SIRIS-Lab/unlabelled-sti-corpus huggingface dataset:
From echo chamber to persuasive device? Rethinking the role of the Internet in campaigns

Most of the e-campaigning literature claims that the Internet can reinforce political attitudes, but not change them. In this article, I analyze the issue through the receive−accept−sample (RAS) theory, which postulates that messages can change attitudes if they are both received and accepted by audiences. Based on qualitative elite interviews with 31 consultants and operatives involved in the 2008 United States presidential election, I argue that campaigns are finding new avenues to improve both reception and acceptance of their messages, and the implications merit close empirical scrutiny. The probability of message reception can be increased by citizens’ propensity to seek out issue positions online and by diffusion through low-threshold activities by supporters; the probability of message acceptance can be augmented by video and the targeting of content; finally, indirect persuasion through interpersonal communication can increase the probability of both reception and acceptance.
BioMASS: A biological multi-agent simulation system

This article presents an agent based model for the simulation of biological systems. The approach consists mainly of providing individual based models for each of the functional groups that conform an ecosystem. Functional groups (a term commonly used by ecologists) may represent a group of individuals (from the same or from different species) that share relevant attributes. This provides flexibility to configure different kinds of populations by parametrization without the need of programming, something useful for biologists. Additionally, a simulation tool implemented as a multi-agent system facilitates the analysis and understanding of ecological complexity. Multi-agent systems are proposed to address heterogeneity and autonomy demanded by the interdisciplinary individual-based modeling methodology. The objective of the system is to explore the intricate relationships among population and individuals, in an ecosystem approach. The main difference with other tools is the ability of incorporating individual decisions, based on metabolism and environmental conditions.
ВОДНЫЕ КОМПОЗИЦИИ МОДИФИЦИРОВАННЫХ ПОЛИМЕРАМИ УСКОРИТЕЛЕЙ СХВАТЫВАНИЯ И ИХ ПРИМЕНЕНИЕ В СТРОИТЕЛЬСТВЕ

1. Водные композиции модифицированных полимерами ускорителей схватывания, отличающиеся тем, что они содержат один или несколько ускорителей схватывания и один или несколько катионно-стабилизированных полимеров, содержащих один или несколько полимеров на основе этиленово ненасыщенных мономеров и один или несколько катионактивных защитных коллоидов. ! 2. Водные композиции модифицированных полимерами ускорителей схватывания по п.1, отличающиеся тем, что ускорители схватывания представляют собой соединения алюминия, силикаты, гидроксиды щелочных металлов или карбонаты. ! 3. Способ приготовления водных композиций модифицированных полимерами ускорителей схватывания по п.1 или 2, отличающийся тем, что один или несколько ускорителей схватывания и один или несколько катионно-стабилизированных полимеров смешивают между собой в присутствии воды. ! 4. Применение водных композиций модифицированных полимерами ускорителей схватывания по п.1 или 2 в гидравлически схватывающихся системах. ! 5. Водные бетонные смеси, содержащие цемент, заполнители, а также необязательно дополнительные присадки и добавки, отличающиеся тем, что они содержат водную композицию модифицированных полимерами ускорителей схватывания по п.1 или 2. ! 6. Способ приготовления водной бетонной смеси по п.5 путем смешения цемента, заполнителей и необязательно других присадок и добавок, отличающийся тем, что добавляют по меньшей мере одну водную композицию модифицированных полимерами ускорителей схватывания по п.1 или 2. ! 7. Способ изготовления бетонной составной конструкции, отличающийся тем, что водные бетонные смеси по п.5 наносят в один слой или в не
Automated Defect and Correlation Length Analysis of Block Copolymer Thin Film Nanopatterns

Line patterns produced by lamellae- and cylinder-forming block copolymer (BCP) thin films are of widespread interest for their potential to enable nanoscale patterning over large areas. In order for such patterning methods to effectively integrate with current technologies, the resulting patterns need to have low defect densities, and be produced in a short timescale. To understand whether a given polymer or annealing method might potentially meet such challenges, it is necessary to examine the evolution of defects. Unfortunately, few tools are readily available to researchers, particularly those engaged in the synthesis and design of new polymeric systems with the potential for patterning, to measure defects in such line patterns. To this end, we present an image analysis tool, which we have developed and made available, to measure the characteristics of such patterns in an automated fashion. Additionally we apply the tool to six cylinder-forming polystyrene-block-poly(2-vinylpyridine) polymers thermally annealed to explore the relationship between the size of each polymer and measured characteristics including line period, line-width, defect density, line-edge roughness (LER), line-width roughness (LWR), and correlation length. Finally, we explore the line-edge roughness, line-width roughness, defect density, and correlation length as a function of the image area sampled to determine each in a more rigorous fashion.
Dynamics of supersymmetry in curved space

