The uprising of the marginalised: a socio-economic perspective of the Syrian uprising

More than three years after the outbreak of protests in a number of Arab countries, the role of socio-economic factors in these events is attracting more attention. One of the cases that needs more research is Syria. More than three years into the Syrian uprising, the socio-economic roots of the protest movement that became one of the bloodiest civil conflicts in the history of the Middle East need to be examined. While it has been observed that the Syrian uprising, contrary to some ‘Arab Spring’ countries, has been an uprising of more marginalised social groups with a strong role played by poorer segments in the society, particularly rural and rural-to-urban migrants, the socio-economic explanation for this is still underdeveloped. This paper aims at contributing to a better understanding of this issue by examining the political and socio-economic compromise that underlined the rule of the Ba’th party in Syria for four decades and unpacking how a combination of internal and external shifts that started in the 1990s and intensified in the 2000s led to the erosion of this compromise, providing the background to the events that began in 2011

New trade conflicts and the race for technological leadership in the digital economy

One of the most commented upon elements of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is the inclusion of new rules around digital information flows and digital data. In particular, we have seen civil society and technology commentators criticising some of the rules within the agreement – on source code, data localisation and intermediaries – that they suggest will be detrimental to a secure, open and competitive digital sector

Selection of Composable Web Services Driven by User Requirements

International audienceBuilding a composite application based on Web services has become a real challenge regarding the large and diverse service space nowadays. Especially when considering the various functional and non-functional capabilities that Web services may afford and users may require. In this paper, we propose an approach for facilitating Web service selection according to user requirements. These requirements specify the needed functionality and expected QoS, as well as the composability between each pair of services. The originality of our approach is embodied in the use of Relational Concept Analysis (RCA), an extension of Formal Concept Analysis (FCA). Using RCA, we classify services by their calculated QoS levels and composability modes. We use a real case study of 901 services to show how to accomplish an efficient selection of services satisfying a specified set of functional and non-functional requirements

Early Results with Hypofractionated Gamma Knife Radiotherapy for Treatment of Vestibular Schwannoma

Objective: Vestibular schwannoma (VS) management with stereotactic radiation previously only included stereotactic radiosurgery with Gamma Knife (GKRS) or LINAC-based radiotherapy (LBR). Hypofractionated Gamma Knife radiotherapy (hfGKRS) is a novel protocol potentially producing less toxicity than the alternatives. This study examines early results in tumor control, complications and hearing preservation outcomes in a consecutive series of vestibular schwannoma patients treated with hfGKRS. Study Design: A retrospective review was conducted for all patients with unilateral VS treated with primary hfGKRS at a single academic center between 2017 and 2023. Methods: Pre- and post-treatment imaging studies, notes and audiograms were analyzed. Pre and post-treatment tumor volume were tabulated. Audiometric data recorded were pure-tone average (PTA), word recognition score (WRS), and speech reception threshold (SRT). Collected data included pre and post treatment tinnitus, imbalance, House-Brackmann score, and facial spasms. Outcomes obtained were compared to literature controls of traditional GKRS and LBR. Results: A total of 25 hfGKRS cases were identified. Mean tumor volume was 1.79 cm 3 (range .14-9.29cm3). Mean patient follow-up was 28 months (range 6-86 months). Pre-treatment PTA for the ipsilateral ear was 62.9dB with WRS of 40% and SRT of 33.1dB. Post-treatment PTA was 68.8dB with WRS of 30.8% and SRT of 34.1dB. Serviceable hearing was preserved in 80% of patients and tumor control was 96%. hfGKRS complications included tinnitus (12.5%), dizziness (12.5%), facial pain (8%), and facial spasms (4%). Outcomes compared favorably with GKRS and LBR reports. Conclusion: Multiple factors prior to treatment may influence outcomes. Short term results for VS treated with hfGKRS had high rates of tumor control, favorable hearing results and comparable complication rates to literature reports for both GKRS and LBR. Further follow-up is needed for long-term outcomes in tumor control, toxicity and audiometric results

Practical Use of Formal Concept Analysis in Service-Oriented Computing

International audiencePervasive applications are encountered in a number of settings, including smart houses, intelligent buildings or connected plants. Service-Oriented Computing is today the technology of choice for implementing and exposing resources in such environments. The selection of appropriate services at the right moment in order to compose meaningful applications is however a real issue. In this paper, we propose a FCA-based solution to this problem.We have integrated FCA algorithms in our pervasive gateways and adapted them in order to allow efficient runtime selection of heterogeneous and dynamic services. This work has been applied to realistic use cases in the scope of a European project

Distance transform: a tool for the study of animal colour patterns

Summary The information in animal colour patterns plays a key role in many ecological interactions; quantification would help us to study them, but this is problematic. Comparing patterns using human judgement is subjective and inconsistent. Traditional shape analysis is unsuitable as patterns do not usually contain conserved landmarks. Alternative statistical approaches also have weaknesses, particularly as they are generally based on summary measures that discard most or all of the spatial information in a pattern. We present a method for quantifying the similarity of a pair of patterns based on the distance transform of a binary image. The method compares the whole pattern, pixel by pixel, while being robust to small spatial variations among images. We demonstrate the utility of the distance transform method using three ecological examples. We generate a measure of mimetic accuracy between hoverflies (Diptera: Syrphidae) and wasps (Hymenoptera) based on abdominal pattern and show that this correlates strongly with the perception of a model predator (humans). We calculate similarity values within a group of mimetic butterflies and compare this with proposed pairings of Müllerian comimics. Finally, we characterise variation in clypeal badges of a paper wasp (Polistes dominula) and compare this with previous measures of variation. While our results generally support the findings of existing studies that have used simpler ad hoc methods for measuring differences between patterns, our method is able to detect more subtle variation and hence reveal previously overlooked trends

