Resource
2026 EN
Frede Blaabjerg · Kaichen Zhang · Yubo Song
+7 more
Power Electronics is a key technology for the global electrification including sustainable energy production, enabling large energy savings and electrification of the transport sector. In this context, reliability is key to achieve lower cost, lower material consumption and high confidence of a product – and recently artificial intelligence (AI) is emerging as a key discipline to further shape the next generation of power electronics technology. At the same time the power electronic systems are growing in complexity including both hardware and software, thereby reliability considerations in design, testing, and operation are important. Further, AI offers new opportunities for condition monitoring, better lifetime prediction, and more robust decision-making. This paper provides a roadmap for advancing reliability engineering and AI applications in power electronic systems by reviewing recent advances and trends covering system-level reliability practices, multiple related standards, critical components (both active and passive), mission-profile-based analysis and testing approaches, as well as uncertainty-aware reliability analysis. It further discusses how AI-based methods can enhance reliability prediction by doing predictive maintenance and optimized design. Finally, the paper outlines future challenges and opportunities, like how to deal with new power devices including their packaging, hybrid testing concepts, applying virtual sensors and digital twins using AI, analyzing complicated systems and also how to integrate circular economy into the design of power electronics technology.
Resource
2026 EN
Cade Boggan · Matthew Clarke
Electrification is a key step toward reducing aviation anthropogenic emissions; however, significant uncertainties regarding the long-term degradation behavior of electrochemical energy storage systems in electric aircraft applications still remain. Conventional degradation testing often relies on static load profiles that fail to capture the relationship between cell aging and time-varying power demands. To address this gap, this study investigates cycle-progressive load profiles in which system power demand is incrementally increased to reflect the escalating electrical requirements imposed by aging batteries on active thermal management systems. Molicel P30B lithium-ion cells are subjected to mission-representative electrical load profiles generated using the RCAIDE computational framework for an electric conventional takeoff and landing and an electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft. Experimental results show that cycle-progressive profiles accelerate capacity fade relative to static profiles, exhibiting up to 22.1% greater state-of-health degradation and distinct shifts in incremental capacity signatures. These findings reveal the need for testing protocols that incorporate realistic coupled aging-power-demand interactions, thereby enabling a more accurate performance assessment of battery systems for electric aircraft applications.
Resource
2026 EN
Cuong Le · Symeon Chatzinotas · Thang X. Vu
This paper addresses the joint optimization of trajectories and bandwidth allocation for multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to enhance energy efficiency in the cooperative data collection problem. We focus on an important yet underestimated aspect of the system, where action synchronization across all UAVs is impossible. Since most existing learning-based solutions are not designed to learn in this asynchronous environment, we formulate the trajectory planning problem as a Decentralized Partially Observable Semi-Markov Decision Process and introduce an asynchronous multi-agent learning algorithm to learn UAVs’ cooperative policies. Once the UAVs’ trajectory policies are learned, the bandwidth allocation can be optimally solved based on local observations at each collection point. Comprehensive empirical results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method over other learning-based and heuristic baselines in terms of both energy efficiency and mission completion time. Additionally, the learned policies exhibit robustness under varying environmental conditions.
Journals
2026 EN
Kardoyo Hadi · Salomo Roy Valiant · Atmoko Andreo Wahyudi
+1 more
Abstract This article analyses the trajectory and reform model in the integration of all Indonesian government R&D institutions into a single agency, the National Research and Innovation Agency of the Republic of Indonesia (BRIN). Based on the two ideal types of Weberian–entrepreneurial bureaucracy models, the BRIN case shows a ‘maintain’ trajectory in the aspects of formal structure and Weberian organisational model and a ‘modernise’ trajectory in the aspects of administrative procedures and processes. This hybrid approach fits the Neo‐Weberian State (NWS) model. However, merging all research organisations into a single agency contradicts current literature on innovation in bureaucracies, which defines NWS as a configuration of multiple organisations fostering agile stability. By integrating five types of innovation in bureaucracy, the reform reverts to a stability‐focused Weber I model. Efforts to create an agile bureaucracy are confined to internal procedures and services. To align with the NWS definition in the literature, BRIN's public managers play a key role as public value carriers, devising strategies for thematic‐led missions and building charismatic networks to promote the agencification of other innovation bureaucracies. This aims to fulfil BRIN's mission as an enabler of Indonesia's research and innovation ecosystem. Points for practitioners The Neo Weberian State (NWS) is a post‐New Public Management (NPM) reform model, evolving from the Weberian bureaucratic model and the entrepreneurial bureaucracy model. Public sector management reforms adhere to two ideal bureaucratic types, focusing on formal structures, civil service organisation, and internal procedures and processes. Reform trajectories can hybridise due to ideological influences, politico‐administrative systems, and practical contingencies, influencing the choice of mechanisms tailored to specific conditions. In the science, technology, and innovation sectors, NWS is perceived as a configuration of multiple organisations with differing bureaucratic characteristics (creators, doers, funders, facilitators, and regulators), aiming for agile stability. The integration of all Indonesian government research and development agencies into a single entity highlights the dominant role of public sector reformers or managers as public value carriers in the NWS reform model. Policy innovations in internal procedures and functions serve as breakthroughs used by public managers to address structural rigidity in the reform agenda. The integration of five types of bureaucratic innovation in the merger of all Indonesian government research agencies into a single entity connotes the need for BRIN public managers to adopt a ‘Moore’ style, employing more thematic‐led missions that foster broader growth and development of innovative bureaucratic agencies. This approach builds charismatic networks with other innovation ecosystem elements to fulfil BRIN's mission as an enabler of Indonesia's research and innovation ecosystem.
Journals
2026 EN
Varela Reynold P.
