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In scientific writing, retrieving, summarizing, and citing relevant papers is necessary but usually time-consuming. Recent research in natural language processing (NLP) has explored the use of neural networks to recommend, summarize and cite papers automatically. However, the following challenges remain before applying these NLP techniques to help authors write scientific articles. First, the rapidly growing volume of available scientific literature has raised the demand for accuracy and efficiency in recommending citations. Second, the length of scientific articles requires high memory efficiency in the summarization model, so long articles do not need to be truncated when summarizing them. Third, the generation of citation sentences needs to be well-controllable to allow authors to direct the generation as they wish. In addition, there is a lack of an integrated system that allows users to search for papers, obtain paper summaries, and get suggested citation sentences to cite them, all in a one-stop shop. In this thesis, we aim to develop an integrated system for joint paper retrieval, summarization, and citation generation, which consists of the following four parts. In the first part, to balance speed and accuracy, we propose a two-stage citation recommendation system that first prefetches K candidate papers by embedding-based K-nearest neighbor search and then reranks the prefetched papers with a fine-tuned SciBERT. In the second part, we develop a reinforcement learning-based sentence extraction model that summarizes a document by iteratively scoring sentences based on the extraction history (e.g., which sentences were selected) and selecting the highest-scoring sentence. Moreover, the lightweight structure allows our model to summarize long scientific articles efficiently and surpass previous state-of-the-art BERT-based extractive summarizers. In the third part, we propose a controllable citation generation model that users can control by specifying citation attributes. We define the citation attributes as the intent of the citation (e.g., to introduce context or to compare results), the keywords that the user expects to appear in the citation or the specific sentences in the body of the cited paper that are most relevant to the expected citation sentences. In the final part, we integrate the subsystems for paper retrieval, summarization, and citation generation into a convenient user interface that displays recommended papers, extracted summaries of recommended papers, and abstractively generated citation sentences that are consistent with the context and selected keywords. Our work is a step toward applying NLP techniques to help authors write academic papers in real-life scenarios and one of the early attempts at artificial intelligence (AI)-driven scientific inference.

Genetics in Medicine Open, ISSN:2949-7744

Background: Utilizing information technology (IT) systems, for example in form of computerized cognitive screening or exergame-based (also called active videogames) training, has gained growing interest for supporting healthy aging and to detect, prevent and treat neurocognitive disorders (NCD). To ameliorate the effectiveness of exergaming, the neurobiological mechanisms as well as the most effective components for exergame-based training remain to be established. At the same time, it is important to account for the end-users’ capabilities, preferences, and therapeutic needs during the design and development process to foster the usability and acceptance of the resulting program in clinical practice. This will positively influence adherence to the resulting exergame-based training program, which, in turn, favors more distinct training-related neurobiological effects. Objectives and Methods: This methodological paper describes the design and development process of novel exergame-based training concepts guided by a recently proposed methodological framework: The ‘Multidisciplinary Iterative Design of Exergames (MIDE): A Framework for Supporting the Design, Development, and Evaluation of Exergames for Health’ (Li et al., 2020). Case Study: A step-by-step application of the MIDE-framework as a specific guidance in an ongoing project aiming to design, develop, and evaluate an exergame-based training concept with the aim to halt and/or reduce cognitive decline and improve quality of life in older adults with mild neurocognitive disorder (mNCD) is illustrated. Discussion and Conclusion: The development of novel exergame-based training concepts is greatly facilitated when it is based on a theoretical framework (e.g., the MIDE-framework). Applying this framework resulted in a structured, iterative, and evidence-based approach that led to the identification of multiple key requirements for the exergame design as well as the training components that otherwise may have been overlooked or neglected. This is expected to foster the usability and acceptance of the resulting exergame intervention in “real life” settings. Therefore, it is strongly recommended to implement a theoretical framework (e.g., the MIDE-framework) for future research projects in line with well-known checklists to improve completeness of reporting and replicability when serious games for motor-cognitive rehabilitation purposes are to be developed., Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 13, ISSN:1663-4365

