The construction industry plays a significant role in achieving climate stability and regenerative methods in this field can highly contribute to the resilience and long-lasting sustainability of cities as well as citizens' wellbeing. Building methods using regenerative techniques and carbon-negative materials will be essential to the development of climate-sustainable cities. Developing carbon negative materials can highly impact and reduce the overall carbon footprint of the construction industry, mitigating climate change to a level that will be compatible with the 1.5-degree warming target by removing more carbon from the atmosphere during their production and use phase than they emit. Mycelium is a sustainable, biodegradable material made from the root-like structures of fungi. It is grown by cultivating mycelium on organic substrates like sawdust and wood chips. The material is lightweight, strong, and fire-resistant, making it suitable for insulation, panels, bricks and even furniture. Mycelium's eco-friendly production process and ability to decompose naturally make it an innovative alternative to traditional materials. Given the importance of moisture management in material longevity and maintenance, this research gives great focus to moisture in Mycelium-based samples through absorption and desorption tests. The tests were conducted at the University of Iceland and at HERCULES research center, University of Évora in Portugal. The study's findings show Mycelium's performance under varying moisture conditions, contributing valuable insights into its application as a sustainable construction material. This research supports the broader goal of integrating regenerative practices into urban development for a sustainable and resilient future.

Moisture excess is the difference between the indoor and outdoor absolute humidity. British Standard 5250 presents humidity classes which relate moisture excess to monthly outdoor temperature. These classes are useful for simulations and assessing moisture conditions. Comparisons of measured data with the classes often uses data averaged over shorter periods than a month, but it is unclear what impact the averaging period has on moisture excess. This study examined how hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly averaging influences moisture excess curves. The results show that only weekly and monthly averages produce similar curves, and that longer averaging periods reduce the range of outdoor temperatures captured. These results highlight the importance to specifying the granularity of data when comparing moisture excess.

The aim of this study is to obtain knowledge about which cultivable bacterial species are present in indoor air in homes, and whether the concentration and diversity of airborne bacteria are associated with different factors. Measurements have been performed for one whole year inside different rooms in five homes and once in 52 homes. Within homes, a room-to-room variation for concentrations of airborne bacteria was found, but an overlap in bacterial species was found across rooms. Eleven species were found very commonly and included: Acinetobacter lowffii, Bacillus megaterium, B. pumilus, Kocuria carniphila, K. palustris, K. rhizophila, Micrococcus flavus, M. luteus, Moraxella osloensis and Paracoccus yeei. The concentrations of Gram-negative bacteria in general and the species P. yeei were significantly associated with the season with the highest concentrations in spring. The concentrations of P. yeei, K. rhizophila and B. pumilus were associated positively with relative humidity (RH), and concentrations of K. rhizophila were associated negatively with temperature and air change rate (ACR). Micrococcus flavus concentrations were associated negatively with ACR. Overall, this study identified species which are commonly present in indoor air in homes, and that the concentrations of some species were associated with the factors: season, ACR and RH.

This discussant commentary considers the findings presented in the UCL-Penn Global COVID Study webinar 4 'Doctoral Students' Educational Stress and Mental Health' and the research article published from the series of webinar in this journal, 'The effects of cumulative stressful educational events on the mental health of doctoral students during the Covid-19 pandemic'. The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted the education of hundreds of thousands of graduate students worldwide by curtailing their access to laboratories, libraries, and face-to-face interactions with peers and supervisors. This has resulted in considerable stress, given that expectations on research productivity during the period have remained unchanged. This note suggests three principles to help graduate students cope with the impact of Covid-19 on their educational journey: (1) support student resilience; (2) support student learning; and (3) support students technologically.

This discussant commentary considers the findings presented from the UCL-Penn Global COVID Study webinar 'Let's Talk! What do you need to recover from Covid-19?'. The research presented highlights a number of key issues that have affected people of all ages throughout the pandemic. Our aim with this article is to reflect on these themes and, using our own qualitative and quantitative research conducted throughout the pandemic, explore whether the people we spoke to in later life expressed challenges, concerns and frustrations with the same issues as those expressed in Dr Wong's study. As a national charity that supports people in later life, Independent Age has been incredibly concerned by the impact of the pandemic specifically on people aged 65 and over, and believe more must be done by decision-makers in the government and National Health Service (NHS) to support them to recover from the pandemic.

