Science & Mathematics

This policy paper explores where and how authoritarian control is most persistently entrenched. Rather than analysing causal factors of entrenchment, the paper identifies the institutional arenas where democratic governance is most constrained, offering a diagnostic basis for context-aware democracy support. For that purpose, our analysis offers a regime-sensitive analysis of autocratisation in the Eastern Neighbourhood (EN) region, focusing on Azerbaijan and Belarus – the two long-term closed autocracies in the EN. Drawing on a comparative framework, we identify the historical and institutional features that reflect – rather than explain – the long-term persistence of authoritarian control. In doing so, this paper follows two basic premises: first, a regime-sensitive perspective needs to take into consideration the overall dynamic, and second, the direction of the regime development. This constitutes a critical and basic assessment for policymakers and their democracy support strategies and actions.

This presentation predicts and validates crush behaviors of advanced GMT tubes using innovative simulation technology, focusing on material modeling, fracture calibration, and energy absorption reliability.

This paper presents an analysis of the difficulties faced by women in the Legislative work environment. It is based on a study of the history of women's late participation in politics due to a patriarchal structure that prevented them for years from exercising their rights as citizens and the effects of this fact today, the presentation of important figures who stood out in the conquest of women's space in politics and especially in the Legislative Power, as well as highlighting the fundamental role of women in this Power and in politics as a whole. In addition, the discussion is also based on the presentation of complaints about prejudice suffered in the workplace, and the amplification of misogyny against women in this area on social networks. Using a qualitative method, with an analysis of legislation and authors who discuss the subject, it was possible to see that although women's participation in the legislature has grown in recent years, it is still small compared to men's and is extremely hampered by the misogynistic structure still present in the workplace and in society as a whole.

Implementation of power ultrasonic in the pultrusion process with the aim of improving the impregnation and mechanical properties of the parts.

Differential and integral equations with fractal-fractional operators are important classes of equations used to model processes with complex behaviors. For example, a fractal-fractional derivative with power law can be viewed as a product of the Riemann-Liouville derivative and the power law function. In the last year, a question was raised to know what happens when the initial point is 0, especially when dealing with a numerical scheme. In this paper, we aim to solve those problems for all different fractal-fractional differential and integral operators and present some illustrative examples.

The growth of C60 films on the pseudo-tenfold (100) surface of the orthorhombic Al13Co4 qua-sicrystalline approximant was studied experimentally by scanning tunneling microscopy, low-energy electron diffraction and photoemission spectroscopy. The (100) surface terminates at bulk-planes presenting local atomic configurations with five-fold symmetry-similar to quasicrystalline surfaces. While the films deposited at room temperature were found disordered, high-temperature growth (up to 693 K) led to quasi-ordered molecular films templated on the substrate rectangular unit mesh. The most probable adsorption sites and geometries were investigated by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. A large range of adsorption energies was determined, influenced by both symmetry and size matching at the molecule-substrate interface. The quasi-ordered structure of the film can be explained by C60 adsorption at the strongest adsorption sites which are too far apart compared to the distance minimizing the intermolecular interactions, resulting in some disorder in the film structure at a local scale. Valence band photoemission indicates a broadening of the molecular orbitals resulting from hybridization between the substrate and overlayer electronic states. Dosing the film at temperature above 693 K led to molecular damage and formation of carbide thin films possessing no azimuthal order with respect to the substrate.

