Open research Europe最新文献

While it has almost become a truism of comparative linguistics that linguistic diversity is unevently distributed across the globe, the reasons are poorly understood up to the present day. Linguists are thus in the embarassing situation that they do not understand significant regularities in the way the objects of their study -languages- pattern. In this essay, I explore three interrelated strands of thought to create a perspective on the question that is different from those explored so far: first, I suggest that instead of looking at present-day levels of diversity statically, we should take an approach that looks into how these distributions were generated. Related to this point and in contradistinction to extant work, second, I advocate an inductive approach that departs from qualitative case studies that inform theory-building. Third, I ponder that, in contrast to the traditional focus of historical linguistics on language diversification and expansion, understanding how the ranges of languages are reduced might be the key missing piece of evidence in a global theory of language diversity and its genesis. This new perspective is also able to address the striking correlation between linguistic and biological diversity that suggest that the processes that created and maintain both are, on some level, qualitatively similar.

Background: Collaborative Workspaces are rapidly growing and evolving across the world. Traditionally understood as an urban phenomenon, most research understands them as either 'entrepreneurial-led', as profit-driven and commercial spaces such as business incubators and accelerators, or 'community-led' as being bottom-up, not-for-profit ventures aimed at catering for the needs of their community. Recent years however have seen their diffusion beyond large urban agglomerations to small towns and villages, with their functions assumed to be more community-orientated. At the same time, social innovation, or social innovation processes have been gaining prominence in academia, policy, and practice, as they address societal problems and hold potential for new forms of social relations. This paper attempts to provide a novel framework towards understanding the transformative potential of rural collaborative workspaces, as they engage in processes of social innovation, by drawing from diverse and community economies literature and assemblage thinking.

Methods: The paper uses international case study comparison between rural Austria and Greece (One case from each country). Methods applied were: semi-structured interviews (N=28), participant observation and focus groups (2).

Results: Community-led rural collaborative workspaces hold transformative potential from i) their ability to assist rural actors with their capacities and realizing their desires and ii) changing individual subjectivities towards collective. Through changing social relations in praxis and perceptions, we examine how social innovation processes through collaborative workspaces can be understood as a means of opening new economic subjectivities towards creating community economies as their transformative potential.

Conclusions: Although rural collaborative workspaces hold potential for societal transformation, they require further institutionalization and support to move beyond the interstitial and symbiotic stages of transformation.

Citizen science projects optimise the democratisation of the production of scientific knowledge. In these initiatives, research processes do not rely solely on scientists' but on citizens' engagement, likewise with benefits on both sides. As previous work shows, the inclusivity perspective of citizen science projects might be viewed critically as some groups of citizens tend to be overrepresented in these initiatives while others are left out. This paper explores the claim of inclusivity and the citizens' benefits based on four citizen science projects in the fields of astrophysics and particle physics on the citizen science platform Zooniverse. Besides a general engagement strategy, the citizen science projects addressed two groups specifically, the elderly and people with visual impairments. The claim for inclusivity is reflected in the analysis of citizens' demographic variables as an indicator for accessibility of the research projects. We used a pre-post design with questionnaires on science attitudes, motivations, skills, self-efficacy, and knowledge to assess what citizen scientists gained from participating in the project. The demographic analysis of the data reveals that participants were quite heterogeneous and that people who feel that they belong to a group that is discriminated against are particularly motivated to participate in citizen science projects. In terms of benefits, the results indicate knowledge and scientific skills gains, but no changes on other evaluative dimensions. Their attitude towards science was, in general, already rather positive when joining the projects, thus not leaving much room for change. These results confirm the importance of and call for a diversified citizen science engagement strategy and show that even in citizen science projects where the citizens' task is limited to classifying data lead to scientific knowledge and skills gains.

