Search Results (1,641)

Regional development increasingly occurs under conditions of uncertainty, complexity, and accelerating socio-economic change, creating a need for adaptive approaches that support learning and transformation. Although Living Labs have gained prominence as environments for co-creation and experimentation, their broader systemic role in regional development remains insufficiently theorized. This article addresses this gap by conceptualizing Living Labs as adaptive intermediary structures embedded within Regional Innovation Systems that facilitate social transformation in peripheral regions. The study adopts a conceptual research design based on integrative theory synthesis, combining insights from Living Lab research, Regional Innovation Systems theory, complex adaptive systems theory, and behavioural approaches to adaptation and institutional learning. The resulting framework identifies four interconnected components: external transformation pressures, Living Lab mechanisms (co-creation, experimentation, stakeholder coordination, and knowledge exchange), feedback processes (trust-building, learning, absorptive capacity, and institutional adaptation), and regional transformation outcomes. The analysis suggests that Living Labs contribute to regional resilience, innovation capacity, adaptive governance, social inclusion, and socio-economic development through feedback-driven learning and adaptation processes. Rather than functioning solely as innovation platforms, Living Labs are interpreted as adaptive intermediary structures that connect experimentation with systemic transformation. The article advances Living Lab scholarship by providing a systems-oriented framework and formulates theoretical propositions that can guide future empirical research on regional adaptation and transformation. Full article

Background/Objectives: Diffractive multifocal intraocular lenses (IOLs) are widely used following cataract surgery, but their impact on peripheral retinal image quality in ultra-widefield (UWF) fundus imaging has not been objectively characterized. This study aimed to quantify peripheral image sharpness in UWF fundus photographs and assess wavelength-specific differences between diffractive multifocal and enhanced monofocal IOLs. Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, 65 eyes from 51 patients implanted with enhanced monofocal (Tecnis Eyhance; n = 32) or diffractive multifocal IOLs (Tecnis Synergy, n = 19; Clareon PanOptix, n = 14) were analyzed. Non-mydriatic UWF fundus photographs (Optos; ~200°) were acquired within 1 month postoperatively. Red (R), green (G), and composite channel images were analyzed using three sharpness metrics—Laplacian variance, Brenner gradient, and Tenengrad gradient—within a predefined peripheral annular region (1.5–3.0 times the fovea–optic disc distance). Generalized estimating equations (GEE) with age as a covariate were applied as the primary analysis to account for inter-eye correlation and age differences between groups. Results: Brenner and Tenengrad gradient scores were significantly lower in the multifocal group in the R channel (p = 0.037 and p = 0.041, respectively), but not in the G or composite channels. The Laplacian metric revealed no significant intergroup differences in any channel. Subgroup analysis revealed no significant difference between hybrid multifocal and quadrifocal subtypes (p > 0.05). Group-level mean heatmaps confirmed a spatially distributed reduction in gradient magnitude across the annular zone in multifocal eyes. Conclusions: Diffractive multifocal IOL implantation was associated with a localized reduction in peripheral R channel sharpness, hypothesized to reflect transverse chromatic aberration. Composite channel quality remained comparable between groups, suggesting limited impact on routine clinical imaging. These findings may inform IOL selection and interpretation of peripheral retinal findings in multifocal IOL patients. Full article

