Search results for: Marie Jaye Constance Selga

Authors: Marie-Laure Mimoun-Sorel

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Scholars concerned with the destiny of human species point out that our future will not only depend on progress made in technology and sciences but above all it will depend on human progress understood as quality of being. Teachers are significant force in developing a knowledgeable, creative, productive and democratic society. The values that underpin their profession are integrity, respect and responsibility. Therefore, being a teacher in the context of the 21st century requires embracing a Transdisciplinary Attitude which is about venturing within, between, across and beyond disciplines in order to bring forth quality of being in every learning process. In this article, the Transdisciplinary Attitude is defined and its benefits are shown through examples of Transdisciplinary inquiries in an Australian school. Finally, the conclusion invites to reflect on quality of teaching in regard to the development of individual autonomy, community participation and awareness of belonging to the human species.

Keywords: human progress, quality of being, quality of teaching, transdisciplinary attitude in education

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Authors: Kassem Saab, Fritzen Bart, Yves-Marie Seveque

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The deployment of Free Space Optical Communications (FSOC) systems requires the development of robust and reliable Optical Ground Stations (OGS) that can be easily installed and operated. To this end, the Engineering Department of Airbus Defence and Space is actively working on the development of innovative and compact OGS solutions that can be deployed in various environments and provide high-quality connectivity under different atmospheric conditions. This article presents an overview of our recent developments in this field, including an evaluation study of different use cases of the FSOC with respect to different atmospheric conditions. The goal is to provide OGS solutions that are both simple and highly effective, allowing for the deployment of high-speed communication networks in a wide range of scenarios.

Keywords: end to end optical communication, laser propagation, optical ground station, turbulence

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Authors: Omar Dib, Alexandre Caminada, Marie-Ange Manier

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The purpose of this study is to introduce a novel approach to solve the one-to-one shortest path problem. A directed connected graph is assumed in which all edges’ weights are positive. Our method is based on a memetic algorithm in which we combine a genetic algorithm (GA) and a variable neighborhood search method (VNS). We compare our approximate method with two exact algorithms Dijkstra and Integer Programming (IP). We made experimentations using random generated, complete and real graph instances. In most case studies, numerical results show that our method outperforms exact methods with 5% average gap to the optimality. Our algorithm’s average speed is 20-times faster than Dijkstra and more than 1000-times compared to IP. The details of the experimental results are also discussed and presented in the paper.

Keywords: shortest path problem, Dijkstra’s algorithm, integer programming, memetic algorithm

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Authors: Marie-Elise Beydon, Daniel Sacristan, Isabel Ruppen

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MB02 (Alymsys®) is a candidate biosimilar to bevacizumab, which was developed against the reference product (RP) Avastin® sourced from both the European Union (EU) and United States (US). MB02 has been extensively characterized comparatively to Avastin® at a physicochemical and biological level using sensitive orthogonal state-of-the-art analytical methods. MB02 has been demonstrated similar to the RP with regard to its primary and higher-order structure, post- and co-translational profiles such as glycosylation, charge, and size variants. Specific focus has been put on the characterization of Fab-related activities, such as binding to VEGF A 165, which directly reflect the bevacizumab mechanism of action. Fc-related functionality was also investigated, including binding to FcRn, which is indicative of antibodies' half-life. The data generated during the analytical similarity assessment demonstrate the high analytical similarity of MB02 to its RP.

