Dragon09/odtu_chatbot huggingface dataset:
multilane highpower photonic integrated circuitbased erbiumdoped amplifier

the invention of the erbium doped fiber amplifier is arguably one of the most important inventions that has shaped our information society and laid the foundation for optical communications rare earth ions provide an ideal gain medium limiting crosstalk and allowing simultaneous amplification of multiple information carrying channels while allowing amplification of signals close to the quantum limit despite the many advantages of rareearth ions their adoption in integrated photonics has been a longstanding challenge while major effort has been carried out in the 90 erbium waveguide amplifiers edwa eg at bell laboratories these were ultimately abandoned due to the high background loss large device footprints and lack of photonic integration manufacturing techniques recent advances have heralded the first edwa based on ion implanted silicon nitride ultra low loss waveguides science 2022 these devices provide performance already on par with commercial edfa with a vastly reduced footprint waferscale manufacturing and ability to create multichannel amplifiers on chip such multichannel edwa have applications ranging from datacenters to deep sea fiber amplifiers and generalpurpose test and measurement within this transition call we will move the technology from the laboratory level to trl6 and commercialize it with partners via a dedicated startup in addition the sme as part of this proposal we will develop the require ultralow loss implantation ready wafers the supply chain and make the available via foundry service via xfab in france the project therefore addresses technological milestones towards a demonstrator achieving foundry compatibility and will engage academic customers for testing in two key areas optical communications and microwave photonics by the end of this project edwa should become a compelling technology proposition of edwatec and secure strategic investments to build a sustainable business and high tech company
imageguided computational and experimental analysis of fractured patients

agerelated bone fractures are a major health concern resulting worldwide in high economic and psychosocial burden morbidity and increasing mortality with aging and in presence of bone pathologies human bone becomes more brittle and prone to damage a disruptive clinical hypothesis considers covid19 virus as an additional contributing factor in bone deterioration at the macroscale the identification of fragility is assured by the clinical practice common clinical tools however are able to predict only 70 of fractures for this reason a deep investigation of the bone microarchitecture would be a fundamental hint for the comprehension of damage mechanisms improving the reliability of fracture risk indicators and performing more accurate diagnosis of bone pathologies this knowledge level goes beyond the current state of the art and this is where gap comes into play providing attractive multidisciplinary and versatile training strategies for multiscale comprehension detection and patientspecific treatments of bone fractures the overarching aim of gap proposal is to educate young and talented scientists towards a combined highlevel experimental and numerical approach for the earlystage accurate precise detection and miniinvasive treatments of bone fractures shedding some light on bone microscale alterations due to pathologies the interdisciplinary findings that exploit cuttingedge multiscale imaging facilities and advanced artificial intelligentbased strategies will be a crucial aspect in the training of skilled researchers and will enable europe to overcome the silent paralysis of its healthcare system
neuronal implementation of cognitive maps for navigation

intelligent behavior is based on internal models of the world that enable mental simulations and strategic planning a leading model to study such cognitive maps are networks of place cells and grid cells in the mammalian hippocampalentorhinal system these neurons are active at defined locations and collectively represent a physical environment as a lowdimensional topographic map in neural activity space however a mechanistic understanding of the underlying computations and their biological implementation remains elusive using new methods for brainwide activity imaging during behavior members of our team discovered an abundance of place cells in the telencephalon of zebrafish we will combine this approach with volume electron microscopy to reconstruct largescale connectivity in the same brains at synaptic resolution and with transcriptomic profiling to identify molecular cell types taking advantage of small brain size the joint analysis of network connectivity and population dynamics will allow us to determine how functional properties of place cells are established by interactions between specific subsets of neurons across brain areas and how network structure constrains population activity to topographically organized attractor manifolds the results will disambiguate computational models that make conflicting assumptions about network connectivity we will further explore the emergence of cell types during development and the concomitant structural and functional maturation of neuronal circuits the relevance of cognitive maps for neuronal computations and behaviors involving internally generated predictions will be explored by activity measurements in a virtual reality and by functional manipulations of genetically targeted neurons capitalizing on the unique combination of expertise among team members this project is expected to fundamentally advance our mechanistic understanding of biological and potentially artificial intelligence
multilayer 360 dynamic orchestration and interoperable design environment for computecontinuum systems

