SIRIS-Lab/unlabelled-sti-corpus huggingface dataset:
Elemental imaging of human tissue: clinical therapy support and development of new diagnostics

Population in developed countries is aging. Besides other socioeconomic effects, this significantly affects European health systems, as ageing-specific therapies and treatments have become important cost factors. In this context, hip replacements belong to one of the most frequent and costly treatments. Recent reports on mass failures of new types of hip prosthesis revealed insufficient understanding of physiological processes leading to prosthesis failure. Studies on hip prosthesis failures revealed complex processes leading to chemical degradation of implants, resulting in desorbed elements and ions entering the surrounding tissue, causing inflammation and loosening of hip prosthesis. The research needed to reveal important details of the body response to the implant is lacking of the incorporation of novel techniques and approaches.
Techniques currently applied in hospitals, such as X-ray scans and optical tissue microscopies do not fully explain the effects of implants on the body physiology. Moreover, the screening of new types of implants before its introduction into clinic processes may lack of scientific understanding of possible destructive effects. Modern tissue microscopy techniques are promising providing elemental and chemical distribution of a tissue, with high sensitivities and lateral resolution. Micro Proton Induced X-ray Emission (microPIXE) allows determining the quantitative elemental mapping of a tissue and has been proved to be the best technique for element localization studies in biological tissues due to its capability of analysing at sub-cellular level the distribution of elements incorporated to biological tissue, due to a high sensitivity ranging down to 0.1 ppm level.
The action will focus on investigating reasons of failures and rejections of hip replacements by application of advanced elemental microscopies to human tissue surrounding hip failures. Results may determine the origin of failure and avoid prosthesis rejection.
Modal Sosial dan Dinamika Usaha Mikro Kecil

The results of this research prove there is a statistically positive relationship between social capitals with increasing revenue. Social capital had a positive role for physical capital and education, as well as its contribution in creating greater business profits. The study  also found the influence of social capital (23%), physical capital (11%) and capital or other variables (66%) for business profits. In conclusion, social capital as an asset has the potency to complement or replace the business assets, as we know it in today’s modern business world. In order to be an asset, it is necessary to establish a forum to provide certification of social capital on SME so it would work together with other economic assets in business activities.
Contextualising psychosocial wellbeing and mental health within sociocultural dynamics

The lack of contextualization of the science and applications of  mental health is the source of a large part of  its 
criticisms. From the lack of research on how social dynamics influence the well-being of citizens, to the gaps in 
research  and  coordinated  implementation  of  different  disciplines  involved  in  mental  health  in  a  changing 
environment, there are still many limitations for a contextualised and integrated view.

This  project  intends  to  offer  a  bottom-up,  source-embedded  appreciation  of  the  need  to  effectively  seek  to 
contextualise  mental  health  interventions  and  the  professional  and  institutional  barriers  to  this  process  at  the 
international  level, using participatory research methods with practitioners and users of psychological services as 
well as the general population trough personal as well as digital contact.

The first  milestone  of the project will be an empirical study on how sociocultural dynamics impact psychosocial 
wellbeing and mental health  integrating a website and a mobile application with face to face interviews. The second 
will intend to gather information on approaches already used which can be considered contextualised. The results 
of both milestones will be used to organise  continuing professional development workshops  with mental health 
professionals,  in which  focus  groups  will  be  used to explore  the  perceived  need  and  institutional  obstacles  for 
contextualisation.
BIOHAZARD MASK SUITABLE FOR CIVILIANS

A biohazard mask for civilian use comprises bidirectional HEPA filtering to protect both personal and public health during an outbreak. Several measures are taken to maximize comfort and wearability, such as comfort-fit through a gel seal, anti-fogging protection through separation of the eye volume from the mouth-nose volume and through eye moisture release valves, heat-dissipation through a net suspension, and overpressure release valves to maintain the face seal during coughing or sneezing. Wicking exhalation filters promote moisture abatement around the mouth and nose. Attractive and stylish designs, combined with accommodation for telephone communication or audio entertainment, helps wearers keep the mask on during an outbreak.
International, interdisciplinary and intersectoral information and communications technology phd programme

