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Mountain areas are defined by their high relief energy, dynamic nature, and diverse geo-, hydro-, eco-, and anthroposystems. They are significantly affected by climate change and globalization, presenting complex research challenges from local to global scales (Klein et al 2019). Since 2006, the Institute for Interdisciplinary Mountain Research (IGF), Austrian Academy of Sciences, has focused on human–environment relations, with long-term monitoring in areas such as biodiversity, population and settlement, glaciers, protected areas, natural hazards, digital landscapes, and social–ecological transformations. Over the past year, IGF's team has identified the main challenges of mountain research through a series of workshops. The 3 Ds—Drivers, Diversity, and Dynamics—emerged as central factors for gaining new knowledge and promoting sustainability transformations in mountain regions. New ways of conducting research and activities, including long-term living labs and the integration of artificial intelligence for data-based multi- and transscalar analyses, are being implemented to support this research.

In recent decades, the mountains of Latin America have undergone massive rural–urban change. In Peru, this has led to strong growth of population and settlement on the spatially limited valley floors of the Quechua elevational zone, which is part of a sophisticated vertical land use system that includes the adjacent slopes (Suni elevational zone) and high plains (Puna elevational zone). Periurban villagers not only benefit from this rural–urban change, but also bear its negative social and environmental consequences. Future-oriented mountain development in highland Peru could benefit from detecting and understanding the perceived impacts and preferred performance of rural–urban change in periurban villages. In an effort to do so, this study used structured, computer-assisted personal interviews with closed questions, complemented by informal talks, in 2 case study villages near the intermediate cities of Cusco (Huatanay Valley) and Huaraz (Santa Valley): Oropesa and Taricá. The responses of 420 interviewees, selected through nonprobability quota sampling, confirm negative impacts known from comparable studies. However, these perceptions do not lead to a negative overall assessment of rural–urban change. This supposed contradiction becomes easier to understand when considering the periurban villagers' preferred performance of future developments, which point in particular at the desire to preserve cropland and woodland on the valley floor, while, at the same time, making greater use of the high plains as settlement areas. Given these views, performance-based management of rural–urban change could potentially lead the way to a socially inclusive and environmentally balanced development and help in overcoming rural–urban dichotomies in highland Peru.

La utilización de los estudios de montaña requiere de narrativas integradoras para la geoalfabetización sobre paisajes socioecológicos productivos y motiva más investigaciones transdisciplinares en el campo de la montología. Concebimos este artículo como la confluencia de la experiencia individual y el razonamiento colectivo hacia la formación de grupos de investigación sinérgicos que se ocupan de la ciencia de montaña convergente, para hacer avanzar la montología a un nuevo nivel, mediante el cual el pensamiento innovador sobre la ciencia de la sustentabilidad y el desarrollo regenerativo incorpora propuestas alternativas para el mantenimiento, la mejora, o regeneración de las condiciones de vida de los paisajes de montaña. Buscamos utilizar este marco contemporáneo de sustentabilidad y restauración ecológica como el ímpetu para comprender mejor las relaciones de la naturaleza y la cultura, desde una perspectiva transdisciplinar, en montañas habitadas que operan en cuatro dimensiones (largo, ancho, alto y tiempo). El artículo está orientado a potenciar la transversalidad de temáticas en torno a las montañas como sistemas socioecológicos productivos, en una nueva disciplina académica institucionalizada y convergente. Concluimos con un llamado a un desarrollo regenerativo, sustentable y consiliente en las montañas del mundo.

