SIRIS-Lab/unlabelled-sti-corpus huggingface dataset:
Mechanical Influences on Morphogenesis of the Knee Joint Revealed through Morphological, Molecular and Computational Analysis of Immobilised Embryos

Very little is known about the regulation of morphogenesis in synovial joints. Mechanical forces generated from muscle contractions are required for normal development of several aspects of normal skeletogenesis. Here we show that biophysical stimuli generated by muscle contractions impact multiple events during chick knee joint morphogenesis influencing differential growth of the skeletal rudiment epiphyses and patterning of the emerging tissues in the joint interzone. Immobilisation of chick embryos was achieved through treatment with the neuromuscular blocking agent Decamethonium Bromide. The effects on development of the knee joint were examined using a combination of computational modelling to predict alterations in biophysical stimuli, detailed morphometric analysis of 3D digital representations, cell proliferation assays and in situ hybridisation to examine the expression of a selected panel of genes known to regulate joint development. This work revealed the precise changes to shape, particularly in the distal femur, that occur in an altered mechanical environment, corresponding to predicted changes in the spatial and dynamic patterns of mechanical stimuli and region specific changes in cell proliferation rates. In addition, we show altered patterning of the emerging tissues of the joint interzone with the loss of clearly defined and organised cell territories revealed by loss of characteristic interzone gene expression and abnormal expression of cartilage markers. This work shows that local dynamic patterns of biophysical stimuli generated from muscle contractions in the embryo act as a source of positional information guiding patterning and morphogenesis of the developing knee joint.
Method and composition for preventing or alleviating symptoms of malabsorption from the gastrointestinal tract

The present invention relates to a method of preventing or alleviating symptoms of malabsorption in a monogastric mammal which malabsorption is caused by impaired intestinal digestion, said method comprising the enteral administration to said mammal of an effective amount of one or more strains of the genus  Propionibacterium  optionally together with a prebiotic that stimulates gastrointestinal activity of  Propionibacterium. Another aspect of the invention relates to a dietary supplement comprising at least 10 6  metabolically active cells of the genus  Propionibacterium;  at least 0.5 g of a prebiotic and/or at least 10 6  metabolically active homo fermentative cells of the genus  Lactobacillus  and/or at least 10 6  metabolically active cells of the genus  Bifidobacterium;  and a nutritionally acceptable carrier.
Positioning Malaysia as a Tourist Destination Based on Destination Loyalty

This study was conducted to ascertain the image of Malaysia as a tourist destination and examines the construct’s influence on tourists’ destination loyalty. Questionnaires were distributed to the departing foreign tourists at two of Malaysia’s international airports. The collected data was analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The findings of the study indicate that Malaysia was perceived as providing an adventurous holiday with the chance to see wildlife, nice beaches and offering a lot in terms of natural scenic beauty with good amenities. The study also suggests that there is a positive significant relationship between destination image and destination loyalty.
Quantifying and upscaling nitrogen fixation in pristine ecosystems: uncovering the climatic, ecological, and molecular control mechanisms

Plant productivity in pristine ecosystems like boreal and tropical cloud forests is limited by soil nutrients, primarily nitrogen (N). Mosses are major contributors to ecosystem productivity in these habitats, and most of them are colonized by N2-fixing cyanobacteria, thereby providing N to the ecosystem. Despite this key role, critical knowledge gaps exist. In particular, the climatic controls of moss-associated N2 fixation remain unclear, limiting our ability to quantify and project climate change effects on this fundamental ecosystem function. Further, it is unknown whether mosses and associated cyanobacteria share a mutualistic (both partners benefit) or parasitic (one partner benefits at the expense of the other) relationship. Yet, the balance of this association is crucial for maintaining ecosystem productivity. I will combine field, laboratory and modelling approaches to fill these knowledge gaps by addressing 4 objectives. I will (1) identify the climatic controls of N2 fixation in mosses from contrasting ecosystems: boreal forests and tropical cloud forests, (2) ascertain the degree of mutualism or parasitism between moss and cyanobacteria using transcriptomics, (3) determine nutrient exchange rates between moss and cyanobacteria using nanoSIMS. The ultimate goal is (4) to model ecosystem N input via N2 fixation in boreal and tropical ecosystems.  In SYMBIONIX, I will uniquely combine biogeochemistry with ecology across scales, offering a break-through in ecosystem research. Application of cutting-edge methods will enable progress previously unachievable in ecosystem ecology. I will interlink a vital ecosystem function to its molecular and ecological foundation. A synthesis will be achieved via the parameterization and validation of global circulation models, resulting in improved predictions of ecosystem nutrient cycling in a future climate. Targeted combination of cross-scale approaches will make this initiative field-leading in ecosystem ecology.
Corrosion Identification of Gas Pipe Risers in Buildings Using Advanced Ultrasonic Guided Waves

