Open research Europe最新文献

{"title":"Friendship, hope and communication during second-wave and postfeminism: Gillian E. Hanscombe's <i>Between Friends</i> and Sally Rooney's <i>Conversations with Friends</i>.","authors":"Andrea Anđelinić","doi":"10.12688/openreseurope.20794.1","DOIUrl":"10.12688/openreseurope.20794.1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Hanscombe's 1982 epistolary novel <i>Between Friends</i> offers insight into the main ideas, conflicts and blind spots of Anglo-American second-wave (radical) feminism. Highly contested by its successors, the second wave of feminism in the Anglo-American context fiercely debated issues, such as sex and class, female separatism and political lesbianism. These are the matters <i>Between Friends</i> addresses via a heated discussion between four women on matters such as misogyny, autohomophobia, motherhood and queer love. The answers they advocate for, such as forming a utopian lesbian enclave, abandoning all male children, and aborting male feti, show the tendency of second-wave feminists to seek grand, albeit reductive, solutions to the issues posed by the patriarchal capitalist system. The protagonists of Sally Rooney's 2017 novel <i>Conversations with Friends</i> seem to be just as painfully aware of their own class and gender hindrances as their second-wave sisters, but the tone of their conversations is skeptical of 20 ^th-century metanarratives and refrains from offering any sort of solution to their social positioning. The discontinuity and inconsistency of (digital) communication between the characters in the novel reflects the uncertainty and aimlessness characterising their pursuit of love, social success and economic stability. This research aims to compare these two approaches to friendship and feminism by interpreting both the ideas the characters represent and their modes of communication as a consequence of the shifts in feminist theories caused by late capitalism and its effects.</p>","PeriodicalId":74359,"journal":{"name":"Open research Europe","volume":"5 ","pages":"228"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12489458/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145234195","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"ERGA-BGE Genome of the viperine water snake ( <i>Natrix maura</i>): a key species for evolutionary insights of freshwater snakes.","authors":"Salvador Carranza, Daniel Fernández-Guiberteau, Laura Blasón, Sergi Tulloch, Rita Monteiro, Astrid Böhne, Rosa Fernández, Nuria Escudero, Laura Aguilera, Marta Gut, Tyler S Alioto, Francisco Câmara Ferreira, Jèssica Gómez-Garrido, Fernando Cruz, Swati Sinha, Leanne Haggerty, Fergal Martin, Tom Brown","doi":"10.12688/openreseurope.20863.1","DOIUrl":"10.12688/openreseurope.20863.1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The reference genome of the freshwater snake, <i>Natrix maura,</i> offers a crucial resource for uncovering the genetic basis of adaptability to freshwater environments, while providing insights into hybridization and gene flow within the genus <i>Natrix</i>. A total of 18 contiguous chromosomal pseudomolecules were assembled from the genome sequence, corresponding to the 16 autosomes and 2 sex chromosomes. This chromosome-level assembly encompasses 1.7 Gb, composed of 284 contigs and 209 scaffolds, with contig and scaffold N50 values of 36.5 Mb and 174.4 Mb, respectively.</p>","PeriodicalId":74359,"journal":{"name":"Open research Europe","volume":"5 ","pages":"215"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12444268/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145115192","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Navigating the shift towards sustainable digital building permits and building logbooks.","authors":"Rita Lavikka, Judith Fauth, Mayte Toscano, Gonçal Costa, Thomas Beach, Pedro Meda Magalhães, Jantien Stoter, Stefanie Brigitte Deac Kaiser, Jeroen Werbrouck","doi":"10.12688/openreseurope.18553.2","DOIUrl":"10.12688/openreseurope.18553.2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The architecture, engineering, construction, and operation sectors face significant sustainability challenges. These include high greenhouse gas emissions, resource depletion, worker safety concerns, and difficulties balancing cost efficiency with sustainable practices. Digital solutions, such as Digital Building Permits (DBP) and Digital Building Logbooks (DBL), are increasingly promoted as enablers of sustainable construction and building management. However, there is limited research on how they contribute to sustainability in practice. This study applied the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as an analytical framework to assess the sustainability impacts of DBP and DBL. A four-phase methodology was used: (1) expert elicitation to identify relevant SDGs, (2) mapping of DBP and DBL practices to SDG targets, (3) documentation of supporting practices, and (4) validation through a hybrid stakeholder workshop involving 38 participants from across Europe. The study identifies DBP and DBL practices that contribute to ten SDGs, including Good Health and Well-Being, Affordable and Clean Energy, Decent Work and Economic Growth, Industry and Innovation, Sustainable Cities, and Climate Action. The automatic code-compliance checking of DBP speeds up approval times, reduces errors, increases transparency, and supports carbon reduction, operational efficiency, and equitable access to permitting. It streamlines housing approvals, aiding affordable housing development. DBL facilitates energy-related data management, including the issuing of Energy Performance Certificates and comparing theoretical versus actual energy use. DBL also supports recyclability assessments and design for disassembly, aligning with the principles of the circular economy. This study provides a structured and replicable framework for evaluating the sustainability contributions of digital building permitting and logbooks. It demonstrates how DBP and DBL can be aligned with global sustainability targets, offering a foundation for future empirical research and policy development. Further work is needed to quantify long-term impacts and extend the analysis beyond the European context.