Hate Speech Detection on Twitter: A Social-Aware Approach

Η ανάλυση συναισθημάτων αναφέρεται στη διαδικασία λήψης πληροφορίας σχετικά με την αντίληψη του χρήστη για ένα προιόν, μια υπηρεσία, μια διασημότητα, έναν πολιτικό ή ακόμα και μια γενικότερη ιδέα ή συμπεριφορά. Στην παρούσα διπλωματική εργασία, θα γίνει προσπάθεια εντοπισμού υβριστικού λόγου στο Twitter. Το μίσος, είναι ένα πολύ ισχυρό συναίσθημα, καθώς, όταν εκφράζεται χωρίς περιορισμό, δύναται να καταστρέψει την ποιότητα μιας συζήτησης. Επιπλέον, το μίσος συνήθως συνοδεύεται από ύβρεις κι απειλές. Συνεπώς, η προσπάθεια εντοπισμού του μίσους στα κοινωνικά δίκτυα όπως το Twitter, είναι μια διαδικασία που πρέπει να υλοποιηθεί προσεκτικά. Ωστόσο, δεν είναι εφικτό να πραγματοποιηθεί χειροκίνητα, καθώς, στις μέρες μας, η κίνηση στα κοινωνικά δίκτυα αυξάνεται κι όλο και περισσότεροι άνθρωποι χρησιμοποιούν διαδικτυακές εφαρμογές κι εργαλεία. Κατά συνέπεια, μέσω αυτοματοποιημένων μεθόδων, η προσπάθεια αυτή δύναται να απλοποιηθεί. Επιπροσθέτως, έρευνες έχουν υλοποιηθεί σχετικά με τα κατάλληλα εργαλεία για την απλούστευση του συγκεκριμένου έργου, με την πλειοψηφία να χρησιμοποιεί μηχανική μάθηση. Στην παρούσα εργασία, προσπαθούμε να εντοπίσουμε το μίσος στο Twitter μέσω υφιστάμενων μεθόδων και τεχνικών. Παράλληλα, θα ακολουθήσουμε μια τεχνική βασισμένη στην ανάλυση κοινωνικών δικτύων, αξιοποιώντας τα χαρακτηριστικά του χρήστη (αριθμός ακολούθων, αριθμός tweets κλπ.) και λαμβάνοντας υπόψη όλες τις πιθανές μετρικές που θεωρούνται σημαντικές. Kλείνοντας, επιχειρούμε συνδυασμό των ανωτέρω τεχνικών, με σκοπό να διαπιστωθεί κατά πόσο είναι εφικτή μια σημαντική βελτίωση στη διαδικασία εύρεσης υβριστικού κειμένου.Sentiment analysis refers to the process of retrieving information about a user’s perception of a product, service, celebrity, politician or even a general idea or behavior. In the current thesis, we will examine Twitter’s tweets and attempt to identify hate speech in them. This specific sentiment is very powerful, as when used without measure, it can severely destroy the quality of a conversation. Furthermore, hate is most often combined with insults, abuse and threats. Thus, the effort to identify hate in social media, like Twitter, is a task that needs to be done carefully. However, it is not feasible for humans to do this process manually, as nowadays, the traffic in social media augments and more people use online applications and tools. With an automated approach, this effort can become significantly easier. Additionally, research has been conducted on what tools can be used to accomplish this task and the majority uses machine learning. In this research, we investigate hate-speech detection on Twitter using methods that already exist. In addition, we follow an approach, based on social networks analysis, making use of user’s profile (number of followers, number of tweets etc.) and any useful metrics we can think of. Finally, we combine those approaches to determine whether we can achieve a significant improvement in the task of hate speech detection

Re-engineering Nomothesi@ API Web Application: Improvements and Support new features

