Modulation of adult-born neurons in the inflamed hippocampus.

Throughout life new neurons are continuously added to the hippocampal circuitry involved with spatial learning and memory. These new cells originate from neural precursors in the subgranular zone of the dentate gyrus, migrate into the granule cell layer, and integrate into neural networks encoding spatial and contextual information. This process can be influenced by several environmental and endogenous factors and is modified in different animal models of neurological disorders. Neuroinflammation, as defined by the presence of activated microglia, is a common key factor to the progression of neurological disorders. Analysis of the literature shows that microglial activation impacts not only the production, but also the migration and the recruitment of new neurons. The impact of microglia on adult-born neurons appears much more multifaceted than ever envisioned before, combining both supportive and detrimental effects that are dependent upon the activation phenotype and the factors being released. The development of strategies aimed to change microglia toward states that promote functional neurogenesis could therefore offer novel therapeutic opportunities against neurological disorders associated with cognitive deficits and neuroinflammation. The present review summarizes the current knowledge on how production, distribution, and recruitment of new neurons into behaviorally relevant neural networks are modified in the inflamed hippocampus

Youth Digital Cultures and Gender: A Comparative Mixed Method Analysis of Algerian Influencers’ Discourses and Performances on YouTube in a Multi-thematic Context

This research investigates digital cultures of youth and the role of gender in shaping their content on YouTube in Algeria. Youth in this research, are young influencers who create content on YouTube. The study investigates how they are adopting several linguistic devices and communicative strategies to represent themselves and ordinary people. This thesis examines how they create multi-thematic content, and the impact of socio-cultural background, addressing any probable gender inequalities on public online spaces. There is scarce research about influencers in the Arab world, especially Algeria, a shortcoming this thesis addresses. The research is conducted using explanatory sequential mixed-method approach. The first phase is based on quantitative analysis of influencers’ digital activities and indicators of audience engagement using descriptive statistics. However, the second phase is based on qualitative analysis of influencers’ videos, using Bradley’s social constructivist view of gender, Fairclough’s dialectical-relational approach to Critical Discourse Analysis, and Goffman’s performance theory. The significance of this investigation is to provide insightful data about influencers’ YouTube analytics and how gender shapes and dictates the discourses and performances of Algerian male and female influencers, highlighting the role of the Arab sociocultural background in shaping multimedia texts. The findings demonstrate significant differences between male and female YouTube analytics and content creation. Algeria-related entertainment and political videos are among the favourite videos on males’ channels. However, lifestyle, and home-based content is preferable for females. Overall, the results revealed that males’ content features power, populism, and unboundedness. Whereas females’ content features submissiveness, self-centredness, and boundedness. This thesis contributes to our understanding of male and female influencers’ use of social media and audiences’ preferences, especially on YouTube, in the Arab world, explaining how digital cultures are formulated according to gender and societal standards

IMPROVING PROJECT PORTFOLIO DECISION MAKING IN THEORY AND PRACTICE

Project Portfolio Management (PPM) is “a dynamic decision process wherein a list of active devel-opment projects is constantly revised. In this process, new projects are evaluated, selected and priori-tised; existing projects may be accelerated, killed or reprioritised, and resources are allocated and reallocated among the projects in the portfolio” (Gutierrez & Magnusson, 2014). PPM is perceived to be a means to implement strategy through projects and programs. This study focuses on ICT projects. Current PPM research is focused on project selection, prioritization, and portfolio balancing in few research areas and there are major limitations to the approaches used in practice. There is clearly a need for more empirical PPM research. The following main research question was employed: How can an information intensive organization improve decision making for project selection within its project portfolio management process? A second problem is that there seems to be no agreement on what constitutes PPM. This is a second aim of the study. Three data collection methods were used to answer both questions. As a result, it can be stated that PPM is still in its infancy. Based on the study, seven recommendations are made for improving PPM decision making

Rédaction technique comme tralangue au profit d’une compétence traductionnelle et productosémique du mot

 In translation and traductology, specialists recognize the undeniable relationship between the act of transiting, technical writing and the meaning of the words. However, considerations regarding the problems presented by culture and realia (untranslatable terms) in particular are frequent. It is at the same time the raison d’etre of translation and the source of difficulties. In other words, building a sense of a word or even producing it in case of a failure in the target language is not easy, but is this exercise impossible? If not, what should be done to overcome these pitfalls and cultural difficulties for realia via a translation operation in general and a legal one in particular? Answers to these questions can be found in a proposal entailing a strategic approach, calling on four major factors that the “trauthor” should take into account for the production of the meaning of a word. Finally, a reflection on said factors is made to access the process of ways of teaching for the production of word meaning. En matière de traduction et de traductologie, les plus grands spécialistes en la matière s’accordent pour reconnaitre une indéniable relation entre l’acte de traduire, rédaction technique et le sens des mots. Cependant les considérations sur les problèmes que pose la culture et notamment certains realia (termes intraduisibles) en arabe juridique sont fréquentes : c’est à la fois la raison d’être de la traduction et la source des difficultés qu’elle comporte. Ceci dit, construire le sens d’un mot ou encore le produire en cas de défaillance en langue cible n’est pas facile, mais cet exercice, est-il impossible ? Si ce n’est pas le cas, que faudrait-il faire pour surmonter les écueils et les difficultés d’ordre culturel pour des realia de par une opération de traduction en général et celle du juridique en particulier ? Des éléments de réponses à ces questions pourront se trouver dans une proposition concrète, consistant en une démarche stratégique faisant appel à quatre facteurs majeurs dont le trauteur doit tenir compte pour l’opération de production de sens d’un mot. L’article se termine par une réflexion sur lesdits facteurs pour accéder au parcours d’une piste didactique au profit de la production du sens d’un mot

STABLE ADAPTIVE CONTROL FOR A CLASS OF NONLINEAR SYSTEMS WITHOUT USE OF A SUPERVISORY TERM IN THE CONTROL LAW

In this paper, a direct adaptive control scheme for a class of nonlinear systems is proposed. The architecture employs a Gaussian radial basis function (RBF) network to construct an adaptive controller. The parameters of the adaptive controller are adapted and changed according to a law derived using Lyapunov stability theory. The centres of the RBF network are adapted on line using the k-means algorithm. Asymptotic Lyapunov stability is established without the use of a supervisory (compensatory) term in the control law and with the tracking errors converging to a neighbourhood of the origin. Finally, a simulation is provided to explore the feasibility of the proposed neuronal controller design method

Neural feedback linearization adaptive control for affine nonlinear systems based on neural network estimator

In this work, we introduce an adaptive neural network controller for a class of nonlinear systems. The approach uses two Radial Basis Functions, RBF networks. The first RBF network is used to approximate the ideal control law which cannot be implemented since the dynamics of the system are unknown. The second RBF network is used for on-line estimating the control gain which is a nonlinear and unknown function of the states. The updating laws for the combined estimator and controller are derived through Lyapunov analysis. Asymptotic stability is established with the tracking errors converging to a neighborhood of the origin. Finally, the proposed method is applied to control and stabilize the inverted pendulum system