Urban blue spaces provide important ecosystem services (ES), that support health and well-being of city residents. This study examined residents' perceptions of ES provided by managed, semi-managed and low-managed blue spaces and their surroundings in Warsaw, a city dominated by the River Vistula which flows through its centre and is partially unregulated. We conducted a geo-questionnaire, asking respondents to mark their favourite blue spaces and evaluate them for different ES benefits. The data were analysed using cluster, correlation and spatial analysis to identify patterns and synergies among perceived ES. The results revealed five distinct ES clusters, showing synergies among aesthetic, recreational and nature appreciation related values. Managed blue spaces, such as urban parks or promenades, were primarily associated with social bonding, while historical and neighbourhood parks are valued for providing an everyday connection to nature and biodiversity. Low- and semi-managed areas, including vast informal riversides, play an important role in recreation, relaxation, connection to nature, and social bonding. These areas provide similar benefits with minimal interventions, highlighting their potential as Informal Blue Spaces, integral part of urban blue-green infrastructure. The results add to the increasing evidence of the social value of blue spaces and demonstrate how diverse management and investment approaches can support complementary socio-cultural benefits in cities. • Cultural ecosystem services are most valued in Warsaw's blue spaces. • Synergy clusters highlight ecological, recreational, aesthetic and symbolic values. • Blue space types and management intensity shapes perceived benefits. • Informal Blue Spaces provide diverse benefits with low-cost management input. • Findings support integrating diverse blue spaces into urban planning and policy.

Rethinking urban inequality through a behavioural lens: Informal public space activities (IPSAs) as diagnostic tools for behavioural equity and public space resilience in urban planning

Positron Annihilation Lifetime Spectroscopy (PALS) is a well-established non-destructive technique used for nanostructural characterization of porous materials. It is based on the annihilation of a positron and an electron. Mean positron lifetime in the material depends on the free voids size and molecular environment, allowing the study of porosity and structural transitions in the nanometer scale. We have developed a novel method enabling spatially resolved PALS, thus providing tomography of nanostructural characterization of an extended object. Correlating space (position) and structural (lifetime) information brings new insight in materials studies, especially in the characterization of the purity and pore distribution. For the first time, a porosity image using stationary positron sources for the simultaneous measurement of the porous polymers XAD4, silica aerogel powder IC3100, and polyvinyl toluene scintillator PVT by the J-PET (Jagiellonian Positron Emission Tomography) system is demonstrated.

With the rapid development of the internet and communication technologies, the concept of information space has emerged as a critical component of urban research, complementing traditional physical and social spaces. This study introduces the novel concept of network vitality as an indicator of urban vitality from the perspective of information space. Network vitality characterizes a city’s activity levels and information exchange capacity, offering a new theoretical framework for urban vitality research. Using multisource big data, including social media check-ins, WI-FI traffic, points of interest (POIs) density, population flow, gross domestic product (GDP), and takeaway sales, this study quantitatively analyzes the network vitality of Chongqing’s Guanyinqiao commercial district. The analysis reveals a significant spatial clustering of network vitality, with higher vitality in core commercial areas. To predict network vitality and explore its driving factors, a particle swarm optimization (PSO)-optimized gradient boosting decision tree (GBDT) model is employed. The results demonstrate that the PSO-GBDT model significantly enhances predictive accuracy, outperforming traditional models. Key drivers of network vitality include population density, POI density, and takeaway sales, with noticeable threshold effects on their influence. These findings provide valuable insights for urban planning and resource optimization, emphasizing the importance of integrating physical and information spaces to foster sustainable urban development. The proposed framework and methodology offer a replicable approach for future studies that can be used by other cities to identify areas of high and low urban vitality, so as to optimize resource allocation and improve the overall vitality of the city. The findings underscore the transformative potential of integrating information space into urban research, offering new directions for enhancing urban vitality effectively.

Caesarean section (CS) rates are increasing worldwide. CS and repeat caesarean alter the risk profile for next pregnancy. Interpregnancy interval (IPI) has been shown to modify maternal and neonatal risk in subsequent pregnancies. There is limited research in the Australian context addressing outcomes relative to interpregnancy interval. The lack of pregnancy spacing information adds to confusion and conflicting recommendations for maternity care providers and women. We developed a protocol using data linkage of routinely collected hospital data from 1994 to 2023 in New South Wales, Australia to investigate both maternal and neonatal outcomes relative to interpregnancy intervals.•Large scale study of interpregnancy interval after CS in an Australian multiethnic cohort not previously explored•Quantify the risks associated with differing interpregnancy intervals compared to contemporaneous controls in this cohort•Results presented as absolute risk facilitating access to evidence-based information.