When impermeable ground bearing slabs are installed in old buildings without a damp-proof course, it is a common belief of conservation practitioners that ground moisture will be 'driven' up adjacent walls by capillary action. However, there is limited evidence to test this hypothesis. An experiment was used to determine if the installation of a vapour-proof barrier above a flagstone floor in a historic building would increase moisture content levels in an adjacent stone rubble wall. This was achieved by undertaking measurements of wall, soil and atmospheric moisture content over a 3-year period. Measurements taken using timber dowels showed that the moisture content within the wall did not vary in response to wall evaporation rates and did not increase following the installation of a vapour-proof barrier above the floor. This indicates that the moisture levels in the rubble wall were not influenced by changes in the vapour-permeability of the floor.

Moisture-related damage is still a formidable cost factor in the building sector. Besides installation deficiencies, moisture control design failures are the most frequent reasons for moisture problems. Therefore, adequate moisture control analysis has become the key for sustainable buildings. However, by only focusing on vapour diffusion other important moisture loads such as driving rain, construction moisture or air infiltration are mostly neglected. Therefore, international moisture control standards often refer to simulation models for more realistic analysis, leaving many practitioners wondering how to handle these tools. To overcome this dilemma, the updated German moisture control standard has introduced a three-pathway approach for design evaluation: first, deemed to satisfy list, second, restricted Glaser calculation and third, fully fledged hygrothermal simulation. The third pathway includes the option to account for small leaks or imperfections in building envelope components. Guidelines in other countries are also embracing similar moisture control approaches which gives hope for more durable and sustainable building design. To reach this aim, moisture control should also become an integral part of the design process instead of a secondary chore.

Migration is one of the defining issues of the 21st century. Better data is required to improve understanding about how and why people are moving, target interventions and support evidence-based migration policy. Big data, defined as large, complex data from diverse sources, is regularly proposed as a solution to help address current gaps in knowledge. The authors participated in a workshop held in London, UK, in July 2019, that brought together experts from the United Nations (UN), humanitarian non-governmental organisations (NGOs), policy and academia to develop a better understanding of how big data could be used for migration research and policy. We identified six key areas regarding the application of big data in migration research and policy: accessing and utilising data; integrating data sources and knowledge; understanding environmental drivers of migration; improving healthcare access for migrant populations; ethical and security concerns around the use of big data; and addressing political narratives. We advocate the need for careful consideration of the challenges faced by the use of big data, as well as increased cross-disciplinary collaborations to advance the use of big data in migration research whilst safeguarding vulnerable migrant communities.

In an effort to arrest the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) infection, a nationwide lockdown was declared in India in March 2020. To assess how personal built environments affected the citizens in the first few weeks, an explorative online survey was conducted, eliciting responses about work habits before the lockdown, psychological wellbeing, time spent in various activities, characteristics of those who worked from home, and food and sleep patterns. We received 121 (76 male and 45 female) responses with an average age of 35.5 years [max: 70 years, min: 18 years, standard deviation (SD): 12.9 years]. The major difference caused by the lockdown was a reduction in the time taken and distance travelled of the commute to workplaces, which was an average of 30 minutes and 9.5 km, respectively. In terms of diet, subjects who were vegetarian did not experience any difference, unlike those who were non-vegetarians (p < 0.05). The results show an association of the dependent variable of 'feeling in general' with predictor variables of 'energy, pep, vitality' and 'feel healthy to work' during the pandemic, whereas the predictor variables of 'energy, pep, vitality', 'happy and satisfied personal life', 'feel healthy to work' show an association with the dependent variable of 'feeling in general' before the lockdown with a significance of p < 0.02 and R2 = 0.51 and R2 = 0.60, respectively. Among those who worked from home in constrained environments, people found spaces and seemed to adapt reasonably well to the built environment with employees showing a preference for working from bedrooms and students for working from 'sit-out' (outside) spaces (p < 0.05). There was no change in the quality or quantity of sleep during the lockdown. This study in the early weeks of the lockdown documents the way in which individuals lived through it in terms of the built environment at home.

Measurements of methane isotopologues can differentiate between different source types, be they biogenic (e.g. marsh lands) or abiogenic (e.g. industry). Global measurements of these isotopologues would greatly benefit the current disconnect between 'top-down' (knowledge from chemistry transport models and satellite measurements) and 'bottom-up' (in situ measurement inventories) methane measurements. However, current measurements of these isotopologues are limited to a small number of in situ studies and airborne studies. In this paper we investigate the potential for detecting the second most common isotopologue of methane (13CH4) from space using the Japanese Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite applying a quick and simple residual radiance analysis technique. The method allows for a rapid analysis of spectral regions, and can be used to teach university students or advanced school students about radiative transfer analysis. Using this method we find limited sensitivity to 13CH4, with detections limited to total column methane enhancements of >6%, assuming a desert surface albedo of >0.3.