The Centre for Information and Communications Technology Research (CITIC) of the Universidade da Coruña (UDC) is a unique research centre for the promotion of R&D&I excellence in ICT. One of its main aims is to offer specialised technical, research and transferable skills training to early-stage researchers (ESR), including PhD programme studies.
3-i ICT is an innovative new international PhD programme, offering eight fellowship grants to ESRs to carry out their PhD studies at CITIC. The programme will run over 60 months and will include two international calls. Contracts will have a duration of 36 months.
The programme will provide ESRs with unique opportunities for basic and applied interdisciplinary research, training and career development. To ensure the 3-i dimension of the fellowship, the programme will include secondments in non-academic partner institutions in Spain and in other countries. To ensure the interdisciplinary nature of the programme, each thesis will have one supervisor from the field of ICT and one from a different academic discipline.
The programme will enhance fellows’ career prospects by improving and diversifying their employability skills. They will come away from the programme with a PhD degree and comprehensive complementary training in research and transferable skills. This training will give them a solid competitive advantage in their future careers in both academic and non-academic sectors.
3-i ICT will place CITIC at the forefront of research and innovation in the field of ICT. Institutionally, CITIC is already the leading ICT centre in Galicia, but 3-i ICT will position it as a hub for new research talent in the Galicia-North of Portugal Euroregion. The programme will represent a substantive leap towards accomplishing the goals of the R&I Smart Specialisation Strategy for Galicia (RIS3) and the cross-border R&I Smart Specialisation Strategy of Galicia-Northern Portugal (RIS3T).
Elevated Mercury Concentrations in Humans of Madre de Dios, Peru

The enormous increase in practically unregulated mining in Madre de Dios Peru is leading to massive release of liquid elemental mercury to the environment. Rapidly increasing global prices for gold are causing a massive upsurge in artisanal mining in the Peruvian Amazon, considered to be one of the most biodiverse places on the planet. This study identifies the current levels of mercury in the human population, through identifying levels of total mercury in human hair in mining zones of Madre de Dios Department and in the nearby city of Puerto Maldonado. A regression analysis reveals that fish consumption, gender, and location of residence were significant indicators of mercury levels; while duration of residence and age had no significant relationship to mercury levels. Increased fish consumption levels were the strongest indicators of increased total mercury levels across the entire population. The levels of total mercury in hair was significantly (α = 0.05) higher in mining zones, than Puerto Maldonado. In both areas men had significantly higher levels than women, likely due to a difference in metabolism or varying levels of direct involvement in gold mining- a male predominated industry. This is the first study to show the health threat that mercury poses to this region, however further research needs to be done to gain a more refined understanding of the predominant routes of exposure in this population.
An In-Car Speech Recognition System for Disabled Drivers

Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) is becoming a standard in nowadays cars. However, ASR in cars is usually restricted to activities not directly influencing the driving process. Thus, the voice-controlled functions can rather be classified as comfort functions, e.g. controlling the air condition, the navigation and entertainment system or even the mobile phone of the driver. Obviously this usage of an ASR system could be extended in two directions: On the one side, the speech recognition system could be used to control secondary functions in the car like lights, windscreen wipers or windows. On the other side, the comfort functions could be enriched by utilizing services like weather inquiries, SMS dictation or online traffic information. Compared to todays usage these extensions require a different approach than the one employed today. Controlling secondary functions in the car by voice demands the usage of a very reliable, real-time, local ASR. At the same time a large vocabulary ASR system is required for comfort functions like dictation of messages.In this paper, we describe our efforts towards a hybrid speech recognition system to control secondary functions in the car. We also provide an extended comfort functionality to the driver. The hybrid speech recognition system contains a fast, grammar-based, embedded recognizer and a remote, server-based, LM-based, large vocabulary ASR system. We will analyze different aspects of such a design and the integration of it into a car. The main focus of the paper will be on maximizing the reliability of the embedded recognizer and designing an algorithm for switching dynamically between the embedded recognizer and the server-based ASR system.
Boosting the financing of innovation for green growth sectors through innovative clusters services in the MED area

Fostering economic growth and development, while ensuring that natural assets continue to provide the resources and environmental services on which prosperity relies, is no more a choice but an imperative for the economic and social future wellbeing of people. Although green transition will not take off without financing and assure the financing of innovation in green sectors has become a common concern for all MED countries and regions. To answer this challenge, a pool of regions, clusters, business support organisations, knowledge providers and development agencies joined in the finMED project, whose aim is to boost the financing of innovation in green growth sectors through improved delivery of policies and strategies and the introduction of innovative cluster services. 
The project delivers concrete outputs and results in three fields:
1- Public policies delivery, by developing and adopting new concepts, principle and practices to finance green growth strategies.
2- Innovation and business environment, by improving interaction and collaboration (at regional and transnational level) among involved stakeholders and bridging the gap among enterprises and financers.
3- Green sectors capacities, by stimulating and actively supporting their adaptability to the most impellent financing challenges.
finMED also develops a proper specific position on the future of green sectors innovation financing, supporting the policy debate for 2021-2028 programming period in MED and EU area.
Les représentations sociales des fournisseuses de gamètes en Espagne : derrière le « don » d’ovocyte, un travail invisibilisé et dévalorisé ?

