A comparative analysis of financial globalization: Financial market opening, social safety net, and democratic consolidation in South Korea, Russia, Thailand, and Brazil

This research identified and explored the relationship between financial globalization and democratization in the cases of South Korea, Thailand, Brazil and Russia. Faced with huge capital mobility and financial crisis in 1997 and 1998, the state has lost some of its autonomy for deciding economic policies, and became vulnerable to volatility in international capital flows. How the financial globalization environment impacted the democratization process in the four cases is the focal point of this study. This research yields the finding that those governments---which pay attention to social safety net policies---have also improved political rights and civil liberties as well as democratic consolidation. The case of Russia shows that the political rights and civil liberties deteriorated while the government social expenditure also diminished. This study shows that various factors must converge to achieve a consolidated democracy. Efficient social safety net policies are a necessary (but not solely sufficient) condition to reach the goal, especially when countries are stressed by a situation as urgent as the 1997--1998 financial crisis. Whatever the economic situation, the polities of the countries in this study swing between political right and left; however, the pendulum seems to orient itself toward social democracy in the short run for those developing countries with democracies in transition. Those countries in transitional states of financial globalization and democratic consolidation are subject to multiple pressures from domestic and global forces. They will have to carefully balance growth and equity to internalize the attitude, behavior, and psychology of liberal democracy in order to complete these transitions at minimum cost to their societies.</p

Probing Flexural Properties of Cellulose Nanocrystal–Graphene Nanomembranes with Force Spectroscopy and Bulging Test

The flexural properties of ultrathin freely standing composite nanomembranes from reduced graphene oxide (rGO) and cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) have been probed by combining force spectroscopy for local nanomechanical properties and bulging test for global mechanical properties. We observed that the flexural properties of these rGO–CNC nanomembranes are controlled by rGO content and deformational regimes. The nanomembranes showed the enhanced mechanical properties due to the strong interfacial interactions between interwoven rGO and CNC components. The presence of weak interfacial interactions resulted in time-dependent behavior with the relaxation time gradually decreased with increasing the deformational rate owing to the reducing viscous damping at faster probing regimes close to 10 Hz. We observed that the microscopic elastic bending modulus of 141 GPa from local force spectroscopy is close to the elastic tensile modulus evaluated from macroscopic bulging test, indicating the consistency of both approaches for analyzing the ultrathin nanomembranes at different spatial scales of deformation. We showed that the flexible rGO–CNC nanomembranes are very resilient in terms of their capacity to recover back into original shape

Enabling Selectively Tunable Mechanical Properties of Graphene Oxide/Silk Fibroin/Cellulose Nanocrystal Bionanofilms

Enhancing and manipulating the mechanical properties of graphene oxide (GO)-based structures are challenging because the GO assembly is easily delaminated. We develop nacre-like bionanofilms whose in-plane mechanical properties can be manipulated through water vapor annealing without influencing their mechanical properties in the thickness direction. These bionanofilms are prepared from GO, silk fibroin (SF), and cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) via a spin-assisted layer-by-layer assembly. The postannealing mechanical properties of the films are determined with atomic force microscopy (AFM) bending and nanoindentation, and it is confirmed that the mechanical properties of the bionanofilms are altered only in the in-plane direction. While AFM bending shows Young’s moduli of 26.9, 36.3, 24.3, and 41.4 GPa for 15, 15 annealed, 30, and 30 annealed GO/SF/CNC trilayers, nanoindentation shows reduced moduli of 19.5 ± 2.6 and 19.5 ± 2.5 GPa before and after annealing, respectively. The unaltered mechanical properties of the bionanofilms along the thickness direction after annealing can be attributed to the CNC frame in the SF matrix acting as a support against stress in the thickness direction, while annealing reorganizes the bionanofilm structure. The tunability of the bionanofilms’ mechanical properties in only one direction through structure manipulation can lead to various applications, such as e-skin, wearable sensors, and human–machine interaction devices

Robust, Ultrathin, and Highly Sensitive Reduced Graphene Oxide/Silk Fibroin Wearable Sensors Responded to Temperature and Humidity for Physiological Detection

Skin temperature and skin humidity are used for monitoring physiological processes, such as respiration. Despite advances in wearable temperature and humidity sensors, the fabrication of a durable and sensitive sensor for practical uses continues to pose a challenge. Here, we developed a durable, sensitive, and wearable temperature and humidity sensor. A reduced graphene oxide (rGO)/silk fibroin (SF) sensor was fabricated by employing a layer-by-layer technique and thermal reduction treatment. Compared with rGO, the elastic bending modulus of rGO/SF could be increased by up to 232%. Furthermore, an evaluation of the performance of an rGO/SF sensor showed that it had outstanding robustness: it could withstand repeatedly applied temperature and humidity loads and repeated bending. The developed rGO/SF sensor is promising for practical applications in healthcare and biomedical monitoring

Dramatic Enhancement of Graphene Oxide/Silk Nanocomposite Membranes: Increasing Toughness, Strength, and Young’s modulus via Annealing of Interfacial Structures

