The Socio-Psychological Determinants of Preferences toward Ecosystem Services: a Choice Experiment study with Posterior Analysis of Conditional Preference Distributions

Aim of this paper is to analyze the determinants of social preferences toward measures to improve water ecosystem services, that European countries should implement in compliance with the Water Framework Directive 2000(60). A Choice Experiment study has been conducted to evaluate social costs and benefits associated with measures to improve water ecosystem services in Sardinia, Italy. Socio-psychological factors complement usual socio-demographic and economic factors to analyze the determinants of individuals’ preferences. After fitting the choice data by means of a Random Parameter Logit model, we apply a set of Posterior Analysis methods to examine the conditional distributions for identification of socioeconomic, demographic and psychological factors influencing individual preferences and WTP. This approach proves useful to uncover a variety of causal effects that could not be estimated efficiently by Mixed Logit models with heterogeneity in mean and/or variance

Quantification of Economic, Ecological and Social Impacts of Climate Change in the EU

The article focuses on the current, urgent, and much discussed global issue of climate change, the impacts of which are expansive and involve a wide range of expertise. The base forms the evaluation of a sample of European Union member states using the quantification of threats and intensity of two key factors. The main objective of this article is to evaluate EU countries the INFORM assessment tool and to highlight the link between the effects of climate change (environmental, social, and economical) as quantified by respective threats posed by emission volume and poverty. In the present research, we relied on the new INFORM Risk Index assessment indicator because it represents a completely new but also globally applicable, reliable, and transparent tool to understand the risk of humanitarian crises and disasters. The significant results of the performed quantitative analysis suggest that security risk, poverty, and pollution levels operate as closely linked areas. It can be expected that recent changes (the COVID-19 pandemic, state of war) will mean that these influences will increase in severity

Photoexcitations and Emission Processes in Organometal Trihalide Perovskites

Organometal halide perovskites have recently attracted widespread attention among scientists, as they combine the advantages of low-cost processability with strong light absorption, band-gap tunability from the near-infrared to the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum, efficient light emission and charge transport. Such combination of features is unique among solution-processed materials and makes perovskites appealing for several optoelectronic applications, in particular those related to energy sustainability, which could help the advent of a new generation of low-cost but efficient solar cells and large-area light-emitting devices.This chapter reports a critical review of the efforts that scientists have made until now to understand the photophysics of organometal halide perovskites. We address the ongoing debate on the nature of the photoexcited species, namely the role played by free carriers and excitons, the determination of the exciton binding energy as a measure of the Coulomb interaction strength in these materials, the competition between radiative and non-radiative processes, the role and density of charge carrier traps, and last but not least a critical analysis of those phenomena at the base of laser action, highlighting the most relevant results and possible solutions to issues that still remain open

Active Peptic Ulcer Disease in Patients with Hepatitis C Virus-Related Cirrhosis: The Role of Helicobacter pylori

BACKGROUND & AIM: The relationship between Helicobacter pylori infection and peptic ulcer disease in cirrhosis remains controversial. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the role of H pylori infection and portal hypertension gastropathy in the prevalence of active peptic ulcer among dyspeptic patients with compensated hepatitis C virus (HCV)-related cirrhosis

Exciton dissociation in 2D layered metal-halide perovskites

: Layered 2D perovskites are making inroads as materials for photovoltaics and light emitting diodes, but their photophysics is still lively debated. Although their large exciton binding energies should hinder charge separation, significant evidence has been uncovered for an abundance of free carriers among optical excitations. Several explanations have been proposed, like exciton dissociation at grain boundaries or polaron formation, without clarifying yet if excitons form and then dissociate, or if the formation is prevented by competing relaxation processes. Here we address exciton stability in layered Ruddlesden-Popper PEA2PbI4 (PEA stands for phenethylammonium) both in form of thin film and single crystal, by resonant injection of cold excitons, whose dissociation is then probed with femtosecond differential transmission. We show the intrinsic nature of exciton dissociation in 2D layered perovskites, demonstrating that both 2D and 3D perovskites are free carrier semiconductors and their photophysics is described by a unique and universal framework