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"De gustibus et coloribus non disputandum est." With this slogan philosophers and lay people alike have dismissed all attempts to understand taste, color perception, or aesthetic preferences. Sense of beauty may just be too individual and too complex to qualify as target of scientific inquiry. Yet, since Fechner (1876), empirical aesthetics has studied the factors determining people’s aesthetic responses to art works and objects, scenes or events encountered in everyday life. Most accounts focus either on high-level concepts such as style, meaning and personal associations, or on low-level statistical properties. While the latter are supposed to be universal and biologically determined, the former are subject to cultural influences, art expertise and individual experiences. Progress in this tradition has reached its limits, which this project overcomes by investigating how Gestalts Relate Aesthetic Preferences to Perceptual Analysis (GRAPPA). Its pioneering working hypothesis is that the way perceivers organize their sensory inputs into meaningful entities (Gestalts) provides the missing link between the two traditional sets of explanations. This hypothesis is fleshed out and tested in a coherent research program linking aesthetic preferences for images of paintings and everyday photographs to general principles of perceptual organization as well as to specific aesthetic concepts like composition, balance and visual rightness. New data from online studies with large samples of images and participants will be analyzed with state-of-the-art computational methods (machine learning) to reveal the critical mid-level factors. This will yield a model to predict aesthetic preference, which will be tested in well-controlled psychophysical and behavioral experiments (e.g., eye-movement recording) and validated also in ecologically richer settings (e.g., in galleries and art museums) and in unconventional cross-over collaborations with contemporary artists.

Sleep and wakefulness have traditionally been regarded as two mutually exclusive states characterized by differences in consciousness and responsiveness to the environment. However, the last two decades of research have demonstrated that sleep is actually a locally regulated phenomenon and that cortical islands of sleep- and wake-like activity can often coexist across distinct brain areas. Intriguingly, this mosaic of activity is also directly related to the presence and content of mental activity during sleep. In line with this, many sleep disorders, including insomnia and arousal disorders, are associated with significant local alterations in the balance between wake- and sleep-like activity. In spite of these considerations, the classical view of sleep as a uniform global state is still dominant in both basic and clinical research. Moreover, it remains unclear whether the occurrence of local wake-like activity is related to specific physiological functions of sleep. The objective of this project is to progress towards a deep understanding of the mechanisms that regulate sleep at a local level through the exploitation of known properties of the thalamocortical system. At the core of the proposal is the idea that particular sensory-stimulation protocols may allow to directly modulate sleep intensity in a local, region-specific manner. Such approaches could be used to non-invasively perturbate regional sleep-related brain activity, thus allowing to investigate the causal consequences on sleep mentation, subjective sleep quality and sleep-related functions, including learning and memory. Of note, the same approaches could also find application in counteracting alterations of local sleep regulation in pathological conditions. Knowledge gathered within the project could yield potential breakthroughs in numerous key applications of tremendous clinical, social and economic interest including treatment of sleep disorders and prevention of sleepiness-related accidents.