We present an analysis of a deep (1σ = 13 μJy) cosmological 1.2 mm continuum map based on ASPECS, the ALMA Spectroscopic Survey in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. In the 1 arcmin2 covered by ASPECS we detect nine sources at 3.5σ significance at 1.2 mm. Our ALMA-selected sample has a median redshift of z=1.6+/- 0.4, with only one galaxy detected at z > 2 within the survey area. This value is significantly lower than that found in millimeter samples selected at a higher flux density cutoff and similar frequencies. Most galaxies have specific star formation rates (SFRs) similar to that of main-sequence galaxies at the same epoch, and we find median values of stellar mass and SFRs of 4.0× {10}10 {M}⊙ and ∼ 40 {M}⊙ yr-1, respectively. Using the dust emission as a tracer for the interstellar medium (ISM) mass, we derive depletion times that are typically longer than 300 Myr, and we find molecular gas fractions ranging from ∼0.1 to 1.0. As noted by previous studies, these values are lower than those using CO-based ISM estimates by a factor of ∼2. The 1 mm number counts (corrected for fidelity and completeness) are in agreement with previous studies that were typically restricted to brighter sources. With our individual detections only, we recover 55% ± 4% of the extragalactic background light (EBL) at 1.2 mm measured by the Planck satellite, and we recover 80% ± 7% of this EBL if we include the bright end of the number counts and additional detections from stacking. The stacked contribution is dominated by galaxies at z∼ 1{--}2, with stellar masses of (1-3) × 1010 M {}⊙ . For the first time, we are able to characterize the population of galaxies that dominate the EBL at 1.2 mm.

Savannas are complex ecosystems affected by several bottom-up (e.g. soil nutrient availability and rainfall) and top-down (e.g. fire and herbivory) drivers. However, the relative importance of bottom-up vs. top-down drivers in influencing savanna dynamics is still widely debated. Within the top-down (disturbance) category of drivers, the role of mammal browsers in particular in driving savanna functioning is still not well understood. Two approaches were adopted to determine the role of disturbance in savannas. Firstly, by using a comparative approach, I attempted to address the so-called ‘savanna problem’ by investigating how savanna woody plant community compositions and key plant traits relating to the leaves, stems, architecture, and defence are influenced by soil nutrient status, rainfall, fire and browsing. Sixteen sites were selected along gradients of these four drivers from savanna parks throughout South Africa and Zimbabwe. The dominant woody species (species that accounted for >80% of standing biomass) at each site were identified and sampled for the key leaf and stem traits relating to plant functioning, palatability, architecture, physical and chemical defences. Measurements were undertaken for each species in order to determine both meso-browser and mega browser impact. Transects were undertaken in order to determine the relative abundance and the effects of fire on each species at each site. Due to the current lack of standardized soil sampling protocols in the ecological literature, and uncertainty around the definition of what denotes a fertile or infertile soil, I propose a number of standardized protocols and sampled according to these established protocols in order to accurately determine the soil nutrient status at each site. Following this, the relationships between climatic variables and soil nutrients with both species means and community weighted means for eight key leaf traits were explored. Although some significant relationships were found between savanna leaf traits of woody plants, climate, soil nutrients and their interactions, these tended to be weaker than those found in meta-analyses. These broad-scale studies usually include sites from many biome types, many of which are from temperate regions where inherent levels of disturbance are typically much lower than in African savannas. The high levels of disturbance typically found in African savannas are thought to partially account for the high within site variability found in leaf traits and the weak relationships found between leaf traits, soil nutrients and rainfall. To assess the importance of resources vs. disturbance in savannas functioning, the effects of soil nutrients, rainfall, fire and both meso-browser and mega-browser impact on twenty savanna woody plant traits relating to plant palatability, chemical and structural defences were explored. Structural defences were found to be more strongly correlated with soil characteristics than chemical defences, while browser impact was found to be strongly correlated with structural defences but not with chemical defences. Actual browser utilisation tended to be more predictable for meso-browsers than mega-browsers. Secondly using an experimental approach, two sets of herbivore exclosures were utilized to directly test how mammal browsers influenced woody species distributions, abundance, population structure and plant traits relating to palatability and defence. The effects of three longterm herbivore exclosures in the Kruger National Park on savanna woody plant community compositions, population demographics and densities were determined. Browsers were found to have significant impacts on species distributions, densities and population structures by actively selecting for species with favourable traits, particularly higher leaf N. An interaction between browsers and fire which limited the recruitment of seedlings and saplings into larger size classes was also demonstrated… [etc]

We conduct a field experiment in a large real-world social network to examine how subjects expect to be treated by their friends and by strangers who make allocation decisions in modified dictator games. Although recipients' beliefs accurately account for the extent to which friends will choose more generous allocations than strangers (i.e., directed altruism), recipients are not able to anticipate individual differences in the baseline altruism of allocators (measured by giving to an unnamed recipient, which is predictive of generosity toward named recipients). Recipients who are direct friends with the allocator, or even recipients with many common friends, are no more accurate in recognizing intrinsically altruistic allocators. Recipient beliefs are significantly less accurate than the predictions of an econometrician who knows the allocator's demographic characteristics and social distance, suggesting recipients do not have information on unobservable characteristics of the allocator.

