Bridging silos through governance innovations: the role of the EU cities mission

Cities and local governments are increasingly under pressure to accelerate transformative change in energy and climate transitions. To help cities in their climate actions, the European Commission (EC) has established the EU Cities Mission, which aims for climate neutrality by 2030 for participating cities. The literature argues that one of the main obstacles to accelerating decarbonization lies in organizational divisions and other forms of structural silos. One of the possible ways to address these challenges and accelerate transformation is through governance innovations. The EU Cities Mission is a governance innovation that aims to incentivize and support climate and energy transitions in cities. In this paper, we critically assess the EU Cities Mission’s framework and implementation plan in terms of its potential and possible gaps in addressing different types of silos. To do so, we develop an analytical framework based on academic literature that outlines types of silos and strategies for addressing them. Our results show that key EU Cities Mission documents include several strategies to bridge silos, but that some silos are less frequently addressed. This is particularly the case for silos that rely on political leadership. The paper concludes by drawing out the implications of our findings for the scholarly literature and practice

Monitoring and modeling the soil-plant system toward understanding soil health

The soil health assessment has evolved from focusing primarily on agricultural productivity to an integrated evaluation of soil biota and biotic processes that impact soil properties. Consequently, soil health assessment has shifted from a predominantly physicochemical approach to incorporating ecological, biological and molecular microbiology indicators. This shift enables a comprehensive exploration of soil microbial community properties and their responses to environmental changes arising from climate change and anthropogenic disturbances. Despite the increasing availability of soil health indicators (physical, chemical, and biological) and data, a holistic mechanistic linkage has not yet been fully established between indicators and soil functions across multiple spatiotemporal scales. This article reviews the state-of-the-art of soil health monitoring, focusing on understanding how soil-microbiome-plant processes contribute to feedback mechanisms and causes of changes in soil properties, as well as the impact these changes have on soil functions. Furthermore, we survey the opportunities afforded by the soil-plant digital twin approach, an integrative framework that amalgamates process-based models, Earth Observation data, data assimilation, and physics-informed machine learning, to achieve a nuanced comprehension of soil health. This review delineates the prospective trajectory for monitoring soil health by embracing a digital twin approach to systematically observe and model the soil-plant system. We further identify gaps and opportunities, and provide perspectives for future research for an enhanced understanding of the intricate interplay between soil properties, soil hydrological processes, soil-plant hydraulics, soil microbiome, and landscape genomics.</p

The Relationship Between Mindfulness and Lucid Dreaming:A Systematic Review

The relationship between mindfulness and the frequency with which one experiences lucid dreams is conceptually strong and can be grounded in the continuity hypothesis and in neuroscientific investigations. However, only few studies have been performed regarding this relationship, and comparisons between studies are difficult to make because of methodological issues and discrepancies in results. This study aims to investigate the degree to which this relationship exists and determine the potential factors accounting for the expected discrepancies to guide further research. For that aim, a systematic literature review was conducted in Scopus, Web of Science, and PsycINFO. A total of 555 unique studies were screened, of which three studies (consisting of a total of six substudies) were included that matched the inclusion criteria. The studies were analyzed through a narrative synthesis. The findings reveal an inconclusive association between mindfulness and LDF. Factors identified as potentially accounting for the inconsistencies among the results were meditation experience, lucid dreaming experience, dream recall, gender, and age. This review underlines the importance of pursuing future research that takes these factors into account to enhance our understanding of the relationship between mindfulness and lucid dreaming.</p

Assistive devices for ALS patients:exploring wishes and values through focus groups

Purpose: Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive disease leading to loss of muscle strength and control, and as such limiting patients’ independence. Assistive devices can help individuals with ALS; however, their use by ALS patients is limited. To increase use rates, we expect that devices need to be tailored to ALS patients. The aim of this study was to identify wishes, requirements and values of ALS patients regarding assistive devices for the upper extremity through focus groups involving ALS patients, their relatives and medical professionals. Methods and Materials: Four focus groups were conducted, recorded and transcribed. Two focus groups with ALS patients and their relatives contained a “Day in a Life” and “Empathy map” method, while during two focus groups with medical professionals, “Day in the Life” method and “Provoking statements” were used. Activities mentioned were counted and categorized into “Daily activities” and “Elective activities”. Results: Qualitative analysis of transcripts yielded three themes: (1) ALS patients’ considerations on use and wishes for assistive devices, (2) external factors influencing the use of assistive devices and (3) change in ALS patients’ needs over time. In addition to maintaining independence in activities of daily living, the results highlight that retaining the ability to perform elective activities such as hobbies, is important. Moreover, there is a clear need for assistive devices designed for ALS patients with limited upper extremity strength, but who are not confined to a wheelchair. Conclusion: These findings can guide the development of assistive devices tailored to the needs of ALS patients.</p