</p>","PeriodicalId":74359,"journal":{"name":"Open research Europe","volume":"5 ","pages":"90"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12432498/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145066669","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Suggestions for resin research under the COST Action EU-PoTaRCh.","authors":"Vítor João Pereira Domingues Martinho, Jakub Brózdowski","doi":"10.12688/openreseurope.18988.2","DOIUrl":"10.12688/openreseurope.18988.2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Forest management and planning are often challenging, specifically because of the irregular income flow available to landowners. In timber production, for example, producers must wait several years before receiving returns on their investments in forested land. As a result, such economic uncertainty can make forest activities less attractive to investors and discourage effective management strategies. The forest by-products appear as an opportunity to increase the profitability of the forest lands and motivate the landowners for more effective planning. This is crucial, namely in countries where, for example, forest fires are real problems for economic activity, populations and the environment. In this context, this study, developed within the scope of the COST Action EU-PoTaRCh, intends to bring more insights and suggestions for the scientific research about resin. To give suggestions, a search was performed in the Scopus database (article title, abstracts and keywords), on 02 November 2024, for the following topics: \"natural resin\" or \"plant resin\". In the search, 4127 documents were obtained and assessed through bibliometric analysis. The results obtained show that scientific research has focused mainly on biological and chemical aspects, while social, economic, cultural, and policy dimensions remain unexplored. The study suggests promoting transdisciplinary and international collaboration, principally in countries with limited research on resin, to support more comprehensive and inclusive policies and strategies on forest by-product.</p>","PeriodicalId":74359,"journal":{"name":"Open research Europe","volume":"4 ","pages":"272"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12340490/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144839236","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Improving the thermoelectric power factor of PEDOT:PSS with 4,4'-bipyridine and LiBF ₄.","authors":"Md Mahmudur Rahman, Mauricio Solis-de la Fuente, Lourdes Márquez-García, Sergio Castro-Ruiz, Estelle Liautaud, Lucie Fournier, Camille Chatard, Agathe Bouvet-Marchand, Mario Culebras, Jorge García-Cañadas","doi":"10.12688/openreseurope.20654.1","DOIUrl":"10.12688/openreseurope.20654.1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Thermoelectric (TE) materials can directly convert heat into electricity, which is beneficial for energy sustainability. Organic conducting polymers are TE materials that have drawn significant attention owing to different favorable properties, such as good processability, availability, flexibility, and intrinsically low thermal conductivity. Among the organic TEs, poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) is the most extensively investigated material because of its stability and high electrical conductivity. The power factor ( <i>PF</i>) of PEDOT:PSS can be increased using different strategies, such as secondary doping, dedoping, energy filtering, and sequential post-treatments. All these strategies involve the contact of the polymer with different compounds.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Herein, we have analyzed the impact on the <i>PF</i> of the treatment of PEDOT:PSS with two different systems: (i) a 0.1M solution of 4,4'-bipyridine in 3-methoxypropionitrile and (ii) a 0.1M solution of LiBF ₄ in the same solvent. Impedance, Raman, and ultraviolet-visible-near infrared spectroscopies were employed to understand the variations observed.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The results show that after the treatments, the Seebeck coefficient increased from ca. 12 to ca. 21 μV/K in both cases, and the electrical resistance of the film increased by 46.78% for 4,4'-bipyridine, and only 4.38% in the case of LiBF ₄, reaching at least 2.08 and 3.53 times <i>PF</i> improvements, respectively, with respect to the initial <i>PF</i> value (6.32 μWK ^-2m ^-1). The impedance spectroscopy analysis revealed that only an ohmic behavior existed in all cases. In addition, Raman and UV-vis-NIR analyses identified a dedoping mechanism, which explains the Seebeck coefficient variations identified in both treatments and the increase in electrical resistance for 4,4'-bypiridine. The remarkable lack of resistance increase for LiBF ₄ points to a different phenomenon that could be related to morphological effects.