Mineralogical and geochemical changes in conglomerate reservoir rocks induced by CO2 influx at Mihályi-Répcelak natural analogue, NW-Hungary

A temporary solution to massive anthropogenic CO2 emissions can be the capture of industrial CO2 from flue gas and sequestering it in geological formations. For safe and effective storage of CO2, interaction processes in the rock-pore fluid–CO2 system should be known. Investigation of natural CO2 accumulations provides valuable examples to what physical and chemical effects could be expected during CO2 influx at future CO2 storage sites. One of the key controlling factors of the processes occurring in natural CO2 reservoirs is the lithology of the storage rocks, which is primarily determined by the formation conditions of these rocks. In this respect, the lithologies of individual CO2 accumulation areas influence the processes between the host rock, the pore fluid, and the CO2 in different ways. In the current study, we focus on a well-studied natural CO2 storage reservoir, namely the Mihályi-Répcelak area, NW Hungary. We provide insight into the so far unstudied conglomerate reservoirs that represent a stratigraphically deeper reservoir unit with significantly different lithology and pore water compositions compared to the sandstone reservoirs. Our results indicate that dawsonite /NaAlCO3(OH)2/ formation also affected the conglomerate reservoirs, which indicates that at least part of the CO2 could be trapped in mineral form. An important role of salinity in reducing the CO2 mineral trapping capacity of the storage system is also demonstrated. Furthermore, H isotope analysis of diagenetic kaolinite was applied to trace the origin of the pore water that was present during the rock formation. Based on the data, dawsonite formation was induced by the flux of meteoric water that infiltrated during a warm and humid period and mixed with ascending CO2.

Research on NEV Platform Development Strategies for Automotive Companies

Developing new energy vehicles (NEVs) is essential for China’s automotive industry to achieve carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals. The development of a NEV platform is an effective means for automotive companies to balance the development cost, development time, and product performance of NEVs. However, there is no clear solution to choosing new energy vehicle platform development strategies and models for automotive companies. This paper mainly studies the significance of NEV platform development, the classification and characteristics of NEV platforms, and the development strategies and trends of NEV platforms for automotive companies. The study results found that choosing a new dedicated electric platform (NDEP) is inevitable for the latest automotive companies, such as TESLA Motors. An adapted electric platform (AEP) is a temporary solution that meets the dual credits policy. It lacks competitiveness and has been gradually eliminated for the traditional automotive companies. The new dedicated electric platform is a long-term development solution when comprehensively considering the market, technology, and policy. The compatible platform (CP) is a transitional solution when considering the development trend of automotive powertrain, the market size of NEVs, and the platform technology of NEVs. Besides, joint development and shared use is the primary development model for the automotive enterprise in the future. Finally, companies should increase their research and development efforts on NEV architecture platforms to maximize platform-based development’s scale effect and application value. The research can provide strategic guidance for automotive companies to develop NEV platforms.

Beyond behaviour as individual choice: A call to expand understandings around social science in health research

The focus of behavioural sciences in shaping behaviour of individuals and populations is well documented. Research and practice insights from behavioural sciences improve our understanding of how people make choices that in turn determine their health, and in turn the health of the population. However, we argue that an isolated focus on behaviour - which is one link in a chain from macro to the micro interventions - is not in sync with the public health approach which per force includes a multi-level interest. The exclusive focus on behaviour manipulation then becomes a temporary solution at best and facilitator of reproduction of harmful structures at worst. Several researchers and policymakers have begun integrating insights from behavioural economics and related disciplines that explain individual choice, for example, by the establishment of Behavioural Insight Teams, or nudge units to inform the design and implementation of public health programs. In order to comprehensively improve public health, we discuss the limitations of an exclusive focus on behaviour change for public health advancement and call for an explicit integration of broader structural and population-level contexts, processes and factors that shape the lives of individuals and groups, health systems and differential health outcomes.

Lowering the p-value threshold to alleviate information crisis in nutritional epidemiology – a possible temporary solution?

Nutritional epidemiology has often been criticized by its inconsistency of results, these that are broadcasted to the media due to the public interest in the topic. Effect sizes in nutritional epidemiology are often small and biases are present. The cut-off of statistically significant results in the field currently is by the norm of 5%, that is, p < 0.05 equals to a positive finding. Recent evidence found that lowering this threshold makes less claims to hold true. This said, lowering the alpha level in nutritional epidemiology could reduce the scenario in the field characterized by high frequency of positive and probably implausible findings. Of course, this would require a culture shift towards encouragement of negative findings, already proposed in some fields of science.

Approval of the Constitution of Czechoslovakia in 1920 and the evolution of the constitutional and legal status of Podkarpatska Rus as part of the republic

The article considers the constitutional and legal status of Subcarpathian Russia under the Constitution of the Czechoslovak Republic of February 29, 1920. Special attention is paid to the legal regulation of the highest state authorities of Czechoslovakia, as well as the position of national minorities in the country. Certainly, the First World War destroyed the political system and borders in Europe, which led to the creation of independent states, including Czechoslovakia. The newly created state faced a number of important tasks. The issues of state building, political system and establishing harmonious interethnic interaction between citizens were of paramount importance. Stabilization of the internal situation and success in the international arena were ensured by the adoption of a basic law - the constitution. After all, the constitution is the highest law of the country, which regulates the most important political and legal relations in it, establishes the basic provisions of law and order. It was established that the problem of Subcarpathian Russia was properly and in detail covered in the Constitution, although the terms of the Small Saint-Germain Peace Treaty on the "territory of the South Carpathian Ruthenians" did not require it. Nevertheless, both Czechoslovak specialists in state and legal issues and politicians of the republic considered it not only necessary but also necessary, primarily for state reasons, to fix the problem of the eastern province of the republic, Subcarpathian Russia, in the Constitution. Such a fixation, they believed, would demonstrate the sovereign right of the Czechoslovak Republic to the territory of Subcarpathian Russia, the constitutional legality of the region's membership in the Czechoslovak state. Demonstration of this right only by a separate law on the autonomy of Subcarpathian Russia would be insufficient, it would even feel some temporary solution to the problem.