Σκοπός της συγκεκριμένης εργασίας είναι η ριζική αναδιοργάνωση του τρόπου λειτουργίας της διαδικτυακής πλατφόρμας Nomothesi@ API και η προσθήκη νέων λειτουργιών. Βάση εκκίνησης αποτέλεσαν οι προγενέστερες εργασίες με τίτλους “Νομοθεσί@: Πλατφόρμα για την Ελληνική νομοθεσία” (2014) και “Νομοθεσί@ API: Αναδιοργάνωση της Ηλεκτρονικής Πλατφόρμας” (2015). Η ήδη υπάρχουσα ηλεκτρονική πλατφόρμα, η οποία στηρίζεται σε ένα ενοποιημένο νομικό XML/RDF πρότυπο, παρουσίαζε προβλήματα, τόσο στην παρουσίαση των νομικών εγγράφων, όσο και στις λειτουργίες που παρείχε στο χρήστη. Στην εργασία αυτή, δόθηκε έμφαση στην αντικατάσταση της αποθήκευσης σε κλάσεις του νομικού εγγράφου, από ένα σύστημα το οποίο αποτελείται από μια δενδρική δομή Ν κόμβων σε κάθε επίπεδο. Στην πραγματοποίηση αυτής της αλλαγής αλλά και όλων των υπολοίπων μικρότερων τροποποιήσεων, συνέβαλε η νέα οντολογία που δημιουργήθηκε, έχοντας πάντα ως βάση το European Legislation Identifier (ELI). Ταυτόχρονα, προστέθηκαν λειτουργίες που σκοπό είχαν να επεκτείνουν το βαθμό αλληλεπίδρασης του χρήστη με την εφαρμογή και να του μεταδόσουν πληθώρα πληροφοριών. Η βασικότερη προσθήκη που έλαβε χώρα είναι αυτή των οντοτήτων, οι οποίες επιτρέπουν στο χρήστη να λάβει πληροφορία περαιτέρω των νομικών θεμάτων, σχετικά με κάποιο πρόσωπο, κάποιον τόπο κλπ. Κατά τον τρόπο αυτό, η εργασία συμβάλει ευρύτερα στην προσπάθεια της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης για ενίσχυση της ηλεκτρονικής διακυβέρνησης από τα κράτη-μέλη της, μέσω της ανοιχτής δημοσίευσης της ελληνικής νομοθετικής πράξης στο σύνολο της. Υποδεικνύει, ουσιαστικά, έναν νέο τρόπο αποθήκευσης πληροφορίας, όπως αυτή λαμβάνεται από το RDF σχήμα δεδομένων και εισάγει καινοτόμες ιδέες για την αξιοποίηση της, παρέχοντας επιπλέον λειτουργίες στο χρήστη.The purpose of this thesis is to radically re-engineer Nomothesi@ API web platform and to add new features. The starting point was the previous works titled "Nomothesi@: Greek Legislation Platform" (2014) and "Nomothesi@ API: Re-engineering the Electronic Platform" (2015). The existing platform, based on a consolidated legal XML/RDF template, presented inaccuracies in both the presentation of legal documents and the functionality it provided to the user. This work emphasizes on replacing the storage of legal documents in classes, by a N-ary tree structure in each level. This replacement, as well as all the other minor modifications, were made possible as a result of the new ontology that was created, always based on the European Legislation Identifier (ELI). Simultaneously, features were added to extend user's interaction with the application and to transmit a larger amount of information. The most important addition is the insertion of entities that allow the user to obtain further information about a person, a place, etc. Thus, this thesis contributes more to the European Union's effort to enhance e-Government by its member states, through the open publication of the whole of the Greek legislative act. It essentially develops a new way of storing information, as it is derived from the RDF data schema and it introduces innovative ideas on how to make use of it, providing additional features

Synchiropus sechellensis (Actinopterygii: Perciformes: Callionymidae), nova strana vrsta u Egejskom moru i grčkim vodama

Synchiropus sechellensis (Regan, 1908) was discovered in Kastellorizo Isl. (Levantine Sea, Greece) in September 2014, few months after its first record in Antalya Gulf, Turkey. Later, in February 2016, the species was recorded for the first time in the Aegean Sea, in Rhodes Island. The short time interval between the findings indicates a possible establishment in the area and a dynamic spread of the species northwards in the Eastern Mediterranean.Synchiropus sechellensis (Regan, 1908) je vrsta otkrivena kod otoka Kastellorizo u Levantskom moru (Grčka) u rujnu 2014., nekoliko mjeseci nakon što je po prvi put zabilježena u Antalijskom zaljevu u Turskoj. Ova vrsta je po prvi put zabilježena u Egejskom moru kod otoka Rodosa kasnije u veljači 2016. Kratak vremenski period između ova dva nalaza ukazuje na mogućnost nastanjivanja na ovom području i dinamično širenje vrste sjevernije u istočnom Sredozemlju

Synchiropus sechellensis (Actinopterygii: Perciformes: Callionymidae), nova strana vrsta u Egejskom moru i grčkim vodama