In modern cities, natural gas is a major source of fuel that is needed in each resident’s daily life. Gas pipe risers are used to distribute natural gas to each household unit. They penetrate into each unit through concrete walls to connect the main outdoor gas pipe to the indoor residential gas pipes. After long periods of operation, part of the pipe riser embedded in concrete is prone to corrosion due to the combined effect of corrosive materials in concrete and humid environment. If the deterioration caused by the riser corrosion is ignored, pipe rupture and poisonous gas leaks are possible. In the worst-case scenario, catastrophic gas explosions can lead to human fatalities. Therefore, there is an urgent need for effective and reliable non-destructing testing methods that could enable the identification of corrosion in in-service through-wall riser so that the safety and proper maintenance of pipeline system in building can be guaranteed. This paper presents the application of advanced ultrasonic guided waves for this purpose. The problems and difficulties involved in the inspection including construction of transduction system and signal analysis of complex reflection wave signals will be identified and discussed. The experiments will be conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of developed techniques. With the help of all of the achievements, the building is expected to become safer to live and hundreds of million dollars per year will be saved by avoiding potential gas explosions.
Euthanizing value of a statistical life: monetizing differences in public perception and alternatives

ABSTRACTThere is some controversy associated with the language describing monetary values for changes in health or mortality risks, especially the term ‘value of a statistical life’ (VSL). We investigate if the general public distinguishes differences in language describing the concept of VSL using four different descriptive treatments. Based on a survey of willingness to accept (WTA) in which individuals receive payment to participate in a future study, results show that the general public does not perceive a difference in the language used to describe changes in risks. This suggests that public objections to the VSL may not be caused by the specific description used nor can be ameliorated by refinement. Further, the results alleviate concern that language chosen may affect respondent participation and welfare estimates. Because of its apparent absence in the literature, we also adapt and demonstrate a non-parametric conservative estimate of WTA.
For a sustainable and european value chain of pha-based materials for high-volume consumer products

Plastic is one of the preferred materials for manufacturing high volume consumer products and more particularly packaging thanks to its physical, mechanical, thermal or barrier properties. However, existing global plastic industry is mainly a petrochemical-based industry, bringing bad environmental footprint. 
Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are a group of biopolymers that are now widely recognized as attractive substitutes to fossil fuel derived plastics in a wide range of applications. Unfortunately, no sustainable value chain exists in Europe, and production schemes developed elsewhere in the world appear highly questionable from an environmental and ethical standpoint.
The NENU2PHAR project aims at bridging this crucial gap in the EU industry, within an inclusive approach that will address the whole PHA-based plastic value chain, targeting high volume consumer products. The NENU2PHAR project gathers 17 partners (5 large industrials, 6 SMEs, 5 RTOs and 1 cluster), leaders in the different fields of research, from biomass development to formulation of biopolymer up to plastic processes. 
First, bio-source will be tackled by developing and optimised production of PHA biopolymer thanks to the optimisation of carbon feedstock from micro-algae biomass and selection of bacteria strains. Then, innovative polymer processing options will generate different structures with various bulk-surface properties, and various end of life properties. Market uptake of this new PHA will be supported by a competitive cost (5€/kg for PHA compounds), high purity product and processes optimised for PHA bioplastic to tackle functional properties of high volume consumer product better than fossil-based counterparts.
8 PHA-based products will be developed and benchmarked to their fossil-based counterparts. Full validation of the end of life scenarios and environmental footprint will be studied based on biodegradability, compostability or recyclability of the bioplastics formulated.
Analysis of quantum many-body systems

The main focus of this project is the mathematical analysis of many-body quantum systems, in particular, interacting quantum gases at low temperature. The recent experimental advances in studying ultra-cold atomic gases have led to renewed interest in these systems. They display a rich variety of quantum phenomena, including, e.g., Bose–Einstein condensation and superfluidity, which makes them interesting both from a physical and a mathematical point of view.
The goal of this project is the development of new mathematical tools for dealing with complex problems in many-body quantum systems. New mathematical methods lead to different points of view and thus increase our understanding of physical systems. From the point of view of mathematical physics, there has been significant progress in the last few years in understanding the interesting phenomena occurring in quantum gases, and the goal of this project is to investigate some of the key issues that remain unsolved. Due to the complex nature of the problems, new mathematical ideas
and methods will have to be developed for this purpose. One of the main question addressed in this proposal is the validity of the Bogoliubov approximation for the excitation spectrum of many-body quantum systems. While its accuracy has been
successfully shown for the ground state energy of various models, its predictions concerning the excitation spectrum have so far only been verified in the Hartree limit, an extreme form of a mean-field limit where the interaction among the particles is very weak and ranges over the whole system. The central part of this project is concerned with the extension of these results to the case of short-range interactions. Apart from being mathematically much more challenging, the short-range case is the
one most relevant for the description of actual physical systems. Hence progress along these lines can be expected to yield valuable insight into the complex behavior of these many-body quantum systems.
DELAYED COKING PROCESS