We suggest a blueprint for an eFranc as a possible complement for the Swiss monetary system to ensure the long-term stability of its money. An eFranc is a non-interest-bearing digital form of the legal tender available to the public. The public can convert banknotes or part of its bank deposits into eFrancs, subject to the banks’ ability to obtain the corresponding amount of eFrancs from the central bank.There is free conversion of eFrancs into bank deposits (and into banknotes). For the technical implementation of the eFranc, we suggest a two-layer system combining a permissioned asynchronous blockchain without consensus which provides a secureenvironment for validating transactions (base layer) plus a peer-to-peer paymentnetwork (top layer)., Economic Working Paper Series, 20/342

Polymers, 13 (1), ISSN:2073-4360

Ambitions to mitigate climate change, increase the pressure to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across all sectors of the economy, with significant implications for the energy landscape as well as other emissions sources. Switzerland has committed to reducing its annual direct emissions of GHG by 50% by 2030 compared to 1990. A major share of this reduction shall be achieved domestically while some emissions can be based on measures abroad through the use of international credits. The Swiss government has also formulated the long-term goal to reduce GHG emissions in 2050 by 70-85% compared to 1990 levels (including measures abroad), and to achieve climate neutrality after 2050. Today, domestic GHG emissions in Switzerland originate by about 60% from energy conversion in the transport and building sectors, and by 40 % from other sources including industry. Carbondioxide (CO2) is the major GHG that is emitted with the transport sector being the sector with largest contribution. Given this distribution of GHG emissions, particularly CO2 emissions in the demand sectors attributable to energy conversion and industrial production processes need to be avoided to achieve the climate goals. As of 2017, the Swiss electricity sector is already almost CO2-free as electricity is mainly generated from hydropower (60%), nuclear (32%) renewable and non-renewable combustible energy (5%) and other renewable energy (4%). Future pathways for the developments of the Swiss energy sector are framed by the Swiss Energy Strategy 2050, which aims at discontinuing energy supply from nuclear power plants in Switzerland, and promoting renewable energy and energy efficiency. The transformation of the Swiss energy economy calls for the deployment of new low-carbon energy solutions while maintaining the high level of energy supply reliability, which in particular applies to the electricity sector. One option to provide low-carbon energy services is an increased electrification of energy demand services while using low-carbon generation sources. Against the background of a growing share of variable renewable energy sources in the electricity mix, such as wind and solar energy, the challenges of temporal and spatial balancing of supply and demand is expected to increase in future. Temporal balancing arises due to the inevitable mismatch between renewable electricity production and demand as a consequence of day/night cycles, weather effects and seasonal differences, while spatial balancing is resulting from differences between the locations of electricity production and consumption. A future Swiss energy supply substantially relying on large shares of intermittent electricity generation (mainly photovoltaics and wind power) will need sufficient flexibility options. These must allow for shifting energy between day and night as well as from summer to winter: roof-top PV installations, which exhibit the largest potential for new renewable electricity generation in Switzerland by far, show a distinct seasonal peak in summer and daily peak at noon. These peaks in electricity generation – if not to be curtailed – must either be stored and re-used as electricity at times without sufficient generation, or transformed into other energy carriers such as gases and liquids, which can be used as e.g. transport or heating fuels. In addition to the flexible power plants operated in Switzerland already today, i.e. dam hydro plants and pump storage power plants, increasing the system’s flexibility and installing of further flexible power plants and storages becomes inevitable at very high shares of wind and solar PV electricity production in order to operate the electricity system cost-efficiently and to ensure the system’s secure operation. A related aspect concerning flexibility options is their location in the system, which, preferably, is close to the Solar-PV generation sites which are often embedded in the consumption centres. There are multiple technologies and measures to avoid CO2 emissions and to increase the energy system’s flexibility with Power-to-X (P2X) technologies representing one possible option of the technology portfolio. As defined in this White Paper, the terminology “P2X” refers to a class of technologies that use an electro-chemical process to convert electricity into a gaseous or liquid energy carrier or chemical product (and vice versa), and which may include energy storage. As such, P2X technology not only offers the possibility of enhanced sector coupling between the power sector and energy demand sectors but also to provide short and long-term supply and demand balancing. The objective of the White Paper its supplementary report is to collect the major existing P2X knowledge and to provide a synthesis and evaluation for the Swiss energy market. With the aim to derive a technical, economic and environmental assessment of P2X in the energy system, the gas market, the mobility sector and the electricity market are specifically investigated. Where possible, the White Paper also provides information on applications of P2X technologies in production industries. P2X technology stands for a cluster of technologies which use electricity and other inputs in order to produce other secondary energy carriers. Hence, P2X comprises multiple conversion pathways and energy carriers. In this White Paper we focus on the conversion to hydrogen as well as further gaseous and liquid energy carriers, such as methane, methanol, OME and FT-diesel, as well as the reelectrification where appropriate. For industrial P2X applications further energy carriers/conversion pathways might be included (depending on available information). Since this White Paper focusses on P2X technologies based on chemical conversion processes, technologies for the conversion of electricity with the purpose to produce heat as target product is not in the scope of this White Paper. The White Paper on Power-to-X Technology and its supplementary report emanate from the corresponding project of the Joint Activity of five Swiss Competence Centers for Energy Research (SCCER) funded by Innosuisse with complementary funding from the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE).