Background: Optical coherence tomography (OCT) and OCT angiography (OCTA) retinal imaging in inherited retinal dystrophies (IRD) has been limited to the posterior pole and central midperiphery (up to about 16.5 × 16.5 mm). Two novel commercially available swept-source (SS) OCT/-OCTA devices provide the possibility of wide-field (WF) evaluation of retinal and choroidal structures, including the vasculature, in a single examination. Methods: A limited consecutive series of 16 IRD patients were examined with a BMizar (400 kHz, 24 × 20 mm scan width) and a Dream OCT (200 kHz, 26 × 21 mm scan width) in addition to the normal clinical examination protocol. This series included patients with retinitis pigmentosa, cone-rod dystrophy, macular dystrophy and autosomal recessive bestrophinopathy. In addition, 12 healthy probands were examined. Results: WF-SS-OCT/-OCTA enabled the detection of retinal, choroidal and choriocapillaris alterations in the macular and midperiphery in a short, single examination session of up to 15 s. Even small foveal lesions and a small silent macular neovascularization were detected on WF screening. Regional alterations of choroidal and choriocapillaris flow patterns were identified. These were mostly in correspondence with areas that appeared clinically affected, but unexpected lesions were identified as well. Occlusion of peripheral retinal vessels was seen in retinitis pigmentosa, though flow was detected in retinal vessels, which were difficult to distinguish on fundus images. In one patient with nystagmus, WF-SS-OCT/-OCTA was performed, whereas standard OCT volume scan could not be obtained. The most frequent artifact were horizontal lines of misalignment, which did not interfere with the detection of pathologies. Conclusions: Both WF-SS-OCT/-OCTA devices provide detailed insights in structural and vascular retinal and choroidal alterations in a single, short examination. Larger series of IRD patients examined with WF-SS-OCT/-OCTA promise to provide novel insights into the pathology of IRDs. Full article

Background: Bonding to sclerotic dentin remains one of the most challenging procedures in restorative dentistry due to tubular occlusion and hypermineralization, which limit resin infiltration. This study evaluated the influence of adhesive system, surface treatment, storage time, and substrate position on microtensile bond strength (µTBS) to natural sclerotic dentin. Methods: Sixteen extracted human molars with sclerotic dentin were selected and randomly assigned to nine experimental groups according to the adhesive system and surface treatment. Three adhesives were tested: a two-step self-etch adhesive (Clearfil SE Bond 2, Kuraray Noritake Dental, Tokyo, Japan) and two universal adhesives, one containing 10-MDP (G-Premio Bond, GC Corp., Tokyo, Japan) and one without 10-MDP (iBond Universal, Kulzer GmbH, Hanau, Germany). Each adhesive was applied under three conditions: no pretreatment (control), Al₂O₃ air-abrasion, and Bioglass 45S5 (ProSylc^®, Velopex International, London, UK) air-abrasion. Composite build-ups were performed, and the specimens were sectioned into 1 mm² beams for microtensile testing either after 24 h or after 6 months of storage in distilled water at 37 °C of hypertonic solution. The effect of beam position (central vs. peripheral) was also analyzed. Bond strength was measured by µTBS testing, and the results were analyzed using multifactorial ANOVA and Tukey’s test (α = 0.05). Failure modes were examined under stereomicroscopy, whereas optical microscopy was used for qualitative evaluation of representative fractured interfaces. Results: Significant main effects were found for adhesive system and surface treatment (p < 0.001), with a notable interaction between them (p < 0.05). Al₂O₃ air-abrasion produced the highest bond strengths, particularly for the self-etch adhesive containing functional monomers (53.4 ± 6.1 MPa), representing a 53% increase over the untreated control. Bioglass air-abrasion did not enhance adhesion and led to irregular hybrid layers. The position of the beams affected only one universal adhesive, with higher µTBS in peripheral regions. After six months of water storage, bond strengths remained stable across most groups, indicating good hydrolytic resistance of the interfaces. Conclusions: Both the adhesive system and the surface treatment significantly influenced bonding effectiveness to sclerotic dentin. The combination of Al₂O₃ air-abrasion with an MDP-containing self-etch adhesive achieved the most durable and homogeneous bond interface. providing a clinically reliable protocol for restorative treatments in sclerotic dentin. Within the limitations of this in vitro study, this combination may represent a potentially useful strategy for improving adhesion to sclerotic dentin, although further investigations are required to confirm its clinical applicability. Full article