Cadre de la recherche : L’Espagne se classe au premier rang en Europe en matière de « don » d’ovules. Leur production et leur commercialisation constituent aujourd’hui l’un des marchés les plus lucratifs du système économique national. Objectifs : Comment les femmes cédant leurs ovules comprennent-elles ce « don » ? Dans une société où le « don » d’ovocytes est formalisé comme un acte bénévole et altruiste, comment les « donneuses » conçoivent-elles et considèrent-elles la rémunération qu’elles obtiennent pour cet acte ? Méthodologie : Cet article présente l’analyse d’entretiens approfondis menés avec 38 « donneuses » d’ovules, issues de différentes régions d’Espagne, participant actuellement ou ayant participé au processus de « don ». Entre 18 et 49 ans, elles occupent pour la plupart des emplois précaires, elles sont au chômage et/ou elles sont étudiantes non boursières. Résultats : Les « donneuses » d’ovules ne conçoivent pas leur contribution à l’industrie de la reproduction humaine comme un travail salarié. Conclusions : Même si ces femmes jouent un rôle prépondérant dans le processus de « don » d’ovules, leur contribution est bien souvent sous-estimée. Pourtant, leur implication est nécessaire à la concrétisation de projets familiaux de personnes souhaitant devenir parents. Elles contribuent également au bon fonctionnement de l’activité des cliniques d’assistance à la procréation et à l’approvisionnement des banques de gamètes. Contribution : Tout en présentant l’organisation sociale du « don » d’ovules en Espagne, cet article révèle la manière dont le travail reproductif effectué par les femmes produisant et cédant leurs ovocytes est invisibilisé et dévalorisé. De plus, il rend compte de la façon dont les « donneuses » d’ovules sont expropriées de leur matériel biologique, expropriation faiblement rémunérée et dont elles ne tirent qu’une faible part des bénéfices. Cette exploitation des femmes à travers le « mode biomédical de reproduction » et l’invisibilisation de leur travail est rendue possible grâce à l’anonymat des « dons », la coordination phénotypique, les modes de consentement, une compensation économique, et plus largement par une métaphore du « cadeau » et d’une idéologie de l’altruisme.
METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR MICROBIOME-DERIVED CHARACTERIZATION, DIAGNOSTICS AND THERAPEUTICS FOR CONDITIONS ASSOCIATED WITH FUNCTIONAL FEATURES

A method for at least one of characterizing, diagnosing, and treating a condition associated with microbiome-derived functional features in at least a subject, the method comprising: receiving an aggregate set of biological samples from a population of subjects; generating at least one of a microbiome composition dataset and a microbiome functional diversity dataset for the population of subjects; generating a characterization of the condition based upon features extracted from at least one of the microbiome composition dataset and the microbiome functional diversity dataset; based upon the characterization, generating a therapy model configured to correct the condition; and at an output device associated with the subject, promoting a therapy to the subject based upon the characterization and the therapy model.
Innovative nanowire device design

Nanowires (NWs) exhibit unique properties that make them potential building blocks for a variety of next generation NanoElectronics devices. Recent advances have shown that NWs with predefined properties can be grown, offering a new paradigm enabling functional device prototypes including: biosensors, solar cells, transistors, quantum light sources and lasers. The critical mass of scientific knowledge gained now needs to be translated into NW technologies for industry. FP7-MC NanoEmbrace (ITN) and FUNPROB (IRSES), made substantial contributions to NW research, producing excellent scientific and technological results (>100 journal papers published) and delivered outstanding training in nanoscience and transferable skills to ESRs.

Despite demonstrable scientific and technological advantages of NWs, NW-based technology concepts have not yet been translated into market-ready products, because industry and academia have not worked hand-in-hand to commercialize the research findings. Thus, it is essential that NW research is now directed towards customer-oriented scientific R&D; whilst applying innovative industrial design techniques to ensure rapid translation of the basic technologies into commercial devices.

