Reading Marx in Beirut: Disorganised Study and the Politics of Queer Utopia

This article draws on ethnographic research carried out with Marxist reading groups run by a Lebanese revolutionary socialist organization. I examine the labor that Marxist theoretical practice was doing in a political conjuncture widely viewed as post-Marxist , discussing the relationship between theory and affect, and the role that affective infrastructures play in maintaining and reproducing social movements and political organisations. Drawing on Moten and Harney, I frame this intellectual labor as a form of dissonant , disorganized study - a mode of preparing for revolution by being together in brokenness and routinely generating a commitment to a particular political horizon. This form of political praxis as study unfolded within a Lebanese activist scene dominated by a pragmatic conception of politics, within which the critical labor of the radical and revolutionary left was largely considered sterile , mired in something akin to what Berlant calls cruel optimism. Drawing on Munoz, his conceptualisation of the politics of queer utopia, and his defence of utopian imaginativeness, I argue that for radical and revolutionary leftists in counter-revolutionary times, cultivating solidarity and camaraderie by maintaining a space of study that could enable technologies of both self and collective constituted a productive political act

11 Principles Every Educational Organization Should Be Implementing

Many articles and reports issued by educational institutions and research centers discussed the basic requirements that should be implemented by universities, schools, vocational schools, training centers and other categories of educational institutions to assure they can provide quality of education. Although these references have been widely used to achieve quality in education, still differences in requirements may exist. Hence the importance of shedding lights on the International standards ISO 21001 published in 2018 by the International Organization for Standardization.  In this article, the author highlighted on the implementation of 11 principles of quality education stipulated in this Standard. In this context, he touched upon the social responsibility principle and the related 7 core subjects (building a governance system, the rights of learners, practicing in a fair operating way, students issues, the development of community, protecting the environment,  administrative and academic staff practices) (ISO 26000: Guidance on social responsibility, 2010) that distinguish the ISO 21001 from other international standards and made it a tool that could be applied by educational institutions to create their shared value strategies. In this context, the authors heard the voices of instructors and analyze their views concerning the implementation of the twenty-three requirements mentioned in the ISO 21001, through diffusing surveys to instructors working in educational organizations in Lebanon. The results indicated that 19 of the requirements are being applied effectively. Keywords: Standard, Social Responsibility, Quality Education, Shared Value DOI: 10.7176/JEP/12-33-01 Publication date: November 30th 202

Is it too early to learn lessons from the developed world on the potential of big data technology: Harnessing and nurturing intuition in organisational decision makers

YesAs big data (BD) and data analytics gain significance in Europe, the industry expects that executives will eventually move towards evidence based decision making, and consequently would build sustainable competitive advantages for their organisations. Therefore, the lessons learned from experiences of European executives can be key for human development and also economic development. However, it also seems that in some cases decision makers in Europe seem to not use business intelligence systems at all. Since, executives are intelligent human beings with credible and proven expertise, it seems to raise a question mark on effectiveness of business intelligence systems, and the potential it has in human and economic development. Furthermore, repeated evaluation of literature pointed out that ultimately executives in Europe make decisions by intuition, and this leads to the question whether big data would ever replace intuition. In this paper, the mind-sets of executives about application and limitations of big data have been explored, by taking into account the cognitive factors in decision making. By using this, it is evaluated whether BD technologies can use to accelerate intuition development of the executives, and consequently lead to faster and sustainable economic development in the developing world

Two-Phase Virtual Machine Placement Algorithms for Cloud Computing: An Experimental Evaluation under Uncertainty

Cloud computing providers must support requests for resources in dynamic environments, considering service elasticity and overbooking of physical resources. Due to the randomness of requests, Virtual Machine Placement (VMP) problems should be formulated under uncertainty. In this context, a renewed formulation of the VMP problem is presented, considering the optimization of four objective functions: (i) power consumption, (ii) economical revenue, (iii) resource utilization and (iv) reconfiguration time. To solve the presented formulation, a two-phase optimization scheme is considered, composed by an online incremental VMP phase (iVMP) and an offline VMP reconfiguration (VMPr) phase. An experimental evaluation of five algorithms taking into account 400 different scenarios was performed, considering three VMPr Triggering and two VMPr Recovering methods as well as three VMPr resolution alternatives. Experimental results indicate which algorithm outperformed the other evaluated algorithms, improving the quality of solutions in a scenario-based uncertainty model considering the following evaluation criteria: (i) average, (ii) maximum and (iii) minimum objective function costs.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativa (SADIO

