SIRIS-Lab/unlabelled-sti-corpus huggingface dataset:
Effects of Tissue Handling on RNA Integrity and Microarray Measurements From Resected Breast Cancers

Reliable stability and yield of RNA from breast cancer tissues are important for biobanking, clinical trials, and diagnostic testing.Aliquots of fresh primary tumor tissue from 17 surgically resected invasive breast cancers were placed into RNAlater at room temperature after tumor removal (baseline) and up to 3 hours thereafter or were snap frozen at baseline and 40 minutes thereafter. Samples were stored at -80°C until gene expression profiling with Affymetrix Human Gene U133A microarrays. We evaluated the effects of cold ischemic time (the time from tumor specimen removal to sample preservation) and sample preservation method on RNA yield, Bioanalyzer-based RNA integrity number, microarray-based 3'/5' expression ratios for assessing transcript integrity, and microarray-based measurement of single-gene and multigene expression signatures. The statistical significance of the effects was assessed using linear mixed effects regression models. All statistical tests were two-sided.Sample preservation in RNAlater statistically significantly improved RNA integrity compared with snap freezing as assessed by the RNA integrity number, which increased from 7.31 to 8.13 units (difference = 0.82 units, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.53 to 1.11 units, P < .001), and RNA yield, which increased threefold from 8.9 to 28.6 μg (difference = 19.7 μg, 95% CI = 14.1 to 25.3 μg, P < .001). Prolonged cold ischemic delay at room temperature before sample stabilization decreased the RNA integrity number by 0.12 units/h (95% CI = 0.02 to 0.23 units/h) compared with a projected average RNA integrity number of 7.39 if no delays were present (P = .008) and decreased the RNA yield by 1.5 μg/h (95% CI = 0 to 4 μg/h) from a baseline mean RNA yield of 33.5 μg if no delays were present (P = .019). Prolonged cold ischemia statistically significantly increased the 3'/5' ratio of control gene transcripts, particularly of STAT1 (P < .001). Snap freezing statistically significantly increased the 3'/5' ratio of three control transcripts (ACTB, GAPDH, and 18S rRNA). Expression levels of single genes and multigene signatures for breast cancer were largely unaffected by sample preservation method or cold ischemia.Sample preservation in RNAlater improves RNA yield and quality, whereas cold ischemia increases RNA fragmentation as measured by the 3'/5' expression ratio of control genes. However, expression levels of single genes and multigene signatures that are of diagnostic relevance in breast cancer were mostly unaffected by sample preservation method or prolonged cold ischemic duration.
Smart street lighting over narrowband PLC in a smart city: The Triangulum case study

As municipalities continue to embrace digital revolution in a bid to become smarter cities, the unique intersection between ICT and development road map is inspiring new innovative applications. While this quest for smart city continues, the transformation of street lighting has become a topical issue. As part of ongoing investigation in Triangulum smart city project, this paper presents some simulation results on the use of narrowband powerline communication (NPLC) for street lights monitoring and control. The results show that, with low power, NPLC can support a 3.5km network of street lights without using a relay. It is also shown that, when the data packet size quadruples, latency degrades by up to 22.63% (242.03ms) in the worst case.
Nearshore hazard monitoring and Early Warning System

NEWS develops an integrated system, which includes monitoring, early warning and mitigation of the coastal risks, specifically aiming at advising the population about the risk of flooding, littoral sand erosions, cliff failures and at activating protection measures in order to avoid damages to persons. The projects carries out:
- an evaluation model of the nearshore waves' effects through the identification of the risk scenarios, the development of a model for assessing the short-term effects of wave motion under the coast, the development of a model for evaluating the effects of wave motion on the cliff failures, the development of a neural network for predicting the short-term effects of wave motion under the coast
-  a coastal risk monitoring network through the implementation of an oceanographic boom system for monitoring the wave motion, the data processing from the Calypso project HF SeaSonde radar stations for tracking the aerial motion, the equipment of a drone with LIDAR system, HD cameras and GPS system for monitoring the coasts and the microfractures in coastal cliffs.
- an early warning system of some parts of Sicilian and Maltese coasts through a processing platform of data from monitoring systems, the definition of an algorithm and an ICT tool interfacing with the monitoring platform and the operative units of civil protection, the definition of intervention procedures for emergency management interfacing with civil protection, the development of an App for boaters, fishermen, swimmers etc. with information on the usability of coastal stretches, the experimentation on three pilot areas (Granelli, Selmun, Santa Maria del Focallo) of the forecast models and the definition of the respective risk scenarios.
Ada 2020 | visual reasoning support for healthcare professionals