Mangrove restoration is increasingly recognized as an effective nature-based solution for biodiversity conservation, climate-change mitigation, and coastal resilience. However, long-term evaluations of restoration outcomes remain scarce, particularly in arid coastal environments. This study assesses three decades of ecosystem recovery following the afforestation of Avicennia marina at Sajid Bay, Farasan Archipelago, Saudi Arabia. A total of 1050 seedlings were transplanted in 1994 into an unvegetated intertidal area and monitored using multi-temporal satellite imagery and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) analysis from 1994 to 2024. Results revealed a progressive expansion of mangrove cover to 15.48 ha over the 30-year period, corresponding to an average annual increase of approximately 0.516 ha yr⁻¹. Spatial patterns of expansion were strongly influenced by local geomorphological and hydrodynamic conditions. Central areas characterized by low wave energy and stable sediments exhibited the highest rates of colonization and vegetation development, whereas peripheral areas exposed to greater hydrodynamic stress expanded more slowly. The establishment of reproductive stands enabled natural regeneration, transforming the original plantation into a self-sustaining mangrove ecosystem. The findings demonstrate that relatively small-scale afforestation efforts can trigger long-term ecosystem recovery when implemented under suitable environmental conditions. The transition from planted seedlings to a naturally regenerating mangrove forest highlights the importance of site selection, hydrodynamic suitability, and ecological processes in determining restoration success. This study provides rare empirical evidence of long-term mangrove recovery in an arid coastal system and offers a practical conservation framework for restoring degraded coastal habitats throughout the Red Sea region and other environmentally comparable coastlines. Full article

Background/Objectives: Gastrointestinal dysmotility (GID) is a frequent non-motor manifestation of Parkinson’s disease (PD). However, its peripheral electrophysiological characteristics, as well as the underlying neural mechanisms within the brain–gut axis, remain insufficiently understood. This study aimed to delineate spatiotemporal abnormalities in gastrointestinal pacing activity in PD and to explore their associations with cerebral functional connectivity (FC). Methods: Multichannel electrogastroenterography (EGEG) recordings, including both preprandial and postprandial states from gastric (leads 1–4) and intestinal (leads 5–8) regions, were obtained from patients with PD and healthy controls (HCs), alongside resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI). The striatal–thalamic circuit was selected as the seed region for FC analysis. Between-group differences in EGEG-derived spatiotemporal metrics were assessed using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), while FC differences were examined using two-sample t-tests. Partial correlation analyses were conducted to evaluate associations among neuroimaging measures, aberrant gastrointestinal electrophysiological indices, and clinical variables. Regional specificity of correlations was further tested by comparing dependent correlation coefficients. In addition, multivariate brain–gut connectivity was assessed using partial canonical correlation analysis (pCCA) with 1000 permutation tests. Results: Relative to HCs, PD patients exhibited a significant reduction in the proportion of normal slow waves in both gastric and intestinal regions during preprandial and postprandial states (pFDR < 0.05). FC analysis revealed increased connectivity between the left thalamus and right insula in PD, whereas interhemispheric connectivity of the caudate nuclei and putamina was significantly reduced. Additionally, FC between the left pallidum and left precentral gyrus was attenuated in the PD group. Partial correlation analysis demonstrated a positive association between postprandial normal slow-wave fraction and interhemispheric caudate connectivity (r = 0.63, pFDR = 0.047). Furthermore, left thalamus–right insula connectivity correlated with both total Non-Motor Symptoms Scale (NMSS) scores (r = 0.57, pFDR = 0.042) and gastrointestinal subscale scores (r = 0.63, pFDR = 0.037). At the multivariate level, pCCA revealed a strong association between lentiform nucleus connectivity and preprandial gastric slow-wave rhythms (canonical r = 0.892, p = 0.004). Conclusions: In PD, caudate nucleus FC shows a preferential association with gastric rather than intestinal electrophysiological activity. Multivariate analyses further demonstrate a significant network-level association between lentiform nucleus connectivity and baseline gastric pacing rhythms, extending regional findings to a broader network interaction. Together, these results provide multimodal correlational evidence reflecting parallel central and peripheral alterations in PD, highlighting synchronized alterations in central networks and peripheral gastrointestinal rhythmicity. Full article

