ethicalabs/Research-Intent-Collab huggingface dataset:
Engagement of Middle School Students in Discovery Science: A strategy to Elevate Achievement and increase public awareness and appreciation of Science in Rural Communities

Science outreach encompasses many different forms, including science cafes, science festivals, public lectures. These activities afford scientific experts the opportunity to share their knowledge with the public. We have piloted an educational strategy involving rural middle school students with the dual purpose of elevating science achievement and increasing the rural public awareness and appreciation of science through the students. To this end, we have engaged four gifted and talented students in a search for the evolutionary origin of a newly discovered chemical bond. The sulfilimine chemical bond reinforces the collagenous network that underlies epithelial cells in all animal tissues. The students were tasked with searching for evidence for the bond in Cnidaria phylum by collecting and analyzing                     Hydractina                     ,                     Ectopleura                     and                     Metridium                     from the Maine coast. Their investigation was hands‐on and guided by a team involving their classroom teacher and scientists within the classroom and by video conferencing between the classroom and the university. Their findings indicate that the bond exist in all these Cnidarian species, indicating that the bond arose during the Cambrian Explosion, representing an essential innovation for the genesis of animal tissues. The students took the initiative to report their finding to the school board, fellow students, parents, school board and other members of the community. This effort engaged the students with the scientific process, provided an opportunity to experience discovery, and lead to their sharing of their knowledge and experience with a rural community.
THE ALLEN TELESCOPE ARRAY TWENTY-CENTIMETER SURVEY—A 690 DEG<sup>2</sup>, 12 EPOCH RADIO DATA SET. I. CATALOG AND LONG-DURATION TRANSIENT STATISTICS

We present the Allen Telescope Array Twenty-centimeter Survey (ATATS), a multi-epoch (12 visits), 690 deg(2) radio image and catalog at 1.4 GHz. The survey is designed to detect rare, very bright transients as well as to verify the capabilities of the ATA to form large mosaics. The combined image using data from all 12 ATATS epochs has rms noise sigma = 3.94 mJy beam(-1) and dynamic range 180, with a circular beam of 150 '' FWHM. It contains 4408 sources to a limiting sensitivity of 5 sigma = 20 mJy beam(-1). We compare the catalog generated from this 12 epoch combined image to the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS), a legacy survey at the same frequency, and find that we can measure source positions to better than similar to 20 ''. For sources above the ATATS completeness limit, the median flux density is 97% of the median value for matched NVSS sources, indicative of an accurate overall flux calibration. We examine the effects of source confusion due to the effects of differing resolution between ATATS and NVSS on our ability to compare flux densities. We detect no transients at flux densities greater than 40 mJy in comparison with NVSS and place a 2 sigma upper limit of 0.004 deg(-2) on the transient rate for such sources. These results suggest that the greater than or similar to 1 Jy transients reported by Matsumara et al. may not be true transients, but rather variable sources at their flux density threshold.
Integrating Ancient Indian Wisdom in Modern Business: The  Role of Spiritual Leadership, Workplace Spirituality, Ethical  Governance, and Corporate Social Responsibility in  Organizational Transformation

The growing complexities of organizational sustainability have intensified the demand for leadership models that emphasize values[1]driven decision-making, meaningful purpose, and human-cantered management. Drawing on the profound insights of ancient Indian wisdom, this study explores the influence of spiritual leadership, workplace spirituality, ethical governance, and corporate social responsibility (CSR) on organizational transformation. Adopting a quantitative research methodology, the study employed a structured questionnaire to collect primary data from 407 professionals across Tier-1 cities in India. The instrument incorporated validated scales to measure spiritual leadership, workplace spirituality, inner wisdom, innate human qualities, CSR, and organizational transformation. Correlation and regression analyses were conducted to evaluate the predictive relationships between these constructs in the context of responsible and sustainable business practices. The findings highlight the potential of integrating ancient Indian philosophical perspectives with modern management approaches to strengthen leadership, enhance employee engagement, and promote long-term organizational development. The study offers valuable insights for both practitioners and scholars on fostering trust, commitment, and resilience by aligning leadership practices with enduring ethical and cultural principles.
Refuges in Brazil: an analysis on rights, public policies and food and nutritional security