Las montañas son vistas por lo general como el opuesto rural o incluso «silvestre» de los espacios urbanos. Pero, ¿se puede seguir justificando esta visión en tiempos de la «urbanización planetaria»? ¿Qué es realmente «silvestre», «rural» y «urbano», y en qué se diferencian estas categorías en términos estructurales y funcionales? ¿Existen características urbanas en las montañas? Partiendo de los conceptos de la urbanización planetaria y la verticalidad e incluyendo ejemplos del Norte y del Sur Global, el presente capítulo presenta un tema central de la montología urbana (o la investigación transdiciplinaria de las áreas urbanas de montaña orientada a la sostenibilidad) como es el de los vínculos campo-ciudad entre las diferentes zonas altitudinales. Los vínculos ecosistémicos, infraestructurales, demográficos, económicos y socioculturales en las montañas presentan numerosas especificidades debido al relieve y la altitud del entorno de urbanización. Así mismo, los «flujos» de servicios ecosistémicos en las montañas, los teleféricos que conectan valles y cumbres, la movilidad espacial vertical de las personas, así como el uso deliberado de entornos de montaña e identidades para crear una marca en las ciudades de montaña con el fin de atraer a inversores y visitantes: son sólo algunos ejemplos que subrayan el creciente entrelazamiento de los antiguos contrastes de las ciudades «urbanas» y las montañas «rurales» (o «silvestre»). En este sentido, todo lo anterior mencionado debe tenerse en cuenta en el estudio científico y el desarrollo sostenible de la urbanización de los espacios de montaña para crear lugares habitables para los seres humanos y no humanos.

Introduction Systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), sepsis and associated organ dysfunctions are life-threating conditions occurring at paediatric intensive care units (PICUs). Early recognition and treatment within the first hours of onset are critical. However, time pressure, lack of personnel resources, and the need for complex age-dependent diagnoses impede an accurate and timely diagnosis by PICU physicians. Data-driven prediction models integrated in clinical decision support systems (CDSS) could facilitate early recognition of disease onset.Objectives To estimate the sensitivity and specificity of previously developed prediction models (index tests) for the detection of SIRS, sepsis and associated organ dysfunctions in critically ill children up to 12 hours before reference standard diagnosis is possible.Methods and analysis We conduct a monocentre, prospective diagnostic test accuracy study. Clinicians in the PICU of the tertiary care centre Hannover Medical School, Germany, continuously screen and recruit patients until the adaptive sample size (originally intended sample size of 500 patients) is enrolled. Eligible are children (0–17 years, all sexes) who stay in the PICU for ≥12 hours and for whom an informed consent is given. All eligible patients are independently assessed for SIRS, sepsis and organ dysfunctions using corresponding predictive and knowledge-based CDSS models. The knowledge-based CDSS models serve as imperfect reference standards. The assessments are used to estimate the sensitivities and specificities of each predictive model using a clustered nonparametric approach (main analysis). Subgroup analyses (‘age groups’, ‘sex’ and ‘age groups by sex’) are predefined.Ethics and dissemination This study obtained ethics approval from the Hannover Medical School Ethics Committee (No. 10188_BO_SK_2022). Results will be disseminated as peer-reviewed publications, at scientific conferences, and to patients in an appropriate dissemination approach.Trial registration number This study was registered with the German Clinical Trial Register (DRKS00029071) on 2022-05-23.Protocol version 10188_BO_SK_2022_V.2.0–20220330_4_Studienprotokoll.

We study electronic transport in Weyl semimetals with spatially varying nodal tilt profiles. We find that the flow of electrons can be guided precisely by judiciously chosen tilt profiles. In a broad regime of parameters, we show that electron flow is described well by semiclassical equations of motion similar to the ones governing gravitational attraction. This analogy provides a physically transparent tool for designing tiltronic devices like electronic lenses. The analogy to gravity circumvents the notoriously difficult full-fledged description of inhomogeneous solids. A comparison to microscopic lattice simulations shows that it is only valid for trajectories sufficiently far from analogue black holes. We finally comment on the Berry curvature-driven transverse motion and relate the latter to spin precession physics.

The sustainable development of mountain regions requires inter- and transdisciplinary knowledge. The Institute for Interdisciplinary Mountain Research contributes to this global endeavor as part of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and as a member of international scientific networks, together with local partners and stakeholders. As a joint effort of individual researchers covering multiple fields, this article highlights our views on mountains as research objects, the phenomena we investigate as parts of entire mountain systems, and the synergies and differences of the disciplinary frames within which we work.