Children, especially preschoolers, can record things into their long-term memory in learning environments which stimulate all the senses. Nowadays kids spend more time playing on gadgets than they do being physically active outside. Since they have less and less direct experiences in nature, these kids will miss out crucial opportunities to enhance their overall well-being, health and relationships. Many children today don’t have a lot of direct or indirect contact with and access to the natural world. Direct experience with nature during childhood is of great importance to influence the children's relationship with nature as a child now, but later as an adult. Sensory experiences will develop understanding and enrich child’s appreciation of the great outdoors. Playing in nature children develop a sense of wonder and curiosity about elements of nature (e.g. weather, flora and fauna, sand, water), and become inspired and motivated to explore, discover, inquire, critically think, and reflect about the real world.Considering these benefits 6 partner countries -Latvia, Turkey, Romania, Portugal, Bulgaria and Italy have come together to create the project: Little Nature Lovers. Project aim: Increase teachers' knowledge and skills to use contemporary teaching approaches to connect children with nature and improving children's knowledge of natural objects in the local area.Nearly 850 children aged between 3-7 and 100 teachers and educators will participate in this precious project.We will focus on the following objectives:-To enable teachers to acquire knowledge and competence to use nature as a learning environment via engaging children in outdoor nature activities;-To provide teachers with competence in nature based interdisciplinary lessons;-To inculcate teachers with new ideas and methods to guide special needs kids in nature activities;- to promote the formation of the child's ecological awareness and attitude focusing on trees, plants, birds and small animals; -To develop children’s creative and cognitive skills in Maths, Science and Art in nature;-To enable teachers to work in a mutual exchange with other kindergartens’ teachers to gain new ideas, insights, and methods across Europe.Our project will have 6 joint staff training with 6 different themes in which the participants will be provided with competence in order to conduct project activities more effectively. Methodical collections for preschool teachers (6 collections joined in one Little Nature Lovers’ Activity Pack) will be created (digital and 6 journals)Throughout 2 years period, we plan to create the following outputs and products with the collaboration of our partners: Project Roll-up, Project web page, eTwinning project, Little Nature Lovers’ Activity Pack, Teachers’ Guide for Nature Activities, Recipe Book, Picture Dictionary for kids.During the project the partner schools will learn from each other, project activities will become an integral part of the daily learning process. This project is also closely linked to preschool educational programs and curriculum of each participating country.Our project will contribute to the development of the involved schools in the long-term. For instance: the staff will have a raised awareness of recent changes in Nature education which will raise the quality at our respective schools;Nature-based project activities will nurture children's mental, academic and emotional development while bringing a sense of fun and adventure to kids. School community will be more conscious about the benefits of children’s connection to nature and outdoor learning. School and local community will feel themselves as part of the European Community. The implementation of the project will foster positive attitude about nature, promote school development and improve the quality of early childhood education and care in each partner school.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer globally, accounting for 12% of all new annual cancer cases worldwide, according to the World Health Organization, and early detection is a key issue as survival improves when cancer is detected early. NanoNIR will develop a novel fluorescence-based nanotool for the detection and quantification of miR-99a-5p in liquid biopsy samples from breast cancer patients. The nanotool will consist of upconverting nanoparticles (UCNPs) decorated with aptamers and small gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). UCNPs are inorganic nanocrystals that convert near-infrared (NIR) light into shorter wavelength emissions and exhibit narrow emission bandwidths and large anti-Stokes shifts (λex = 980 nm, λem = 540, 655 nm). These photophysical properties make them excellent candidates for fluorescence biosensing allowing for effective sensing with diminished background noise in a complicated detection system. The AuNPs have a large extinction coefficient and a broad UV–Vis absorption band (500 – 580 nm) making them excellent fluorescence quenching agents. The combination of UCNPs (donors) with AuNPs (acceptors) linked through complementary aptamers will result in a fluorescence emission quenching of UCNPs at 540 nm. Following the detection of miR-99a-5p by its complementary aptamer sequence, AuNPs will be displaced from the UCNPs surface restoring the luminescence of UCNPs at 540 nm with an intensity-dependent to miRNA-9a-5p concentration allowing the detection of miR-99a-5p in real samples. Additionally, the luminescence signal at 655 nm could be used for the ratiometric measurements.

The basic goals of the project were, according to the action fields, to get to know the influences on the personal ecological footprint, future forms of mobility and modern drive systems. We started by checking the electric mobility concepts currently on the market for their suitability for everyday use.Specifically, these are, for example, the effects of different climatic conditions on the range of an electric vehicle, as well as the differences in the usability of this mobility with very high or low population density and the associated effects on the existence of the corresponding infrastructure.In the area of ​​general education, various future scenarios were used to compare the effects of rapidly advancing electrification with the effects of a largely non-existent electrification.In the course of the project, two focal points were created that determined the selection of activities. On the one hand the vehicle technology with all the upcoming changes and on the other hand the climate-neutral energy generation. In this context, we undertook test drives and got to know possible future technologies. But also visits to a so-called Smart City and various power plants to gain an understanding of the possibilities and limits of environmentally friendly energy generation.The students worked on the fields of action described in the application throughout the entire project. As far as possible, the documents created are attached in the appendix.Even after the end of the project, the results are available and can therefore also be used by others. For this purpose, several databases were created and the content made available to teachers in both schools. In addition, the process was followed by a publication in the print media and on several relevant websites. Blog entries were also created to accompany the project.Ten students from both schools took part in the project. These were trainees to become automotive mechatronics technicians. In addition, the students were each accompanied by three teachers. Our organization was designed in such a way that the students can accompany the project throughout their entire training period. So despite the change of school, we managed to get everyone to participate in the project from the beginning to the end. As a result, a clear improvement in the language skills of the students could be seen as well as a sensitization for international and global contexts and tasks.However, for organizational reasons there was a change on the part of the Finnish students, which however had no relevant impact on the course of the project. During the duration of the project, a total of four transnational project meetings and three short-term exchanges of school groups took place due to the corona.