Reconhecer como os refugiados vivenciam direitos básicos garantidos pela Constituição Federal Brasileira de 1988, em especial o direito à saúde e à alimentação, assim como a existência de políticas públicas nacionais voltadas à garantia desses direitos, em vias de apontar estratégias que promovam a Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional desse grupo populacional foram os objetivos deste estudo. Realizou-se pesquisa bibliográfica em bases de dados eletrônicas para o período de 2015 a 2020. Os artigos selecionados revelaram extrema vulnerabilidade dos refugiados e políticas públicas desarticuladas para o enfrentamento dessa condição. Apesar do ordenamento jurídico nacional reconhecer os direitos dos refugiados, sua materialidade em políticas públicas que lhes permitam a plena integração no país ainda é um desafio. Na perspectiva da Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional, reconhecer as dificuldades dos refugiados em acessar uma alimentação adequada, saudável e sustentável e contorná-las, torna-se estratégico para lhes garantir o Direito Humano à Alimentação Adequada.
A Critical Infrastructure Protection Perspective on the Conflict in Ukraine: Recommendations for a Resilient Post-war Ukraine

AbstractRussia’s actions before and after its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 can be analyzed using the framework of Critical Infrastructure Protection. The task of shoring up Ukrainian resilience to Russian hybrid attacks against its critical infrastructures can also be analyzed and planned using this framework. This article proposes a Critical Infrastructure Protection perspective of the conflict in Ukraine and makes recommendations to enhance the resilience of Ukraine in all potential phases of the conflict, including during post-ceasefire reconstruction efforts. Lastly, the authors highlight the role of Romania in Ukrainian resilience through a transborder critical infrastructure perspective, suggesting also potential future contributions.
Deterministic evolution of an asexual population under the action of beneficial and deleterious mutations on additive fitness landscapes

We study a continuous time model for the frequency distribution of an infinitely large asexual population in which both beneficial and deleterious mutations occur and the fitness is additive. When beneficial mutations are ignored, the exact solution for the frequency distribution is known to be a Poisson distribution. Here we include beneficial mutations and obtain exact expressions for the frequency distribution at all times using an eigenfunction expansion method. We find that the stationary distribution is non-Poissonian and related to the Bessel function of the first kind. We also provide suitable approximations for the stationary distribution and the time to relax to the steady state. Our exact results, especially at mutation-selection equilibrium, can be useful in developing semi-deterministic approaches to understand stochastic evolution.
Modelling-based joint embedding of histology and genomics using canonical correlation analysis for breast cancer survival prediction

Traditional approaches to predicting breast cancer patients' survival outcomes were based on clinical subgroups, the PAM50 genes, or the histological tissue's evaluation. With the growth of multi-modality datasets capturing diverse information (such as genomics, histology, radiology and clinical data) about the same cancer, information can be integrated using advanced tools and have improved survival prediction. These methods implicitly exploit the key observation that different modalities originate from the same cancer source and jointly provide a complete picture of the cancer. In this work, we investigate the benefits of explicitly modelling multi-modality data as originating from the same cancer under a probabilistic framework. Specifically, we consider histology and genomics as two modalities originating from the same breast cancer under a probabilistic graphical model (PGM). We construct maximum likelihood estimates of the PGM parameters based on canonical correlation analysis (CCA) and then infer the underlying properties of the cancer patient, such as survival. Equivalently, we construct CCA-based joint embeddings of the two modalities and input them to a learnable predictor. Real-world properties of sparsity and graph-structures are captured in the penalized variants of CCA (pCCA) and are better suited for cancer applications. For generating richer multi-dimensional embeddings with pCCA, we introduce two novel embedding schemes that encourage orthogonality to generate more informative embeddings. The efficacy of our proposed prediction pipeline is first demonstrated via low prediction errors of the hidden variable and the generation of informative embeddings on simulated data. When applied to breast cancer histology and RNA-sequencing expression data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), our model can provide survival predictions with average concordance-indices of up to 68.32% along with interpretability. We also illustrate how the pCCA embeddings can be used for survival analysis through Kaplan-Meier curves.
Proteins with alternative folds reveal blind spots in AlphaFold-based protein structure prediction

In recent years, advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have transformed structural biology, particularly protein structure prediction. Though AI-based methods, such as AlphaFold (AF), often predict single conformations of proteins with high accuracy and confidence, predictions of alternative folds are often inaccurate, low-confidence, or simply not predicted at all. Here, we review three blind spots that alternative conformations reveal about AF-based protein structure prediction. First, proteins that assume conformations distinct from their training-set homologs can be mispredicted. Second, AF overrelies on its training set to predict alternative conformations. Third, degeneracies in pairwise representations can lead to high-confidence predictions inconsistent with experiment. These weaknesses suggest approaches to predict alternative folds more reliably.
Schauder a priori estimates and regularity of solutions to boundary-degenerate elliptic linear second-order partial differential equations

We establish Schauder a priori estimates and regularity for solutions to a class of boundary-degenerate elliptic linear second-order partial differential equations. Furthermore, given a smooth source function, we prove regularity of solutions up to the portion of the boundary where the operator is degenerate. Degenerate-elliptic operators of the kind described in our article appear in a diverse range of applications, including as generators of affine diffusion processes employed in stochastic volatility models in mathematical finance, generators of diffusion processes arising in mathematical biology, and the study of porous media.
The Quality Improvement Information System for Surveillance and Monitoring for Patient Safety and Personal Safety in Kalasin Hospital, Kalasin Province, Thailand

