"Imperialism issue revived", THE ARIZONA DAILY STAR, Washington, D.C., USA. July 9th, 1929. Statements made by Senator Harrison in the state of Mississippi, regarding the protests of various countries due to the new tariff provisions of the North American government. The Senator affirms that said measures are a product of a new form of imperialism. / "Imperialism issue revived", THE ARIZONA DAILY STAR, Washington, D.C., E.U.A. Julio 9, 1929. Declaraciones del Senador Harrison del estado de Mississippi, con respecto a las protestas de varios países por las nuevas disposiciones arancelarias del gobierno norteamericano. El Senador asevera que dichas medidas son producto de una nueva forma de imperialismo.
The Meuse is an international river that has been used by man for centuries and it is still the main source of drinking water for large cities in Belgium and the Netherlands. In fact, water quantity and quality have been a major issue between the various riparian countries and political regions. Many kinds of data have been generated in the past decades on various aspects of the river: (a) hydrology for the need of predicting and controlling floods; (b) water chemistry in the context of water pollution assessment and control; and (c) biology and ecology for water quality assessment and studies on aquatic biodiversity community dynamics and ecosystem function. ; Peer reviewed
A study of the electronic conduction mechanisms and electrically active defects in polycrystalline Sb2Se3 is presented. It is shown that for temperatures above 200 K, the electrical transport is dominated by thermal emission of free holes, ionized from shallow acceptors, over the intergrain potential barriers. In this temperature range, the temperature dependence of the mobility of holes, limited by the intergrain potential barriers, is the main contributor to the observed thermal activation energy of the conductivity of 485 meV. However, at lower temperatures, nearest-neighbor and Mott variable range hopping transport in the bulk of the grains turn into the dominant conduction mechanisms. Important parameters of the electronic structure of the Sb2Se3 thin film such as the average intergrain potential barrier height ϕ = 391 meV, the intergrain trap density Nt = 3.4 × 1011 cm−2, the shallow acceptor ionization energy EA0 = 124 meV, the acceptor density NA = 1 × 1017 cm−3, the net donor density ND = 8.3 × 1016 cm−3, and the compensation ratio k = 0, 79 were determined from the analysis of these measurements. ; P. M. P. Salomé acknowledges the funding of Fundação para Ciencêa e Tecnologia (FCT) through the project IF/00133/ ̂2015. This research is supported by the Development of novel ultrathin solar cell architectures for low-light, low-cost, and flexible optoelectronic devices project (028075) co-funded by FCT and ERDF through COMPETE2020. B. Vermang has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement no. 715027). A. Shongalova acknowledges the funding of Erasmus + program 2016/17. This work was funded by FEDER funds through the COMPETE 2020 Programme and by FCTPortuguese Foundation for Science and Technology under the projects UID/CTM/50025/2013. The financial support from Brazilian funding agencies CNPq, CAPES, and FAPEMIG is also acknowledged. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
This research was funded by the ERDF project "Smart Metal Oxide Nanocoatings and HIPIMS Technology", project number: 1.1.1.1/18/A/073. Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia as the Center of Excellence has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Framework Programme H2020-WIDESPREAD-01-2016-2017-TeamingPhase2 under grant agreement No. 739508, project CAMART². ; Layered 2D van der Waals (vdW) materials such as graphene and transition metal dichalcogenides have recently gained a great deal of scientific attention due to their unique properties and prospective applications in various fields such as electronics and optoelectronics, sensors and energy. As a direct bandgap semiconductor in both bulk and monolayer forms, ReS2 stands out for its unique distorted octahedral structure that results in distinctive anisotropic physical properties; however, only a few scalable synthesis methods for few-layer ReS2 have been proposed thus far. Here, the growth of high-quality few-layer ReS2 is demonstrated via sulfurization of a pre-deposited rhenium oxide coating on different semiconductor material nanowires (GaN, ZnS, ZnO). As-produced core-shell heterostructures were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning and transmission electron microscopy, micro-Raman spectroscopy and X-ray absorption spectroscopy. Experimental characterizations were supported by total energy calculations of the electronic structure of ReS2 nanosheets and GaN, ZnS, and ZnO substrates. Our results demonstrate the potential of using nanowires as a template for the growth of layered vdW materials to create novel core-shell heterostructures for energy applications involving photocatalytic and electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution. ; ERDF project number: 1.1.1.1/18/A/073. Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia as the Center of Excellence has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Framework Programme H2020-WIDESPREAD-01-2016-2017-TeamingPhase2 under grant agreement No. 739508, project CAMART².