Keywords: analytical similarity, bevacizumab, biosimilar, MB02

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Authors: Maria Cristina B. Cabanag, Elijinese Marie S. Culangen

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Pregnancy is a period in a woman's life wherein the body may undergo different physiological changes. These changes can be attributed to the interplay of hormones in the body but can mask a more sinister type of disease such as malignancy on rare occasions. Colorectal cancer (CRC) in pregnancy is an epidemiologically rare disease worldwide. To our knowledge, no available studies were reported in the Philippines at the time of this writing, posing a dilemma for its appropriate diagnosis and management. Signs and symptoms of colorectal malignancy may camouflage a normal pregnancy and, when overlooked, impedes an appropriate approach. This case of a 38-year-old elderly primigravid who presented with hematochezia on her 25th week of gestation. She was diagnosed with rectal adenocarcinoma later in pregnancy which warranted a predicament regarding her appropriate care and management. This paper explores the repertoire of the different diagnostic and treatment approaches to colorectal cancer in the second trimester of pregnancy, with the least possible maternal and fetal hazards.

Keywords: cancer in pregnancy, chemotherapy in pregnancy, colorectal cancer, hematochezia in pregnancy

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Authors: Mariel Encar H. Uy, Paula Marie G. Pacle

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The purpose of this research is to present a Single Country Comparative Contextual Description Study of Strong Islamic Influences in Relation to the Politics of Republic of Indonesia. This paper recognizes that even the coalition of secular and moderate Islamic parties protect the minority rights of all the constituents, Islam is still the dominant religion among the other recognized religions in Indonesia (Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism). In this study, it will also detail the involvement on the religions’ beliefs and techniques; participation of political actors, depending on what religion they belong and adhere to; the tensions whenever the government interferes with Islamists and other religions; the government’s solution or public policies implemented to maintain peace and order of Indonesia. This paper will develop a conceptual framework to describe how the Religion and Political Stability is interdependent with each other.

Keywords: diversity of religion in indonesia, secularization in Indonesia, motivations of political actors, voter turnouts based on religion

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Authors: Nicole Christiansen, Hanne Marie Motzfeldt

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In recent years, more and more HR professionals have been using cyber-vetting in job recruitment in an effort to find the perfect match for the company. These practices are growing rapidly, accessing a vast amount of data from social networks, some of which is privileged and protected information. Thus, there is a risk that the right to privacy is becoming a duty to manage your private data. This paper investigates to which degree a job applicant's fundamental rights are protected adequately in current and future legislation in the EU. This paper argues that current data protection regulations and forthcoming regulations on the use of AI ensure sufficient protection. However, even though the regulation on paper protects employees within the EU, the recruitment sector may not pay sufficient attention to the regulation as it not specifically targeting this area. Therefore, the lack of specific labor and employment regulation is a concern that the social partners should attend to.

Keywords: AI, cyber vetting, data protection, job recruitment, online privacy

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Authors: Brando Vagenende, Marie-Anne Guerry

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For stochastic matrices of any order, the geometric description of the convex set of eigenvalues is completely known. The purpose of this study is to investigate the subset of the monotone matrices. This type of matrix appears in contexts such as intergenerational occupational mobility, equal-input modeling, and credit ratings-based systems. Monotone matrices are stochastic matrices in which each row stochastically dominates the previous row. The monotonicity property of a stochastic matrix can be expressed by a nonnegative lower-order matrix with the same eigenvalues as the original monotone matrix (except for the eigenvalue 1). Specifically, the aim of this research is to focus on the properties of eigenvalues of monotone matrices. For those matrices up to order 3, there already exists a complete description of the convex set of eigenvalues. For monotone matrices of order at least 4, this study gives, through simulations, more insight into the geometric description of their eigenvalues. Furthermore, this research treats in a geometric and algebraic way the properties of eigenvalues of monotone matrices of order at least 4.