This mixed-method research aimed to evaluate in need assessments and develop an intervention model for quality improvement information system-QIIS for surveillance and monitoring Patient safety and Personals safety in Kalasin Hospital, Thailand. The process was divided into 3 phases, 1) Studies on needs assessments of patients and hospital staff-2P, 2) Develop the program and assessment 3) Program implementation and evaluation. The 245 participants were participated during October 2019 - Februarys 2020. A questionnaire and semi-structure interview by content analysis were applied to investigate on needs assessments and intervention evaluation were using checklist for observation. The results revealed that information alert from supportive technology especially in real-time were sophisticated improving and significantly increasing with the positively and satisfaction levels of the staff increasingly particularly in pre and post observation (p-value <0.05). The key success of QIIS was comprised as suddenly response and information alert system, for this reason their staff could be immediately responsive to problems as much as they affords.
The Role of the United Nations Security Council in the Protection of Cultural Heritage

Due to the various characteristics of cultural heritage, any attack on it draws the attention of the international community. This can be seen in the reactions of the United Nations (UN) to the destruction, looting, and trafficking of the cultural heritage of countries such as Iraq, Syria and the other countries committed by terrorist groups. What is important here is the United Nations Security Council's reactions to this issue. It seems that, in terms of securitizing cultural heritage, the procedures taken by the Security Council for the protection of cultural heritage have included requiring internal measures (affecting the domestic law of countries) and referring to the humanitarian aspects of cultural heritage. Paying attention to the Security Council’s performance with regard to cultural heritage can be effective since the Security Council, as the main pillar of the UN, has the primary duty of maintaining international peace and security and its decisions are binding for the UN members as per the UN Charter. To this end, this paper, by adopting a descriptive and analytical approach, tries to examine and explain the procedures of the United Nations Security Council for the protection of cultural heritage. Based on the findings of this paper, we conclude that United Nations Security Council’s resolutions have been effective in protecting cultural heritage.
Molecular dynamics simulation on oxidation process and interfacial performance of foamed asphalt binders based on ReaxFF force field

Asphalt can deteriorate and age due to exposure to environmental conditions. This ageing reduces pavement performance and recycling waste pavement is relevant for environmental protection. The oxidation process, properties and interfacial behaviour of asphalt binders and foamed asphalt binders were discussed with the classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulation and reactive force field molecular dynamics (ReaxFF MD) simulation, as well as mineral aggregate molecular systems. The oxidized models for each asphalt molecule were proposed, which closely matched actual experimental study results. The simulation results showed that sulfur atoms oxidized the fastest, followed by benzyl carbon. As the degree of oxidation increased, the viscosity and glass transition temperature of asphalt molecules also increased. The interfacial energies of various systems were analysed, such as foamed asphalt-aged asphalt, asphalt–aggregate and asphalt-recycled aggregate. It was found that the adhesion of asphalt-aged asphalt decreased due to the presence of water, but this phenomenon was not observed in the asphalt-recycled aggregate interface when the water content was less than 2%. The mean square displacement results showed that 3% or less water content facilitated the diffusion and movement of molecules in asphalt-recycled aggregate systems, whereas, in asphalt–aggregate systems, only 1% water content was sufficient.
New mRNA - nanoemulsions vaccine platform: application for Tuberculosis vaccine development

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is a deadly infectious disease caused by the airborne bacterium Mycobacterium Tuberculosis (M.tb), killing 1.6 million people every year, especially in low- and middle-income countries. The only licensed TB vaccine, a live attenuated strain of M. bovis (BCG), has variable efficacy, does not prevent transmission and is not safe in immunocompromised patients, particularly AIDS patients, who are at high risk of developing TB disease. Thus, the development of an efficient, safe and cost-effective tuberculosis vaccine remains a research priority. mRNA vaccine technology, which proved its potential during the COVID-19 pandemic, could represent a valuable alternative to conventional vaccines against TB. Objectives: We aim to establish a novel vaccine platform against TB, combining antigen identification by immunopeptidomics, mRNA design and production using advanced techniques, and a patented technology of lipid nanoemulsion (NE) adapted to efficiently deliver mRNA to target cells. Methods: Using a prototype mRNA encoding the fluorescent protein EGFP, we assessed in vitro the safety and transfection efficiency of different NE formulations on human alveolar basal epithelial cells (A549) and primary human monocyte-derived macrophages and dendritic cells. Results: Here we show that NEs can efficiently deliver mRNA to different cell types without significant cytotoxicity, and the formulation can be tailored to increase uptake by specific cells relevant for vaccination applications. Conclusion: Lipid NEs appear to be safe, easily adaptable and efficient transporters for mRNA. We will use selected NE formulations as carriers for mRNA vaccine candidates encoding relevant antigenic peptides from M.tb and other Mycobacterium species. Safety and immunogenicity studies will be performed in mice and the vaccination schedule will be optimized to generate a sustained humoral and cellular immune response against TB. This vaccine platform could be adapted to develop vaccines against other infectious diseases, particularly to quickly respond to emerging pathogens.
Data Encoding for Byzantine-Resilient Distributed Optimization

