Mesoporous Silicon / Polypyrrole Based Structures for Paranitrophenol Sensing

Elaboration of new structures based on semi-conductors and conducting polymers can procure a new alternative to the development of various electrochemical sensors with good sensibility.The key idea of this paper is to develop a facile technique for the detection of the para-nitrophenol which is considered as an important toxic pollutant. In this context, different structures based on mesoporous silicon modified with Polypyrrole (PPy) were elaborated.The hybrid structures have been characterized by several techniques such as FTIR, SEM and Contact angle measurements.In addition, the behavior of these new structures for para-nitrophenol detection by cyclic voltammetry was studied. The results show a high sensitivity of the sensor in a large concentration interval.

Interactive Radiation Accelerates the Intensification of the Midlevel Vortex for Tropical Cyclogenesis

Interactive radiation helps accelerate tropical cyclogenesis, but the mechanism is still unclear. Using idealized numerical modeling in the radiative–convective equilibrium framework, it is revealed that interactive radiation can bring forward tropical cyclogenesis by accelerating the development of the midlevel vortex. A strong horizontal longwave radiative warming anomaly in the layer between 6 and 11 km altitudes in the vortex region, caused by large concentration of ice-phased particles at high levels, is critical to the development of the midlevel vortex. This longwave radiative warming anomaly induces more upward water vapor flux (mainly in the nonconvective region) and then results in more latent heating at upper levels and more sublimation and melting cooling at lower levels. This leads to an increase of the vertical diabatic heating gradient, and then the intensification of the midlevel vortex. A stronger upward water vapor flux also produces more condensates at upper levels and further enhances the horizontal longwave radiative warming anomaly in the upper troposphere, constituting a positive feedback, and then accelerates tropical cyclogenesis.

Estimating the Earnings from Peer-to-Peer Carsharing for Vehicle Owners on the Turo Platform using Anonymized Data

Peer-to-peer carsharing, in which “hosts” (i.e., vehicle owners) make their vehicles available for a fee, has grown markedly in recent years. Little is known about how activity in this sector is distributed across communities with different socioeconomic or demographic profiles, or about the income it provides to hosts. To offer insights into these issues, this study evaluates anonymized data of trips made on Turo, one of the country's largest peer-to-peer carsharing platforms, in Illinois. It shows that usage is heaviest in higher-density neighborhoods with above-average unemployment and rental housing rates, with a particularly large concentration on Chicago's near north, south, and west sides, as well as zip codes with sizable minority populations. Most transactions are financially remunerative to hosts who would own their vehicle regardless of their decision to share. When maintenance and other expenses are taken into account (while nonmonetary costs such as the host's time are excluded), 94.9% of trips cover their marginal cost to the host. The returns from sharing sports utility vehicles (SUVs) tend to be higher than those for sedans and minivans. A low-income family making $40,000 annually will increase household income by 6% by sharing a vehicle 90 days annually.

Social-cultural and educational practices

We are living a period of demographic increase in the elderly population in Brazil and worldwide. Among the main causes are the decrease in infant and elderly mortality due to medical scientific achievements. This makes society and families increasingly live in their family and institutional spaces with older people. Situations such as the large concentration of people in urban centers, the liquid, individualistic, hedonistic and presentist society reflect as characteristics for the life of the elderly population, which wants to take advantage of the opportunities that life can provide, living in spaces public with different generations. In this sense, we understand that population aging has become a pressing social issue, which institutions such as the University, for example, have an obligation to account, especially in the sense of reflection, research in the area and opportunities for training / qualification for both the elderly as for the professionals who will work with this audience.

DRUG AND ALCOHOLIC PRACTICE HOLYGMISM IN THE WORKING POPULATION SOUTH OF UKRAINE (END OF XIX - BEGINNING OF XX CENTURY)

The article covers the activities of the Russian Empire Government and the local Guardianships of Public Sobriety in the field of combating alcoholism among the working population of Southern Ukraine in the late XIX – the early XX centuries. A reform of the state wine monopoly, the alcohol industry development and the growth of drinking establishments in the region are considered. It was noted that the introduction of the monopoly streamlined the production and sale of alcohol. However, the problem of alcoholism was not fully understood by the state because of the traditional priority of state interests over public ones.The reasons of alcoholization of the Southern Ukrainian governorates’ (provinces’) working population are revealed. It was found that the Katerynoslav Governorate was the first in consuming liquor among other governorates of the Russian Empire. It could be explained by its economic situation, the large concentration of workers in the mining enterprises and mostly male composition of the population. The attention was paid to the local Guardianships of Public Sobriety (the Guardianships), their activities in dealing with drinking among workers. Their primary measures in the fight against alcoholism are covered. They are the following: lectures, talks and readings; opening of tea rooms, cheap canteens and reading libraries. It is justified that the joint activity of the government and the Guardianships, although not completed, contributed to the reduction of alcohol consumption by the population.

Sedimentological traces of ice-raft grounding in a Weichselian glacial lake near Dukuli (NE Latvia)

A clearly erosional, asymmetrical structure with a large concentration of unsorted clasts (ranging from gravel to boulder size) in its deepest point is present in Weichselian glaciolacustrine, mainly fine-grained sediments exposed in an outcrop near Dukuli (NE Latvia). No traces of currents that were sufficiently strong to be capable to erode the sediments significantly have been encountered in the sedimentary succession under study, and such currents would certainly not have been capable to transport boulder-sized clasts. Neither are traces present of mass movements that could deposit the boulder-sized clasts. The glaciolacustrine setting of the succession, the deep scouring and the high concentration of large clasts must therefore be ascribed to erosion of the lake bottom by the keel of an ice raft that became grounded and gradually melted; the debris that was carried along by the ice raft was released and concentrated at the deepest point of the depression that had been eroded by it.