Dragon09/odtu_chatbot huggingface dataset:
neural circuits for social communication

the main objective of this proposal is to understand how vocal communication is used to organize social groups and in turn how brain circuits have evolved to process social information encoded in vocal cues the naked molerat as one of only two eusocial mammals is especially wellsuited to this research question naked molerats form highly cooperative social units and like bees wasps and ants live in multigenerational colonies under the control of a single breeding female queen in addition to their extreme cooperativity these rodents are highly vocal with a repertoire greater than 25 distinct vocalizations comparable to that of nonhuman primates i recently identified that naked molerat greeting calls soft chirps encode information about individual identity and are modulated to create distinct colonyspecific dialects vocal dialects can be learned early in life and are influenced by social cues ie the presence or absence of the queen these features position the naked molerat as a promising yet unexplored model for investigating the evolution of neural circuits for vocal communication sociality and language i will employ a combination of behavioral computational electrophysiological molecular and in vivo imaging tools to investigate how i social identity is encoded at the earliest stages of auditory processing within the naked molerat brain ii how neural circuits for vocal production are shaped by auditory environments during development and finally iii how social interactions acting through transcriptomic and molecular mechanisms influence vocal behaviors this work has the potential to not only expand our understanding of the neural architecture underling the sensory coding and production of vocalizations but also to provide insights into complex social behaviors such as empathy and altruism
integrating ecosystem resilience around thresholds in aridity unveiling naturebased mechanisms to endure abrupt desertification

resilience the ability of ecosystems to withstand disturbances without losing its structural or functional properties is crucial to confront changes imposed by climate change such as ongoing increases in aridity this is especially relevant for drylands which have been shown to exhibit abrupt changes in their structure and functioning once that certain aridity thresholds are crossed however we have very little understanding on the drivers and patterns of resilience around aridity thresholds which hinders our ability to monitor preserve and restore degraded ecosystems under climate change existing uncertainties arise from the complexity of studying resilience which is multifaceted concept and operates at contrasting levels of organization of ecosystems and from the lack of studies addressing the resilience of drylands around and across aridity thresholds inertia will combine longterm experiments remote sensing multiple spatiotemporal scales and global field surveys to address all facets of resilience across contrasting levels of organization of ecosystems around and across global aridity thresholds in particular i aim to i evaluate the multifaceted nature of resilience to boost remote sensing monitoring schemes ii unveil drivers of global resilience across levels of organization from climatic to physiological drivers specifically around aridity thresholds and iii evaluate and improve our capacity to restore ecosystems across aridity thresholds by doing so inertia will provide cuttingedge advances in our understanding of resilience and its potential to monitor evade and recover from abrupt shifts triggered by crossing aridity thresholds the knowledge gained by inertia will underpin international initiatives aimed at mitigating global change and desertification or restoring degraded drylands and may open new research avenues on ecology of ecosystems at the edge of thresholds a topic of increasing relevance due to ongoing climate change
a deductive verifier for probabilistic programs

program correctness is a central problem in computer science code inspection and testing can reveal many program bugs but subtle errors need a rigorous analysis a fully automated analysis is impossible deciding whether a program terminates on a given input is undecidable thanks to unremitting developments in program verification and incredible advancements in satisfiability checking program verification is nowadays supported by software tools in industrial practice meta and amazon web services use program verification tools on a daily basisin the advent of ai probabilistic programming emerged as a popular paradigm combining programming with learning from big data since 2018 the un uses such probabilistic programs to predict the location and classify seismological activities on the earth other application areas include security planning in ai cognitive science and neural network training probabilistic programs are fundamentally different due to randomness they sometimes terminate and sometimes not their outcome depends on coin flips they may terminate with probability one while having an infinite expected run time classical program verification techniques no longer apply the erc project frappant has resulted in proof calculi for probabilistic programs equipped with powerful proof rules and identified a relative complete syntax for quantitative properties this has led to a prototypical deductive verifier for an assembler programming language a software tool for which no equivalent exists successful analyses of intricate programs showed its potential the proposed project aims to explore the commercial and innovative aspects of our deductive verifier it takes the necessary innovative steps to enable a commercialisation by including invariant synthesis and program slicing and supporting the popular probabilistic programming language stan its potential will be investigated engaging potential users and a market analysis
electrically controlled magnetic anisotropy