Neuro-Ophthalmology Findings in Pituitary Disease (Review of Literature)

Visual symptoms often accompany pituitary diseases. Pituitary tumors may compress surrounding structures such as optic chiasm leading to visual field defects including bitemporal hemianopia and visual disturbance. They also may compress cranial nerves III, IV, and VI, leading to ocular motility abnormalities. Pituitary adenomas are the most common cause of chiasmal compression. Patients with nonsecreting tumors present initially with vision loss, and these tumors can reach large size without causing other symptoms; however, hormonally active tumors are detected before vision loss because of systemic symptoms. Acute hemorrhage or infarction of the pituitary tumor known as pituitary apoplexy causes diplopia, loss of vision, and visual field. Thus, the ophthalmologist’s role is crucial in diagnosis and treatment of pituitary tumors. As visual loss may be the first sign of recurrence after treatment, it is essential to repeat visual field and visual acuity testing every 6–12 months

Secularism and its Enemies

The following is intended to suggest a fairly simple contention concerning a number of interconnected propositions made in connection with the debates on modernity and secularism. None of these propositions is particularly novel, nor is this the first time that they have been put forward. Yet the issues raised have remained with us and become all the more pressing; I can see that points that were made, against the flow, more than two decades ago, now stand out more cogently than ever, and are being revisited, rediscovered or simply discovered by many. The simple contention I wish to start with concerns Islamism, often brought out emblematically when secularism and modernity are discussed. Like other self-consciously retrogressive identitarian motifs, ideas, sensibilities, moods and inflections of politics that sustain differentialist culturalism and are sustained by it conceptually, Islamism has come to gain very considerable political and social traction over the past quarter of a century

North Africa's export economies and structural fragility: the limits of development through European value chains

Over recent decades, three North African economies – Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt – have been regional pioneers in adopting integration in global value chains as a path to economic development and transformation. Reflecting their geographical proximity to Europe, preferential access to the EU market, and large wage gap between them and European economies, each have emerged as important locations for labour-intensive activities in European value chains in the garments, electronics and automotive sectors. Reflecting the range of incentives offered, the coastal areas in the three economies witnessed a relatively large influx of foreign and domestic investment. As a result, the three economies experienced important economic transformation processes with an increase in their manufacturing sectors, manufacturing jobs and manufactured exports. Notwithstanding this relative success, the reliance on low-cost labour as a source of competitive advantage, in addition to these economies and their firms’ weak position in European value chains, has limited the wider economic and social benefits of this growth and also left these countries in a structurally fragile position vis-à-vis shifts in the European market. This fragility was illustrated in recent years following the global economic crisis and the European debt crisis on one hand, and the protest movements of the Arab Spring on the other. In recent years, the exhaustion of this low-cost platform model has driven a divergence in the three economies with Morocco succeeding in upgrading its position in a number of European value chains while Egypt and Tunisia have been forced to maintain competitiveness though successive currency devaluations

Research on Bridging the Information Gap of BIM of interoperability and integration in Facilities Management

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a combination of technologies and human work practice in handling geometric and non-geometric information management over the whole life cycle of the construction project. BIM has already matured for implementation in the design and construction phase of a construction project. However, there is still a low rate of utilization of BIM in asset operation and maintenance in the industry. Even though there has been a lot of academic research to study how asset information in BIM can leverage the workflow and performance of Facilities management (FM), there is still only 10% of companies/projects that recognize the benefit of the usage of BIM in Facilities management. There is less research to study the challenges of information integration from BIM to operation and maintenance. So, the purpose of this report is to investigate 1.) What information is required for FM, 2.) What hindrances are there in terms of information integration from BIM to FM and, 3.) What improvements can be done to the integration process. This report is a qualitative study and is based on a literature review and interviews. The interviews, which were semi-structured, were deployed in order to explore the different perspectives regarding the issues about the BIM-FM information transfer and integration process. The interviewees were acting as architects, engineering consultants, and facilities managers from different construction companies in Sweden and Hong Kong. Their experience and opinions from the interview provide findings to form the base of the conclusion. The main findings of this study are discussed. One cause of the problem of information integration from the BIM model to FM is because there is a lack of standard information requirements and format in facilities management. Each practitioner provides asset specification and construction detail in BIM with the format under their preference and perception. Furthermore, the insufficient collaboration between each party, inactive engagement from facilities managers at earlier stages, and different levels of knowledge toward BIM usage in FM and benefit recognition are also hindrances to drive further development of information integration from BIM to FM. BIM enabled FM benefits cannot be fully recognized due to many challenges mentioned above. This study concludes by calling upon a holistic integration of people, processes, and technical change in order to reach better performance of information integration from BIM to F