SIRIS-Lab/unlabelled-sti-corpus huggingface dataset:
The missing pillar. european social policy and eurosceptic challenges (socialeu)

Present scholarship insufficiently addresses the linkages between Euroscepticism and supranational solidarity. On the one hand, scholars studying Euroscepticism argue that the lack of perceived benefits of the integration process explains EU citizens' opposition to their country membership in the union. However, this stream of literature does not inquire whether supranational social policies have the potential to change individuals’ perception of gains and losses related to European integration. On the other hand, the normative approach to European citizenship arguing for a transnational conception of justice and solidarity does not fully engage with the consequences of a social solidarity pillar in the EU. The SOCIALEU project builds on these two theoretical perspectives and investigates the role of a redistributive EU social policy in fostering citizen support for the Union. In particular, the project analyses the agenda-setting on social rights at the supranational level and subsequently inquires whether the provision of social benefits by EU institutions increases support for European integration and has the potential to turn populist party voters towards mainstream political parties. In doing so, the SOCIALEU project is the first theoretical and empirical undertaking that investigates the role that supranational social policy may have in changing people’s attitudes and voting behaviour in relation to the EU. I rely on the literature on welfare states’ role in strengthening national identity and social cohesion  and argue that the provision of welfare goods at the EU level can strengthen support for the EU in general and among Eurosceptic citizens in particular. I employ an original research design that combines qualitative research in Brussels and survey experiments in France and Spain.
New EU legislation for risk assessment of GM food: no scientific justification for mandatory animal feeding trials

This commentary focuses on the potential added value of and need for (sub)-chronic testing of whole genetically modified (GM) foods in rodents to assess their safety. Such routine testing should not be required since, due to apparent weaknesses in the approach, it does not add to current risk assessment of GM foods. Moreover, the demand for routine testing using animals is in conflict with the European Union (EU) Commission's efforts to reduce animal experimentation. Regulating agencies in the EU are invited to respect the sound scientific principles applied to the risk assessment of foods derived from GM plants and not to interfere in the risk assessment by introducing extra requirements based on pseudo-scientific or political considerations.
Cataract burden and uptake of cataract surgical services: Results from a population-based survey.

Background : Global estimates suggest that approximately two thirds of the blind population are females. Cataract accounts for over half of all blindness worldwide. Surgery is curative. However, in many parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, people have limited access to services. We estimated the burden of “operable cataract” and assessed for any gender inequality in the uptake of cataract surgical services. Method : Using a multi-staged stratified random sampling with probability proportional to size, three local government areas in Plateau state were selected. The study instrument was the Rapid Assessment of Cataract Surgical Services (RACSS) Proforma. Results : 4115 persons were examined (coverage: 98%). Prevalence of “operable cataract” (VA 0.05.) The burden of cataract would have been reduced by 28.1% if the CSC was equal for both genders. Conclusion : The burden of cataract is high; uptake of services is low especially among females. Keywords : Epidemiology, Africa, Surgery, Gender, Ocular
Futures 2021: stories of change

FUTURES2021: Stories of change is an ambitious and dynamic programme of face-to-face and digital events designed to deliver the EU Commission's objectives. A consortium of five universities from across the South West UK have teamed up with world-class venues to deliver the largest celebration of contemporary research in the region, aiming to reach a minimum of 1.5 million people. We will reach out to citizens of the large cities of Bristol, Bath, Exeter and Plymouth, rural areas of Wiltshire, Somerset, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall, and will also transcend geographical boundaries through innovative digital and radio engagement.  Using the best of both worlds we will create a truly inclusive and memorable festival of discovery tailored to diverse audience needs. A programme of 28 engaging events will enable over 300 researchers and MSC Fellows to interact with audiences and discuss the impact of contemporary research on people?s daily lives. Underpinned by principles of inspiration, inclusivity, accessibility, fun, learning, and discovery the events will demystify research and innovation, showing their value for individuals and societies locally and globally.  Vibrant EU Corners at flagship venues and online will celebrate the contribution of EU funding and researchers to the region and wider.  With a strong emphasis on engaging school children and families we will increase awareness of research careers and break stereotypes about researchers. Activities are also tailored to engage disadvantaged groups and rural communities who may not normally have access to researchers. Sound management by experienced partners, who have a track record of successful multi-partner projects, with a carefully constructed budget, clarity of roles, significant in-kind contribution from all partners, and an independently conducted evaluation using a mixed methods approach, will ensure that the project is successful in reaching its objectives and good value for money.
Bloodborne: hot zones, disease ecologies, and the changing landscape of environment and health in west africa