Quantum field theory provides a theoretical framework to explain quantitatively natural phenomena as diverse as the fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background, superconductivity, and elementary particle interactions in colliders. Even if we use quantum field theories in different settings, their structure and dynamics are still largely mysterious. Weakly coupled systems can be studied perturbatively, however many natural phenomena are characterized by strong self-interactions (e.g. high T superconductors, nuclear forces) and their analysis requires going beyond perturbation theory. Supersymmetric field theories are very interesting in this respect because they can be studied exactly even at strong coupling and their dynamics displays phenomena like confinement or the breaking of chiral symmetries that occur in nature and are very difficult to study analytically.
Recently it was realized that many interesting insights on the dynamics of supersymmetric field theories can be obtained by placing these theories in curved space preserving supersymmetry. These advances have opened new research avenues but also left many important questions unanswered. The aim of our research programme will be to clarify the dynamics of supersymmetric field theories in curved space and use this knowledge to establish new exact results for strongly coupled supersymmetric gauge theories. The novelty of our approach resides in the systematic use of the interplay between the physical properties of a supersymmetric theory and the geometrical properties of the space-time it lives in. The analytical results we will obtain, while derived for very symmetric theories, can be used as a guide in understanding the dynamics of many physical systems. Besides providing new tools to address the dynamics of quantum field theory at strong coupling this line of investigation could lead to new connections between Physics and Mathematics.
Distinctive characterization of regulatory plasma cells and pro-inflammatory b cells in immunity: their origins, molecular properties, and cellular fates.

B cells can act both as negative regulators and as drivers of immunity through the production of cytokines. Through secretion of interleukin (IL)-10 B cells inhibited immunity in autoimmune and infectious diseases. For instance, IL-10 from B cells drove complete recovery from disease in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), the primary animal model for multiple sclerosis (MS), while a lack of IL-10 production by B cells resulted in a severe chronic EAE. B cells can also suppress immunity via IL-35. Human B cells might similarly play inhibitory roles. In few patients with immune-mediated diseases B cell depletion therapy with Rituximab was associated with exacerbation of symptoms, or onset of new pathologies. Conversely, an opposite role of B cells as drivers of immunity was highlighted by the beneficial effect of Rituximab in some patients with rheumatoid arthritis or MS. Clinical improvement often precedes reduction in autoantibody levels in Rituximab treated patients, indicating that B cell-mediated pathogenesis is largely antibody-independent. A candidate factor for the deleterious effects of B cells in MS is IL-6. IL-6 secretion is a major mechanism of B cell-mediated pathogenesis in EAE, and B cells from MS patients produced more IL-6 than cells from healthy individuals. There is now an urgent need for the characterization of the phenotypes of the B cells producing IL-6, IL-10, and IL-35 in vivo at single cell and molecular levels. Markers for these cells might allow understanding the paradoxical effects of B cell-depletion therapy, and guide the development of novel agents depleting distinctively pro-inflammatory B cells, while sparing the remaining of the B cell compartment. Using advanced genetic models to identify and track cytokine-expressing cells, our project aims at characterizing B cells with pro- and anti-inflammatory functions in mice in vivo, to subsequently guide the identification of comparable markers in human.
Negotiating religion: coptic orthodox diaspora communities. shifting identities, needs, and relations from egypt to europe and back

NEGOTIA aims to analyse the Coptic Orthodox diaspora communities in Europe with specific regard to three key aspects: identities, needs, and relations, in order to reconstruct the theoretical-practical framework of religious mediation.Its first goal is to examine the origins and the history of these communities, their cultural heritage and the peculiarities of their religion, but above all the dynamics of deconstruction and reconstitution of the material, emotional and relational dimensions experienced by such communities in the pathways from their homeland to abroad and back. Its final goal is to define the research field of religious mediation through an integrated, methodological approach to Copts, who are a peculiar case study to conceptualise this topic, which has never been systematically studied before. At the core of NEGOTIA stands the Church of S. Giorgio Megalomartire, established in Rome as an independent Diocese in 1996. This community includes, among others: members with a migratory background; youth groups at least partially born in the diaspora; community religious and lay agents. It was a result of the 1960s migratory processes from Egypt and its profile is strongly characterised by continuous exchanges with their homeland.Thus, this Diocese will be analysed in close connection to the Coptic Orthodox Cultural Center, established in Cairo in 2008 “to preserve the rich Coptic heritage as an important epoch in Egyptian history and Christian tradition worldwide”, that exemplifies one of the most interesting, contemporary Coptic community centres of Egypt.Through a transnational comparative perspective, the data arising from the analysis of the Roman Diocese will be merged with the data collected studying the Coptic Church of St. Petrus, der letzte Märtyrer in Hamburg, the last research focus. This Church, founded in the 1970s, is one of the member churches of the North German Communities.
Protein-Based functional nanostructures

