Imaginary penalities: reconsidering anti-trafficking discourses and technologies

The antithesis between a criminalisation and a human rights approach in the context of trafficking in women has been considered a highly contested issue. On the one hand, it is argued that a criminalisation approach would be better, because security measures will be fortified, the number of convictions will inevitably increase, and states’ interests will be safeguarded against security threats. On the other hand, it is maintained that a human rights approach would bring more effective results, as this will mobilise a more ‘holistic’ approach, bringing together prevention, prosecution, protection of victims and partnerships in delivering gendered victim services. This antithesis, discursively constructed at an international level, cuts across a decentralised reliance on the national competent authorities. To investigate this powerful discursive domain, I set these approaches within the larger framework of a tripartite ‘anti-trafficking promise’ that aims to eliminate trafficking through criminalisation, security and human rights. I ask how clearly and distinctively each term has been articulated, by the official anti-trafficking actors (police and service providers), and what the nature of their interaction is within the larger whole. In grappling with these questions, I undertake both empirical and theoretical enquiry. The empirical part is based on research I conducted at the Greek anti-trafficking mechanisms in 2008-2009. The theoretical discussion draws, in particular, on the concept of ‘imaginary penalities’ introduced in the criminological work of Pat Carlen. I consider what it might mean to bring this concept to bear in the context of anti-trafficking. In my analysis, criminalisation is linked to a ‘toughness’ rhetoric, an ever-encroaching and totalising demand for criminal governance. Security is shown to express the contemporary grammar of criminalisation, crafting a global language of risks and threats as core elements of the post 9/11 ideological conditions in the area of crime control. Finally, human rights are figured as tempering or correcting the criminal law for the sake of victims’ protection. Together, these three elements constitute a promise that, once they are balanced and stabilised, trafficking can be abolished. Yet it is not only trafficking that is at stake. My study shows how anti-trafficking discursive formations also produce particular forms of subjectivity and conceptions of class, sex, ethnicity and race. The upshot is to bring into focus the imaginary penalities at the centre of anti-trafficking discourses and technologies, while also suggesting the possibilities for contesting and transforming their subjects and fields of operation. The thesis opens up the conceptual map of future critical engagement with the relation of structural inequalities and imaginary penalities

Queer utopias and queer criminology

Drawing on the concept of utopia to reflect upon the emerging field of queer criminology and José Esteban Muñoz’s account of queer theory as essentially utopian, we draw two conclusions. First, we suggest that queer criminology is currently limited by tinkering at the edges with piecemeal reforms instead of focussing on radical, wholesale changes, and second, that queer theory contains within it the potential for a more holistic reimagining of the social world. In doing so, we question rigid cis/trans binaries and reject accounts of trans/gender that ignore the role of structural harm. We draw on Ernst Bloch’s concepts of ‘abstract’ and ‘concrete’ utopia to suggest that while queer criminology has succeeded in producing largely ‘abstract’ utopias, it struggles in translating these into ‘concrete’ ones. By introducing examples of trans literary utopias as potential transformative cultural forms, however, we consider the potential of queer theory for realising ‘concrete’ utopia through a more radical rethinking of the social world

Gray Scale and Color Medical Image Compression by Lifting Wavelet; Bandelet and Quincunx Wavelets Transforms : A Comparison Study

The Quincunx wavelet , the lifting Scheme wavelet and the Second generation bandelet transform are a new method to offer an optimal representation for image geometric; we use this transform to study medical image compressed using the Quincunx transform coupled by SPIHT coder. We are interested in compressed medical image, In order to develop the compressed algorithm we compared our results with those obtained by this transforms application in medical image field. We concluded that the results obtained are very satisfactory for medical image domain. Our algorithm provides very important PSNR and MSSIM values for medical images compression

An Optimized Medical Image Watermarking Approach for E-Health Applications

Background: In recent years, information and communication technologies have been widely used in the healthcare sector. This development enables E-Health applications to transmit medical data, as well as their sharing and remote access by healthcare professionals. However, due to their sensitivity, medical data in general, and medical images in particular, are vulnerable to a variety of illegitimate attacks. Therefore, suitable security and effective protection are necessary during transmission. Method: In consideration of these challenges, we put forth a security system relying on digital watermarking with the aim of ensuring the integrity and authenticity of medical images. The proposed approach is based on Integer Wavelet Transform as an embedding algorithm; furthermore, Particles Swarm Optimization was employed to select the optimal scaling factor, which allows the system to be compatible with different medical imaging modalities. Results: The experimental results demonstrate that the method provides a high imperceptibility and robustness for both secret watermark and watermarked images. In addition, the proposed scheme performs better for medical images compared with similar watermarking algorithms. Conclusion: As it is suitable for a lossless-data application, IWT is the best choice for medical images integrity. Furthermore, using the PSO algorithm enables the algorithm to be compatible with different medical imaging modalities

ThinResNet: A New Baseline for Structured Convolutional Networks Pruning

Pruning is a compression method which aims to improve the efficiency of neural networks by reducing their number of parameters while maintaining a good performance, thus enhancing the performance-to-cost ratio in nontrivial ways. Of particular interest are structured pruning techniques, in which whole portions of parameters are removed altogether, resulting in easier to leverage shrunk architectures. Since its growth in popularity in the recent years, pruning gave birth to countless papers and contributions, resulting first in critical inconsistencies in the way results are compared, and then to a collective effort to establish standardized benchmarks. However, said benchmarks are based on training practices that date from several years ago and do not align with current practices. In this work, we verify how results in the recent literature of pruning hold up against networks that underwent both state-of-the-art training methods and trivial model scaling. We find that the latter clearly and utterly outperform all the literature we compared to, proving that updating standard pruning benchmarks and re-evaluating classical methods in their light is an absolute necessity. We thus introduce a new challenging baseline to compare structured pruning to: ThinResNet.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, 3 table