This work has been carried out within the framework of the EUROfusion Consortium and has received funding from the Euratom research and training programme 2014-2018 and 2019-2020 under grant agreement No 633053. The views and opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the European Commission. In addition, the research leading to these results has received funding from the Estonian Research Council grant (PUT PRG619). ; The precise study of the thermal annealing of the F2-type dimer defects, being under discussion in the literature for a long time and responsible for the number of absorption bands below 4.5 eV, has been performed in corundum single crystals irradiated by fast neutrons with a fluence of 6.9 × 1018 n/cm2. The Gaussian components of the radiation-induced optical absorption with the maxima at 4.08, 3.45 and 2.75 eV have been considered as a measure of the F2, F2+and F22+centers, respectively. In contrast to the Fand F+ centers, the concentration of which continuously decreases at the sample heating up to 1100 K, the concentration of dimer defects with different charge states passes the increasing stages above 500 K starting from the F22+centers. The tentative mechanisms of such rise of the F22+centers as well as of the subsequent transformation/rise of dimer centers, F22+→F2+→F2at 650-800 K are considered. The possible sources of carriers needed for the recharging of dimer centers are also analysed on the basis of thermally stimulated luminescence measurements up to ~850 K. ; EUROfusion Consortium, Euratom research and training programme 2014-2018 and 2019-2020, grant agreement No 633053; Estonian Research Council grant (PUT PRG619); Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia as the Center of Excellence has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Framework Programme H2020-WIDESPREAD-01-2016-2017-TeamingPhase2 under grant agreement No. 739508, project CAMART²
Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are ubiquitous in the environment and involve diverse chemical-receptor interactions that can perturb hormone signaling. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development has validated several EDC-receptor bioassays to detect endocrine active chemicals and has established guidelines for regulatory testing of EDCs. Focus on testing over the past decade has been initially directed to EATS modalities (estrogen, androgen, thyroid, and steroidogenesis) and validated tests for chemicals that exert effects through non-EATS modalities are less established. Due to recognition that EDCs are vast in their mechanisms of action, novel bioassays are needed to capture the full scope of activity. Here, we highlight the need for validated assays that detect non-EATS modalities and discuss major international efforts underway to develop such tools for regulatory purposes, focusing on non-EATS modalities of high concern (i.e., retinoic acid, aryl hydrocarbon receptor, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor, and glucocorticoid signaling). Two case studies are presented with strong evidence amongst animals and human studies for non-EATS disruption and associations with wildlife and human disease. This includes metabolic syndrome and insulin signaling (case study 1) and chemicals that impact the cardiovascular system (case study 2). This is relevant as obesity and cardiovascular disease represent two of the most significant health-related crises of our time. Lastly, emerging topics related to EDCs are discussed, including recognition of crosstalk between the EATS and non-EATS axis, complex mixtures containing a variety of EDCs, adverse outcome pathways for chemicals acting through non-EATS mechanisms, and novel models for testing chemicals. Recommendations and considerations for evaluating non-EATS modalities are proposed. Moving forward, improved understanding of the non-EATS modalities will lead to integrated testing strategies that can be used in regulatory bodies to protect environmental, animal, and human health from harmful environmental chemicals. ; LNM was supported by a H2020-Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action MSCA-IF-RI- 2017 awarded by the European Commission (ref. 797725-EpiSTOX). JK was funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement GOLIATH No. 825489. AS and LEC were supported by a Grant-in-Aid from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada. ; Peer reviewed
