Market and welfare valuation of the economic burden of diseases attributable to air pollution exposure in the Western Balkans

Aim: The population in the Western Balkans is exposed to high air pollution concentrations, among the highest in Europe, causing death and disability. Research, however, on the resulting economic cost in the region is still limited. We estimate the economic cost of the adverse health effects from air pollution exposure, including fine particulate matter (ambient and household) and ambient ozone air pollution in the region. Methods: We employ both market and welfare-oriented methods. According to the Cost-of-Illness (COI) approach, we estimate both the direct (healthcare expenditure) and indirect cost (mortality and morbidity cost). Against the shortcomings of a market-based valuation, the Willingness to Pay (WTP) approach is also used. The most recent data from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019 are used. Results: Under the COI approach, total economic cost is estimated at PPP$6.3 billion. Equivalently, it ranges from 0.8$ 76.7 billion. The monetary amount associated with the disease burden of air pollution is significant. Conclusion: Public health policies should include monitoring of the adverse health effects of air pollution. Abatement policies should aim at reducing ambient air pollution as well as the dependence on polluting household energy usage. The reduced economic cost can be accompanied by benefits associated with climate change mitigation and an overall improvement in population’s health status, an important aspect given the current COVID-19 pandemic

Covid-19 pandemic and the technological impact on the work and life of women academics

During the pandemic, the Higher Education had to rapidly adapt to new ways of working with both staff and students having to swiftly work in a remote environment for a prolonged period. This research is focusing on how women in academia within the Higher Education environment in the UK have adapted to virtual working and online learning and in what way they were affected by the pandemic in their professional and home life. For the purposes of this study, the research approach is to investigate women in academia perspectives during the transitional period from face-to-face onto e-learning and the mechanisms that they have used and are currently still using, in order to endure the challenges of work and everyday life

Remote Work and the impact on Women Academics in the Covid-19 era

The Covid-19 pandemic has not only changed our daily life and the way we think and interact with others, but caused rapid changes in all sectors, especially in Higher Education. This research is focusing on how women in academia within the Higher Education environment in the UK have adapted to resilience trends during the sudden and rapid shift from face to face to online learning and their resilience levels for the duration of the pandemic to date. For the purposes of this study, my research approach is to investigate women in academia perspectives during the transitional period from face-to-face onto e-learning and the mechanisms that they have used and are currently still using, in order to endure the challenges of work and everyday life

Computational analysis of world music corpora

PhDThe comparison of world music cultures has been considered in musicological research since the end of the 19th century. Traditional methods from the field of comparative musicology typically involve the process of manual music annotation. While this provides expert knowledge, the manual input is timeconsuming and limits the potential for large-scale research. This thesis considers computational methods for the analysis and comparison of world music cultures. In particular, Music Information Retrieval (MIR) tools are developed for processing sound recordings, and data mining methods are considered to study similarity relationships in world music corpora. MIR tools have been widely used for the study of (mainly) Western music. The first part of this thesis focuses on assessing the suitability of audio descriptors for the study of similarity in world music corpora. An evaluation strategy is designed to capture challenges in the automatic processing of world music recordings and different state-of-the-art descriptors are assessed. Following this evaluation, three approaches to audio feature extraction are considered, each addressing a different research question. First, a study of singing style similarity is presented. Singing is one of the most common forms of musical expression and it has played an important role in the oral transmission of world music. Hand-designed pitch descriptors are used to model aspects of the singing voice and clustering methods reveal singing style similarities in world music. Second, a study on music dissimilarity is performed. While musical exchange is evident in the history of world music it might be possible that some music cultures have resisted external musical influence. Low-level audio features are combined with machine learning methods to find music examples that stand out in a world music corpus, and geographical patterns are examined. The last study models music similarity using descriptors learned automatically with deep neural networks. It focuses on identifying music examples that appear to be similar in their audio content but share no (obvious) geographical or cultural links in their metadata. Unexpected similarities modelled in this way uncover possible hidden links between world music cultures. This research investigates whether automatic computational analysis can uncover meaningful similarities between recordings of world music. Applications derive musicological insights from one of the largest world music corpora studied so far. Computational analysis as proposed in this thesis advances the state-of-the-art in the study of world music and expands the knowledge and understanding of musical exchange in the world.Queen Mary Principal’s research studentship

