the Arm Fig. 4 MDM Connected to the Terasic Spider Robot The robot is then controlled through a mobile application, the mobile application is modified so that the robot can send feedback (detection warning) to the mobile phone. Figure 5 shows an example of the notification message «Metal Detected» whenever a metal is detected. Figure. 5. Metal Detection Message for Mobile Application Interface Summary and Conclusion This abstract includes a general description of research project that aims to utilize the Terasic Spider Robot platform to perform accurate and real-time metal detection. This is an important application that helps humans avoid involvement in dangerous operations like mine detection. Nonetheless, a general-purpose design flow is proposed for the benefit of the research community and anyone who intends to implement an application on this platform in the future. Acknowledgment This project was funded by Qatar University Internal Grants program. References [1] Y. Zhu, B. Jin, Y. Wu, T. Guo and X. Zhao, «Trajectory Correction and Locomotion Analysis of a Hexapod Walking Robot with Semi-Round Rigid Feet», Sensors, vol. 16, no. 9, p. 1392, 2016. [2] T. Alauddin, M. T. Islam and H. U. Zaman, «Efficient design of a metal detector equipped remote-controlled robotic vehicle,» 2016 International Conference on Microelectronics, Computing and Communications (MicroCom), Durgapur, 2016, pp. 1-5 [3] «Cyclone V Device Overview», Altera, 2016. [Online]. Available: https://www.altera.com/en_US/pdfs/literature/hb/cyclone-v/cv_51001.pdf. [Accessed: 16- Oct- 2017]qscienc

Rabies Prophylaxis for Pregnant Women

Rabies Prophylaxis for Wome

Characterizing genomic alterations in cancer by complementary functional associations.

Systematic efforts to sequence the cancer genome have identified large numbers of mutations and copy number alterations in human cancers. However, elucidating the functional consequences of these variants, and their interactions to drive or maintain oncogenic states, remains a challenge in cancer research. We developed REVEALER, a computational method that identifies combinations of mutually exclusive genomic alterations correlated with functional phenotypes, such as the activation or gene dependency of oncogenic pathways or sensitivity to a drug treatment. We used REVEALER to uncover complementary genomic alterations associated with the transcriptional activation of β-catenin and NRF2, MEK-inhibitor sensitivity, and KRAS dependency. REVEALER successfully identified both known and new associations, demonstrating the power of combining functional profiles with extensive characterization of genomic alterations in cancer genomes

Monitoring Keap1-Nrf2 interactions in single live cells

AbstractThe transcription factor NF-E2 p45-related factor 2 (Nrf2) and its negative regulator Kelch-like ECH associated protein 1 (Keap1) control the expression of nearly 500 genes with diverse cytoprotective functions. Keap1, a substrate adaptor protein for Cullin3/Rbx1 ubiquitin ligase, normally continuously targets Nrf2 for degradation, but loses this ability in response to electrophiles and oxidants (termed inducers). Consequently, Nrf2 accumulates and activates transcription of its downstream target genes. Many inducers are phytochemicals, and cruciferous vegetables represent one of the richest sources of inducer activity among the most commonly used edible plants. Here we summarize the discovery of the isothiocyanate sulforaphane as a potent inducer which reacts with cysteine sensors of Keap1, leading to activation of Nrf2. We then describe the development of a quantitative Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based methodology combined with multiphoton fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) to investigate the interactions between Keap1 and Nrf2 in single live cells, and the effect of sulforaphane, and other cysteine-reactive inducers, on the dynamics of the Keap1–Nrf2 protein complex. We present the experimental evidence for the “cyclic sequential attachment and regeneration” or “conformation cycling” model of Keap1-mediated Nrf2 degradation. Finally, we discuss the implications of this mode of regulation of Nrf2 for achieving a fine balance under normal physiological conditions, and the consequences and mechanisms of disrupting this balance for tumor biology