We present a mathematical model to study the steady-state performance of a membrane-less reversible redox flow battery formed by two immiscible electrolytes that spontaneously form a liquid-liquid system separated by a well defined interface. The model assumes a two-dimensional battery with two coflowing electrolytes and flat electrodes at the channel walls. In this configuration, the analysis of the far downstream solution indicates that the interface remains stable in all the parameter range covered by this study. To simplify the description of the problem, we use the dilute solution theory to decouple the calculation of the velocity and species concentration fields. Once the velocity field is known, we obtain the distribution of the mobile ionic species along with the current and the electric potential field of the flowing electrolyte solution. The numerical integration of the problem provides the variation of the battery current density Iapp with the State of Charge (SoC) for different applied cell voltages Vcell. A detailed analysis of the concentration density plots indicates that the normal operation of the battery is interrupted when reactant depletion is achieved near the negative electrode both during charge and discharge. The effect of the electrolyte flow on the performance of the system is studied by varying the Reynolds, Re and Péclet, Pe, numbers. As expected, the flow velocity only affects the polarization curve in the concentration polarization region, when is well below the equilibrium potential, resulting in limiting current densities that grow with Re. ; This work has been partially funded by the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación under projects (PID2019-106740RB- I00 and PID2019-108592RB-C41/AEI/10.13039/50110 0 011033), by Grant IND2019/AMB-17273 of the Comunidad de Madrid and by project MFreeB which have received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (Grant Agreement No. 726217). D. Ruiz-Martín acknowledges the support of an FPI predoctoral fellowship (BES-2016-078629) under project ENE2015-68703-C2-1-R (MINECO/FEDER, UE) and the insigh- ful conversations with professor Mark Blyth during her research visit at the University of East Anglia (UK).
Inclui correções e alterações sugeridas pelo Júri. ; The COVID-19 pandemic is the disaster of the 21st century, the disease that shook the world and change life of entire populations. Its tremendous negative impact on economy caused permanent changes in organizational functioning, triggering companies to create crisis management strategies and adopt new innovative practices. The agro-sector was not an exemption. Considering that this sector manifests constant growth related to not only the increase of human population, but also to continuous life-style changes, it is crucial to develop recovery strategies on organizational and governmental levels. Therefore this study provides the general overview of crisis management concept with its main characteristics and frameworks; analyses the importance of innovation in agro-sector; offers agro-sector overview; examines the pandemic's impact on this particular sector and some of the recovery strategies; and explores the attitudes of agro-sector professionals towards COVID-19 crisis in two countries – Portugal and Russia. This research intends to discover differences and similarities in crisis management solutions between agro business professionals in both countries, as well as possible approaches to crisis outcome minimization. ; A pandemia COVID-19 é a tragédia do século XXI, a doença que abalou o mundo e mudou a vida de populações inteiras. O seu forte impacto negativo na economia provocou mudanças permanentes no funcionamento organizacional, levando as empresas a criar estratégias de gestão de crise e a adotar as novas práticas inovadoras. O setor agrícola não foi a exceção. Visto que este sector demonstra um crescimento constante relacionado não apenas com o aumento da população a nível mundial, mas também com as mudanças contínuas no seu estilo de vida, um desenvolvimento de estratégias de recuperação a nível organizacional e governamental torna-se imperativo. Deste modo, este estudo oferece um panorama geral do conceito de gestão de crise com as suas principais características e estruturas; analisa a importância da inovação no setor agrícola; oferece uma visão geral do setor; apresenta o impacto da pandemia neste sector e algumas das estratégias de recuperação; por fim, explora as atitudes dos profissionais do setor agrícola em relação à crise da COVID-19 em dois países – em Portugal e na Rússia. Esta investigação pretende descobrir as diferenças e semelhanças nas soluções de gestão de crise entre os profissionais de agro-negócios de ambos os países, bem como os possíveis abordagens relativamente à minimização dos impactos da crise.