Background: Regional heterogeneity of the macula and peripheral retinas contributes to the differences in retinal physiology, metabolic demand and susceptibility to macular diseases such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD), diabetic macular oedema (DME) and Macular telangiectasia type 2 (MacTel). Extracellular vesicles (EVs) released from the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE)-choroid are increasingly recognised as mediators of extracellular communication and correlate with the molecular biological states of their tissue of origin. However, regional variation in EV composition in human RPE-Choroid tissues remains poorly characterised. Methods: Human macular and peripheral RPE-choroid explants from non-diseased donor eyes (n = 4) were cultured ex vivo using a transwell system. EV and EV-depleted conditioned media were collected by differential ultracentrifugation, respectively. EVs were characterised by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA). Proteomic profiling was performed using LC-MS/MS followed by multivariate, pathway, and differential expression analyses. Results: TEM and NTA confirmed the presence of vesicle-like particles in a 119–140 nm size range, indicating small EVs in both regions. Proteomic analysis demonstrated a region-associated separation between the macular and peripheral samples in both EV proteome and EV-depleted soluble secretome datasets. GO enrichment analysis revealed that macular EV proteomes were enriched for wound healing, cell–substrate adhesion, and focal adhesion-related terms with a high abundance of integrin and annexin family members, whereas peripheral EV proteomes were enriched for retinoid- and vitamin-binding terms. In the EV-depleted soluble secretome, macular-enriched proteins were associated with actin binding and extracellular matrix-related terms, while peripheral-enriched proteins were correlated with RNA localisation and nuclear compartment terms. Comparative analysis identified EV-specific, secretome-specific, and shared extracellular protein pools. Several EV-specific markers and membrane proteins such as annexins and integrins, showed a relatively high enrichment in macular EV proteomes, whereas CD63 is more abundant in peripheral EV proteomes. In contrast, EV-depleted soluble secretome contains cytokine- and ligand-associated proteins, including MIF, SPP1, and IL6, which may suggest that EVs and soluble secreted proteins represent partially distinct extracellular signalling compartments. Conclusions: Human macular and peripheral RPE-choroid explants released secretory proteins in a regional differentiated manner, supported by PLS-DA and GO enrichment analyses of both EV proteomes and EV-depleted soluble secretome. Further analysis of the EV proteomes may show that such differences were also able to be reflected in protein categories such as EV-specific markers, mitochondrial and membrane proteins. These findings provide a foundation for future investigations into the role of EV-mediated communication in macular diseases and may support the development of region-specific extracellular biomarkers and therapeutic targets. Full article

Twin green and digital transitions (TTs) are framed as mutually reinforcing pathways toward climate neutrality and economic modernisation. However, local realities in peripheral, coal regions in Southeastern Europe (SEE) indicate a more complex and contested picture. The paper traces how TTs are shaped, perceived, negotiated, and implemented in two historically lignite-dependent areas, Stara Zagora (Southeast Region, Bulgaria) and Kozani (Western Macedonia, Greece), through qualitative comparative research drawing on 24 semi-structured interviews with energy workers, institutional stakeholders, local government representatives, and industry actors, conducted between June and October 2025, triangulated with statistical, institutional, and policy documentation. The conceptualisation integrates labour regimes, Varieties of Capitalism, and Europeanisation, while the analysis examines divergent local pathways produced by common European policy architecture. The findings indicate that TTs are not experienced nor understood as unified synergistic agendas but as asymmetric and differentiated processes, with green transition dominating the discourse while digital transition remains detached from the materialised understandings of transition. Governance is perceived as centralised and distant, labour market interventions such as retraining programmes serve as fund absorption mechanisms, while renewable energy projects generate neither quality employment nor community ownership. Instead of transformative processes, TTs in both cases function as a renewed modality of deindustrialisation. The paper moves from empirical findings of local transition realities to normative arguments about the democratic governance conditions that just transition requires. Full article

