How to design your own social inclusion project?: Best practice guide for university students. A case study: Peacemakers Project

Peacemakers Project team members: Koç University: Project Coordinator - Nilüfer Akpınar Şahin, Scientific Coordinator - Dr. Şebnem Köşer Akçapar, Project Assistant - Bora Berke Şahin; Universidade Aberta/CEMRI: Doutor Mário José Filipe da Silva, Doutor Lúcio Sousa, Doutora Rosa Maria Sequeira, Doutora Joaquim Gronita, Prof. Doutora Natália Ramos; University of Bologna: Prof. Monica Rubini, Prof. Silvia Moscatelli, Dr. Michela Menegatti, Dr. Elisabetta Crocetti; Dr. Francesca Prati; Dr. Flavia Albarello; Erasmus University Rotterdam: Phyllis Livaha; Gaziantep University: Prof. Dr. Metin Bedir, Ins. Simge Akbaş; Humboldt Universitat zu Berlin: Dr. Matthes, Ms. Kristin Küter.This “Best Practice Guide for University Students on How to Design Your Own Social Inclusion Project” is prepared for university students planning to start a social inclusion project on or outside their campus, but do not know where to start. A step-by-step approach will guide the way to a successful social inclusion student project that will raise awareness in your circles and attract others to get onboard. The Erasmus+ project titled “PEACEMAKERS: ‘Peace Dialogue Campus Network: Fostering Positive Attitudes between Migrants and Youth in Hosting Societies’” is taken as a case study.With the support of the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Unioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

PEACEMAKERS Project: “Peace dialogue campus network: fostering positive attitudes between migrants and youth in hosting societies”: strategy paper

Peacemakers Project team members: Koç University: Project Coordinator: Nilüfer Akpınar Şahin, Scientific Coordinator: Dr. Şebnem Köşer Akçapar, Project Assistant: Bora Berke Şahin; Universidade Aberta: Doutor Mário José Filipe da Silva, Doutor Lúcio Sousa, Doutora Rosa Maria Sequeira, Doutor Joaquim Gronita, Prof. Doutora Natália Ramos; University of Bologna: Prof. Monica Rubini, Prof. Silvia Moscatelli, Dr. Michela Menegatti, Dr. Elisabetta Crocetti, Dr. Francesca Prati, Dr. Flavia Albarello; Erasmus University Rotterdam: Phyllis Livaha; Gaziantep University: Prof. Dr. Metin Bedir, Ins. Simge Akbaş; Humboldt Universitat zu Berlin: Dr. Matthes, Ms. Kristin Küter.with the support of the Erasmus+ Program of the European Unioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

PEACEMAKERS Project: “Peace dialogue campus network: fostering positive attitudes between migrants and youth in hosting societies”: needs analysis