The invention relates to the field of petroleum processing, in particular to the production of petroleum coke by means of delayed coking, and is directed to increasing the service interval of the installation and the yield of distilled products for the production of motor oils. The process comprises heating the starting feedstock to a temperature of 250-430°?, feeding the heated feedstock to an evaporator for mixing with a recirculating material, namely a heavy coker gas oil, so as to form a secondary feedstock, heating the secondary feedstock to a reaction temperature of 460-510°? with subsequent coking thereof, and fractionating the light fractions in a fractionating column to give gas, benzene, light gas oil, heavy gas oil and bottoms. Prior to being fed into the coking chamber, the heated secondary feedstock is mixed with the bottoms, wherein the quality and quantity of the bottoms and the heavy coker gas oil are regulated by changing the temperature on a first tray in the lower part of the fractionating column by means of feeding the heavy coker gas oil to said tray by way of circulation refluxing, and the recircul?ting material used is heavy coker gas oil.
Ultraviolet laser scattering in atmospheric microdischarges

Spatially resolved temperature measurements within a microdischarge in atmospheric pressure air have been conducted using Rayleigh and Raman scattering of a pulsed ultraviolet laser. The Rayleigh scattering analyses utilized spatially resolved time-gated imaging of the interaction region of the microdischarge and laser. Optical filtering of the collected Rayleigh signal minimized noise due to the elastic background component, including stray reflections, which often hinder such imaging. A single Rayleigh intensity image across the dc discharge produced a radial profile of translational temperature, with the analysis based on the ideal gas inverse relationship of temperature with the gas target density. The alternative technique using the vibrational Raman shifted signal benefited from being spectrally removed from the laser source background scatter noise, but the signal was several orders of magnitude less in intensity than Rayleigh scattering. The Raman analysis method involved monitoring Q-branch signals originating from multiple N <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> (X) vibrational states populated in the microdischarge, which allowed assignment of translational and vibrational temperatures. Rotational temperature was analyzed from the structure of the S and O branches. The Raman technique also was capable of generating a spatially resolved temperature profile with multiple spectra by translating the laser through the microdischarge. Both Rayleigh and Raman scattering results are compared to passive optical emission spectral analyses of the N <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> second positive system from the microdischarge where the rotational and vibrational temperatures of the N <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> (C) excited state were calculated. A comparison of the N <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> (X) and N <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> (C) temperatures derived from laser scattering and emission spectroscopy, respectively, is presented.
Separation technology for a million peaks

Extremely high separation powers are required to fully characterize complex mixtures that are of crucial importance in many fields, such as life science (including systems biology), food science, renewable energy sources and feedstocks, and high-tech materials. The STAMP project is aimed at obtaining a peak capacity of one million in liquid-phase analytical separations. Spatial three-dimensional liquid chromatography will be used to achieve this goal. The major advantage of this technique is that all second-dimension separations and – in a next step – all third-dimension separations are performed in parallel. This allows high-resolution separations to be performed in each dimension, while the total analysis time remains reasonable. Optical and mass-spectrometric imaging techniques are envisaged as detection methods after printing (STAMPing) the effluent from the 3D separation body on a suitable substrate. The STAMP project also has a number of sub-targets that will bring additional significant benefits to all the above application fields.  

The target and the sub-targets of the STAMP project may be summarized as follows.
• Separations with a peak capacity of 1,000,000 (through the use of spatial 3D-LC)
• Fast and efficient spatial 2D-LC separations
• Devices for spatial 2D-LC and 3D-LC
• Detection principles for spatial 2D-LC and 3D-LC
• Suitable stationary-phase materials and mechanisms for orthogonal 2D and 3D separations
• Relevant applications of all of the above in various fields of science.
Deciphering tumor-promoting mechanisms mediated by neutrophils in vivo

