Scientific Projects Research Articles

Remember Darwin: Individualism, Neuroscience and Language

Individualism has been a constant theme of the development of child and adolescent mental health since at least 1870. Freud’s Scientific Project is an exercise in neurological individualism as have many subsequent neuroscience projects. Just because bodies contain neurological and chemical circuits, it does not mean that mammalian animals are discrete. Mammals live in communication networks and humans have evolved to make those networks linguistic. It is species adaptations that are manifest in the lives of single members of a species and provide for fitness to environment. The many biological scientists that call themselves neurologists have been prone to misunderstand this Darwinian premise.

Data Quality and Data Governance: Investigating the Impact on Data Science Outcomes

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects that high data quality and effective data governance have on the outcomes of data science, with a particular emphasis on the vital roles that these factors play in improving decision-making within businesses. The rising use of data science projects by enterprises for the purpose of digital transformation presents major hurdles, particularly with regard to the trustworthiness of data and compliance with appropriate legal frameworks. A high data quality improves model accuracy, decision-making efficiency, and error reduction, while good governance boosts compliance with rules, data security, and accessibility, according to the findings of the study, which were derived from an analysis of data collected from professionals working in data science and related sectors. These findings demonstrate the synergy that exists between data quality and governance, underscoring the fact that businesses may obtain more dependable and trustworthy outcomes by prioritizing these components, which in turn supports digital transformation programs that are effective and responsible.

Towards One health for All; Maintaining Human health in a town through Integration of an integrated scientific projects into a healthy landscaped site.

Chronic diseases in big town as a result of over crowded streets, waste pollutants and factories lead us to work suriously and regourously in order to provide a healthy environment suitable for traitment in ecological town with a suitable density of population for healthy living. In this research through landscape architecture and the concept of ONE HEALTH as well as the fabric space, we promote health for all through a modern healthy structure in Ouzera town with a salutogenic architecture. The research in the medical fields is also being developed by establishing an integrated scientific space in Ouzera town according to the local schema for mangement of Médéa territories for the 2030 horizons. This space is designated with landscape Architecture and one of its research structures proposed for design is a reserch center on animal medicine and productivity that implements the one health initiative.

The Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine in Times of Independence and Martial Law: Development Strategy, Preservation, and International Co-operation

Abstract This article explores the operational realities faced by the major national libraries in Ukraine during the period of independence and martial law, including shifts in priorities and the development and preservation of digital resources with research and historical-cultural significance at the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine. It also examines the increased involvement in European open science projects and underscores the critical role of European partnerships in safeguarding national and global cultural heritage, particularly against potential loss during wartime conflicts.

Materiality of Memorialisation: Mapping Migrant Women's Landmarks in Europe

This article investigates the memorialization of migrant women across transcultural landscapes, and analyses results from the Register of Migrant Women Landmarks in Europe (hereinafter RMWLE), central to the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) action project “Women on the Move” (CA19112 – WEMov). It serves as reference for subsequent research based on data from this Register, for which data collection is continuing. The RMWLE registers toponyms, such as monuments, plaques, streets and other infrastructures named after women with a significant history of migration. It honours aspects rarely prioritized in memorialisation agendas, which are skewed towards men’s stories, and towards the more linear biographies of sedentary figures whose European, national, and regional memorialisation have remained uncomplicated by migration. This Deep Data study reveals recurring patterns at the level of Europe in the memorialisation of these women migrants. The diversity of stories, the richness and the prominence of landmarks devoted to men compared to women is a subject well-covered in memorialisation studies. This unbalance is compounded by the data from our register which shows landmarks on women migrants that are sometime tokenized, often marginalized, and which reproduce the bias towards nurture and care that have besieged the memorialisation of women in general. It further shows that the memorialisation process and the political and cultural mechanisms of official celebration often work against the recognition of cross-border careers and stories. The intersectionality of the project, highlighting both gender and migration, uncovers a political landscape of toponyms – and we reflect on how this register can help combat cultural prejudice by recovering migration episodes. The RMWLE helps us reflect on the defining impact of migration episodes, a reality rarely underlined in the biographies of famous women. This article favours a storytelling approach, to counter dominant cultural narratives and knowledge practices.

