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The thousands of anonymous social media accounts that attacked English football players with racist slurs following the European Championship final prompted discussions on how to end anonymity online.

Les voyageurs sont tenus d’attendre environ 1h40. Les embouteillages sur l’A2 se répètent depuis ce week-end.

The European Commission's 'Fit for 55' legislative package will penalise poor Europeans. This is not the just energy transition the EU promised, writes Martha Myers.

Israeli tech firm NSO denies media reports that its software has been sold to authoritarian regimes.

Le wali de Batna a annoncé aujourd’hui lundi 19 juillet dans un communiqué rendu public par les services de la wilaya,  la suspension des activités liées aux loisirs et aux divertissements, dans le cadre des mesures préventives contre la covid-19. En effet, cette décision vise à interdire les activités des parcs, d’espaces d’attraction et de […]

L’article Covid-19 en Algérie : de nouvelles restrictions imposées à Batna est apparu en premier sur .

Face à la recrudescence des cas d’infection à la Covid-19 en Algérie, la wilaya de Jijel a décidé de durcir les mesures préventives afin de limiter les dégâts. Ces mesures, que d’aucuns jugent draconiennes, inutiles ou bien impossibles à respecter, visent toutefois à éviter le pire. Aujourd’hui, le Wali de la wilaya de Jijel a […]

L’article Covid-19 : Jijel interdit le camping aux vacanciers est apparu en premier sur .

The advanced biofuels industry has criticised the complexity of the EU’s climate legislation package, arguing that the uncertainty caused by the slew of new rules will hinder investor confidence.

Des services marocains sont confrontés à de graves accusations d’espionnage mené contre des dizaines de journalistes et personnalités médiatiques, selon une enquête publiée ce dimanche 18 juillet dans plusieurs médias internationaux. 6000 numéros de différentes personnalités algériennes, ont été sélectionnés en vue d’une éventuelle surveillance. En effet, des médias de renommée mondiale, dont Le Monde, The […]

L’article Le Maroc au cœur d’un scandale d’espionnage : 6000 algériens concernés est apparu en premier sur .

À des années-lumière de la France qui instaure le pass sanitaire, la Suisse encourage ses habitants à se faire vacciner en leur offrant du cheesecake.

Quelle : © Europäische Union, 2021 - EP

Une dizaine de ministres et collaborateurs du chef de l'Etat Patrice Talon qui travaillent à ses côtés depuis cinq ans ont été élevés dans différents grades de l'Ordre national du Bénin, vendredi 16 juillet 2021. C'est à travers une cérémonie officielle présidée par la vice-présidente, Mariam Chabi Talata à l'ex Primature.

Alassane Seidou, ministre de l'Intérieur, a été fait Grand-croix de l'Ordre national du Bénin. Hervé Yves Hèhomey, ministre des Infrastructures et du Transport ; José Didier Tonato, ministre du Cadre de vie et du Développement durable ; Gaston Dossouhoui ministre de l'Agriculture et Johannes Dagnon, conseiller spécial du chef de l'Etat, ont été élevés grands officiers. Adidjatou Mathys, ministre du Travail et de la Fonction publique ; Jean-Michel Abimbola, ministre du Tourisme, de la Culture et des Arts et Fortuné Nouatin, ministre délégué auprès du président de la République, chargé de la Défense nationale, ont été élevés au rang de commandeurs de l'Ordre national du Bénin. Dako Benjamin, secrétaire général du gouvernement et Cyrille Gougbédji, secrétaire général adjoint du gouvernement, ont été élevés au rang de chevaliers de l'Ordre national du Bénin.
La cérémonie s'est tenue, vendredi 16 juillet 2021, à l'ex Primature de Cotonou.
S'exprimant au nom des récipiendaires, Cyrille Gougbédji a fait savoir que la distinction est le signe que le sacerdoce pour le service public est bien perçu.
« Nous savons qu'aujourd'hui au Bénin, n'est pas ministre ou conseiller spécial du chef de l'Etat qui veut mais qui peut. La barre a été placée très haut partout, en termes de compétence, d'engagement, de volontarisme, de loyauté, d'assiduité, de travail constant et bien fait, d'intégrité, d'autorité, de combat pour la dignité et la postérité », a indiqué Mariam Chabi Talata, vice-présidente de la République.
M. M.

