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Regrowing mycelium acoustic and insulation panels: The biofabrication, performance, and environmental impact
Item type: Journal Article
Bitting, Selina; Wösten, Han A.B.; Hischier, Roland; et al. (2026)
Low-density mycelium-bound composites (LD-MBCs) have emerged as promising bio-based alternatives to petroleum-based thermal and acoustic insulation foams, such as expanded polystyrene (EPS). Often described as circular materials, their potential to be recycled into new MBC material has not yet been studied. In this paper, circular LD-MBC (88–143 kg/m3) is investigated over three consecutive life cycles, one initial and two recycled, using Trametes versicolor cultivated on rapeseed straw. The influence of recycled MBC (60–100 %), nutrients (bran), and moisture content (40–55 %) was assessed. Compressive strength, flexural strength, acoustic absorption, and thermal conductivity (λ) were measured for each life cycle. The thermal performance was found to remain relatively stable across life cycles (±0.002 W/mK), while mechanical performance fluctuated and acoustic absorption often peaked in the second life cycle. A performance-based life cycle assessment (LCA) compared the multi-life cycle production of LD-MBC against partially recycled EPS. The LCA showed a cumulative reduction of 55–62 % in global warming potential (GWP100) when using LD-MBC while identifying trade-offs in ecological categories such as land use and water consumption potential. These findings provide the first evaluation of multi-life cycle mycelium-based insulation materials and establish recycling through regrowing as a viable strategy for reducing material-related environmental impacts in construction.
Intracranial, Intra-, and Epidural Pressure Changes During Endoscopic Lumbar Discectomy: A Comparison Between Transforaminal and Interlaminar Approach
Item type: Journal Article
Stauffer, Alexandra; Schader, Jana Felicitas; Zipser, Carl M.; et al. (2026)
Study Design.
Cadaveric laboratory study.
Objectives.
To characterize and compare intracranial, intradural (cervical, thoracic, lumbar), and lumbar epidural pressure changes during transforaminal and interlaminar endoscopic lumbar procedures under gravity and pump irrigation, with and without simulated outflow occlusion.
Summary of Background Data.
High-pressure irrigation improves visualization and hemostasis during endoscopic lumbar discectomy but may increase spinal canal and intracranial pressures and contribute to neurologic complications if not well controlled.
Methods: Three fresh-frozen human cadavers were instrumented with pressure probes in the lumbar epidural space (L3-4), intradural space at C5-6, T8-9, and L3-4, and intracranially. At L3-4, transforaminal and interlaminar uniportal approaches were performed using gravity irrigation (50, 100, 130 cmH2O) and two pump systems (30-120 mmHg; arthroscopy pump and spine-certified pump). Each setting was tested with open outflow and with temporary outflow occlusion by blocking the working channel. Pressure readings were recorded as relative increases (Delta mmHg) from baseline.
Results.
Without occlusion, the interlaminar approach produced higher lumbar epidural pressure increases than the transforaminal approach across all irrigation modalities (up to 10 mmHg). Differences at intradural levels and intracranially were small (<5 mmHg). With outflow occlusion, the pressure differential narrowed or reversed, with transforaminal access producing higher lumbar epidural and intradural pressures at higher pump settings. Intracranial pressure differences remained modest, with only small increases under occlusion at higher pump settings.
Conclusions.
Irrigation generates compartment- and approach-specific pressure responses. Interlaminar access shows higher baseline lumbar epidural pressure, whereas transforaminal access is more susceptible to pressure surges during occlusion. Even small intracranial pressure increases may be clinically important in susceptible patients; careful irrigation pressure control and avoidance of prolonged outflow occlusion are recommended.
Loss of MSH6 or MSH2 sensitizes progressive glioblastoma to radiotherapy
Item type: Other Journal Item
Moisoiu, Vlad; Lourman, Roxanne; Szulzewsky, Frank; et al. (2026)
A multiscale interpretability framework for identifying actionable road network features to mitigate congestion in highly congested cities
Item type: Journal Article
Kumar, Nishant; Zhang, Yatao; Wiedemann, Nina; et al. (2026)
Transferring congestion mitigation strategies across cities remains challenging due to two compounding issues: road network features affect congestion differently in different cities, and their influence may vary across spatial scales. We propose a multiscale framework to identify “actionable” road network features, defined as those maintaining a consistent directional association with traffic congestion across varying spatial resolutions. Through systematic investigation of seven highly congested cities worldwide, our findings reveal strong city-specific signatures in feature importance, indicating supply-side planning must be tailored individually. However, the most consistently exacerbating features for demand-side consideration show notable similarities across cities. We emphasise that the directional associations identified reflect patterns in the training data and should not be interpreted as causal effects; the identified features are policy-relevant candidates subject to validation through counterfactual modelling. Feature attribution is model-dependent: results are derived from RF-based TreeSHAP and should be interpreted accordingly. In the short term, our results directly inform ongoing measures like congestion pricing and personalised route choice applications, making them more robust and publicly acceptable. Long-term, our insights encourage re-evaluating scepticism toward infrastructure planning and highlight opportunities for designing congestion-resistant future cities. Given the diverse city selection, common observations identified can likely be extrapolated to new cities when detailed analysis is constrained by data limitations. We provide key recommendations for researchers. First, data-driven congestion studies must explicitly interrogate microscopic spatial scales, because coarse-scale models can conceal scale-dependent reversals in feature influence that directly undermine policy robustness. Second, simulation-based counterfactual approaches should test road network features beyond known value ranges.
Earthquake Early Warning in Central America from 2016 to 2024
Item type: Journal Article
Massin, Frédérick; Clinton, John Francis; Marroquin, Griselda; et al. (2026)
Earthquake early warning (EEW) systems that deliver real-time alerts to the public are now operating in Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. An independent system is operated by national seismological agencies in each country. The EEW systems were developed through the Alerta Temprana de Terremotos en América Central (ATTAC) project, a multi-year collaboration (2016–2024) led by ETH Zurich and funded by the Swiss Development Agency. These landmark systems are unique as they provide operational EEW in several low- and middle-income countries. Each system uses the same ETHZ-SED SeisComP EEW software that implements the virtual seismologist (VS) and finite-fault rupture detector (FinDer) algorithms. The national seismic monitoring infrastructures are supported by 72 EEW-ready strong-motion stations. Public alerts are disseminated primarily via a mobile application that has over one million users. EEW performance is regionally consistent due to shared real-time seismic data and common system architecture. Our evaluation period started when the software was installed and included periods of network and software optimization. The VS algorithm achieved an overall accuracy of 89%. Including FinDer reduced accuracy to 77%, mainly due to false positives in Nicaragua and Costa Rica that occurred early in the evaluation window. First alerts are generally available 10 s after origin time for shallow onshore events, with location and magnitude errors typically below 30 km and 0.5 units, respectively. Mobile alerting has proven effective in providing low-latency alerts to increasingly large numbers of users, with most users receiving red alerts within 2–8 s after issuance, though some variability can occur. Maintaining and enhancing EEW in the region requires sustained investment in seismic infrastructure, trained personnel, and dissemination solutions that, for the short term at least, will include the mobile application. Long-term viability depends on stable governance, consistent funding, and strengthened and coordinated public guidance on how to respond to alerts.