Abstract This study explores the impact of Islamophobia on Muslim children in Australia, shedding light on their lived experiences and the long-term consequences of anti-Muslim hostility. Drawing on 28 semi-structured interviews and four focus group discussions (FGD) conducted with Muslim parents, predominantly mothers, across New South Wales and Victoria, the study highlights the ways in which children are perceived as threats, often facing harassment in both formal settings, such as schools, and informal public spaces. The research exposes how institutional Islamophobia from government and media sources, creates a climate for individual experiences of Islamophobia identified by the parents. Overall, the findings reveal that Islamophobic discourse places a significant psychological burden on Muslim children, impacting their sense of belonging, self-esteem, and emotional well-being. The rhetoric of the “dangerous Muslim” extends to children, with instances of bullying, name-calling, and harassment contributing to children’s feelings of alienation and insecurity. Parents often experience heightened anxiety, which children internalize, further embedding the cycle of fear and exclusion that propels parents to adopt strategies to protect their children from emotional harm. The paper argues that Islamophobia is not an isolated issue but a systemic societal challenge that requires coordinated efforts to dismantle structural racism and Islamophobia. It calls for long-term, multi-stakeholder approaches.

The biological cosmological constant ΛB: Exploratory propensity, dynamical habitability and the geometric origin of life.

ABSTRACT The growing importance of informal learning spaces demands evaluation methods that bridge design intent and actual use. However, existing approaches treat spatial configuration and user experience separately, limiting diagnostic depth. This study develops and tests an integrated framework coupling Space Syntax with Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE). Using the second floor of Wending Hall at a Chinese university, it operationalizes a “Structure-Behavior-Perception” model: Space Syntax quantifies configurational potential; POE captures behavior and perception via observation, surveys (N = 298), and interviews (N = 20). The coupling analysis reveals four contradictions explaining suboptimal performance: (1)highly integrated zones lack functional anchors for dwelling; (2)acoustic interference between active and static zones; (3)low-integration zones suffer poor perceived accessibility; (4)an outdoor terrace was spontaneously appropriated as a social hub, revealing latent user needs. Findings show spatial performance emerges from interplay among structure, environmental details, and perception – complexity single methods miss. The study contributes a spatially explicit, point-to-point coupling framework enabling mechanistic diagnosis at functional zone level, and provides a transferable toolkit with evidence-based strategies (acoustic zoning, attraction anchors, enhanced visibility) for designing and retrofitting informal learning spaces.

Purpose This study explores how adaptive reuse of a non-purpose-built facility can function as an effective academic workplace, focusing on the conversion of under-stadium spaces at Thammasat University’s sports stadium. It aims to examine how the physical and environmental characteristics of spaces resulting from adaptive reuse influence user satisfaction, spatial usability and user well-being, as well as organisational experience and to identify the forms of value – functional, social and cultural – emerging from this adaptive reuse process. The study highlights how design and operational factors shape privacy, comfort, collaboration and institutional identity within a spatially constrained yet symbolically meaningful setting. Design/methodology/approach A mixed-methods design integrated quantitative and qualitative approaches to capture both measurable and experiential aspects of workplace use and performance. Structured questionnaires were administered to academic and teaching support staff to evaluate satisfaction across spatial and environmental factors. Complementary semi-structured interviews with senior administrators and a focus group with seven academic staff provided deeper insights into adaptive behaviours, organisational culture and planning constraints. Quantitative and qualitative findings were triangulated to ensure a comprehensive understanding of user experience within the reused facility. Findings The adaptive reuse of the stadium generated both symbolic and functional outcomes. Users valued the location’s visibility, institutional identity and natural light, reflecting strong emotional attachment and pride in the reused setting. However, shortcomings such as limited privacy, poor acoustics and inadequate storage revealed persistent environmental–functional misfit. Staff responded creatively, informally adapting classrooms, storage rooms and breakout areas to meet daily needs – behaviours that demonstrate resilience and participatory value creation. These findings illustrate how adaptive reuse fosters institutional visibility and resilience through user-led adaptation within physical constraints. Despite these limitations, the reuse strategy enhanced departmental visibility, strengthened collective identity and optimised existing resources, illustrating that adaptive reuse can produce cultural and organisational value beyond physical performance. Practical implications The findings highlight that adaptive reuse projects in universities can achieve long-term value when design and management strategies focus on user participation and incremental improvement rather than full-scale renovation. Introducing flexible zoning, modular furniture and informal social spaces can enhance functionality and user well-being while retaining the character of the reused structure. Facility managers and planners are encouraged to treat reuse as a continual process of adaptation – where user feedback and cultural identity guide ongoing spatial refinement. Originality/value This study reframes adaptive reuse as a process of cultural and organisational renewal, not merely physical transformation. It demonstrates that reused environments can generate added value – functional, social and cultural – when users actively shape and personalise their workspace. By linking post-occupancy evidence with the concept of value creation, the study offers new insight into how user-centred reuse strategies can strengthen both institutional identity and sustainable workplace performance in higher education. The study further positions adaptive reuse as a structured and intentional mechanism of value creation within higher education workplace environments.