Une proposition de nouveau système de taxation des carburants à l'échelle de l'UE, basé sur le contenu énergétique plutôt que sur le volume, vise à mettre fin aux incitations en faveur de l'essence et du diesel.

Written by Mihalis Kritikos.

Distributed computing has accelerated Covid‑19 research in molecular dynamics as it allows people to voluntarily make their computers available to scientists for effective virtual screening of chemical compounds. As computing initiatives grow to meet the increasing demand for massive computational power, this analysis examines the current applications and the surrounding legal and policy questions.

Computer simulations and their capacity to process inconceivable amounts of data in a very short time can be extremely effective in helping scientists map the behaviour and reveal the three-dimensional shape of all protein structures of a virus. The need for vast processing power to simulate the folding of the virus proteins can be met in two ways: by using the world’s fastest supercomputers and/or by seizing the opportunities that grid/distributed computing offers.

Edge computing carries the capacity for efficient processing of massive data sets and performing multifaceted simulations of the dynamics of protein molecules to understand the process of protein folding, which could serve as a basis for developing effective therapies. It is based on the integration of distributed resources of many computers into a single unit that effectively takes the form of a ‘virtual supercomputer’. As a form of citizen science (citizens participating in the scientific process via crowd-sourcing without any particular cognitive involvement), distributed computing that enables concurrent computation has been invaluable during the pandemic. It operates on the basis of allocating large computing tasks to different users on the grid and allowing anyone to contribute computing power to a common cause. In the context of Covid‑19, distributed computing has been used extensively to allow millions of volunteers worldwide to lend their processing power to scientists who require borderless access to distributed computing infrastructures and massive amounts of computational power to run complex simulations to model molecular dynamics.

Potential impacts and developments

The scientific community has mobilised a series of voluntary computing initiatives, such as Folding@home and Rosetta@home that simulate protein dynamics to help with the design of drugs to fight Covid‑19. The Folding@home project is by far the most powerful crowd-sourced supercomputer in the world, involving more than 1 000 000 computers, while, before the pandemic, 30 000 devices were running for Folding@home. It currently encompasses approximately 2.4 exaflops of computational power which is more raw computing power than the world’s 500 largest traditional supercomputers combined. The combined computing power of Folding@home, which also makes use of CERN’s computing resources, has been used to virtually screen 800 potential drug compounds.

Rosetta@home is another massive network of volunteer computers that allows citizen scientists to lend their computers’ CPUs and RAM for protein analysis tasks. Currently, Rosetta@home comprises nearly 4 406 203 hosts across 151 countries, collectively enabling an estimated 473 petaflops of volunteer cloud computing power, setting another successful example of donation of computing power for Covid‑19 research. Moreover, it is worth mentioning the OpenPandemics-COVID-19 project coordinated by the World Community Grid, an IBM social impact initiative that is currently screening hundreds of millions of molecules. This grid has accelerated the process of tackling Covid‑19 through the involvement of 7 047 819 devices and aims to develop an open source toolkit that could be used as a basis for seeking treatments in the event of future pandemics. Οther distributive initiatives include DreamLab, a specialised application developed by Vodafone, which accumulates the processing power of smartphones to analyse coronavirus-related complex data while phones are being charged, the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid at CERN, the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing, SiDock@home COVID Moonshot and the Open Science Grid.

The European Union has been supporting several citizen science actions, such as the active and voluntary public participation in research as part of its Open Science policy. In the context of Covid‑19, the support has taken many forms and the promotion of distributed computing is one of the most prominent. Among others, Europe-based distributive computing projects include the work carried out by the Slovenia-based COVID.si, the Italian Institute for Nuclear Physics and the HADDOCK service on the WeNMR platform supported by the European Grid Infrastructure, which is the largest distributed computing infrastructure for research, bringing together hundreds of data centres worldwide.

Anticipatory policy-making

The distributed nature of the underlying computing network, where data are processed using computing resources anywhere, carries multiple policy challenges that involve questions about restricting access to the distributed computing system, safeguarding network security and privacy, and ensuring the smooth integration of computing, software and storage resources. More concretely, heterogeneity can become a challenge in the operation of these networks, as a varied group of hardware devices running various operating systems communicate among themselves to serve a particular purpose. Further, network security poses a fundamental challenge in terms of possible data leakage software piracy, integrity infringement and denial of service. The integration of different distributed components and possible malicious devices also creates privacy challenges in addition to more difficulty in troubleshooting and diagnostics due to distribution across multiple servers.

