Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) has emerged as a central governance tool to balance ecological, social, and economic uses of marine space, while Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) remain essential for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem resilience. Effective integration of MPAs into MSP can enhance conservation outcomes and reduce conflicts with human activities, yet the degree of integration across the European Union (EU) remains highly uneven. This study examines how MPAs are embedded within national MSP frameworks in 20 EU Member States, aiming to classify, compare, and explain differences in integration levels. A typology of four integration levels is introduced, ranging from MPAs as primary drivers of MSP to their treatment as passive spatial layers. The methodology combines the development and application of a set of questions directed at MSP experts with the use of a decision tree and allocation criteria designed to assess responses and classify countries according to their level of MPA–MSP integration. Results reveal substantial disparities across EU Member States. Belgium, Germany, Latvia, Slovenia, Sweden and the Netherlands showed the strongest degree of integration, with conservation objectives embedded in MSP provisions and influencing cross-sectoral planning decisions. In contrast, most countries incorporated MPAs mainly through environmental assessment instruments or treated them as existing spatial layers, environmental constraints, or separate legal instruments. Key barriers include fragmented governance structures, limited translation of environmental assessments into binding spatial decisions, weak links between MSP and MPAs management, uneven monitoring and enforcement capacity, and limited mechanisms for stakeholder coordination. Advancing MPA–MSP integration requires stronger legal frameworks, adaptive management strategies, ecological connectivity, and inclusive governance processes. By providing a systematic comparison and highlighting best practices, this study provides recommendations to foster more cohesive, resilient, and biodiversity-informed marine governance.
Following the new ESPEN Standard Operating Procedures, the previous 2019 guideline to provide best medical nutritional therapy to critically ill patients has been shortened and partially revised. Following this update, we propose this publication as a practical guideline based on the published scientific guideline, but shortened and illustrated by flow charts. The main goal of this practical guideline is to increase understanding and allow the practitioner to implement the Nutrition in the ICU guidelines. All the items discussed in the previous guidelines are included as well as special conditions.
Context. The distances to evolved massive stars in the Milky Way are poorly constrained by Gaia parallaxes because these stars are bright and variable. This makes it difficult to determine their fundamental stellar parameters, such as radius or luminosity, and infer their evolutionary states. Aims. We aim to improve the distance estimates of yellow hypergiants (YHGs) and yellow supergiants (YSGs) by identifying possible cluster and association memberships. Using these distances, we derived updated luminosities and revised their positions in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. Methods. We compiled a sample of 35 luminous yellow massive stars (YHGs and the most luminous YSGs) from the literature. We used Gaia DR3 astrometry to identify possible membership in clusters and OB associations. We derived distances by combining the parallaxes of nearby co-moving stars. We independently validated these distances by comparing the stellar radial velocities to the Galactic H I kinematic map. We combined angular diameters and effective temperature values from the literature with the new distances to estimate the luminosities. Results. We improved the distance estimates for 28 of the 35 stars through association with co-moving stellar groups. For an additional 6 stars, we provided distance estimates based on the H I kinematic map. For one star, the distance remains unclear. Most YSGs are members of young stellar populations, while the environments of the YHGs are more diverse, and the origin populations for some of them remain unclear. We derived updated luminosities for a subset of 20 stars. Most YHGs have luminosities above log L/L-circle dot = 5.4, while YSGs occupy a wider range of luminosities, and the luminosities of the most luminous YSGs are similar to those of YHGs.
In an era of misinformation, pseudoscience, and declining public trust in expert knowledge, science education must help students develop the competences needed to navigate post-truth realities. Drawing on recent literature, we identify four key challenges: (1) strengthening students’ media and digital literacy; (2) enhancing their understanding of scientific practices and the social construction of knowledge; (3) nurturing habits of mind grounded in intellectual virtues; and (4) building their capacity for socio-scientific decision-making and constructive dialogue in the context of epistemic disagreement. Together, these challenges point to a set of essential competences for contemporary science education. To explore how existing frameworks respond to these needs, we analyse the affordances and limitations of scientific literacy visions I–III. Building on this dual analysis, we present the EVIDENCE approach—a pedagogical model developed specifically for upper-secondary science education to address evolving epistemic and socio-political demands. In doing so, we seek to enrich existing conceptualisations of post-truth competences and, through our analysis of the scientific literacy visions, offer insights to inform curriculum development and pedagogical practice, while acknowledging the limitations of our analysis.
We present a density functional theory investigation into the interaction of single sodium ions with distinct structural motifs of hard carbon (HC), including armchair and zigzag edges, basal planes, intercalation sites, curved graphene surfaces, and selected functional groups. The aim is to explore and identify new motifs to be added to the structural parameters necessary for the reliable experimental characterization of HC structures and their sodiation process. The results reveal that the strength of interaction between the Na cation and HC mainly follows this order: the edge sites present the stronger anchoring points for the cation; this is followed by intercalation regions between two graphene sheets, concave areas of graphene surfaces, and convex regions, while nearly flat graphene areas exhibit the weakest binding points with sodium ions. A notable monotonic dependence was also identified between the surface curvature and both the sodium interaction energy and the corresponding charge transfer. Additionally, the C 1s binding energies were computed and compared with experimental X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements for carbon atoms covalently bound to common functional groups in HC. Our quantum chemical calculations support the consensus that the edge sites drive the sloping capacity through strong Na+ interactions, whereas curvature-induced concave regions may serve as nucleation sites for Na clusters. These clusters could evolve into a pseudometallic state, accounting for the plateau capacity. These findings provide a microscopic framework for understanding sodium storage in hard carbon and offer design principles for optimizing the anode materials in sodium-ion batteries.
