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Bacteria, as well as eukaryotes, principally fungi, of the upper respiratory tract play key roles in the etiopathogenesis of respiratory diseases, whereas the potential role of archaea remains poorly understood. In this review, we discuss the contribution of all three domains of cellular life to human naso- and oropharyngeal microbiomes, i.e., bacterial microbiota, eukaryotes (mostly fungi), as well as the archaeome and their relation to respiratory and atopic disorders in infancy and adolescence. With this review, we aim to summarize state-of-the-art contributions to the field published in the last decade. In particular, we intend to build bridges between basic and clinical science.

Respiratory viruses play an important role in asthma exacerbation, and early exposure can be involved in recurrent bronchitis and the development of asthma. The exact mechanism is not fully clarified, and pathogen-to-host interaction studies are warranted to identify biomarkers of exacerbation in the early phase. Only a limited number of international exacerbation cohorts were studied. Here, we have established a local pediatric exacerbation study in Germany consisting of children with asthma or chronic, recurrent bronchitis and analyzed the viriome within the nasopharyngeal swab specimens derived from the entire cohort (n = 141). Interestingly, 41% of exacerbated children had a positive test result for human rhinovirus (HRV)/human enterovirus (HEV), and 14% were positive for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). HRV was particularly prevalent in asthmatics (56%), wheezers (50%), and atopic (66%) patients. Lymphocytes were decreased in asthmatics and in HRV-infected subjects, and patients allergic to house dust mites were more susceptible to HRV infection. Our study thus confirms HRV infection as a strong ‘biomarker’ of exacerbated asthma. Further longitudinal studies will show the clinical progress of those children with a history of an RSV or HRV infection. Vaccination strategies and novel treatment guidelines against HRV are urgently needed to protect those high-risk children from a serious course of disease.

Abstract Global developments such as climate change, a growing world population and the depletion of fossil resources make the sustainable use of biogenic resources in chemical production inevitable. This would also provide a final product with a higher added value than just utilizing the raw materials for applications in energy generation. In recent years, many researchers have shown that e.g., grass clippings, carrots and potato peels can be biotechnologically converted into high-value chemicals thereby increasing resource efficiency. A particular challenge, however, is the decentralized production of such biogenic raw materials as well as degradation affecting the composition and quality within short periods of time. Therefore, appropriate logistics concepts must be developed and evaluated to economically valorize biogenic raw materials. Such concepts differ significantly in terms of material utilization for the production of chemicals, composting or energetic valorization. This overview presents relevant examples of the conversion of biogenic residues into chemicals investigating basic logistic concepts and highlighting major challenges along bio-based value chains.

Urban Green Space management requires a multi-dimensional, evidence-based approach to effectively balance social, environmental, and economic objectives. City administrators currently lack a data-driven framework for allocating resources during constraint scenarios, leading to subjective decisions. Existing literature lacks objective solutions for managing city-scale green spaces, each with its distinct characteristics. Another challenge is handling varied spatial scales required for urban applications. This study proposes a novel goal programming-based model for urban green space management wherein multiple benefit objectives, such as conserving sequestered carbon in trees and enhancing quality and accessibility of parks, as well as handling demand constraints on available resources like water and personnel, are included. The proposed method was demonstrated in two cities with diverse conditions, Berlin and Melbourne, and evaluated on various benefit metrics, such as allocated green space units, resources consumed, and goals achieved. The model was analyzed with resource allocation decisions and goals at different spatial scales. The highest benefit achievement and resource allocation were observed when resources were allocated at the sub-district scale with a city-level target. Alternatively, setting targets at the district level provided a more even resource distribution; however, at the cost of reduced overall benefits. Results show that the proposed method increased the total benefits gained while effectively balancing conflicting goals and constraints. Additionally, it allows incorporating the city’s preferences and priorities, offering a scalable solution for informed decision-making in varied urban applications. Depending on data availability, this approach can be scaled to other cities, including additional benefits and resource constraints as required.

