Not in my backyard, but not far away from me: Local acceptance of wind power in China

Local acceptance of wind energy technology has become an important factor to consider when designing local and national wind energy technological innovation policies. Previous studies have investigated the factors that shape the local acceptance of wind power in high-income countries. However, to the best of our knowledge, these factors had not been investigated in China. Utilizing a survey and quantitative analysis, we have identified the factors that are correlated with local acceptance of wind power in China. We conducted our study in the city of Jiuquan, Gansu Province, which currently possesses the largest installed capacity for wind power generation in China. Two factors, namely, perceived economic benefits and perceived environmental costs, influence local acceptance of wind power in China most significantly. Local acceptance of wind power in China can be described as "not in my backyard, but not far away from me". In other words, the acceptance rate is lowest when the source of wind power is located in their village or community, highest when the project is located in their county and city and decreases for projects that are constructed further away

Rescue US energy innovation

President Trump has proposed severe cuts to US government spending on energy research, development and demonstration, but Congress has the ‘power of the purse’ and can rescue US energy innovation. If serious cuts are enacted, the pace of innovation will slow, harming the economy, energy security and global environmental quality. The Trump Administration has proposed a 57% reduction in US government investments in energy research, development and demonstration (RD&D) at the Department of Energy (DOE), from US$3.8 billion allocated for fiscal year 2017 (FY2017) under the continuing resolution to US$1.6 billion in the FY2018 request (unless otherwise stated, all dollar figures are given in constant 2015 US dollars). These severe reductions, if enacted by Congress, would reduce the pace of US energy-technology innovation, ultimately harming the US economy, energy security, environmental quality and the capacity of the world’s second largest emitter of greenhouse gases to do its share in reducing the emissions that are driving global climate change. This abdication of leadership would adversely affect not just US interests but global interests as well

Is Cyprideis agrigentina Decima a good palaeosalinometer 1 for the Messinian Salinity Crisis? 2 Morphometrical and geochemical analyses from the Eraclea Minoa section (Sicily)

The living euryhaline species Cyprideis torosa (Jones) undergoes morphometric variations in size, noding and sieve-pore shape linked to the environmental salinity. In particular it is known that salinity values around 8-9 psu represent the osmoregulation threshold and also the turning point between smaller and greater valve dimensions and prevailingly noded against un-noded valves. The variation of the percentage of round-, elongate- and irregular-shaped sieve-pores on the valves has shown an empiric logarithmic correlation with the water salinity from 0 to 100 psu. Due to this ecologically cued polymorphism, C. torosa represents 28 an invaluable palaeosalinometer for the Quaternary brackish basins. In this paper we attempt to verify whether the ecophenotypical behaviour of the post-evaporitic Messinian species Cyprideis agrigentina Decima was comparable with that of C. torosa. To reach this goal, three morphometric characters have been analysed: 1) size variability; 2) noding and ornamentation; 3) variability of the percentage of the sieve-pore shapes. The palaeoenvironmental interpretation was made using synecological and geochemical approaches [stable isotopes, trace elements, Sr-isotopes and natural radioactivity (NRD)]. For this study, the 250 m-thick Messinian Lago-Mare succession of Eraclea Minoa (Agrigento, Sicily) was chosen for the presence of monotypic assemblages made only by C. agrigentina for around 70 m of thickness. The results of the morphometric analyses showed that: 1) size variations are not related to the salinity changes recognized both from synecological and geochemical analyses; 2) no noded specimens have been recovered along the section; 3) the salinities calculated on the basis of the percentage of the sieve-pore shape are not correlated with the salinities inferred from the synecological and geochemical analyses. Thus in this paper we conclude that C. agrigentina cannot be considered a palaeosalinometer for the Messinian Salinity Crisis. There is a correlation of the 13 C and NRD data with the percentages of sieve-pore shapes, linking them to the oxygen availability at the bottom of the basin

Characteristic length scale of the magnon accumulation in Fe3O4/Pt bilayer structures by incoherent thermal excitation

The dependence of Spin Seebeck effect (SSE) with the thickness of the magnetic materials is studied by means of incoherent thermal excitation. The SSE voltage signal in Fe3O4/Pt bilayer structure increases with the magnetic material thickness up to 100¿nm, approximately, showing signs of saturation for larger thickness. This dependence is well described in terms of a spin current pumped in the platinum film by the magnon accumulation in the magnetic material. The spin current is generated by a gradient of temperature in the system and detected by the Pt top contact by means of inverse spin Hall effect. Calculations in the frame of the linear response theory adjust with a high degree of accuracy the experimental data, giving a thermal length scale of the magnon accumulation (¿) of 17¿±¿3¿nm at 300¿K and ¿¿=¿40¿±¿10¿nm at 70¿K

Spin-orbit torque from the introduction of Cu interlayers in Pt/Cu/Co/Pt nanolayered structures for spintronic devices

Spin currents can modify the magnetic state of ferromagnetic ultrathin films through spin-orbit torque. They may be generated by means of spin-orbit interactions by either bulk or interfacial phenomena. Electrical transport measurements reveal a 6-fold increase of the spin-orbit torque accompanied by a drastic reduction of the spin Hall magnetoresistance upon the introduction of an ultrathin Cu interlayer in a Pt/Cu/Co/Pt structure with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. We analyze the dependence of the spin Hall magnetoresistance with the thickness of the interlayer, ranging from 0.5 to 15 nm, in the frame of a drift diffusion model that provides information on the expected spin currents and spin accumulations in the system. The results demonstrate that the major responsibility of both effects is spin memory loss at the interface. The enhancement of the spin-orbit torque when introducing an interlayer opens the possibility to design more efficient spintronic devices based on materials that are cheap and abundant such as copper. More specifically, spin-orbit torque magnetic random access memories and spin logic devices could benefit from the spin-orbit torque enhancement and cheaper material usage presented in this study

Guía de la excursión al Triásico de la Sierra de Prades

Peer reviewe

KRILLBASE: a circumpolar database of Antarctic krill and salp numerical densities, 1926–2016

Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) and salps are major macroplankton contributors to Southern Ocean food webs and krill are also fished commercially. Managing this fishery sustainably, against a backdrop of rapid regional climate change, requires information on distribution and time trends. Many data on the abundance of both taxa have been obtained from net sampling surveys since 1926, but much of this is stored in national archives, sometimes only in notebooks. In order to make these important data accessible we have collated available abundance data (numerical density, no.