the multilayer 360 dynamic orchestration and interoperable design environment for computecontinuum systems myrtus project aims to provide the technology to make cps evolving towards a living dimension embracing the technological principles of the transcontinuum initiative where edge fog and cloud computing platforms are being pulled closer together into a seamless execution environment and programming has to be reinvented with languages and tools to orchestrate collaborative distributed and decentralised components as well as components augmented with interface contracts covering both functional and nonfunctional properties myrtus puts together different technologies to design and operate complex distributed and heterogeneous cps computing infrastructures leveraging diverse cloud to edge technologies including from off the shelf cpus to custom ai accelerators offered by multiple providers main myrtus results are i the myrtus reference infrastructure comprising a diversity of heterogeneous autonomous federated and collaborative computing nodes distributed across the computing continuum ii a novel management scheme featuring mirto an aipowered cognitive engine capable of orchestrating at 360 the whole continuum infrastructure and iii the myrtus design and programming environment to design deploy and operate such complex infrastructures myrtus solutions represent the instruments to unlock the new living dimension of cps pursuing also sustainable and responsible computing openness security and trustworthiness and promoting strategic industrial cooperations by establishing synergies with relevant initiatives and projects as ipcei gaiax transcontinuum initiative technology assessment is carried out within two challenging scenarios healthcare and mobility involving humans
the making and unmaking of a colonial cattle frontier capitalism science and empire in madagascar 1870s1970s

using the lens of the cattle frontier in madagascar in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries this project explores the transformation of livestock production pastoralist societies imperial economies and animal landscapes in colonial and postcolonial africa it builds on the concept of commodity frontiers moving sites of capitalist commodity production and extraction to disentangle the complex interplay between global capitalism science and empire in the making and unmaking of the cattle frontier in madagascar colcat examines why and how european mostly french and malagasy administrators entrepreneurs and veterinary experts in often conflictual interaction with indigenous pastoralists tried to transform preexisting cattle economies on the island and to turn cattle into profitable commodities it argues that the making of a capitalist and imperial cattle frontier implied a broad range of interventions from the improvement of local breeds and new methods of cattle disease management to the sedentarisation of cattle pastoralists and the establishment of meat factories and new cattle trading networks colcat analyses the rationales and dynamics of these interventions including the manifold conflicts negotiation processes and intended and unintended social economic and ecological consequences it thereby pays particular attention to the role of science and expert knowledge while colcats main focus is on the profound transformations of the colonial era 18951960 it embeds them in a longuedure perspective spanning late merina rule in the precolonial period 1870s90s to the postcolonial era 1960s70s this will facilitate teasing out the tensions between capitalist imperial and postcolonial expansion and development goals overall colcat will make a substantial contribution to the history of global capitalism the history of french colonialism in africa environmental history and the history of science and knowledge
floodplain weathering

chemical weathering of rocks is central to earths biogeochemical cycles it exchanges co2 with the atmosphere balances co2 emission from the mantle and stabilizes earths climate years of research have established data and models of weathering in eroding landscapes because erosion supplies unweathered rocks to the surface of the earth however the sediment eroded from mountains can continue to weather during temporary storage in wide floodplains recent estimates indicate that floodplain sediments may contribute over 50 of the global weathering flux yet we do not have a framework to quantify floodplain weathering or predict its sensitivity to climate and tectonics a quantitative understanding of floodplain weathering will allow building new models of the global carbon cycle and it will increase the accuracy of tools to predict earths response to natural and anthropogenic perturbations in co2 i propose an ambitious innovative and multidisciplinary research program to develop quantify and test a model for weathering fluxes as a function of sediment transport and storage on floodplains the predictive power of the model will be tested against new data from floodplains influenced by different tectonic and climatic boundary conditions thus flow will yield a novel framework to link physical and chemical mass fluxes across earths surface potentially transforming the power of simulations of earths carbon cycle and climate evolution
accurate simulations of photochemical and photophysical processes at materials interfaces