electra aims at understanding and controlling the interaction between magnetic molecules and electric fields called spinelectric se effect molecules have several characteristics that make them appealing for information technology small size monodispersity chemical tunability quantum behaviour nowadays electric fields are the most environmentally friendly and precise way to target a single molecule therefore understanding how to tailor and control the se effects will trigger the design of less energydemanding more efficient and smaller devices however the se effects on molecules are still poorly explored and rationalized largely due to the absence of a generally applicable experimental technique therefore this project proposes the realisation of a novel experimental technique to detect se effects on any magnetically anisotropic material with no a priori restrictions the versatility of the technique will allow the study of both single crystals and thin films which is vital in the perspective of using these systems in nanostructures a rational synthetic plan will exploit the versatility of chemistry to unravel the role and importance of three chemically tunable properties spinorbit coupling nature of the donor atoms and structural rigidity on the onset of the se effects in coordination complexes moreover the effect of temperature and magnetic field on the se effects will be assessed using supersensitive molecular probes the rationalization of the effect will be obtained by combining ab initio calculations and phenomenological models the positive completion of electra will deliver an unprecedented understanding of the se effects in molecules and chemical guidelines for synthesizing highly performant molecular architectures with se effects ondemand to be used in the field of information technology
revolutionary highresolution human 3d brain organoid platform integrating aibased analytics

the longterm vision of the 3dbrain consortium is to revolutionize personalized precision medicine for central nervous system cnsdisorders by developing an innovative biodigital twin model of the human brain that is personalized precise and predictivein this pathfinder project we bring together three breakthrough technologies 1 a novel highly reproducible human brain modellingtechnology using robust adherent ipscderived 3d cortical organoid cultures 2 a unique stateoftheart 3d multielectrode arraymea technology for noninvasive highresolution electrophysiological recordings and 3 a novel approach to analyse and interpretthe large quantities of functional data using tailored automated machine learning mlbased algorithmswith this breakthrough approach we overcome significant hurdles that made it thus far impossible to create a truly representativeand functional model of the cns for personalized medicine drug screening and neurotoxicity testing the revolutionary 3dbrainhighprecision cns platform will allow robust and accurate modelling of the cns for a broad range of neuropsychiatric diseasesultimately the 3dbrain technology will be translatable to multiple other organ systems cardiomyocytes pancreatic islets retina tononinvasively obtain longitudinal 3d highresolution electrophysiological recordings and effectively interpret themin this project a prototype of the 3dbrain platform will be developed by growing functional 3d organoids that faithfully resemblethe human cortex on 3d mea micropillar electrodes enabling continuous functional monitoring and by developing mlbasedalgorithms that can process and interpret the large spatiotemporal data sets once all individual components are optimized andintegrated proofofconcept will be obtained by validating the platform for two of the envisaged applications cns drugdevelopment and neurotoxicity screening
lattice determination of the muons anomalous magnetic moment

on 472021 the fermilab announced the result of a two decade long investigation to determine the magnetic moment of the muon by tradition datadriven theoretical methods have been used for 50 years to calculate this magnetic moment but interestingly in the last 20 years growing discrepancies were noted between theoretical and experimental findings in the literature the result obtained by using the datadriven method is called the consensus value and it is 42 sigma away from the combined experimental result this 42sigma discrepancy was interpreted by many physicists as a sign for new physics with a new and unknown force and hundreds of papers appeared in the last few months to explain the 42sigma tension by some form of new physics for theoreticians this is an extremely exciting situation because even better experimental results are expected in the next 1 to 5 years which might further increase the tension between experiment and theory i propose a completely different and much more fundamental theoretical approach lattice quantum chromodynamics qcd within this new approach i can reach better accuracies than those of the traditional approach furthermore my innovative approach uses far less experimental inputs reducing the effects of uncertainties associated with input the objective of the present application is to show unambiguously that either a there is no new force that the experimental results are actually in agreement with the standard model of particle physics or b confirm the existence of new physics with a high confidence level to that end a very largescale lattice quantum chromodynamics approach will be applied using supercomputers to yield the muons magnetic moment with the unprecedented precision of 10up10 level of accuracy the success of this project will open a new window for high precision lattice quantum chromodynamics and put a final word on the two decade old mystery around the muons magnetic moment
green agile semiconductor production

