Our Work

Ireland's environmental governance is delivered through a large and growing library of separate documents — national acts and plans, EU directives and regulations, sectoral strategies and intern…

Ireland's environmental governance is delivered through a large and growing library of separate documents — national acts and plans, EU directives and regulations, sectoral strategies and international conventions. This brief introduces an interactive knowledge-graph tool that maps the semantic relationships across a corpus of 191 such documents, and explains what it shows, how policy audiences can use it, and — importantly — what it cannot tell them. Documents are segmented and embedded with a three-model ensemble; connection strength is calibrated against the corpus's own background similarity distribution. The central finding is the density of the resulting network: environmental governance in Ireland is deeply interconnected, and no document stands alone. The tool is a discovery and triage instrument for expert users, not a measure of policy coherence or legal consistency.

Municipal solid waste management has emerged as a critical environmental issue in Himalayan pilgrimage destinations because of seasonal fluctuations in tourist arrivals and the resulting increase in w…

Municipal solid waste management has emerged as a critical environmental issue in Himalayan pilgrimage destinations because of seasonal fluctuations in tourist arrivals and the resulting increase in waste generation. This study investigates the municipal solid waste management challenges in Devprayag, Uttarakhand, during the Char Dham Yatra. A mixed-methods research design was adopted, combining primary data obtained through field surveys, direct observations, and consultations with officials of the Devprayag Nagar Palika with secondary information from government publications and relevant scientific literature. The study analyses waste generation, collection, transportation, segregation, recycling, and the overall efficiency of the existing waste management system. The results show that the pilgrimage season places considerable pressure on municipal waste management, particularly due to the increased generation of plastic waste. While the municipality has implemented door-to-door waste collection and established a Solid Waste Management (SWM) Plant, limitations in infrastructure, workforce, and financial resources reduce its ability to manage the seasonal waste burden effectively. The study recommends strengthening source segregation, expanding recycling facilities, enhancing public awareness, encouraging community participation, and improving institutional capacity. These measures, together with the adoption of sustainable waste management practices, can reduce environmental degradation, conserve the fragile Himalayan ecosystem, and promote sustainable pilgrimage tourism. The findings also provide practical guidance for policymakers and urban local bodies responsible for waste management in pilgrimage towns.

Full Changelog: https://github.com/FZJ-INM1-BDA/siibra-api/compare/v0.3.35-rc2...v0.3.35-rc3

მონოგრაფია ეხება კიბერუსაფრთხოების განვითარების პოლიტიკას, სტრატეგიასა და ახალ გამოწვევებს არსებულს მოცემულ სფეროში. ასევე კვლევაში განხილულია კიბერსივრცისა და ზოგადად ინტერნეტის დაცულობის საკითხი, მს…

მონოგრაფია ეხება კიბერუსაფრთხოების განვითარების პოლიტიკას, სტრატეგიასა და ახალ გამოწვევებს არსებულს მოცემულ სფეროში. ასევე კვლევაში განხილულია კიბერსივრცისა და ზოგადად ინტერნეტის დაცულობის საკითხი, მსოფლიოს წამყვანი ქვეყნების (შეერთებული შტატები, დიდი ბრიტანეთი, ნიდერლანდების სამეფო, პოლონეთი, ესტონეთი და სამხრეთ კორეა), საერთაშორისო ალიანსებისა (ნატო) და სხვადასხვა გაერთიანებების (ევროკავშირი) გამოცდილება ამ მიმართულებით, მათ პოლიტიკა და სტრატეგია დაკავშირებული არსებულ კიბერუსაფრთხოებასთან. კვლევაში ასევე წარმოდგენილია ინტერნეტისა და კიბერსივრცის დაცულობის შესახებ საერთაშორისო თუ რეგიონალურ და ეროვნულ დონეებზე, მიღებული რეზოლუციები, რეკომენდაციები და სხვა სამართლებრივ - ნორმატიული აქტები. გარდა ამისა, კვლევაში განხილულია ის ორგანიზაციული სუბიექტები და სტრუქტურული დანაყოფები, რომლებიც ახორციელებენ კრიტიკული ინფრასტრუქტურის დაცვას როგორც საერთაშორისო, ისე რეგიონალურ და ეროვნულ დონეებზე. ამის პარალელურად, წარმოდგენილია საქართველოს კიბერუსაფრთხოების პოლიტიკა და სტრატეგია, არსებული სახელმწიფო სუბიექტები და საკანონმდებლო ბაზა, რა გამოწვევებისა და საფრთხეების წინაშე დგას ქვეყანა, და როგორ აისახება ეს ქვეყნის ეროვნული უსაფრთხოების კომპლექსურ უზრუნველყოფაზე. განისაზღვრა ის პრობლემები, რომლებიც არსებობს ამ ეტაპზე საქართველოს კიბერსივრცეში. მოხდა საქართველოსა და მსოფლიოში არსებული გამოცდილების ერთმანეთთან შედარება, გაკეთდა ანალიზი და შესაბამისი დასკვნები, მომზადდა რეკომენდაციები როგორც სახელმწიფო, ისე კერძო სექტორის სუბიექტებისთვის. ნაშრომში ასევე წარმოდგენილია ინფორმაციული და ჰიბრიდული ომების განმარტებები და ელემენტები, რომლის მთავარ და შეიძლება ითქვას ძირითად, შემადგენელ ნაწილს შეადგენს კიბერუსაფრთხოება და კიბერსივრცის დაცულობა.