We study distributed optimization in the presence of Byzantine adversaries, where both data and computation are distributed among $m$ worker machines, $t$ of which may be corrupt. The compromised nodes may collaboratively and arbitrarily deviate from their pre-specified programs, and a designated (master) node iteratively computes the model/parameter vector for generalized linear models. In this work, we primarily focus on two iterative algorithms: Proximal Gradient Descent (PGD) and Coordinate Descent (CD). Gradient descent (GD) is a special case of these algorithms. PGD is typically used in the data-parallel setting, where data is partitioned across different samples, whereas, CD is used in the model-parallelism setting, where data is partitioned across the parameter space.   In this paper, we propose a method based on data encoding and error correction over real numbers to combat adversarial attacks. We can tolerate up to $t\leq \lfloor\frac{m-1}{2}\rfloor$ corrupt worker nodes, which is information-theoretically optimal. We give deterministic guarantees, and our method does not assume any probability distribution on the data. We develop a {\em sparse} encoding scheme which enables computationally efficient data encoding and decoding. We demonstrate a trade-off between the corruption threshold and the resource requirements (storage, computational, and communication complexity). As an example, for $t\leq\frac{m}{3}$, our scheme incurs only a {\em constant} overhead on these resources, over that required by the plain distributed PGD/CD algorithms which provide no adversarial protection. To the best of our knowledge, ours is the first paper that makes CD secure against adversarial attacks.   Our encoding scheme extends efficiently to the data streaming model and for stochastic gradient descent (SGD). We also give experimental results to show the efficacy of our proposed schemes.
AI-Powered Pollution Monitoring: Real-Time Noise and Air Quality Mapping Using IoT  Sensors in Nairobi

Urban noise pollution in Nairobi has reached critical levels and, continuous exposure of noise is  associated with increased health risks, including hearing loss, reduced sleep and concentration  levels and the same time there is an increase in air pollution mostly from old cars and open air  burning despite these severe impacts, Nairobi lacks a real-time, scalable noise monitoring system  and the existing solutions rely on infrequent manual surveys or reports from people, leaving gaps  in data accuracy and actionable insights.  This project report presents an IoT and Edge AI-driven noise and air pollution mapping system to  address these challenges. Low-cost sensors with a microcontroller were deployed across Nairobi’s  urban hotspots to capture real-time noise levels, which are processed by Edge-based AI that  classifies these noise sources (traffic, machinery, crowds) to identify pollution patterns. This  processed data is visualised on an interactive public dashboard, generating heatmaps and alerts  when noise exceeds WHO-recommended thresholds.
‘The children are victims, they are not in any way an extension of the crime’: caregiver perceptions about the experiences of children whose father downloaded child sexual abuse material (CSAM)

Sexual crime represents one of the most vilified and stigmatised crimes. As a result, there are repercussions for non-offending family members, including children, due to their kin relationship with the offender. This evidence-based report, including analysis of new empirical findings from a larger qualitative research study with adult family members of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) offenders, contributes to the limited knowledge about the experiences of children of CSAM offenders. Specifically, the data signals to children’s experiences of trauma and secondary stigma emanating from their father’s behaviour, and their interactions with members of their community and statutory services. The available evidence supports the need to recognise that children of men who downloaded CSAM need to be awarded ‘victim status’ and receive appropriate support. The clinical and policy implications of these findings are discussed therein.
The rule of law, judicial independence and the right to good administration – myth or reality?

AbstractIn this paper the author focuses on some core notions linking together judicial independence and good administration through the thread of the rule of law. The rule of law is the golden thread running through all public administration (which includes also the judicial administration) of a state, with the ultimate aim being the common good. This is an ideal to which all modern, so-called democratic, states should aspire. The author looks at the practical meaning of the rule of law and suggests an approach based on a core of eight principles, the so-called Bingham’s “sub-principles”, and adds two more to them. Finally, it is argued that one cannot speak of the rule of law, of fundamental human rights and of good administration as if these were concepts isolated from each other
Using Device Physics and Error Mitigation to Improve the Performance of Quantum Computers.

Doctor of Philosophy