Citizen Science and Multimedia Didactic Resources: Knowledge of Mosquito-Borne Diseases in an Urban Area of Southwestern Colombia

Citizen science resources have had great relevance in community educational intervention, fostering interest in ecological research projects. This study investigated the influence of the application of multimedia didactic resources focused on citizen science and analysis of sociodemographic variables to improve the levels of ecological knowledge about mosquito-borne diseases. For this, a probabilistic sample of 172 participants from an urban sector in southwestern Colombia was selected. A multimedia didactic material was designed for the educational intervention and evaluated by means of pretest and posttest. To assess whether the educational intervention was statistically significant, the data were processed with statistical inference to determine the influence of various variables (gender, age, marital status, schooling, and occupation) on each person’s ecological knowledge. The findings showed a significant increase in the knowledge levels of the participants. The marital status variable (married and cohabiting) significantly influenced ecological knowledge. These participants are more likely to obtain high knowledge, associated with the prevention of their family environment. This study demonstrated that multimedia didactic strategies are an important factor to take into account in the structuring of environmental education and citizen science projects. For future research, it is suggested to deepen the relationship between sociodemographic variables and ecological knowledge.

“An Emotional Cycle”: Excitement, Worry, and Joy in a Citizen Science Biodiversity Project Using Bee Hotels

ABSTRACT This paper considers the affective and emotional aspects of citizen scientist engagement in a research project aiming to map solitary bee diversity across Johannesburg, South Africa. In social media engagement by people participating as citizen scientists, expressions of emotions were a key feature. To further understand the implications of emotions for the science and for the citizens, we undertook interviews with a sub-set of recruited participants. These are contextualized by a discussion of key literature on citizen science and human-insect relations. The findings presented show how excitement, worry and joy were expressed by participants at different stages of the citizen science project. We then theorize on the role of emotion in this specific citizen science project and argue that emotion should be considered at the design stage of other citizen science projects as it can play a key role in creating experiences that are rewarding for citizens, as well as producing useful data for scientists.

A co-created citizen science project on the short term effects of outdoor residential woodsmoke on the respiratory health of adults in the Netherlands

Background and aimWoodsmoke from household fireplaces contributes significantly to outdoor air pollution in the Netherlands. The current understanding of the respiratory health effects of exposure to smoke from residential wood burning is limited. This study investigated the association between short-term changes in outdoor woodsmoke exposure and lung function, respiratory symptoms, and medication use in adults in the Netherlands.MethodsThis study was co-created with citizen scientists and other relevant stakeholders. A panel study was conducted with repeated observations in 46 adults between February and May 2021 in four Dutch towns. Participants recorded their symptoms and medication use in daily diaries, and conducted morning and evening home spirometry measurements. Woodsmoke exposure was characterized by measuring levoglucosan (most specific marker for woodsmoke exposure), black/brown carbon, fine and ultrafine particulate matter at central monitoring sites. Individual woodsmoke perception (smell) was recorded in daily diaries. Linear and logistic regression models were used to investigate the association between respiratory health and woodsmoke exposure. Models were adjusted for time-varying confounders and accounted for repeated observations within participants.ResultsConsistent positive associations were found between levoglucosan and shortness of breath (SOB) during rest and extra respiratory medication use. Odds ratios for current day exposure to levoglucosan were 1.12 (95% CI: 0.97, 1.30) for SOB during rest and 1.19 (95% CI: 1.07, 1.33) for extra medication use, expressed per interquartile range of levoglucosan concentrations (69.16 ng/m3). Positive non-significant associations were found between levoglucosan and nasal symptoms, cough and waking up with SOB. No consistent association was found between levoglucosan and lung function. Associations found between woodsmoke markers, SOB during rest and extra medication use remained after the inclusion of PM2.5 and UFP in two-pollutant models.ConclusionsAdults experienced more SOB during rest, nasal symptoms and used more medication to treat respiratory symptoms on days with higher levels of outdoor woodsmoke concentrations.

No-Till and Crop Rotation Are Promising Practices to Enhance Soil Health in Cotton-Producing Semiarid Regions: Insights from Citizen Science

