What does effective research and development look like in the creative industries and how might it lead to successful innovation? This book is an answer to that question. Building upon place-based creative industry research, the book focuses on evidence from the media sector, while encompassing a range of creative practices, from digital tourism to dance. Leveraging unique empirical data from the Welsh creative industries, the authors map a series of pathways for creative businesses. In so doing, the book offers new frameworks for assessing innovative practice and highlights options for tailored institutional funding. Channelling research insights, this shortform book helps researchers, policy-makers and reflective practitioners to understand how to deliver effective strategies for the creative sector. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license. © 2025 Ruxandra Lupu, Marlen Komorowski, Justin Lewis and Máté Miklos Fodor.

The storage of sewage sludge in landfills is still the primary method of their disposal in many countries. Therefore, finding sustainable solutions for the reuse of this waste is an important issue to be addressed. This paper presents the results of research on processing sewage sludge generated at the wastewater treatment plants of Almaty, Kazakhstan, for use in the manufacturing of ceramic bricks. The chemical composition of the sewage sludge was determined, showing the presence of 35.7% silicon dioxide, 7.3% aluminum oxide, 11.2% iron oxide, and 10.6% calcium oxide. Experimental studies established that adding sewage sludge to clay reduces the compressive strength of ceramic bricks while increasing their flexural strength. Furthermore, as the proportion of sewage sludge in the clay mixture increases, the average density of the ceramic bricks decreases, while water absorption increases. It was also found that ceramic bricks made from a mixture of 90% clay and 10% sewage sludge demonstrated the best physico-mechanical properties. This composition showed increased flexural strength and a simultaneous reduction in the average density by 15.4%, indicating the improved structural quality of the manufactured bricks. © 2025 by the authors.

This paper presents an improved Almaty Ankle Exoskeleton V.2 (AlmAnkleExo V.2) by integrating three electric actuators to enhance structural efficiency and reduce energy consumption. The work applies conceptual design, CAD modeling, and motion simulation to evaluate kinematic performance and biomechanical compatibility. Simulation results indicate that the new design effectively supports movement, improves energy efficiency, and performs suitable structural dynamics. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2025.

As part of this study, an ankle rehabilitation device was developed for patients suffering from motor disorders caused by incomplete spinal cord injury (ISCI), stroke, or cerebral palsy. First, the research models and dynamic equations of the device were considered. Secondly, the prototype ankle rehabilitation device is made of PLA plastic and uses linear actuators to simulate outward and inward flexion exercises (dorsiflexion and plantar flexion) for the patient. The advantages of the device are its simple design, low cost, and the possibility of installation on recovery equipment. The device can work quickly in experiments, in addition, the rehabilitation robot can work stably and is convenient to use for patients. © 2024 Nursultan Zhetenbayev, et al.

Cyanide-containing effluents from hydrometallurgical gold extraction pose significant environmental risks due to their high toxicity. This study investigates the detoxification of cyanide-laden tailings from the Altyntau Kokshetau gold extraction facility (Kazakhstan) using sodium percarbonate in alkaline conditions. Employing response surface methodology (RSM) and central composite design (CCD), we optimized key parameters—pH (10–12), sodium percarbonate dosage (1.5–4.0 g), reaction time (10–40 min) and temperature (20–25 °C)—achieving 83.33% detoxification efficiency within 40 min and 99.99% after 8 h, reducing cyanide from 443.2 mg/L to 0.05 mg/L. The process follows biphasic pseudo-first-order kinetics ((k1 = 0.0517) min–1 initially, (k2 = 0.01665) min–1 subsequently), driven by HO• radical-mediated oxidation of (Formula presented.) to (Formula presented.), as described by (Formula presented.)). pH emerged as the dominant factor, optimizing radical stability and (Formula presented.) protonation (pKa ≈ 9.21) at pH 10. Infrared spectroscopy confirmed the presence of cyanide complexes ((Formula presented.), (Formula presented.)) in tailings, underscoring the need for effective treatment. The method ensures compliance with stringent environmental standards (e.g., ICMI limit of 0.2 mg/L), offering a scalable, eco-efficient solution for mitigating the environmental footprint of gold mining operations. © 2025 by the authors.

Large volumes of wastes from beneficiation of manganese ores, dispersed iron and carbon-containing sludges are accumulated at large concentrating and metallurgical plants. Millions of tons of manganese wastes have been accumulated at the Dzhezdinsky mining and concentrating plant. Processing of small and dispersed metal-containing industrial wastes cannot be carried out via conventional technology. Development and implementation of the new technology for the processing of these wastes into valuable metal alloys is a very urgent problem. The highly efficient technology for the preparation and assembling of charge based on manganese wastes from beneficiation of manganese ores at the Dzhezdinsky mining and concentrating plant has been developed. The device for air-gravitation beneficiation of manganese wastes has been developed, which makes it possible to obtain a manganese-containing product with a high manganese content (up to 28 %). The method of stage-by-stage preparation of complex fine mixtures (with fraction less than 1 mm), consisting of manganese wastes, mill scale and charcoal, is shown, with substantiation for each operation with determination of the optimal parameters (temperature, consumption of components, etc.) is displayed. The composition of the final single-component charge obtained in the form of granulated pellets is given. Comprehensive analytical studies of intermediate and final products were performed using atomic emission spectrometry with inductively coupled plasma and X-ray phase analysis. It ensured step-bystep quality control of the products obtained during preparation of the single-component charge. The results of the research will be used for the preparation and efficient processing of fine manganese wastes from the Dzhezdinsky mining and concentrating plant in Kazakhstan for production of high-quality alloys that are demanded on the domestic and world markets. © N. K. DOSMUKHAMEDOV, E. E. ZHOLDASBAY, E. B. TAZHIEV, A. A. ARGYN, 2024.