Keywords: eigenvalues of matrices, finite Markov chains, monotone matrices, nonnegative matrices, stochastic matrices

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Authors: Marie Kudrnova, Jana Petru

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This study is part of the international research - Materials for Molten Salt Reactors (MSR) and addresses the part of the project dealing with the corrosion behavior of candidate construction materials. Inconel 625 was characterized by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) before and after high–temperature experiment in molten salt. The experiment was performed in a horizontal tube furnace molten salt reactor, at 450 °C in argon, at atmospheric pressure, for 150 hours. Industrially produced HITEC salt was used (NaNO3, KNO3, NaNO2). The XPS study was carried out using the ESCAProbe P apparatus (Omicron Nanotechnology Ltd.) equipped with a monochromatic Al Kα (1486.6 eV) X-ray source. The surface layer on alloy 625 after exposure contains only Na, C, O, and Ni (as NiOx) and Nb (as NbOx BE 206.8 eV). Ni was detected in the metallic state (Ni0 – Ni 2p BE-852.7 eV, NiOx - Ni 2p BE-854.7 eV) after a short Ar sputtering because the oxide layer on the surface was very thin. Nickel oxides can form a protective layer in the molten salt, but only future long-term exposures can determine the suitability of Inconel 625 for MSR.

Keywords: Inconel 625, molten salt, oxide layer, XPS

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Authors: Marc Dorval, Marie-Hélène Jobin

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This work presents the various perspectives, dimensions, components and definitions given to quality in the operations management (OM) and healthcare services (HCS) literature in time, highlighting gaps and learning opportunities between the two disciplines through a thorough search into their rich and distinct body of knowledge. Greater and new insights about the general nature of quality are obtained with findings such as in OM, quality has been approached in six fairly distinct paradigms (excellence, value, conformity to specifications, attributes, satisfaction and meeting or exceeding customer expectations), whereas in HCS, two approaches are prominent (Donabedian’s structure, process and outcomes model and Lohr and Schroeder’s circumscribed definition). The two disciplines views on quality seem to have progressed much in parallel with little cross-learning from each other. This work then proposes an encompassing definition of quality as a lever and suggests further research and development avenues for a better use of the concept of quality by academics and practitioners alike toward the goals of greater organizational performance and improved management in healthcare and possibly other service domains.

Keywords: healthcare, management, operations, quality, services

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Authors: Marie Oslène Honorat

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Porto Belo is a neighborhood in the city of Foz do Iguaçu / PR, located in the Vila C region of Brazil. It is a project that addresses the question of the dirt generated by the neighborhood community about how they dispose and recycle domestic waste. This project aimed at raising awareness among residents, on how important it is to preserve the environment and take care, especially of the space in which we are located. Living this way manages to minimize the exploitation of natural resources, soil and water pollution. After collecting information about what one saw, we questioned some people in the neighborhood to find out about selective collection, recycling, and the separation and final destination of garbage. From the study, it was possible to verify the importance of placing more trash cans on neighborhood streets, where garbage is discarded, and the importance of promoting environmental education to improve the environment and quality of life. The methodology used in this research was a qualitative methodology that seeks the principle of transforming reality through investigation.

Keywords: awareness, recycling, selective collection, waste disposal

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Authors: Evy Rombaut, Marie-Anne Guerry

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Predicting voluntary turnover of employees is an important topic of study, both in academia and industry. Researchers try to uncover determinants for a broader understanding and possible prevention of turnover. In the current study, we use a data set based approach to reveal determinants for turnover, differing for blue and white collar workers. Our data set based approach made it possible to study actual turnover for more than 500000 employees in 15692 Belgian corporations. We use logistic regression to calculate individual turnover probabilities and test the goodness of our model with the AUC (area under the ROC-curve) method. The results of the study confirm the relationship of known determinants to employee turnover such as age, seniority, pay and work distance. In addition, the study unravels unknown and verifies known differences between blue and white collar workers. It shows opposite relationships to turnover for gender, marital status, the number of children, nationality, and pay.