Emerging trade-offs in saltmarsh ecosystem services under sea-level rise

Coastal defence and carbon storage by coastal wetlands provide an increasingly recognised means of adaptation and mitigation in the face of climate change, yet these same services are threatened by the impacts against which they protect. Our understanding to date tends to consider impacts of rising sea levels on individual marsh services but fails to consider trade-offs and potential interactions between them. For instance, sea-level rise has the potential to enhance carbon storage but may decrease soil stability, erosion resistance and wave-attenuation capacity by creating sub-optimal growth conditions, causing plants to be weaker and smaller. As such, we aim to answer the question: will rising sea levels drive unidirectional impacts, or contrasting ‘trade-offs’, between saltmarsh carbon storage and coastal defence? We conducted a field experiment across increasing inundation durations beyond the usual seaward limit of Spartina anglica growth, mimicking SLR at established vegetation patches, and measured (1) carbon decomposition rates using the teabag index as proxy, (2) sediment stability, and (3) biomechanical traits of S.anglica as proxy for wave-attenuation capacity. With increasing inundation duration, rates of carbon decomposition slowed, supporting carbon storage, and therefore positively impacted climate change mitigation. In contrast, both sediment stability and vegetation stiffness decreased and hence negatively impacted climate change adaptation. Our findings point to a short-term trade-off in climate ecosystem services with SLR, where positive impacts on carbon storage may offset negative impacts on coastal defence services. However, since lower sediment stability increases the chance of marsh erosion under extreme events, this will increase over time the likelihood of sediment resuspension and the ultimate rerelease of previously stored carbon into the marine carbon cycle. Thus, the interaction between ecosystem services may lead to a net negative impact of SLR on climate mitigation services. Overall, we highlight the necessity of taking a multi-service approach to considering the impact of global change effects on ecosystem services.</p

Artificial Placenta and Artificial Womb Technologies for Lung and Kidney Failure:A Holistic Perspective

Preterm birth remains the leading cause of mortality among neonates. Despite improvements in neonatal intensive care over the years, current treatments for lung and kidney failure are highly invasive, associated with lifelong disability, and limit family integration. Artificial womb and artificial placenta technologies offer a promising alternative by providing more tailored and less invasive neonatal care. Although these technologies share some similarities, artificial womb and artificial placenta technologies differ significantly in terms of treatment initiation, treatment environment, and the potential to support family-centered care. Moreover, even though acute kidney injury is common in neonatal extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) patients, current artificial placenta and artificial womb devices lack renal support functionality. Most artificial womb and artificial placenta studies focus on the technical feasibility of these technologies based on in-vivo animal tests. However, translation toward envisioned use of these devices in preterm neonates remains mostly underexposed. A comprehensive stakeholder analysis, including parents and caregivers, is critical to the development of socially acceptable artificial placenta and artificial womb systems. This state-of-the-art review provides an overview of conventional neonatal lung and kidney treatments, delineates the differences between artificial womb and placenta technologies, and addresses the technological and ethical challenges in advancing these technologies toward potential clinical implementation

Climate change has increased rainfall-induced landslide damages in central China

Global warming exacerbates the frequency of extreme precipitation events and inevitably increases the risk of hydrogeological disasters such as landslides. Understanding the impact of climatic drivers, particularly precipitation, of landslides and the resulting damages is crucial for effective risk management and mitigation strategies. However, few researchers have turned to quantify the causal effects of precipitation anomalies on landslide damages. This study focuses on Jiangxi Province, China, over the period from 2011 to 2020, aiming to quantify the contribution of historical climate change to landslide damages using a panel regression framework with fixed effects. We quantify the impact of long-term and short-term precipitation on landslide damages considering geographical and seasonal differences based on satellite rainfall products. Our results show positive and significant effects of both long-term and short-term precipitation on landslide damages, with a unit anomaly increase corresponding to a 99.7 % increase in damages. Considering the income equality, landslide damages in rich counties show greater sensitivity to monthly precipitation anomaly compared to poor counties. Moreover, we find that climate change contributed to 32.8 % of the total landslide damages in Jiangxi Province over the past decade, amounting to 57 million CNY. Overall, we believe this work could provide quantitative information about the economic costs of climate change on landslides and facilitate related adaptation and resilience strategies.</p

Ready for the worst:awaiting disaster in ageing rural Japan

Inami, a small seaside town in Wakayama Prefecture, Japan, is getting ready for the next Nankai Trough earthquake, which is expected to involve multiple events of magnitude 7.0+ on the maximum seismic intensity scale, causing landslides and tsunamis. This paper is concerned with the capabilities and challenges of an elderly community in this highly prepared rural town. The results show that the continued mainstreaming of disaster preparedness practices has led to widespread awareness of evacuation sites and basic knowledge of disaster evacuation needs. Arguably, however, insufficient support is provided to the elderly as current procedures often do not consider how their reduced mobility, physical strength, and psychological discomfort might impact on evacuation itself and life at the shelters. This paper contributes to the literature on disaster and vulnerability by critically assessing and expanding on perceptions of ageing and disasters in rural areas vis-à-vis the traditional depiction of the elderly as ‘vulnerable and helpless’.<br/

Structural color sensors for lifecycle management in circular manufacturing

Circular manufacturing seeks to extend product lifecycles and minimize waste through reuse, remanufacturing, and recycling. A key challenge in this process is effectively monitoring product conditions to optimize maintenance and ensure product longevity. However, many current monitoring systems for circular manufacturing struggle with complexity, cost, and adaptability in dynamic manufacturing environments, limiting their effectiveness. This paper explores the application of structural color-based sensor systems integrated with camera-based monitoring as a cost-effective and efficient solution for monitoring product through mechanical stress, temperatures, or environmental factors throughout the product lifecycle. These sensors change color in response to mechanical stress, temperatures, or environmental factors, providing both qualitative visual indicators and quantitative data through image processing. By converting RGB data into hue values, camera-based monitoring systems enable real-Time, scalable, and adaptable solutions for circular manufacturing processes, including lifecycle monitoring, environmental monitoring, and remanufacturing. A conceptual case study on lithium-ion battery disassembly highlights the potential of structural color sensors to enhance precision and sustainability. Integrating these systems supports streamlined decision-making, improved product quality, and waste reduction, contributing to sustainable manufacturing systems aligned with circular economy principles.</p