According to Eurostat statistics, 2.4 million third-country nationals arrived in the EU-27 in 2018. In 2018, EU-27 Member States granted citizenship to 672,000 people. Half of the immigrants arriving in Europe are YOUNG, under the age of 29. Even if in recent years the flows have been reduced, due to national decrees that want to reject, European indications that impose an obligatory solidarity and distribution, in fact the problems linked to the reception and integration of these people in the European territories of arrival all remain on the field .For those young people welcomed in reception centers across Europe, many obstacles in obtaining residence permits or refugee status and live in constant fear of being expelled or unable to integrate into the socio-economic fabric of the host country. Many of these young migrants and refugees have experienced violence and abuse, affecting their psychological and physical well-being. These elements strongly influence the life paths of young migrants towards autonomy. Anxiety and uncertainty about the future make young migrants apathetic and unresponsive to cultural, social and relational activities and initiatives.Episodes of serious discrimination, fomented a wrong communication and hatred online towards the foreigners, unfortunately occur more and more frequently, even among the youth population of our countries.Young migrants are increasingly subject to strong dichotomies leading to augmented marginalization and related problems of public order. Some attempt assimilation, a process through which the young person tries, consciously or unconsciously, to resemble others, absorbing the culture of the host country and denying his own.The RE.BE.CO project was born from a strategic partnership for the exchange of good practices useful for the inclusion in positive and participatory contexts of immigrant, foreign and often marginalized young immigrants also through better inclusion and communication and representation of the migrant on the media and in the newspapers.OBJECTIVES: The RE.BE.CO project is an exchange project of good practices on the inclusion of young migrants.A project based on sharing and participation, stemming from the bottom up and from listening to their real needs.The project inserts young migrants (RE.BE.CO) in reception contexts, trained for the purpose. RE.BE.CO. shares the best operational practices to INCLUDE young migrants and face their daily difficulties, also in relation to relations with their European peers and civil and educating society and the world of communication.Operationally, the project intervenes to connect young foreign guests with the project’s RE.BE.CO operators, also young migrants active in the Centers as operators or volunteers, who appropriately trained with good practices, will work in teams, closely other educators / operators to improve the dynamics of relations with young people and with their families, when present.The project has a strong impact both on the subjects of the partnership, on young foreign guests, and on the socio-economic fabric of the territories. The outstanding work of RE.BE.CO is concerned with consolidating the skills of its operators or volunteers, habitually working closely with young people on the margins. Good practice, and the emphasis on the training and teamwork of young people, can be replicated by the involvement of yet more young people working in reception centers in other territories.Target of the project are 30 RE.BE.CO trained to act on a target of over 1000 young migrants (minors, adolescents, young people up to 30 years) who gravitate around our reception centers and other connected structures.Target of the project are our centers operators, the families, both of our young migrants, when they are present, and both of the local young people, the Institutions, the school and the civil and educating society’s members.The project will involve about 5,000 subjects, including young foreigners, local young people, their families, citizens, volunteers and operators, teachers, public bodies, associations, by a network of 60 local partner bodies. These subjects will be involved through direct contacts and through 20 micro communication events, co-organized in the territories.A system for detecting satisfaction and perception change, will be developed by the partnership, to monitor the impact on specific targets.

The increasing uptake of renewable energy sources and liberalization of electricity markets are significantly changing power system operations. To ensure stability of the grid, it is critical to develop provably safe feedback control algorithms that take into account uncertainties in the output of weather-based renewable generation and in participation of distributed producers and consumers in electricity markets. The focus of this proposal is to develop the theory and algorithms for control of large-scale stochastic hybrid systems in order to guarantee safe and efficient grid operations. Stochastic hybrid systems are a powerful modeling framework. They capture uncertainties in the output of weather-based renewable generation as well as complex hybrid state interactions arising from discrete-valued network topologies with continuous-valued voltages and frequencies. The problems of stability and efficiency of the grid in the face of its changes will be formulated as safety and optimal control problems for stochastic hybrid systems. Using recent advances in numerical optimization and statistics, provably safe and scalable numerical algorithms for control of this class of systems will be developed. These algorithms will be implemented and validated on realistic power grid simulation platforms and will take advantage of recent advances in sensing, control and communication technologies for the grid. The end outcome of the project is better quantifying and controlling effects of increased uncertainties on the stability of the grid. The societal and economic implications of this study are tied with the value and price of a secure power grid. Addressing the questions formulated in this proposal will bring the EU closer to its ambitious renewable energy goals.