Étude contextuelle d’une quarantaine de gravures rupestres de style naturaliste réalisées au nord-ouest de l’Adrar des Iforas. Ces œuvres et quelques gravures stylisées associées, sont les plus anciennes manifestations artistiques de la région. Des gravures rupestres apparentées sur les plans des thèmes et des styles sont présentes dans une aire géographique recouvrant la majeure partie du Sahara central et méridional. Les données issues des fouilles archéologiques alliées à celles enregistrées sur les paléomilieux holocènes en regard des thèmes traités sur les rochers, permettent de situer l’âge d’expression de cet art rupestre du Sahara à gravures naturalistes entre le VIe millénaire et la fin du IVe millénaire av. J.-C. À cette époque, le Sahara était soumis à des régimes de précipitations différenciées dépendant de la latitude. Le caractère animalier prédominant des œuvres et leur densité variable suivant la latitude, conduisent à en attribuer les réalisations à une société pastorale qui était composée de groupes d’éleveurs mobiles. Certains de ces éleveurs atteignirent le nord-ouest de l’Adrar des Iforas où ils réalisèrent une quarantaine de gravures rupestres semblables à celles que l’on retrouve sur les rochers des régions plus septentrionales.

Lors de l’impact entre un jet et une plaque fendue, des nuisances sonores peuvent être générées. Réellement,au niveau de la fente, l’obstacle peut interagir avec l’écoulement, sous certaines conditions, pour donner naissance à des perturbations de la dynamique tourbillonnaire de l’écoulement et peut contrôler le détachement tourbillonnaire dès sa naissance. Ces perturbations dynamiques mettent en relief le transfert d’énergie du champ aérodynamique vers le champ acoustique ainsi généré. Afin de visualiser la partie tourbillonnaire de l’écoulement et de mettre en exergue les mécanismes responsables des nuisances sonores, une métrologie laser a été appliquée : la PIV (vélocimétrie par images de particules). Cette méthode de mesures est basée sur l’ensemencement de l’écoulement avec des traceurs appropriés dans l’écoulement, et à la génération de plans lumineux, à l’aide d’un laser pulsé à deux têtes, afin de matérialiser les plans étudiés. Une caméra rapide phantom V711 est utilisée pour enregistrer les paires d’images ainsi réalisées. Un logiciel dédié à laPIV « DaVis » permet de réaliser les calculs de champs cinématiques en fonction du temps. Dans cette étude,on met en évidence les corrélations qui existent entre les pics acoustiques observés dans certaines configurations et la dynamique tourbillonnaire de l’écoulement. Pour cela des microphones Brüel & Kjær et une centrale d’acquisition équipée d’une carte NI PXI – 4472 ont été utilisés pour la partie acoustique, et un suivi spécifique des structures tourbillonnaires a été réalisé.

Aujourd’hui le régime végétarien est en pleine expansion, souvent décrié et présenté comme provoquant des carences, ce régime a finalement des effets bénéfiques sur notre santé. Dans ce travail nous mettons en avant les effets protecteurs du régime végétarien sur le système cardiovasculaire en décrivant les différents impacts que possède la viande, ainsi que les fruits et légumes sur celui-ci. Bien que les carences soient peu fréquentes elles peuvent exister, c’est pour cela que la micronutrition a sa place au sein d’un régime alimentaire strict, tel que le régime végétarien, notamment chez la femme enceinte. De plus, aujourd’hui de nombreuses personnes adoptent ce régime par conviction environnementale, ainsi, une partie de ce travail est dédiée à l’impact positif du régime végétarien sur notre environnement.