Parafermion bound states (PBSs) are generalizations of Majorana bound states (MBSs) and have been predicted to exist as zero-energy eigenstates in proximitized fractional quantum Hall edge states. Similarly to MBSs, a finite distance between the PBS can split the ground-state degeneracy. However, parafermionic modes have a richer exchange statistics than MBSs, so several interaction terms are allowed by the underlying Z_{2n} symmetry, rendering the effective Hamiltonian governing a pair of PBSs at a finite distance nontrivial. Here, we use a combination of analytical techniques (semiclassical instanton approximation) and numerical techniques (quantum Monte Carlo simulations) to determine the effective coupling Hamiltonian. For this purpose, we go beyond the dilute one-instanton gas approximation and show how finite-size effects can give rise to higher-order parafermion interactions. We find good quantitative agreement between the analytical results and Monte Carlo simulations. We estimate that these finite-size corrections should be observable in some of the recently proposed experiments to observe PBSs in strongly correlated systems.

Skyrmions are topological magnetic textures that can arise in noncentrosymmetric ferromagnetic materials. In most systems experimentally investigated to date, skyrmions emerge as classical objects. However, the discovery of skyrmions with nanometer length scales has sparked interest in their quantum properties. Here, we simulate the ground states of two-dimensional spin-1/2 Heisenberg lattices with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions and discover a broad region in the zero-temperature phase diagram which hosts quantum skyrmion lattices. We argue that the quantum skyrmion lattice phase can be detected experimentally in the magnetization profile via local magnetic polarization measurements as well as in the spin structure factor measurable via neutron scattering experiments. Finally, we explore the resulting quantum skyrmion state, analyze its real-space polarization profile and show that it is a nonclassical state featuring entanglement between quasiparticle and environment mainly localized near the boundary spins of the skyrmion.

Reviewed: Theory of Mountainurbanology. By Guangyu Huang. Singapore: Springer, 2021. xxxiii + 269 pp. Hardcover: US$ 199.99, ISBN 978-981-16-0818-6. E-book: US$ 149.00, ISBN 978-981-16-0819-3.

La montología es un campo de investigación transdisciplinario que se compromete con el desarrollo sostenible de las regiones montañosas en el mundo. Sin embargo, las ciudades de montaña han sido, en ese contexto, escasamente estudiadas. Por este motivo, el objetivo de este capítulo es desarrollar una perspectiva montológica para el estudio de las ciudades de montaña. Una clave para entenderlas es su ubicación geográfica específica tanto en su entorno natural y cultural como en su localización topográfica. Esto, a su vez, está relacionado con los factores de accesibilidad y el alcance de bienes y servicios de ubicación central. De igual modo, el factor de ubicación está vinculado a numerosos factores de riesgo, tales como terremotos, vulcanismo, movimientos de tierras e inundaciones, que son exacerbados por el cambio climático. Además de eso, se presentan otros retos socioculturales que también son importantes para el desarrollo sostenible de las ciudades de montaña como son la peri y la pos-suburbanización, el turismo y la inmigración, entre otros. Para hacer frente a esos retos y lograr sostenibilidad, es necesario un enfoque transdisciplinario que abarque hombre y medioambiente, en el que participen expertos, responsables políticos y población.

Ladder models of ultracold atoms offer a versatile platform for the experimental and theoretical study of different phenomena and phases of matter linked to the interplay between artificial gauge fields and interactions. Strongly correlated helical states are known to appear for specific ratios of the particle and magnetic flux densities, and they can often be interpreted as a one-dimensional limit of fractional quantum Hall states, thus being called pretopological. Their signatures, however, are typically hard to observe due to the small gaps characterizing these states. Here we investigate bosonic ladder models at filling factor ν=1. Based on bosonization, renormalization group, and matrix product state simulations we pinpoint two strongly correlated helical phases appearing at this resonance. We show that one of them can be accessed in systems with two-species hardcore bosons and on-site repulsions only, thus amenable for optical lattice experiments. Its signatures are sizable and stable over a broad range of parameters for realistic system sizes.

