Public-Private Partnership for the Development of Space Sector in the United States and Great Britain

The article provides an analysis of modern trends in building public-private partnership (PPP), gives an overview of key studies devoted to this subject in general and PPPs in the field of space activities in particular. The authors analyze the practice of public-private partnerships in the U. S. and Great Britain on the examples of specific mechanisms, their key features, advantages and disadvantages that determine the possibility of their application in different areas of government-business cooperation in the field of space exploration. In order to find possible ways for direct application or adaptation of this experience in Russia for organizing space exploration PPPs the researchers concluded that the level of high-tech production in this country is insufficient and significant administrative barriers for attracting private sector into the space industry are still present.

Plant extracts in agriculture and their applications in the treatment of seeds

ABSTRACT: The harmful effects caused by the use of toxic substances in agriculture have led to the development of alternative solutions, and researchers have focused on understanding the effectiveness and potential of plant extracts in agriculture. The aim of this systematic review was to understand the situation of research and scientific dissemination, as well as how current science has approached the use of plant extracts in agriculture, especially in seed applications. There is potential on the use of plant extracts in agriculture, demonstrated by a high number of publications over the last ten years, especially in the years 2018, 2019 and 2020, and Brazil stands out as the main country on this research area. Control of phytopathogenic microorganisms, insect control, biostimulant effect, resistance induction and herbicide effect have been the main themes explored for use in agriculture. The direct application of plant extracts is centered on plants and seeds, being this latter mainly focused on the control of phytopathogenic organisms and biostimulating effect.

DABCO-promoted photocatalytic C–H functionalization of aldehydes

Herein we present a direct application of DABCO, an inexpensive and broadly accessible organic base, as a hydrogen atom transfer (HAT) abstractor in a photocatalytic strategy for aldehyde C–H activation. The acyl radicals generated in this step were arylated with aryl bromides through a well stablished nickel cross-coupling methodology, leading to a variety of interesting aryl ketones in good yields. We also performed computational calculations to shine light in the HAT step energetics and determined an optimized geometry for the transition state, showing that the hydrogen atom transfer between aldehydes and DABCO is a mildly endergonic, yet sufficiently fast step. The same calculations were performed with quinuclidine, for comparison of both catalysts and the differences are discussed.

Personal Development Planning and Vertical Leadership Development in a VUCA World

To explore how personal development can be utilized as a tool for leaders to adapt to our VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) world, a qualitative study was conducted on the narrative experiences of eight leaders who had successfully completed personal development plans. The emerging field of vertical leadership development, recognized as a unique developmental approach towards overcoming complexity and uncertainty, was connected to the key themes of personal development planning. Vertical leadership development and personal development planning were united across five conceptual themes: development and application of skills, self-awareness, self-efficacy, self-exploration, and continuous improvement. The experiences of the participants helped to inform how their plans connected with these themes, and how plan success and retention can be ensured overall. The study found that plans are at their most successful when they are thoroughly structured with the individual’s personal goals in mind, have direct application to the participant’s working life, and are supported by some degree of accountability and/or reflection. The study observed thematic connections between conventional personal development plans and vertical leadership development, highlighting potential connections between developmental approaches that are focused on boosting skills competency and capacity in times of VUCA. The findings help to inform how personal development plans can best serve as a resource towards managing complexity, uncertainty, and change.

IMPLEMENTASI PROJECT BASE LEARNING DENGAN KONSEP ECO-GREEN DI SMA IT BAITUL JANNAH BANDAR LAMPUNG

ABSTRAKSalah satu konsep Iptek yang dapat dikembangkan untuk sekolah adalah dengan berbasis eco-green. Keterkaitan pembelajaran Project Base Learning dengan konsep eco-green ini guna menekankan pada para guru agar dapat meningkatkan model pembelajaran yang lebih relevan. Salah satu permasalahan yang terjadi di sekolah SMA IT Baitul Jannah di masa pandemi ini adalah masih belum maksimalnya pembelajaran secara PjBL. Hal ini perlu adanya peningkatan kualitas dan kuantitas guru maupun siswa dalam bidang pendidikan. Menghadapi tantangan tersebut, guru dituntut untuk menguasai teknologi informasi dan penerapan langsung Iptek. Guru harus mampu memanfaatkan teknologi maupun Iptek dalam melaksanakan proses pembelajaran. Untuk itu tim melakukan kegiatan pengabdian kepada masyarakat berupa pelatihan dan penyuluhan pemanfaatan limbah minyak jelantah yang mana ini merupakan langkah awal dalam menerapkan konsep eco green di sekolah. Metode pengumpulan data yang digunakan adalah wawancara dan survei. Hasil dari kegiatan ini adalah manfaat pengetahuan secara praktikum dalam PjBL mata pelajaran kimia dan peningkatan kreatifitas siswa/i dalam meningkatkan kegiatan praktik mengenai konsep eco green. Hal ini didapatkan peningkatan sebesar 28,58% menjadi 100% siswa yang mengetahui manfaat dari limbah domestik yaitu minyak jelantah. Kata kunci: limbah domestik; minyak jelantah; pemberdayaan masyarakat; sabun batang; sekolah ABSTRACTOne of the science and technology concepts that can be developed for schools is based on eco-green. The linkage of Project Base Learning with the eco-green concept is to emphasize teachers so that they can improve learning models that are more relevant. The problem that occurred at the Baitul Jannah High School during this pandemic was that PjBL learning was still not maximal. This requires an increase in the quality and quantity of teachers and students in education. In these challenges, teachers are required to master information technology and direct application of science and technology. Teachers must be able to utilize technology and science in carrying out the learning process. For this reason, the team carried out community service activities in the form of training and counseling on the use of used cooking oil waste, which is the first step in implementing the eco-green concept in schools. The methods used are interviews and surveys. The results of this activity are the benefits of practical knowledge in PjBL chemistry subjects and increasing students’ creativity in increasing practical activities regarding the eco-green concept. This resulted in an increase of 28,58% to 100% of students who knew the benefits of domestic waste. Keywords: domestic waste; used cooking oil; community development; bar soap; school