Synchiropus sechellensis (Regan, 1908) was discovered in Kastellorizo Isl. (Levantine Sea, Greece) in September 2014, few months after its first record in Antalya Gulf, Turkey. Later, in February 2016, the species was recorded for the first time in the Aegean Sea, in Rhodes Island. The short time interval between the findings indicates a possible establishment in the area and a dynamic spread of the species northwards in the Eastern Mediterranean.Synchiropus sechellensis (Regan, 1908) je vrsta otkrivena kod otoka Kastellorizo u Levantskom moru (Grčka) u rujnu 2014., nekoliko mjeseci nakon što je po prvi put zabilježena u Antalijskom zaljevu u Turskoj. Ova vrsta je po prvi put zabilježena u Egejskom moru kod otoka Rodosa kasnije u veljači 2016. Kratak vremenski period između ova dva nalaza ukazuje na mogućnost nastanjivanja na ovom području i dinamično širenje vrste sjevernije u istočnom Sredozemlju

Facilitating organisational decision making: a change risk assessment model case study

Purpose: This paper aims to take the challenge to propose a novel modelling approach named Change Risk Assessment Model (CRAM), which will contribute significantly to the missing formality of business models especially in the change risk assessment area and decision-making. Organisational change risks are assessed with the aid of analytic hierarchy process (AHP) in an attempt to define the internal dynamics of organisational change management within project management eliciting also risk cause-and-effect relationships. Design/methodology/approach: The study discusses interviews/survey/AHP. Findings: The study presents the following findings. Change risk factors assessment (identification and prioritisation) recommendations (see Case Study) integration of change management; project management; risk management top four risk factors, namely, leadership, communication, project management team and culture. Research limitations/implications: As projects can be different in a variety of factors (quality, scope), an exhaustive list of risk factors cannot be identified. There is a continuous risk identification process throughout the projects’ life cycle. For example, many risks can be classified initially as unknown and can be refined after the initiation phase of the project. AHP factors limitation (eight per level) possible bias (survey analysis). Practical implications: With the aid of modelling and especially CRAM, business change risks can be assessed numerically and prioritised. Several risk factors and related attributes were identified and categorised. This empowers project managers or other stakeholders to make proper decisions about whether to take on or abandon respective organisational or project changes. Social implications: One of the values of CRAM is that it can be regarded as a global change risk assessment method that can be applied regardless of project type, size or organisation. Moreover, it has the advantage that it can be used by any kind of project, as the method is designed to be tailored to specific needs, taking significant environmental change risk factors into account. AHP has numerous uses in operational research, in project management and in general in areas where decisions (evaluation and selection) have to be made. The analysis of the case study presented, indicated that it is vital to assess the degree (impact) that each risk attribute poses to address complex organisational decisions. Originality/value: CRAM aims to bridge the gap between theoretical and applied work in the integrated research field of change management, project management and risk management. Furthermore, the approach attempts to develop a novel systematic methodology (model) for assigning probabilities in attributes (criteria) pair-wise comparison and more specifically, modelling and assessing change management risks, adding a different perspective and technique to the research area

Towards reviving post-Olympic Athens as a cultural destination

This paper examines the effects of global change on the status and qualities of the Greek national capital, Athens, focusing on how they affect the development of cultural tourism in the city. Although Athens constituted one of the most significant destinations for Greek tourism in the past, in recent years it started to weaken. Athens is characterised by a series of problems, among them are the degradation of its environment and quality of life and traffic congestion. However, in terms of tourism development, the Olympic Games helped in re-imaging the city and upgrading its infrastructure. This study based on semi-structured interviews with top officials reveals how global change has affected Athens’ socio-cultural/economic status, identity and image. Despite the tourism policy/planning responses to global changes, Athens’ tourism continues to decline leaving unexplored potential such as its rich cultural heritage, new multicultural identity and the New Acropolis Museum. The paper suggests that cultural elements of capital cities must be multidimensional including a variety of attractions and amenities. The use of cultural heritage assets needs to be in line with global developments in order for cities to effectively leverage heritage for cultural tourism

Brane-bulk energy exchange : a model with the present universe as a global attractor

The role of brane-bulk energy exchange and of an induced gravity term on a single braneworld of negative tension and vanishing effective cosmological constant is studied. It is shown that for the physically interesting cases of dust and radiation a unique global attractor which can realize our present universe (accelerating and 0<Omega_{m0}<1) exists for a wide range of the parameters of the model. For Omega_{m0}=0.3, independently of the other parameters, the model predicts that the equation of state for the dark energy today is w_{DE,0}=-1.4, while Omega_{m0}=0.03 leads to w_{DE,0}=-1.03. In addition, during its evolution, w_{DE} crosses the w_{DE}=-1 line to smaller values.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, RevTex; references added, to appear in JHE