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>These two new treatments demonstrate their capability to reach <i>PF</i> values close to the state of the art and expand the catalogue of treatments available for PEDOT:PSS.</p>","PeriodicalId":74359,"journal":{"name":"Open research Europe","volume":"5 ","pages":"214"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12405852/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145002149","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"RETROFIT-LAT: A comprehensive dataset for energy efficiency investments in Latvia.","authors":"Αlexandros Menelaos Tzortzis, Panagiota Rempi, Sotiris Pelekis, Aija Zucika, Christos Ntanos, Askounis Dimitris","doi":"10.12688/openreseurope.20042.2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12688/openreseurope.20042.2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article presents RETROFIT-LAT: a collection of data from 1010 residential building projects, funded by the Republic of Latvia's Environmental Investment Fund (LEIF). The first dataset analyses the energy performance and sustainability of buildings before and after retrofitting actions, including their energy consumption, <i>CO</i> ₂ emissions, and energy classes. It spans projects implemented from 1870 to 2022, covering various building types and regions, with data on their energy use, heat loss coefficients, and both renewable and non-renewable energy contributions. The second dataset focuses on photovoltaic (solar panel) installations as part of energy efficiency measures. It documents electricity consumption, primary energy use before and after installation, inverter power, and reductions in <i>CO</i> ₂ emissions. By making this data available in a structured and analyzable format, RETROFIT-LAT aims to support the development of data-driven assessments, including machine learning models for forecasting retrofit outcomes. It is intended to assist researchers, engineers, and policymakers in evaluating and designing effective energy efficiency strategies for residential buildings.</p>","PeriodicalId":74359,"journal":{"name":"Open research Europe","volume":"5 ","pages":"134"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12438949/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145082585","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Giving voice.","authors":"Nenad Ivić","doi":"10.12688/openreseurope.20775.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12688/openreseurope.20775.1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The expression \"giving voice\" has replaced the expression \"making history\" to describe what a historian does. What does it mean? Does this imply a paradigm shift? Has anything changed in the way history is made when it comes to voice? What is voice, and how can its history be written? What role does fiction (or <i>effet-monde</i>) play in coming to terms with this elusive concept? Can it point to particular politics of traces shared by both historical and literary writing? Drawing on the works of Giorgio Agamben, Elias Canetti, Michel Foucault, Alain Corbin, and Peter Brown, this article attempts to outline some tentative answers.</p>","PeriodicalId":74359,"journal":{"name":"Open research Europe","volume":"5 ","pages":"195"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12417971/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145034437","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Fabrication of hydrogel mini-capsules as carrier systems.","authors":"Elisa Roberti, Gaia Petrucci, Francesco Bianciardi, Stefano Palagi","doi":"10.12688/openreseurope.16723.3","DOIUrl":"10.12688/openreseurope.16723.3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Conventional drug administration often results in systemic action, thus needing high dosages and leading to potentially pronounced side effects. Targeted delivery, employing carriers like nanoparticles, aims to release drugs at a target site, but only a small fraction of nanoparticles reaches it. Microrobots could overcome this issue, being guided to hard-to-reach sites and locally delivering payloads. To enhance their functionality, we propose microrobots made as deformable capsules with hydrogel shells and aqueous cores, having the potential added advantages of biocompatibility, permeability, and stimulus-responsiveness. Endowing microrobots with deformability could allow them to navigate inside capillaries and cross barriers to finally reach the target site. In this study, we present a cost-effective method for fabricating core-shell structures without the use of organic solvents, surfactants, or extreme pH conditions. First, a mixture of hydrogels, agarose and alginate, is dripped into a calcium chloride solution to form beads. After they are loaded with calcium ions at different concentrations, they are immersed in an alginate solution to form the shell. Finally, the beads are heated to let the agarose melt and diffuse out, leaving a liquid core. By varying the concentration of calcium ions, we obtain shells of different thicknesses. We have correlated the measured shell thickness to its colour intensity and extrapolated to estimate the thickness of shells too thin to be measured directly. This allowed us to conclude that no continuous shells forms below a certain calcium chloride concentration. For higher concentrations, although the core may remain partially gelled, continuous shells successfully form. To qualitative assess core-shell capsule deformability, we forced them through a tube with an inner diameter ~1.6 times smaller than the average capsule diameter. The capsules deformed to pass through the constriction while maintaining structural integrity. Therefore, our fabrication method offers a promising platform for applications in drug delivery, encapsulation systems, and microrobotics.