This ambitious challenge requires close collaboration between academia and the nascent NW industry, combining the efforts of scientists and engineers to address market needs. Building upon our previous achievements, a team of leading scientific experts from top institutions in Europe, strengthened by experts in innovative design and industrial partners with an excellent track record of converting cutting edge scientific ideas into market products has formed the INDEED network to address this challenge. To enhance employability, INDEED will train young ESRs to become experts with a unique skill set that includes interdisciplinary scientific techniques, industrial experience through R&D secondments and innovative design skills.
France Italy on the web to strengthen companies

This cooperation area includes many micro and small businesses that often do not enjoy optimal conditions to grow and consolidate their position in the outlet markets. The general objective of Fr.I.Net2 is to strengthen the micro and small businesses of this area through the joint provision of specialised services at cross-border level by establishing a cross-border centre of expertise. The achievement of this general objective will require the following logical steps: - defining the methodology to identify the key competencies to be included in the Centre and the standard level of services to be provided to companies; - experimenting with this methodology through the provision of services to a pilot group of companies belonging to the identified priority supply chains: boating and tourism; - evaluating the results of the testing phase and setting guidelines for the implementation of the cross-border centre of expertise. At the end of the project, the partners will have obtained the following main results: 1. a shared methodology to put to work a professional team at a cross-border level that will provide similar specialist services; 2. launching of the Cross-border Centre of Expertise, located where the partners are based, and definition of a catalogue of cross-border services. This project is innovative in that it allows the establishment of a cross-border pool that for the first time will be able to offer the following services in a coordinated and uniform way: - corporate strategy and positioning on foreign markets; - innovation and technology transfer; - access to community programmes and definition of partnerships. A partnership made up of economic developers with long experience in assisting businesses will ensure the ful implementation of the project.
Transnational Air Quality Improvement: A Management Tool for Regional Planning

The TAQI project will create a regionalised, transnational, up-to-date emission data information base for long-term planning decisions, such as Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) or Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) by linking environmental data with spatial information. Through EU enlargement the eastern region of Austria with its adjacent regions in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary has developed a new significance in Central Europe. The project area is undergoing major economic and infrastructural changes. Transit traffic is increasing to unprecedented levels on the most heavily loaded roadways in Austria. Since air pollution does not stop at national borders, strategies at national level are insufficient to stabilise and reduce air pollution. Therefore, regarding environmental and economical policies, spatial planning and health politics, strategies have to be extended to co-ordinated cross-border measures. There is the need for defining new goals for the future especially for economic and environmental matters and spatial planning in order to maintain a sustainable way of regional development. The transnational TAQI project is addressing these challenges by discussing and implementing several measures at cross-border level. The project originates from a co-operation of the majority of the project partners in former projects and the awareness of political and administrative bodies that relevant problems are better tackled in a transnational context and co-operation.
Supermolecules steer electrons down a wrong-way street

The controlled movement of electrons is of paramount importance for solving current technological problems that will have broad societal impact. Batteries for electric vehicles, quantum computers, efficient solar energy conversion devices, and nanoscale machines for biomedical applications represent just a handful of such possible advances. A current research thrust is to better understand and control the rate and directionality of electron transfer (ET) reactions. The problem of ET directionality has long fascinated scientists and engineers (1), and researchers in the field of electron donor (D)–acceptor (A) interactions are now deeply immersed in developing methods to exert control over electron motion in molecules, metamaterials, and bulk materials on micrometer and nanometer scales. The PNAS paper by Polizzi et al. (2) reports results on directional ET reactions in so-called “supermolecules,” inspired by the ET cascade found in the photosynthetic reaction center of plants and certain bacteria. This fundamental work is certain to enhance and stimulate new research in the field.

It is easy to surmise that our ancestors watched lightning strike and wondered why it always came from the sky to the ground instead of the other way around (the properties of lightning, wind, and sunlight were good cause for humans to regard Earth’s sky as something special) (3). In the 18th century, Benjamin Franklin’s (4) early experiments with keys and kites (some of the earliest documented D−A interactions), as well as Joseph Priestley’s (5) observations on oxygen evolution in photosynthesis, stimulated research on the nature of the electron and its connection to light interacting with matter (photoredox reactions). Twentieth century chemists such as Ciamician (6) noted the importance of these connections.

Photosynthesis soon became a dominant topic in the fields of biology and botany. Through collaborations with chemists, biochemists, and physicists, the mechanism of the ET cascade in bacterial photosynthetic reaction … 

[↵][1]1Email: forbesm{at}bgsu.edu.

 [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1