Rebuilding higher education in Northern Syria

This paper draws on a qualitative study, using both primary and secondary data generated from document analysis, interviews and focus group discussions with 24 academics and 14 students in three universities in Northern Syria to report on the situation of higher education sector in areas beyond the control of the Assad regime. The study reveals that these new universities have urgent needs such as reconstruction work on buildings and support for their academic and administrative staff and students to be able to operate meaningfully under the conditions of ongoing civil war

Geochemical Signatures of Potassic to Sodic Adang Volcanics, Western Sulawesi: Implications for Their Tectonic Setting and Origin

DOI:10.17014/ijog.3.3.195-214The Adang Volcanics represent a series of (ultra) potassic to sodic lavas and tuffaceous rocks of predominantly trachytic composition, which forms the part of a sequence of Late Cenozoic high-K volcanic and associated intrusive rocks occurring extensively throughout Western Sulawesi. The tectonic setting and origin of these high-K rocks have been the subject of considerable debates. The Adang Volcanics have mafic to mafitic-intermediate characteristics (SiO2: 46 - 56 wt%) and a wide range of high alkaline contents (K2O: 0.80 - 9.08 %; Na2O: 0.90 - 7.21 %) with the Total Alkali of 6.67 - 12.60 %. Al2O3 values are relatively low (10.63 - 13.21 %) and TiO2 values relatively high (1.27 - 1.91 %). Zr and REE concentrations are also relatively high (Zr: 1154 - 2340 ppm; Total REE (TREY = TRE): 899.20 - 1256.50 ppm; TRExOy: 1079.76 - 1507.97 ppm), with an average Zr/TRE ratio of ~ 1.39. The major rock forming minerals are leucite/pseudoleucite, diopside/aegirine, and high temperature phlogopite. Geochemical plots (major oxides and trace elements) using various diagrams suggest the Adang Volcanics formed in a postsubduction, within-plate continental extension/initial rift tectonic setting. It is further suggested magma was generated by minor (< 0.1 %) partial melting of depleted MORB mantle material (garnet-lherzolite) with the silicate melt having undergone strong metasomatism. Melt enrichment is reflected in the alkaline nature of the rocks and geochemical signatures such as Nb/Zr > 0.0627 and (Hf/Sm)PM > 1.23. A comparison with the Vulsini ultrapotassic volcanics from the Roman Province in Italy shows both similarities (spidergram pattern indicating affinity with Group III ultrapotassics volcanics) and differences (nature of mantle metasomatism)

مقالة في التواصل التجاوزي

Current semiotic and linguistic perspectives on man, mind, information and communication, do not seem to cover the full image of the minded creature. Limiting perspective to the receiver's side of the process contradicts Jacobson's communication functions and Plato's text typology in which the conative function of communication is clear and binding; the message-receiver relationship obliges man to respond in some way to information targeting him. Considering the unique position of man, this paper introduces the idea of Transcendent Communication in the Holy Qur'n as presented in Suras 55 and 87. The receiver requires a justification of his temporal physical mortality, which reason alone, cannot answer. It attempts to illustrate the implicit value system of the Transcendent Message, which puts the receiver in the know as to his coming, mission, departure and final abode.الملخص : تقصر بعض المناظير العلاماتية واللغوية للإنسان والعقل والعلم والتواصل، عن عرض كامل الصورة للمخلوق العاقل، حين تحصر زاوية النظر في جانب التلقي، مما يخالف أغراض الكلام عند رومان يكوبسن، وتصنيف النصوص عند أفلاطون، والتي تبرز قصدية وظيفة التواصل، واضحة ملزمة؛ فليس أمام المتلقي، وفق العلاقة القائمة بينه وبين الرسالة، غير الاستجابة لما يصله من علم، سواءً صدقَّ أو أنكر. آخذين في الحسبان المركز الفريد للإنسان. تطرح هذه الورقة فكرة التواصل التجاوزي في القرآن الكريم كما يرد في سورتي الرحمن والأعلى؛ فالمتلقي تواق الى بيان علة فناءه البدني وزواله رغم حبه للحياة، الأمر الذي لامجال للعقلان فيه منفردا. ومن ثم تسعى هذه الورقة أيضا الى بيان النسق الضمني للقيم في الرسالة التجاوزية للقرآن العظيم، مما يضع المتلقي التواق في النور حيال خلقه ورسالته ومعاده وقراره

Factors Influencing Optical Coherence Tomography Peripapillary Choroidal Thickness: A Multicenter Study.

Purpose:To quantify peripapillary choroidal thickness (PCT) and the factors that influence it in healthy participants who represent the racial and ethnic composition of the U.S. population. Methods:A total of 362 healthy participants underwent optical coherence tomography (OCT) enhanced depth imaging of the optic nerve head with a 24 radial B-scan pattern aligned to the fovea to Bruch's membrane opening axis. Bruch's membrane, anterior scleral canal opening (ASCO), and the anterior scleral surface were manually segmented. PCT was measured at 100, 300, 500, 700, 900, and 1100 μm from the ASCO globally and within 12 clock-hour sectors. The effects of age, axial length, intraocular pressure, ethnicity, sex, sector, and ASCO area on PCT were assessed by ANOVA and univariable and multivariable regressions. Results:Globally, PCT was thicker further from the ASCO border and thinner with older age, longer axial length, larger ASCO area, European descent, and female sex. Among these effectors, age and axial length explained the greatest proportion of variance. The rate of age-related decline increased further from the ASCO border. Sectorally, the inferior-temporal sectors were thinnest (10.7%-20.0% thinner than the thickest sector) and demonstrated a higher rate of age-related loss (from 15.6% to 20.7% faster) at each ASCO distance. Conclusions:In healthy eyes, PCT was thinnest in the inferior temporal sectors and thinner PCT was associated with older age, European descent, longer axial length, larger ASCO area, and female sex. Among these associations, age had the strongest influence, and its effect was greatest within the inferior temporal sectors

