What information and the extent of information research participants need in informed consent forms: a multi-country survey

Background: The use of lengthy, detailed, and complex informed consent forms (ICFs) is of paramount concern in biomedical research as it may not truly promote the rights and interests of research participants. The extent of information in ICFs has been the subject of debates for decades; however, no clear guidance is given. Thus, the objective of this study was to determine the perspectives of research participants about the type and extent of information they need when they are invited to participate in biomedical research. Methods: This multi-center, cross-sectional, descriptive survey was conducted at 54 study sites in seven Asia-Pacific countries. A modified Likert-scale questionnaire was used to determine the importance of each element in the ICF among research participants of a biomedical study, with an anchored rating scale from 1 (not important) to 5 (very important). Results: Of the 2484 questionnaires distributed, 2113 (85.1%) were returned. The majority of respondents considered most elements required in the ICF to be \u27moderately important\u27 to \u27very important\u27 for their decision making (mean score, ranging from 3.58 to 4.47). Major foreseeable risk, direct benefit, and common adverse effects of the intervention were considered to be of most concerned elements in the ICF (mean score = 4.47, 4.47, and 4.45, respectively). Conclusions: Research participants would like to be informed of the ICF elements required by ethical guidelines and regulations; however, the importance of each element varied, e.g., risk and benefit associated with research participants were considered to be more important than the general nature or technical details of research. Using a participant-oriented approach by providing more details of the participant-interested elements while avoiding unnecessarily lengthy details of other less important elements would enhance the quality of the ICF

Incidencia, distribución y biología de las especies invasivas de peces en masas de agua dulce y salobre del NE de Marruecos

[EN] Monitoring the presence and expansion of alien species and upgrading their biological and ecological knowledge seems crucial to mitigate their possible impact on native communities. Within inland superficial waters, alien fish represent an important threat to the biodiversity and studies on their impact on native communities have increased around the world in the last years. However, little is known about their occurrence, biology and influences in North Africa in general, and more specifically in Morocco. In the present work we aimed to: 1) investigate the presence of any native Aphanius species, especially the Mediterranean killifish Aphanius fasciatus recorded from the lower basin of the Moulouya River (NE Morocco); 2) monitor the presence and expansion of two invasive species, the eastern mosquitofish Gambusia holbrooki and the mummichog Fundulus heteroclitus; and 3) contribute to the understanding of the ecological and abiotic affinities that govern the distribution of these alien fishes in North Africa. To achieve these goals, several field sampling campaigns were carried out between 2014 and 2018 across eastern Morocco, comprising the administrative Oriental Region and the Moulouya River Basin and covering an area of 119,268 km2. No native Aphanius species were found. The eastern mosquitofish has invaded the freshwater hydrosystems of the northern part of Morocco, including the study area, while the mummichog is currently limited to the brackish and salty wetlands of Lower Moulouya. Our results show that the known ranges of these two alien species have expanded.[ES] Monitorizar la presencia y expansión de especies exóticas y mejorar el conocimiento biológico y ecológico de las mismas parece clave para mitigar su posible impacto en las comunidades nativas. Las especies de peces exóticas constituyen una importante amenaza para la diversidad en las aguas superficiales continentales, por lo que los estudios sobre su impacto en las comunidades nativas se han incrementado en todo el mundo en los últimos años. No obstante, el conocimiento sobre la incidencia, biología e influencias de este fenómeno en el norte de África en general, y más específicamente en Marruecos, es escaso. En este trabajo nos propusimos: 1) investigar la presencia de alguna especie nativa de Aphanius, especialmente del fartet mediterráneo Aphanius fasciatus anteriormente registrado en la cuenca inferior del río Moulouya (NE de Marruecos); 2) monitorizar la presencia y expansión de dos especies invasoras, el pez mosquito Gambusia holbrooki y Fundulus heteroclitus; y 3) ayudar a comprender las afinidades ecológicas y abióticas que rigen la distribución de estos peces exóticos en el norte de África. Para alcanzar estos objetivos realizamos varias campañas de muestreo sobre el terreno en el este de Marruecos entre 2014 y 2018, incluidas la Región Oriental y la cuenca del río Moulouya, cubriendo una extensión de 119.268 km2. No encontramos especies nativas de Aphanius. El pez mosquito oriental ha invadido los sistemas hídricos de agua dulce de la parte norte de Marruecos, incluida el área estudiada, mientras que Fundulus heteroclitus está limitado en la actualidad a las aguas salobres y saladas de los humedales del curso bajo del Moulouya. Como resultado de este estudio, las áreas de distribución conocidas de ambas especies exóticas se han ampliado