Probing the topological invariants of interacting systems stands as a grand and open challenge. Here we describe a dynamical method to characterize 1D chiral models, based on the direct observation of time-evolving bulk excitations. We present analytical and state-of-the-art numerical calculations on various flavors of interacting Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) chains, demonstrating how measuring the mean chiral displacement allows us to distinguish between topological insulator, trivial insulator, and symmetry-broken phases. Finally, we provide a readily-feasible experimental blueprint for a model displaying these three phases and we describe how to detect those.

In strictly one-dimensional systems, repulsive interactions tend to reduce particle mobility on a lattice. Therefore, the Drude weight, controlling the divergence at zero-frequency of optical conductivities in perfect conductors, is lower than in noninteracting cases. We show that this is not the case when extending to quasi-one-dimensional ladder systems. Relying on bosonization, perturbative and matrix product states (MPS) calculations, we show that nearest-neighbor interactions and magnetic fluxes provide a bias between back- and forward-scattering processes, leading to linear corrections to the Drude weight in the interaction strength. As a consequence, Drude weights counterintuitively increase (decrease) with repulsive (attractive) interactions. Our findings are relevant for the efficient tuning of Drude weights in the framework of ultracold atoms trapped in optical lattices and equally affect topological edge states in condensed matter systems.

Der Schaffung von Schutzgebieten gehen oft Spannungen und intensive Diskussionen zwischen Vertretern und Vertreterinnen unterschiedlicher Interessen voraus. Öffentliche Körperschaften, Umweltschutzgruppen und lokale Beteiligte aus Landwirtschaft und Tourismus sind entweder für oder gegen die Ausweisung eines Schutzgebiets in ihrer Heimatregion. Am Beispiel von zwei Schutzgebieten in den österreichischen Ostalpen wendet die vorliegende Studie eine Kombination von mündlicher Geschichte und Recherche in Archiven an, um diese Pfade der Spannungen nachzuverfolgen und die Beteiligten zu identifizieren, ebenso wie die Themen, die auf dem Weg zur Ausweisung diskutiert wurden. Unsere Ergebnisse offenbaren die Komplexität beider Fälle, an der verschiedenste Beteiligte aus dem öffentlichen wie auch dem non-profit bzw. ehrenamtlichen und dem privaten Bereich mitgewirkt haben. Nach bis zu 30 Jahren an Debatten scheinen beide Schutzgebiete heute von großen Teilen der lokalen Bevölkerung akzeptiert und sogar gut in den regionalen landwirtschaftlichen und touristischen Rahmen integriert zu sein. Wenn diese „Pfade der Spannungen“ in zukünftigen Unter-Schutz-Stellungen verkürzt werden sollen, ließen sich die Kommunikationsmaßnahmen und -strategien sicher verbessern. Gleichzeitig könnten bisherige Erfahrungen mit der Ausweisung von Schutzgebieten den Verantwortlichen für politische Entscheidungen in den Alpen zur Verfügung gestellt werden. Auf diese Weise könnten neue Schutzgebiete ohne übermäßige Spannungen geschaffen werden und den Weg für nachhaltige Entwicklung in ökologisch sensitiven Gebieten der europäischen Alpen ebnen.

The establishment of protected areas is often preceded by tensions and intense discussions between stakeholders of differing interests. Governmental bodies, environmental conservation groups and local actors, such as farmers or locals involved in tourism, are either in favour of or in opposition to the designation of protected areas in their home regions. Using two protected areas in the Eastern Austrian Alps as cases in point, the present study combines the methods of oral history and archival research to trace these timelines of tension and to identify the actors involved and the issues debated on the way to designation. Our results reveal the complex nature of both cases shaped by a variety of actors from the public, non-profit (or voluntary) and private sectors. After up to 30 years of discussions, both protected areas now seem to be accepted by large parts of the local population and are even well-integrated in the regional agrarian and touristic setting. To shorten these “timelines of tension” in future conservation projects, communication measures and strategies could clearly be improved and past experiences of protected area designations made available to present policy makers of the Alpine region. In this way, new protected areas could be established without undue tensions and pave the way for sustainable development in sensitive environments of the European Alps.

