Open research Europe最新文献

{"title":"Transnational patterns, social networks and self-help organizations for migrant women.","authors":"Paolo Ruspini, Petko Hristov","doi":"10.12688/openreseurope.17168.2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12688/openreseurope.17168.2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>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.</p>","PeriodicalId":74359,"journal":{"name":"Open research Europe","volume":"4 ","pages":"67"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11747294/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143017913","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Exploring the potential of blockchain technology for citizen engagement in smart governance.","authors":"Niccolò Testi, Rebecca Marconi, Edna Pasher","doi":"10.12688/openreseurope.16153.3","DOIUrl":"10.12688/openreseurope.16153.3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This review article explores the potential of blockchain technology (BCT) as a key enabler for fostering transparency, trust, and citizen engagement in smart governance within smart cities. By examining the benefits of BCT in various aspects of smart city systems, such as data security and privacy, the paper highlights the advantages of implementing consortium blockchain architecture and the Proof of Authority (PoA) consensus algorithm and discusses the challenges of scalability and security concerns. Based on the literature showed in this article, we believe that the use of BCT in smart governance could significantly enhance citizen participation and help manage and deliver public services, paving the way for more effective decision-making processes and improved quality of life for citizens.</p>","PeriodicalId":74359,"journal":{"name":"Open research Europe","volume":"3 ","pages":"183"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11809474/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143392428","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Separation Time of Aluminothermic Reduction Products for Sustainable Silicon Production.","authors":"Javier Bullón, Óscar Crego, José Luis Ferrín, Dolores Gómez, Iván Martínez, Luis Javier Pérez-Pérez","doi":"10.12688/openreseurope.18833.2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12688/openreseurope.18833.2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>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.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>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.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>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.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>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.</p>","PeriodicalId":74359,"journal":{"name":"Open research Europe","volume":"4 ","pages":"249"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11724202/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142973864","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"How science and policy came together and made a global impact: The EU common list of COVID-19 antigen tests.","authors":"Barbara Raffael, Mauro Petrillo, Gabriele Leoni, Tobias Wiesenthal, Yoline Kuipers, Maddalena Querci","doi":"10.12688/openreseurope.18267.2","DOIUrl":"10.12688/openreseurope.18267.2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Science can play a pivotal role in providing support to public health policy making processes, and to ensure effective and efficient implementation of policies. This work illustrates how science was integrated into policymaking during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, in relation to countries' COVID-19 antigen testing strategies as well as the implementation of Regulation (EU) 2021/953 on the EU Digital COVID Certificate. The lessons learnt during this process as well as the critical steps taken, and concrete recommendations, have been identified and capitalised and turned into a list of science-based advice. The availability of an already established mechanism that can be quickly adapted in case of need, is likely to be highly beneficial in case of a future public health emergency.</p>","PeriodicalId":74359,"journal":{"name":"Open research Europe","volume":"4 ","pages":"198"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-12-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11809469/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143392585","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Intracellular dry mass density increases under growth-induced pressure.","authors":"Hyojun Kim, Baptiste Alric, Nolan Chan, Julien Roul, Morgan Delarue","doi":"10.12688/openreseurope.18557.2","DOIUrl":"10.12688/openreseurope.18557.2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Cells that proliferate in confined environments develop mechanical compressive stress, referred to as growth-induced pressure, which inhibits growth and division across various organisms. Recent studies have shown that in these confined spaces, the diffusivity of intracellular nanoparticles decreases. However, the physical mechanisms behind this reduction remain unclear. In this study, we use quantitative phase imaging to measure the refractive index and dry mass density of <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i> cells proliferating under confinement in a microfluidic bioreactor. Our results indicate that the observed decrease in diffusivity could be attributed to the intracellular accumulation of macromolecules. Furthermore, the linear scaling between cell content and growth-induced pressure suggests that the concentrations of macromolecules and osmolytes are maintained proportionally under such pressure in <i>S. cerevisiae</i>.