Σύνθεση και Χαρακτηρισμός στατιστικών και κατά συστάδες συμπολυμερών ισοκυανικού n-εξυλεστέρα και 3-τριαιθοξυσιλυλισοκυανικού προπυλεστέρα μέσω πολυμερισμού σύμπλεξης με τη χρήση ημιτατονοκενικών συμπλόκων

Σε αυτό τo μεταπτυχιακό δίπλωμα ειδίκευσης μελετούμε τη σύνθεση ομοπολυμερών, στατιστικών και δισυσταταδικών συμπολυμερών ισοκυανικών εστέρων, μέσω πολυμερισμού σύμπλεξης με τη χρήση ημιτιτανοκενικών συμπλόκων. Τα δύο μονομερή που χρησιμοποιήθηκαν είναι ο ισοκυανικός n-εξυλεστέρας και ο 3-τριαιθοξυσιλυλισοκυανικός προπυλεστέρας. Στη συνέχεια, τα παραγώμενα πολυμερή χαρακτηρίζονται με διάφορες τεχνικές (χρωματογραφία αποκλεισμού μεγεθών, φασματοσκοπία NMR κ.α). Στα στατιστικά συμπολυμερή υπολογίζονται οι λόγοι δραστικότητας των μονομερών, με τη βοήθεια γραμμικών μεθόδων, αλλά και του υπολογιστικού προγράμματος COPOINT. Μελετάται επίσης, η κινητική της θερμικής αποικοδόμησης των ομοπολυμερών και των στατιστικών συμπολυμερών. Τέλος, ερευνάται η ύπαρξη δομής έλικας λόγω του χειρόμορφου υποκατάστατη, του απαρχητή-συμπλόκου και η ικανότητα δικτύωσης των ομοπολυμερών και των δισυσταδικών συμπολυμερών.In this MSc thesis we study the synthesis of homopolymers, statistical and diblock copolymers based on isocyanates, via coordination polymerization employing half titanocene complexes. The two monomers, that were used, are n-hexyl isocyanate and 3-(triethoxysilyl)propyl isocyanate. The polymers were characterized by various techniques (such as size exclusion chromatography and NMR spectroscopy etc.). The reactivity ratios of the monomers were calculated, by the use of linear graphical methods and COPOINT program. Furthermore, the kinetics of the thermal degradation of the statistical copopolymers and the homopolymers, was investigated. Finally, the existence of a helix structure due to the chiral substituent of the primer-complex and the crosslinking ability of the homopolymers and diblock copolymers were investigated

Transformation of Hotel Food Waste into Animal Feed: Two Operational Periods of the Food for Feed Pilot Unit

Food waste represents 25–35% of the European Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), thus its diversion into innovative utilization streams is critical for sustainable waste management and the achievement of circularity. Opportunities are even higher in the island of Crete, Greece, where landfilled food waste is 39% of MSW. In this context, the LIFE-F4F Project implements a pilot scale modified solar drying process that provides an innovative, low-tech and low emissions method for safe transformation of source separated food waste into animal feed

The deep history of music project

Music, like language and genes, is the product of a descent-by-modification process. As such, the current distribution of music styles around the world should reflect the history of human migration and cultural diffusion (Lomax, 1968). However, where geneticists and linguists have developed sophisticated techniques for reconstructing that history, ethnomusicologist have largely abandoned large-scale comparative studies. here we outline a proposal to revive comparative musicology using recent digitized ethnomusicological archives and MIR technology. Our study has three objectives: (i) To determine global distribution of musical style; (ii) to investigate the relationship between patterns of musical, linguistic and genetic diversity; (iii) to construct a large open-access database containing MIR features and metadata from traditional music