Keywords: employee turnover, blue collar, white collar, dataset analysis

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Authors: Ousmane Youme, Jean Marie Dembele, Eugene Ezin, Christophe Cambier

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In recent years, the convolutional neural networks (CNN) architectures designed by evolution algorithms have proven to be competitive with handcrafted architectures designed by experts. However, these algorithms need a lot of computational power, which is beyond the capabilities of most researchers and engineers. To overcome this problem, we propose an evolution architecture under length constraints. It consists of two algorithms: a search length strategy to find an optimal space and a search architecture strategy based on a genetic algorithm to find the best individual in the optimal space. Our algorithms drastically reduce resource costs and also keep good performance. On the Cifar-10 dataset, our framework presents outstanding performance with an error rate of 5.12% and only 4.6 GPU a day to converge to the optimal individual -22 GPU a day less than the lowest cost automatic evolutionary algorithm in the peer competition.

Keywords: CNN architecture, genetic algorithm, evolution algorithm, length constraints

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Authors: Jana Rejková, Marie Kudrnová

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This paper deals with the research of materials for one of the types of reactors IV. generation - reactor with molten salts. One of the advantages of molten salts applied as a coolant in reactors is the ability to operate at relatively low pressures, as opposed to cooling with water or gases. Compared to liquid metal cooling, which also allows lower operating pressures, salt melts are less prone to chemical reactions. The service life of the construction materials used is limited by the operating temperatures of the reactor and the content of impurities in the salts. For the research of corrosion resistance, an experimental device was designed and assembled, enabling exposure at high temperatures without access to oxygen in a flowing atmosphere of inert gas. Nickel alloys Inconel 601, 617, and 625 were tested in a mixture of chloride salts LiCl – KCl (58,2 - 41,8 wt. %). The experiment showed high resistance of the materials used and based on the results and XPS analysis, other construction materials were proposed for the experiments.

Keywords: molten salt, corrosion, nuclear reactor, nickel alloy

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Authors: Marie Bieber, Fabrice Cosson, Olivier Schmitt

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Europe's Global Navigation Satellite System, Galileo, provides worldwide positioning and navigation services. The satellites in space are only one part of the Galileo system. An extensive ground infrastructure is essential to oversee the satellites and ensure accurate navigation signals. High reliability and availability of the entire Galileo system are crucial to continuously provide positioning information of high quality to users. Outages are tracked, and operational availability is regularly assessed. A highly flexible and adaptive tool has been developed to automate the Galileo system availability analysis. Not only does it enable a quick availability consolidation, but it also provides first steps towards improving the data quality of maintenance tickets used for the analysis. This includes data import and data preparation, with a focus on processing strings used for classification and identifying faulty data. Furthermore, the tool allows to handle a low amount of data, which is a major constraint when the aim is to provide accurate statistics.

Keywords: availability, data quality, system performance, Galileo, aerospace

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Authors: Marie Manikis

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This paper argues that the scholarship to date on victims in the criminal process has mainly adopted a private conception of victims –as bearers of individual interests, rights, and remedies– rather than a conception of the victim as an actor with public functions and interests, who has historically and continuously taken on an active role in the common law tradition. This conception enables a greater understanding of the various developments around victim participation in common law criminal justice systems and provides a useful analytical tool to understand the different roles of victims in England and Wales and the United States. Indeed, the main focus on individual rights and the conception of the victim as a private entity undermines the distinctive and increasing role victims play in the wider criminal justice process as agents of accountability through administrative-based processes within and outside courts, including private prosecutions, internal review processes within prosecutorial agencies, judicial review, and ombudsmen processes.

Keywords: victims, participation, criminal justice, accountability

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Authors: Chiedza Lebogang Gutu, Nester Rufaro Manuwa, Jean-Marie Mbuya

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In Johannesburg, Metropolitan customer expectations in the hospitality industry have rapidly been increasing which has lead to the need of improving service quality to help satisfy customer expectations. Businesses need to make sure that customer expectations are met, or find ways to control customer expectations. Therefore the purpose of the study is to investigate how customer expectations of services in bed and breakfast establishments affect the perceived quality of service. A quantitative approach was used through random sampling to collect descriptive and correlation study between customer expectations and perceived quality. Findings of the study indicated that customers at bed and breakfast generally expect a clean, friendly and safe environment that has a homely feel, while they are away from home. In addition, findings of the study also emphasised that the age-groups between 20 and 35 are more likely to travel, for business and vacation purposes, staying for more or less 3, have high expectations towards modern facilities and extras in the room such as coffee machines, and are more concerned about the service being provided quickly and right, and taking extra care to deal with problems promptly.

