The European Parliament and development cooperation: democratic participation in the ‘low politics’ of EU external relations

The European Parliament enjoys an array of powers in development cooperation, ranging from legislative and budgetary powers to scrutiny and democratic oversight. However, its role has largely been overlooked and generally been absent from the key debates in the EU foreign policy literature. Partly this stems from the ‘low politics’ nature of development cooperation, when set against the ‘high politics’ of EU external relations as typified by CFSP/CSDP and trade. This article combines a legal analysis of the EP’s post-Lisbon powers in EU development cooperation with an examination of the Multiannual Financial Framework, the European Consensus on Development and interinstitutional interactions to assess how the EP has succeeded in gaining a more significant role in this policy field. The article argues that the ‘low politics’ of EU development cooperation is highly susceptible to the EP’s institutional assertion and empowerment in overall EU external relations

On the Connectedness of the Moduli Space of Calabi--Yau Manifolds

We show that the moduli space of all Calabi-Yau manifolds that can be realized as hypersurfaces described by a transverse polynomial in a four dimensional weighted projective space, is connected. This is achieved by exploiting techniques of toric geometry and the construction of Batyrev that relate Calabi-Yau manifolds to reflexive polyhedra. Taken together with the previously known fact that the moduli space of all CICY's is connected, and is moreover connected to the moduli space of the present class of Calabi-Yau manifolds (since the quintic threefold P_4[5] is both CICY and a hypersurface in a weighted P_4, this strongly suggests that the moduli space of all simply connected Calabi-Yau manifolds is connected. It is of interest that singular Calabi-Yau manifolds corresponding to the points in which the moduli spaces meet are often, for the present class, more singular than the conifolds that connect the moduli spaces of CICY's.Comment: 22 pages plain TeX, Tables and references adde

On Semi-Periods

The periods of the three-form on a Calabi-Yau manifold are found as solutions of the Picard-Fuchs equations; however, the toric varietal method leads to a generalized hypergeometric system of equations which has more solutions than just the periods. This same extended set of equations can be derived from symmetry considerations. Semi-periods are solutions of this extended system. They are obtained by integration of the three-form over chains; these chains can be used to construct cycles which, when integrated over, give periods. In simple examples we are able to obtain the complete set of solutions for the extended system. We also conjecture that a certain modification of the method will generate the full space of solutions in general.Comment: 18 pages, plain TeX. Revised derivation of $\Delta^*$ system of equations; version to appear in Nuclear Physics

On Periods for String Compactifications

Motivated by recent developments in the computation of periods for string compactifications with $c=9$, we develop a complementary method which also produces a convenient basis for related calculations. The models are realized as Calabi--Yau hypersurfaces in weighted projective spaces of dimension four or as Landau-Ginzburg vacua. The calculation reproduces known results and also allows a treatment of Landau--Ginzburg orbifolds with more than five fields.Comment: HUPAPP-93/6, IASSNS-HEP-93/80, UTTG-27-93. 21 pages,harvma

Mechanical Properties of Composite Material Reinforced With Silica Particles Obtained from Biomass Modified With Double-Layered Hydroxides

Silica particles were produced form rice husk and used as reinforcement in the polymer matrix. The obtained silica particles' surfaces were modified with layered double hydroxides, which enabled better reinforcement in the PMMA matrix. Coprecipitation was used to synthetize Fe Al layered double hydroxides (LDH) with a Fe:Al cation content of 3:1 and an FeAl-LDH: silica ratio of 1:1. X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and scanning electron microscopy with EDS were used to characterize the synthesized particles. The prepared particle amounts in the PMMA matrix were 1, 3, and 5 wt. %. The purpose of this study was to see if the obtained SiO2 particles, as well as their modification with FeAl-LDH, had any effect on the mechanical properties of polymer composite materials. The mechanical characterization of obtained composites was done using Vickers microindentation tests and impact testing. The Vickers micro-hardness test showed that the addition of reinforcement increases the hardness of the composite. When compared to the matrix, the toughness of the composite material with a higher content of particles (5 wt. %) in the energy absorbed in this impact test was three times higher.The book of abstract available at: [http://conf.univerzitetpim.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Book-of-Abstracts_2022-1.pdf

Mechanical Properties of Biomass-derived Silica Nanoparticles Reinforced PMMA Composite Material