</p>","PeriodicalId":74359,"journal":{"name":"Open research Europe","volume":"4 ","pages":"231"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11809470/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143392590","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Overcoming the Silencing of Doxycycline-Inducible Promoters in hiPSC-derived Cardiomyocytes.","authors":"Michelle Guichardaz, Sveva Bottini, Elisa Balmas, Alessandro Bertero","doi":"10.12688/openreseurope.19024.1","DOIUrl":"10.12688/openreseurope.19024.1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) are pivotal for studying human development, modeling diseases, and advancing regenerative medicine. Effective control of transgene expression is crucial to achieve temporal and quantitative precision in all of these contexts. The doxycycline (dox)-inducible OPTi-OX system, which integrates the Tet-On 3G transactivator and dox-responsive transgene at the <i>hROSA26</i> and <i>AAVS1</i> genomic safe harbors (GSHs), respectively, offers a promising solution. Yet, transgene silencing, particularly in hiPSC-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs), limits its utility.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>To address this, we evaluated strategies to enhance dox-inducible transgene expression. We compared two promoters, TRE3VG and T11, for activity and stability, and investigated the addition of a Ubiquitous Chromatin Opening Element (UCOE) to reduce silencing. We also tested relocating the transgene cassette to the <i>CLYBL</i> GSH, and employed sodium butyrate (SB), a histone deacetylase inhibitor, to restore promoter activity. Transgene expression was assessed <i>via</i> flow cytometry and real-time quantitative PCR.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>TRE3VG exhibited higher activity than T11, but both were prone to silencing. UCOE did not enhance promoter activity in hiPSCs, but modestly reduced silencing in hiPSC-CMs. Targeting the <i>CLYBL</i> locus improved promoter activity compared to <i>AAVS1</i> in both hiPSCs and hiPSC-CMs. SB restored activity in silenced inducible promoters within hiPSC-CMs, but compromised hiPSC viability. Unexpectedly, Tet-On 3G was silenced in some clones and could not be reactivated by SB.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>These findings underscore the need for integrating multiple strategies, including careful GSH selection, improved cassette design, epigenetic modulation, and clone screening, to develop robust dox-inducible systems that retain functionality during hiPSC differentiation.</p>","PeriodicalId":74359,"journal":{"name":"Open research Europe","volume":"4 ","pages":"266"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11803382/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143383778","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"MultiOptForest: An interactive multi-objective optimization tool for forest planning and scenario analysis.","authors":"Kyle Eyvindson, Daniel Burgas, Clara Antón-Fernández, Jussi Hakanen, Michael Emmerich, Julian Klein, Mikko Mönkkönen, Tord Snäll, Astor Toraño Caicoya, Marta Vergarechea, Clemens Blattert","doi":"10.12688/openreseurope.15812.2","DOIUrl":"10.12688/openreseurope.15812.2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>MultiOptForest is an open-source software designed to simplify building and solving multi-objective optimization problems for forest planning. It aims to find the optimal portfolio of management regimes that balance the objectives regarding multiple forest ecosystem services and biodiversity. The software flexibly imports data, allowing for the use of a variety of forest simulator outputs. The user provides preference information through a user-friendly graphical interface, where the range of possible values for each objective is provided. MultiOptForest solves the optimization problem producing a set of Pareto optimal solutions, <i>i.e.,</i> solutions where none of the objectives can be improved without compromising others. MultiOptForest is versatile enough to design a Pareto optimal forest plan for a small holding to assess management and the trade-off between multiple policy objectives impacting the future development of forests across regions and countries.</p>","PeriodicalId":74359,"journal":{"name":"Open research Europe","volume":"3 ","pages":"103"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-12-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11809471/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143392463","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Atacama Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (AtLAST) Science: Planetary and Cometary Atmospheres.","authors":"Martin Cordiner, Alexander Thelen, Thibault Cavalie, Richard Cosentino, Leigh N Fletcher, Mark Gurwell, Katherine de Kleer, Yi-Jehng Kuan, Emmanuel Lellouch, Arielle Moullet, Conor Nixon, Imke de Pater, Nicholas Teanby, Bryan Butler, Steven Charnley, Stefanie Milam, Raphael Moreno, Mark Booth, Pamela Klaassen, Claudia Cicone, Tony Mroczkowski, Luca Di Mascolo, Doug Johnstone, Eelco van Kampen, Minju Lee, Daizhong Liu, Thomas Maccarone, Amelie Saintonge, Matthew Smith, Sven Wedemeyer","doi":"10.12688/openreseurope.17473.1","DOIUrl":"10.12688/openreseurope.17473.1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The study of planets and small bodies within our Solar System is fundamental for understanding the formation and evolution of the Earth and other planets. Compositional and meteorological studies of the giant planets provide a foundation for understanding the nature of the most commonly