This on-farm study was conducted to assess the impact of six prevalent crop management practices adopted by growers in West Texas on various indicators of soil health. This study is a part of a citizen science project, where we collaborated with cotton growers who helped with standardized sample and data collection from 2017 to 2022. This project aimed to identify soil management practices that increase carbon sequestration, enhance biological activities, and improve overall soil health. We monitored soil moisture, soil organic matter (SOM), inorganic nitrogen (NH4+-N and NO3−-N) and other exchangeable nutrients, and soil microbial abundances as obtained via fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) in 85 fields, incorporating different management practices during the cotton growing season. In our study, volumetric moisture content (VWC) was increased by no-till, irrigation, and crop rotation, but the addition of residue decreased VWC. No-till, irrigation, and crop rotation increased SOM, but a cover crop decreased SOM. No-till and residue retention also increased microbial biomass carbon (MBC). Tillage, irrigation, and crop rotation influenced the abundance of the main microbial groups, including bacterial, fungi, and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF). Additionally, water content, SOM, and microbial abundances are correlated with clay percentage. Our results indicate that no-till and crop rotation are the two most crucial soil management approaches for sustainable soil health. As such, implementing both no-till and crop rotation in the cropping systems has the most promising potential to increase the soil resilience in dryland cotton production in semiarid regions, thereby helping growers to maintain cotton production.

EBryoSoil: a citizen science application to monitor changes in soil ecosystems.

Biological soil covers (BSCs) play a pivotal role in ecosystem functioning by enhancing soil stability, mediating nutrient cycling, and influencing soil hydrology. Recognized as ecosystem engineers, they can physically modify, maintain, or create habitats, facilitating plant community development. Through these intricate interactions, BSCs contribute significantly to ecological processes, highlighting their importance in the overall health and functionality of the ecosystems of the Iberian Peninsula. Here we present the results obtained from the contributions of the citizen scientists uploaded from November 2019 to January 2021 with eBryoSoil, an app that allows citizens to participate in mapping the BSC communities across the Iberian Peninsula. Here, we emphasize the importance of habitats and consequently, their interaction with climatic variables for the persistence of BSCs (lichens and bryophytes). Conservation efforts targeted at preserving diverse habitats are essential to ensure the continued presence of lichen and bryophyte communities. Despite challenges posed by the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak, this citizen science project demonstrated success in utilizing a specifically tailored app to gather valuable information on BSC communities, providing insights into their vulnerability to climate change. This program serves as an illustrative example of how citizen science can effectively identify and study vulnerable habitats, offering a blueprint for future studies focused on understudied organisms.

Enhancing Machine Learning-Based Autoscaling for Cloud Resource Orchestration

Performance and cost-effectiveness are sustained by efficient management of resources in cloud computing. Current autoscaling approaches, when trying to balance between the consumption of resources and QoS requirements, usually fall short and end up being inefficient and leading to service disruptions. The existing literature has primarily focuses on static metrics and/or proactive scaling approaches which do not align with dynamically changing tasks, jobs or service calls. The key concept of our approach is the use of statistical analysis to select the most relevant metrics for the specific application being scaled. We demonstrated that different applications require different metrics to accurately estimate the necessary resources, highlighting that what is critical for an application may not be for the other. The proper metrics selection for control mechanism which regulates the requried recources of application are described in this study. Introduced selection mechanism enables us to improve previously designed autoscaler by allowing them to react more quickly to sudden load changes, use fewer resources, and maintain more stable service QoS due to the more accurate machine learning models. We compared our method with previous approaches through a carefully designed series of experiments, and the results showed that this approach brings significant improvements, such as reducing QoS violations by up to 80% and reducing VM usage by 3% to 50%. Testing and measurements were conducted on the Hungarian Research Network (HUN-REN) Cloud, which supports the operation of over 300 scientific projects.

Spanish participation in the social science and humanities research projects within the 7th European Union Framework Programme (2007-2013)

The objectives of this paper are to describe the Social Science and Humanities projects involving Spanish participation within the Seventh EU Framework Programme (FP7) (2007-2013), along with the scholarly output generated by these projects, and to compare the findings with the data from FP6 (2002-2006) in order to track their evolution. First, we determine the most significant characteristics of the projects with Spanish participation (duration, funding, topics, type of institution, etc.). Second, we analyse the scholarly production derived from a sample of projects taken from the Scopus database to analyse some bibliometric features. The results show an increase in the leadership and prominence of Spanish institutions, compared to FP6-SSH. In terms of scholarly outputs, none of the sources used (CORDIS, OpenAIRE and SCOPUS) allows a detailed study of scholarly production, although this output is characterized by articles written predominantly in English, published in first-quartile journals. Moreover, data showed that research funding for SSH may have long-term effects, with some outputs acknowledging funding being published a decade after the end of the project.

What’s in it for citizen scientists? An analysis of participant’s gains from a democratisation perspective

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 democratisation perspective of citizen science projects might be viewed critically as some groups of citizens tend to be overrepresented in these initiatives while other are left out. This paper explores the claim of democratisation 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 democratisation 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.