Large language models have moved, in roughly three years, from research curiosities to everyday research instruments. Yet the landscape is confusing: a handful of large companies compete with a growin…

Large language models have moved, in roughly three years, from research curiosities to everyday research instruments. Yet the landscape is confusing: a handful of large companies compete with a growing field of openly released models, and each can be reached through several different routes — a website, a desktop application, or a command-line tool — each with its own habits, advantages and traps. This guide is written for researchers who are comfortable with the ideas of computing but who do not need to know how a processor or a neural network is built internally. It explains, in plain terms, what the models are, who makes them, how to get at them, how the different ways of working with them change what can safely be done, and where the genuine ethical and safety boundaries lie. Coverage includes: the frontier and open-weight model landscape; the three access routes (browser, desktop application, command line) and their differing data-exposure profiles, with step-by-step setup for Claude Code, OpenAI Codex and Google Antigravity; open-weight versus proprietary trade-offs; embedding models and retrieval-augmented generation for text processing; multimodal capabilities; effective prompting; and a safe-and-ethical-use section covering data protection, verification, disclosure and citation, accountability, reproducibility, intellectual property, environmental cost and institutional policy. Includes a decision aid, a safe-use checklist and a plain-language glossary. A companion interactive resource, the LLM Taxonomy Guide, covers the underlying mechanism — transformer architectures, tokenisation, attention, embeddings and alignment — in depth. Model names, versions and access details are a snapshot as of July 2026 and will date quickly; the principles are intended to be durable.

Peniophorella variegata K. Y. Luo, Yuan Yuan & Y. C. Dai sp. nov.Figs 7, 8Holotype.China • Jiangxi Province, Nanchang, Shengshuitang National Forest Park. GPS coordinates: 28.991150 ° N, …

