Le matériel des laboratoires des sciences de la vie et la terre au cycle secondaire (Maroc): Disponibilité, usabilité et sécurité

Les laboratoires scolaires des sciences jouent un rôle crucial dans la réalisation des travaux pratiques, une activité essentielle pour l'enseignement des sciences de la vie et de la terre (SVT). L'objectif de notre recherche est d'étudier la disponibilité et l'utilisabilité du matériel de laboratoire des SVT, ainsi que d'évaluer la sécurité au sein de ces laboratoires. À cet effet, une enquête composée de 17 questions a été menée auprès d'un échantillon de 39 préparateurs et 7 enseignants responsables des laboratoires de SVT. Cette enquête a été complétée par des observations sur le terrain dans deux laboratoires scolaires. Les résultats obtenus ont révélé une insuffisance générale du matériel, dont le manque dans certains laboratoires peut constituer un obstacle majeur à la compréhension des concepts scientifiques. Les laboratoires des deux cycles d'enseignement présentent des caractéristiques techniques similaires, mais ne sont que partiellement conformes aux spécifications matérielles requises. De plus, le matériel de sécurité n'est pas encore largement répandu et sa couverture reste insatisfaisante. Dans une perspective d'amélioration, il est impératif d'investir dans du nouveau matériel afin de pallier au manque crucial actuel des laboratoires. Il est aussi primordial de mettre l'accent sur l'exploitation optimale du matériel, sa mobilité et sa maintenance afin d'améliorer la qualité des activités pratiques dans l'enseignement des SVT.   School science laboratories play a crucial role in conducting practical work, an essential activity for teaching life and earth sciences (LES). The aim of our research is to study the availability and usability of LES laboratory equipment, as well as to evaluate safety within these laboratories. To this end, a survey consisting of 17 questions was conducted with a sample of 39 laboratory technicians and 7 teachers responsible for LES laboratories. This survey was supplemented by on-site observations in two school laboratories. The results revealed a general lack of equipment, the absence of which in some laboratories may constitute a major obstacle to understanding scientific concepts. Laboratories in both teaching cycles exhibit similar technical characteristics, but only partially comply with the required material specifications. Furthermore, safety equipment is not yet widely distributed, and its coverage remains unsatisfactory. In an improvement perspective, it is imperative to invest in new equipment to address the current crucial shortage in laboratories. It is also essential to focus on optimal equipment utilization, mobility, and maintenance to enhance the quality of practical activities in LES education

A new lab-on-chip transmitter for the detection of proteins using RNA aptamers

A new RNA aptamer based affinity biosensor for CReactive Protein (CRP), a risk marker for cardiovascular disease was developed using interdigitated capacitor (IDC), integrated in Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO) and output signal is amplified using Single Stage Power Amplifier (PA) for transmitting signal to receiver at Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) band. The Lab-on-Chip transmitter design includes IDC, VCO and PA. The design was implemented in IHP 0.25μm SiGe BiCMOS process; post-CMOS process was utilized to increase the sensitivity of biosensor. The CRP was incubated between or on interdigitated electrodes and the changes in capacitance of IDC occurred. In blank measurements, the oscillation frequency was 2.464GHz whereas after RNA aptamers were immobilized on open aluminum areas of IDC and followed by binding reaction processed with 500pg/ml CRP solution, the capacitance shifted to 2.428GHz. Phase noise is changed from -114.3dBc/Hz to -116.5dBc/Hz

