Humboldt-Universit?t zu Berlin

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CRC 1315: Mechanisms and disturbances in memory consolidation: From synapses to systems

This Collaborative Research Center (CRC) focuses on systems memory consolidation. That is, it investigates not just how memory-related structures in the brain retain long-term information, but how the brain transforms this information into facts, knowledge and skills that correspond to specific memories. This topic can be seen as one of the central issues in brain research and it is also an ideal topic for a CRC because it is difficult to tackle by individual laboratories working alone. The first round of the CRC was very successful with many breakthroughs and publications. Overall, the consortium provided insight into what signals originate in the hippocampus that eventually lead to memories in the cortex, where these signals arrive and what their action is. This kind of foundational research has already changed the way we look at memory consolidation.For our second funding period application, we have identified a number of themes that were brought into focus during the first round. These include the nature of memory-related activity generated in the hippocampus, the transfer of information from the medial temporal lobe to neocortex, the refinement of ensembles of cells for encoding memories (engrams), the role of sleep, memory loops, and how brain stimulation influences memory. We introduce three new scientific projects to enhance the successful themes and take advantage of ten new PIs who have either arrived in Berlin or become aligned to the goals of the CRC. We will increase the range of investigations to include both molecular events related to memory and large-scale dynamics of memory consolidation. To do this, we have brought in new PIs with expertise in the molecular underpinnings of local protein synthesis and in animal behavior, as well as PIs in the clinical, experimental and theoretical domains working on large-scale systems. For the second round, we will also introduce a robust infrastructure project led by PI Ritter that will further develop these strategies for reproducible research and integrate the consortium into ongoing data management initiatives around Germany and Europe.In summary, the CRC 1315 takes maximum advantage of the existing neuroscientific community investigating memory in Berlin.

Spokesperson:
Prof. Matthew Larkum, Ph.D.
Faculty of Life Sciences
Department of Biology
Charitéplatz 1
D-10017 Berlin
Phone: +49 30 2093-539117
E-Mail: matthew.larkum (at) hu-berlin.de

Duration: 07/18 – 06/26

Homepage: https://hu.berlin/sfb1315
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CRC 1412: Register: Language-Users’ Knowledge of Situational-Functional Variation

The CRC 1412 Register: Language Users’ Knowledge of Situational-Functional Variation investigates aspects of the register knowledge of the speakers of a language. Competent speakers can adapt their linguistic behavior on every linguistic level in response to the current situation: Situational and functional parameters such as the purpose of an utterance, the relationship between speaker and hearer, or the mode (among many others) are responsible for lexical choices such as the one between mom and mother, the proportion of metaphors, the complexity of sentences, the way a text is organized, or even the proportion of schwa endings in German 1st person singular verbs. In multilingual situations, situational parameters often influence the choice of language. We are thus concerned with intraindividual linguistic variation. In Phase I of CRC Register, we used and expanded corpus-linguistic and experimental methods to carefully investigate situational and functional parameters and their influence on specific linguistic parameters. We found register effects to be pervasive but saw interesting differences between the linguistic levels. Building on the many and fascinating findings from Phase I, the focus of Phase II is on the integration of such register variation in models of grammar, language acquisition, language processing, and language change. Some register knowledge is acquired early—even relatively young children adapt their linguistic behavior to different situations—but at the same time, register knowledge changes and expands over the entire lifespan (especially, but not only, in the case of formal registers). In order to be able to behave register-appropriately themselves and to understand register-appropriate behavior in others, speakers must, on the one hand, know which alternatives (mom/mother, around 8 o’clock/7:49 am, ich lache/ich lach ?I laugh‘, etc.) are available and, on the other, understand which situational and functional parameters favor which alternative. Both aspects can change over time, such that register must also be recognized as an essential factor in language change. In sum, the CRC aims to model aspects of linguistic register knowledge, together with grammatical knowledge, on a range of phenomena on all linguistic levels, and in diverse languages and language stages. To that end, we will integrate verbal models, formal models, and statistical models

Spokerperson (since 10/2024):
Prof. Dr. Luka Szucsich
Faculty of Linguistic Science and Literary Studies
Department of Slavic and Hungarian Studies
Dorotheenstra?e 65
D-10117 Berlin
Phone: +49 30 2093-73352
E-Mail: luka.szucsich (at) rz.hu-berlin.de