The article suggests an integrated approach to creating an environmental load management center in an administrative-territorial unit. The aim of the work is to develop a unified information space architecture for integrating monitoring data on the state of atmospheric air, surface and groundwater, as well as accounting for emissions and discharges from industrial enterprises. The relevance of the study is due to the fact that economic activity has a complex effect on all components of the environment, while pollutants are able to migrate from one environment to another, forming secondary foci of pollution. The proposed approach is based on the creation of a situational center that combines three key operational monitoring systems: atmospheric air (with sampling at different heights), surface water bodies (with stratified monitoring in control gates) and soil with groundwater (on the territory of enterprises). Algorithms for data collection and analytical processing are described in detail for each system, including methods for identifying pollution sources using correlation analysis and identification of marker substances. The key result of the work is the development of an integral indicator of the ecological capacity of the territory, calculated as a geometric average of capacity coefficients of atmospheric air, water bodies and soil. A six-level scale is presented for evaluating this indicator - from the «excellent» to the «critical» category, which makes it possible to quantify the ecosystem's safety margin and justify management decisions. Original mathematical models and calculation techniques have been proposed for each component of the environment, including determining the migration rate of pollutants in groundwater according to Darcy's law and predicting concentrations using machine learning methods. The implementation of the proposed system makes it possible to carry out a predictive assessment of the environmental situation, promptly form control actions to adjust emissions and discharges, as well as carry out quotas of environmental capacity between enterprises. The developed approach provides a scientifically based basis for the sustainable economic development of the territory while maintaining the quality of the environment.

The relevance of this study is determined by the profound impact of globalization and digitalization on all social institutions, including public libraries. In the context of the formation of a global information space and an information society, libraries face the need to fundamentally transform their activities to remain relevant and effective centers of access to knowledge and culture. Understanding these transformation processes is critical for developing strategies for the sustainable development of libraries. The purpose of the article is to analyze the transformation processes in the activities of public libraries under the influence of globalization and digitalization, to identify their role in the modern information space, and to substantiate the directions of innovative development and adaptation strategies. The study is based on a systematic approach and methods of theoretical analysis, synthesis, comparison, and generalization of scientific publications and conceptual documents concerning the development of public libraries in the digital age. The methodology involves analyzing the impact of key factors (globalization, digitalization) on library functions and identifying trends in their adaptation. The study identifies key challenges (digital divide, information overload, competition from online resources, need for staff retraining) and opportunities (expansion of access through digital technologies, new forms of service, development of digital literacy programs, role as community centers) for public libraries. The necessity of integrating digital communications, implementing innovative services (e.g., makerspaces, digital archives), and updating library education programs is substantiated. The library's role shifts from a simple repository of books to a dynamic multifunctional hub. The scientific novelty lies in the integrated analysis of the synergistic influence of globalization and digitalization processes on the functions and development strategies of public libraries, particularly emphasizing the role of digital communications and innovations as key adaptation factors within the global information space. The research findings can be used by heads and specialists of library institutions to develop and implement innovative strategies, update service models, and improve staff qualifications. The results may also be useful for educational institutions preparing library professionals and for policymakers shaping cultural and information policy. Public libraries remain a vital social institution in the global information space, but their successful functioning requires continuous adaptation and innovation. Key factors for success include embracing digitalization, developing relevant digital services, actively promoting information and digital literacy, strengthening digital communication channels, and fostering partnerships. Reimagining the library as an active participant in the information society is crucial for its future.