THE ROLE OF SELF-DISCREPANCY IN GENERATING FUTURE ANXIETY AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Purpose of the study: The current study examines the level of self-perception (realism, idealism, and duty) among Yarmouk University students. It also identifies the level of their self-discrepancy and its relation to future anxiety and explores the differences regarding the level of these self-discrepancies and the future anxiety according to the variables of specialization, the level of the study, and GPA. The study argues that while there is a significant statistical negative relationship between the level of future anxiety and the actual self among university students there is no significant statistical correlation between the level of future anxiety and the ideal self and the ought self. Methodology: The study was conducted on a sample of (200) university students of the Faculty of Education at Yarmouk University. Higgins’ (1987) scale which consists of (30) paragraphs and the scale of future anxiety which consists of (27) paragraphs were applied to the study sample using the descriptive correlational approach. Main Findings: There were no significant statistical differences regarding the level of self-discrepancy (real/ideal) and (real/due) due to the variables of specialization, the level of study, and the GPA. Also, there were no significant differences regarding the level of future anxiety among Yarmouk University students according to the variables of specialization, the level of study, and the GPA. Yet, there was a statistically significant negative relationship between the level of future anxiety and the actual self. Applications of this study: Universities across the globe, such as Yarmouk University and the University of Jordan, may find it significant to know that university students have a moderate level of self-perception and do not have a correspondence between the characteristics of the self in its three dimensions. Thus, such universities may need to think of establishing certain training and counseling programs that aim at developing the students' perception of themselves and their understanding of the self. Novelty/Originality of this study: Considering that a few Arabic studies address future anxiety among university students who will graduate and impact their local communities, the paper points at the need for establishing certain counseling courses that help university students better understand themselves and decide their needs accordingly. &nbsp

Towards robust autonomous driving systems through adversarial test set generation

Correct environmental perception of objects on the road is vital for the safety of autonomous driving. Making appropriate decisions by the autonomous driving algorithm could be hindered by data perturbations and more recently, by adversarial attacks. We propose an adversarial test input generation approach based on uncertainty to make the machine learning (ML) model more robust against data perturbations and adversarial attacks. Adversarial attacks and uncertain inputs can affect the ML model’s performance, which can have severe consequences such as the misclassification of objects on the road by autonomous vehicles, leading to incorrect decision-making. We show that we can obtain more robust ML models for autonomous driving by making a dataset that includes highly-uncertain adversarial test inputs during the re-training phase. We demonstrate an improvement in the accuracy of the robust model by more than 12%, with a notable drop in the uncertainty of the decisions returned by the model. We believe our approach will assist in further developing risk-aware autonomous systems.acceptedVersio

Understanding the phenomena of extraction of essential oils by the microwave accelerated distillation process: case of the Washington Navel variety

In this study, two techniques Hydrodistillation (HD) and Microwave-accelerated distillation (MAD), was used to extract essential oils (EOs), from the peels of citrus fruits Washington Navel (Citrus sinensis L. Osbeck) collected from Tipaza province, north Algeria during April 2018. The extraction yield and time of EOs were (0.28% and 180 min) using HD extraction and (0.27% versus 30 min) using MAD extraction. After using gas chromatography analyses (GC-FID) and (GC-MS), 21 aromatic compounds obtained and identified for both extraction approaches. On the other hand, and in order to better comprehension the extraction phenomena, two models of extraction processes were applied, The first one considers the existence of a single site with a constant speed ruled by the equation of the quasi-stationary state, whereas, the second assumes that there are two distinct sites: The first is part of the fraction easily accessible with a very high desorption rate k1 (fast fraction), the second contains the fraction that is difficult to extract, with a low desorption speed k2 (slow fraction). The results showed that, the application of the two sites model can describe accurately the used extraction methods in this study. The data from HD extraction modeling indicate that this method extraction is fast fraction (f equal 0.79), then MAD method (f equal 0.40). DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.388185

Towards robust autonomous driving systems through adversarial test set generation

Correct environmental perception of objects on the road is vital for the safety of autonomous driving. Making appropriate decisions by the autonomous driving algorithm could be hindered by data perturbations and more recently, by adversarial attacks. We propose an adversarial test input generation approach based on uncertainty to make the machine learning (ML) model more robust against data perturbations and adversarial attacks. Adversarial attacks and uncertain inputs can affect the ML model's performance, which can have severe consequences such as the misclassification of objects on the road by autonomous vehicles, leading to incorrect decision-making. We show that we can obtain more robust ML models for autonomous driving by making a dataset that includes highly-uncertain adversarial test inputs during the re-training phase. We demonstrate an improvement in the accuracy of the robust model by more than 12%, with a notable drop in the uncertainty of the decisions returned by the model. We believe our approach will assist in further developing risk-aware autonomous systems