The precise synthesis of nano-devices with tailored complex structures and properties is a requisite for their use in nanotechnology and medicine. Nowadays, the technology for the generation of these devices lacks the precision to determine their properties, and is accomplished mostly by “trial and error” experimental approaches. Bottom-up self-assembly that relies on highly specific biomolecular interactions of small and simple components, is an attractive approach for nanostructure templating. 
Here, we propose to overcome aforementioned challenges by using self-assembling protein building blocks as templates for nanofabrication. In nature, protein assemblies govern sophisticated structures and functions, which are inspiration to engineer novel assemblies by exploiting the same set of tools and interactions to create nanostructures with numerous potential applications in synthetic biology and nanotechnology. 
We hypothesize that we can rationally assemble a variety functional nanostructures by the logical combination of simple protein building blocks with specified properties. We propose to use a designed repeat protein scaffold for which we acquired a deep understanding of its molecular structure, stability, function, and inherent assembly properties. Only few conserved residues define the structure of the building block, which allow us to mutate its sequence to modulate assembly properties and to introduce reactive functionalities without compromising the structure of the scaffolding molecule. 
First, we will design a collection of protein-based nanostructures. Then, we will introduce reactive functionalities to create hybrid nanostructures with nanoparticles, metals and electro-active molecules. Finally, these conjugates will be used to build nano-devices such as nanocircuits, catalysts and electroactive materials.
The outcome of this project will be a modular versatile platform for the fabrication of multiple protein-based hybrid functional nanostructures.
Fastphylo: Fast tools for phylogenetics

Distance methods are ubiquitous tools in phylogenetics. Their primary purpose may be to reconstruct evolutionary history, but they are also used as components in bioinformatic pipelines. However, poor computational efficiency has been a constraint on the applicability of distance methods on very large problem instances.We present fastphylo, a software package containing implementations of efficient algorithms for two common problems in phylogenetics: estimating DNA/protein sequence distances and reconstructing a phylogeny from a distance matrix. We compare fastphylo with other neighbor joining based methods and report the results in terms of speed and memory efficiency.Fastphylo is a fast, memory efficient, and easy to use software suite. Due to its modular architecture, fastphylo is a flexible tool for many phylogenetic studies.
Accelerating the commercialisation of a disruptive analytical technology which enables the biopharmaceutical industry to manufacture drugs faster, cheaper and with greater regulatory confidence

The global Biologic drug [including Vaccines] market exceeds €500 bn with an annual growth of 8%. Biopharmaceutical companies need to be able to produce these new biologic drugs faster and cheaper to meet the needs of patients, regulators and the governments and insurance companies who are paying for these high cost therapies. Valitacell is an Irish SME which currently supplies this market and is a validated supplier to a growing number of market leaders including GE Healthcare & MedImmune. 

BIOSIM will accelerate the commercialisation of our ChemStress technology platform for this industry. Scientifically
these tests measure a cell’s performance when exposed to small molecule chemicals which simulate the stresses that the cell will experience in the scaled-up manufacturing process. When applied together they can reduce the average Cell Line
Development stage of drug manufacture from 16 to 6 months and reduce the average cost from €2.3million to €1.1 million.

BIOSIM will support: the demonstration of ChemStress at 4 leading biopharmaceutical manufacturing sites resulting in the generation of a customer endorsed value proposition; productise the ChemStress platform for the Biopharmmaceutical industry; refinement, scale-up and validation of the product manufacture; priming the sales & marketing for product launch.
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ChemStress will realise €40m of end-user product sales and support 50 jobs in the 5 years following the project. ChemStress will provide EU Biomanufacturers with the opportunity to maintain their leadership position by
implementing this disruptive innovation and realizing cost reductions. ChemStress will reduce the cost of biological drugs through lower manufacturing costs so enabling EU governments to provide these drugs to EU citizens at a lower cost.
Method and apparatus for filling bags with a flowable solid and stacking filled bags

Using a deflector 26 to direct flowable material 14 towards the sides of a bag 10. The bag can be an FIBC suspended by handles from a frame 20 with hooks 24. The deflector can comprise multiple spinning blades 26 attached 30 to a motor 28 whose current is monitored to detect when the level of material in the bag reaches them to cease flow. The deflector can cause more material to be near the bag walls so that the materials upper surface is concave to permit better bag stacking. A deflector is below the discharge end of a conveyor 16 or hopper. Providing a platform 40 and bag 10a below the discharge end of a conveyor 16 or hopper; supporting the bag on the platform while or after the bag is being filled with material dropping from the conveyor or hopper; lowering 42 the platform while the bag is on it; placing another bag 10b above the first; supporting the second bag on the first while or after it is being filled with material dropping from the conveyor or hopper; lowering the platform. The full bag can rest on a pallet 18.
Combined Therapy with Cytokine-Induced Killer Cells and Oncolytic Adenovirus Expressing IL-12 Induce Enhanced Antitumor Activity in Liver Tumor Model

