Search results for "FACE"

Transformative direction of innovation and measurement of uncaptured GDP in the digital economy

2017

The Internet has dramatically changed business dynamics and our daily lives by providing extraordinary services and welfare never anticipated before. However, productivity in industrialized countries has confronted an apparent decline. The ICT advanced firms and countries are suffering with low marginal productivity of their ICT investments. This reveals the two-faced nature of ICT and productivity paradox in the digital economy. With the progression of technology and transition from commodity- oriented to information society, the consumers’ preferences are believed to be shifted beyond economic value. The digitization has promoted the free and un- monetized consumption of digital goods and…

Effective Practices in Mitigating Soil Erosion from Fields

2017

Soil erosion by water is a natural process that cannot be avoided. Soil erosion depends on many factors, and a distinction should be made between humanly unchangeable (e.g., rainfall) and modifiable (e.g., length of the field) soil erosion factors. Soil erosion has both on-site and off-site effects. Soil conservation tries to combine modifiable factors so as to maintain erosion in an area of interest to an acceptable level. Strategies to control soil erosion have to be adapted to the desired land use. Knowledge of soil loss tolerance, T, i.e., the maximum admissible erosion from a given field, allows technicians or farmers to establish whether soil conservation practices need to be applied …

Evaluation of Soil Organic Carbon Storage of Atillo in the Ecuadorian Andean Wetlands

2022

Identifying the SOC levels and revealing the potential of SOC storage of ecosystems difficult to sample and study are necessary contributions to the understanding of the global reserves of SOC. Wetlands store large amounts of SOC within their soils. They have an important role in water regulation and have great biological and floristic diversity. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the SOC stock in Atillo micro-watershed in the Ecuadorian Andean wetlands at two soil depths (0–30 cm and 30–60 cm below ground) and to assess the importance of the ecosystem and its conservation in favor of reducing emissions due to degradation processes. For that, we sampled the study zone with 10…

The Influence of Industrial Waste on the Magnetic Properties of Salt-Affected Soils from Two Soda Ash Manufacturing Sites

2021

The aim of this study was to characterize the impact of soda ash manufacturing on the magnetic properties of soils located in the agricultural landscape in north-central Poland. Two study sites were chosen: Mątwy (SM) and Janikowo (SJ). Highly saline soils with halophyte communities were selected in order to develop an understanding of the relationship between salinization of water–soil interface and the potential contamination risk of the environment. Basic chemical and physicochemical properties of topsoil (0–25 cm) and water (surface and groundwater) samples from five locations were characterized. The characteristics of soil contamination were based on the content of sel…

A simple field method to measure the hydrodynamic properties of soil surface crust

2013

The hydraulic resistance of the surface crust was determined by a combination of two infiltrometric techniques: first, a surface measurement of steady-state infiltration rate is conducted by a mini-disk tension infiltrometer (MDI); then, the surface crust is removed, its thickness is measured, and a ponded infiltration test is performed at the same site. The Beerkan Estimation of Soil Transfer parameters (BEST) method is applied to estimate the hydraulic properties of the underlying soil provided the particlesize distribution and the bulk density are known. Under the assumption of a unit gradient of hydraulic head below the soil crust, the pressure head at the interface crust-soil is derive…

Enhancing silicon solar cell efficiency with metal nanoparticles

2009

Bi-2212 and Y123 highly curved single-crystal-like objects: whiskers, bows and ring-like structures

2012

High-temperature superconducting objects of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 and Y Ba2Cu3O7 highly curved in the ab-plane, such as curved/kinked whiskers, bows and ring-like structures, were obtained within a solid?liquid?solid (SLS) grass-like growth mechanism. As-grown objects are crystals with three-dimensional epitaxy similar to conventional single crystals: they can be viewed as crystal parts ?cut? from a conventional rectangular crystal. Between our curved objects and conventional crystals, whiskers or thin films there are some differences in the superconducting properties induced only by the shape factors and no new physics is observed. Some details of the growth mechanism are discussed, emphasizing cu…

Chasing Weak Forces: Hierarchically Assembled Helicates as a Probe for the Evaluation of the Energetics of Weak Interactions.

2017

London dispersion forces are the weakest interactions between molecules. Because of this, their influence on chemical processes is often low, but can definitely not be ignored, and even becomes important in cases of molecules with large contact surfaces. Hierarchically assembled dinuclear titanium(IV) helicates represent a rare example in which the direct observation of London dispersion forces is possible in solution even in the presence of strong cohesive solvent effects. Hereby, the dispersion forces do not unlimitedly support the formation of the dimeric complexes. Although they have some favorable enthalpic contribution to the dimerization of the monomeric complex units, large flexible…

miMic

2016

miMic, a sonic analogue of paper and pencil is proposed: An augmented microphone for vocal and gestural sonic sketching. Vocalizations are classified and interpreted as instances of sound models, which the user can play with by vocal and gestural control. The physical device is based on a modified microphone, with embedded inertial sensors and buttons. Sound models can be selected by vocal imitations that are automatically classified, and each model is mapped to vocal and gestural features for real-time control. With miMic, the sound designer can explore a vast sonic space and quickly produce expressive sonic sketches, which may be turned into sound prototypes by further adjustment of model…

Development of microfluidics for sorting of carbon nanotubes

2018

Sorting of carbon nanotubes by their chirality is the current bottleneck in the way to their broad employment based on their exceptional electronic and optical properties. Despite the extensive effort, there is no known method, which would result in really pure chirality ensembles. Previously reported sorting protocols result in enrichment rather than in sorting, alter electronic structure, and suffer from low yield. This is mostly due to the statistical approach, where the nanotubes with mixed chiralities are treated as a set. In this thesis, we propose a new sorting technique based on nanotube-by-nanotube compartmelization, characterization, and sorting in a continuously running droplet-b…