Peacemakers Project team members: Koç University: Project Coordinator: Nilüfer Akpınar Şahin,Scientific Coordinator: Dr. Şebnem Köşer Akçapar, Project Assistant: Bora Berke Şahin; Universidade Aberta: Doutor Mário José Filipe da Silva, Doutor Lúcio Sousa, Doutora Rosa Maria Sequeira, Doutor Joaquim Gronita, Prof. Doutora Natália Ramos; University of Bologna: Prof. Monica Rubini, Prof. Silvia Moscatelli, Dr. Michela Menegatti, Dr. Elisabetta Crocetti, Dr. Francesca Prati, Dr. Flavia Albarello; Erasmus University Rotterdam: Phyllis Livaha; Gaziantep University: Prof. Dr. Metin Bedir, Ins. Simge Akbaş; Humboldt Universitat zu Berlin: Dr. Matthes, Ms. Kristin Küter.The ongoing refugee crisis in Europe and Turkey reinforced xenophobic and anti-immigrant sentiment, manifested in attacks on migrants, and those perceived as foreigners and support for populist anti-immigration parties in many European Union (EU) states. In many of the EU member states, high levels of immigration appear to have produced an increase in hostility toward immigrants (Quillian 1995; McLaren 1996b), increased support for right-wing parties (Knigge 1998; Lewis-Beck & Mitchell 1993), and even produced violent right-wing behaviour (McLaren 1999). “In September, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein warned leaders of populist parties in Europe about the corrosive effect on societies of their instrumentalization of bigotry and xenophobia for political ends.” (Human Rights Watch, 2017). As we see this trend continuing in Europe and Turkey, the question to ask is how to reduce intergroup prejudice and discrimination in order to promote inter-ethnic social inclusion. Indeed, immigration is very often source of “shock of the culture” for both native and immigrant people, often leading to what is called the “integration crisis”, that is, a conflictual situation among individuals with different geographical, cultural, or ethnic background. Such crisis is often caused by the necessity for individuals to redefine social interactions and norms that are adaptive for all social groups. To do this, it is essential to understand the perspective of both native, or the majority, and immigrant people, or the minority group. Research on social integration has shown that the inclusion of the new members in the host societies is the basis for social cohesion (Fleras, 2009), and continuous positive contacts between members of different groups (Allport, 1954) are necessary, as they increase native people’ knowledge about immigrants and vice versa, then break prejudices and stereotypes, facilitating the social cohesion.With the support of the Erasmus+ Program of the European Unioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Outcomes from elective colorectal cancer surgery during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

This study aimed to describe the change in surgical practice and the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on mortality after surgical resection of colorectal cancer during the initial phases of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

Inequity-averse shelter location for disaster preparedness

We study the problem of selecting a set of shelter locations in preparation for natural disasters. Shelters provide victims of a disaster both a safe place to stay and relief necessities such as food, water and medical support. Individuals from the affected population living in a set of population points go to, or are transported to the assigned open shelters. We aim to take both efficiency and inequity into account, thus we minimize a linear combination of: (i) the mean distance between opened shelter locations and the locations of the individuals assigned to them; and (ii) Gini’s Mean Absolute Difference of these distances. We develop a stochastic programming model with a set of scenarios that consider uncertain demand and disruptions in the transportation network. A chance constraint is defined on the total cost of opening the shelters and their capacity expansion. In this stochastic context, a weighted mean of the so-called ex ante and ex post versions of the inequity-averse objective function under uncertainty is optimized. Since the model can be solved to optimality only for small instances, we develop a tailored Genetic Algorithm (GA) that utilizes a mixed-integer programming subproblem to solve this problem heuristically for larger instances. We compare the performance of the mathematical program and the GA via benchmark instances where the model can be solved to optimality or near optimality. It turns out that the GA yields small optimality gaps in much shorter time for these instances. We run the GA also on Istanbul data to drive insights to guide decision-makers for preparation.© 2019 the Author(s

Re-emergence and diversification of a specialised antennal lobe morphology in ithomiine butterflies

How an organism’s sensory system functions is central to how it navigates its environment. The insect olfactory system is a prominent model for investigating how ecological factors impact sensory reception and processing. Notably, work in Lepidoptera led to the discovery of vastly expanded structures, termed macroglomerular complexes (MGCs), within the primary olfactory processing centre. MGCs typically process pheromonal cues, are usually larger in males, and provide classic examples of how variation in the size of neural structures reflects the importance of sensory cues. Though prevalent across moths, MGCs were lost during the origin of butterflies, consistent with evidence that courtship initiation in butterflies is primarily reliant on visual cues, rather than long distance chemical signals. However, an MGC was recently described in a species of ithomiine butterfly, suggesting that this once lost neural adaptation has re-emerged in this tribe. Here, we show that MGC-like morphologies are widely distributed across ithomiines, but vary in both their structure and prevalence of sexual dimorphism. Based on this interspecific variation we suggest that the ithomiine MGC is involved in processing both plant and pheromonal cues, which have similarities in their chemical constitution, and co-evolved with an increased importance of plant derived chemical compounds