Parental psychological distress associated with COVID-19 outbreak: A large-scale multicenter survey from Turkey

Aims: Pandemics can cause substantial psychological distress; however, we do not know the impact of the COVID-19 related lockdown and mental health burden on the parents of school age children. We aimed to comparatively examine the COVID-19 related the stress and psychological burden of the parents with different occupational, locational, and mental health status related backgrounds. Methods: A large-scale multicenter online survey was completed by the parents (n = 3,278) of children aged 6 to 18 years, parents with different occupational (health care workers—HCW [18.2%] vs. others), geographical (İstanbul [38.2%] vs. others), and psychiatric (child with a mental disorder [37.8%]) backgrounds. Results: Multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that being a HCW parent (odds ratio 1.79, p <.001), a mother (odds ratio 1.67, p <.001), and a younger parent (odds ratio 0.98, p =.012); living with an adult with a chronic physical illness (odds ratio 1.38, p <.001), having an acquaintance diagnosed with COVID-19 (odds ratio 1.22, p =.043), positive psychiatric history (odds ratio 1.29, p <.001), and living with a child with moderate or high emotional distress (odds ratio 1.29, p <.001; vs. odds ratio 2.61, p <.001) were independently associated with significant parental distress. Conclusions: Parents report significant psychological distress associated with COVID-19 pandemic and further research is needed to investigate its wider impact including on the whole family unit. © The Author(s) 2020

Differential cross section measurements for the production of a W boson in association with jets in proton–proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV

Measurements are reported of differential cross sections for the production of a W boson, which decays into a muon and a neutrino, in association with jets, as a function of several variables, including the transverse momenta (pT) and pseudorapidities of the four leading jets, the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT), and the difference in azimuthal angle between the directions of each jet and the muon. The data sample of pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV was collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb[superscript −1]. The measured cross sections are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo generators, MadGraph + pythia and sherpa, and to next-to-leading-order calculations from BlackHat + sherpa. The differential cross sections are found to be in agreement with the predictions, apart from the pT distributions of the leading jets at high pT values, the distributions of the HT at high-HT and low jet multiplicity, and the distribution of the difference in azimuthal angle between the leading jet and the muon at low values.United States. Dept. of EnergyNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Alfred P. Sloan Foundatio

Optimasi Portofolio Resiko Menggunakan Model Markowitz MVO Dikaitkan dengan Keterbatasan Manusia dalam Memprediksi Masa Depan dalam Perspektif Al-Qur`an

Risk portfolio on modern finance has become increasingly technical, requiring the use of sophisticated mathematical tools in both research and practice. Since companies cannot insure themselves completely against risk, as human incompetence in predicting the future precisely that written in Al-Quran surah Luqman verse 34, they have to manage it to yield an optimal portfolio. The objective here is to minimize the variance among all portfolios, or alternatively, to maximize expected return among all portfolios that has at least a certain expected return. Furthermore, this study focuses on optimizing risk portfolio so called Markowitz MVO (Mean-Variance Optimization). Some theoretical frameworks for analysis are arithmetic mean, geometric mean, variance, covariance, linear programming, and quadratic programming. Moreover, finding a minimum variance portfolio produces a convex quadratic programming, that is minimizing the objective function ðð¥with constraintsð ð 𥠥 ðandð´ð¥ = ð. The outcome of this research is the solution of optimal risk portofolio in some investments that could be finished smoothly using MATLAB R2007b software together with its graphic analysis

Penilaian Kinerja Keuangan Koperasi di Kabupaten Pelalawan

This paper describe development and financial performance of cooperative in District Pelalawan among 2007 - 2008. Studies on primary and secondary cooperative in 12 sub-districts. Method in this stady use performance measuring of productivity, efficiency, growth, liquidity, and solvability of cooperative. Productivity of cooperative in Pelalawan was highly but efficiency still low. Profit and income were highly, even liquidity of cooperative very high, and solvability was good