Rice husk was used to produce silica particles, which were then used to reinforce the polymer matrix. The synthesized SiO2 particles were characterized using X-ray diffraction, Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy with EDS. In a PMMA matrix, prepared SiO2 particles in amounts of 1, 3, and 5 wt.% were used as reinforcing agents. The goal of this research was to see if SiO2 particles had any effect on the mechanical properties of polymer composite materials. The morphology of the composites was examined using a field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM). Vickers microindentation hardness and impact testing were used to determine the mechanical properties of the obtained composites. The indentation creep’s behavior of a polymethylmetacrylate (PMMA) composite material with varying amounts of nanoparticles (SiO2) was investigated and analyzed

Hardness and Wettability Characteristics of Electrolytically Produced Copper Composite Coatings Reinforced with Layered Double Oxide (Fe/Al LDO) Nanoparticles

The lab-made ferrite-aluminium layered double oxide (Fe/Al LDO) nanoparticles were used as reinforcement in the production of copper matrix composite coatings via the electrodeposition route in this study. The Cu coatings electrodeposited galvanostatically without and with low concentrations of Fe/Al LDO nanoparticles were characterized by SEM (morphology), AFM (topography and roughness), XRD (phase composition and texture), Vickers microindentation (hardness), and the static sessile drop method (wettability). All Cu coatings were fine-grained and microcrystalline with a (220) preferred orientation, with a tendency to increase the grain size, the roughness, and this degree of the preferred orientation with increasing the coating thickness. The cross-section analysis of coatings electrodeposited with Fe/Al LDO nanoparticles showed their uniform distribution throughout the coating. Hardness analysis of Cu coatings performed by application of the Chicot-Lesage (C-L) composite hardness model showed that Fe/Al LDO nanoparticles added to the electrolyte caused a change of the composite system from “soft film on hard cathode” into “hard film on soft cathode” type, confirming the successful incorporation of the nanoparticles in the coatings. The increase in roughness had a crucial effect on the wettability of the coatings, causing a change from hydrophilic reinforcement-free coatings to hydrophobic coatings obtained with incorporated Fe/Al LDO nanoparticles

Hardness and Wettability Characteristics of Electrolytically Produced Copper Composite Coatings Reinforced with Layered Double Oxide (Fe/Al LDO) Nanoparticles

The lab-made ferrite-aluminium layered double oxide (Fe/Al LDO) nanoparticles were used as reinforcement in the production of copper matrix composite coatings via the electrodeposition route in this study. The Cu coatings electrodeposited galvanostatically without and with low concentrations of Fe/Al LDO nanoparticles were characterized by SEM (morphology), AFM (topography and roughness), XRD (phase composition and texture), Vickers microindentation (hardness), and the static sessile drop method (wettability). All Cu coatings were fine-grained and microcrystalline with a (220) preferred orientation, with a tendency to increase the grain size, the roughness, and this degree of the preferred orientation with increasing the coating thickness. The cross-section analysis of coatings electrodeposited with Fe/Al LDO nanoparticles showed their uniform distribution throughout the coating. Hardness analysis of Cu coatings performed by application of the Chicot-Lesage (C-L) composite hardness model showed that Fe/Al LDO nanoparticles added to the electrolyte caused a change of the composite system from “soft film on hard cathode” into “hard film on soft cathode” type, confirming the successful incorporation of the nanoparticles in the coatings. The increase in roughness had a crucial effect on the wettability of the coatings, causing a change from hydrophilic reinforcement-free coatings to hydrophobic coatings obtained with incorporated Fe/Al LDO nanoparticles

Non-destructive characterisation and classification of ceramic artefacts using pEDXRF and statistical pattern recognition

Background: Portable energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (pEDXRF) spectrometry analysis was applied for the characterisation of archaeological ceramic findings from three Neolithic sites in Serbia. Two dimension reduction techniques, principal component analysis (PCA) and scattering matrices-based dimension reduction were used to examine the possible classification of those findings, and to extract the most discriminant features. Results: A decision-making procedure is proposed, whose goal is to classify unknown ceramic findings based on their elemental compositions derived by pEDXRF spectrometry. As a major part of decision-making procedure, the possibilities of two dimension reduction methods were tested. Scattering matrices-based dimension reduction was found to be the more efficient method for the purpose. Linear classifiers designed based on the desired output allowed for 7 of 8 unknown samples from the test set to be correctly classified. Conclusions: Based on the results, the conclusion is that despite the constraints typical of the applied analytical technique, the elemental composition can be considered as viable information in provenience studies. With a fully-developed procedure, ceramic artefacts can be classified based on their elemental composition and well-known provenance