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Refugee Settlement in Ras Beirut's Modern Buildings
No full textThis thesis explores Syrian refugees’ settlement in a middle-class area in Beirut. It takes for case study a group of large-scale modern buildings, located in Ras Beirut and fully occupied by Syrian refugees. The thesis asks: How are these modern buildings, the remnants of an earlier building boom that pushed development in the 1960s, appropriated to serve as shelter for low-income displaced populations? To answer the question, the thesis documents how deteriorated modern buildings, once Beirut’s pride and the symbols of its rising economy, have been turned into refugee housing. It also documents the processes through which this settlement is managed, and the conditions in which refugees inhabit the buildings. The thesis finds that while refugees access housing in relatively prime locations in the city, they are allowed shelter in highly precarious spatial and social conditions whereby unrecorded contracts and a criminalized residency status generate a lingering threat of eviction and little room for negotiation. The thesis further finds that the buildings where refugees are allowed shelter are themselves the subject of complicated legal circumstances where largely building owners manage remotely residency through several intermediaries, effectively preventing refugees from any level of residential organization or autonomy. Ultimately, the thesis shows that forced population displacement intersects with Beirut’s urban transformations to produce precarious living conditions. This is important because it informs planning responses by way of showing that a proper response to forced population displacement cannot confine its response to temporary support, as is currently the case, and should instead extend to address larger forces that undermine affordable housing for urban majorities.
The thesis findings are based on detailed fieldwork in the Ras Beirut area, including mapping and interviews, conducted between June 2022 and June 2023.
The thesis is part of a larger research project at the Beirut Urban Lab, Precarious Homes, which investigates the intersections of modes of urban inhabitance for vulnerable social groups with the rampant financialization of the city’s fabric
Enhancing Network Security Through Deep Learning: Overcoming Feature Engineering Limitations
No full textThe significant impact of cyberattacks on their targets, security domains, particularly those integrated with machine learning (ML), has gained attention in building robust and secure networks. Malware detection is of paramount importance in network security, with recent years presenting a challenge to create Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) capable of accurately detecting and classifying malware traffic based on raw network data; without involving collecting data, labels, and feature extraction to achieve high accuracy while minimizing false positives.
In this proposal, we introduce a Deep Learning model designed to offer a robust system that can detect and classify malware traffic based on a CNN Model and using raw flows of traffic. It's worth mentioning that the raw flows, obtained directly from the monitored stream of bytes, serves as an input feature for the proposed model, without the need for any handcrafted features. This approach aims to achieve high accuracy and reduce false positives to mitigate intrusions and cyber threats effectively
COP28:A Consensus not an Agreement
Get PDFThe final text of COP28, termed the "UAE Consensus," represents a significant yet insufficient step in addressing global climate change. Unlike the definitive "Paris Agreement" from COP21, this document reflects the complex trilemma faced by oil-producing countries, particularly the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, which balance sustaining their fossil fuel industries, preparing for renewable energy technologies, and delaying these technologies' widespread adoption. The conference achieved some successes in adaptation and loss and damage but fell short on establishing clear mitigation targets, particularly concerning fossil fuel production and coal phase-out. The UAE Consensus marks a rhetorical shift but remains encumbered by the influence of fossil fuel interests and lacks the binding commitments necessary to limit global warming to 1.5°C.The COP28 conference, held in Dubai, produced the "UAE Consensus," a document that, while acknowledging the need to transition away from fossil fuels, lacks the definitive targets and clear objectives that marked the Paris Agreement from COP21. Despite incorporating language addressing fossil fuel production for the first time, the text remains overly consensual and subject to varied interpretations, influenced by oil-producing nations' strategic interests. The conference highlighted the persistent challenges posed by the fossil fuel industry and underscored the incremental progress made in global climate negotiations
Characterizing Anopheles Gambiae Susceptibility to Oral Infections with a Panel of Human Bacterial Pathogens
Get PDFThe mosquito midgut is a key organ associated with multiple physiological functions including development, digestion, immunity and reproduction. In mosquito vectors of diseases, all transmitted microbes including viruses and parasites start their journey in the midgut where they interact with several chemical and physical barriers that function to restrain microbial invasion of the host. In the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae, the physiological responses of the midgut epithelium as well as local barriers, such as the peritrophic matrix and barrier epithelial, are known to impact the development of early stages of Plasmodium parasites. However, the midgut responses to bacterial pathogens are not very well understood as those to malaria parasites, and have mainly focused on the use of the Gram-negative bacterium S. marcescens (Sm) as an oral pathogen to establish midgut infections.
