Nanotechnology in a Globalized World: Strategic Assessments of an Emerging Technology

PASCC Report Number 2014-006Nanotechnologies are enabling, dual-use technologies with the potential to alter the modern world significantly, from fields as wide-ranging as warfare to industrial design to medicine to social and human engineering. Seizing the technological lead in nanotech is often viewed as an imperative for both 21st century defense and global competitiveness. Only revolutionary technologies are believed to allow a country to take advantage of its relative backwardness—in the sense of its lack of commitment to existing, incremental technologies—and leap ahead of existing technological leaders in developing and deploying a revolutionary new technology. New technologies, however, are only likely truly to revolutionize an economy and society if there is a broader national base that allows a new technology to spread and transform from its initial niche application, whether civilian or military, and if society is willing to adopt the technology in question. Globally, there is significant belief in the revolutionary potential of nanotechnology, not only to transform warfare, economy and society, but also the international geopolitical hierarchy. Between 2001 and 2014, over sixty countries followed the United States and established nanotechnology initiatives. These countries range from advanced industrial countries in Europe to Japan to the emerging markets of Russia, China, Brazil, and India to developing countries such as Nepal and Pakistan.U.S. Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), Center on Contemporary Conflict (CCC), Project on Advanced Systems and Concepts for Countering WMD (PASCC

Impact of pandemics and war in EU’s cohesion policy:problematics and challenges

The impact of Russia’s war in Ukraine, as another external shock, in EU’s economy and society is clearly high. It arrived just when another external shock (the convid-19 pandemic) was getting absorbed and overcome. This research frames this war in an historic evolution of multiple political factors in Europe and then characterizes the consequences of this external shock. Then an analysis of the degree of asymmetry in the distribution of those impacts across the EU regions is made and a framework for the following years is proposed: the quadruple transition. The paper finishes with an assessment of how these four transitions are assuming different paces in different EU regions, calling for an intervention of EU’s cohesion policy.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Физиологические корреляты математической тревожности в состоянии покоя и при ожидании решения математических задач

Математическая тревожность (МТ) – это чувство дискомфорта или страха при выполнении любых математических задач. Показано, что МТ влияет на успеваемость по математике. Люди с высокой математической тревожностью имеют умеренную реакцию мозговой активности даже не на само задание, а на ожидание решения математических задач. Известно, что электрическая активность кожи (ЭАК), частота сердечных сокращений (ЧСС) и вариабельность сердечного ритма являются чувствительными индикаторами стресса. Цель. Нашей целью было исследовать изменения физиологических показателей, таких как: электрическая активность кожи, частота сердечных сокращений и вариабельность сердечного ритма в состоянии покоя и при ожидании решения математических задач у участников с разным уровнем математической тревожности. Материалы и методы. В нашу выборку вошли 84 участника с высоким и низким уровнем математической тревожности. Экспериментальная процедура включала запись физиологических показателей в состоянии покоя, без специальных указаний и во время ожидания математических задач, когда участникам сообщалось, что далее они будут выполнять математические вычисления. Результаты. Исследование показало, что частота сердечных сокращений была значительно выше при ожидании решения математических задач у всех участников, независимо от уровня математической тревожности. Однако данный эффект был небольшой. Также были обнаружены различия в амплитуде электрической активности кожи у участников с разным уровнем математической тревожности. Заключение. Исследование показало, что частота сердечных сокращений чувствительна к такому эмоциональному состоянию, как ожидание решения математических задач, а изменение электрической активности кожи может выступать одним из индикаторов математической тревожности

Hall Conductance of a Two-Dimensional Electron Gas in Periodic Lattice with Triangular Antidots

The topic of this contribution is the investigation of quantum states and quantum Hall effect in electron gas subjected to a periodic potential of the lateral lattice. The potential is formed by triangular quantum antidos located on the sites of the square lattice. In a such system the inversion center and the four-fold rotation symmetry are absent. The topological invariants which characterize different magnetic subbands and their Hall conductances are calculated. It is shown that the details of the antidot geometry are crucial for the Hall conductance quantization rule. The critical values of lattice parameters defining the shape of triangular antidots at which the Hall conductance is changed drastically are determined. We demonstrate that the quantum states and Hall conductance quantization law for the triangular antidot lattice differ from the case of the square lattice with cylindrical antidots. As an example, the Hall conductances of magnetic subbands for different antidot geometries are calculated for the case when the number of magnetic flux quanta per unit cell is equal to three.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

Enabling Data-Driven Transportation Safety Improvements in Rural Alaska

Safety improvements require funding. A clear need must be demonstrated to secure funding. For transportation safety, data, especially data about past crashes, is the usual method of demonstrating need. However, in rural locations, such data is often not available, or is not in a form amenable to use in funding applications. This research aids rural entities, often federally recognized tribes and small villages acquire data needed for funding applications. Two aspects of work product are the development of a traffic counting application for an iPad or similar device, and a review of the data requirements of the major transportation funding agencies. The traffic-counting app, UAF Traffic, demonstrated its ability to count traffic and turning movements for cars and trucks, as well as ATVs, snow machines, pedestrians, bicycles, and dog sleds. The review of the major agencies demonstrated that all the likely funders would accept qualitative data and Road Safety Audits. However, quantitative data, if it was available, was helpful