From lithic assemblages to raw material sources: a new project of characterization of chert sources in Sabina (central Italy)

Mobility patterns can be inferred through lithic raw material characterization analyses. Here we present a new research project aimed at the identification and georeferencing of chert outcrops in the Sabina region (northern Latium, Italy). We also aim at characterizing the lithic raw materials exploited in several archaeological sites of the area through a multi-parametric protocol (NM-PCI) that includes macroscopic and microscopic observations and chemical analysis. In central Italy, projects that rely on a detailed geo-archaeological procedure to detect regional availability of chert and prehistoric exploitation patterns are still rare. This is the first attempt to systematically analyze the lithic sources of the area in relation to a long-term occupation, spanning from the Middle Paleolithic to the Bronze Age, attested by stratigraphic cave excavations in progress. The wide chronological range will allow a diachronic comparison of the procurement strategies. Identification of selected lithotypes and their provenance could highlight key anthropological issues such as mobility patterns, landscape familiarity, long or short distance networks, and inter-group relationships. A further goal is the creation of a reference collection (lithotheca). This project is part of a broader research aimed at investigating the use of caves and the exploitation of the environment in the Sabina region during Pre-Protohistory, through an integrated approach which combines archaeological with paleoenvironmental data

Distribution Network Design for Syrian Refugees in Kilis Optimising cost and reach: parameters and solutions

These data sets are prepared and used within a humanitarian operations project entitled "Innovating the Turkish supply chain for services in humanitarian aid". The initial data set includes the GIS coordination and population information of a central depot (Municipality building), 18 potential service points (2 hospitals, 1 Red Crescent office, and 15 schools) together with 187 (109 villages and 78 neighbourhoods) main locations where Syrian refugees inhabit in the Kilis province in southern Turkey. Locations are classified as Villages (Köy) and Neighbourhoods (Mahalle) based on administrative divisions of Turkey. A matrix of pair-wise distances (in Km) among the identified locations is provided accordingly. The population of each identified demand location, which is obtained from the local government in 2018, is provided as well. Two additional data sets, given in zip files, are representing the supplementary data for an academic paper submitted to EJOR during the above-mentioned project. The first zip file provides parameters and solutions of 505 instances corresponding to different capacity configurations of E-voucher distribution network for Syrian refugees in Kilis. The second zip file, provides some relatively small dummy instances, created from TSPLIB networks, for algorithm evaluation and benchmark purpose. A ‘README’ file is given in each of them explaining the details of parameter files and layout of the data to enable OR practitioners to solve the same instances by alternative approaches for comparison and assessment purposes

Functional mapping of androgen receptor enhancer activity

Background: Androgen receptor (AR) is critical to the initiation, growth, and progression of prostate cancer. Once activated, the AR binds to cis-regulatory enhancer elements on DNA that drive gene expression. Yet, there are 10–100× more binding sites than differentially expressed genes. It is unclear how or if these excess binding sites impact gene transcription. Results: To characterize the regulatory logic of AR-mediated transcription, we generated a locus-specific map of enhancer activity by functionally testing all common clinical AR binding sites with Self-Transcribing Active Regulatory Regions sequencing (STARRseq). Only 7% of AR binding sites displayed androgen-dependent enhancer activity. Instead, the vast majority of AR binding sites were either inactive or constitutively active enhancers. These annotations strongly correlated with enhancer-associated features of both in vitro cell lines and clinical prostate cancer samples. Evaluating the effect of each enhancer class on transcription, we found that AR-regulated enhancers frequently interact with promoters and form central chromosomal loops that are required for transcription. Somatic mutations of these critical AR-regulated enhancers often impact enhancer activity. Conclusions: Using a functional map of AR enhancer activity, we demonstrated that AR-regulated enhancers act as a regulatory hub that increases interactions with other AR binding sites and gene promoters.Medicine, Faculty ofOther UBCNon UBCUrologic Sciences, Department ofReviewedFacult