A solution of the coincidence problem based on the recent galactic core black hole mass density increase

A mechanism capable to provide a natural solution to two major cosmological problems, i.e. the cosmic acceleration and the coincidence problem, is proposed. A specific brane-bulk energy exchange mechanism produces a total dark pressure, arising when adding all normal to the brane negative pressures in the interior of galactic core black holes. This astrophysically produced negative dark pressure explains cosmic acceleration and why the dark energy today is of the same order to the matter density for a wide range of the involved parameters. An exciting result of the analysis is that the recent rise of the galactic core black hole mass density causes the recent passage from cosmic deceleration to acceleration. Finally, it is worth mentioning that this work corrects a wide spread fallacy among brane cosmologists, i.e. that escaping gravitons result to positive dark pressure.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figure

Unpublished Mediterranean and Black Sea records of marine alien, cryptogenic, and neonative species

To enrich spatio-temporal information on the distribution of alien, cryptogenic, and neonative species in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, a collective effort by 173 marine scientists was made to provide unpublished records and make them open access to the scientific community. Through this effort, we collected and harmonized a dataset of 12,649 records. It includes 247 taxa, of which 217 are Animalia, 25 Plantae and 5 Chromista, from 23 countries surrounding the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Chordata was the most abundant taxonomic group, followed by Arthropoda, Mollusca, and Annelida. In terms of species records, Siganus luridus, Siganus rivulatus, Saurida lessepsianus, Pterois miles, Upeneus moluccensis, Charybdis (Archias) longicollis, and Caulerpa cylindracea were the most numerous. The temporal distribution of the records ranges from 1973 to 2022, with 44% of the records in 2020–2021. Lethrinus borbonicus is reported for the first time in the Mediterranean Sea, while Pomatoschistus quagga, Caulerpa cylindracea, Grateloupia turuturu, and Misophria pallida are first records for the Black Sea; Kapraunia schneideri is recorded for the second time in the Mediterranean and for the first time in Israel; Prionospio depauperata and Pseudonereis anomala are reported for the first time from the Sea of Marmara. Many first country records are also included, namely: Amathia verticillata (Montenegro), Ampithoe valida (Italy), Antithamnion amphigeneum (Greece), Clavelina oblonga (Tunisia and Slovenia), Dendostrea cf. folium (Syria), Epinephelus fasciatus (Tunisia), Ganonema farinosum (Montenegro), Macrorhynchia philippina (Tunisia), Marenzelleria neglecta (Romania), Paratapes textilis (Tunisia), and Botrylloides diegensis (Tunisia).Stelios Katsanevakis, Michail Ragkousis, Maria Sini, Markos Digenis and Vasilis Gerovasileiou were supported by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (HFRI) under the “First Call for HFRI Research Projects to support Faculty members and Researchers and the procurement of high-cost research equipment grant” (Project ALAS – “ALiens in the Aegean – a Sea under siege” (Katsanevakis et al. 2020b); Project Number: HFRI-FM17-1597). Konstantinos Tsirintanis was co-financed by Greece and the European Union (European Social Fund-ESF) through the Operational Programme “Human Resources Development, Education and Lifelong Learning”, 2014-2020, in the context of the Act “Enhancing Human Resources Research Potential by undertaking a Doctoral Research” Sub-action 2: IKY Scholarship Programme for PhD candidates in the Greek Universities. Maria Zotou was supported by the project “Coastal Environment Observatory and Risk Management in Island Regions AEGIS+” (MIS 5047038), implemented within the Operational Programme “Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation” (NSRF 2014-2020), co financed by the Hellenic Government (Ministry of Development and Investments) and the European Union (European Regional Development Fund, Cohesion Fund). Razy Hoffman was supported by Yad-Hanadiv Foundation, through the Israel Society of Ecology and Environmental Sciences and Israel Nature and Parks Authority, an integrated program for establishing biological baselines and monitoring protocols for marine reserves in the Israeli Mediterranean Sea (Grant #10669). Tatiana Begun, Adrian Teaca and Mihaela Muresan were supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 BRIDGE-BS project under grant agreement no. 101000240. Fiona Tomas was supported by the project “Invasion of the tropical alga Halimeda incrassata in the Balearic Islands: ecology and invasion dynamics (AAEE119/2017)”, funded by the Vicepresidencia y Consejería de Innovación, Investigación y Turismo del Govern de les Illes Balears, with support from the European Union and FEDER funds, and the project “Una nueva alga invasora en el Mediterráneo: invasibilidad, detección y erradicación del alga tropical Halimeda incrassata (INVHALI)”, funded by the Fundación Biodiversidad, del Ministerio para la Transición Ecológica y el Reto Demográfico. Simonetta Fraschetti, Laura Tamburello, Antonia Chiarore were supported by the project PO FEAMP 2014-2020 - DRD n. 35/2019, “Innovazione, sviluppo e sostenibilità nel settore della pesca e dell'acquacoltura per la Regione Campania” (ISSPA 2.51) and the EU EASME - EMFF (Sustainable Blue Econ-omy) Project AFRIMED (http://afrimed-project.eu/, grant agreement N. 789059). Carlos Jimenez, Louis Hadjioannou, Vasilis Resaikos, Valentina Fossati, Magdalene Papatheodoulou, and Antonis Petrou were supported by MedPan Small Projects, Mava, and LIFE-IP. Louis Hadjioannou, Manos L. Moraitis and Neophytos Agrotis received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program within the framework of the CMMI/MaRITeC-X project under grant agreement No. 857586. Ernesto Azzurro was supported by the