Breakthrough-curve prediction is central to fixed-bed biosorption column design, but data-driven modeling remains challenging with small, unevenly distributed datasets. This study compares a feedforward multilayer perceptron (MLP) with recurrent long short-term memory (LSTM) and bidirectional LSTM (Bi-LSTM) networks for simultaneous prediction of hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] and total chromium breakthrough curves in columns packed with Quercus crassipes acorn shell. A dataset of 14 experimental curves was used, covering variations in pH, influent concentration, flow rate, bed height, and biosorbent mass. Model performance was assessed using Mahalanobis distance (D_M)-based holdout selection, curve-shape evaluation, inter-model coefficient of variation (CoV), and SHAP attribution. All architectures achieved high internal cross-validation accuracy (R² = 0.9879–0.9979; RMSE = 0.0149–0.0309). However, complete-curve holdout performance depended on the excluded condition and chromium response. Under the central holdout condition (D_M = 0.317), R² remained high for both outputs (0.954–0.990). In non-central holdouts, errors also affected curve shape, including breakthrough timing and the approach to saturation. The largest deterioration occurred for Cr(VI) under the peripheral low-flow condition, where the MLP decreased to R² = 0.325, while LSTM and Bi-LSTM retained higher agreement. SHAP attribution confirmed process-consistent effects, with influent concentration and flow rate as dominant predictors and pH contributing more strongly to Cr(VI). These findings show that recurrent architectures can provide more robust representations of complex breakthrough profiles, while CoV–D_M analysis helps identify regions where additional experiments are needed. Full article

Under tightening resource and environmental constraints, exploring the synergy between new-type urbanization and water use efficiency is key to high-quality development in Central China. Using panel data for cities in Jiangxi (11) and Hunan (13) from 2013 to 2022, this study measures the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of water-coupling coordination in the two provinces. It also incorporates feedback mechanisms from Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) theory to explain the differences in the evolutionary trajectories of the two provinces from three dimensions: signal strength, transmission efficiency, and bottleneck nodes. The results show the following: (1) The urbanization processes in these two provinces have shifted from a phase of rapid growth to one of steady optimization, and water use efficiency has improved in both. Since 2016, Jiangxi Province has experienced fluctuations, moving from a decline to a recovery, while Hunan Province has seen a steady increase; however, disparities among regions within the provinces persist. (2) The evolutionary trajectories of coupling coordination between the two provinces show marked divergence: Hunan exhibits a pattern of “core responsiveness and peripheral lag,” while Jiangxi displays a “multi-point gradual response”. (3) The barriers in the two provinces are highly similar in nature, focusing on economic scale, capital investment, and labor. Although the same constraints exist, different response pathways lead to distinct patterns—Jiangxi’s passive adaptation results in a diffuse equilibrium, while Hunan’s proactive adjustment results in a polarized gradient. These findings identify two distinct pathways for urban-water system evolution in central China’s water-rich areas, advancing theoretical understanding of system adaptation while providing targeted policy references for regional high-quality development. Full article

Background/Objectives: Accurate peripheral blood cell detection remains difficult in dense smear fields, where touching erythrocytes, small platelets, and staining variability reduce the reliability of box-based object detectors. This study aims to address these limitations by proposing BloodContourNet, a contour-informed and density-aware detection framework for red blood cell, white blood cell, and platelet localization. Method: BloodContourNet is built on YOLOv26-L and integrates three complementary modules. The Hematological Attention Module (HAM) refines high-level features using local convolution and shifted-window attention. The Density-Aware Reweighting Head (DARH) modulates the classification loss for locally sparse or difficult instances without image-level resampling. The Bézier Contour Refinement Head (BCRH) provides a weakly supervised geometric overlap cue for ambiguous dense-region post-processing. Results: Experiments on the TXL-PBC dataset, containing 1260 peripheral smear images and 18,143 annotated cells, benchmarked 25 YOLO variants and 10 Transformer-based or reference detectors under a unified split and evaluation protocol. Across five random seeds, BloodContourNet achieved 99.1% mean Average Precision (mAP) at 50% Intersection-over-Union (IoU) and 87.8% mAP@50:95, improving strict-IoU performance by 1.4 points over YOLOv26-L and 0.7 points over DINO-DETR. Both margins were statistically significant across the five seeds (paired two-sided t-tests, both p < 0.05), and the five-seed 95% confidence interval of the proposed model was [87.5, 88.0]. Conclusions: BloodContourNet primarily improved the strict-localization setting on TXL-PBC, where dense erythrocyte regions and small platelet instances remain challenging for box-based detectors. External patient- or slide-independent validation remains necessary before broader clinical claims can be made. Full article