Social media platforms have deeply been integrated into daily communication and information seeking patterns of young people. Algorithms are increasing shaping content access and creation in social media with users increasingly exposed to algorithmically curated information. Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology has been integrated into social media algorithms to optimize users’ experience. Social media users may not fully comprehend algorithmic mechanisms and there is therefore need for social media literacy programmes to enhance algorithmic understanding and critical engagement in digital spaces as users choose and search contents that meets their needs. This article employs use and gratification theory to examine social media platforms mostly used by students and assess their awareness of algorithmic curation used to mediate social media interactions. The paper concludes that interventions on social media literacy will enable users to manage engagements while searching and sharing information in digital spaces.

This paper applies a mixed-format research method and tries to use the facilitation theory from the perspective of behavioral science to facilitate college students' learning styles. A sample of undergraduates from a university was randomly sampled and divided into two groups, the experimental class and the control class, and the experimental class implemented a three-pronged program of facilitation in the areas of learning space reengineering, information feedback, and incentives and disincentives, whereas the control class did not take any intervention measures. The study adopted the longitudinal method of pre and post-testing, using questionnaires and performance statistics as quantitative data, and interview records and on-site observations as qualitative data collection methods. It was found that the boosting effect was significant, as the overall study habits of the students in the control class increased by 24.0 percentage points after the intervention, good use of time increased by 37.3 percentage points, average daily commitment to learning increased by 61.9 minutes, and concentration on learning increased by 35.8 percentage points. In conclusion, the context-feedback-reward integrated boosting model helps college students cultivate good study habits and has certain reference value for the construction of academic style at university level.

To behave adaptively in complex environments, animals must selectively process the most important information in space while ignoring distractors. Here, we report that an evolutionarily ancient group of brainstem inhibitory neurons, called PLTi, is surprisingly critical for this function of selective spatial attention. In freely behaving mice performing a human-like spatial attention task, we found that bilateral silencing of PLTi severely disrupted target selection without causing perceptual or task-relevant motor impairments. PLTi's effects depended necessarily on goal-relevant, rather than just physical salience-based signals, together revealing it as a specialized site for priority-driven attentional target selection. PLTi's core contribution was in controlling accuracy and categorical precision of the decision boundary separating the target from lower-priority distractors. PLTi's control of neural representations of competing stimuli in the superior colliculus, an established attentional hub, revealed a potential mechanistic pathway. PLTi may, therefore, be a conserved brainstem site across vertebrates for winner-take-all-like spatial decisions.

Objectives: to update the methodology relevant for the legal regulation of issues related to the application of generative artificial intelligence in legal practice. Methods: the scientific and methodological tools are based on classical methods of cognition and modern views on methodology. The methodological framework of the study is formed by the communicative theory of law, since the socio-humanitarian content of technological innovations is realized in social relations associated with machine-to-human and machine-to-machine communications. Results: the dual nature of the legal subject in the information space, associated with a virtual or digital communication environment, is researched; the types of relationships between the subject and the account of an information resource are identified; the properties of the controversial concept of quasi-legal personality in relation to generative technologies are studied based on the methodology of communication theory; the limits of legal liability of a classical legal subject in virtual and digital reality are determined; a scientific and methodological basis for rule-making and law enforcement activities using generative algorithms is formed.