In this project, we aim to study mosquito susceptibility to oral infections with human bacterial pathogens known to cause gut infections, in order to determine whether these are virulent to the insect and, hence, can be used as tools to deepen our understanding of the mosquito gut physiologic responses to infection. The results show that several human pathogens including Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella Typhi, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli can indeed cause mosquito mortality when acquired through the oral route, however none of the tested human pathogens persisted in the mosquito midgut beyond 4 days from feeding suggesting that the midgut microenvironment is not permissive for colonization by these bacteria. We also show that oral infections with a particularly virulent P. aeruginosa sequence type 309 and the insect gut pathogen Erwinia carotovora carotovora significantly increased the number of cells undergoing enhanced endoreplication in the proventriculus but not in the midgut (anterior and posterior), further supporting the recognized immune defensive role of the proventriculus. None of the oral infections triggered significant cell division in midgut regenerative cells in PH3 staining, supporting previous studies in A. gambiae showing that chemical and microbial damage of the midgut does not trigger significant proliferation of regenerative cells. In summary, our data reveal that human bacterial pathogens can cause mosquito mortality when acquired orally despite their transient colonization of the midgut indicating that they might be causing irreversible damage. A genome wide transcriptomic approach is underway to identify the functional groups of genes whose expression may be altered by these oral pathogens, in order to gain better insight into mosquito midgut physiological responses to infection
Different but Equal
No full textChildren with down syndrome still don't have all their rights...this book supports this topic.A children's book, created by AUB students from the Education Department, for the course EDUC218 as a final project.LDS
Sustaining the landscape of cemeteries : a practical guide for managers and owners of cemeteries in Lebanon and beyond
No full textThe main aim of this handbook is to support cemetery managers and practitioners in
Lebanon (and beyond) and invite them to explore approaches and visions in cemetery
management and stewardship. To do that, this guide equips them with a set of tools that
can be used where applicable and that could be adapted based on their needs, context,
and other factors.United Nations. Global Compact Office. Network Lebano
Under the rubble of Gaza: A Middle East Reshaped?
No full textThe October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks and subsequent Gaza War have profoundly impacted the geopolitical landscape of the Middle East. This article situates the events within the broader context of declining U.S. involvement, the Abraham Accords, and shifting regional alliances. It highlights the resurgence of the Palestinian issue, the fragile state of Israeli security, and the renewed focus on diplomatic solutions involving major regional and global powers. The article also underscores the historical responsibilities and current challenges faced by Europe in addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict amidst a complex and evolving geopolitical environment.This text was originally published in French by Esprit magazine in December 2023.The article explores the geopolitical context and implications of the October 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas and the ensuing Gaza War. It examines the shifting dynamics in the Middle East, including U.S. involvement, Israeli-Arab relations, and the resurgence of the Palestinian issue. It also discusses the reactions and responsibilities of key players, such as the United States, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Europe, as well as the broader historical and regional implications of the conflict
The Power of Utility Poles
No full textLebanon, a Mediterranean country of only 10,452 km2, is wildly diverse, both demographically and topographically. One constant, though, is the utility pole, whether in metallic steel, rusted yellow, or hearty wood, or as an improvised clothes hook, building edge, or tall rod. No matter where you go, from a small village atop Mount Lebanon to a large port city on the coast to the vast agricultural lands of the valley, there are utility poles stitching together people's access to electricity and powering their contemporary communication practices. This article shows how the study of the utility pole as a medium can provide new insights for media studies and the everyday mediation of politics in the Arab world.
The utility pole is defined by its heterogeneous presence as a site of practical realisations, as a concentrated result of flows of power coming together. This presents a challenge for studies of both media and Lebanon. Practices and objects have generally been relegated to symptomatic states, as reflections and mirrors, representations trapped in the referential logics of corruptions and weak states. Recognising agency differently in Lebanon, with emphasis on the role of everyday practices and configurations, I argue that Lebanon’s infrastructures work as sites of active political contestation and as mediums of power, with their constitutions reflective of both the collision and coexistence of forces in the country. The latter forms the basis for a second argument underlying this research, part of the move to expand the bounds of Arab media studies to recognise the role of material mediums and of a general intervention into the relationship of media with infrastructure. I also contend that Lebanon’s poles are important nodal sites for uncovering how mediums both limit and make possible politics that challenge, complement, or just coexist a country’s socio-political arrangements.
To uncover how these mediations operate, and the frictions that emerge between dominant images and practical arrangements in the country, I take three concrete case studies. (1) Political contestations on utility poles during a case of a campaign to formalise electricity in the popular neighbourhoods of Jnah and the local response to it. (2) The logics of light in both infrastructural imaginary and practice in Lebanon, and the material-discoursive qualities of campaigns to ‘bring light back’ to Beirut. (3) The contrast between mafiaso representations of Lebanon’s decentralised power configurations and how these configurations are hetregenously negotiated across the country
Motion Planning for Snake Robots
No full textIn this dissertation, we propose novel motion planning algorithms that solve the motion planning problem for planar snake robots locomoting in various environments: snakes floating in space, snakes swimming in viscous mediums, and kinematic snakes undulating on the ground. Motion planning for snake robots is usually considered challenging due to the actuation redundancy along the body of the snake robot and due to the various types of environmental forces acting on the snake robot.
In this dissertation, we exploit this redundancy to formulate the motion planning problem as an optimization problem. Not only does this formulation generate optimal shape trajectories, but also enables the problem to account for additional requirements such as obstacle avoidance, inter-link collision avoidance, and the avoidance of singular shape configurations.
We aim in this dissertation to propose motion planning algorithms applicable for snake robots of any dimension, that is, for snake robots having any number of links. The effectiveness and robustness of the proposed algorithms in generating shape trajectories is validated through dynamic simulations on snake robots of different dimensions. Additionally, the algorithm proposed for kinematic snake robots is experimentally validated on a planar kinematic snake robot prototype
Lebanon's refugee return agenda : negotiating global protection norms and responsibility sharing
Get PDFSince the onset of displacement from Syria in 2011, Lebanon has been lobbying international circles for prompt refugee return even though the conflict in Syria has not ended. As part of these efforts, Lebanese representatives have sought to reshape global understandings of key refugee protection norms, advocating for ‘gradual,’ ‘progressive,’ and ‘safe’ return in lieu of voluntary repatriation in safety and with dignity. Ongoing discussions of the EU-Lebanon Migration Deal announced in early May 2024 must not further these obstructive interpretations but rather focus on Lebanon’s calls for increased responsibility sharing