Publications

Research and innovation are not isolated activities, as they involve the collective efforts of scientists working together towards a common goal. The COST Annual Report 2022 highlights how COST Actions connect researchers to advance science.

This edition depicts 2022’s main highlights, together with facts and figures, and also features numerous success stories about COST Actions and the researchers involved.

For more than 50 years, COST has been providing networking opportunities for researchers and innovators to strengthen Europe’s capacity to address scientific, technological and societal challenges.

To continue as the leading networking instrument in the European Research Area (ERA), COST has defined three priorities: 1) Promoting and spreading excellence, 2) Fostering interdisciplinary research for breakthrough science, 3) Empowering and retaining young researchers and innovators.

The COST Strategic Plan defines clear targets and Key Performance Indicators for each strategic priority. Read the document to discover more.

This open access book presents established methods of structural health monitoring (SHM) and discusses their technological merit in the current aerospace environment. While the aerospace industry aims for weight reduction to improve fuel efficiency, reduce environmental impact, and to decrease maintenance time and operating costs, aircraft structures are often designed and built heavier than required in order to accommodate unpredictable failure. A way to overcome this approach is the use of SHM systems to detect the presence of defects. This book covers all major contemporary aerospace-relevant SHM methods, from the basics of each method to the various defect types that SHM is required to detect to discussion of signal processing developments alongside considerations of aerospace safety requirements. It will be of interest to professionals in industry and academic researchers alike, as well as engineering students.

Alice and Bob embark on a quantum “escape game” adventure! They discover some mysterious aspects of superconductivity, this fascinating quantum property of solid matter at low temperatures. A novel for teens aged 13 and up.

The book is available in French:

Alice et Bob se lancent dans l’aventure d’un “escape game” quantique ! Ils découvrent certains aspects un peu mystérieux de la supraconductivité, cette propriété quantique fascinante de la matière solide à basse température. Un roman pour les ados à partir de 13 ans.

This book collects all original materials produced during the Second Training School of the COST Action CA18110 Underground4value, held in September 2021 at the University of Murcia (Murcia, ES). In these pages, the reader can experience how a real committed group of young and talented trainees, organised in research groups, faced such a challenge of penetrating theoretical and methodological contents and then operating them to produce their case-study storytelling. This second handbook, structured in three parts, tries to catch all this, not replying the already published lectures, but giving space to the case-studies’ description and to the research groups’ work. In these pages, the research teams, composed by tutors and trainees, emerge as the real protagonists, by providing a fertile ground to create alternative options for the selected case-studies – the Old White Marble Quarries of Paros (GR), the Ayia Napa Monastery (CY), the Dolmens of Antelas and Carapito (PT), and the Underground City of Camerano (IT).  Through their eyes, free from any predefined design and not tied to the local communities’ expectations, the reader can penetrate the logic path, in some way connected to the Strategic Transition Practice (STP) approach, which created the pre-conditions for the options’ definition.  Following the First Handbook orientation, this new volume aims to make available to the scientific community and the general public an original product based on scientific comparison, real studies, community experiences, and creativity. Furthermore, in line with Underground4value philosophy, the final goal of this Handbook is to promote Underground Built Heritage as a valuable resource to celebrate and preserve, realising its full potential to support local communities’ development.

This volume brings together a body of expertise gathered within ENTAN—European Non-Territorial Autonomy Network (www.entan.org), a European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action dedicated to analysing the concept of Non-Territorial Autonomy (NTA) and its potential to accommodate the needs of different ethno-cultural and ethnolinguistic communities within a single state framework. The present volume comprises a selection of 20 peer-reviewed papers originally presented at the Second ENTAN Conference, hosted by the Institute for minority Studies, Centre for Social Science in Budapest, on 24–25 September 2021. The Second Conference examined how the various NTA models have been implemented and contribute to the effective representation and participation of minorities in public life. It focused on various activities, policies and institutional structures in diverse contexts that can be considered as forms of NTA. The contributions included in this volume offer a critical eye not only on the decision of states to opt for and even constitutionally entrench NTA arrangements but also on the extent to which such arrangements meet minority demands and mitigate territorial and separatist aspirations, ethnic conflict, discrimination and socioeconomic exclusion.

This volume brings together a body of expertise gathered within ENTAN—European Non-Territorial Autonomy Network (www.entan.org), a European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action dedicated to analysing the concept of Non-Territorial Autonomy (NTA) and its potential to accommodate the needs of different ethno-cultural and ethnolinguistic communities within a single state framework. The present volume comprises a selection of peer-reviewed papers originally presented at the Third ENTAN Conference, hosted by Ovidius University, Constanţa, on 13–14 May 2022. 

The book ‘Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) for Monitoring Soil, Vegetation, and Riverine Environments’ is the result of five years of intense activities carried out within the context of the COST Action HARMONIOUS (CA16219). The Action stimulated the participation of more than 200 researchers and technicians from 36 European and non-European countries with the intention is to promote monitoring strategies, establish harmonized monitoring practices, and transfer most recent advances on UAS methodologies to others within a global network.

The aim of the book is to share the experience gained within the HARMONIOUS COST Action providing clear guidelines for all of those that are willing to approach the use of UAS to enhance the description of soil-water-plant processes. The book includes guidelines, technical advices, and practical experiences to support researchers, instructors, and practitioners in increasing monitoring efficiency with the help of UAS.

Why would kidney disease affect the brain?

This special issue is a collaborative work which has been published in a high-impact journal Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation (NDT). In this issue, there are six reviews on current topics linking the brain and kidney.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a complex and potentially fatal illness affecting all organs and altering many fundamental physiological parameters and processes, such as plasma volume, electrolytes and acid-base balance, hormone and protein metabolism. Thirty to 60% of advanced CKD patients have been found to have impaired cognition. The most frequently diagnosed problem is Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), which is characterized by signs of neurological injury and cognitive dysfunction.

Although many theories have emerged as to why kidney disease affects the brain and causes cognitive impairment, the aetiology has not been fully explained. To study this brain-kidney relationship, we set up a multidisciplinary approach and the CONNECT network. CONNECT (Cognitive decline in Nephro-Neurology European Cooperative Target Action) was established and financed through the COST Action program. As described in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), CONNECT is comprised of 5 working groups and has the objective of filling the gap in our knowledge of brain-kidney interactions. It includes clinical nephrologists and neurologists, scientists with pre-clinical expertise in the field of nephrology and neuroscience, and scientists with knowledge and experience of clinical trials, epidemiology and data science. With the collaboration of the different expert working groups, we have already published on these topics in this special issue:

Present and future of CONNECT: a new and compelling project of modern medicine/ Acidosis, cognitive dysfunction and motor impairments in patients with kidney disease/ Neuropeptide Y as a risk factor for cardiorenal disease and cognitive dysfunction in chronic kidney disease: translational opportunities and challenges/ Cognitive disorders in patients with chronic kidney disease: specificities of clinical assessment/ Chronic kidney disease and neurological disorders: are uraemic toxins the missing piece of the puzzle?/ Brain dysfunction in tubular and tubulointerstitial kidney diseases/ Albuminuria as a risk factor for mild cognitive impairment and dementia—what is the evidence?

We highlight and emphasize that a healthy kidney is a healthy brain!