Ada has developed a unique visual reasoning tool for medical professionals that offers diagnosis decision support at the point of care. The award-winning user-interface of Ada is designed to activate the interplay between analytical and integrative thinking skills of the physician. After three years of fundamental research in new reasoning technologies, Ada is now able to capture knowledge from medical experts, transform it into a medical reasoning engine and deliver it directly to the point-of-care in a patient-specific manner. The goal of Ada/DX is to help the doctor: i) avoid misdiagnosis, ii) support diagnosis decision-making for even the most complex cases in a robust and efficient way, iii) simultaneously document the diagnostic process according to both clinical and legal requirements. Reducing the number of misdiagnoses and wrong treatments can help to reduce personal suffering of the patients and healthcare costs simultaniously. A study revealed that misdiagnoses and wrong treatments in the field of vertigo diseases cost about 1 Billion EUR per year in Germany. According to a recent study on the Healthcare decision support field (WinterGreen research – 2013), wrong test and test that are not usefull in a particular situation, account for 30% of the costs of the healthcare delivery in the US. Overall the project will end in a full working Software as a Service (Saas) product. The M10-accuracy of today 85% will be increased to > 95%, by simultaneously increasing the number of common diseases from today 800 to 3.500 plus 6.000 rare diseases. Three user targeted products will be set up, adressing three market segments: GP-Service, Expert-Service, Prevention-Service.
SELF-INTEGRATION VOLTAGE CONVERTER

The invention relates to an electronic device which, fed from a sinusoidal or randomly variable network, makes it possible to supply the input of the converter with which it is equipped with a DC voltage, the receiver connected at the output also being fed with a DC voltage envelope, whereas the power factor of the current taken from the mains is kept at unitary value and said current is the image of the voltage which produces it. This device comprises a converter (12) whose high frequency output circuit loads the series circuit formed by the receiver (13) associated with impedance (16). The voltage developed across terminals of inductance (16) is rectified by bridge (15) mounted in series with the mains rectifier bridge (10) so that these voltages, added to the input of the converter (12), effect the envelope of a DC voltage, this also resulting in supplying a DC voltage envelope to receiver (13). The current taken from the mains has a unitary power factor whereas its envelope is homothetic of the voltage. This device is applicable to the majority of electronic converters used as ballasts, transformers, stabilized power supplies, and so on.
Aerodynamic and flexible trucks for next generation of long distance road transport

The transport sector contributes to about 25% of total CO2 emissions in the EU and is the only sector where the trend is still increasing. Taking into account the growing demand on the road transport system and the ambitious targets of the EC’s Transport White Paper, it is paramount to increase the efficiency of freight transport.
The vision of the AEROFLEX project is to support vehicle manufacturers and the logistics industry to achieve the coming challenges for road transport. The overall objective of the AEROFLEX project is to develop and demonstrate new technologies, concepts and architectures for complete vehicles with optimised aerodynamics, powertrains and safety systems as well as flexible and adaptable loading units with advanced interconnectedness contributing to the vision of a “physical internet”. The optimal matching of novel vehicle concepts and infrastructures is highly important, requiring the definition of smart infrastructure access policies for the next generation of trucks, load carriers and road infrastructure. 
The specific technical objectives, main innovations and targeted key results are:
1. Characterise the European freight transport market (map, quantify and predict), the drivers, the constraints, the trends, and the mode and vehicle choice criteria
2. Develop new concepts and technologies for trucks with reduced drag, which are safer, comfortable, configurable and cost effective and ensure satisfaction of intermodal customer needs under varying transport tasks and conditions.
3. Demonstrate potential truck aerodynamics and energy management improvements with associated impact assessments of the new vehicle concepts, technologies and features developed in the AEROFLEX project.
4. Drafting of coherent recommendations for revising standards and legislative frameworks in order to allow the new aerodynamic and flexible vehicle concepts on the road.
To achieve an overall 18-33% efficiency improvement in road transport / long haulage by 2025+.
End-To-End security of the digital single market’s e-commerce and delivery service ecosystem

ENSURESEC is a sociotechnical solution for safeguarding the Digital Single Market’s e-commerce operations against cyber and physical threats. It combines an automatic, rigorous, distributed and open-source toolkit for protecting e-commerce, with monitoring of the impact of threats in physical space and a campaign for training SMEs and citizens aimed at creating awareness and trust. ENSURESEC addresses the whole gamut of modern e-commerce, from standard physical products purchased online and delivered via post, to entirely virtual products or services delivered online. It addresses threats ranging from maliciously modifying web e-commerce applications or rendering them unavailable to legitimate customers, to delivery issues or fraud committed by insiders or customers. It achieves this by focusing on the common software and physical sensor interfaces that sit along the e-commerce, payment and delivery ecosystem. At technical level, it integrates proven state-of-the-art inductive (machine learning) with deductive (formal methods) reasoning tools and techniques so that e-commerce operations are protected by design, as well as through continuous monitoring, response, recovery and mitigation measures at run-time. Importantly, trust of the infrastructure’s operations among its users is established, benefiting from distributed ledger technology ensuring transparency of the operations and that information has not been modified. Although ENSURESEC innovations are applicable to any critical infrastructure that relies and is monitored by networked software systems, its design and integration philosophy make it uniquely prepared to protect distributed and evolving e-commerce infrastructures with its various forms of payment and delivery (virtual, online and physical). ENSURESEC also enhances citizens’ resilience to threats and their trust in e-commerce companies, especially SMEs, thus contributing towards the vision of a reliable and trusted digital single market.
Policy instruments for energy self-consumption in buildings

