The Evolving Role of the University Professor Navigating the Past and the Present

Wondering about the profession of university professor, as a profession entrusted with task of producing knowledge and forming future minds that will improve the life in its complexity and aspects, requires knowing the principles on which this profession is based since its inception and tracing it in its historical development with the development of thought, universities, societies, and educational curricula. In this article, we trace the principles of this profession in the Arab-Islamic civilization, or rather its equivalent profession in the ancient era, which Al-Jahiz refers to in his treatise on teachers as “teaching or disciplining adults” through what famous scholars wrote about, such as Ibn Al- Muqaffa, Miskawayh the philosopher, and Al-Jahiz himself. We also trace this profession through the recently developed ideas by a Canadian researcher based on her field experience in the Canadian province of Quebec and in France. The goal is not only to stand on the common principles related to the educational process in which the Arab civilization meets the Western civilization, but also to stand on the constants of this profession that are not affected by time

A quantum approach to Laplace operators

In this paper, a theory of stochastic processes generated by quantum extensions of Laplacians is developed. Representations of the associated heat semigroups are discussed by means of suitable time shifts. In particular the quantum Brownian motion associated to the Levy-Laplacian is obtained as the usual Volterra-Gross Laplacian using the Cesaro Hilbert space as initial space of our process as well as multiplicity space of the associated white noise

Are disaggregate data useful for factor analysis in forecasting French GDP?

This paper compares the GDP forecasting performance of alternative factor models based on monthly time series for the French economy. These models are based on static and dynamic principal components. The dynamic principal components are obtained using time and frequency domain methods. The forecasting accuracy is evaluated in two ways for GDP growth. First, we question whether it is more appropriate to use aggregate or disaggregate data (with three disaggregating levels) to extract the factors. Second, we focus on the determination of the number of factors obtained either from various criteria or from a fixed choice.GDP forecasting ; Factor models ; Data aggregation.

White noise quantum time shifts

In the present paper we extend the notion of quantum time shift, and the related results obtained in \cite{[abo06]}, from representations of current algebras of the Heisenberg Lie algebra to representations of current algebras of the Oscillator Lie algebra.\\ This produces quantum extensions of a class of classical L\'evy processes much wider than the usual Brownian motion. In particular this class processes includes the Meixner processes and, by an approximation procedure, we construct quantum extensions of all classical L\'evy processes with a L\'evy measure with finite variance. Finally we compute the explicit form of the action, on the Weyl operators of the initial space, of the generators of the quantum Markov processes canonically associated to the above class of L\'evy processes. The emergence of the Meixner classes in connection with the renormalized second order white noise, is now well known. The fact that they also emerge from first order noise in a simple and canonical way, comes somehow as a surprise

On Airy Solutions of PII_\mathrm{II} and Complex Cubic Ensemble of Random Matrices, I

We show that the one-parameter family of special solutions of P$_\mathrm{II}$, the second Painlev\'e equation, constructed from the Airy functions, as well as associated solutions of P$_\mathrm{XXXIV}$ and S$_\mathrm{II}$, can be expressed via the recurrence coefficients of orthogonal polynomials that appear in the analysis of the Hermitian random matrix ensemble with a cubic potential. Exploiting this connection we show that solutions of P$_\mathrm{II}$ that depend only on the first Airy function $\mathrm{Ai}$ (but not on $\mathrm{Bi}$) possess a scaling limit in the pole free region, which includes a disk around the origin whose radius grows with the parameter. We then use the scaling limit to show that these solutions are monotone in the parameter on the negative real axis

Faculty Members Perspectives on the Impact of Educational Technology on the Teaching and Learning Process at the University of Sharjah

Educational technology is increasingly being employed in universities to boost students learning and performance. It became a key component of communication, information storage and transmission, audio-visual media usage and creation, and knowledge sharing. The purpose of the study is to determine the impact of modern educational technologies on education quality and development at the College of Arts and Humanities at Sharjah University from the perspective of faculty members by developing a questionnaire with (20) items and distributing it to a random sample of (91) faculty members. According to the studys findings, the usage of educational technology has a significant impact on education, not just in terms of boosting instructors communication skills, instructional techniques, and advising students on how to utilize this technology. We actively support the employment of as much information technology as possible in the classroom in order to increase instructors abilities and students knowledge

OPTIM : un outil de prévision trimestrielle du PIB de la France.

Le modèle OPTIM permet de prévoir, chaque mois, les taux de croissance du PIB de la France et de ses principales composantes, pour le trimestre en cours et le trimestre suivant. Ce modèle mobilise un large éventail de données macro-économiques mensuelles et de données d’enquête, sélectionnées par une procédure statistique automatique.Prévision, taux de croissance du PIB, modèle d’étalonnage, approche “general-to-specific”.