Generalizing Boltzmann Configurational Entropy to Surfaces, Point Patterns and Landscape Mosaics

Several methods have been recently proposed to calculate configurational entropy, based on Boltzmann entropy. Some of these methods appear to be fully thermodynamically consistent in their application to landscape patch mosaics, but none have been shown to be fully generalizable to all kinds of landscape patterns, such as point patterns, surfaces, and patch mosaics. The goal of this paper is to evaluate if the direct application of the Boltzmann relation is fully generalizable to surfaces, point patterns, and landscape mosaics. I simulated surfaces and point patterns with a fractal neutral model to control their degree of aggregation. I used spatial permutation analysis to produce distributions of microstates and fit functions to predict the distributions of microstates and the shape of the entropy function. The results confirmed that the direct application of the Boltzmann relation is generalizable across surfaces, point patterns, and landscape mosaics, providing a useful general approach to calculating landscape entropy.

Application of dynamic programming approach to computation of atomic functions

The special class of atomic functions is considered. The atomic function is a solution with compact support of linear differential functional equation with constant coefficients and linear transformations of the argument. The functions considered are used in discrete atomic compression (DAC) of digital images. The algorithm DAC is lossy and provides better compression than JPEG, which is de facto a standard for compression of digital photos, with the same quality of the result. Application of high precision values of atomic functions can improve the efficiency of DAC, as well as provide the development of new technologies for data processing and analysis. This paper aims to develop a low complexity algorithm for computing precise values of the atomic functions considered. Precise values of atomic functions at the point of dense grids are the subject matter of this paper. Formulas of V. O. Rvachev and their generalizations are used. Direct application of them to the computation of atomic functions on dense grids leads to multiple calculations of a great number of similar expressions that should be reduced. In this research, the reduction required is provided. The goal is to develop an algorithm based on V. O. Rvachev’s formulas and their generalizations. The following tasks are solved: to convert these formulas to reduce the number of arithmetic operations and to develop a verification procedure that can be used to check results. In the current research, methods of atomic function theory and dynamic programming algorithms development principles are applied. A numerical scheme for computation of atomic functions at the points of the grid with the step, which is less than each predetermined positive real number, is obtained and a dynamic algorithm based on it is developed. Also, a verification procedure, which is based on the properties of atomic functions, is introduced. The following results are obtained: 1) the algorithm developed provides faster computation than direct application of the corresponding formulas; 2) the algorithm proposed provides precise computation of atomic functions values; 3) procedure of verification has linear complexity in the number of values to be checked. Moreover, the algorithms proposed are implemented using Python programming language and a set of tables of atomic functions values are obtained. Conclusions: results of this research are expected to improve existing data processing technologies based on atomic functions, especially the algorithm DAC, and accelerate the development of new ones.

Comparison of methods for mapping rhizosphere processes in the context of their surrounding root and soil environments

The rhizosphere embodies a complex biogeochemical zone with enhanced rates of nutrient exchange between plants, soil, and microbial communities. Understanding controls on rhizosphere dynamics is critical to support emerging concepts including rhizosphere engineering and reduced dependence on chemical fertilizers which have direct application to food production, increased biofuel generation, and habitat restoration efforts. Yet, its fine spatial scale and complex interactions between geochemical and microbial processes within complex spatiotemporal gradients make the rhizosphere notoriously difficult to study. Emerging instrumentation and methodologies, however, are providing improved resolution to rhizosphere measurements and helping to address critical knowledge gaps in rhizosphere function, ecology, and establishment. Here, we examine recent advances in analysis techniques and the resulting potential for improved understanding of rhizosphere function.