Following the Syrian regime’s violent crackdown on protesters during the 2011 Syrian uprising, leading powers in the Arab world spearheaded a coordinated effort to isolate the Asad regime. But,... Show moreFollowing the Syrian regime’s violent crackdown on protesters during the 2011 Syrian uprising, leading powers in the Arab world spearheaded a coordinated effort to isolate the Asad regime. But, since 2018, we have been witnessing a drastic reversal of this policy, with Arab countries reopening their embassies in Damascus. As the conditions that gave rise to ostracising the Syrian regime have only worsened, we should have expected further intensification of the status of Syria as a pariah state, not its rehabilitation. Nevertheless, this remains a protracted ambivalent process: it involves diplomatic normalisation without political and economic reintegration. What explains this ambivalence? To answer this question, I deploy securitization theory and put forth the concept of ‘mirroring’ securitization. I argue that both the securitization and desecuritization of the Syrian regime by leading Arab states mirror the way of thinking about security of their Western allies, especially the US, and targets Western – not Arab – audiences. Arab states’ speech acts concerning Syria have served to either legitimise from the bottom Western security policies or verbalise what Western countries cannot (yet) afford to verbalise. Overall, this article bridges securitization theory and the study of international hierarchies, and reflects on the agential limits and potentials of securitizing actors in the Global South. Show less
Béquignon, O.J.M.; Bongers, B.J.; Jespers, W.; IJzerman, A.P.; Water, B. van de; Westen, G.J.P. van 2023
With the ongoing rapid growth of publicly available ligand-protein bioactivity data, there is a trove of valuable data that can be used to train a plethora of machine-learning algorithms. However,... Show moreWith the ongoing rapid growth of publicly available ligand-protein bioactivity data, there is a trove of valuable data that can be used to train a plethora of machine-learning algorithms. However, not all data is equal in terms of size and quality and a significant portion of researchers' time is needed to adapt the data to their needs. On top of that, finding the right data for a research question can often be a challenge on its own. To meet these challenges, we have constructed the Papyrus dataset. Papyrus is comprised of around 60 million data points. This dataset contains multiple large publicly available datasets such as ChEMBL and ExCAPE-DB combined with several smaller datasets containing high-quality data. The aggregated data has been standardised and normalised in a manner that is suitable for machine learning. We show how data can be filtered in a variety of ways and also perform some examples of quantitative structure-activity relationship analyses and proteochemometric modelling. Our ambition is that this pruned data collection constitutes a benchmark set that can be used for constructing predictive models, while also providing an accessible data source for research. Show less
Environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) is a method for the quantitative assessment of the environmental impacts of products. A number of impact categories are related to toxic effects of... Show moreEnvironmental life cycle assessment (LCA) is a method for the quantitative assessment of the environmental impacts of products. A number of impact categories are related to toxic effects of chemicals. Multimedia models for substance fate, supplemented with models for human exposure, have been developed in the context of human and environmental risk assessment (HERA). Different authors have adapted such models for use in LCA, largely on a continental level. It has sometimes been suggested to merge LCA toxicity assessment and HERA into one common tool. Here, it is demonstrated that LCA and HERA cannot be merged, due to a fundamental difference concerning their respective goals. Subsequently, adaptations to existing multimedia models are proposed to make it possible to extend multimedia models with a module for metals. The core of the thesis is formed by the GLOBOX model: a global, regionally differentiated fate, intake and effect model for LCA toxicity assessment. For emissions of any organic chemical or metal to any compartment in any country or at any sea, this model calculates region-specific characterisation factors. Finally, an updated set of LCA normalisation factors is provided, with which the relative contributions of a product to the different impact categories can be evaluated. Show less
