SUSTAINABLE COUNTRYSIDE AND COMPETITIVENESS

Sustainability, which is a way of thinking, life, production and consumption, covers all dimensions of human existence, its relation to natural resources, the economy and society. Sustainability can be the solution, beside research and development processes, to global problems like globalising economy and market competition, global warming, poverty and famine. United Nations’ actions from Rio to Johannesburg and EU decisions seem to underpin this. Well intentioned efforts up to the present have been made on global level with few results. Therefore it is necessary to implement sustainability on regional and local sub-regional, company level. Sustainability is getting into the centre of expectations and actions. It is very likely that only regions and subregions recognising the importance of sustainability in time, will be successful and competitive as a result of this advantage. Settlements neglecting sustainability will not be able to keep their inhabitants, the countryside around them will not be able to produce enough products meeting food safety standards, and will exhaust its natural resources fairly quickly. The competitiveness of a region is largely determined by the state and development pattern of its rural areas and settlements. Therefore research has been focused on sustainable countryside and its important elements, sustainable (liveable) settlements. During our investigations we implemented a new indicator and index number set that reflects all dimensions of sustainability, the present situation, and supports the bottom up decision making process of local governments and NGOs in order to promote development. These investigations highlighted the facts that potential competitiveness of a region can only be based on sustainable settlements, subregions and it is essential to eliminate deficiencies that restrain present and future development. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX A fenntarthatóság, amely szemlélet-, gondolkodás-, élet-, termelési-, valamint fogyasztási mód felöleli az emberi létezés valamennyi dimenzióját, a természeti erÅ‘forrásokhoz való viszonyát, a gazdaságot és a társadalmat. A globális kihívá-sok leküzdésében – mint például a globalizálódó gazdaság és piaci verseny, a globális felmelegedés, a szegénység és éhezés leküzdése –, a kutatási – innovációs folyamatok mellett a fenntarthatóság jelentheti a megoldást. Ezt megerÅ‘sítik az ENSZ világrendezvényei Riótól – Johannesburgig, valamint az EU határozatai. Az eddigi jó szándékú próbálkozások globális szinten mozogtak, vajmi kevés eredménnyel. Ezért szükséges a fenntarthatóság regionális és lokális – kistérségi, települési, vállalkozási – szintjein kezdeményezni a megoldást. A fenntarthatóság egyre inkább az elvárások és cselekvések középpontjába kerül, várható, hogy csak azok a régiók, kistérségek, helyi szintek lehetnek eredményesek, versenyké-pesek melyek idÅ‘ben felismerték a fenntarthatóság érvényesítésének szükséges-ségét, s ezzel helyzeti elÅ‘nyre tesznek szert. Ugyanis a fenntarthatóságot mellÅ‘zÅ‘ települések nem tudják megtartani lakosaikat, s a vidék nem képes megfelelÅ‘ minÅ‘ségű, az élelmiszerbiztonsági igényeknek megfelelÅ‘ termékeket kibocsátani, s nem hosszabb távon felélik természeti erÅ‘forrásaikat. A régiók versenyesélyét sokban meghatározzák a régión belüli vidéki térségek és települések helyzete, s fejlÅ‘dése. Ezért a kutatások a fenntartható vidék és ennek lényegi elemére a fenntartható, vagyis élhetÅ‘ településre irányultak. A vizsgálatok erre a célra egy újszerű indikátor és mutatószámrendszert alkalmaztak, amely tükrözte a fenn-tarthatóság dimenzióit, az adott helyzetet, s megalapozzák az alulról építkezÅ‘ te-lepülési és civil szervezeti önkormányzatok a fejlesztés lehetÅ‘ségeit. A vizsgálatok hangsúlyozzák, hogy a fenntartható településekre-kistérségekre épülhet a régió versenyesélye, s mindebben különösen fontos szerepe van a jelent és jövÅ‘t korlá-tozó „hiányok†felszámolásának.Community/Rural/Urban Development, Environmental Economics and Policy, Public Economics, sustainability on regional level, settlements, investigations - fenntarthatóság regionális szintje, települések, beruházások,