Monthly forecasting of French GDP: A revised version of the OPTIM model.

This paper presents a revised version of the model OPTIM, proposed by Irac and Sédillot (2002), used at the Banque de France in order to predict French GDP quarterly growth rate, for the current and next quarters. The model is designed to be used on a monthly basis by integrating monthly economic information through bridge models, for both supply and demand sides of GDP. For each GDP component, bridge equations are specified by using a general-to-specific approach implemented in an automated way by Hoover and Perez (1999) and improved by Krolzig and Hendry (2001). This approach allows to select explanatory variables among a large data set of hard and soft data. The final choice of equations relies on a recursive forecast study, which also helps to assess the forecasting performance of the revised OPTIM model in the prediction of aggregated GDP. This study is based on pseudo real-time forecasts taking publication lags into account. It turns out that the model outperforms benchmark models.GDP forecasting ; Bridge models ; General-to-specific approach

L'hypertension artérielle et les désordres vasculaires induits par l'érythropoïétine recombinante humaine et le système rénine-angiotensine-aldostérone (Effet de l'exercice et des cellules T régulatrices)

L hypertension artérielle (HTA) est l une des pathologies les plus fréquentes et les plus préoccupantes des pays occidentaux. Elle est souvent associée au surpoids, à des maladies rénales, cardiaques et aussi à un dysfonctionnement du système endocrinien. Les désordres vasculaires compliquant l HTA induite par le traitement par l érythropoïétine recombinante (r-HuEPO) chez les patients ayant une maladie rénale chronique ou en lien avec une perturbation du système rénine-angiotensine-aldostérone (SRAA), associent une augmentation de la rigidité artérielle, une dysfonction endothéliale, un déséquilibre endothéline-1/monoxyde d azote (ET-1/NO) et un état inflammatoire. L'inflammation vasculaire contribue à la physiopathologie de l'HTA par l augmentation du stress oxydatif et l'activation des cellules immunitaires. Plusieurs études ont suggéré que le système immunitaire est impliqué dans le développement des maladies cardiovasculaires. Cependant le rôle des lymphocytes T régulatrices (Treg) dans l'HTA ou d'autres formes de maladies cardio-vasculaires, reste encore largement inconnu. Bien que la majorité des études ont montré que l HTA induite par l r-HuEPO est associée à une dysfunction endothéliale et à un déséquilibre du rapport (ET-1/NO), les mécanismes exacts restent à être identifier.Plusieurs études ont montré que l exercice physique d endurance prévient l HTA chez les patients ou les modèles animaux. L objectif de la première partie du travail est d étudier l impact du shear stress et de l exercice sur les désordres vasculaires et l HTA induits par l r-HuEPO, en présence d un déséquilibre endothélial (ET-1/NO). Pour ce faire, trois environnements ont été utilisés (in vitro (cellules en culture), in vitro (artères mésentériques (AM)) et in vivo (souris transgéniques sur-exprimant l ET-1 au niveau de l endothélium). Nos résultats montrent que l'association L-NAME/r-HuEPO est responsable d'une vasoconstriction flux-dépendante et une augmentation accrue du shear stress correspondant (plus de 25 dyn/cm2). Le Bosentan, inhibiteur non sélectif des récepteurs de l ET-1, empêche la vasoconstriction flux-dépendante engendrée par la combinaison L-NAME/rHu-EPO, sans pour autant corriger la vasodilatation; Le traitement des souris transgéniques eET-1 avec l r-HuEPO augmente la pression artérielle systolique, la concentration plasmatique en ET-1, le stress oxydatif, l infiltration des monocytes et des macrophages aortiques (MOMA-2), le taux des cytokines pro-inflammatoire INF-g, TNF-a et IL-6 et exacerbe la dysfonction endothéliale. L exercice physique prévient tous les effets délétères engendrés par l administration de l r-HuEPO. Il est à noter aussi que l exercice augmente le taux du Foxp3 dans la rate et le cortex rénal. Quant à la deuxième partie, il s'agissait de tester l effet du transfert adoptif des Treg sur l HTA et les désordres vasculaires induits par l administration d angiotensine II ou d aldostérone à des souris. Nos résultats montrent que le transfert adoptif des Treg prévient l HTA induite par l Ang II, l altération de la vasodilatation endothélium-dépendante, prévient l augmentation de la rigidité des AM, diminue le stress oxydatif et les taux plasmatiques des cytokines proinflammatoires (INF-g, TNF-a et IL-6), ainsi que l infiltration aortique et rénale des macrophages. Le transfert adoptif des Treg prévient partiellement l augmentation de la pression artérielle systolique induite