Accurately identifying the functional characteristics of urban rail transit stations and classifying them accordingly helps uncover passenger flow patterns and optimize resource allocation, thereby enhancing the coordination efficiency of multimodal urban transportation systems. Existing studies on the delineation of station influence areas often exhibit overlapping zones, leading to insufficient characterization of regional heterogeneity. Additionally, classification methods predominantly rely on static single indicators and lack integration of multi-scale features. To address these limitations, this paper proposes a non-overlapping zoning algorithm for precisely defining station influence areas. By incorporating multidimensional indicators—including dynamic passenger flows, resident attributes, connection characteristics, and spatial distribution—a fine-grained station classification model is developed using an enhanced Partitioning Around Medoids (PAM) algorithm. Building on the classification outcomes, a dual-scenario framework (weekday vs. weekend) is established, and Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR), and Multiscale Geographically Weighted Regression (MGWR) models are applied to analyze the spatiotemporal patterns of passenger flows. A case study of Beijing rail transit stations demonstrates that the enhanced PAM algorithm significantly improves clustering performance. Four distinct station types are identified on weekdays: Peripheral Basic-Service Type, Core Commuting-Aggregation Type, Exurban Residential-Transit-Dependent Type, and Multifunctional-Complex Type. On weekends, stations are classified into three categories: Peripheral Living-Service Type, Core Leisure-Vitality Type, and Central Mixed-Use Type. Furthermore, the driving factors of passenger flows exhibit notable spatiotemporal heterogeneity: on weekdays, commuting demand dominates, with jobs–housing ratio, educational attainment ratio, and road network density serving as core positive factors; on weekends, leisure demand becomes prominent, showing strong synergistic effects among jobs–housing ratio, Points of Interest (POI) density, and road network connectivity. The research findings provide theoretical support for the functional classification and refined management of rail transit stations. Full article

The perforated backup plate of KARL KROYER MP 2C120 diaphragm pumps, used in the starch processing food industry, exhibits recurrent in-service fractures whose quantitative explanation and redesign solution have not been previously addressed in the literature. To solve this problem, an integrated analytical model is developed that combines, in a calibrable expression, small-magnitude spherical curvature, regular square-pattern perforation, and stepped peripheral clamping, calibrated against finite element numerical simulation and applied to the screening of eighteen geometrically feasible configurations. The chemical composition of the installed material was verified by portable optical emission spectrometry (PMI), identifying it as austenitic stainless steel AISI 301/1.4310 X10CrNi18-8, with nominal annealed yield strength ${\sigma }_y=195$ MPa according to EN 10088-2. The calibration quantifies an overestimation of $22.6\%$ for the simply supported edge model and an underestimation of $51.7\%$ for the clamped edge model; the dimensionless parameter ${\eta }_{\mathrm{BC}}=0.695$ describes the effective degradation of clamping due to the reduced stiffness of the perforated belt adjacent to the edge and supports the use of the simply supported model as a conservative screening bound. The currently installed configuration operates with a safety factor $F{S}_{\mathrm{op}}=0.89$ with respect to yield strength, quantitatively explaining the observed fractures. Within the standard manufacturable space, the configuration $d=5$ mm, $p=7.5$ mm ($\eta =0.333$) minimizes the maximum equivalent stress predicted by the conservative screening model; this selection corresponds to the configuration with the maximal ligament efficiency and is preserved under the single-point calibration, which acts as a single global positive scale factor. The screening is verified by a direct finite element campaign performed on the complete $d=5$ mm family (configurations 1, 2 and 3) with the experimentally verified material properties. The verification confirms the predicted ranking and the peripheral location of the critical region, but shows that the smooth cross-center field is essentially invariant across configurations ($187.3$, $195.0$ and $186.0$ MPa), so the linear-scaling estimate previously used to anchor absolute margins is not supported; the benefit of the redesign accrues at the governing hole-edge concentration, which decreases from $338.2$ to $261.5$ MPa ($22.7\%$ reduction) yet remains above the yield strength of the annealed material. Geometric modification alone is therefore insufficient, and industrial adoption requires combining configuration 3 with material substitution to a cold-worked hardened state (C700: $FS=1.91$ on the governing peak) or a duplex alloy ($FS=1.76$), together with periodic non-destructive inspection. The central contribution of this work is the parameter ${\eta }_{\mathrm{BC}}$ as a quantitative descriptor of effective clamping degradation and the proposal of an industrially feasible redesign, integrated with complementary mitigation strategies, for KARL KROYER MP 2C120 pumps and geometrically equivalent equipment. Full article