The first record of the swordtail Xiphophorus hellerii Heckel, 1848 (Poeciliidae, Actinopterygii) established in the wild from Morocco

Aquarium and ornamental fish trade is currently recognized as a major source of invasive species in aquatic ecosystems around the world. The swordtail Xyphophorus hellerii is a popular ornamental freshwater fish that occurs as an introduced species in the aquatic habitats of at least thirty-one countries. We report the first finding of an established population of the swordtail in Morocco. Twelve individuals of X. hellerii were captured along Oued Ain Chkef inside the park (Fez Province), including females and males (mature and immature). Ongoing investigations could soon reveal more occurrences of this species in the country

Pour un modèle alternatif de développement du Maroc

À partir d’une large revue des écrits théoriques et empiriques ainsi que des divers constats etdiagnostics établis à propos du modèle économique marocain, nous développons des analysespour expliciter les raisons et les mécanismes à l’origine des limites que connait le modèle qui aprévalu et qui prévaut au Maroc ; ensuite nous formulons des propositions de stratégiescorrectives avec un argumentaire fondé sur les conclusions des précédentes analyses.Dans ce mémorandum, nous mettons en exergue et tentons de justifier le rôle central que joueselon nous le partage primaire des richesses, en l’occurrence celui de la valeur ajoutée qui sefait au détriment des salaires. Les comparaisons internationales, dans une perspectivehistorique, permettent de rapprocher le Maroc de la situation dans laquelle se trouvaient despays ayant réussi leur émergence et développement.Nous montrons comment le partage actuel au Maroc perpétue les inégalités selon plusieurscanaux : il freine les progrès en matière d’éducation, favorise la concentration sur une classe del’accumulation du capital (qui se traduit par une transmission intergénérationnelle desinégalités), ce qui compromet de ce fait la promotion de l’investissement productif, au profit deplacements de rentes (comme dans l’immobilier) et donc inhibe les possibilités de gains deproductivité et in fine explique l’atonie de la croissance. Mise en regard avec le rythme deprogression de la population en âge de travailler, celle-ci explique pour une grande partl’importance du chômage au Maroc et la persistance de poches de précarité.Les recommandations auxquelles nous parvenons et que nous exposons sous forme depropositions touchent plusieurs volets. Par exemple la fiscalité du patrimoine : nous discutons 3RéfÉco Working Paper n° 01/2019du bien-fondé de la mise en place d'une telle fiscalité mais aussi des précautions à considérer.Nous relevons ensuite ce qui pourrait-être réalisé au niveau d’une politique nationale desrémunérations et en matière de politique de la concurrence. Un argumentaire est développé pourjustifier les mesures que nous préconisons pour une réorientation de l’appareil productifnational, ou pour un renouveau du syndicalisme et encore pour une moralisation des entreprises(avec notamment un encadrement de la sous-traitance).Soulignons cependant que chacune de ces propositions nécessite, pour être déclinée en mesuresconcrètes et nuancées, une analyse spécifique et de larges concertations, qui devraient interveniraprès le débat national sur les grands traits du modèle de développement alternatif.Conscients du rôle tout aussi crucial de l’investissement en capital humain et en capitalphysique, deux annexes sont consacrés l’une à la politique éducative et l’autre aux conditionsde promotion et de réussite de l’investissement productif (parmi lesquelles le rôle dévolu à lacomposante publique de l'investissement productif).Le choix de traiter ces deux grandes questions à part est inhérent au souci de maintenir uneunité de la réflexion et des conclusions qui ressortent de la question du partage primaire desrichesses. Cependant à l’image de la démarche adoptée pour traiter cette dernière, chacune desannexes comporte à la fois des analyses et argumentaires pour expliquer les raisons desdiagnostics d’échec relevés et pour préparer et justifier les propositions que nousrecommandons.De nos analyses à propos de l’investissement, il ressort que pour sortir l'économie marocainede son actuelle atonie, il importe de repenser les choix en matière d’investissement public quidoivent privilégier les branches ayant des effets d’entraînement les plus larges sur l’économieet nous énonçons quelques critères de référence. Nous insistons sur l’opportunité de pousser lesbanques à mieux remplir leur rôle de financement du secteur productif.L’annexe relative à la politique éducative montre comment les biais proviennent en partie dessources d’inspiration sur lesquelles elle a été fondée au cours de l’histoire récente. Enl’occurrence des rapports et orientations qui ne prennent pas suffisamment en compte lesréalités propres du pays. Nous concluons qu’il importe de ne pas se contenter d’objectifsquantitatifs (nombre d’élèves inscrits), mais qu’au contraire, une place essentielle doit êtreréservée à l’acquisition de compétences et savoir-faire (mesurées, à tous les niveaux du systèmeéducatif, par des tests mondialement reconnus)