Science of The Total Environment, 447, ISSN:0048-9697, ISSN:1879-1026

MENA-SELECT Working Paper

Electronic Communications of the EASST, 61, ISSN:1863-2122, Selected Revised Papers from the 4th International Workshop on Graph Computation Models (GCM 2012)

Working Paper / IVT, 399

Working Paper / IVT, 355

Working Paper / IVT, 398

Working paper / CIS, 2004 (1)

ETH technical report, 630

Arbeitsberichte Verkehrs- und Raumplanung, 519

Arbeitsberichte Verkehrs- und Raumplanung, 343

Arbeitsberichte Verkehrs- und Raumplanung, 395

Economic Geology, 100 (7)

Arbeitsberichte Verkehrs- und Raumplanung, 216

Arbeitsberichte Verkehrs- und Raumplanung, 40

Arbeitsberichte Verkehrs- und Raumplanung, 112

Forstwissenschaftliche Beiträge der Professur Forstpolitik und Forstökonomie, 25, ISBN:3-9520829-8-8

Arbeitsberichte Verkehrs- und Raumplanung, 13

Arbeitsberichte Verkehrs- und Raumplanung, 6

To understand the future challenge for transportation research and planning, we must make a clear distinction between “mobility” and “transportation”. Mobility is understood to be the ca- pability or possibility of changing position within a specific system (space, society, economy, etc.). On the other hand “transportation” is “spatial mobility”, that is the capability or possibility of changing position within a spatial system (change of location, overcoming of space by peo- ple, goods, energy, communication). Mobility is an expression of the quality of life in the sense of satisfying material and immaterial needs (welfare, prosperity, well-being). Within this, transportation is one of the means of im- plementing mobility. It serves the purpose of overcoming the incongruity between the spatial and material structure of the living space (settlement and landscape) and the functionally im- material structures of life (society and economy). The growth of the transport system (transport infrastructure, transport performance) is over- proportional to that of the population and the economy. The limits within which ecology, econ- omy and society can tolerate it have been partly reached or even overstepped. This development is in conflict with the aim of sustainable development. Sustainable development as “a development that meets the needs of the present without com- promising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (WCED 1987) is more than protection of the environment. It implies the growth and maintenance of a dynamic balance between the three key factors “environmental protection”, “efficient economy” and ”solidly so- ciety”. Therefore, the main aim of a sustainable transport development - that is a development which would be compatible with environment, economy and society - must be: less traffic but same mobility. For realising this aim transport development must keep to the triple S principle: Saving: Reduce the demand for transportation Shifting: Shift traffic on to a less harmful means of transport Smoothing: Make traffic bearable for society, economy and environment The basis for implementing this principle applies not only to the narrower area of planning transport systems (transport infrastructure, means of transport, transport services) but just as much to the directing of demand for transportation. The need as well as the range for action to direct the demand for transportation are not insignificant. However, the area for action is largely in the material and immaterial environments of the transport system (regional planning, econ- omy, society). Therefore, transportation research and planning must in future concentrate much more than heretofore on the correlations between the transport system and its material and im- material environments., Arbeitsberichte Verkehrs- und Raumplanung, 56

Zürcher Beiträge zur Sicherheitspolitik und Konfliktforschung, 51, ISSN:1423-3894, ISBN:3-905641-62-3