Keywords: Customer satisfaction, Service quality, Bed and breakfast, Customer retention

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Authors: Johna Bernice Ablaza, Bryan Lim Corpuz, Joanna Marie Estrada, Mary Ann Cristine Olgado, Rhina Recato

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This study aimed to describe the mathematical beliefs and attitudes in relation to the mathematics performance of freshman college students. The descriptive design using the correlational study was used to describe the relationship among mathematical beliefs, attitudes, and performance of freshman college students. This study involved one hundred fifty (150) freshman college students of Philippine Normal University during the third trimester of school year 2015-2016. The research instruments used to gather the information needed in the study are the beliefs about Mathematics Questionnaire, the KIM-Project Questionnaire, and the ACT Compass Mathematics Test. The data gathered were analyzed using the percentages, mean, standard deviation, and Pearson r-moment correlation. The results of this study have shown that although students believe that Mathematics is significant in their lives, the overall result on their beliefs and attitudes are positively low. There is a significant relationship between the students’ mathematical beliefs and mathematics performance. Likewise, their attitudes in mathematics have significant relationship to mathematics performance.

Keywords: attitudes, diligence, interest, mathematical beliefs, mathematical performance, self-confidence

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Authors: Intan Izafina Idrus, Mardina Abdullah, Alina Marie Hasbi, Asnawi Husin

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This paper presents the result of large-scale traveling ionospheric disturbance (LSTID) observation during moderate magnetic storm event on 25 October 2011 with SYM-H ~ -160 nT and Kp ~ 7 over Peninsular Malaysia at equatorial region using vertical total electron content (VTEC) from the Global Positioning System (GPS) observation measurement. The propagation of the LSTID signatures in the TEC measurements over Peninsular Malaysia was also investigated using VTEC map. The LSTID was found to propagate equator-ward during this event. The results showed that the LSTID propagated with an average phase velocity of 526.41 m/s and average periods of 140 min. The occurrence of this LSTID was also found to be the subsequent effects of substorm activities in the auroral region.

Keywords: Global Positioning System (GPS), large-scale traveling ionospheric disturbance (LSTID), moderate geomagnetic storm, vertical total electron content (VTEC)

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Authors: Salma Mefteh-Wali, Marie-Josephe Rigobert

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We investigate the impact of foreign currency debt on firm performance for a sample of non-financial French firms studied over the period 2002 to 2012. As foreign currency debt is both a financing and hedging instrument against foreign exchange risk, we mobilize optimal hedging theory and capital structure theory. When we study the impact on firm value, our main results show that before and after the financial crisis of 2008, foreign debt had the same behavior as domestic debt. We find that during the crisis period, foreign debt positively affects firm value. Investors perceive foreign debt as a natural hedging instrument that is likely to reduce the costs of underinvestment, alleviate cash flow volatility, limit the costs of financial distress, and generate tax shield benefits. Also, our results show that foreign leverage negatively affects the firm performance proxied by ROA and ROE, during and after the financial crisis. However, this impact is positive in the pre-crisis period.

Keywords: foreign currency derivatives, foreign currency debt, foreign currency hedging, firm performance

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Authors: Petronella Jonck, Martin Chanza, Anna-Marie Pelser

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Ascribed to the global pandemic most higher education institutions responded by relocating content presented by means of contact sessions to an online platform giving rise to digital pedagogy. The purpose of the research reported on was to explore emerging challenges linked to digital pedagogy from a practitioner stance. Digital pedagogy has emerged as a powerful tool to compliment traditional methods. However, stumbling blocks should be identified and addressed for future utilization. A qualitative research design was implemented by means of a semi-structured interview schedule distributed to practitioners during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results revealed that institutional type influenced the implementation of digital pedagogy. Other challenges relate to the increased cost of education, decreased access, limited knowledge about digital pedagogy, behavioral intent to adopt a multi-modal approach, lack of ICT infrastructure to mention a few. Higher education institutions should address challenges towards the optimal use of digital pedagogy in future.