Fenntarthatósági vizsgálatok a vidékfejlesztésben

A fenntarthatóság jelentÅ‘sége és aktualitása nem szorul különösebb bizonyításra, mert tapasztalható, hogy a természeti rendszerek körforgásának, vagy az anyagi javak újratermelésének zavarai már az emberi létezést veszélyeztetik. A vizsgálat tárgyául a Tisza-tó térsége, illetve a Tisza-tó Térségi Fejlesztési Tanácsba tömörült 73 település szolgált. Hazánkban a fenntarthatósági vizsgálatok szerepe a vidékfejlesztésben kiemelt jelentÅ‘ségű. A vidéki térségek fejlettségi szintjei és lehetÅ‘ségei erÅ‘teljesen befolyásolhatják a fenntarthatóság gyakorlati megvalósításának esélyeit, amint azt korábbi vizsgálataink is alátámasztották. A vizsgált területen a támogatásokban meghirdetett fejlesztési elgondolások kérdőíves vizsgálatának eredményei alapján megállapítható, hogy ezek nem tükröznek határozott irányvonalat, ami nem kedvez többek közt a helyi sajátosságokon alapuló vidéki fenntarthatósági törekvéseknek. Az „Új Magyarország Falu Program az élhetÅ‘ vidékért†öt intézkedéscsomagjának helyi megítélése sem minden esetben tükrözi a lokális adottságokban és értékekben rejlÅ‘ lehetÅ‘ségek felismerését, ami alapvetÅ‘en nehezítheti a fenntartható vidékfejlesztést. ------------------------------------------- The importance and topicality of sustainability hardly needs to be demonstrated any further, as experience is showing us how troubles in the ecological cycles or the re-production of material goods threaten human existence. The study focused on the region of Tisza Lake and the 73 settlements which formed the Regional Development Council for Tisza Lake Region. Sustainability research plays a great role in rural development in Hungary. As shown in our earlier studies, the level of development and opportunities available to rural regions have a strong effect on the extent to which sustainability is implemented in practice. A questionnaire-based study of development concepts apparent in the calls for applications for subsidies in the region indicates that development concepts do not reflect a firm approach, which is not favourable for rural local sustainability initiatives based on local characteristics. Local opinions on the five packages of the ‘New Hungary Village Programme for Liveabl Rural Areas’ do not always indicate awareness of opportunities arising from local features and values, which may be a profound barrier to sustainable rural development.fenntarthatóság, vidékfejlesztés, kistérség, empirikus felmérés, sustainability, rural development, micro-region, empirical survey, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Environmental Economics and Policy,

Optimized polar-azimuthal orientations for polarized light illumination of different Superconducting Nanowire Single-Photon Detector designs

The optimal orientations are determined for polarized substrate side illumination of three superconducting nanowire single-photon detector (SNSPD) designs: (1) periodic niobium-nitride (NbN) stripes standing in air with dimensions according to conventional SNSPDs, (2) same NbN patterns below ~quarter-wavelength hydrogensilsesquioxane-filled nano-cavity, (3) analogous NbN patterns in HSQ nano-cavity closed by a thin gold reflector. Numerical computation results have shown that the optical response and near-field distribution vary significantly with polar-angle, fi, and these variations are analogous across all azimuthal-angles, gamma, but are fundamentally different in various device designs. Larger absorptance is available due to p-polarized illumination of NbN patterns in P-structure configuration, while s-polarized illumination results in higher absorptance in S-structure arrangement. As a result of p-polarized illumination a global maximum appears on absorptance of bare NbN pattern at polar angle corresponding to NbN-related ATIR; integration with HSQ nano-cavity results in a global absorptance maximum at polar angle corresponding to TIR at sapphire-air interface; while the highest absorptance is observable at perpendicular incidence on P-structures aligned below gold reflector covered HSQ nano-cavity. S-polarized light illumination results in a global absorptance maximum at TIR on bare NbN patterns; the highest absorptance is available below HSQ nano-cavity at polar angle corresponding to ATIR phenomenon; while the benefit of gold reflector is large and polar angle independent absorptance.Comment: 24 pages, 7 figure

Optimized Superconducting Nanowire Single Photon Detectors to Maximize Absorptance