Ischemic stroke remains a leading cause of death and long-term disability worldwide. Although acute reperfusion therapies have improved outcomes in selected patients, effective strategies that directly promote neurovascular repair during the subacute and chronic phases remain limited. Vascular network remodeling in the peri-infarct region is increasingly recognized as a key process supporting tissue repair, blood–brain barrier restoration, and functional recovery after stroke. Microglia, as resident immune cells of the central nervous system, undergo dynamic morphological, metabolic, and functional changes after ischemic injury and participate in inflammation, phagocytic clearance, blood–brain barrier regulation, and tissue repair. Among repair-associated microglial states, microglia with M2d-like features have attracted increasing attention because of their potential association with immunoregulation and pro-vascular repair. However, whether repair-associated microglia with M2d-like features represent a distinct and stable microglial subtype after stroke remains unresolved. In this review, we summarize current evidence linking repair-associated microglial responses to vascular network remodeling after ischemic stroke, with particular emphasis on the conceptual value of the M2d-like state. We discuss putative mechanisms involving paracrine signaling, perivascular localization, metabolic reprogramming, and extracellular vesicle-mediated communication. We also evaluate therapeutic implications, including traditional Chinese medicine, extracellular vesicle-based strategies, and nanodelivery systems. However, current therapeutic evidence does not establish that these interventions specifically induce M2d-like microglial states. We highlight the need for rigorous validation of cellular identity, spatial localization, and functional vascular outcomes. Overall, the M2d-like framework provides a candidate perspective for understanding immune–vascular coupling after stroke, but further studies integrating single-cell omics, spatial mapping, lineage tracing, and functional vascular assessment are required to define the identity and functional contribution of repair-associated microglia with M2d-like features. Method: This article is a narrative review. The relevant literature was searched in PubMed from database inception to June 2026 using combinations of the terms “ischemic stroke,” “microglia,” “macrophage,” “vascular remodeling,” “angiogenesis,” “M2d,” “extracellular vesicles,” “traditional Chinese medicine,” and “nanomedicine.” Priority was given to original studies directly examining microglial or myeloid responses and vascular repair after ischemic stroke. Relevant review articles were included to provide conceptual background. Because direct evidence for M2d-like microglial responses after stroke remains limited, selected studies involving peripheral macrophages, tumor-associated macrophages, traditional Chinese medicine, extracellular vesicles, and nanomedicine were included as indirect or hypothesis-generating evidence. Evidence was interpreted according to the disease model, cellular source, and vascular outcomes examined, with stroke-specific microglial studies regarded as more directly relevant than evidence extrapolated from non-stroke or non-microglial models. Full article

Over the last two decades, touristification has become one of the most influential concepts for understanding the relationship between tourism and urban change. However, existing research remains strongly shaped by the experiences of large metropolitan areas and globally recognized tourist destinations, leaving intermediate urban contexts comparatively underexplored. This paper addresses this gap by examining the Atlantic Urban System of the north-western Iberian Peninsula as a framework for understanding touristification beyond dominant metropolitan paradigms. Drawing on debates on touristification, ordinary cities, intermediate urbanism, and regional development, the article argues that the polycentric structure, historical peripherality, and growing integration of this urban system create distinctive conditions shaping tourism-related urban change. Building on previous work on the Atlantic Urban Axis, the paper conceptualizes the Atlantic Urban System as a territorial configuration composed largely of interconnected intermediate cities and develops a framework for analysing touristification through five interrelated dimensions: territorial position, housing market structure, tourism development trajectories, urban governance, and urban form. Rather than proposing a new urban type, the article highlights the analytical value of examining tourism-related transformations within a specific territorial configuration and contributes to ongoing efforts to diversify the geographical foundations of urban theory. Full article