Abstract Thermal Bridges on Building Rooftops (TBBR) is a multi-channel remote sensing dataset. It was recorded during six separate UAV fly-overs of the city center of Karlsruhe, Germany, and comprises a total of 926 high-resolution images with 6927 manually-provided thermal bridge annotations. Each image provides five channels: three color, one thermographic, and one computationally derived height map channel. The data is pre-split into training and test data subsets suitable for object detection and instance segmentation tasks. All data is organized and structured to comply with FAIR principles, i.e. being findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable. It is publicly available and can be downloaded from the Zenodo data repository. This work provides a comprehensive data descriptor for the TBBR dataset to facilitate broad community uptake.

This data article describes an instance dataset motivated by the problem of scheduling a project with diverging material flows. Such material flows are released during the execution of the project and are subject to limited processing and storage capacities. Typical examples are nuclear dismantling or other deconstruction/demolition projects, where large amounts of material must be classified, scanned for hazardousness, and processed accordingly. The problem setting is mathematically described as a resource-constrained project scheduling problem with cumulative resources (RCPSP/c). The RCPSP/c deals with finding a project schedule with minimal makespan that satisfies temporal, renewable resource, and cumulative resource constraints. In total, the dataset comprises 192 artificially generated instances that are suitable for testing models and solution methods. In addition, we provide our best found solution for each instance and different modeling variants (e.g., for two types of objective functions). These solutions were computed by heuristic solution methods. The dataset serves as a benchmark for researchers evaluating the performance of solution methods for the RCPSP/c or the more general problem class with resources that can be produced and consumed.

Purpose: Reduced availability of transport infrastructure affects highly dependent global supply chains (SCs), leading to modal shifts in the short term. Since relocation decisions of facilities may result in the long term, this paper evaluates companies’ business decisions in reaction to availability reductions of inland waterway transport (IWT). Methodology: A transport model evaluates the impact of reduced infrastructure availability through heuristic optimization based on the Traveling Purchaser Problem. The resulting increase in operational costs is used to assess the probability of relocating facilities based on a Facility Location Problem (FLP) which enables deriving the benefit from infrastructure conditions. Findings: The study identifies critical thresholds for infrastructure availability that affect companies’ relocation decisions regarding the maintenance of public infrastructure. The case study exhibits actual critical infrastructure assets. Practical implications: Insights into the decisive consequences of companies’ decisions are given, and awareness of the relevance of infrastructure investments on local areas’ attractiveness is raised. The results imply considering public infrastructure investments in maintenance for private business locations. Originality: The paper highlights a new way to sustain local industries and connects short-term agility and long-term resilience with companies’ decisions and the exogenous factor infrastructure availability. The applied use case focuses on the barely studied waterway infrastructure that gains importance in light of sustainability and climate change.

Abstract Thermochemical biorefineries for the production of chemicals and materials can play an important role in the bioeconomy. However, their economic viability is often questioned under the premise of the economy of scale. This paper presents a regional, modular biorefinery concept for the production of the platform chemicals hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), furfural and phenols from the lignocellulosic perennial miscanthus, which can be cultivated on marginal and degraded areas. The paper focuses on the question of the minimum selling price of HMF and the optimal plant size for this purpose, using the region of Baden‐Württemberg, Germany, as an example. Based on small pilot plant results, a scalable process simulation was created via AspenPlus. This allows different scenarios and process combinations of this multi‐output biorefinery concept to be compared with each other. Using this, a minimum sales price for the main product HMF is calculated using methods of dynamic investment cost calculation according to the net present value method. Based on this, the plant capacity was scaled. The scenarios and sensitivity analyses show that, with an accuracy of ±15%, regional biorefineries could already offer platform chemicals at prices of 2.21–2.90 EUR/kg HMF at the current stage of development. This corresponds to three to four times the price of today's comparative fossil base chemicals and is thus a competitive option from the authors’ point of view. The local biomass and the heat prices were identified as the main influencing factors. As a result, the selection of the location will have a decisive influence on the economic viability of such concepts in the case of further development and optimization of the process in first demonstration plants.