Dispersion characteristics of four types of superconducting nanowire single photon detectors, nano-cavity-array- (NCA-), nano-cavity-deflector-array- (NCDA-), nano-cavity-double-deflector-array- (NCDDA-) and nano-cavity-trench-array- (NCTA-) integrated (I-A-SNSPDs) devices was optimized in three periodicity intervals commensurate with half-, three-quarter- and one SPP wavelength. The optimal configurations capable of maximizing NbN absorptance correspond to periodicity dependent tilting in S-orientation (90{\deg} azimuthal orientation). In NCAI-A-SNSPDs absorptance maxima are reached at the plasmonic Brewster angle (PBA) due to light tunneling. The absorptance maximum is attained in a wide plasmonic-pass-band in NCDAI_1/2*lambda-A, inside a flat-plasmonic-pass-band in NCDAI_3/4*lambda-A and inside a narrow plasmonic-band in NCDAI_lambda-A. In NCDDAI_1/2*lambda-A bands of strongly-coupled cavity and plasmonic modes cross, in NCDDAI_3/4*lambda-A an inverted-plasmonic-band-gap develops, while in NCDDAI_lambda-A a narrow plasmonic-pass-band appears inside an inverted-minigap. The absorptance maximum is achieved in NCTAI_1/2*lambda-A inside a plasmonic-pass-band, in NCTAI_3/4*lambda-A at inverted-plasmonic-band-gap center, while in NCTAI_lambda-A inside an inverted-minigap. The highest 95.05% absorptance is attained at perpendicular incidence onto NCTAI_lambda-A. Quarter-wavelength type cavity modes contribute to the near-field enhancement around NbN segments except in NCDAI_lambda-A and NCDDAI_3/4*lambda-A. The polarization contrast is moderate in NCAI-A-SNSPDs (~10^2), NCDAI- and NCDDAI-A-SNSPDs make possible to attain considerably large polarization contrast (~10^2-10^3 and ~10^3-10^4), while NCTAI-A-SNSPDs exhibit a weak polarization selectivity (~10-10^2).Comment: 26 pages, 8 figure

Climate-oriented assessment of main street design and development in Budapest

Main streets play pivotal role in urban areas in terms of economic, social, moreover environmental contexts. Such streets are generally situated in densely built-up areas, where the adverse effects of climate change, such as rising temperature and changing precipitation patterns occur emphatically. Increasing urban heat island effect or extreme amount of runoff water during severe storms and floods significantly decrease the adaptive capacity of a city, consequently its residents becoming more vulnerable. Therefore involving climate-oriented design principles into planning and construction phase contributes to reach more sustainable and climate-friendly open spaces what are strongly relevant especially in main streets which are designed for a great amount of people. Present study provides a criteria matrix for assessing the climate-friendly level of recently renewed main streets in Budapest. Due to this assessment tool the adaptation and mitigation performance of the selected projects can be evaluated. For identifying strengths and weaknesses of a given project, a rating scheme has been applied by selecting and using 42 indicators grouped into mitigation, adaptation and awareness raising categories. Thus planners, decision-makers and other stakeholders can easily define future opportunities and challenges, accordingly this study may contribute to take urban street design practices toward climate-friendliness by paying more attention on changing local weather patterns and related consequences

Enhancing diamond color center fluorescence via optimized plasmonic nanorod configuration

A novel numerical methodology has been developed, which makes possible to optimize arbitrary emitting dipole and plasmonic nano-resonator configuration with an arbitrary objective function. By selecting quantum efficiency as the objective function that has to be maximized at preselected Purcell factor criteria, optimization of plasmonic nanorod based configurations has been realized to enhance fluorescence of NV and SiV color centers in diamond. Gold and silver nanorod based configurations have been optimized to enhance excitation and emission separately, as well as both processes simultaneously, and the underlying nanophotonical phenomena have been inspected comparatively. It has been shown that considerable excitation enhancement is achieved by silver nanorods, while nanorods made of both metals are appropriate to enhance emission. More significant improvement can be achieved via silver nanorods at both wavelengths of both color centers. It has been proven that theoretical limits originating from metal dielectric properties can be approached by simultaneous optimization, which results in configurations determined by preferences corresponding to the emission. Larger emission enhancement is achieved via both metals in case of SiV center compared to the NV center. Gold and silver nanorod based configurations making possible to improve SiV centers quantum efficiency by factors of 1.18 and 5.25 are proposed, which have potential applications in quantum information processing.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figure