These challenges can be tackled efficiently if policy-makers aim to render distributed computing an essential part of high-computing frameworks and an attractive and trustworthy option for individuals who could donate spare computing power for a social reason. To achieve this, a series of requirements need to be met. First, an EU-wide registry of scientific projects that require computing power for massive and immediate processing could be created. Further, incentives that could bring thousands and/or millions of individual users under the same computing ‘roof’ would also need to be developed. Τhese incentives could take the form of tailoring applications and services to particular users’ specific requirements, and of promoting the benefits of open science and citizen science including the training of users, the empowerment of distributed digital infrastructures and the development of open-source software. Additionally, open-source components that could enable the access and processing of data collected/stored in different platforms and formats could be further developed. The European Commission’s adoption of its new open source software strategy 2020-2023 makes explicit reference to the need for sharing and reusing of software solutions, knowledge and expertise to benefit society.

The European Commission could develop funding schemes for the development of open and flexible distributed computing architecture based on common standards for the smooth integration of hardware and software components, on user-friendly and comprehensive repositories as well as on standards-based common interfaces that could address the challenges of privacy and cybersecurity. Fostering the development of data and computing e-infrastructure at the EU level and achieving their accessibility and interoperability – independent of the different data-driven technologies used – should be prioritised. Ensuring the connectivity of all European households and populated areas, which could further enhance the effectiveness of distributed computing initiatives, is an essential part of the Commission’s vision for Europe’s digital transformation by 2030, as was recently presented in the form of a digital compass. The success of the distributed projects to tackle Covid‑19 illustrates the need for the EU to invest further in the development of efficient, sound and user-friendly crowd-sourced distributed computing projects and for an in-depth examination of the factors that could increase the involvement of volunteers in these bottom-up efforts. This should be seen as part of a broader strategy for enhancing lay participation in scientific endeavours by facilitating digital accessibility and removing computational obstacles for communities and user groups that face serious technical and financial difficulties. The ultimate aim should be the gradual creation of a trustworthy federated European data and distributed computing infrastructure that is based on optimised access to IT equipment and services, on a clear definition of the goals and the objectives of each and every distributed computing project, as well as on the acknowledgment of the cost-effective character of distributed systems compared with the use of expensive supercomputers.

Read the complete ‘at a glance’ on ‘What if we could fight coronavirus by pooling computing power?‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.

Lundi (19 juillet), le président du Conseil européen Charles Michel participera à un sommet régional organisé à Batumi, ville portuaire géorgienne située au bord de la mer Noire. Cette réunion vient s’ajouter à un week-end de visites en Arménie et en Azerbaïdjan.

Bűnösnek vallotta magát mégis szabadon távozhatott egy 28 éves ausztrál férfi, akit azért tartóztattak le, mert a rendőrök levágott emberi nemi szerveket találtak a fagyasztójában.

Die Reise in den Süden wird auch am Montag für Autofahrerinnen und Autofahrer zur Geduldsprobe: Nach dem Mittag hat sich der Verkehr zwischen Erstfeld und Göschenen auf einer Länge von 10 Kilometern gestaut. Bereits am Wochenende kam es zu langen Wartezeiten.

Bis zum 9. August zeigt das SRF im Sommerprogramm jeden Montag das «Retro Quiz». Dabei stehen nicht nur frühere Quizformate, sondern auch damalige Gastgeber und aktuelle Showgrössen im Fokus. Der vermeintliche Pausenfüller verzeichnet gute Einschaltquoten.

Zambia's Copper Queens are aiming to continue defying the odds as they represent Africa in women's football at the Tokyo Olympics.

Le premier ministère ainsi que le ministère des Finances préparent une nouvelle liste de produits qui seront interdits de domiciliation bancaire. Cette liste contient de nouveaux produits qui seront interdits à l’importation en Algérie, et ce, afin d’encourager la production locale qui souffre de la concurrence qui lui est faite par des produits importés. Selon […]

L’article Économie : vers l’interdiction d’importer de nouveaux produits est apparu en premier sur .

Egy friss felmérés szerint az amerikaiak 20 százaléka elhiszi azt a hoaxot, hogy mikrochipet fecskendeznek az emberekbe a koronavírus elleni vakcinákkal.