654 research outputs found
Big Data and Machine Intelligence in Software Platforms for Smart Cities
No full textInformation and communication technologies (ICT) are playing an important role in the development of software platforms for Smart Cities to improve city services, sustainability, and citizen quality of life. Smart City software platforms have a significant role to transform a city into a smart city by providing support for the development and integration of intelligent services. Big data analytics is an emerging technology that has a huge potential to enhance smart city services by transforming city information into city intelligence. Despite this,it has attracted attention in a rather restricted range of application domains, and its joint application with self-adaptation mechanisms is rarely investigated. In this Ph.D. research, in collaboration with the Smart Cities and Communities Lab. of the Italian national agency ENEA, we focus on the design and development of a software platform for smart city based on self-adaptation, as realized in the IBM MAPE-K (Monitor, Analyze, Plan, and Execute over a shared Knowledge) control loop architecture model, and on machine intelligence, as provided by a big data analytics framework. This last is introduced in between the analysis and planning modules of the MAPE-K control loop model. We will evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach with a real showcase in the public lighting domain
Lumpy Skin Disease and its clinical management under field conditions: A case report
No full text<p><span>Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD) an emerging and devastating viral infectious disease of cattle and buffalos of all ages. LSD causes severe economic loss to the farmers in terms of chronic debility, decreased milk yield, poor growth rate, infertility, abortion and even death. Twenty-seven animals were observed and treated during recent LSD outbreak. Out of 19 cows 18 were in milking and 4 were pregnant. The clinical signs varied from animal to animal. Nodular skin lesions varying in diameter were first sign in animals with mild farm of LSD whereas in acutely infected animals’ high fever nodular skin lesions were first symptoms. The nodular skin lesions were observed distributed throughout body of animal. The firm circumscribed nodules were concentrated on neck, perineum, genitalia udder and limbs. The infected animals also presented symptoms of high fever, general depression, lacrimation, increased nasal discharges, anorexia and dysgalactia. Permanent loss of one quarter was observed in one cow and loss of full udder in 2 cows. It is concluded that Lumpy skin disease (LSD) is an economically devastating viral disease of cattle characterized by distinctive nodular lesions principally on the skin, hence reduces hide quality. A treatment aimed at preventing LSD complications and saving the life has been successful using a combination of antimicrobials and anti-inflammatory.</span></p>
Foreign bodies: a conversation between Yasmin Gunaratnam and Ali Eisa
No full textThis text is the result of several online conversations and an a-synchronous shared file. A process taking nearly two years. The incremental pace and long stretches of silence were invariably shaped by our struggles with workload, while joining industrial actions taken by the UK’s University and College Union over equitable pay, working conditions and pensions. Despite the runaway marketisation of university life, our exchanges were something of a shelter, holding those lovely moments that mark scholarly camaraderie – energising, provocative, dimly lit. As we are both interested in drawing political commitments into formats, we have opted for a conversation rather an interview, which feels like a more democratising form.
Yasmin Gunaratnam is a sociologist and yoga teacher. She is author of Researching Race and Ethnicity: Methods, Knowledge and Power and Death and the Migrant: Bodies, Borders, Care (Gunaratnam, 2013) and co-author of Go Home? The Politics of Immigration Controversies (Jones et al., 2017). She has edited numerous collections and journal issues. Yasmin is Chair in Social Justice at the School of Education, Community and Society, King’s College, London.