Densification of cities threatens the provision of public open space for people living in and around cities. The increasing evidence of the many benefits of recreational walking for physical and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted an urgent need for fostering the availability of public open space. In this context, urban planners need information to anticipate recreational needs and propose long-term, resilient solutions that consider the growing demand driven by increasing urban population and intensified in times of crisis such as the recent pandemic. In this paper, we harness the unique large MOBIS:COVID-19 GPS travel diary data on mobility behaviour collected during a normal baseline period and during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in the Canton of Zurich Switzerland. We estimate a sufficiency rate that allows to geolocate locations where the demand for public open space is higher than the available offer. In a second step, we explore if preference patterns for recreational areas have changed during the pandemic. Results indicate that the main cities and important towns in the case study area are saturated by current demand, and that the pandemic has amplified the problem. In particular, urban dwellers look for tranquil areas to recreate. Such information is crucial to guide decision-making processes for planning the cities of the future., Landscape and Urban Planning, 221, ISSN:0169-2046, ISSN:1872-6062

Background: Conversational agents (CAs) for chronic disease management are receiving increasing attention in academia and the industry. However, long-term adherence to CAs is still a challenge and needs to be explored. Personalization of CAs has the potential to improve long-term adherence and, with it, user satisfaction, task efficiency, perceived benefits, and intended behavior change. Research on personalized CAs has already addressed different aspects, such as personalized recommendations and anthropomorphic cues. However, detailed information on interaction styles between patients and CAs in the role of medical health care professionals is scant. Such interaction styles play essential roles for patient satisfaction, treatment adherence, and outcome, as has been shown for physician-patient interactions. Currently, it is not clear (1) whether chronically ill patients prefer a CA with a paternalistic, informative, interpretive, or deliberative interaction style, and (2) which factors influence these preferences. Objective: We aimed to investigate the preferences of chronically ill patients for CA-delivered interaction styles. Methods: We conducted two studies. The first study included a paper-based approach and explored the preferences of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients for paternalistic, informative, interpretive, and deliberative CA-delivered interaction styles. Based on these results, a second study assessed the effects of the paternalistic and deliberative interaction styles on the relationship quality between the CA and patients via hierarchical multiple linear regression analyses in an online experiment with COPD patients. Patients’ sociodemographic and disease-specific characteristics served as moderator variables. Results: Study 1 with 117 COPD patients revealed a preference for the deliberative (50/117) and informative (34/117) interaction styles across demographic characteristics. All patients who preferred the paternalistic style over the other interaction styles had more severe COPD (three patients, Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease class 3 or 4). In Study 2 with 123 newly recruited COPD patients, younger participants and participants with a less recent COPD diagnosis scored higher on interaction-related outcomes when interacting with a CA that delivered the deliberative interaction style (interaction between age and CA type: relationship quality: b=−0.77, 95% CI −1.37 to −0.18; intention to continue interaction: b=−0.49, 95% CI −0.97 to −0.01; working alliance attachment bond: b=−0.65, 95% CI −1.26 to −0.04; working alliance goal agreement: b=−0.59, 95% CI −1.18 to −0.01; interaction between recency of COPD diagnosis and CA type: working alliance goal agreement: b=0.57, 95% CI 0.01 to 1.13). Conclusions: Our results indicate that age and a patient’s personal disease experience inform which CA interaction style the patient should be paired with to achieve increased interaction-related outcomes with the CA. These results allow the design of personalized health care CAs with the goal to increase long-term adherence to health-promoting behavior. --> Background: Conversational agents (CAs) for chronic disease management are receiving increasing attention in academia and the industry. However, long-term adherence to CAs is still a challenge and needs to be explored. Personalization of CAs has the potential to improve long-term adherence and, with it, user satisfaction, task efficiency, perceived benefits, and intended behavior change. Research on personalized CAs has already addressed different aspects, such as personalized recommendations and anthropomorphic cues. However, detailed information on interaction styles between patients and CAs in the role of medical health care professionals is scant. Such interaction styles play essential roles for patient satisfaction, treatment adherence, and outcome, as has been shown for physician-patient interactions. Currently, it is not clear (1) whether chronically ill patients prefer a CA with a paternalistic, informative, interpretive, or deliberative interaction style, and (2) which factors influence these preferences. Objective: We aimed to investigate the preferences of chronically ill patients for CA-delivered interaction styles. Methods: We conducted two studies. The first study included a paper-based approach and explored the preferences of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients for paternalistic, informative, interpretive, and deliberative CA-delivered interaction styles. Based on these results, a second study assessed the effects of the paternalistic and deliberative interaction styles on the relationship quality between the CA and patients via hierarchical multiple linear regression analyses in an online experiment with COPD patients. Patients’ sociodemographic and disease-specific characteristics served as moderator variables. Results: Study 1 with 117 COPD patients revealed a preference for the deliberative (50/117) and informative (34/117) interaction styles across demographic characteristics. All patients who preferred the paternalistic style over the other interaction styles had more severe COPD (three patients, Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease class 3 or 4). In Study 2 with 123 newly recruited COPD patients, younger participants and participants with a less recent COPD diagnosis scored higher on interaction-related outcomes when interacting with a CA that delivered the deliberative interaction style (interaction between age and CA type: relationship quality: b=−0.77, 95% CI −1.37 to −0.18; intention to continue interaction: b=−0.49, 95% CI −0.97 to −0.01; working alliance attachment bond: b=−0.65, 95% CI −1.26 to −0.04; working alliance goal agreement: b=−0.59, 95% CI −1.18 to −0.01; interaction between recency of COPD diagnosis and CA type: working alliance goal agreement: b=0.57, 95% CI 0.01 to 1.13). Conclusions: Our results indicate that age and a patient’s personal disease experience inform which CA interaction style the patient should be paired with to achieve increased interaction-related outcomes with the CA. These results allow the design of personalized health care CAs with the goal to increase long-term adherence to health-promoting behavior., Journal of Medical Internet Research, 23 (5), ISSN:1438-8871