Keywords: COVID-19, digital pedagogy, higher education institutions, information communication technology

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Authors: Benedicta N. Nkeh-Chungag, Constance R. Sewani-Rusike, Isaac M. Malema, Daniel T. Goon, Oladele V. Adeniyi, Idowu A. Ajayi

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Background: Childhood and adolescent obesity is an important predictor of adult cardiometabolic diseases. Current data on age- and gender-specific cardiometabolic risk factors are lacking in the peri-urban Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. However, such information is important in designing innovative strategies to promote healthy living among children and adolescents. The purpose of this pilot study was to compare and determine the extent of cardiometabolic risk factors between samples of lean and overweight/obese adolescent population in a peri-urban township of South Africa. Methods: In this case-control study, age-matched, non-pregnant and non-lactating female adolescents consisting of equal number of cases (50 overweight/obese) and control (50 lean) participated in the study. Fasting venous blood samples were obtained for total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), triglyceride (Trig), highly sensitive C-reactive protein (hsCRP) and blood sugar. Anthropometric measurements included weight, height, waist and hip circumferences. Body mass index was calculated. Blood pressure was measured; and metabolic syndrome was assessed using appropriate diagnostic criteria for children and adolescents. Results: Of the 76 participants with complete data, 12/38 of the overweight/obese and 1/38 of the lean group met the criteria for adolescent metabolic syndrome. All cardiometabolic risk factors were elevated in the overweight/obese group compared with the lean group: low HDL-C (RR = 2.21), elevated TC (RR = 1.23), elevated LDL-C (RR = 1.42), elevated Trig (RR = 1.73), and elevated hsCRP (RR = 1.9). There were significant atherosclerotic indices among the overweight/obese group compared with the lean group: TC/HDL and LDL/HDL (2.99±0.91 vs 2.63±0.48; p=0.016 and 1.73±0.61 vs 1.41±0.46; p= 0.014, respectively). Conclusion: There are multiple cardiometabolic risk factors among the overweight/obese female adolescent group compared with lean adolescent group in the study. Female adolescent who are overweight and obese have higher relative risks of developing cardiometabolic diseases compared with their lean counterparts in the peri-urban Mthatha, South Africa. School health programme focusing on promoting physical exercise, healthy eating and keeping appropriate weight are needed in the country.

Keywords: adolescents, cardiometabolic risk factors, obesity, peri-urban South Africa

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Authors: Nur Amira nor Arifin, Tashia Marie Anthony, Mohd Ruzlin Mokhtar, Huzainie Shafi Abd Halim

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Cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) material is being used as the cable insulation for the past decades due to its higher working temperature of 90 ˚C and some other advantages. However, the use of XLPE as an insulating material for underground distribution cables may have subjected to the unforeseeable weather and uncontrollable environmental condition. These unfavorable condition when combine with high electric field may lead to the initiation and growth of water tree in XLPE insulation. There are several studies on numerous nanofillers incorporate into polymer matrix to hinder the growth of tree propagation. Hence, in this study aims to investigate the effect of MgO and rubber nanofillers at different concentration on the electrical tree of XLPE. The nanofillers and XLPE were mixed and later extruded. After extrusion, the material were then fabricated into the desired shape for experimental purposes. The result shows that the electrical tree propagation of XLPE filled with optimize concentration of nanofillers were much slower compared to pure XLPE. In this paper, the effect of nanofillers towards electrical treeing characteristic will be discussed.