Why have certain regions, like West Africa, rich in biodiversity, also become identified as emerging disease hotspots in scientific and popular understanding? VIRHIST aims to discern the ecological, economic, political and social forces at play that have simultaneously turned certain regions into profitable sites of natural resource extraction, productive enclaves of biomedical research, and hot zones of pandemic threats.  At its core, the project seeks interrogate how Western economic interests tied to natural resource extraction in West Africa produced new understandings about the ecology of disease, while simultaneously creating new environments and species relationships--in the laboratory and on the plantation--that eliminated certain diseases, but also creating conditions of possibility for other pathogens to thrive. VIRHIST offers a groundbreaking approach, stimulating cross-fertilization and interaction across the fields of environmental history, medical history, and STS, to develop new perspectives on the history of environment and health.  Through a focus on three bloodborne diseases—yellow fever, hepatitis B, and Ebola— at three distinct moments in West African history, VIRHIST advances the following research objectives: 1) Identify and substantiate the intended and unintended changes in disease ecologies produced through industrial plantations and biomedical interventions; 2) Interrogate the shifting ethics and economics driving emerging infectious disease research in West Africa in an age where biosecurity, surveillance, and pandemic anxieties mobilize significant resources and attention; and 3) Investigate the changing ethical, commercial, legal, and political standards that have shaped the collection and extraction of natural resources—from rubber, to chimpanzees, to viruses—in conservation and disease hotspots of the world.
GROUND-BASED POWER GENERATOR WITH BALL-ROLLER BEARING BUTTERFLY VALVE

A ground-based power generator that produces hot gas and that has a hot gas valving system includes a butterfly valve in a gas flow conduit. The generator is improved in that the butterfly valve is mounted in the conduit by a ball-roller bearing.
A study of the roles of the immune and inflammatory systems in hypertension.

Hypertension is a common disease impacting 1 billion people worldwide, which leads to catastrophic cardiovascular complications. The cause of primary hypertension is unknown and the disease remains uncontrolled in many patients. By interrogating the key hypothesis that inflammatory dysregulation fundamentally controls development of hypertension and vascular remodelling, InflammaTENSION provides a new paradigm for the management of the disease, with the potential to lead to identification of novel therapeutic targets to control hypertension. InflammaTENSION will result in the discovery of novel biomarkers, capable of identifying patients who could benefit from such immune targeted therapies. Importantly, we already made the seminal observation that the immune system not only mediates target organ damage, but is essential for the development of hypertension. This finding has initiated numerous studies, that defined the roles of pro-inflammatory T cells, monocytes and anti-inflammatory T regulatory cells. However, our current knowledge remains very fragmented and so far has not been applied to human pathology. InflammaTENSION will for the first time advance the knowledge procured in rodent models into human studies. By combining clinical translational and model mechanistic studies it will identify novel inflammatory factors that can control immune mechanisms of hypertension. We will: (1) characterize the immunophenotypic signature of human hypertension; (2) define key concepts in cytokine biology of hypertension with TNF-α and IL-6 as key exemplars; (3) understand how chronic cytokines regulate the T cell dependent mechanisms of hypertension. InflammaTENSION will go beyond current state-of-the-art through comprehensive combination of immunology and cardiovascular medicine to create a new understanding of how the immune system may lead to human hypertension and will have major impact on the field, enabling translation of these exciting findings to clinical practice.
Safina Exporter 01/SI/2020