Duration: 01/20 – 12/27

Homepage: https://sfb1412.hu-berlin.de

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CRC 1404: FONDA - Foundations of Workflows for Large-Scale Scientific Data Analysis

Scientific discoveries in the natural sciences rely on the computational analysis of large data sets, which are carried out by complex data analysis workflows (DAWs) executed on a distributed infrastructure. Most research in DAWs focuses on techniques for minimizing their runtime on a specific infrastructure, which leads to solutions that are difficult to maintain and dependent on the involvement of highly specialized and scarce data engineers. However, in most data science projects, runtime is not the decisive factor; instead, it is its development time. FONDA set out in 2020 to address this long-lasting and increasingly pressing problem. Our overarching research goal is to research languages, technologies, and algorithms to increase human productivity when designing, maintaining, or reusing DAWs for large-scale scientific data analysis. Within its first funding period, FONDA focused on three specific properties of DAWs that are directly linked to human productivity, namely portability, adaptability, and dependability. FONDA achieved groundbreaking results in these regards, such as improved portability through flexible interfaces between infrastructure components, improved adaptability via intelligent scheduling, and improved dependability through contract-driven DAW development. In its second phase, FONDA will further develop its research topics by lifting three restrictions we imposed on ourselves in phase I. First, we break the assumption that DAWs are executed in a single data center hosting all necessary data and will study multi-site DAWs, i.e., DAWs whose sub-workflows are executed in different data centers. Second, we extend our scope in terms of the DAW lifecycle by addressing usability of DAW systems, i.e., empirical investigations of human-computing interfaces and a systematic approach to DAW design. Third, we generalize from single workflows to workflow reuse by researching the technical sustainability of DAWs. Furthermore, as human productivity in data analysis is increasingly threatened by excessive energy costs, we take improvements to environmental sustainability in focus. Besides its scientific results, FONDA’s first phase also excelled in several overachieving topics. With the recent founding of the new HPC@HU service, it had a long-lasting structural impact on the speaker university. The recognition of its highly important research topic at the interface between computer science and the natural sciences is reflected by many recent appointments in the region, which allowed a perfectly matching extension of our PI group. We are proud to have achieved an outstanding high percentage of female PhD students (38%), and we are looking forward to the new edited book on “Workflows for Large-Scale Scientific Data Analysis”, for which more than 100 authors from 15 countries have confirmed contributions and that will appear in summer 2024 in the newly created Open Access publisher BerlinUP.

Spokerperson:
Prof. Dr. Ulf Leser
Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences
Department of Computer Science
Rudower Chaussee 25
D-12489 Berlin
Phone: +49 30 2093-3902
E-Mail: leser (at) informatik.hu-berlin.de

Duration: 07/20 - 06/28

Homepage: https://fonda.hu-berlin.de/

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CRC/TR190: Rationality and Competition: The Economic Performance of Individuals and Firms

The CRC TRR 190 “Rationality and Competition” combines methods and insights from “behavioral” and “neoclassical” economics to better understand important applied economic problems and to reach more robust economic policy conclusions.The CRC addresses two sets of questions. First, questions about method: How can we use the existing, often rather conceptual insights about behavioral deviations from standard theory and apply them to the traditional fields of economic analysis? Are the existing empirical or experimental demonstrations of behavioral biases – such as reference-dependent preferences, over-confidence, or social preferences – ready to use? Do they capture relevant aspects of economic behavior in real world settings, in particular in competitive environments, where market forces punish irrational behavior?Second, questions about substance: In what areas of economic research is it necessary to engage with a richer model of decision making? In what areas are traditional concepts sufficient? Is the nature of the transmission mechanism the same in both analyses? Do the existing empirical demonstrations of behavioral biases have implications of large economic significance?In the first funding period, the CRC has made important contributions to this research agenda, documented in hundreds of publications and research papers in both basic and applied research. Our work program in the second funding period builds on these results – with a few adjustments: First, we identified several highly promising fields that require more attention, including innovation, inequality, and gender economics. Second, the CRC will also highlight several important new methodical questions, in particular the analysis and measurement of biased beliefs and how to operationalize the notion of “identity”.

Spokerperson:
Prof. Georg Weizs?cker, PhD
Faculty of of Economics and Business Administration
Spandauer Stra?e 1
D-10178 Berlin
Phone: +49 30 2093-99492
E-Mail: weizsaecker (at) hu-berlin.de

Duration: 01/17 – 12/24

Homepage: https://rationality-and-competition.de/

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