Keywords: electrical trees, nanofillers, polymer nanocomposites, XLPE

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Authors: Bernadette F. De La Cruz, Susan Marie R. Dela Cruz, Georgia D. Demavibas

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The Expanded Student Grant-in-Aid Program for Poverty Alleviation (ESGP-PA) is a government program that aims to contribute to the National Government’s thrusts in effectively addressing poverty alleviation by increasing the number of graduates in higher education among indigent households and to get these graduates employed in in-demand occupations in order to lift their families out of poverty. Higher education continues to see an influx of these students from poor families that have never previously sent anyone to college. There are many challenges that face college students at all levels, but these are special challenges for first-generation students. Challenges that face these students can include lack of interest in attending school, low aptitude, being not single anymore, factors such as unfamiliarity with college expectations, lack of preparations while in secondary school, and limited support from family members. This research looks at some of the challenges first-generation college students face and examines the impact of these challenges on student’s aspirations for the attainment of a college degree and ultimately a high-paying career.

Keywords: ESGP-PA, first-generation college students, low aptitude, poverty alleviation

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Authors: Rose Virginy S. Bautista, Ida Marie Tabangay-Lim, Helen Bongalon-Amo, Jose Modesto B. Abellera

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Chordomas, particularly those of the spine and the head and neck region, represent a rare and locally aggressive group of malignancies. The complexity of these tumors -given the rarity, location, and involvement of neurovascular structures- imposes a challenge in the diagnosis and management. We herein report a case of spinal cord compression due to a prevertebral cervical chordoma. The patient presented with a gradually enlarging lateral neck mass, with progressive bilateral extremity weakness and urinary incontinence; preoperative biopsy showed chordoma. A multidisciplinary approach for the management of this case was made, involving neurosurgery, head and neck surgery, and radiation oncology services. Surgical collaboration between the two cutting services was done to have a radical excision of the tumor and spinal cord decompression. The patient was then referred for adjuvant radiation therapy. With this collaborative treatment strategy, more comprehensive and quality care could be provided to our patients.

Keywords: chordoma, surgical collaboration, spinal cord compression, neurosurgery, head and neck surgery

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Authors: Jean Marie Tshimula, Atsushi Togashi

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We develop a data-science approach for providing an interactive visualization and predictive models to find insights into the projects' historical data in order for stakeholders understand some unseen opportunities in the African market that might escape them behind the online project portfolio of the African Development Bank. This machine learning-based web application identifies the market trend of the fastest growing economies across the continent as well skyrocketing sectors which have a significant impact on the future of business in Africa. Owing to this, the approach is tailored to predict where the investment needs are the most required. Moreover, we create a corpus that includes the descriptions of over more than 1,200 projects that approximately cover 14 sectors designed for some of 53 African countries. Then, we sift out this large amount of semi-structured data for extracting tiny details susceptible to contain some directions to follow. In the light of the foregoing, we have applied the combination of Latent Dirichlet Allocation and Random Forests at the level of the analysis module of our methodology to highlight the most relevant topics that investors may focus on for investing in Africa.

Keywords: machine learning, topic modeling, natural language processing, big data

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Authors: Tahani Farah, Hanène Souli, Jean-Marie Fleureau, Guillaume Kermouche, Jean-Jacques Fry, Benjamin Girard, Denis Aelbrecht

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In this work, the bio-clogging of two soils with different granulometries is presented. The durability of the clogging is also studied under cycles of hydraulic head and under cycles of desaturation- restauration. The studied materials present continuous grain size distributions. The first one corresponding to the "material 1", presents grain sizes between 0.4 and 4 mm. The second material called "material 2" is composed of grains with size varying between 1 and 10 mm. The results show that clogging occurs very quickly after the injection of nutrition and an outlet flow near to 0 is observed. The critical hydraulic head is equal to 0.76 for "material 1", and 0.076 for "material 2". The durability tests show a good resistance to unclogging under cycles of hydraulic head and desaturation-restauration for the "material 1". Indeed, the flow after the cycles is very low. In contrast, "material 2", shows a very bad resistance, especially under the hydraulic head cycles. The resistance under the cycles of desaturation-resaturation is better but an important increase of the flow is observed. The difference of behavior is due to the granulometry of the materials. Indeed, the large grain size contributes to the reduction of the efficiency of the bio-clogging treatment in this material.