The present project aims to leverage the export of Safina’s products, through the increase of E-Business, participation in fairs, realisation of Prospection and Promotion Travels, exponentiating its current export rate to 67 %.
Augmented reality and indoor navigation for enhanced assembly

The future of the aeronautical industry is tied inevitably to the development of enabling technologies that make it possible the coming of the Factory of the Future.
Technology advances like those on Geoposition and Navigation, the Internet of Things (IoT), Virtual and Augmented reality (VR/AR), speech and handwriting recognition, biometrics, wearable technology, drones, etc. are being widely implanted in many industries. However, aircraft manufacturing has been traditionally reluctant to the introduction of technology leaps in the production process, even those considered game changers in other sectors. This is mainly due to the complexity and the strict safety assurance requirements involving the aeronautical sector but it is that here’s a tremendous bias against taking any sort of risks, and any innovation is seen as a risk in this industry. Therefore, any improvement must guarantee the highest quality and safety standards.

The final assembly of an aircraft is identified as a field with a lot of room for improvement. The introduction of some of the aforementioned technologies in the modern Final Assembly Line (FAL) can definitely impact the factory’s lean manufacturing and the environmental sustainability of the whole process.  Implantation of new assembly procedures can take advantage of commercially available technology, but also actual methods and procedures like the moving assembly line, visual control systems, point-of-use staging, just-in-time delivery systems, etc. can be significantly improved.

The General Objective of the current proposal (ARIESS, Augmented Reality Indoor Enhanced aSSembling for factory of the future industry) is the introduction of cutting-edge Human-Machine Interfaces (HMI) and the supporting infrastructure for indoor positioning and navigation, augmented reality techniques and real-time data integration to improve the productivity, competitiveness, and sustainability of a FAL, paving the way for the modern Industry 4.0.
STEVIA-DERIVED MOLECULES, METHODS OF OBTAINING SUCH MOLECULES, AND USES OF THE SAME

A purified composition of steviol glycoside molecules is described. The composition imparts desirable taste, flavor and flavor modifying properties to food, beverages, and other consumable products.
GREASE, OIL AND WAX RESISTANT PAPER COMPOSITION

In order to provide grease, oil and wax resistance to a paper substrate, a coating containing a binder, a filler material and calcium carbonate is used. The coating of the invention is essentially free from fluorocarbons, which are considered harmful to human and animal populations, and surfactants and other chemicals which may alter the color of the coated paper. The coated paper has a GE brightness level between approximately 50 and approximately 90, while providing superior grease, oil and wax resistance.
Eye fundus colour images enhancement service for diabetic retinopathy diagnosis

Diabetic retinopathy (“DR”) is considered as a priority eye disease by the World Health Organisation, as one of the main causes of visual impairment. It is a complication of the eye that can affect anyone who has diabetes. Diabetic retinopathy causes damage to the blood vessels supplying the retina – the “seeing” part of the eye. Because retinopathy generally has no obvious symptoms until it is advanced, early detection is essential. Detection is made by retinal screening. This is a straightforward procedure which includes assessment of visual acuity and eye fundus photography. Then a medical specialist, who looks for signs of diabetic retinopathy, gives a grade allowing a further diagnosis. This makes the diagnosis heavily dependent on the image quality. iPRI, which current activity is based on consulting expertise in public health, has identified a need for delivering a practical solution to the DR diagnosis challenge. iPRI has created a new prototype of software to enhance the quality of colour eye fundus exams. Several tests on representative databases have shown to DR experts that there is an important medical interest to introduce this service in the diagnostic procedure. IPRI’s international network of Key Opinion Leaders in Diabetes has confirmed this interest. Through the EYE-LIGHT project, iPRI aims to integrate this proven technology into a medical device. It will be provided as a professional application software service in order to facilitate the DR diagnosis, improve the image quality, allow comparisons and make images sharable through telemedicine. In order to address the unmet medical need, iPRI has to scale up, industrialise and sell this medical device. Through the SME Instrument programme, iPRI intends to refine the business model of this new activity during phase 1, and to set up and clinically validate the medical device during phase 2.
Intelligent and cost-efficient wind turbine power production using optical sensors