Both adoptive immunotherapy and gene therapy hold a great promise for treatment of malignancies. However, these strategies exhibit limited anti-tumor activity, when they are used alone. In this study, we explore whether combination of cytokine-induced killer (CIK) adoptive immunotherapy with oncolytic adenovirus-mediated transfer of human interleukin-12 (hIL-12) gene induce the enhanced antitumor potency. Our results showed that oncolytic adenovirus carrying hIL-12 (AdCN205-IL12) could produce high levels of hIL-12 in liver cancer cells, as compared with replication-defective adenovirus expressing hIL-12 (Ad-IL12). AdCN205-IL12 could specifically induce cytotoxocity to liver cancer cells. Combination of CIK cells with AdCN205-IL12 could induce higher antitumor activity to liver cancer cells in vitro than that induced by either CIK or AdCN205-IL12 alone, or combination of CIK and control vector AdCN205-GFP. Furthermore, treatment of the established liver tumors with the combined therapy of CIK cells and AdCN205-IL12 resulted in tumor regression and long-term survival. High level expression of hIL-12 in tumor tissues could increase traffic of CIK cells to tumor tissues and enhance their antitumor activities. Our study provides a novel strategy for the therapy of cancer by the combination of CIK adoptive immunotherapy with oncolytic adenovirus-mediated transfer of immune stimulatory molecule hIL-12.
Integrated on-farm aquaponics systems for co-production of fish, halophyte vegetables, bioactive compounds, and bioenergy

One of the most important challenges of the 21st century is to meet the world's demand for sustainably produced biomass for both food and the growing bio-products sector. Increased use of fresh water for agriculture and loss of farmland due to salinity are related concerns. Salicornia europaea (S. europaea) is grown commercially in the EU for its fresh tips, which are edible as salad (marsh samphire). It is a halophyte plant and can grow on saline lands without requiring freshwater for irrigation. When grown as a vegetable only the fresh tips are used while the woody part of the plant is considered a residue. Today, European farmers are using part of the fibrous residue for soil amendment and drying the fibers to produce herbal salt. However, the amount of residue to food product is large (approximately 80%) and the salt content of the residue is a problem when used for soil amendment, as it returns the salt to the soil. There is a great wish from Salicornia farmers to increase the value of this fraction in line with the principles of circular economy. The woody residue part of Salicornia has been investigated as a source of pharma- and nutraceutical products due to its high content of phytochemicals e.g. hydroxycinnamic acids (HCA). To help increase Salicornia farming there is a wish to valorize these residues via biochemicals and bioenergy production. The project will also examine the combination of aquaculture and Salicornia farming creating synergies such as formulation and test of phyto-chemicals rich functional fish feed and formulation and test of protein and lipids rich fish feed. The outcomes of this study will enable Salicornia farmers and aquaponics farms to utilize all fractions of the produced biomass and produce value added HCAs, functional fish feed, and bioenergy. This will create new circular industries with co-production of food, pharma, and bioenergy from this new sustainable type of crop with very little or no production of waste streams.
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for the Treatment of Pharmacoresistant Nondelusional Auditory Verbal Hallucinations in Dementia

Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs) are known as a core symptom of schizophrenia, but also occur in a number of other conditions, not least in neurodegenerative disorders such as dementia. In the last decades, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) emerged as a valuable therapeutic approach towards several neurological and psychiatric diseases, including AVHs. Herein we report a case of a seventy-six-years-old woman with vascular-degenerative brain disease, complaining of threatening AVHs. The patient was treated with a high-frequency temporoparietal (T3P3) rTMS protocol for fifteen days. A considerable reduction of AVHs in frequency and content (no more threatening) was observed. Although further research is needed, this seems an encouraging result.
SUSPICIONS OF PEACE IN MEDIEVAL CHRISTIAN DISCOURSE

Oppositional constructions of peace and war and simplistic equations of peace with justice obscure the importance of activities primarily geared toward the limitation of harm. The medieval and patristic legacy of thinking with peace restricts peace to variants of a singular concept that dictates the diplomatic and domestic policy of modern states. At the same time, secular political theory has moved away from medieval clerical acknowledgment of compatibilities between turbulence and peace, producing temporally bounded categories of peace and war that facilitate damage or at best allow harm to endure. In this discourse, social disruption must act as signifier for more general (structural and systemic) violence—but then is repressed on exactly the same terms, making it difficult to arrive at solutions for conflict on the ground without renouncing calls for justice and equity in the long term.