Immunotherapies are revolutionizing cancer care, but are only effective in a minority of patients. Because current treatments typically target T lymphocytes, manipulating other cell types will create additional therapeutic opportunities. This research project aims to study neutrophils, because they can be abundant in the tumor environment, can modulate tumor outgrowth and response to treatments, and are candidate new therapeutic targets. However, tumor-associated neutrophils can be phenotypically and functionally heterogeneous, with only some of them promoting tumor growth. At present, we have a limited understanding of the complexity of neutrophils in tumors, and the mechanisms that control the functions of these cells. This is largely due to the inherent experimental limitations of neutrophil studies.  Here, we will use a new approach to test the hypotheses that so-called Conditionally-Immortalized Neutrophil Progenitors (CINP) can be: 1) used to produce unrestricted numbers of tumor-associated neutrophils in vivo, and 2) gene-edited to study neutrophils mechanistically during cancer progression. Addressing these questions bears scientific and therapeutic importance, as it will not only deepen our fundamental understanding of the mechanisms regulating neutrophil activities in cancer, but also indicate new molecular targets for therapy.   With this study, I will also create and share a publicly available database of all newly identified targets that will be investigated by us, other academic research groups, and industry. Besides, the project’s outputs will be communicated to the broader general public. Altogether, the training and input I will receive during the Marie Curie Individual Fellowship will prepare my transition from post-doc to independent researcher in an excellent scientific environment in Europe.
CXCR1/CXCR2 Antagonism Is Effective in Pulmonary Defense against<i>Klebsiella pneumoniae</i>Infection

Klebsiella pneumoniae -associated pathology is largely mediated by neutrophilic inflammation. In this study, we administered Klebsiella pneumoniae to experimental guinea pig groups and the ELR-CXC chemokine antagonist<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M1"><mml:mrow><mml:msub><mml:mrow><mml:mtext>CXCL8</mml:mtext></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mfenced separators="|"><mml:mrow><mml:mn>3</mml:mn><mml:mi>–</mml:mi><mml:mn>72</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:mfenced></mml:mrow></mml:msub></mml:mrow></mml:math>, ceftazidime, and dexamethasone to different groups, respectively. After 24 h, we assessed the animal’s pulmonary inflammatory levels, including gross histopathology, airway neutrophilia, lung myeloperoxidase levels, expressions of CXCL8 and TNF, and airway bacterial loads. Compared with ceftazidime and dexamethasone treatments, the administration of the ELR-CXC chemokine antagonist<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M2"><mml:mrow><mml:msub><mml:mrow><mml:mtext>CXCL8</mml:mtext></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mfenced separators="|"><mml:mrow><mml:mn>3</mml:mn><mml:mi>–</mml:mi><mml:mn>72</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:mfenced></mml:mrow></mml:msub></mml:mrow></mml:math>alone was more effective than other methods, although it did not markedly attenuate the bacterial load. These results suggest new methods for the treatment of Klebsiella pneumoniae pathology.
Pre-flight sensorimotor adaptation protocols for suborbital flight

Commercial suborbital flights, which include 3-5 minutes of 0 g between hyper-g launch and landing phases, will present suborbital passengers with a challenging sensorimotor experience. Based on the results of neurovestibular research in parabolic and orbital flight, and the anticipated wide range of fitness and experience levels of suborbital passengers, neurovestibular disturbances are likely to be problematic in this environment. Pre-flight adaptation protocols might alleviate some of these issues. Therefore, we describe a set of sensorimotor tests to evaluate passengers before suborbital flight, including assessment of the angular vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR), ocular skew and disconjugate torsion, subjective visual vertical, and roll vection. Performance on these tests can be examined for correlations with in-flight experience, such as motion sickness, disorientation, and visual disturbances, based on questionnaires and cabin video recordings. Through an understanding of sensorimotor adaptation to parabolic and orbital flight, obtained from many previous studies, we can then suggest appropriate pre-flight adaptation procedures.
Unterstützung der Finanzierung von Betriebskapital im Hinblick auf die Verschlechterung der Lage des Unternehmens infolge der COVID-19-Pandemie

Das Projekt zielt darauf ab, die Aufrechterhaltung der wirtschaftlichen Tätigkeit eines Unternehmens zu unterstützen, das sich aufgrund des Ausbruchs der COVID-19-Pandemie in einer Situation plötzlicher Engpässe befunden hat. Der Antragsteller beantragt Finanzhilfen zur Finanzierung des Betriebskapitals und zur Deckung der Kosten für die Durchführung von Tätigkeiten für einen Zeitraum von drei Monaten.
The dynamics of constructive deliberation

Collective decisions are pervasive in every aspect of our society. As shown by Brexit and other recent episodes in European national politics, the way we shape our collective decisions can have far-reaching implications. However, even though there is a vast literature on the aggregation and revision of preferences in and by groups, there are no exact mathematical models of the way groups construct and revise a given decision problem – a process I call constructive deliberation. Getting grip on this political “logic of discovery” is a necessary step towards a suitable combination of information technology with various forms of direct democracy.

In this project, I will develop a formal theory of constructive deliberation. Relying on my background in defeasible reasoning and the expertise at the host and secondment institution, I will create mathematical models of individual agents that reason and share information about the decision problem at hand, and show how and when this interaction results in group consensus. This way, the project will complement existing work on collective decision-making, which is in turn necessary for the improvement of democratic processes. In combination with specific training, dissemination, and communication actions, the project will also contribute to my personal development, serving my long-term aim to obtain a permanent position as a researcher (cf. §1.2-1.4).