</p>","PeriodicalId":74359,"journal":{"name":"Open research Europe","volume":"3 ","pages":"191"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11605173/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142775367","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Utilization of sexual and reproductive health services among young people living with HIV and attending selected HIV clinics in selected sub-counties of Nairobi, Kenya.","authors":"Nomsa Phiri, Susan Mambo, Careena Otieno Odawa","doi":"10.12688/openreseurope.17611.2","DOIUrl":"10.12688/openreseurope.17611.2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Young people living with HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa account for the largest proportion of the vulnerable population in the world. Kenya has little evidence to showcase the utilization of sexual and reproductive health services among young people living with HIV. Nairobi County has one of the highest HIV burdens among adolescents and youth in the country. Consequently, this study aimed to assess factors associated with the utilization of sexual and reproductive health services among young people aged 15-24 years living with HIV.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A health facility-based cross-sectional study design with convergent parallel mixed methods technique was used. Purposive sampling with predetermined criteria was used to select six high-volume public health facilities in six high-burden sub-counties of Nairobi. A total of 253 participants completed the semi-structured questionnaires on utilization and associated factors.12 healthcare workers were purposively selected as key informant sessions in individual key informant sessions on their perception of young people's utilization.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>4Stepwise multivariable binary logistic regression was used to analyse the quantitative data using Stata version 14. NVivo software was used to code and thematically analyse the data. Results 47 % of the participants had utilized the services. Collection of condoms (45.7%) was the most utilized while treatment of sexually transmitted infections (8.2%) was the least utilized services. Female sex (AOR--adjusted odds ratio : 3.60 95%, Cl: 1.67-6.40), increase in age (AOR: 2.27 95%, Cl: 1.1C-4.65), HIV status disclosure to a sexual partner (AOR: 2.00 95%, Cl: 1.11-3.80) and privacy for sexual and reproductive health services at a health facility (AOR: 3.27 95%Cl: 1.42-7.60) were factors significantly associated with utilization.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Given higher utilization rates of sexual reproductive services were demonstrated among females and those who disclosed their HIV status to sexual partner , strengthening behavioral interventions to engage young men and disclosure support strategies can address the existing disparities.</p>","PeriodicalId":74359,"journal":{"name":"Open research Europe","volume":"4 ","pages":"134"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12411835/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145016903","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"An ontology-driven knowledge graph for tourism information management.","authors":"Subhashis DAS, Mayukh Bagchi","doi":"10.12688/openreseurope.17614.2","DOIUrl":"10.12688/openreseurope.17614.2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong><i>Lao Tzu</i>, the ancient Chinese philosopher, had famously said, <i>\"a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step\"</i>. The modern ecosystem of tourism is <i>extremely</i> multi-faceted and multi-context dependent, so much so that tourists, planning on an excursion, have an entire range of queries from as basic as <i>\"Where to eat?\"</i> to as complex as <i>\"List all the eating establishments which are suitable for groups and also provide children menu\"</i>. Such a list becomes even more complicated due to the intermixing of different perceptions, languages, cultures and economies in which tourists are enmeshed in. Accordingly, such increasing complexity in questions from tourists necessitate the need to provide specialized and fine-grained data and information services which are beyond the Information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructures in vogue in tourism today.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>In this paper, we propose and advocate the use of, via a theoretically and implementationally <i>well-founded methodology</i>, the Artificial Intelligence (AI) backed technology of <i>ontology-driven Knowledge Graphs</i>, to provide fine-grained information services to tourists at any scale and at any level of complexity.</p><p><strong>Results and conclusions: </strong>The methodology is validated by developing a fully populated tourism-specific ontology-driven knowledge graph having 4264 RDF statements and ready for <i>reuse</i>, <i>extension</i> and <i>exploitation</i> as a part of any of the current ICT infrastructure in tourism sector.</p>","PeriodicalId":74359,"journal":{"name":"Open research Europe","volume":"5 ","pages":"1"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12338160/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144823361","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}