ONLINE TEACHING AND LEARNING BETWEEN TEMPORARY SOLUTION AND FUTURE NECESSITY

The Covid-19 pandemic pushed the limits and limitations of all educational systems, teachers and students around the world. The solution adopted – distance, online teaching, learning and assessment – has proven to be of a longer duration than initially anticipated, to the frustration of students, parents, and teachers alike. Nonetheless, following a careful analysis of these processes over the last (two) semesters, surprising findings point out to the fact that the digital experience has brought forth, at least at the higher-education level, substantial positive outcomes that cannot be neglected. It has strengthened the digital skills that both students and teachers will need in a technology dominated future and has made the actors of the educational process aware of the constant need for an innovative look and creative approach toward sharing and assimilating the impressive amount of knowledge existent nowadays. The present article aims at discovering both the strengths and the weaknesses, the motivational factors and the technical difficulties that have characterized the recent online educational process; it also inquires to what extent this type of learning will be an integral part of our daily lives in the academia, once the on-site courses will be resumed.

Emergency Remote Early Childhood Teaching: A Temporary Setting or Contemporary Necessity?

The COVID-19 pandemic and the protection of social distance between educators and learners have impacted all levels of education – significantly, early childhood. It has hindered activities carried out in a direct meeting and has forced education in the 2020-2021 school year to continue through emergency remote teaching. The study determined the fundamental structure of the views of early childhood educators on emergency remote teaching to reveal how they are thinking forward regarding their teaching skillset for either the continuity or change of education in the next school year. A phenomenological design of qualitative research was employed, and a local sample of 10 educators voluntarily informed the study. Through the interviews, five theme clusters emerged that reflected their 88 significant statements. The results evidenced to the extent that early childhood educators view emergency remote teaching as beyond being a temporary solution to learning when a pandemic threatens physical classes, but its potential to become a contemporary necessity is premature and highly dependent on how families will respond and how schools will proceed as a result of their response. Thus, further exploration of professional development topics is needed to support early childhood educators to teach in any situation moving forward.

Making the Grade during Pandemic: Early-stage and Late-stage Provisional Institutions

This is an article that draws on the institutional work literature about provisional institutions. To date, nearly every U.S. sector has been impacted by COVID-19. To sustain their core missions, highly institutionalized organizations such as universities have had to rethink foundational structures and policies. Using a historical ethnographic approach to investigate records from faculty senate deliberations at “Rural State University” (RSU), the authors examine the implementation of a temporary grading policy to supplement traditional, qualitative grades spring 2020 during the outbreak. The authors find that RSU implemented a temporary, supplemental grading policy as a provisional institution to momentarily supersede traditional grading as a means to—as soon as possible—return to it. This finding contrasts with the common understanding that provisional institutions operate primarily as a temporary solution to a social problem that leads to more stable and enduring, ostensibly nonprovisional institutions. The temporary grading policy, the authors argue, constitutes a “late-stage” provisional institution and, with this new lens, subsequently characterize the more commonplace understanding of provisional institutions as “early-stage.” This contribution has theoretical implications for studies of institutions and empirical implications for research on shared governance and disruption in higher education.

GLOSS TO THE JUDGEMENT OF SUPREME ADMINISTRATIVE COURT OF DECEMBER 17, 2019. – ENTRUSTING THE DUTIES OF HEAD OF THE MEDICAL ENTITY

The primary procedure for filling the post of manager of a non-entrepreneurial medical entity (as well as for other posts referred to in Article 49(1) of the Law on Medicinal Activities) is to select a candidate by means of a competition. However, there may be cases where it is necessary to fill the post of manager, but there is no possibility of a competition procedure. In such situations, it should be possible to entrust duties in this post, but only for the time necessary to conduct the competition. In so doing, it cannot be considered that the delegation of duties constitutes one of the means of filling the post of manager of a medical entity, which is only a temporary solution enabling the medical entity to function until that post has been filled by means of a competition. In view of the legal personality of an independent public health establishment and the principle of legality in the operation of local government units in the exercise of its powers, it is appropriate to limit the powers of that body as a medical entity only to the situations expressly referred to in the provisions of the Law. However, the provisions of the Law on local government employees do not apply either to the manager of the medical entity or to its other employees.

Climate Change and Sea-Level Rise

This article examines the challenges that climate change and sea-level rise pose to certain key aspects of the law of the sea. Sea-level rise is likely to impact maritime baselines, the qualification of maritime features and the entitlements they generate, and ultimately the stability of maritime boundaries, which are critical for the peaceful co-existence of sovereign States. This article examines whether some of the relevant provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea can accommodate a liberal interpretation so as to provide some, even if incomplete, answers to the challenges posed by sea-level rise to the law of the sea regime. It is argued that the legal fiction of permanency that underpins key elements of this legal regime, and thus ignores future physical changes to coastlines, is the most appropriate temporary solution, unless and until new rules are agreed by States to deal comprehensively with sea-level rise.