The study of transient and variable events, including novae, active galactic nuclei, and black hole binaries, has historically been a fruitful path for elucidating the evolutionary mechanisms of our universe. The study of such events in the millimeter and submillimeter is, however, still in its infancy. Submillimeter observations probe a variety of materials, such as optically thick dust, which are hard to study in other wavelengths. Submillimeter observations are sensitive to a number of emission mechanisms, from the aforementioned cold dust, to hot free-free emission, and synchrotron emission from energetic particles. Study of these phenomena has been hampered by a lack of prompt, high sensitivity submillimeter follow-up, as well as by a lack of high-sky-coverage submillimeter surveys. In this paper, we describe how the proposed Atacama Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (AtLAST) could fill in these gaps in our understanding of the transient universe. We discuss a number of science cases that would benefit from AtLAST observations, and detail how AtLAST is uniquely suited to contributing to them. In particular, AtLAST's large field of view will enable serendipitous detections of transient events, while its anticipated ability to get on source quickly and observe simultaneously in multiple bands make it also ideally suited for transient follow-up. We make theoretical predictions for the instrumental and observatory properties required to significantly contribute to these science cases, and compare them to the projected AtLAST capabilities. Finally, we consider the unique ways in which transient science cases constrain the observational strategies of AtLAST, and make prescriptions for how AtLAST should observe in order to maximize its transient science output without impinging on other science cases.

Background and objectives: This is a protocol for a living systematic review and meta-analysis.This review will assess the effects of state-of-the-art exercise interventions designed to promote functional mobility. Therefore, after identifying all potential interventions, we will use the F.I.T.T. principles (frequency, intensity, time, type) as well as the physical and health status of the participants as moderators to analyse the mechanisms for the positive benefits of exercise interventions.The main research questions are:Which exercise types are most beneficial for improving functional mobility in various populations of older adults?Which physical exercise characteristics in terms of frequency, intensity, time and duration will achieve the greatest benefit in terms of the defined outcomes, i.e, the functional mobility of older adults?

Methods: The systematic literature research according to PRISMA guidelines will search databases like MEDLINE, APA Psych-Info and Web of Science.Inclusion criteria are: healthy older people ≥ 50 years, randomized-controlled trials including exercise intervention and a walking or mobility assessments (eg., TUG, SPPB) as an outcome measure. A preliminary search revealed more than 33,000 hits that will be screened by pairs of independent reviewers. The results will be summarized according to the effects regarding functional mobility and potential dose-response relations via respective meta-analysis.

Conclusion: The systematic review will comprise the knowledge of the existing literature with regards to the effects of the physical activity interventions compared to an active or inactive control group.We will summarize the effects with respect to the F.I.T.T.. They provide a foundation for structuring an optimal exercise training program. If possible, we will also compare interventions from the different categories (eg. cardiovascular, resistance, motor-coordinative, multicomponent or mind-body exercise) as a network analysis and report the influence of moderator variables. Based on the results evidence-based guidelines following GRADE for physical exercise interventions to improve functional mobility in older adults will be provided.

Introduction: The benefits of sharing participant-level data, including clinical or epidemiological data, genomic data, high-dimensional imaging data, or human-derived samples, from biomedical studies have been widely touted and may be taken for granted. As investments in data sharing and reuse efforts continue to grow, understanding the cost and positive and negative effects of data sharing for research participants, the general public, individual researchers, research and development, clinical practice, and public health is of growing importance. In this scoping review, we will identify and summarize existing evidence on the positive and negative impacts and costs of data sharing and how they are measured.

Methods and analysis: Eligible studies will report on qualitative or quantitative approaches for measuring the cost of data sharing or its impact on participant privacy, individual or public health, researcher's careers, clinical or public health practice, or research or development. The systematic search strategy uses MeSH and text terms and is tailored for Ovid Medline, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, and Web of Science. We will apply the Arskey and O'Malley scoping review methodology. We selected a scoping rather than a systematic review approach to address multiple related questions and provide guidance related to an emerging field. Two reviewers will conduct the title-abstract and full-text screening and data charting independently. Discrepancies will be resolved through consensus and results will be summarized in a narrative form.

Conclusion: Research participants, investigators, regulatory groups, ethics review committees, data protection officers, and funders cannot make informed decisions or policies about data reuse without appropriate means of measuring the effects, positive or negative, and cost of data sharing.

The purpose of this paper is to make easily available to the scientific community an efficient voice morphing tool called STRAIGHTMORPH and provide a short tutorial on its use with examples. STRAIGHTMORPH consists of a set of Matlab functions allowing the generation of high-quality, parametrically-controlled morphs of an arbitrary number of voice samples. A first step consists in extracting an 'mObject' for each voice sample, with accurate tracking of the fundamental frequency contour and manual definition of Time and Frequency anchors corresponding across samples to be morphed. The second step consists in parametrically combining the mObjects to generate novel synthetic stimuli, such as gender, identity or emotion continua, or random combinations. STRAIGHTMORPH constitutes a simple but efficient and versatile tool to generate high quality, parametrically controlled continua between voices - and beyond.