In the tropical Andes, uncontrolled urban growth and the loss of agricultural land severely affect periurban smallholders who depend on the lease of farmland. In this context, the hinterland of Huancayo, Peru, represents a case in point, given that the urbanization of irrigated land resources on the valley floor endangers agricultural production during the dry season and thus forces agriculturalists to adapt their land use—a problem largely attributed to policy failures. If smallholder farmers had been policy-makers in the past, what type of urban growth would have taken place? Which future settlement structure would they prefer? To answer these questions, an easy-to-use and practice-oriented method for visualizing smallholder views on urbanization and landscape change was developed and tested. A combination of photomontage-based visualization exercises and interviews revealed that the interviewees mostly agreed that agricultural areas should remain between a mix of low and high buildings along the existing road. Hence, to a certain degree, their perception toward dispersed urban development seems not to be as negative as one could suppose. Additionally, some peasants argue that urban expansion should be on the steep and nonirrigated slopes adjacent to the city in order to conserve the fertile and irrigated land on the valley floor. Finally, the results of this study point to the potential of landscape visualizations for enabling mountain smallholders to participate in periurban land use planning and lead to the conclusion that photomontages, visualization exercises, and interviews should increasingly be used to improve understanding of smallholders' views, for this method includes an important emotional component that is rarely considered by planners and policy-makers.

Reviewed: Spell of the Urubamba: Anthropogeographical Essays on an Andean Valley in Space and Time. By Daniel W. Gade. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2016. xv + 354 pp. Hardcover: US$ 199.00, ISBN 978-3-319-20848-0. Softcover: US$ 199.00, ISBN 978-3-319-36946-4. E-book: US$ 149.00, ISBN 978-3-319-20849-7.

Web-based information and communication technologies enable the inclusion of all stakeholders in sustainable regional development and raise hopes that these processes will be accomplished from the bottom up and with broad public participation. This article synthesizes, presents, and critically discusses solutions for the Alps that use web 2.0 technologies, in particular: (a) GALPIS and DIAMONT with databases and an interactive webGIS, (b) mountain.TRIP as an efficient communication and information system to link research with practice, and (c) mountain wikis as tools for collaborative regional planning and development. The results indicate that new information and communication instruments enhance the implementation, promotion, assessment, and steering of sustainable regional development in the Alps.

Helical liquids have been experimentally realized in both nanowires and ultracold atomic chains as the result of strong spin–orbit interactions. In both cases the inner degrees of freedom can be considered as an additional space dimension, providing an interpretation of these systems as chiral synthetic ladders, with artificial magnetic fluxes determined by the spin–orbit terms. In this work, we characterize the helical state which appears at filling ν = 1/2: this state is generated by a gap arising in the spin sector of the corresponding Luttinger liquid and it can be interpreted as the one-dimensional (1D) limit of a fractional quantum Hall state of bosonic pairs of fermions. We study its main features, focusing on entanglement properties and correlation functions. The techniques developed here provide a key example for the study of similar quasi-1D systems beyond the semiclassical approximation commonly adopted in the description of the Laughlin-like states.

This study investigated the trainability of decision-making and reactive agility via video-based visual training in young athletes. Thirty-four members of a national football academy (age: 14.4 ± 0.1 years) were randomly assigned to a training (VIS; n = 18) or a control group (CON; n = 16). In addition to the football training, the VIS completed a video-based visual training twice a week over a period of six weeks during the competition phase. Using the temporal occlusion technique, the players were instructed to react on one-on-one situations shown in 40 videos. The number of successful decisions and the response time were measured with a video-based test. In addition, the reactive-agility sprint test was used. VIS significantly improved the number of successful decisions (22.2 ± 3.6 s vs. 29.8 ± 4.5 s; p < 0.001), response time (0.41 ± 0.10 s vs. 0.31 ± 0.10 s; p = 0.006) and reactive agility (2.22 ± 0.33 s vs. 1.94 ± 0.11 s; p = 0.001) pre- vs. post-training. No significant differences were found for CON. The results have shown that video-based visual training improves the time to make decisions as well as reactive agility sprint-time, accompanied by an increase in successful decisions. It remains to be shown whether or not such training can improve simulated or actual game performance.