On Gatekeepers and Structural Competition Problems

The Digital Age saw the rise of several rapidly growing digital platforms with substantial market shares, and this development is expected to continue. Europe is a large target market for these globally operating platforms, although the majority of the most successful platforms come from the USA and Asia and will likely continue to do so in the future. This article reveals the reasons for the success of digital platforms and discusses the recent European Commission proposal for a Digital Markets Act based on the analysis of the status quo.

Japan-Southeast Asia Relations Amid US-China Competition in East Asia

Japan has emerged as a critical strategic actor in East Asia amidst intensifying US-China structural competition since 2010. Southeast Asia/ASEAN is an important dimension of Japan’s foreign policy expansion. This paper argues that Japan’s foreign policy is driven by the aim of becoming an alternative source of strategic stability in Southeast Asia/ASEAN as opposed to the United States and China. This is explained by analysing Japan’s foreign policy in regional balance of power and ASEAN-led multilateralism.

Exploring the Structural Competition between the Black and the Yellow Phase of CsPbI3

The realization of stable inorganic perovskites is crucial to enable low-cost solution-processed photovoltaics. However, the main candidate material, CsPbI3, suffers from a spontaneous phase transition at room temperature towards a photo-inactive orthorhombic δ-phase (yellow phase). Here we used theoretical and experimental methods to study the structural and electronic features that determine the stability of the CsPbI3 perovskite. We argued that the two physical characteristics that favor the black perovskite phase at low temperatures are the strong spatial confinement in nanocrystalline structures and the level of electron doping in the material. Within this context, we discussed practical procedures for the realization of long-lasting inorganic lead halide perovskites.

Intramolecular G-quadruplex-hairpin loop structure competition of a GC-rich exon region in the TMPRSS2 gene

We identified cytosine-rich regions adjacent to guanine-rich regions in protease genes. A typical GC-rich sequence derived from the TMPRSS2 gene showed structural competition between a G-quadruplex and a hairpin loop,...

Noncovalent Interactions between 1,3,5-Trifluoro-2,4,6-triiodobenzene and a Series of 1,10-Phenanthroline Derivatives: A Combined Theoretical and Experimental Study

How many strong C−I⋯N halogen bonds can one 1,3,5-trifluoro-2,4,6-triiodobenzene molecule form in a crystal structure? To answer this question, we investigated in detail the noncovalent interactions between 1,3,5-trifluoro-2,4,6-triiodobenzene and a series of 1,10-phenanthroline derivatives by employing a combined theoretical and experimental method. The results of the quantum chemical calculations and crystallographic experiments clearly show that there is a structural competition between a C−I⋯N halogen bond and π⋯π stacking interaction. For example, when there are much stronger π⋯π stacking interactions between two 1,10-phenanthroline derivative molecules or between two 1,3,5-trifluoro-2,4,6-triiodobenzene molecules in the crystal structures, then one 1,3,5-trifluoro-2,4,6-triiodobenzene molecule forms only one C−I⋯N halogen bond with one 1,10-phenanthroline derivative molecule. Another example is when π⋯π stacking interactions in the crystal structures are not much stronger, one 1,3,5-trifluoro-2,4,6-triiodobenzene molecule can form two C−I⋯N halogen bonds with two 1,10-phenanthroline derivative molecules.

Evaluativity and structural competition

In this paper, I develop an account of evaluativity in comparative constructions that improves upon Jessica Rett’s theory of evaluativity (2007, 2008). Rett proposes that evaluative interpretations result from the presence of a freely-occurring EVAL morpheme which introduces the reference to a contextual standard. According to Rett, whenever a degree construction is obligatorily evaluative, it is because its non-evaluative parse is blocked by a markedness competition. A limit of this proposal is that markedness comes as a stipulation. In this paper, I propose a principled way for generating competing candidates based on the structural complexity of aPs. I introduce the LF-principle Minimize aPs! that penalizes structurally complex degree expressions whenever they have semantically equivalent, yet structurally simpler counterparts. In addition, a PF-filter, Myers' Generalization, is argued to impose a wellformedness condition on morphologically complex expressions, thereby restricting further the set of competitors for semantic competition. The resulting picture regards the solution to the evaluativity puzzle as being at the crossroads of the different modules of the grammar.