Plant–soil feedbacks (PSFs) underlying grassland plant richness and productivity are typically coupled with nutrient availability; however, we lack understanding of how restoration measures to increase plant diversity might affect PSFs. We examined the roles of sward disturbance, seed addition and land-use intensity (LUI) on PSFs. We conducted a disturbance and seed addition experiment in 10 grasslands along a LUI gradient and characterized plant biomass and richness, soil microbial biomass, community composition and enzyme activities. Greater plant biomass at high LUI was related to a decrease in the fungal to bacterial ratios, indicating highly productive grasslands to be dominated by bacteria. Lower enzyme activity per microbial biomass at high plant species richness indicated a slower carbon (C) cycling. The relative abundance of fungal saprotrophs decreased, while pathogens increased with LUI and disturbance. Both fungal guilds were negatively associated with plant richness, indicating the mechanisms underlying PSFs depended on LUI. We show that LUI and disturbance affect fungal functional composition, which may feedback on plant species richness by impeding the establishment of pathogen-sensitive species. Therefore, we highlight the need to integrate LUI including its effects on PSFs when planning for practices that aim to optimize plant diversity and productivity., New Phytologist, 236 (5), ISSN:0028-646X, ISSN:1469-8137

Background A quantitative characterization of root system architecture is currently being attempted for various reasons. Non-destructive, rapid analyses of root system architecture are difficult to perform due to the hidden nature of the root. Hence, improved methods to measure root architecture are necessary to support knowledge-based plant breeding and to analyse root growth responses to environmental changes. Here, we report on the development of a novel method to reveal growth and architecture of maize root systems. Results The method is based on the cultivation of different root types within several layers of two-dimensional, large (50 × 60 cm) plates (rhizoslides). A central plexiglass screen stabilizes the system and is covered on both sides with germination paper providing water and nutrients for the developing root, followed by a transparent cover foil to prevent the roots from falling dry and to stabilize the system. The embryonic roots grow hidden between a Plexiglas surface and paper, whereas crown roots grow visible between paper and the transparent cover. Long cultivation with good image quality up to 20 days (four fully developed leaves) was enhanced by suppressing fungi with a fungicide. Based on hyperspectral microscopy imaging, the quality of different germination papers was tested and three provided sufficient contrast to distinguish between roots and background (segmentation). Illumination, image acquisition and segmentation were optimised to facilitate efficient root image analysis. Several software packages were evaluated with regard to their precision and the time investment needed to measure root system architecture. The software 'Smart Root’ allowed precise evaluation of root development but needed substantial user interference. 'GiaRoots’ provided the best segmentation method for batch processing in combination with a good analysis of global root characteristics but overestimated root length due to thinning artefacts. 'WhinRhizo’ offered the most rapid and precise evaluation of root lengths in diameter classes, but had weaknesses with respect to image segmentation and analysis of root system architecture. Conclusion A new technique has been established for non-destructive root growth studies and quantification of architectural traits beyond seedlings stages. However, automation of the scanning process and appropriate software remains the bottleneck for high throughput analysis., Plant Methods, 10, ISSN:1746-4811