flexible electronics has been one of the fastest developing technologies in recent decades the traditional path is electronic components such as silicon chips eg microcontrollers integrated onto flexible substrates called hybrid integration or flexible hybrid electronics in integrated smart systems we believe that this approach is not a viable longterm solution for future highvolume lowcost and conformable integrated smart systems our vision is an integrated smart system that is built with only flexible electronic components including analogue circuitry digital logic and memories we call such a system a natively flexible integrated smart system or nfiss nfisses will enable new products in the fast moving consumer goods and healthcare wearables that have not been possible before because conventional silicon chips are too costly too bulky and not conformable the project will develop a flexible microcontroller unit flexmcu which is the key component missing to enable nfisses the flexmcu must be a lowpower chip integrating a variety of functionality to address the functional requirements of the applications in fmcg and healthcare wearables a novel hybrid complementary lowpower thinfilm transistor technology 100x pertransistor power reduction will be developed to fabricate the flexmcu in a sustainable flexible chip fab with 1001000x less environmental footprint the flexmcu design is tailored to a specific domain composed of an opensource riscv based processor with builtin security features an analogue frontend onchip memory and other peripherals then the flexmcu will be assembled using novel assembly and bonding methods onto a flexible film which is in turn integrated onto a flexible substrate along with other flexible electronic components to build the first proofofconcept nfiss that will be validated on two healthcare wearable applications
dissecting foxomediated transcription noise to stall cellular dysfunction in ageing

ageing is the result of accumulated cellular dysfunction and loss of tissue homeostasis which often leads to the emergence of agerelated pathologies such as cancer and cardiovascular disorders the disruption of tissue homeostasis during ageing is particularly critical in the case of the vascular endothelium the signaling interface and barrier to external factors is provided by a single layer of endothelial cells in a quiescent state the maintenance of this quiescent state plays an important role in vascular aging and development of cardiovascular diseases previous studies have shown that the foxo1 is a critical driver of endothelial quiescence where its loss and overexpression leads to vascular overgrowth and rarefaction respectively my preliminary analyses show that gene expression levels of foxo family varies in agedtissues and that foxo134 mutant mice display significant vascular malformation in the retina on the other hand ageing is associated with an increase of transcriptional noise and accumulation of aberrant rna which if not eliminated may lead to cellular dysfunction my preliminary data shows that even healthy tissues have significant levels of transcriptional noise while old individuals present higher levels of such aberrant transcription however transcription noise is an unexplored phenomenon impacting cell homeostasis in addition my analyses also show that foxo1 overexpression in cultured human endothelial cells leads to higher levels of transcription noise given the accumulating evidence and my preliminary findings i propose to explore how the dysregulation of foxo transcription factors increases transcription noise promoting functional decline of the vascular endothelium through ageing understanding the cascade events that drive this transcription aberrancy can have a significant impact on the prevention of cellular function decline and delay a wide range of ageing illnesses
understanding the potential of modulating hostmicrobiomeglycan interactions the triangle of sweetness to tackle noncommunicable diseases

glycans namely human milk oligosaccharides hmos play crucial roles in the functions of the gut metabolism and immunity while hmos are vital in infant development and exhibit bioactive properties in adults it is required to analyze and decode their functions in depth the current joint project by inbiose and utrecht university aims to identify 5 novel glycosyltransferase enzymes produce 14 previously inaccessible hmos test glycanmicrobe interactions in an ex vivo simulated gut microenvironment sifr technology decode direct and indirect effects of hmos on the gut barrier in an in vitro cell model and integrate the hostmicrobeglycan interplay the triangle of sweetness in a humanmicrobial crosstalk humix model thanks to powerful statistical methods machine learning and natural language processing techniques we envision a thorough understanding about glycan structurefunction relationship and predict their potential applications with stratifications based on gender diet and health conditions we expect to validate at least one hmo alleviating impact of inflammation under two diets that is ready for a clinical trial cuttingedge omics methods and data analysis pipelines will allow us to understand better the hostmicrobeglycan triangle and will provide both a wealth of research data and an expanded range of hmos as research tools and potential therapeutics andor preventives in human noncommunicable diseases and foodrelated health conditions our unique consortium capacities and a wealth of experience in glycoengineering biosynthesis bioinformatics and noncommunicable chronic disease targeting will enable us to achieve the project goals the project will create additional opportunities for inbiose and uu in the further exploration and commercialisation of hmos we fully expect interacthomig to be a milestone project for glycobiology research and prebioticprobioticpostbioticsynbiotic rd within the eu and worldwide
laboratory 3d micro xray diffraction