Semi-supervised deep learning-driven anomaly detection schemes for cyber-attack detection in smart grids

Modern power systems are continuously exposed to malicious cyber-attacks. Analyzing industrial control system (ICS) traffic data plays a central role in detecting and defending against cyber-attacks. Detection approaches based on system modeling require effectively modeling the complex behavior of the critical infrastructures, which remains a challenge, especially for large-scale systems. Alternatively, data-driven approaches which rely on data collected from the inspected system have become appealing due to the availability of big data that supports machine learning methods to achieve outstanding performance. This chapter presents an enhanced cyber-attack detection strategy using unlabeled data for ICS traffic monitoring and detecting suspicious data transmissions. Importantly, we designed two semi-supervised hybrid deep learning-based anomaly detection methods for intrusion detection in ICS traffic of smart grid. The first approach is a Gated recurrent unit (GRU)-based stacked autoencoder (AE-GRU), and the second is constructed using a generative adversarial network (GAN) model with a recurrent neural network (RNN) for both generator and discriminator that we called GAN-RNN. The employment of GRU and RNN in AE and GAN models is expected to improve the ability of these models to learn the temporal dependencies of multivariate data. These models are used for feature extraction and anomaly detection methods (Isolation forest, Local outlier factor, One-Class SVM, and Elliptical Envelope) for cyber-attack in power systems. These approaches only employ normal events data for training without labeled attack types, making them more attractive for detecting cyber-attack in practice. The detection performance of these approaches is demonstrated on IEC 60870-5-104 (aka IEC 104) control communication that is often utilized for substation control in smart grids. Results showed that GAN-GRU and AE-GRU-based LOF methods achieved enhanced detection with an averaged F1-score of 0.98, among others

Public–Private Partnership: A Legislative Model from the State of Qatar

The State of Qatar has recently witnessed a massive legislative movement designed to encourage foreign investment and enhance private sector participation in the economy, especially in trade and investment. This article addresses one of the most important enactments in this regard; Law No. 12 of 2020 on economic Partnership between the Government Sector and the Private Sector (hereinafter referred to as the ppp Law or Law N. 12 of 2020). The law encourages the expansive role of the private sector and provides for several incentives and guarantees. The law also designs rules of partnership that follow principles of transparency and good governance. This article focuses on international standards embodied in the uncitral model legislative provisions on public-private partnership and its legislative guide, especially public interest, stability and sustainability, restricted contractual freedom, contractual balance and risk transfer, legitimate and fair competition, transparency and integrity, equality and equal opportunities, the right to compensation, methods of dispute settlement and legislative integration.This research is conducted within the framework of a research project funded by the Qatar National Research Fund (qnrf) – National Priorities Research Program (nprp) – Cycle 11s – Qatar Foundation. The three-year research project (2019–2022) is entitled ‘Toward Reforming the Economic Legislative Mechanisms for Achieving Legal Security in light of the National Policies of the State of Qatar’ – nprp11S-0101-180160. The statements made herein are solely the responsibility of the authors

Performance improvement with non-alloyed ohmic contacts technology on AlGaN/GaN High Electron Mobility Transistors on 6H-SiC substrate

International audienc

Comparison of AlGaN/GaN High Electron Mobility Transistors grown by MOVPE on 3C-SiC/Si(111), Si(111) and 6H-SiC for RF applications

International audienc