The primary task of a battery is to store energy and to power electronic devices. This has hardly changed over the years despite all the progress made in improving their electrochemical performance. In comparison to batteries, electronic devices are continuously equipped with new functions, and they also change their physical appearance, becoming flexible, rollable, stretchable, or maybe transparent or even transient or degradable. Mechanical flexibility makes them attractive for wearable electronics or for electronic paper; transparency is desired for transparent screens or smart windows, and degradability or transient properties have the potential to reduce electronic waste. For fully integrated and self-sufficient systems, these devices have to be powered by batteries with similar physical characteristics. To make the currently used rigid and heavy batteries flexible, transparent, and degradable, the whole battery architecture including active materials, current collectors, electrolyte/separator, and packaging has to be redesigned. This requires a fundamental paradigm change in battery research, moving away from exclusively addressing the electrochemical aspects toward an interdisciplinary approach involving chemists, materials scientists, and engineers. This Outlook provides an overview of the different activities in the field of flexible, transient, and transparent batteries with a focus on the challenges that have to be faced toward the development of such multifunctional energy storage devices., ACS Central Science, 7 (2), ISSN:2374-7951

The German Energiewende (energy transition) started with price guarantees for avoidance activities and later turned to premiums and tenders. Dynamic efficiency was a core concept of this environmental policy. Out of multiple technologies wind and solar power-which were considered too expensive at the time-turned out to be cheaper than the use of oil, coal, gas or nuclear energy for power generation, even without considering externalities. The German minimum price policy opened doors in a competitive way, creating millions of new generators and increasing the number of market participants in the power sector. The fact that these new generators are distributed, non-synchronous and weather-dependent has caused contentious discussions and specific challenges. This paper discusses these aspects in detail and outlines its impacts. It also describes Swiss regulations that successfully launched avoidance technologies or services and asks why exactly Pigou's neoclassical economic approach to the internalization of damage costs (externalities) has rarely worked in policy reality, while sector-specific innovations based on small surcharges have been more successful. Based on the model of feed-in tariffs, a concept for the introduction of low-carbon air traffic is briefly outlined. [GRAPHICS] ., Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy, 23 (1), ISSN:1618-954X, ISSN:1435-2974, ISSN:1618-9558, ISSN:1436-722X

The roles of local interactions in the laboratory evolution of a highly active, computationally designed retroaldolase (RA) are examined. Partial Order Optimum Likelihood (POOL) is used to identify catalytically important amino acid interactions in several RA95 enzyme variants. The series RA95.5, RA95.5–5, RA95.5–8, and RA95.5–8F, representing progress along an evolutionary trajectory with increasing activity, is examined. Computed measures of coupling between charged states of residues show that, as evolution proceeds and higher activities are achieved, electrostatic coupling between the biochemically active amino acids and other residues is increased. In silico residue scanning suggests multiple coupling partners for the catalytic lysine K83. The effects of two predicted partners, Y51 and E85, are tested using site-directed mutagenesis and kinetic analysis of the variants Y51F and E85Q. The Y51F variants show decreases in kcat relative to wild type, with the greatest losses observed for the more evolved constructs; they also exhibit significant decreases in kcat/KM across the series. Only modest decreases in kcat/KM are observed for the E85Q variants with little effect on kcat. Computed metrics of the degree of coupling between protonation states rise significantly as evolution proceeds and catalytic turnover rate increases. Specifically, the charge state of the catalytic lysine K83 becomes more strongly coupled to those of other amino acids as the enzyme evolves to a better catalyst., Protein Science, 30 (8), ISSN:1469-896X, ISSN:0961-8368

In this paper, I present an emerging explanatory framework about ageing and care. In particular, I focus on how, in contrast to most classical accounts of ageing, biomedicine today construes the ageing process as a modifiable trajectory. This framing turns ageing from a stage of inexorable decline into the focus of preventive strategies, harnessing the functional plasticity of the ageing organism. I illustrate this shift by focusing on studies of the demographic dynamics in human population, observations of ageing as an intraspecifically heterogenous phenotype, and the experimental manipulation of longevity, in both model organisms and humans. I suggest that such an explanatory framework about ageing creates the epistemological conditions for the rise of a peculiar form of prevention that does not aim to address a specific condition. Rather it seeks to stall the age-related accumulation of molecular damage and functional deficits, boosting individual resilience against age-related decline. I call this preventive paradigm “ground-state prevention.” While new, ground-state prevention bears conceptual resemblance to forms of medical wisdom prominent in classic Galenic medicine, as well as in the Renaissance period., History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, 43 (2), ISSN:0391-9714