observed exoplanets, while spectroscopic observations of the atmospheres of terrestrial planets, moons, and comets provide insights into the past and present-day habitability of planetary environments, and the availability of the chemical ingredients for life. While prior and existing (sub)millimeter observations have led to major advances in these areas, progress is hindered by limitations in the dynamic range, spatial and temporal coverage, as well as sensitivity of existing telescopes and interferometers. Here, we summarize some of the key planetary science use cases that factor into the design of the Atacama Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (AtLAST), a proposed 50-m class single dish facility: (1) to more fully characterize planetary wind fields and atmospheric thermal structures, (2) to measure the compositions of icy moon atmospheres and plumes, (3) to obtain detections of new, astrobiologically relevant gases and perform isotopic surveys of comets, and (4) to perform synergistic, temporally-resolved measurements in support of dedicated interplanetary space missions. The improved spatial coverage (several arcminutes), resolution (~ 1.2″ - 12″), bandwidth (several tens of GHz), dynamic range (~ 10 ⁵) and sensitivity (~ 1 mK km s ^-1) required by these science cases would enable new insights into the chemistry and physics of planetary environments, the origins of prebiotic molecules and the habitability of planetary systems in general.</p>","PeriodicalId":74359,"journal":{"name":"Open research Europe","volume":"4 ","pages":"78"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-12-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11297396/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141891183","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Devonian-Mississippian magmatism related to extensional collapse in Svalbard: implications for radiating dyke swarms.","authors":"Jean-Baptiste P Koehl, Sebastian Tappe, Gillian R Foulger, Ingrid M Anell","doi":"10.12688/openreseurope.18798.1","DOIUrl":"10.12688/openreseurope.18798.1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Despite extensive studies of the Mesozoic-Cenozoic magmatic history of Svalbard, little has been done on the Paleozoic magmatism due to fewer available outcrops.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>2D seismic reflection data were used to study magmatic intrusions in the subsurface of eastern Svalbard.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>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.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>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.</p>","PeriodicalId":74359,"journal":{"name":"Open research Europe","volume":"4 ","pages":"262"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-12-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11757928/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143048330","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A prevention approach to undocumented forms of migration across the Mediterranean Sea: a critical assessment from Italy.","authors":"Monica Massari, Simona Miceli, Ombretta Ingrascì","doi":"10.12688/openreseurope.17607.1","DOIUrl":"10.12688/openreseurope.17607.1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article is aimed at providing a solid empirical basis which can inspire the development of more informed strategies in the field of prevention of undocumented forms of migration across the Mediterranean. Besides, more traditional forms of human smuggling and trafficking, a new phenomenon has emerged especially along the Central Mediterranean route, i.e. <i>trafficking in itinere,</i> which affects people who had originally sought irregular travel services but then ended up in being kidnapped, tortured and kept in detention centres during their migratory path. Therefore, their irregular journey to Europe becomes the only way to survive. The methodology adopted draws from in-depth interviews with experts in Italy - especially prosecutors, law enforcements officers, representatives of NGOs and journalists -, the analysis of institutional reports and sources, as well as biographical accounts provided by migrants. The analysis critically addresses the countereffects produced by the hardening of borders and militarisation of sea routes in the Mediterranean area especially in terms of enhancement of the smuggling industry, increased human rights violations and clandestinization of migrants whose experiences and knowledge are too often underrepresented or misrepresented in the public debate. This results in a negative impact on migration policy-making and on the adoption of more effective measures aimed at addressing the governance of borders and the reception system in the EU. In conclusion, some recommendations are made, which call for a reconsideration of the distinction between <i>economic</i> and <i>political</i> migrants, an enhancement of the right to migrate which can guarantee safer forms of mobility toward the EU, a serious reconsideration of the politics of externalization of European borders with its extremely severe costs in terms of human rights, and a stronger valorisation of migrants' actual needs, expectations and projects in the design of more effective policies aimed at improving the overall EU reception system.</p>","PeriodicalId":74359,"journal":{"name":"Open research Europe","volume":"4 ","pages":"126"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-12-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11574331/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142677988","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}