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The steady increase in the world's population combined with the globally growing need for living space by each individual is leading to an ever-faster consumption of limited resources by the construction industry, particularly sand and gravel. While a consensus exists regarding the sand and gravel resource availability on a global level for long-term supply, it is important to note that local supply shortages may still occur. Thus, this study aims to identify critical aspects of both locally and globally traded construction materials by adapting the ESSENZ method, which evaluates the criticality of globally traded abiotic resources. For the specific case of the local availability of construction materials, a new indicator is introduced: The Surface Squared Driven Indicator (SSDI), which is adapted to the specific conditions of the German market. The modified ESSENZ method is applied in a case study of materials needed for maintaining the material stock of the city of Herne, Germany. The results indicate that raw materials for concrete production in Germany, such as aggregates, are expected to be sufficient in the long term, but silica sand for glass production is only guaranteed for a few decades. Concrete poses the highest supply risk due to its high material demand, with steel and concrete dominating the environmental impacts. Limitations include data availability and the exclusion of certain materials. The adapted ESSENZ method allows for the comparison of criticality results for materials traded globally and locally, offering valuable insights for decision-makers seeking to promote sustainable construction practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Calcium is a key signaling agent in animals and plants. Its involvement in the regulation of a wide range of processes has led to the question of how calcium signals can activate stimulus-specific responses. We introduce a computational framework for studying intracellular calcium signaling using elements of information theory. We use mutual information to quantify the differential activation of proteins in response to different calcium signals to provide an operational definition of specificity. Using optimization procedures this framework allows us to explore the biochemical determinants of calcium decoding. We explore simple toy models and general binding kinetics approaches to demonstrate the utility and limitations of the proposed framework. Unravelling signaling specificity is key for understanding information processing within cells and for the future design of synthetic nanodevices for molecular communications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]