Sensors are widely used for optimization of technical systems. In most cases they are electrical, hence not safe to operate e.g. on wind turbines blades due to lightning risk, on fuel tanks, in strong magnetic fields or close to generators due to the risk of electrical short circuits. Furthermore cabling is costly, can be cumbersome to handle and signals are difficult to transmit reliably over long distances.

CEKO Sensors (CEKO), a spin-out from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Department of Nanotechnology, will disrupt the sensor market by providing sensors that are 100% optical, frequency modulated, have very high sensitivity and are metal-free. The force sensitivity of the sensors has shown to be 1200 times larger than what can be obtained using comparable technologies. At the same time the physical size is 100 times smaller and the weight 3000 times less than other sensors on the market today. These unique features make them crucial for applications where sensitivity, size and weight are critical parameters. 

The initial proof-of-market application for the CEKO sensor is wind turbines. Wind turbines have been selected as CEKO sensors addresses several significant challenges for wind turbines owners: Monitoring of blade damages for reduced maintenance and repair costs, optimization of blade loads for efficient production and detection of icing on the blades, which has a high impact on the power production and the safety on ground.

The CEKO sensors will initially be marketed through Brüel & Kjær, a world leading sensor manufacturer, who has estimated the direct achievable market for the CEKO sensors in the wind power segment to be 36.000 sensors/ year worth €22 million. The objectives of the over all innovation projects are to 1) finalise the development of the optical sensor for wind turbines 2) Complete a full scale field test in collaboration with H&L Wind A/S (owner of several wind parks in Germany) 3) Obtain the required industry certifications.
Aqueous dispersions, a process for their preparation and the use of the dispersions as sizing agents.

Aqueous cationic or anionic dispersions of rosin and certain synthetic sizing agents, carbamoyl chlorides, ketene dimers or acid anhydrides. The particles in the dispersed phase contain a mixture of rosin and synthetic sizing agent and the dispersions are prepared by homogeni­sation of a homogeneous mixture of the rosin material and the synthetic sizing agent in the presence of a dispersing agent. The dispersions are used as sizing agents in the production of paper, paper board, board and similar pro­ducts.
Sigma-1 receptor stimulation attenuates calcium influx through activated L-type Voltage Gated Calcium Channels in purified retinal ganglion cells