Accurate simulation of karst spring discharge is critical for sustainable water resource management, yet it remains a significant challenge due to the inherent complexity, heterogeneity, and non-linearity of karst systems. While machine learning models have been increasingly applied to this problem, standalone algorithms often struggle to simultaneously capture complex temporal dependencies and maintain robust generalization. This study provides a comprehensive comparative assessment of five state-of-the-art machine learning (ML) models for forecasting the daily discharge of the Jósva Spring, located in the World Heritage Aggtelek karst area. The main goal of the study is to determine which modern machine learning approach can most accurately forecast the daily discharge of the Jósva Spring using meteorological data and the discharge of a hydraulically connected upstream spring. This is motivated by the need for a reliable operational prediction tool for complex karst aquifers, the improved water-resource management in a climate-sensitive region, and a lack of comparative studies evaluating multiple ML paradigms on the same karst system. The study also aimed at comparing the predictive performance of five state-of-the-art ML models to identify the most accurate and robust model and to understand the predictability of the karst system by analyzing feature importance, lag effects, and temporal dependencies. Three tree-based ensemble models (Random Forest, XGBoost, and Extra Trees) and two deep learning architectures (a Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory network, BiLSTM, and a novel Hybrid XGBoost–BiLSTM model) were trained using a five-year (2015–2019) daily dataset comprising rainfall, temperature, and upstream discharge. The modeling framework was designed for synchronous simulation (lead time = 0 days), estimating concurrent downstream discharge using upstream and meteorological measurements from the same time step. A rigorous feature-engineering workflow was implemented based on statistical characterization, correlation analysis, and time-series diagnostics. Models were trained on 80% of the dataset and evaluated on an independent 20% test set. The results demonstrate that the proposed Hybrid XGBoost-BiLSTM model achieved the highest predictive accuracy on the unseen test data (R2 = 0.74, NSE = 0.74, RMSE = 716.35 L/min). While the standalone tree-based models, particularly XGBoost (R2 = 0.66), also exhibited strong and competitive performance, the hybrid architecture provided a consistent and measurable improvement across all evaluation metrics. The hybrid model’s success is attributed to its synergistic design, which leverages the powerful feature extraction and refinement capabilities of XGBoost to provide a more informative input space for the BiLSTM, thereby enhancing its ability to capture complex temporal dependencies while mitigating overfitting. Feature importance analysis confirmed that upstream discharge at a 3-day lag was the most critical predictor, highlighting the system’s hydraulic connectivity. This research provides clear, evidence-based guidance showing that hybrid machine learning architectures, which integrate the strengths of different modeling paradigms, represent the most effective approach for developing robust and reliable operational prediction tools for complex karst aquifers.

Information warfare as a phenomenon has deep historical roots, passing through several stages and experiencing a series of transformations inextricably linked to the technological development of society and the characteristics of mass consciousness. This paper examines the evolution of information warfare as a persistent element of interstate and military-political confrontation throughout human history, from the Ancient World, where the primary goal was to intimidate the enemy and force them to flee the battlefield, to sophisticated methods of psychological influence in the present day, designed to influence not only the information field but also the deep mechanisms of human consciousness. Over time, new methods and technologies for influencing people’s consciousness have emerged, while existing ones remain effective. The relevance of this topic is determined by the growing significance of the results of information warfare in the modern information space, which no longer simply accompanies military campaigns but is ongoing. The purpose of this study is to analyze the key stages in the development of information warfare, emphasizing the changing forms, means, and scale of confrontation depending on the level of technological and social development of society. The paper reconstructs the transformation of the goals and methods of waging information warfare from antiquity to the end of the 20th century, including influence technologies. Historical examples of information interaction are provided, illustrating these changes at each stage. The authors conclude that information warfare is an integral part of interstate and military-political confrontation, evolving throughout almost the entire history of mankind. Beginning with primitive forms of disinformation and psychological traps in the Ancient World and the Middle Ages, information warfare is gradually transforming into a systemic tool of strategic influence, encompassing not only the military sphere, but also public consciousness, political institutions, and historical memory. While throughout its long history, information warfare acquired a systemic nature only during periods of conflict, in the second half of the 20th century, the theory and methodology of waging information warfare were formed; they are waged continuously, and their development becomes a priority area of state policy in the pursuit of geopolitical interests.