Ali Eisa is an artist and educator based in London. He is a Learning and Participation Manager at Autograph1 a visual arts charity supporting photography and film exploring identity, representation, rights and social justice. Ali is a lecturer in Fine Art at Goldsmiths and has a long-term collaborative artistic practice called Lloyd Corporation2, working with sculpture, installation, performance and participation, often taking inspiration from informal and local economies
Echo writes back: the figure of the author in 'true short story' by Ali Smith
No full textAli Smith’s 2008 collection The First Person And Other Stories re-examines the implied contract between reader and writer. In particular, the first piece in the collection, ‘True Short Story’, challenges our reading of the text as ‘story’. It is highly metafictive, with little conventional structure, and apparently autobiographical, and the narrator must be the author too – mustn’t she(it)? Smith insists that we read the author into the work, in order to create a new set of questions around the debate of authorial identity. ‘True Short Story’ considers what difference it makes to the reader when the author’s voice is apparently unmediated by any fictional narrator. Does this make the story autobiography rather than fiction? If it is not fiction, does that mean it is not a story either? If it is fiction, why use so many apparently verifiable facts? The article also considers whether Jorge Luis Borges has anything to say about Smith’s disruption of the sujet. The figure of the author in ‘Borges and I’ is compared with that in ‘True Short Story’, together with Paul Auster’s apparent appearance in his City of Glass.(1987
Negar Habibi. « ‘Ali Qoli Jebadar et l’enregisrement du réel dans les peintures dites farangi sazi »
No full textThis article is a mainly iconographic study of five paintings that were signed by or attributed to ‘Ali Qoli Jebadar. This so-called farangi sazi- artist was active at the Safavid court of Shah ‘Abbas II (r. 1642-1666) and Shah Soleyman (r. 1666-1694). With this study the author wants to demonstrate that ‘Ali Qoli Jebadar observed and “registered” the reality of daily life at the Safavid court, rather than depicting an ideal, timeless world. She does this by confronting certain subjects, obje..
Women's Empowerment and Reproductive Choices
No full textThe 1994 Cairo International Conference on Population and
Development (lCPD) in their Programme of Action calls for promoting
gender equality and equity and the empowerment of women. Furthermore,
the conference also recognises the basic rights of all couples and
individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing, and
timing of their children, as well as the right to the information and
the means to do so [Sadik (1994)]. The need for such a programme of
action arose in view of the fact that in many countries, including
Pakistan, women are generally least empowered and hence they have
negligible rights to decide about the number of their children.
According to the 1990-91 Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey, over 54
percent women either wanted to stop having children or wanted to wait at
least two years before having another child [Ali and Rukanuddin (1992)].
However, in practice, all of these women were not protected; instead,
only 12 percent were practising contraception [Shah and Ali (1992)]. The
low incidence of family planning practice on the part of the women is
not so much due to the dearth of family planning services; rather it is
due to resistance by husbands, in-laws, and other peer pressures.
Demographers like Caldwell (1982) and Cain et al. (1979) also contend
that in patriarchal societies it is the patriarchy which militates
against the fertility decline
Women's Empowerment and Reproductive Choices
No full textThe 1994 Cairo International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in their Programme of Action calls for promoting gender equality and equity and the empowerment of women. Furthermore, the conference also recognises the basic rights of all couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing, and timing of their children, as well as the right to the information and the means to do so [Sadik (1994)]. The need for such a programme of action arose in view of the fact that in many countries, including Pakistan, women are generally least empowered and hence they have negligible rights to decide about the number of their children. According to the 1990-91 Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey, over 54 percent women either wanted to stop having children or wanted to wait at least two years before having another child [Ali and Rukanuddin (1992)]. However, in practice, all of these women were not protected; instead, only 12 percent were practising contraception [Shah and Ali (1992)]. The low incidence of family planning practice on the part of the women is not so much due to the dearth of family planning services; rather it is due to resistance by husbands, in-laws, and other peer pressures. Demographers like Caldwell (1982) and Cain et al. (1979) also contend that in patriarchal societies it is the patriarchy which militates against the fertility decline.