Etude comparative de la compacité expérimentale et prévisionnelle des milieux granulaires

La confection d'une bonne composition de béton est conditionnée par plusieurs paramètres et notamment par un choix judicieux de la phase inerte c à d sable + gravier. Puisque cette dernière constitue plus de 70% du volume totale du béton et affecte fortement les caractéristiques de ce matériau. Un squelette granulaire plus compacte diminue le volume des vides dans le béton et laisse moins d’espace à occupé par la pate du ciment ce qui conduit à une bonne résistance et une diminution du retrait et du fluage, ainsi qu'à une économie. Ce travail présente une étude comparative de la compacité des mélanges granulaires sur des granulats calcaires concassés provenant de l'ENG(sidi elabdli,Tlemcen), optimisé par voie expérimentale à l'aide d'un banc d'essai réalisé localement au niveau de notre laboratoire conformément aux recommandations de la méthode (N°61 LCPC) et par voie théorique, en se basant sur le concept du modèle d'empilement compressible. Plusieurs essais on été effectués et le modèle nous a donné un taux de corrélation très acceptable par rapport aux résultats expérimentaux.Mots-clés: granulats, compacité, mélange, béton, table à secousses, modèle d'empilement. Comparative study of experimental and predictive compact granular media The making of a good concrete composition depends on several parameters including through a judicious choice of the inert phase (sand + gravel). Since the latter is more than 70% of total concrete volume and strongly affects the characteristics of this material. A more compact granular skeleton decreases the volume of voids in the concrete, leaving less space occupied by the cement paste leading to good strength and decreased shrinkage and creep, as well as a saving. This work presents a comparative study of the compactness of granular mixtures on limestone crushed aggregates from the ENG (Sidi elabdli, Tlemcen), optimized experimentally using a test done locally at our bench laboratory in accordance with the recommendations of the method (N° 61 LCPC) and theoretical way, based on the concept of stacking compressible model. Several tests were carried out and the model gave us a very acceptable level of correlation with experimental results.Keywords: aggregates, compactness, mixture, concrete, shaking table, stacking model

Predictive preemptive certificate transfer in Cluster-Based Certificate Chain

Mobile ad hoc networks are a set of nodes that cooperate and communicate wirelessly. This kind of networks in easy to deploy because there is no need of any pre-existing infrastructure. Security in Manets is a very important issue and it is hard to use conventional security techniques. Many approaches have been proposed to secure communication in Manets; most of them are based of public-key certifications which create a multitude of trust communication model.In this paper, we propose an amelioration of a distributed certificate chain that relies on the cluster based routing protocol. In our scheme, after forming clusters, the cluster-head node issue certificates for other nodes within its cluster. When a member node want migrates to an adjacent cluster, the cluster-head sends the node’s certificate to surrounding cluster-heads via gateway nodes. The protocol was doted by a preemptive predictive module to predict migration intention of member nodes. This approach has been evaluated by detailed simulation study. Simulation results show that this approach is scalable and generate lower certification overhead

Development of a photovoltaic MPPT control based on neural network

The Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) is an important factor to increase the efficiency of the solar photovoltaic (PV) system. This paper presents a solar PV system containing a solar PV array, a DC/DC boost converter and a load. Di↵erentMPPT algorithms have been established with their features. The conventional algorithms (Perturb and Observe, Incremental Conductance and Open Circuit Voltage) show a lot of drawbacks. The major issue is the tracking of the Maximum Power Point (MPP) when environmental conditions change faster. So, a MPPT technique based on Neural Network (NN) was developed and which can enhance the efficiency and gathers the advantages of a lot of techniques. A multi layer neural network with back-propagation algorithm is used in order to have a small Mean Squared Error (MSE). The inputs of NN are irradiance, temperature and the output is the duty cycle that controls the boost converter. Finally, it is discussed the results and made comparison in terms of performance of the di↵erent algorithms, covering the overshoot, time response, oscillation and stability.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Detection and Prevention of Blackhole Attack in the AOMDV Routing Protocol

Mobile ad-hoc network is a collection of dynamically organized nodes where each node acts as a host and router. Mobile ad-hoc networks are characterized by the lack of preexisting infrastructures or centralized administration. So, they are vulnerable to several types of attacks, especially the Blackhole attack. This attack is one of the most serious attacks in this kind of mobile networks. In this type of attack, the malicious node sends a false answer indicating that it has the shortest path to the destination node by increasing the sequence number and decreasing the number of hops. This will have a significant negative impact on source nodes which send their data packets through the malicious node to the destination. This malicious node drop received data packets and absorbs all network traffic. In order overcome this problem, securing routing protocols become a very important requirement in mobile ad-hoc networks. Multipath routing protocols are among the protocols affected by the Blackhole attack. In this paper, we propose an effective and efficient technique that avoids misbehavior of Blackhole nodes and facilitates the discovery for the most reliable paths for the secure transmission of data packets between communicating nodes in the well-known Ad hoc On-demand multi-path routing protocol (AOMDV). We implement and simulate our proposed technique using the ns 2.35 simulator. We also compared on how the three routing protocols AOMDV, AOMDV under Blackhole attack (BHAOMDV), and the proposed solution to counter the Blackhole attack (IDSAOMDV) performs. The results show the degradation on how AOMDV under attack performs, it also presents similarities between normal AOMDV and the proposed solution by isolating misbehaving node which has resulted in increase the performance metrics to the standard values of the AOMDV protocol