Defence date: 26 January 2021 ; Examining board: Professor Regina Grafe (European University Institute); Professor Luca Molà (University of Warwick); Professor Carmen Sanz Ayán (Universidad Complutense de Madrid); Professor Manuel Herrero Sánchez (Universidad Pablo de Olavide) ; This doctoral thesis analyses the process of state construction in the early modern period from a joint perspective that amalgamates the agencies of state officials, lending communities, and local elites in the Hispanic Monarchy during the four initial years of Philip II's reign. The project examines the convergence of private agendas inside and outside the royal administration, which were channelled by the Genoese lending community to overcome the consolidation of royal short-term debt in 1557 and its consequences. The application of an institutional approach, based on the works of Avner Greif, to the analysis of the social organisations that prevented a failure of coordination in the Hispanic Monarchy offers a fresh perspective on a topic normally assessed under predatory models. The specific study of two Genoese lenders who contributed to the establishment of a more viable and efficient financial system in the monarchy, Costantin Gentil and Nicolao de Grimaldo, provides details about how interregional transactions and local economies contributed to the consolidation of the early modern state.
What factors might explain the cross-country variations in COVID-19 public performances and what lessons can be drawn to be better-prepared for future pandemics? This study focuses on the effects of policy stringency on COVID-19 public health outcomes to gain insights into national-level state responses to COVID-19 and the conditions for their effectiveness. Using data from 136 countries comprising 91.4% of the global population, we find that more stringent policies lead to lower infection and death rates. More importantly, the negative effects of restrictive policies on infection and death rates are moderated by political trust and democracy levels, possibly through the mechanism of popular compliance with government policies. Under conditions of higher political trust and lower democracy levels, the policy effects on infection and death rates are greater. However, while the results suggest the importance of policy stringency and political trust, we should not draw the conclusion that authoritarian political systems are more conducive to policy effectiveness. When comparing the moderating effects of political trust and democracy, political trust is more important as a facilitating factor. Therefore, in addition to making scientifically-supported policies, fostering political trust should be an important goal for governments to be better prepared for future pandemics.
The incorporation of nanostructures in optoelectronic devices for enhancing their optical performance is widely studied. However, several problems related to the processing complexity and the low performance of the nanostructures have hindered such actions in real-life devices. Herein, a novel way of introducing gold nanoparticles in a solar cell structure is proposed in which the nanostructures are encapsulated with a dielectric layer, shielding them from high temperatures and harsh growth processing conditions of the remaining device. Through optical simulations, an enhancement of the effective optical path length of approximately four times the nominal thickness of the absorber layer is verified with the new architecture. Furthermore, the proposed concept in a Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cell device is demonstrated, where the short-circuit current density is increased by 17.4%. The novel structure presented in this work is achieved by combining a bottom-up chemical approach of depositing the nanostructures with a top-down photolithographic process, which allows for an electrical contact. ; This work was funded in part by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) under Grants IF/00133/2015, PD/BD/142780/2018 and SFRH/BD/ 146776/2019. The authors also want to acknowledge the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme through the ARCIGS-M project under Grant 720887, the Special Research Fund (BOF) of Hasselt University, the FCT through the project NovaCell (PTDC/CTM-CTM/28075/ 2017), and InovSolarCells (PTDC/FISMAC/29696/2017) co-funded by FCT and the ERDF through COMPETE2020. The authors also want to acknowledge Sandra Maya for the production of images used in this work. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
When a dam is built, its safety becomes a constant concern for the owner, the public and for governments. Therefore, continuous observation through routine inspections and safety reviews become necessary. Acting as protectors of public safety, governments and professional organizations save no effort in the promulgation of legislations and laying out guidelines for such inspections and reviews. These issues are discussed here starting with the basic first step of visual inspections by the operators and the follow up of detailed safety reviews by specialists. Careful visual inspections assisted by instrumentation measurements may reveal an early negative issue such as, but not limited to, increased seepage, increased uplift pressure, signs of weakness like cracking in the body of the dam, or dams' slope sloughing, and even damaged hydraulic control equipment. Documenting and reporting these observation helps in taking remedial measures in good time and may lead to more intensive safety reviews. Suggested check lists for the inspection engineers are given here, but these may be tailored for each dam according to its needs. These lists cover issues common to both embankment and concrete dams, and include other specific issues related to each type of them. Metal equipment take their share by listing such areas as corrosion, fatigue and cracking, tear, and wear and so on. Instrumentation measurements are also given their due consideration by giving brief mention of types of measurements needed and points to be observed in instrumentation control work. Finally, guidelines, rules, and legislations for Dam Safety Reviews are generally discussed giving examples from four countries in the world. ; Validerad;2020;Nivå 1;2020-09-29 (johcin)
This book looks at the interplay between criminal law and other branches of public law pursuing similar objectives (referred to as 'quasi-criminal law'). The need for clarifying the concepts and the interlink between criminal and quasi-criminal enforcement is a topic attracting a lot of discussion and debate in both academia and practice across Europe (and beyond). This volume adds to this debate by bringing to light the substantive and procedural problems stemming from the current parallel or dual use of the different enforcement systems. The collection draws on expertise from academia, practice and policy; its high-quality analysis will appeal to scholars, practitioners and policymakers alike.