Abstract This study used descriptive phenomenology to describe the lived experiences of teachers managing children with special needs. It engaged the participation of nine special education teachers (SETs) from a public special education school in Manila, Philippines, Eight themes emerged from the narratives: (1) Challenging/frustrating experiences of the SET, (2) Thriving under the most challenging conditions in SPED teaching, (3) Reflective and adaptive teaching practices that foster thriving, (4) Empowering students as a source of teacher self‐efficacy and thriving, (5) Peer and administrative support that fosters thriving, (6) Thriving becomes a pathway to fulfilment, (7) Enacting a sense of mission and calling, and (8) Expressed needs for continuous thriving. The themes reflect the process of healthy adaptation to challenging conditions, growth, fulfilment, and sense of calling. Thriving experiences are a blend of vitality (affective) and learning (cognitive) from both positive and negative experiences. Thriving consists of positive outcomes resulting from work activities, as well as the reinterpretation of negative experiences as transformative and meaningful enabling them to commit to staying as special education teachers.
Journals
2026 EN
Helgason Kristinn Sv.
ABSTRACT The United Nations is facing an uncertain future. The United States, the largest financial contributor to the UN since its inception in 1945, has regularly called for greater efficiency in the work of the Organization. However, these demands have invariably faced strong opposition from the many developing and other states that contribute little financial resources to the Organization. Over time, this political impasse has helped to legitimize suboptimal efficiency as the opportunity cost of doing business in the UN system. Yet, recent changes in the domestic political landscape in many advanced economies have rendered this longstanding compromise no longer feasible. This paper argues that short‐term efforts to reduce costs are not likely to have a sustainable impact, as the large number of states that contribute little financial resources to the UN system will soon have renewed incentives to call for increased budgets rather than to institutionalize cost‐effectiveness measures. Instead, states would be well‐advised to focus on rule changes in areas such as governance and coordination structures and the selection of senior leaders and staff, as well as to articulate a new mission for the Organization.
Journals
2026 EN
Fuentealba Matías · Kim JangKeun · Hirschberg Jeremy Wain
+4 more
ABSTRACT Spaceflight exposes astronauts to a combination of environmental stressors such as microgravity, ionizing radiation, circadian disruption, and social isolation that induce phenotypes of aging. However, whether these exposures accelerate biological aging remains unclear. In this exploratory study, we assessed 32 DNA methylation‐based biological age metrics in 4 astronauts during the Axiom‐2 mission at pre‐flight, in‐flight (day 4 and 7), and post‐flight (return days 1 and 7). On average, Epigenetic Age Acceleration increased 1.91 years by flight day 7. Upon return to Earth, biological age decreased in all crew members, with older astronauts returning to pre‐flight estimates and younger astronauts showing a biological age significantly lower than pre‐flight levels. We found that shifts in immune cell composition, specifically regulatory and naïve CD4 T‐cells, accounted for a significant portion of the observed age acceleration in several clock models. However, even after adjusting for cell composition, chronological age and mortality‐based predictors showed acceleration during spaceflight. These findings suggest that spaceflight induces rapid, yet reversible, epigenetic changes associated with aging, positioning spaceflight as a platform to study human aging mechanisms and test geroprotective interventions.
Journals
2026 EN
Daniels Vernie R. · Williams Edward S.
Medications have been a part of space travel dating back to the Apollo missions. Currently, medical kits aboard the International Space Station (ISS) contain medications and supplies to treat a variety of possible medical events. As we prepare for more distant exploration missions to Mars and beyond, risk management planning for astronaut healthcare should include the assembly of a medication formulary that is comprehensive enough to prevent or treat anticipated medical events, remains safe and chemically stable, and retains sufficient potency to last for the duration of the mission. Emerging innovation and technologies in pharmaceutical development, delivery, quality maintenance, and validation offer promise for addressing these challenges. The present editorial will summarize the current state of knowledge regarding innovative formulary optimization strategies, pharmaceutical stability assessment techniques, and storage and packaging solutions that could enhance drug safety and efficacy for future exploration spaceflight missions.
Journals
2026 EN
Birnbacher Dieter · Schaber Peter
ABSTRACT During the last years, more and more countries have introduced a practice of assisted dying in their medical system and regulated it by separate laws or by additions to the existing body of criminal law. In this respect, the two neighboring countries, Germany and Switzerland, are exceptional cases. In both countries, there exists a long‐standing and largely uncontested legal prohibition of euthanasia, but only minimal state regulation concerning assisted suicide. Right‐to‐die organizations face the challenge of filling the gap by defining their own rules. In this, the largest right‐to‐die organizations in both countries are advised by individual ethicists or ethics committees, with the mission to uphold ethical standards. The paper compares the role of ethical counseling in these organizations (in which the authors are the heads of the respective ethics committees) and describes the scope of their counseling work and the extent of their responsibility for maintaining an ethically defensible practice.
Journals
2026 EN
Giangreco Melanie A. · Ennes Megan · Riotto Elizabeth
+1 more
ABSTRACT This exploratory study examined a natural science museum's collections researchers' motivations for and barriers to offering behind‐the‐scenes tours. While existing literature has described scientists' views on public outreach and engagement, less is known about this particular setting and how bringing the public into what is normally a private workspace may differ both in terms of logistics and scientists' perceptions. Through survey ( n = 44) and interview ( n = 19) data, there was overwhelming evidence that researchers believed behind‐the‐scenes tours of their collections to be valuable to the public and to furthering the museum's mission. Their primary motivation for wanting to engage the public stemmed from a desire to contribute to society. Researchers also identified several barriers to leading tours in their collections including time constraints, safety or security concerns, accessibility, and ethical considerations. However, they also provided several suggestions for how to overcome these obstacles as the value of offering tours was seen as outweighing the barriers.