Keywords: bio-clogging, granulometry, permeability, nutrition

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Authors: Marie-Josée Morneau

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A literacy-based approach, centred on the use of the language of instruction as a cognitive tool, can increase the L2 communication skills of French immersion students. Academic subject areas such as science and mathematics offer an authentic language learning context where students can become more proficient speakers while using specific vocabulary and language structures to learn, interact and communicate their reasoning, when provided the opportunities and guidance to do so. In this Canadian quasi-experimental study, the effects of teaching specific language elements during mathematic classes through literacy-based activities in Early French Immersion programming were compared between two Grade 7/8 groups: the experimental group, which received literacy-based teaching for a 6-week period, and the control group, which received regular teaching instruction. The results showed that the participants from the experimental group made more progress in their mathematical communication skills, which suggests that targeting L2 language as a cognitive tool can be beneficial to immersion learners who learn mathematic concepts and remind us that all L2 teachers are language teachers.

Keywords: mathematics, French immersion, literacy-based, oral communication, L2

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Authors: Daihui Zhang, Marie J. Dumont

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A derivative of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) was synthesized for the thiol-Michael addition reaction. The efficiency of the catalysts (base and nucleophiles) and side reactions during the thiol-Michael addition were investigated. Dimethylphenylphosphine efficiently initiated the thiol-Michael addition polymerization for synthesizing a series of bio-based furan polymers with different structure and properties. The benzene rings or hydroxyl groups present in the polymer chains increased the glass transition temperature (Tg) of poly (β-thioether ester). Additionally, copolymers with various compositions were obtained via adding different ratio of 1,6-hexanedithiols to 1,4-benzenedithiols. 1H NMR analysis revealed that experimental ratios of two dithiols monomers matched well with theoretical ratios. The occurrence of a reversible Diels-Alder reaction between furan rings and maleimide groups allowed poly (β-thioether ester) to be dynamically crosslinked. These polymers offer the potentials to produce materials from biomass that have both practical mechanical properties and reprocessing ability.

Keywords: copolymers, Diels-Alder reaction, hydroxymethylfurfural, Thiol-Michael addition

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Authors: Regina M. Chiechio, Rémi Leguevél, Helene Solhi, Marie Madeleine Gueguen, Stephanie Dutertre, Xavier, Jean-Pierre Bazureau, Olivier Mignen, Pascale Even-Hernandez, Paolo Musumeci, Maria Jose Lo Faro, Valerie Marchi

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Thanks to their ultra-small size, high electron density, and low toxicity, gold nanoclusters (Au NCs) have unique photoelectrochemical and luminescence properties that make them very interesting for diagnosis bio-imaging and theranostics. These applications require control of their delivery and interaction with cells; for this reason, the surface chemistry of Au NCs is essential to determine their interaction with the targeted biological objects. Here we demonstrate their ability as markers of pancreatic tumor cells. By functionalizing the surface of the NCs with a recognition peptite (U11), the nanostructures are able to preferentially bind to pancreatic cancer cells via a receptor (uPAR) overexpressed by these cells. Furthermore, the NCs can mark even the nucleus without the need of fixing the cells. These nanostructures can therefore be used as a non-toxic, multivalent luminescent platform, capable of selectively recognizing tumor cells for bioimaging, drug delivery, and radiosensitization.

Keywords: gold nanoclusters, luminescence, biomarkers, pancreatic cancer, biomedical applications, bioimaging, fluorescent probes, drug delivery

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