the photomat project will develop highly accurate methods for the prediction of excitedstate properties and dynamics of materials interfaces based on ab initio greens function theory in the gw approximation insight into the intricate processes unfolding after photoexcitation is crucial to realizing the vision of materials by design a detailed understanding of experiment requires aid from theory however currently there is no computational method available which can provide reliable excitedstate nuclear forces for materials i propose here to advance the gwbethesalpeter equation formalism bsegw which is computationally very expensive while gw is considered the gold standard for the computation of band structures the bsegw scheme is the method of choice for describing the formation of excitons bound electronhole pairs in materials i recently contributed to pushing gw to system sizes of up to 1000 atoms often required to model materials interfaces i will leverage these advancements to overcome the restriction of bsegw to small systems enabling calculations of similar size this will be achieved by reducing the scaling of the bse step with respect to system size combined with an efficient implementation of periodic boundary conditions and optimization of the algorithm for execution on the emerging generation of exascale supercomputers excitedstate geometry optimization will be enabled by implementing accurate analytic nuclear bse forces nonadiabatic molecular dynamics will be unlocked by combining the lowscaling bse energies and forces with surface hopping schemes and machine learning potentials i will employ the newly developed methods to investigate promising candidates for tailored photonic devices this will include the study of photoisomerization reactions at 2d materials and the formation of chargetransfer excitons in moir structures photomat is here the crucial link that bridges the divide between theory and experiment
religion and conversion in late imperial china

this research project focuses on religion and conversion in china reacch it constitutes an interdisciplinary endeavour aiming at surveying and analysing how people who lived in late imperial china roughly between the 14th to the 19th century discussed conceptualised and described phenomena that can be heuristically categorised as conversion the ultimate goal is to develop a comprehensive theory of conversion that transcends the western origins of the concept and can account for the unique features of the chinese contextto achieve this purpose the research will primarily focus on case studies related with confucianism buddhism and daoism the research will investigate the narratives of conversion that characterised the religious landscape of late imperial china and ascertain if and how the concept of conversion was addressed in the sources of the ming and qing dynasties these sources will include official documents edicts memorials codes of law legal records gazetteers dedicated to towns prefectures provinces mountains temples and monasteries in particular biographical sections of confucians daoists and buddhists daoist and buddhist texts works by confucian literati epigraphy and precious scrolls the theoretical framework of this research project will be drawn from existing scholarship on late imperial china and chinese religions as well as from the fields of sociology of religion psychology of religion and religious studies the longterm objective is to develop a theoretical framework that will enable comparative studies of religion and conversion across different historical periods and civilisations
strategic investments in mitigation adaptation and resource recovery innovations at basin scale simaris

global warming and consequent increase in frequencies of extreme weather events flooding drought landslides etc have become major threats to livelihoods across many river basins additionally increasing scarcity of energy water land and nutrients threaten food health and environmental security and require more efficient uses of resources yet most prevention policies aim at only shortterm measures of protection or recovery and most basinscale hydroeconomic assessment models do not consider longterm causes consequences and economic effects of such changes and related policies focusing mostly on water land or energy use efficiency enhancement waterenergyeconomic modeling research do not adequately address circular economy options of improving resources use efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions this research therefore investigates longterm investments required for climate change mitigation adaptation and resource recovery innovations at river basin scale this will be achieved through applying a novel approach of integrating intertemporal macroeconomic growth model with processbased hydroenergyeconomic model offering demanded policyrelevant solutions to river basin managers and enriching water management research with novel methods this study greatly enhance the scientific career of the author
biodiversity meets data

biodiversity meets data bmd is a single access point that provides managers of natural resources and policy makers with access to highthroughput biodiversity monitoring tools and ai driven taxon identification services services to mobilise historical baseline and legacy data to fair data repositories a data catalogue to all available biodiversity information a suite of virtual research environments vres for data analyses for the terrestrial freshwater and marine realms and a webgis data viewer to explore the data and vre results all data are harmonised across spacetimetaxonomy and transformed into multidimensional data cubes that are analysed by the vres the vres are codesigned with the stakeholder representatives to ensure that the vres meet all requirements the vres include tools for a biodiversity monitoring b identification and analysis of drivers of change and c projections of land cover and climate change on the distribution of species and habitats the vre results are presented as comprehensive products to the end users so that they can effectively be used to monitor biodiversity address drivers of biodiversity loss and plan manage and expand protected areas improve the conservation status of species and habitats and comply to the reporting obligations under the eu nature directives based on uptodate knowledge and solutions bmd builds on a consortium of partners that are involved in the development of european research infrastructures and biodiversity monitoring projects including elter integrated european longterm ecosystem critical zone and socioecological research lifewatch eric mambo modern approaches to the monitoring of biodiversity bge biodiversity genomics europe b3 biodiversity building blocks for policy gbif global biodiversity information facility and arise authoritative and rapid identification system for essential biodiversity information among others
scaleagdata