project USEIt - Utilizzo di Sinergie operative per la gestione integrata specie aliene Invasive in Italia, funded by the research programme @CNR. Antonietta Rosso and Francesco Sciuto were supported by the University of Catania through “PiaCeRi-Piano Incentivi per la Ricerca di Ateneo 2020–22 linea di intervento 2.” This is the Catania Paleoecological Research Group contribution n. 484. Diego K. Kersting was supported by the Beatriu de Pinós programme funded by the Secretary of Universities and Research (Government of Catalonia) and the Horizon 2020 programme of research and innovation of the European Union under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 801370. Francesco Tiralongo was supported by the AlienFish project of Ente Fauna Marina Mediterranea (Scientific Organization for Research and Conservation of Marine Biodiversity, 96012 Avola, Italy), a citizen science project for monitoring and studying rare and non-indigenous fish in Italian waters. Adriana Vella, was supported by funds through the BioCon_Innovate Research Excellence Grant from the University of Malta awarded to her. Noel Vella was supported by REACH HIGH Scholars Programme-Post Doctoral Grant for the FINS project. Some of the records provided by Victor Surugiu were obtained during surveys carried out within the framework of the project “Adequate management of invasive species in Romania, in accordance with EU Regulation 1143/2014 on the prevention and management of the introduction and spread of invasive alien species”, SMIS 2014+ 120008, coordinated by the Romanian Ministry of Environment, Water and Forests in partnership with the University of Bucharest (2018–2022). Alan Deidun and Alessio Marrone were supported by the “Spot The Alien” citizen science campaign for the monitoring of the Alien species in the Maltese archipelago and by the Interreg Italia-Malta Harmony project. The authors from the National Institute of Biology (Slovenia) acknowledge the financial support of the Slovenian Research Agency (Research Core Funding No. P1-0237) and of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food (project “Survey of the species richness and abundance of alien species in the Slovenian Sea”). Emanuele Mancini and Fabio Collepardo Coccia were supported by the project PO-FEAMP 2014-2020 “BIOBLITZ: research, knowledge and participation for the sustainable management of marine resources (BioBlitz Blu 2020)” coordinated by CURSA for MIPAAF, the Italian Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies, Measure 1.40 - Protection and restoration of biodiversity and marine ecosystems and compensation schemes in the context of sustainable fishing activities. Daniele Grech was supported by the PO-FEAMP 2014-2020 project ECOGESTOCK “Approccio ECOsistemico per la tutela e la GEStione delle risorse biologiche e STOCK ittici nelle acque interne”, the citizen science project Progetto Fucales: chi le ha viste? and the Paralenz Every dive counts sponsor. Jamila Rizgalla was supported by the project Snowball for the monitoring of alien species in Libyan waters له اهتفش له اهتدطصا ؟) have you seen it have you fished it?). Gerasimos Kondylatos and Dimitrios Mavrouleas were supported by the project “EXPLIAS” (MIS (ΟΠΣ): 5049912), design and piloting methods of commercial exploitation of invasive alien species with a view to contributing to their population control, coordinated by the National Technical University of Athens with the collaboration of the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research and the University of the Aegean and co-founded by Greece and the European Union. G. Kondylatos and Savvas Nikolidakis were supported by the project “SAMOS” (ID CODE: 32.2072004/001), a study for a submarine productive park in Marathokampos of Samos. Paraskevi K. Karachle, Aikaterini Dogrammatzi, Giorgos A. Apostolopoulos, Kassiani Konida and Melina Nalmpanti were supported by the project “4ALIEN: Biology and the potential economic exploitation of four alien species in the Hellenic Seas”, funded by NRSF 2017-2020 (MIS (ΟΠΣ): 5049511). Fabio Crocetta and Riccardo Virgili were partially funded by the project PO FEAMP Campania 2014–2020, DRD n. 35 of 15th March 2018, Innovazione, sviluppo e sostenibilità nel settore della pesca e dell’acquacoltura per la regione Campania, Misura 2.51, WP5, Task 5.5 Presenza e distribuzione di specie non indigene del macrozoobenthos e del necton in Campania. Michel Bariche was partially funded by the University Research Board of the American University of Beirut (DDF 103951/2592). Constantinos G. Georgiadis, Dimitra Lida Rammou, Paschalis Papadamakis and Sotiris Orfanidis were supported by the MSFD monitoring program. Sonia Smeraldo was supported by the MPA-Engage project, led by the Institute of Marine Sciences of the Spanish National Research Council and funded by the Interreg MED program. Evgeniia Karpova acknowledge that the publication of this article was in part carried out within the framework of the state assignment of the FRC IBSS “Patterns of Formation and Anthropogenic Transformation of Biodiversity and Bioresources of the Azov– Black Sea Basin and Other Regions of the World Ocean” (No. 121030100028-0). Elena Slynko’s work was carried out within the framework of a State Assignment no. 121051100109-1 of IBIW RAS. Manuela Falautano and Luca Castriota were supported by ISPRA citizen science campaigns for the monitoring of alien species through the dedicated institutional project ([email protected]). María Altamirano was supported by the project RUGULOPTERYX funded by Fundación Biodiversidad-Ministerio para la Transición Ecológica y el reto Demográfico (Spain) and the project UMA20-FEDERJA-006 with support from the European Union and FEDER funds and Junta de Andalucía. Records provided by L. Mangialajo were collected in the framework of projects funded by the Pew Charitable Trust, by the European Commission (AFRIMED, http://afrimed-project.eu/, grant agreement N. 789059) and by the Académie 3 de l’Université Côte d’Azur (projet CONVOST).Peer reviewe