The article presents the analysis of widespread spectral indexes of the results of the Earth remote sensing data thematic processing to reveal the most representative one for applying under conditions of critical increase of groundwater level and salinity as well as salinized soil. Long-term monitoring data and multispectral images of the LandSat-8 satellite were collected for the Golodnostepsky irrigation land. Sites with the most disturbing ameliorative conditions were identified using GIS. 74 sites comply with this criterion where cotton, rice, and cucurbits crops are cultivated. Seasonal multispectral data of the region covering emphasised sites and spectral indexes were processed and calculated: NDVI, SAVI, MSAVI-2, GEMI, ARVI, IPVI, MTVI, TDVI, NDWI, MNDWI, NDSI. The following results turned out to be the most informative vegetation indexes: NDVI (yearly changes variation range 0.40) and SAVI (yearly changes variation range 0.44). At the same time the least informative vegetation indexes became IPVI (yearly changes variation range 0.19) and GEMI (yearly changes variation range 0.11). It was shown that vegetation indexes data are highly correlated with the amount of precipitation, an average air temperature and crop yield. Among water indexes, NDWI (yearly changes variation range 0.32) turned out to be more preferable than MNDWI (yearly changes variation range 0.15). The information value of the index of salinity NDSI for the sample turned out to be low (yearly changes variation range 0.17), which can be explained by agricultural and ameliorative activity at the site under research (ploughing, sprouting, vegetation, saline washing, etc.) © 2023 EDP Sciences. All rights reserved.

The process of preservation of archaeological and historical-cultural heritage of the country is not only a matter of formation of the legislative framework, the work of archaeologists and restorers, but also a specific study of the geological and natural environment in which the archaeological site was formed. The article presents the data of geological and geomorphological study of rock formations with petroglyphs of the UNESCO World Heritage property Tamgaly archaeological complex. In the course of field and cameral works, carried out by order of the Scientific Restoration Laboratory “Ostrov Krym” in 2022-2023, detailed studies of I–III groups of petroglyphs were carried out, abiotic and biotic factors affecting the preservation of this unique archаeological monument were shown. © 2024, Margulan Institute of Archaeology. All rights reserved.

Pollution from industrial activities, including heavy metal contamination, poses severe environmental challenges, especially in industrialized regions. This study evaluates reclamation efforts at the Kokzhon phosphorite deposit in Kazakhstan’s semi-desert zone, where over 67 million tons of industrial waste have accumulated across 3.3 thousand hectares. Reclamation efforts encompassed the treatment of 6,400 hectares using carbamide amendments and the planting of resilient phytomeliorants, including Russian Olive, Black Saxaul, Androsov Elm, and Salt Cedar. While tree survival rates were low (11%), herbaceous vegetation achieved remarkable success, with legumes and cereals attaining 95% growth rates. Herbaceous productivity increased from 2,200 kg/ ha in 2013 to 3,300 kg/ha in 2018, alongside vegetation cover expanding from 60% to 80%. Soil fertility also improved significantly, with humus content rising from 0.18% in 2012 to 1.14% in 2023. Despite these improvements, the long-term impacts of industrial phosphorite mining continue to challenge ecosystem recovery. Over a 12-year period, reductions in humus content (47.6%) and herbaceous productivity (28.4%) have been observed, highlighting the need for enhanced soil management strategies to sustain reclamation outcomes. The results emphasize the potential of biological reclamation to restore degraded semi-desert ecosystems while underscoring the necessity of scalable, cost-effective solutions and long-term monitoring to mitigate ongoing environmental damage. © 2025 Konysbayeva et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

To date, there is a problem in the high cost of maintenance costs for wind turbines, this is due to the remote location of wind turbines from civilization, as well as the high location of the turbines above the ground [1]. This article presents one of the methods to reduce the cost of scheduled maintenance by developing a system for remote monitoring of the state of the main components of the wind turbine. The Internet of Things technology allows for constant monitoring of the technical condition of wind turbines in real time. Such a system will allow timely detection of deterioration of wind turbine components and inform the operator, located anywhere in the world, provided he has an Internet connection, of the need to replace or repair a certain component of the wind turbine. This will reduce the downtime of wind turbines, increasing their productivity, and will also reduce the number of visits to the location of wind turbines in order to carry out diagnostic work. © 2022, Editura Universitatii din Oradea. All rights reserved.