Effect of Irradiation with Low-Energy He2+ Ions on Degradation of Structural, Strength and Heat-Conducting Properties of BeO Ceramics

The paper is devoted to the study of radiation-induced damage kinetics in beryllium oxide ceramics under irradiation with low-energy helium ions with fluences of 1015–1018 ion/cm2. It was revealed that at irradiation fluences above 1017 ion/cm2, a decrease in radiation-induced damage formation and accumulation rate is observed, which indicates the saturation effect. At the same time, the main mechanisms of structural changes caused by irradiation at these fluences are amorphization processes and dislocation density increase, while at fluences of 1015–1016 ion/cm2, the main mechanisms of structural changes are due to the reorientation of crystallites and a change in texture, with a small contribution of crystal lattice distorting factors. It was discovered that the radiation-induced damage accumulation as well as an implanted helium concentration increase leads to the surface layer destruction, which is expressed in the ceramic surface hardness and wear resistance deterioration. It was determined that with irradiation fluences of 1015–1016 ion/cm2, the decrease in thermal conductivity is minimal and is within the measurement error, while an increase in the irradiation fluence above 1017 ion/cm2 leads to an increase in heat losses by more than 10%.

Experience in Supporting Industry Development in Japan and Lessons for Viet Nam

Japan is the world's 3rd largest economy with a nominal GDP of USD 5380 billion. Japan's economy has a rapid industrial development process after its defeat in World War II. Vietnam's economy in 2020 will achieve GDP growth of 2.9%, nominal GDP of 300 billion dollars, per capita income reached $2786, if calculated according to purchasing power parity (PPP), the average income of Vietnamese people is about $ 8,500. In 2020, Vietnam has a trade surplus of 19.1 billion USD (an important contribution to this result is the total two-way turnover of 39.6 billion USD, a trade deficit of 1.1 billion USD from Japan. No small contribution to the economic success of Vietnam as a strategic partner of Japan - the third largest economy in the world. Japan is the first country in the G7 group to recognize Vietnam as a market economy and partner, the largest ODA sponsor for Vietnam, the number 1 investor in Vietnam and the 3rd largest trading partner of Vietnam. This paper also refers the lessons learned for Vietnam.

"Idem aliter", czyli o dwóch opisach dyplomatycznej podróży do Persji w poezji późnego antyku (Claud. Cons. Stil.. I 51–68; Sid. Carm. II 75–88)

Two Latin poets of late antiquity, Claudian and Sidonius Apollinaris, included in their verse panegyrics short descriptions of diplomatic journey to Persia. The first mentioned the mission of Stilicho himself in “Panegyric on the consulate of Stilicho” (400 AD), whereas the latter described the mission of Procopius, father of the honorand in the “Panegyric on the consulate of Anthemius” (468 AD). Since Sidonius was in many ways imitator of Claudian, these pieces show a great deal of similarity both in content and form (especially in wording). However, closer scrutiny enables us to discover some differences in the treatment of Oriental topics as well as in general attitude to the praised heroes. Such an analysis allows us an insight into the image of Iranian world created in the Roman poetry as well as the question of sources used by late Latin poets. This paper can be also treated as a small contribution to the discussion on Sidonius’ imitation of Claudian poetry.

Factors affecting deviant behavior of adolescents in Vietnam

In Vietnam, deviant behavior in adolescents is increasingly popular and gradually becomes a major concern of the whole society. The purpose of this study is to identify Factors affecting deviant behavior of Vietnamese adolescents, including: Nature of adolescence (Biology, Intelligence and Cognitive functions) and Nurture (Family atmosphere, Education environment, Media and technology, Peer Pressure, and Religion and Politics). 426 survey samples were collected to serve the data analysis process as well as all hypotheses were examined by using STATISTIC 10 ver., LISREL 8.8 with Covariance Matrix, and LISREL model. This research showed that The Factors of Nature of adolescence, Family atmosphere, Education environment, Social media and technology and Peer pressure could have important effect on behavior of adolescents in Vietnam, even resulted in some deviant behavior. The study makes suggestions to improve morality and foster personality for adolescents in Vietnam, as a small contribution to the country's further development.

The potential contribution of projected ASEAN Power Grid to emission reduction

This paper analyzed the potential contribution of the projected ASEAN Power Grid (APG) with increased contribution of renewable energy (RE) in the power system, toward emission reduction in South East Asia, both in region and country level, in three different scenarios (Baseline, ASEAN Target, and Optimum RE). Data collection was done with a series of (co-creation) consultation meetings with countries in the region and international energy institutes. Estimation of emission reduction from CO2 and N2O was calculated based on projected solar and wind capacity addition to replace fossil fuel consumption in the APG. We found that the potential contribution of the projected APG toward emission reduction in South East Asia is up to 112,267 million tons of CO2 and 64 thousand tons of N2O by 2040, under the optimum RE scenario. The source of that contribution is varying at the country level. Countries with potential significant contributions are Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Countries like Singapore and Brunei that have a relatively small contribution to the region, also having progressive trends to meet the RE target and its emission reduction. This trend shows a potential progressive improvement for those countries to reduce their emission from the energy sector by 2040. With their current high base scenario, they may reach a higher target in the future to integrate variable RE to the APG and contributing to emission reduction in the region.