Optimization of Screening Media to Improve Antimicrobial Biodiscovery from Soils in Undergraduate/Citizen Science Research-Engaged Initiatives.

Background/Objectives: Research-engaged academic institutions offer the opportunity to couple undergraduate education/citizen science projects with antimicrobial biodiscovery research. Several initiatives reflecting this ethos have been reported internationally (e.g., Small World, Tiny Earth, MicroMundo, Antibiotics Unearthed). These programs target soil habitats due to their high microbial diversity and promote initial screening with non-selective, nutrient media such as tryptic soy agar (TSA). However, evaluation of published outputs to date indicates that isolate recovery on TSA is consistently dominated by the genera Bacillus, Pseudomonas, and Paenibacillus. In this study, we evaluated the potential of soil extract agar to enhance soil isolate diversity and antibiosis induction outcomes in our undergraduate Antibiotics Unearthed research program. Methods: We comparatively screened 229 isolates from woodland and garden soil samples on both tryptic soy agar (TSA) and soil extract agar (SEA) for antimicrobial activity against a panel of clinically relevant microbial pathogens. Results: On one or both media, 15 isolates were found to produce zones of clearing against respective pathogens. 16S rRNA gene sequencing linked the isolates with three genera: Streptomyces (7), Paenibacillus (6), and Pseudomonas (2). Six of the Streptomyces isolates and one Pseudomonas demonstrated antimicrobial activity when screened on SEA, with no activity on TSA. Furthermore, incorporation of the known secondary metabolite inducer N acetyl-glucosamine (20 mM) into SEA media altered the pathogen inhibition profiles of 14 isolates and resulted in broad-spectrum activity of one Streptomyces isolate, not observed on SEA alone. In conclusion, SEA was found to expand the diversity of culturable isolates from soil and specifically enhanced the recovery of members of the genus Streptomyces. SEA was also found to be a superior media for antibiosis induction among Streptomyces isolates when compared to TSA. It was noted that Paenibacillus isolates' antibiosis induction demonstrated a strain-specific response with respect to the growth media used. Conclusions: The authors propose SEA inclusion of in soil screening protocols as a cost-effective, complementary strategy to greatly enhance outcomes in undergraduate/citizen science-engaged antimicrobial biodiscovery initiatives.

Point-of-care biochemistry for primary healthcare in low-middle income countries: a qualitative inquiry

BackgroundAccess to essential diagnostics is crucial for primary healthcare (PHC) in low-and-middle income countries (LMICs). Many LMICs have invested in equipping PHC with point-of-care (PoC) diagnostics for infectious diseases, however there has been no similar investment to improve PHC capacities for clinical chemistry. The biochemistry gap is among the deterrents to universal health coverage.MethodsA social sciences project was conducted with the aim to understand the key PHC stakeholders’ insights on the pertinence of PoC biochemistry for PHC in LMICs. Data generation was conducted between July-November 2023 in Mongolia, Nigeria and Peru. Decision-makers in healthcare delivery, healthcare professionals, and patient and community advocates were engaged using a combination of sampling techniques. Unstructured individual and group conversations, and non-participant observation were conducted. Analysis involved an inductive line-by-line coding on printed transcripts, followed by a deductive coding and theme-by-theme analysis on digitized transcripts.ResultsFifteen, 51 and 20 informants from Mongolia, Nigeria and Peru, respectively, participated. Fifty-five of the 94 informants were female. Most informants considered that PoC biochemistry in PHC would be pertinent, from a clinical and a resources-saving perspective. Those households that currently bear the burden of referrals (i.e., the poor, the bedridden, the older adults) would benefit the most from the deployment of PoC biochemistry for essential biochemistry parameters. Improved access to PoC glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), lipid, liver and kidney profile was perceived as helpful to inform clinicians’ decision-taking. The value of PoC biochemistry for the management of noncommunicable diseases (diabetes, hypertension) and infectious conditions (dengue, malaria, tuberculosis), to improve child health outcomes (severe dehydration in children with diarrhea and/or malnutrition) and to reduce preventable causes of death (dengue-related renal failure) was highlighted.ConclusionsPoC biochemistry holds potential to revert the impact that the biochemistry gap has for patient care in some LMICs’ PHC settings. PoC equipment for parameters such as HbA1c, urea, creatinine or electrolytes could enhance community-level management of preventable causes of mortality, improve service delivery for patients affected by locally-prevalent infectious conditions, and improve the psychosocial and economic wellbeing of patients facing the burden of referrals to remote biochemistry-equipped centers.Trial RegistrationNot applicable.