Circular polarized (CP) antennas are well suited for long-distance transmission attainment. In order to be adaptable for beyond 5G communication, a detailed and systematic investigation of their important conventional features is required for expected enhancements. The existing designs employing millimeter wave, microwave, and ultra-wideband (UWB) frequencies form the elementary platform for future studies. The 3.4–3.8 GHz frequency band has been identified as a worthy candidate for 5G communications because of spectrum availability. This band comes under UWB frequencies (3.1–10.6 GHz). In this survey, a review of CP antennas in the selected areas to improve the understanding of early-stage researchers specially experienced antenna designers has presented for the first time as best of our knowledge. Design implementations involving size, axial ratio, efficiency, and gain improvements are covered in detail. Besides that, various design approaches to realize CP antennas including (a) printed CP antennas based on parasitic or slotted elements, (b) dielectric resonator CP antennas, (c) reconfigurable CP antennas, (d) substrate integrated waveguide CP antennas, (e) fractal CP antennas, (f) hybrid techniques CP antennas, and (g) 3D printing CP antennas with single and multiple feeding structures have investigated and analyzed. The aim of this work is to provide necessary guidance for the selection of CP antenna geometries in terms of the required dimensions, available bandwidth, gain, and useful materials for the integration and realization in future communication systems. ; This project has received funding from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Grant 801538. Also, this work was partially supported by RTI2018-095499-B-C31, Funded by Ministerio de Ciencia,Innovación y Universidades, Gobierno de España (MCIU/AEI/FEDER,UE).
Cell membranes are integral to the functioning of the cell and are therefore key to drive fundamental understanding of biological processes for downstream applications. Here, we review the current state-of-the-art with respect to biomembrane systems and electronic substrates, with a view of how the field has evolved towards creating biomimetic conditions and improving detection sensitivity. Of particular interest are conducting polymers, a class of electroactive polymers, which have the potential to create the next step-change for bioelectronics devices. Lastly, we discuss the impact these types of devices could have for biomedical applications. ; S.D. and R.O., acknowledge funding for this project, sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Army Research Office and accomplished under Cooperative Agreement Number W911NF-18-2-0152. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of DARPA or the Army Research Office or the U.S. Government. The U.S. Government is authorized to reproduce and distribute reprints for Government purposes notwithstanding any copyright notation herein. A.K.J acknowledges funding from the Cambridge Trust, the EPSRC grant EP/L015978/1 for the Centre for Doctoral Training for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (NanoDTC) and the Centre for Misfolding Diseases. A.M.P. acknowledges funding from the Oppenheimer Junior Research Fellowship and the Maudslay-Butler Research Fellowship at Pembroke College, Cambridge. Z.A.M. was supported by T32GM008500 from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences or the National Institutes of Health. W.C.T. acknowledges funding from the Cambridge Commonwealth, European & International Trust at Cambridge University. T.P.J.K.