Alterations of blood flow patterns strongly correlate with arterial wall diseases such as atherosclerosis and aneurysm. Here, a simple, pumpless, close‐loop, easy‐to‐replicate, and miniaturized flow device is introduced to concurrently expose 3D engineered vascular smooth muscle tissues to high‐velocity pulsatile flow versus low‐velocity disturbed flow conditions. Two flow regimes are distinguished, one that promotes elastin and impairs collagen I assembly, while the other impairs elastin and promotes collagen assembly. This latter extracellular matrix (ECM) composition shares characteristics with aneurysmal or atherosclerotic tissue phenotypes, thus recapitulating crucial hallmarks of flow‐induced tissue morphogenesis in vessel walls. It is shown that the mRNA levels of ECM of collagens and elastin are not affected by the differential flow conditions. Instead, the differential gene expression of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) and their inhibitors (TIMPs) is flow‐dependent, and thus drives the alterations in ECM composition. In further support, treatment with doxycycline, an MMP inhibitor and a clinically used drug to treat vascular diseases, halts the effect of low‐velocity flow on the ECM remodeling. This illustrates how the platform can be exploited for drug efficacy studies by providing crucial mechanistic insights into how different therapeutic interventions may affect tissue growth and ECM assembly., Advanced Science, 7 (12), ISSN:2198-3844

The gut–brain axis has attracted increasing attention in recent years, fueled by accumulating symptomatic, physiological, and pathological findings. In this study, the aggregation and toxicity of amyloid beta (Aβ ), the pathogenic peptide associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD), seeded by FapC amyloid fragments (FapCS) of Pseudomonas aeruginosa that colonizes the gut microbiome through infections are examined. FapCS display favorable binding with Aβ and a catalytic capacity in seeding the peptide amyloidosis. Upon seeding, twisted Aβ fibrils assume a much‐shortened periodicity approximating that of FapC fibrils, accompanied by a 37% sharp rise in the fibrillar diameter, compared with the control. The robust seeding capacity for Aβ by FapCS and the biofilm fragments derived from P. aeruginosa entail abnormal behavior pathology and immunohistology, as well as impaired cognitive function of zebrafish. Together, the data offer the first concrete evidence of structural integration and inheritance in peptide cross‐seeding, a crucial knowledge gap in understanding the pathological correlations between different amyloid diseases. The catalytic role of infectious bacteria in promoting Aβ amyloidosis may be exploited as a potential therapeutic target, while the altered mesoscopic signatures of Aβ fibrils may serve as a prototype for molecular assembly and a biomarker for screening bacterial infections in AD., Advanced Science, 7 (18), ISSN:2198-3844