PROBLEM:
Up-scaling investments in EE and RES for buildings is a major challenge to meet EU targets for 2030, and this is established in most of Regional Strategies of Growth and Jobs (G&J) all over Europe.

Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) requires Nearly Zero-Energy Buildings (NZEBs) in 2020 and all new public buildings by 2018. Even so, the integration of RES for self-consumption in NZEB buildings remains a challenge for 1/3 of the Member States, which have not included it in their National Directives. 

Moreover, the introduction of RES for self-consumption in buildings is not considered as cost-optimal energy in every country. Regional authorities have a key role to play in identifying their cost-optimal RES in order to mobilize local stakeholders and creating new policies to support the integration of RES in buildings.  

OBJECTIVE:
The overall objective is to promote new policies, or improvement of existing policies, to support the integration of RES in buildings for self-consumption funded by Structural Funds and other EC tools.

ENERSELVES focus in the integration of RES for self-consumption, but not every RES is cost-effective for every region, so it needs an in depth analysis and a definition of clear KPIs to identify the best value-for-money investment. 
Due to the necessity of optimizing the limited SFs, only by focusing in the RES that provided higher impact on the Growth and Jobs the regions will be investing their funds in a proper manner. 

Enerselves focuses on designing policies to promote only those RES for self-consumption technologies with higher benefits in each region.  

OUTPUTS:
- Improving 7 OPs in 7 EU regions, involving 4 Managing Authorities and 3 key energy actors. 
- Influencing 11,8 M€ of SFs by the policy instruments.
- 175 people increasing professional capacity attending interregional events.
- 37 policy learning events with stakeholders .
- 110 good practices identified and collected in a Guide of Best Practices.
Feeling polarity: integrating intracellular mechanics and forces for a biophysical understanding of epithelial polarity

Epithelial polarity is one of the most fundamental types of cellular organization, and correct cellular polarization is vital for all epithelial tissue. Failure to establish polarity leads to severe phenotypes, from catastrophic developmental deficiencies to life-threatening diseases such as cancer. Despite knowing much about the signalling and trafficking machinery vital for polarity, we lack quantitative knowledge about the intracellular mechanical processes which organize and stabilize epithelial polarity. This presents a critical knowledge gap, as any elaborated understanding of intracellular organization needs to include the forces and viscoelastic mechanical properties that position organelles and proteins. As such, the main aim of POLARIZEME is to determine the intracellular mechanical processes relevant for epithelial polarization, thus providing a mechanical understanding of polarity. We will combine advanced optical tweezers technology with cutting-edge molecular biology tools to rigorously test new intracellular transport concepts such as the active, diffusion-like forces that can position organelles or the recently introduced cortical actin flows that can drag polarity-defining proteins around the cell. Thus we propose (i) to quantify active forces and intracellular mechanics and their relation to organelle positioning, (ii) to quantify polarized cortical and cytoplasmic flows, and (iii) to measure the forces and mechanical obstacles relevant for direct vesicle trafficking. These quantitative biophysics experiments will be supported by mathematical modelling and the development of two new instruments which (a) allow for automated intracellular mechanics measurements over extended time periods and (b) combine multi-view light-sheet microscopy with optical tweezers and UV ablation. Overall, we will provide a new access to understand and describe polarity by merging the physical and biological aspects of its initiation, maintenance and stability.
Reliable power control for secondary users based on distributed measurements

An important aspect of spectrum sharing is reliable protection of licensed, primary, users from interference by unlicensed, secondary, users. In this paper we investigate the reliability of the iterative power adjustment algorithm proposed by Pollin, Adams and Bahai (2008). The goal of this transmission power control algorithm is to allow a static secondary transmitter to maximize its power without interfering with primary users. A distributed flooding algorithm is used to detect primary users and estimate the distance to the primary propagation contour. The secondary transmitter makes a local channel estimation with a moving least squares algorithm to average out noise. The metric used to estimate interference is the propagation contour-contour distance between the secondary and primary transmitters. In our first contribution we investigate the reliability of this metric by computing the location probability, a new FCC proposed metric for configuring Digital Terrestrial Television networks. We show that the propagation contour-contour distance is correlated with the location probability. In a second contribution we make the flooding algorithm more cost efficient by reducing communication. We then study the influence of the number of flooding messages on the performance of the iterative power adjustment algorithm in terms of location probability and number of iterations.
Efficient Methods of Estimating Switchgrass Biomass Supplies

Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) is being developed as a biofuel feedstock for the United States. Efficient and accurate methods to estimate switchgrass biomass feedstock supply within a production area will be required by biorefineries. Our main objective was to determine the effectiveness of indirect methods for estimating biomass yields and composition of switchgrass fields. Indirect measurements were conducted in eastern Nebraska from 2003 to 2007 in which switchgrass biomass yields were manipulated using three nitrogen rates (0 kg N ha-1, 60 kg N ha-1, and 120 kg N ha-1) and two harvest periods (August and post-killing frost). A modified Robel pole was used to determine visual obstruction, elongated leaf height, and canopy height measurements. Prediction models from the study showed that elongated leaf height, visual obstruction, and canopy height measurements accounted for > 91%, > 90%, and > 82% of the variation in switchgrass biomass, respectively. Regression slopes were similar by cultivar (“Cave-in-Rock” and “Trailblazer”), harvest period, and across years indicating that a single model is applicable for determining biomass feedstock supply within a region, assuming similar harvesting methods. Sample numbers required to receive the same level of precision were as follows: elongated leaf height<canopy height<visual obstruction. Twenty to 30 elongated leaf height measurements in a field could predict switchgrass biomass yield within 10% of the mean with 95% confidence. Visual obstruction is recommended on switchgrass fields with low to variable stand densities while elongated leaf height measurements would be recommended on switchgrass fields with high, uniform stand densities. Incorporating an ocular device with a Robel pole provided reasonable frequency estimates of switchgrass, broadleaf weeds, and grassy weeds at the field scale.
Remote control unit

A remote control system adapted to selectively advance one or more selector switches including a source of optical signal disposed in proximity with a first photo cell, a portable return reflector or retroreflector and means for selectively masking the reflector. The signal developed across the first photo cell is referenced against a second photo cell, such second photo cell being located away from the associated source such that only background signals impinge thereon. In a further embodiment, a plurality of first photo cells are combined with the second photo cell, each such first photo cell being selectively filtered to sense discrete signal frequencies or polarities and a plurality of return reflectors or retroreflectors, selectively filtered in correspondence to the photo cell filters, are disposed for selective exposure by associated masking means.
Operating system for smart services in buildings

Digitisation in existing buildings is not as widespread as in other sectors. A consequence is that buildings owners and occupants have generally a limited understanding of their building as an energy system. Improving the energy efficiency of existing buildings can and should be achieved through deep renovation. In comparison, smart technologies can increase the efficiency and the flexibility of buildings in a shorter term and with much less investments. The domOS project addresses the smart building sector through two axes.

In the first axis, technology, guidelines for an open, secure, multi-service Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem for smart buildings are defined: in-building gateways, which connect to local smart devices and smart appliance of any type, IoT platforms and applications operated by different parties can be integrated seamlessly. Buildings owners can enforce privacy rules, they can allow / forbid access to any measurement or control point.

The second axis deals with the development of smart services. They increase energy efficiency of space heating (heat pumps, district heating, gas boilers) thanks to innovative control algorithms making use of smart sensors and smart heating appliances. Automated advice services provide concise and sound information on the building energy. Buildings become active nodes of an electricity grid or a District Heating grid.

These two axes are present in each of the five demonstration sites of the domOS project: The Sion (CH) and Paris (F) pilots test smart services related to electricity. In Aalborg (DK), control techniques applied to space heating for buildings connected to a Distributed Heating grid reduces consumption and lower costs, CO$_{2}$ emissions and system load. In the Neuchâtel (CH) and Skive (DK) demonstrators, closed-loop control minimises temperature at the output of the heating system, thus increasing efficiency and reducing losses.
Product Sustainability Index (<i>ProdSI</i> )

As a result of the rapidly depleting global resources, continuing climate change and increasing environmental pollution, and the associated growth in customer awareness, improving product sustainability has become a global trend. Comprehensive sustainability assessment techniques are needed to assess a product's sustainability performance throughout its entire life cycle. This article presents the Product Sustainability Index (ProdSI) methodology and its application. This methodology is metrics based and provides a comprehensive assessment of the overall product sustainability throughout its total life cycle, covering the four life cycle stages: pre-manufacturing; manufacturing; use; and postuse. In this article, first the fundamentals of sustainable manufacturing and product sustainability assessment (PSA) are presented, followed by a review of existing PSA methodologies. Major product sustainability elements that are used to define product sustainability clusters and individual sustainability metrics are then presented. Finally, the ProdSI methodology for PSA, which follows a hierarchical approach for sustainability metrics identification and overall PSA, is introduced. The application of the methodology is demonstrated in a numerical example of ProdSI evaluation for two generations of a consumer electronics component.