We demonstrate that stronger and more robust nacre-like laminated GO (graphene oxide)/SF (silk fibroin) nanocomposite membranes can be obtained by selectively tailoring the interfacial interactions between “bricks”-GO sheets and “mortar”-silk interlayers via controlled water vapor annealing. This facial annealing process relaxes the secondary structure of silk backbones confined between flexible GO sheets. The increased mobility leads to a significant increase in ultimate strength (by up to 41%), Young’s modulus (up to 75%) and toughness (up to 45%). We suggest that local silk recrystallization is initiated in the proximity to GO surface by the hydrophobic surface regions serving as nucleation sites for β-sheet domains formation and followed by SF assembly into nanofibrils. Strong hydrophobic–hydrophobic interactions between GO layers with SF nanofibrils result in enhanced shear strength of layered packing. This work presented here not only gives a better understanding of SF and GO interfacial interactions, but also provides insight on how to enhance the mechanical properties for the nacre-mimic nanocomposites by focusing on adjusting the delicate interactions between heterogeneous “brick” and adaptive “mortar” components with water/temperature annealing routines

Template-Guided Assembly of Silk Fibroin on Cellulose Nanofibers for Robust Nanostructures with Ultrafast Water Transport

The construction of multilength scaled hierarchical nanostructures from diverse natural components is critical in the progress toward all-natural nanocomposites with structural robustness and versatile added functionalities. Here, we report a spontaneous formation of peculiar “shish kebab” nanostructures with the periodic arrangement of silk fibroin domains along straight segments of cellulose nanofibers. We suggest that the formation of these shish kebab nanostructures is facilitated by the preferential organization of heterogeneous (β-sheets and amorphous silk) domains along the cellulose nanofiber driven by modulated axial distribution of crystalline planes, hydrogen bonding, and hydrophobic interactions as suggested by all-atom molecular dynamic simulations. Such shish kebab nanostructures enable the ultrathin membrane to possess open, transparent, mechanically robust interlocked networks with high mechanical performance with up to 30 GPa in stiffness and 260 MPa in strength. These nanoporous robust membranes allow for the extremely high water flux, up to 3.5 × 10⁴ L h^–1 m^–2 bar^–1 combined with high rejection rate for various organic molecules, capability of capturing heavy metal ions and their further reduction into metal nanoparticles for added SERS detection capability and catalytic functionalities

Table1_Low-Temperature Clay Mineral Dehydration Contributes to Porewater Dilution in Bering Sea Slope Subseafloor.XLSX

Widespread diagenesis of clay minerals occurs in deeply buried marine sediments under high-temperature and high-pressure conditions. For example, the smectite-to-illite (S-I) transformation has been often observed in sediments at in situ temperatures above ~60°C. However, it remains largely unknown whether such diagenetic processes naturally occur in relatively shallow and low-temperature sediments and, if so, what the consequences are of any related chemical reactions to the geochemical characteristics in the deep biosphere. We evaluated the possibility of naturally occurring S-I transformation at temperatures below 40°C in continental slope sediments of the Bering Sea by examining porewater chemistry, clay mineralogy, and chemical composition of clay minerals measured to ~800 m beneath the seafloor (mbsf) in core samples acquired during Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 323. In porewater from these cores, chloride concentrations decreased with increasing depth from 560 mM near the seafloor to 500 mM at ~800 mbsf; δ18O increased from 0 to 1.5‰; and δD decreased from −1 to −9‰. These trends are consistent with the addition of water derived from S-I transformation. The discrete low Cl− spikes observed between ~200 and ~450 mbsf could be attributed to the dissociation of methane hydrate. X-ray diffraction analysis of the clay-size fraction (3+/Fe2+ in the clay-size fraction with increasing depth strongly suggests microbial reduction of Fe(III) in clay minerals with burial, which also has the potential to promote the S-I transformation. Our results imply the significant ecological roles on the diagenesis of siliciclastic clay minerals underlying the high-productivity surface seawater at continental margins.</p

Gross morphology of the overproducing mutant <i>D-h</i> protein transgenic plant (right) and WT (left).

<p>Bar = 20 cm.</p

Comparison of the cDNA and predicted amino acid sequence alignments of <i>d-h</i>(WT)and<i>D-h</i>(MT).

<p>(a) Comparison of the cDNA sequences <i>d-h</i>(WT)and<i>D-h</i>(MT). Asterisks indicate single nucleotide substitution, <i>d-h</i> start codon, <i>D-h</i> start codon, and stop codon. (b) Sequence ekectrophoregrams of the RT-PCR products of <i>d-h</i>(WT)and<i>D-h</i>(MT). (c) Alignment of the predicted <i>d-h</i>protein with hypothetical proteins from <i>Zea mays</i> (NP_001147534), <i>Sorghum bicolor</i> (XP_002454989), and <i>Hordeumvulgare</i> gene (BAJ91554, AK360345).</p