par l Aldo, prévient l altération de la vasodilatation endothelium dépendante et le remodelage hypertrophique des AM, diminue le stress oxydatif et l infiltration des cellules immunitaires inflammatoires. Le transfert adoptif des cellules T effectrices (Teff) exacerbe la majorité des effets de l Aldo. Nos résultats justifient, d une part, l importance de l exercice comme outil préventif de l HTA induite par l r-HuEPO, et d autre part, présentent les Treg comme élément essential dans la modulation de l HTA et des désordres cardiovasculaires.Hypertension (HTN) is one of the most frequent disease and is of greatest concern in Western countries.HTN is often associated with overweight, kidney, heart and endocrine system disease. Vasculardisorders, associated with HTN induced by erythropoietin (r-HuEPO) treatment in chronic kidneydisease or in case of disruption of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS), associated increasein arterial stiffness, endothelial dysfunction, unbalanced endothelin-1/nitric oxide ratio (ET-1/NO) andinflammation. Vascular inflammation contributes to the pathophysiology of hypertension by increasingoxidative stress and activation of immune cells. Several studies have suggested that the immune systemis involved in the development of cardiovascular disease. However, the role of regulatory T cells (Treg)in HTN and other forms of cardiovascular diseases remains largely unknown. In addition, most of thestudies have shown that hypertension induced by r-HuEPO is related to endothelial dysfunction and theratio (ET-1/NO). The exact mechanisms remain to be identified. Several studies have shown thatphysical exercise prevents HTN in patients or animal models. The aim of the first part of this work is tostudy the impact of shear stress and exercise on HTN and vascular disorders induced by r-HuEPO, in thepresence of an endothelial imbalance (ET-1/NO). This was carried out in three settings: in vitro (culturecells), ex vivo (mesenteric arteries) and in vivo (transgenic mice overexpressing ET-1 in endothelialcells). Our results show that the association L-NAME/r-HuEPO is responsible for a significant decreasein intravascular diameter, in response to elevated intravascular flow resulting in a flow-dependentvasoconstriction and increased corresponding shear stress (more than 25 dyn/cm2). Bosentan (a nonselectiveantagonist of ET-1 receptors) inhibits flow-dependent vasoconstriction induced by thecombination L-NAME/rHu-EPO without correcting vasodilation. Treatment of ET-1 transgenic micewith r-HuEPO increases systolic blood pressure, ET-1 plasma concentration, oxidative stress, infiltrationof aortic monocytes and macrophages (MOMA-2), pro-inflammatory cytokines levels INF-g, TNF-a andIL-6 and exacerbate endothelial dysfunction. Exercise prevents all the deleterious effects of r-HuEPO. Itis also noteworthy that exercise increases the number of Foxp3-positive cells in the spleen and renalcortex. Then, the second aim of our study was to test the effect of adoptive transfer of Treg cells on HTNand vascular disorders induced in mice treated with angiotensin II (Ang II) or aldosterone (Aldo). Ourresults show that adoptive transfer of Treg prevents Ang II induced hypertension, endothelialdysfunction, prevents stiffness of mesenteric arteries, decreases oxidative stress and plasma levels ofpro-inflammatory cytokines (IFN-g, TNF-a and IL-6) and the aortic and renal infiltration ofmacrophages. Adoptive transfer of Treg prevents the increase in systolic blood pressure induced byAldo, prevents impaired endothelium-dependent vasodilatation and hypertrophic remodelling ofmesenteric arteries, decreases oxidative stress and infiltration of inflammatory immune cells. Theadoptive transfer of T effectors cells (Teff) exacerbates the majority of the Aldo effects. Our resultsjustify, on one hand, the importance of exercise as a preventive tool for hypertension induced by r-HuEPO, and on the other hand, highlight the role of Treg as an essential component in the modulation ofhypertension and cardiovascular disorders.AVIGNON-Bib. numérique (840079901) / SudocSudocFranceF

Low energy measurement of the 7Be(p,gamma)8B cross section

We have measured the cross section of the 7Be(p,gamma)8B reaction for E_cm = 185.8 keV, 134.7 keV and 111.7 keV using a radioactive 7Be target (132 mCi). Single and coincidence spectra of beta^+ and alpha particles from 8B and 8Be^* decay, respectively, were measured using a large acceptance spectrometer. The zero energy S factor inferred from these data is 18.5 +/- 2.4 eV b and a weighted mean value of 18.8 +/- 1.7 eV b (theoretical uncertainty included) is deduced when combining this value with our previous results at higher energies.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let