essentially all materials microstructures are threedimensional 3d in spite of this by far the most widely applied characterization tool is microscopy which gives 2d images only there is a need to go to 3d and daily access to 3d measurements is required instruments that can be operated at home laboratories is thus the way forwardour solution is to use newly developed and commercially available xray optics to focus the xray beam down to micrometer size in a laboratory xray instrument and adapt measurement principles inspired by synchrotron xray techniques to enable nondestructive 3d imaging with a spatial resolution of 1 m the resulting laboratory 3d micro xray diffraction labxrd method will outperform all existing tools for mapping crystallographic orientations and be the first of its kind enabling measurements of strain tensors within local microstructural elementsthe project objectives are to prove the concept and demonstrate the innovation potential of our labxrd idea filed as a patent applicationto validate labxrd results quantify resolution specifications as well as the strain measurement potentials and provide guidelines for labxrd measurements for different types of samplesto complete a first business plan for commercializationin this project we will focus on demonstrating the potential of labxrd for nondestructive 3d microstructural characterization by the use of metallic materials it must however be noted that labxrd can be used for characterization of any crystalline material with grainsubgrain size down to 2 m when labxrd is manufactured and commercialized at a sales price within reach for leading universities and industries in the order of 15 m we foresee that it in time will revolutionize the way materials are characterized moving away from the present 2d methods to full nondestructive 3d characterizations of the distribution of both crystal orientations and local strains
modular targeted nanoplatform for immune cell regulation and therapy

cancer is a major cause of disability and mortality worldwide the striking rise of immunotherapies has transformed the way we prevent and treat cancer nevertheless despite the promising clinical results of immunotherapies they suffer from multiple limitations including manufacturing challenges limited efficacy toxicity and high costs recent data highlight the promising role of personalized cancer vaccines in inducing effective antitumor immunity in patients suffering from aggressive forms of cancer however systems suitable for targeted delivery of multiple agents required for longlasting patient immunity are required immunovation is focused on tnm targeted nanoimmunomodulator a multifunctional dendritic celltargeted nanovaccine designed to regulate the function and phenotype of immune cells with a pivotal role in the induction of an effective specific and longlasting antitumor immunity here we will evaluate the technical and commercial viability of our novel nanoplatform developed during my erc advanced grant 3dbrainstrom for the targeted therapy of various cancer types as proof of concept we will focus on immunotherapy for ceacam5 gastrointestinal gi cancers which affect more than 48 million new cases per year and cause 34 million related deaths worldwide the nanovaccine will introduce ceacam5 antigens and various immune modulators with synergistic mechanisms of action to dendritic cells thus boosting the immune systems ability to recognize and destroy gi cancer cells the proposed nanoplatform represents an affordable alternative to current immunotherapies with enhanced tumour selectivity efficacy and safety profile my vision is that our nanovaccines will change the landscape of the standard of care for many cancer types our platform offers a highly attractive business case as biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies heavily invest in cancer vaccines due to the need for cancer prevention and therapeutic strategies
the origins of human rhythm

humans are particularly rhythmic animals why did the human sense of rhythm develop many hypotheses try to explain the origins of our acoustic rhythm capacities but few are empirically tested compared and comparatively investigated this project searches for the evolutionary roots of human rhythmicity breaking new ground through three concerted approaches first i zoom in on key rhythmic properties isochrony an even occurrence of events in time and meter a relative accentuation of events second i compare hypotheses on rhythm origins selecting the most relevant ones to music and speech and testing them against each other third i target rhythm precursors in other species as predicted by these alternative hypotheses i test four hypotheses which propose that 1 gait or 2 breathing control and the ability to 3 learn new sounds or 4 sing in a chorus are evolutionary precursors to human rhythm i will use different measures including behavior electrophysiology gait tracking breathing and computational modeling to test whether the four features above predict rhythmic capacities comparative animal work is needed to test whether similar evolutionary pressures lead to similar rhythmic traits i will collect data from humans and four more species i will test seals displaying vocal learning and porpoises both mammals have developed breathing control i will also test siamangs displaying rhythmic locomotion and indris both primates naturally sing in choruses a rare trait in nonhuman mammals finding rhythm in other species will provide a test bench to reconstruct the origins of human rhythm resting on my background in bioacoustics and mathematics the project expands in new challenging directions such as neurophysiology of marine mammals automated gait analyses and biomusicology in brief i will show which species have rhythm and why humans evolved to be such chatty rhythmic creatures