©Andrea Ferrario, Burcu Demiray, Kristina Yordanova, Minxia Luo, Mike Martin. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 15.09.2020. BACKGROUND: Reminiscence is the act of thinking or talking about personal experiences that occurred in the past. It is a central task of old age that is essential for healthy aging, and it serves multiple functions, such as decision-making and introspection, transmitting life lessons, and bonding with others. The study of social reminiscence behavior in everyday life can be used to generate data and detect reminiscence from general conversations. OBJECTIVE: The aims of this original paper are to (1) preprocess coded transcripts of conversations in German of older adults with natural language processing (NLP), and (2) implement and evaluate learning strategies using different NLP features and machine learning algorithms to detect reminiscence in a corpus of transcripts. METHODS: The methods in this study comprise (1) collecting and coding of transcripts of older adults' conversations in German, (2) preprocessing transcripts to generate NLP features (bag-of-words models, part-of-speech tags, pretrained German word embeddings), and (3) training machine learning models to detect reminiscence using random forests, support vector machines, and adaptive and extreme gradient boosting algorithms. The data set comprises 2214 transcripts, including 109 transcripts with reminiscence. Due to class imbalance in the data, we introduced three learning strategies: (1) class-weighted learning, (2) a meta-classifier consisting of a voting ensemble, and (3) data augmentation with the Synthetic Minority Oversampling Technique (SMOTE) algorithm. For each learning strategy, we performed cross-validation on a random sample of the training data set of transcripts. We computed the area under the curve (AUC), the average precision (AP), precision, recall, as well as F1 score and specificity measures on the test data, for all combinations of NLP features, algorithms, and learning strategies. RESULTS: Class-weighted support vector machines on bag-of-words features outperformed all other classifiers (AUC=0.91, AP=0.56, precision=0.5, recall=0.45, F1=0.48, specificity=0.98), followed by support vector machines on SMOTE-augmented data and word embeddings features (AUC=0.89, AP=0.54, precision=0.35, recall=0.59, F1=0.44, specificity=0.94). For the meta-classifier strategy, adaptive and extreme gradient boosting algorithms trained on word embeddings and bag-of-words outperformed all other classifiers and NLP features; however, the performance of the meta-classifier learning strategy was lower compared to other strategies, with highly imbalanced precision-recall trade-offs. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides evidence of the applicability of NLP and machine learning pipelines for the automated detection of reminiscence in older adults' everyday conversations in German. The methods and findings of this study could be relevant for designing unobtrusive computer systems for the real-time detection of social reminiscence in the everyday life of older adults and classifying their functions. With further improvements, these systems could be deployed in health interventions aimed at improving older adults' well-being by promoting self-reflection and suggesting coping strategies to be used in the case of dysfunctional reminiscence cases, which can undermine physical and mental health., Journal of Medical Internet Research, 22 (9), ISSN:1438-8871

Flowers have been hypothesized to contain either modules of attraction and reproduction, functional modules (pollination‐effecting parts) or developmental modules (organ‐specific). Do pollination specialization and syndromes influence floral modularity? In order to test these hypotheses and answer this question, we focused on the genus Erica: we gathered 3D data from flowers of 19 species with diverse syndromes via computed tomography, and for the first time tested the above‐mentioned hypotheses via 3D geometric morphometrics. To provide an evolutionary framework for our results, we tested the evolutionary mode of floral shape, size and integration under the syndromes regime, and – for the first time – reconstructed the high‐dimensional floral shape of their most recent common ancestor. We demonstrate that the modularity of the 3D shape of generalist flowers depends on development and that of specialists is linked to function: modules of pollen deposition and receipt in bird syndrome, and access‐restriction to the floral reward in long‐proboscid fly syndrome. Only size and shape principal component 1 showed multiple‐optima selection, suggesting that they were co‐opted during evolution to adapt flowers to novel pollinators. Whole floral shape followed an Ornstein–Uhlenbeck (selection‐driven) evolutionary model, and differentiated relatively late. Flower shape modularity thus crucially depends on pollinator specialization and syndrome., New Phytologist, 226 (1), ISSN:0028-646X, ISSN:1469-8137

Human excreta are a sustainable, economical source of nutrients, and can be used to produce recycling fertilizer for horticulture by collecting and processing the contents of dry toilets. Herein, we discuss the key categories of risk associated with the main groups of materials commonly found in dry toilets. The study was part of the development of a German product standard for marketable and quality-assured recycling fertilizers from human excreta for use in horticulture. Particular attention is paid to ensuring that the fertilizer is epidemiologically and environmentally harmless and that the quality of the recycling fertilizer is adequate in terms of low pollution and nutrient availability. In sum, the risk of transmissible human pathogens lies within the human excreta, particularly feces; plant materials added during composting are of particular phytosanitary relevance; pharmaceutical residues in excrements and chemical additives are potential sources of pollutants; non-biodegradable contaminants can cause pollution and injury; and the horticultural risks involve mainly the ammonia emission potential and in some cases the salinity effects of urine. These risks can be reduced significantly (i) with education of users around proper operation of dry toilets and the consequences of adding inappropriate waste, (ii) with facilitation of proper use with general waste bins and clear instructions, and importantly (iii) by using modern sanitization and cleaning processes and testing for harmful substances under the guidance of local laws and regulations, ensuring safe and high-quality fertilizers. In conclusion, the benefits of using dry toilet contents to produce fertilizers for use in horticulture are unquestionable. Our analysis highlights the need to support recycling optimization and awareness for the purpose of a sustainable circular economy and to minimize the risk of harm to humans and the environment overall., Circular Economy and Sustainability, 1