Peniophorella variegata K. Y. Luo, Yuan Yuan & Y. C. Dai sp. nov.Figs 7, 8Holotype.China • Jiangxi Province, Nanchang, Shengshuitang National Forest Park. GPS coordinates: 28.991150 ° N, 115.533628 ° E; elevation: 220 m a. s. l. On a fallen branch of Pinus massoniana, 26 April 2025, Yuan 2232 (BJFC 061778).Etymology.Variegata (Lat.): refers to the species having variable cystidia.Description.Basidiomata annual, resupinate, adnate, loosely attached, not easily separable from substratum, farinaceous, without odour and taste when fresh, white to pale yellowish when fresh and upon drying, up to 7 cm long, 1.5 cm wide, and 300 µm thick. Hymenophoral surface smooth; margin distinct, thin, pale yellowish, up to 2 mm long.Hyphal structure: Hyphal system monomitic; generative hyphae with clamp connections, thin-walled, moderately branched mostly with a right angle, flexuous, loosely interwoven, 2.5–4 μm in diameter, IKI –, CB –; tissues unchanged in KOH.Hymenium: Cystidia of three types: (1) capitate cystidia frequent, hyaline, thin-walled, 18.5–24 × 4–7 μm; (2) leptocystidia infrequent, subcylindrical, hyaline, thin-walled, sometimes apically encrusted, 19–31 × 5–7 μm; (3) subulate cystidia infrequent, hyaline, thin-walled, sometimes protruding from the hymenium up to 20 μm, 38–53 × 4–7 μm. Hyphidia frequent, hyaline, thin-walled, 13–16 × 2.5–4 μm. Cystidioles rare, subcylindrical or sphaeropedunculate, hyaline, thin-walled, 11–14 × 6–8 μm. Basidia clavate, more or less flexuous, colorless, thin-walled, smooth, with four sterigmata and a basal clamp connection, occasionally with oily contents, 25–46 × 6–12 μm. Basidioles similar in shape to basidia, but distinctly smaller.Basidiospores: Short cylindric to oblong-ellipsoid, sometime slightly curved, hyaline, thin-walled, smooth, occasionally with oily contents, IKI –, CB –, (7.3 –) 7.9–10.8 (– 12.5) × (3.1 –) 3.9–5.1 (– 5.8) µm, L = 9.44 µm, W = 4.50 µm, Q = 2.07–2.13 (n = 60 / 2).Type of rot.White rot.Additional specimen (paratype) examined.China • Jiangxi Province, Nanchang, Shengshuitang National Forest Park. GPS coordinates: 28.991150 ° N, 115.533628 ° E; elevation: 220 m a. s. l. On a fallen branch of Pinus massoniana, 26 April 2025, Yuan 2250 (BJFC 061796).

Peniophorella crassibasidiata K. Y. Luo, Yuan Yuan & Y. C. Dai sp. nov.Figs 5, 6Holotype.China • Guangdong Province, Zhaoqing, Dinghu District, Dinghushan National Nature Reserve. GPS coordin…

Peniophorella crassibasidiata K. Y. Luo, Yuan Yuan & Y. C. Dai sp. nov.Figs 5, 6Holotype.China • Guangdong Province, Zhaoqing, Dinghu District, Dinghushan National Nature Reserve. GPS coordinates: 23.159571 ° N, 112.538344 ° E; elevation: 51 m a. s. l. On a fallen branch of Pinus massoniana, 8 July 2025, Yuan 3208 (BJFC 062754).Etymology.Crassibasidiata (Lat.), crassi- = thick, basidiata = basidia, referring to the thick-walled basidia of this species.Description.Basidiomata annual, resupinate, adnate, loosely attached, but not easily separable from substratum, soft coriaceous, without odor and taste when fresh, white when fresh, white to cream upon drying, up to 14 cm long, 1.5 cm wide, and 200 µm thick at center. Hymenophoral surface smooth; margin distinct, thin, white, up to 2 mm long.Hyphal structure: Hyphal system monomitic; generative hyphae with clamp connections, thick-walled with a wide lumen, occasionally branched, flexuous, loosely interwoven, 2–4 μm in diameter, IKI –, CB –; tissues unchanged in KOH.Hymenium: Cystidia of three types: (1) stephanocysts infrequent, with some oily contents, hyaline, thin-walled, 9–11 × 6–7 μm; (2) fusiform cystidia frequent, hyaline, thick-walled, 22–25 × 7–9 μm; (3) subulate cystidia frequent, sometimes with oily contents, hyaline, thick-walled, 20–50 × 6–10 μm. Cystidioles absent. Nubbly crystals abundant. Basidia barrel-shaped to subclavate, colorless, thick-walled, smooth, with four sterigmata and a basal clamp connection, 12–22 × 5–9 μm. Basidioles similar in shape to basidia, but smaller.Basidiospores: cylindrical, hyaline, thin-walled, smooth, occasionally with two oil drops or contents, IKI –, CB –, (8 –) 8.4–12.4 (– 12.6) × (3 –) 3.1–4.2 (– 4.4) µm, L = 10.21 µm, W = 3.67 µm, Q = 2.78 (n = 30 / 1).Type of rot.White rot.