Unpublished Mediterranean and Black Sea records of marine alien, cryptogenic, and neonative species

To enrich spatio-temporal information on the distribution of alien, cryptogenic, and neonative species in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, a collective effort by 173 marine scientists was made to provide unpublished records and make them open access to the scientific community. Through this effort, we collected and harmonized a dataset of 12,649 records. It includes 247 taxa, of which 217 are Animalia, 25 Plantae and 5 Chromista, from 23 countries surrounding the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Chordata was the most abundant taxonomic group, followed by Arthropoda, Mollusca, and Annelida. In terms of species records, Siganus luridus, Siganus rivulatus, Saurida lessepsianus, Pterois miles, Upeneus moluccensis, Charybdis (Archias) longicollis, and Caulerpa cylindracea were the most numerous. The temporal distribution of the records ranges from 1973 to 2022, with 44% of the records in 2020–2021. Lethrinus borbonicus is reported for the first time in the Mediterranean Sea, while Pomatoschistus quagga, Caulerpa cylindracea, Grateloupia turuturu, and Misophria pallida are first records for the Black Sea; Kapraunia schneideri is recorded for the second time in the Mediterranean and for the first time in Israel; Prionospio depauperata and Pseudonereis anomala are reported for the first time from the Sea of Marmara. Many first country records are also included, namely: Amathia verticillata (Montenegro), Ampithoe valida (Italy), Antithamnion amphigeneum (Greece), Clavelina oblonga (Tunisia and Slovenia), Dendostrea cf. folium (Syria), Epinephelus fasciatus (Tunisia), Ganonema farinosum (Montenegro), Macrorhynchia philippina (Tunisia), Marenzelleria neglecta (Romania), Paratapes textilis (Tunisia), and Botrylloides diegensis (Tunisia).peer-reviewe