Gender differences in fasting serum leptin level among Malaysian population

Serum leptin increases with progressive obesity in both genders. However, for any given measure of obesity, leptin levels are higher in women than men. This research is to study the gender differences of the fasting plasma leptin concentration in Malaysian people from east coast Malaysia with a back ground knowledge of ethnic variation. To be as a baseline for future research, and to consolidate our knowledge regarding leptin and it’s correlation with endocrine disorders. Objective: To study the gender differences of the plasma leptin and its relationship to the ethnic group, so that can establish a base line for future studies regarding leptin hormone and it’s association with different endocrine and fertility issues Method: This was a cross sectional study included 100 consented Malaysian people(50 male and female) were recruited from Kulliyyah of dentistry, International Islamic University Malaysia and medical department, Hospital Tengku Ampuan Afzan, Kuantan, those with endocrine, diabetic illness, abnormal BMI, chronic illness and any patient on hormonal treatment were excluded from the study. Individual venous blood was taken between 0800–0900 am after an overnight fasting. Determination of serum leptin was done by enzyme linked immune-sorbent assay (ELISA)and measured in ng/ml. Data were analyzed using SPSS 18 Result:. Mean age were, 34.5±6.4 and 31.2± 4.3 for male and female respectively, there was no significant difference between the age of both groups. Mean body mass index for male was 23 ± 1.91 Kg / m2 which were not significantly different from the female BMI which was 22 ± 0.87 Kg / m2. data were analysed by Mann-Whitney U-test, found that serum leptin levels in females are significantly higher (Z= 6.0, p<0.001) than those in males, 7.29 ng/ml vs 3.94 ng/ml respectively. Correlation coefficient of serum leptin level with female body mass index (kg/m2) is 0.693 in a value of <.0001 conclusion: Serum leptin is significantly affected by gender, with women have significantly higher serum leptin level than man, further study is required to measure the fat mass in addition to serum leptin in both genders as a possible reason for this difference,. Keywords LEPTIN , GENDER, Ethnic variatio

Data-driven curation, learning and analysis for inferring evolving IoT botnets in the wild

The insecurity of the Internet-of-Things (IoT) paradigm continues to wreak havoc in consumer and critical infrastructure realms. Several challenges impede addressing IoT security at large, including, the lack of IoT-centric data that can be collected, analyzed and correlated, due to the highly heterogeneous nature of such devices and their widespread deployments in Internet-wide environments. To this end, this paper explores macroscopic, passive empirical data to shed light on this evolving threat phenomena. This not only aims at classifying and inferring Internet-scale compromised IoT devices by solely observing such one-way network traffic, but also endeavors to uncover, track and report on orchestrated "in the wild" IoT botnets. Initially, to prepare the effective utilization of such data, a novel probabilistic model is designed and developed to cleanse such traffic from noise samples (i.e., misconfiguration traffic). Subsequently, several shallow and deep learning models are evaluated to ultimately design and develop a multi-window convolution neural network trained on active and passive measurements to accurately identify compromised IoT devices. Consequently, to infer orchestrated and unsolicited activities that have been generated by well-coordinated IoT botnets, hierarchical agglomerative clustering is deployed by scrutinizing a set of innovative and efficient network feature sets. By analyzing 3.6 TB of recent darknet traffic, the proposed approach uncovers a momentous 440,000 compromised IoT devices and generates evidence-based artifacts related to 350 IoT botnets. While some of these detected botnets refer to previously documented campaigns such as the Hide and Seek, Hajime and Fbot, other events illustrate evolving threats such as those with cryptojacking capabilities and those that are targeting industrial control system communication and control services

Left-Right Symmetry and Supersymmetric Unification

The existence of an SU(3) X SU(2)_L X SU(2)_R X U(1) gauge symmetry with g_L = g_R at the TeV energy scale is shown to be consistent with supersymmetric SO(10) grand unification at around 1O^{16} GeV if certain new particles are assumed. The additional imposition of a discrete Z_2 symmetry leads to a generalized definition of R parity as well as highly suppressed Majorana neutrino masses. Another model based on SO(10) X SO(10) is also discussed.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures not included, UCRHEP-T124, Apr 199

Design of a Partially Grid-Connected Photovoltaic Microgrid Using IoT Technology

This study describes the design and control algorithms of an IoT-connected photovoltaic microgrid operating in a partially grid-connected mode. The proposed architecture and control design aim to connect or disconnect non-critical loads between the microgrid and utility grid. Different components of the microgrid, such as photovoltaic arrays, energy storage elements, inverters, solid-state transfer switches, smart-meters, and communication networks were modeled and simulated. The communication between smart meters and the microgrid controller is designed using LoRa communication protocol for the control and monitoring of loads in residential buildings. An IoT-enabled smart meter has been designed using ZigBee communication protocol to evaluate data transmission requirements in the microgrid. The loads were managed by a proposed under-voltage load-shedding algorithm that selects suitable loads to be disconnected from the microgrid and transferred to the utility grid. The simulation results showed that the duty cycle of LoRa and its bit rate can handle the communication requirements in the proposed PV microgrid architecture