The article examines the role of digitalization of healthcare management processes as a tool for increasing the efficiency of the system's functioning in the context of military challenges and post-war reconstruction of Ukraine. The relevance of the study is due to the need to modernize public management mechanisms in the healthcare sector, increase the efficiency of resource use, and ensure the sustainability of the medical system in the context of large-scale transformations. Modern scientific approaches to interpreting the concepts of digitalization and digital transformation in public management, as well as their application in the healthcare sector, are analyzed. It is determined that digitalization of management processes involves the integration of information and communication technologies into the management system, which contributes to increased transparency, efficiency of management decision-making, improved interinstitutional interaction, and more efficient use of financial, human, and material and technical resources. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of digital tools for managing the healthcare system, in particular electronic medical records, telemedicine, big data analytics and artificial intelligence technologies, which create opportunities for optimizing resource management, monitoring the state of medical infrastructure and forecasting the population's needs for medical services. It is substantiated that the use of digital platforms and integrated information systems contributes to the formation of a single information space for the healthcare system, which allows increasing management efficiency and ensuring better provision of medical services. A conceptual model for digitalizing healthcare system management is proposed, which involves the integration of digital tools into the public management system at the strategic, managerial and operational levels and ensures interaction between state authorities, regional management structures, medical institutions and citizens. It is proven that digitalizing management processes can be an important tool for increasing the efficiency of restoring the healthcare system of Ukraine, ensuring transparency of management processes, coordination between management entities and optimizing the use of resources during the post-war reconstruction period.

This study examines the applicability of coding-theoretic tools to the digital monitoring of information space. The proposed approach treats response patterns to socially significant stimuli as binary sequences and interprets their analysis as a classification problem analogous to error correction in coding theory. To verify the feasibility of this framework, a model psychological test consisting of seven binary questions was analyzed using a procedure derived from the Hamming code (7,4). The method makes it possible to map the full space of observed answer combinations onto a smaller set of reference codewords and thereby identify stable response configurations. The obtained results show that the distributions produced after coding-based transformation are markedly non-uniform and contain recurrent maxima, indicating the presence of structured patterns in collective responses. It is also shown that permutations of question order substantially affect the resulting distributions and correlation indicators, which highlights both the sensitivity and the analytical potential of the proposed encoding scheme. The main contribution of the study is methodological: it demonstrates that error-correcting coding can be operationalized as a formal tool for detecting latent regularities in simplified monitoring data. At the same time, the present results should be regarded as proof of concept, since further work is required to validate the approach on larger datasets, compare it with baseline classification methods, and extend it to longer and multivalued response sequences.

An important part of ensuring the continuity of operation of complex systems is information security monitoring which is a continuous process inseparable from the context of the functioning of the protected object. The operational use of monitoring results requires the interpretability of the obtained data and the presentation of key cause-andeffect relationships in a formal and provable form. If the protected object exhibits statistical, behavioral, and process regularities, it becomes possible to form an informative space for identifying information security events. This paper formulates and validates hypotheses regarding the possibility of identifying information security events when the abovementioned types of regularity are violated as well as the search for a rational interval for the formation of a state. The scientific novelty of the results is determined by the adaptation of formal methods for constructing an informative space for identifying information security events, the introduction and experimental confirmation of hypotheses regarding the impact of an information security event on statistical, behavioral, and process regularities, and the search for a rational analysis interval. The goal of this paper is to provide a qualitatively new method for constructing an informative space for the automatic detection of information security events. The object of the study is the process of monitoring the information security status of a corporate computer network. The subject of this study is heuristic methods for forming an informative space for identifying information security events based on the statistical analysis of retrospective data in real time. This paper proposes a method for automatically forming an informative space for identifying information security events in corporate computer networks. This method is based on the dynamics of two adjacent states of end devices determined over discrete time intervals. The set of such state transitions across all devices forms the state matrix of the computer network under study. This study defined an informative space for calculating the dynamics of the obtained state vectors and found a rational interval for forming the device state when studying the dependence of the difference in the vectors of two adjacent states on the analysis interval in various informative spaces. To experimentally confirm the operability of the proposed solution, a set of network data in the PCAP (Packet CAPture) format was analyzed, including legitimate and botnet activity of Internet of Things devices. Graphical interpretation of the obtained result allows one to determine the attack preparation and attack start times, which significantly simplifies the task of information security monitoring at the input data analysis stage and reduces the amount of data analyzed by the information security analyst. Distinguishing features of the proposed method include real-time operation, the absence of a preprocessing stage for input data, and the interpretability of detected information security events. Clearly discernible trends in device status dynamics allow for a reduction in the volume of analyzed information and the focus on irregularities that characterize potential information security events. The scope of application of the proposed method includes monitoring information security events, identifying information security incidents, and detecting intrusions in corporate computer networks.