A Reference Database of Reptile Images

While there are millions of reptile images available online, they are not well organized and not easily findable, accessible, interoperable, or reproducible (FAIR). More importantly, they are not standardized and thus hardly comparable. Here we present a reference database of more than 14,000 standardized images of 1045 reptile species (969 lizard and 76 snake species) that are based on preserved specimens in 20 different collections, including 533 type species of genera and type specimens of 72 species. All images were taken with standardized views, including dorsal and ventral body shots as well as dorsal, ventral, and lateral views of the heads and other body parts. Although only 11 out of the 20 collections are cross-referenced in VertNet, some others are indexed in GBIF, and this fraction will certainly grow in the near future. The utility of this and similar image collections will further grow with additional material and further cross-referencing, e.g., to DNA sequence databases or citizen science projects. The images are searchable and freely available on Morphobank (Project 5121) and on Figshare.

General Purpose Alarm Device: A programmable annunciator

The General Purpose Alarm Device (GPAD) shines lights and makes loud noises to draw the attention of a human being to a problem. It provides a programmable, 80 character display to provide textual information. As an inexpensive modular annunciator, it is intended to decrease the cost of any system that requires complex monitoring and rapid human intervention. Fundamentally, it is designed to act as a peripheral to a controlling computer or microcontroller. The controller may communicate over a USB (COM) connection or a 5V SPI connection via an RJ12 cable. The GPAD is intended to be as general purpose as possible, so that it can be used to provide alarm functionality for many engineering and scientific projects, hobby machines, instruments, and various situations. The original driving use case is to provide medical alarm capability to the PolyVent open-source mechanical medical ventilator. The GPAD supports 5 alarm levels above “silent” of increasing urgency in terms of light, rhythm, and frequency. It has a mute button. It is based on the Arduino Uno Atmega328 design and is potentially extensible through headers and shields like an Uno. The GPAD includes a printed wiring assembly, firmware for the GPAD peripheral, a simple documented API and a 3D printable enclosure. The repo includes instructions for using a second GPAD as a controller as an example for programming.

Občanska znanost v splošnih knjižnicah

This paper summarises reflections on citizen science and the role of public libraries as focal points for citizen science. Citizen science has evolved beyond traditional research institutions. Public libraries are often referred to as the cultural and information centre of the local community. They promote equality in their communities through their policy of openness to all. Their role in the local community makes them a logical choice to become the centre of citizen science in their community.Based on a review of the foreign literature on citizen science and libraries as actors in citizen science, this paper presents different ways in which citizen science projects can be integrated into the framework of existing activities of public libraries. We have examined the ways in which citizen science is already present in public libraries and we have identified ways in which its presence can be further enhanced through the introduction of new services related to citizen science.

Mreža občanske znanosti v Sloveniji

Citizen science is a concept of scientific research that promotes an open dialogue between the scientific community and the broader public and thus also guides social development. In Slovenia, this concept has developed considerably over the past year, in particular through the establishment of the specialised portal citizenscience.si and the Citizen Science Network. The European Union has also contributed to the promotion and visibility of citizen science mainly by funding. Along with other organizations as museums and societies, and individuals, universities and research institutes also make an important contribution to citizen science, not only by expanding and strengthening research activities through public engagement, but also by improving their social reputation and strengthening trust in science. In Slovenia, public participation in science has a long tradition, which went under various names until the term "občanska znanost" was established as the most appropriate translation. Since 2017, the Central Technical Library of the University of Ljubljana (CTK) has been involved in the promotion and development of citizen science in Slovenia, first by organising the expert meetings and later by directly supporting a citizen science project. They work with other organisations to organise events to promote collaboration between researchers and libraries and the general public, and is active in international organisations. The content of the citizenscience.si portal and an analysis of the published projects are presented in detail.

Data science model canvas for health research: a systematic review

Data science in the healthcare sector is rapidly growing and attracting significant investments. Over the past 10 years, the number of research and publications on artificial intelligence has tripled. However, many data science projects fail due to poor planning. Canvas models emerge as effective tools for planning. A systematic review was conducted to analyze canvas models tailored for data science and focused on healthcare research. This analysis uncovered gaps in the models, particularly in addressing essential issues like ethics, security, data preservation, and sharing. We identified opportunities to enhance the models by integrating project management elements and the Data Management Plan (DMP) to address these shortcomings.