Sigma-1 receptors (σ-1rs) exert neuroprotective effects on retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) both in vivo and in vitro . This receptor has unique properties through its actions on several voltage-gated and ligand-gated channels. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role that σ-1rs play in regulating cell calcium dynamics through activated L-type Voltage Gated Calcium Channels (L-type VGCCs) in purified RGCs. RGCs were isolated from P3-P7 Sprague–Dawley rats and purified by sequential immunopanning using a Thy1.1 antibody. Calcium imaging was used to measure changes in intracellular calcium after depolarizing the cells with potassium chloride (KCl) in the presence or absence of two σ-1r agonists [(+)-SKF10047 and (+)-Pentazocine], one σ-1r antagonist (BD1047), and one L-type VGCC antagonist (Verapamil). Finally, co-localization studies were completed to assess the proximity of σ-1r with L-type VGCCs in purified RGCs. VGCCs were activated using KCl (20 mM). Pre-treatment with a known L-type VGCC blocker demonstrated a 57% decrease of calcium ion influx through activated VGCCs. Calcium imaging results also demonstrated that σ-1r agonists, (+)-N-allylnormetazocine hydrochloride [(+)-SKF10047] and (+)-Pentazocine, inhibited calcium ion influx through activated VGCCs. Antagonist treatment using BD1047 demonstrated a potentiation of calcium ion influx through activated VGCCs and abolished all inhibitory effects of the σ-1r agonists on VGCCs, implying that these ligands were acting through the σ-1r. An L-type VGCC blocker (Verapamil) also inhibited KCl activated VGCCs and when combined with the σ-1r agonists there was not a further decline in calcium entry suggesting similar mechanisms. Lastly, co-localization studies demonstrated that σ-1rs and L-type VGCCs are co-localized in purified RGCs. Taken together, these results indicated that σ-1r agonists can inhibit KCl induced calcium ion influx through activated L-type VGCCs in purified RGCs. This is the first report of attenuation of L-type VGCC signaling through the activation of σ-1rs in purified RGCs. The ability of σ-1rs to co-localize with L-type VGCCs in purified RGCs implied that these two proteins are in close proximity to each other and that such interactions regulate L-type VGCCs. ► Sigma-1 receptor ligands decrease calcium ion influx through ion and voltage gated channels. ► Sigma-1 receptor ligands decrease calcium ion influx through calcium channels. ► Sigma-1 receptors block only the L-type Voltage Gated Calcium Channels. ► Actions on calcium influx protect retinal ganglion cells from cell death during stress.
The broad spectrum 2-oxoglutarate oxygenase inhibitor N-oxalylglycine is present in rhubarb and spinach leaves

2-Oxoglutarate (2OG) and ferrous iron dependent oxygenases are involved in many biological processes in organisms ranging from humans (where some are therapeutic targets) to plants. These enzymes are of significant biomedicinal interest because of their roles in hypoxic signaling and epigenetic regulation. Synthetic N-oxalylglycine (NOG) has been identified as a broad-spectrum 2OG oxygenase inhibitor and is currently widely used in studies on the hypoxic response and chromatin modifications in animals. We report the identification of NOG as a natural product present in Rheum rhabarbarum (rhubarb) and Spinach oleracea (spinach) leaves; NOG was not observed in Escherchia coli or human embryonic kidney cells (HEK 293T). The finding presents the possibility that NOG plays a natural role in regulating gene expression by inhibiting 2OG dependent oxygenases. This has significance because tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA) intermediate inhibition of 2OG dependent oxygenases has attracted major interest in cancer research.
REFRIGERANT SYSTEM WITH CASCADED CIRCUITS AND PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENT FEATURES

An improved refrigerant system incorporates at least two circuits arranged in a cascaded relationship. Preferably, the upper circuit utilizes a hydrocarbon refrigerant and preferably the lower circuit utilizes CO2 refrigerant. Preferably, the CO2 cascaded circuit mainly operates in a subcritical region. To improve the efficiency and capacity control of the cascaded refrigerant system, at least one of the circuits is equipped with performance enhancement features such as, for example, an economized function provided by a flash tank or economizer heat exchanger. Additional enhancement features can also include a liquid-suction heat exchanger and bypass function.
Gender matters: Private sector training in Vietnamese SMEs

In many developing countries the skill base is a cause of concern with respect to international competition. Firm-provided training is generally seen as an important tool for bridging the skills gap between labour force and private sector demand. Yet little is known about how successful such training may be in closing the gender wage gap. We use a matched employer-employee panel dataset to assess why firms train and whether formal training affects wage outcomes in Vietnamese [small and medium enterprises] SMEs. Training is generally found to be firm-sponsored and specific in nature. We find that training is associated with a wage increase of 7-22 per cent for female workers only, depending on the analytical approach taken. We also show evidence that the wage increase is associated only with on-the-job training and that lower ability workers are more likely to be trained. Our findings indicate that, at least in Viet Nam, firm-sponsored on-the-job training helps close the gender wage gap.