A Comprehensive Exploration on Pollution Characteristics and Ecological Risks of Heavy Metals in Surface Paddy Soils around a Large Copper Smelter, Southeast China

To assess heavy metal pollution and ecological risk, a total of 28 surface paddy soil samples were collected and analyzed around a famous copper smelter in Guixi, China. The results showed that all sites were heavily contaminated by both Cu and Cd, compared with soil background values, whose average concentrations exceeded the standard by 5.7 and 12.3 times, respectively, posing a slight ecological risk related to Cu (potential ecological risk index <40) and an extremely serious ecological risk related to Cd (potential ecological risk index >320). The risks were also demonstrated through the speciation analyses of Cu (CaCl2-Cu 2.63%, acid-soluble Cu 8.67%, and residual Cu 74.17%, on average) and Cd (CaCl2-Cd 47.30%, acid-soluble Cd 45.02%, and residual Cd 28.87%, on average) in the surface paddy soil, including the use of a CaCl2 extraction procedure and the BCR (Community Bureau of Reference) sequential extraction scheme. Several soil properties (residual carbon, cation exchange capacity, and soil texture) were significantly correlated with soil Cd but made a small contribution to their variability with a poor linear fit because of external Cd input to the soil, while soil total potassium largely influenced the soil Cu species except for residual Cu. Therefore, an effective Cu pollution regulation strategy through soil potassium control is suggested for this smelter soil.

Authors’ response on Perkins et al. (2021) “Dead in the water: comment on “Development of an aquatic exposure assessment model for imidacloprid in sewage treatment plant discharges arising from use of veterinary medicinal products”

In 2020, Anthe et al. published a newly developed model to predict imidacloprid surface water concentrations stemming from sewage treatment plant (STP) effluent as a consequence of the use of veterinary medicinal products containing imidacloprid in the UK (Anthe in Environ Sci Eur (2020) 32:147, https://doi.org/10.1186/s12302-020–00424-4). The modelled data indicate that these veterinary medicinal products make only a very small contribution to the levels of Imidacloprid observed in the UK water monitoring programme.The commentary by Perkins et al. (Perkins in Environ Sci Eur (2021) 33:88, https://doi.org/10.1186/s12302-021-00533-8) questioned the validity and conclusions of the modelling approach. We believe the modelling approach, which considered what we anticipated to be, the major exposure pathways, gives a realistic picture of the chronic emission via STPs to UK rivers.

Identifikasi Hambatan Penerapan Lean di Usaha Kecil dan Menengah (UKM)

Today's world competition has increased the pressure on Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to adopt lean implementations. The purpose of this study is to make a small contribution by exploring the Lean Implementation Barrier (LIB) in SMEs through three case studies of SMEs in the city of Bandung. A case study approach is used and followed by the Interpretative Structural Model (ISM) in order to see the inter-LIB relationship. The results of this study indicate that lack of management commitment and leadership, lack of employee involvement and lack of resources are the main obstacles to lean implementation in SMEs in Indonesia. Moreover, poor communication among various levels within the company and inadequate dissemination of knowledge about the benefits of lean also create barriers to lean implementation. The implication of this research is to strengthen and expand information related to research on the application of lean in SMEs, especially the results of the identified barriers that can assist SMEs in implementing lean or future research in developing and identifying barriers to implementing lean in SMEs.

Blood bank storage of red blood cells increases RBC cytoplasmic membrane order and bending rigidity

Blood banks around the world store blood components for several weeks ensuring its availability for transfusion medicine. Red blood cells (RBCs) are known to undergo compositional changes during storage, which may impact the cells’ function and eventually the recipients’ health. We extracted the RBC’s cytoplasmic membrane (RBCcm) to study the effect of storage on the membranes’ molecular structure and bending rigidity by a combination of X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray diffuse scattering (XDS) and coarse grained Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations. Blood was stored in commercial blood bags for 2 and 5 weeks, respectively and compared to freshly drawn blood. Using mass spectrometry, we measured an increase of fatty acids together with a slight shift towards shorter tail lengths. We observe an increased fraction (6%) of liquid ordered (lo) domains in the RBCcms with storage time, and an increased lipid packing in these domains, leading to an increased membrane thickness and membrane order. The size of both, lo and liquid disordered (ld) lipid domains was found to decrease with increased storage time by up to 25%. XDS experiments reveal a storage dependent increase in the RBCcm’s bending modulus κ by a factor of 2.8, from 1.9 kBT to 5.3 kBT. MD simulations were conducted in the absence of proteins. The results show that the membrane composition has a small contribution to the increased bending rigidity and suggests additional protein-driven mechanisms.

B2.5-Eunomia simulations of Magnum-PSI detachment experiments: II. Collisional processes and their relevance

Detachment is achieved in Magnum-PSI by increasing the neutral background pressure in the target chamber using gas puffing. The plasma is studied using the B2.5 multi fluid plasma code B2.5 coupled with Eunomia, a Monte Carlo solver for neutral species. This study focuses on the effect of increasing neutral background pressure to the plasma volumetric loss of particle, momentum and energy. The plasma particle and energy loss almost linearly scale with the increase of neutral background pressure, while the momentum loss does not scale as strongly. Plasma recombination processes include molecular activated recombination (MAR), dissociative attachment, and atomic recombination. Atomic recombination, which includes radiative and three-body recombination, is the most relevant plasma process in reducing the particle flux and, consequently, the heat flux to the target. The low temperature where atomic recombination becomes dominant is achieved by plasma cooling via elastic H+-H2 collisions. The transport of vibrationally excited H2 molecules out of the plasma serves as an additional electron cooling channel with relatively small contribution. Additionally, the transport of highly vibrational H2 has a significant impact in reducing the effective MAR and dissociative attachment collision rates and should be considered properly. The relevancy of MAR and atomic recombination occupy separate electron temperature regimes, respectively, at Te = 1.5 eV and Te = 0.3 eV, with dissociative attachment being relevant in the intermediary. Plasma cooling via elastic H+-H2 collisions is effective at Te ≤ 1 eV.