Purpose: This paper aims to enable the evaluation of systemic risks resulting from missing or misallocated repair measures of inland waterways infrastructure. In this context, cascading effects and risks arising from interdependent Critical Infrastructures (CIs) are of particular interest. The systemic risk assessment is implemented as a GIS-based tool to support decision makers in a risk-based maintenance strategy. Methodology: A framework based on a chain of interdependent risks of different levels of the system represents the base model. The interlinkages of industries are quantified by Input-Output-Modeling and the spatial dimension is implemented as a GIS-based decision tool. Findings: From an analytical perspective, the close interconnection of the systems' levels (subsystems) under consideration can be traced. The results highlight critical buildings leading to potentially serious impacts on industry and population if the infrastructure elements are not maintained. Research limitations: This research is focused on the framework and impacts on interdependent CIs, while work on the vulnerability of constructions and population protection, which complements our approach, is explored in more depth elsewhere. Practical implications: Maintenance of infrastructure elements should be more risk-based than time-oriented to avoid potential damage and reduce impacts. Originality: We examine the interconnected subsystems construction, industry and population in an aggregated risk framework to quantify risks stemming from complex infrastructure interdependencies with waterways as rarely explored infrastructure in this context. The implementation of a decision support tool for infrastructure operators as risk dashboard enables the integration of the approach into everyday infrastructure risk management.

Thermography for building audits is commonly carried out by means of terrestrial recording processes with static cameras. The implementation of drones to automatically acquire images from various perspectives can speed up and facilitate the procedure but requires higher recording distances, utilizes changing recording angles and has to contend with the effects of movement during image capture. This study investigates the influence of different drone settings on the quality of thermographic images for building audits in comparison to ground-based acquisition. To this end, several buildings are photographically captured via unmanned aerial vehicle and classical terrestrial means to generate a dataset of 968 images in total. These are analyzed and compared according to five quality criteria that are explicitly chosen for this study to establish best-practice rules for thermal image acquisition. We discover that flight speeds of up to 5 m/s have no visible effects on the image quality. The combination of smaller distances (22 m above a building) and a 45° camera angle are found to allow for both the qualitative and quantitative analysis of rooftops as well as a qualitative screening of building façades. Greater distances of 42 m between camera and building may expedite the acquisition procedure for larger-scaled district coverage but cannot be relied upon for thermal analyses beyond qualitative studies.

In the coming decades, the number of end-of-life (EoL) traction battery systems will increase sharply. The disassembly of the system to the battery module is necessary to recycle the battery modules or to be able to use them for further second-life applications. These different recovery paths are important pathways to archive a circular battery supply chain. So far, little knowledge about the disassembling of EoL batteries exists. Based on a disassembly experiment of a plug-in hybrid battery system, we present results regarding the battery set-up, including their fasteners, the necessary disassembly steps, and the sequence. Upon the experimental data, we assess the disassembly duration of the battery system under uncertainty with a fuzzy logic approach. The results indicate that a disassembling time of about 22 min is expected for the battery system in the field study if one worker conducts the process. An estimation for disassembling costs per battery system is performed for a plant in Germany. Depending on the plant capacity, the disassembling to battery module level is associated with costs between EUR 80 and 100 per battery system.

Intermediate pyrolysis can be used to obtain high-quality biofuels from low-value residues such as sewage sludge or digestate. A major obstacle is the high water content of sludgy biomass, which requires an energy-intensive and expensive drying step before pyrolysis. Solar greenhouse drying is an efficient and sustainable alternative to a thermally heated belt dryer. In this study, a techno-economic assessment of intermediate pyrolysis with solar drying is carried out. Marketable products of the process are bio-oil, a substitute for diesel or heating oil, and bio-char with various possible applications. Chile is chosen as the setting of the study as its 4000 km long extension from north to south gives the opportunity to evaluate different locations and levels of solar irradiation. It is found that solar drying results in higher capital investment, but lower fuel costs. Depending on the location and solar irradiation, solar drying can reduce costs by 5–34% compared to belt drying. The break-even price of bio-char is estimated at 300–380 EUR/ton after accounting for the revenue from the liquid bio-oil.