Previous research shows the importance of building up self-help structures in a transnational perspective for the inclusion of migrant women who are fleeing their home countries because of war, violence, or different forms of vulnerability. The mobilization of self-help organizations through the intersection of transnationalism and gender is, in fact, a useful direction for a practice-oriented pedagogy directed both towards (1) the most vulnerable groups of women, or (2) those already empowered either as community leaders or network facilitators, other migrants and the whole native population. For this paper, we compare two video-interviews of refugee women collected in Bulgaria and Italy, which are important receiving countries either at the South-Eastern or Southern external border of the European Union. The research questions of this comparative assessment include: 1) How do refugee women organize themselves for mutual help? 2) How do they build their social networks through transnational practices to bridge with the local people? 3) Is community or individual empowerment of refugee women better for implementation through ethnic lines or a gender perspective? The final aim of this investigation is to analyse various patterns of social networks' creation among refugee women originating from different socio-cultural contexts. The research findings might be useful to instil inclusion practices which are apt to refugee women empowerment.

Background: This work was carried out within the framework of the SisAl Pilot project, which is devoted to the environmentally friendly production of silicon. This new method relies on the aluminothermic reduction of quartz in slag, offering a more sustainable alternative to the traditional reduction of silica with carbon in submerged arc furnaces.

Methods: The process takes place in a rotary kiln producing silicon (Si) and alumina slag (actually, a CaO - Al ₂O ₃ slag), which must be separated at the end to extract the silicon. This separation process is analyzed through mathematical modelling and numerical simulation, as it is of industrial interest to know how much time it takes for Si and CaO - Al ₂O ₃ slag to separate once the process has ended. Generally, a multiphase flow model is used to estimate the separation time of the two components once aluminothermic reduction has ended.

Results: Several scenarios are considered for the numerical simulation of the separation time, namely different initial configurations and material properties of both fluids are covered. Moreover, the separation times obtained with two distinct multiphase flow models -VOF (volume of fluid) and Eulerian- are compared.

Conclusions: The separation times resulting from simulations using the multiphase Eulerian model are more realistic compared to those from the VOF model, which clearly tends to underestimate separation times. Furthermore, apart from the selected multiphase flow model, the density difference between silicon and alumina slag plays a critical role in determining the separation time.

Background: Despite extensive studies of the Mesozoic-Cenozoic magmatic history of Svalbard, little has been done on the Paleozoic magmatism due to fewer available outcrops.

Methods: 2D seismic reflection data were used to study magmatic intrusions in the subsurface of eastern Svalbard.

Results: This work presents seismic evidence for west-dipping, Middle Devonian-Mississippian sills in eastern Spitsbergen, Svalbard. The sills crosscut a late Neoproterozoic Timanian thrust system, which was reworked during Caledonian contraction. The sills are unconformably overlain by relatively undeformed Pennsylvanian-Mesozoic sedimentary rocks and crosscut by Cretaceous dykes of the High Arctic Large Igneous Province. The sills probably intruded along extensional fractures during post-Caledonian reactivation-overprinting of the late Neoproterozoic thrust system. Kimberlitic accessory minerals in exposed contemporaneous intrusions and the chemical composition of chromium spinel grains in Upper Triassic sedimentary rocks in Svalbard suggest that the Middle Devonian-Mississippian intrusions in eastern Spitsbergen show affinities with diamond-rich kimberlites in northwestern Russia. Overall, the sills were emplaced during a regional episode of extension-related Devonian-Carboniferous magmatism in the Northern Hemisphere including the Kola-Dnieper and Yakutsk-Vilyui large igneous provinces.

Conclusions: This work presents the first evidence for extensive Middle Devonian-Mississippian magmatism in Svalbard. These intrusions may be part of the Kola-Dnieper Large Igneous Province and intruded parallel to preexisting, Proterozoic-early Paleozoic orogenic structures. Their strike is inconsistent with a source from a potential mantle plume center in the eastern Barents Sea. Thus, the radiating emplacement pattern of the magmatic intrusions of the Kola-Dnieper Large Igneous Province are not the product of plume-related uplift but of structural inheritance. A similar line of reasoning is successfully applied to intrusions of the Yakutsk-Vilyui and High Arctic large igneous provinces.