Two-Phase Virtual Machine Placement Algorithms for Cloud Computing: An Experimental Evaluation under Uncertainty

Cloud computing providers must support requests for resources in dynamic environments, considering service elasticity and overbooking of physical resources. Due to the randomness of requests, Virtual Machine Placement (VMP) problems should be formulated under uncertainty. In this context, a renewed formulation of the VMP problem is presented, considering the optimization of four objective functions: (i) power consumption, (ii) economical revenue, (iii) resource utilization and (iv) reconfiguration time. To solve the presented formulation, a two-phase optimization scheme is considered, composed by an online incremental VMP phase (iVMP) and an offline VMP reconfiguration (VMPr) phase. An experimental evaluation of five algorithms taking into account 400 different scenarios was performed, considering three VMPr Triggering and two VMPr Recovering methods as well as three VMPr resolution alternatives. Experimental results indicate which algorithm outperformed the other evaluated algorithms, improving the quality of solutions in a scenario-based uncertainty model considering the following evaluation criteria: (i) average, (ii) maximum and (iii) minimum objective function costs.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativa (SADIO

Lil Watan: Queer Patriotism in Chauvinistic Lebanon

There exists a robust literature on the impact of the sexualisation of the war on terror as an imperial endeavour on both queer and non-queer subjects in the Middle East. This article explores the consequences for LGBT activism of the localisation of the war on terror in the region and the securitisation of governance, taking Lebanon as its focus. I argue the importance of thinking through the ways in which the war on terror is localised, taken advantage of and used as a means of strengthening state power in the Global South, and the effects of such processes on activism. I explore how LGBT activists in Lebanon have engaged the war on terror as an instrument of local rather than foreign power. The weaponisation of the war on terror as an instrument of governance by the Lebanese state, I argue, has reshaped the field within which LGBT activists in the country articulate and lobby for their rights and has enabled a turn towards what I call proto-homonationalism amongst some LGBT actors in Lebanon – attempts at positioning certain segments of the LGBT population as not only of the nation but beneficial to the security state

Syndromes zoonotiques en France : élements de diagnostic différentiel

Les zoonoses sont des maladies infectieuses ou parasitaires qui sont transmises naturellement de l’animal à l’Homme et vice-versa. Les connaissances en matière d’épidémiologie et de diagnostic chez l’homme sont très hétérogènes à l’échelle mondiale mais aussi selon les zoonoses étudiées. En France, le grand public mais aussi les services de santé publique sont encore peu informés de l’importance et des répercussions économiques, sanitaires et sociales que peuvent avoir certaines de ces maladies. Il s’agit ici, à travers un support informatique ludique, précis et facile à utiliser, de proposer des pistes de diagnostic différentiel chez l’Homme des zoonoses à prendre prioritairement en considération en France

Gerência da propriedade intelectual na academia

O trabalho analisa como as instituições acadêmicas, em nível internacional, organizam-se para gerenciar o processo de proteção e exploração econômica da propriedade intelectual. Diversos aspectos são abordados: a organização do Escritório de Propriedade Intelectual e Transferência de Tecnologia (Epitt), as políticas institucionais que sustentam as atividades do Epitt, o perfil dos profissionais, os elementos necessários à construção do portfolio de patentes e outros ativos intangíveis, o uso do documento de patentes como importante fonte de informação para diversos tipos de projetos, as atividades de marketing, negociação e exploração econômica dos direitos de propriedade intelectual e a distribuição dos royalties.The purpose of this paper is to analyse how academic institutions on international level organise themselves for managing the process of protection and economical exploitation of intellectual property rights. We approach different aspects: the organisation of the Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer Office, the institutional policies that sustain the activities of the office, the professionals’ profile, the elements necessary for building up the portfolio of patents and other intangible assets, the use of patents as important source of information for different kinds of projects, the marketing activities, the negotiation and economical exploitation of intellectual property rights and distribution of royalties