clear targets have been defined by the eu for a more competitive and sustainable agriculture green deal this requires datadriven decision making for farmers governments and other policy makers yet there is a severe referencedata gap when observations are needed at the local level an underexploited source of data is generated by sensors used in agriculture as they capture crucial information on the crops and the surrounding agrienvironmental conditions tapping into this source and upscaling them the integration with other data eg satellite could result in enhanced capacities for regional agrienvironmental monitoring this would require a paradigm shift on how the monitoring systems work and on the issues of data ownership and governancethe vision of scaleagdata is thus to gain insight in i how these data streams should be governed to the benefit of all stakeholders especially the farmers and ii how these data can be integrated in the regional agrienvironmental monitoring datasets through this upscaling this wealth of information can be shared with a larger farmer community thus shrinking the technological inequality in the sector specific attention will be paid to innovations in sensor technology edge computing data analytics and novel eobased products these innovations will be codesigned and showcased in 6 research and innovation labs each with their specific thematic focus and spread across europe this will enable the assessment of the proposed innovations and data governance frameworks and demonstrating added values of the improved monitoring capabilities for a range of users including smallscale and agroecological farmers the financial sector and policy makers with these outcomes scaleagdata aims at contributing to the overall competitiveness and sustainability performance of the european agricultural sector and to the work of the he candidate partnership agriculture of data and the soil mission
brewers spent grain as main byproduct for development of novel highperformance biobased polymers polymer blends and copolymers

polymeer is dedicated to play a part in establishing a new biobased value chain for bioplastic products from sustainable sourcing through the effective exploitation of the potential of brewers spent grain bsg reuse this entail the efficient conversion of wet bsg into versatile bioplastics tailored for three for three crucial application these applications are characterized by technical demands that existing bioplastics struggle to meet or where conventional fossilbased plastics still dominate 1 mulch films suitable for agricultural use 2 textile for the automotive industry and 3 tertiary packaging films for industrial purposes that can be recycled andor biodegraded in specific environments the project is a holistic endeavour aimed to achieve this goal it involves the entire production process starting with bsg fractionation into key biopolymers primarily cellulose hemicellulose and lignin these valuable components are then transformed into specific polymers and copolymers exploiting green wasteminimised processes finally through blending formulation and processing we will create cuttingedge bioplastics suitable for the designated fields the most promising results from our labscale production will undergo upscaling to demonstrate economic and technical feasibility paving the way for market launch within 35 years postproject completion furthermore we thoroughly evaluate these materials properties considering their environmental social and economic impacts during largescale production we ensure product safety and explore biodegradability potential and recycling processes throughout the production process in essence polymeer is not just about bioplastics its about redefining sustainability in the bioplastics industry with tailormade solutions derived from bsg
multimodal meanings for conceptual communication before and beyond spoken language

language is our most potent cognitive and cultural tool through which we can shape one anothers minds share information and build knowledge collectively across generations this is crucial during development infants build knowledge to the extent that adults offer the appropriate scaffold ie if the teaching material is tuned to the infants current understanding at present it is hotly debated whether we can open communication and share knowledge with infants only by means of spoken words or whether gestures offer equal scaffolding the growing baby sign movement may offer this possibility baby sign is a system of symbolic gestures ie signs that have meaning and symbolize concepts as a result symbolic gestures are a potential means for exchanging meanings in the preverbal infantadult dyad however this exciting scenario cannot be proved by the existing research which shows contrasting views that only rely on the indirect interpretation of infant behaviour using eeg the present project will be the first to directly decode the baby brain and establish a direct quantitative comparison with the adult brain to verify whether the two share a common multimodal conceptual space essential for exchanging meanings before and beyond spoken language at the scientific level the project will provide an unprecedented understanding of the origins of human language and symbolic cognition which are essential hallmarks of our species by testing whether these core abilities develop not only via the verbal channel spoken words but also via the visual channel symbolic gestures it may support a paradigm shift in favor of human language as inherently multimodal at the societal level the project will test key assumptions of baby signing whose widespread interest is not equally paralleled by compelling scientific evidence