Important genes affecting fibre production in animals: A review
No full textThe realignment of the production profile to respond to demanding market signals is one of the most important challenges that an animal breeders face today. Animal fibre being a significant contributor to the agricultural economy needs special attention. This is especially true for sheep and goats where fibre production can account for as much as 20% of the total gross income. It is therefore necessary to gain a better insight into the genes governing wool traits. Gene mapping studies have identified some chromosomal regions influencing fibre quality and production. These may help in the selection of animals producing better quality wool. These are more efficient and accurate than the conventional techniques. This paper critically reviews various genes governing fibre growth in animals and their importance. Fibre quality and production genes may provide novel insights into our understanding of the science of
genetics and breeding. The discovery of new fibre-related genes and their functions may also help in future studies related to fibre development and in the development of new and advanced techniques for the improvement of fibre production and quality
Adapting authoritarianism: institutions and co-optation in Egypt and Syria
No full textThis PhD thesis compares Egypt and Syria’s authoritarian political systems. While the tendency in social science political research treats Egypt and Syria as similarly authoritarian, this research emphasizes differences between the two systems with special reference to institutions and co-optation. Rather than reducibly understanding Egypt and Syria as sharing similar histories, institutional arrangements, or ascribing to the oft-repeated convention that “Syria is Egypt but 10 years behind,” this thesis focuses on how events and individual histories shaped each states current institutional strengthens and weaknesses. Specifically, it explains the how varying institutional politicization or de-politicization affects each state’s capabilities for co-opting elite and non-elite individuals.
Beginning with a theoretical framework that considers the limited utility of democratization and transition theoretical approaches, the work underscores the persistence and durability of authoritarianism. Chapter two details the politicized institutional divergence between Egypt and Syria that began in the 1970s. Chapter three and four examines how institutional politicization or de-politicization affects elite and non-elite individual co-optation in Egypt and Syria. Chapter five discusses the study’s general conclusions and theoretical implications.
This thesis’s argument is that Egypt and Syria co-opt elites and non-elites differently because of the varying degrees of institutional politicization in each governance system. Rather than view one country as more politically developed than the other, this work argues that Syria’s political institutions are more politicized than their Egyptian counterparts. Syria’s political arena is, thus, described as politicized-patrimonialism. Syria’s politicized-patrimonial arena produces uneven co-optation of elites and non-elites as they are diffused through competing institutions. Conversely, the Egyptian political arena remains highly personalized as weak institutions and individuals are manipulated and molded according to the president’s ruling clique. This is referred to as personalized-patrimonialism. As a consequence, Egypt’s political establishment demonstrates more flexibility in ad hoc altering and adapting its arena depending on the emergence of crises.
This study’s theoretical implications suggest that, contrary to modernization and democratization theory’s adage that institutions lead to a political development, politicized institutions within a patrimonial order actually hinder regime adaptation because consensus is harder to achieve and maintain. It is within this context that Egypt’s de-politicized institutional framework advantages its top political elite. In this reading of Egyptian and Syrian politics, Egypt’s personalized political arena is more adaptable than Syria’s. These conclusions do not indicate that political reform is a process underway in either state
Ali znanost misli: znanost in etika
No full textDoes science think or does it not think, this traditionally philosophical dilemma has today become, according to the central thesis of this essay, inherent to science itself. The author argues that it is in the interest of contemporary science itself to affirm itself as thought. It is precisely this perspective of science as thought which implies the ethical dimension of science. This is not to be understood in the sense of the necessity of some prohibitive instance such as an ethical demand, but rather in the sense that science, for its own internal reasons, should not give up regarding its desire: to be, both, an experiment of thought and a condition for thought. Only by being useful for thought can science be useful for something else.Osnovna teza prispevka je, da je bila dilema, ali znanost misli ali ne misli, tradicionalno dilema filozofije, ki je razmišljala o znanosti. Danes pa je postalo to vprašanje problem za samo znanost. Prispevek pri tem ne skuša le pokazati, da je dilema, ali znanost misli ali ne misli, danes znotrajznanstvena dilema. Prav tako skuša tudi pokazati da je in zakaj je sodobna znanost iz znotrajznanstvenih razlogov zainteresirana za to, da se afirmira kot misel. Z znanostjo, ki misli, prispevek povezuje etično razsežnost znanosti. Etika v obliki etičnih komitejev v znanosti kot znanosti nima kaj iskati. Prispevek utemeljuje stališče, da je edina etika, ki ustreza pojmu znanosti, etika zahteve, da znanost ne sme popustiti glede tega, da misli, da je izvorno miselni eksperiment in pogoj mišljenja. Samo če je znanost dobra za mišljenje, je lahko, pod določenimi pogoji, dobra tudi še za kaj drugega
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