Organised crime and international aid subversion: evidence from Colombia and Afghanistan

Scholarly attempts to explain aid subversion in post-conflict contexts frame the challenge in terms of corrupt practices and transactions disconnected from local power struggles. Also, they assume a distinction between organised crime and the state. This comparative analysis of aid subversion in Colombia and Afghanistan reveals the limits of such an approach. Focusing on relations that anchor organised crime within local political, social and economic processes, we demonstrate that organised crime is dynamic, driven by multiple motives, and endogenous to local power politics. Better understanding of governance arrangements around the organised crime-conflict nexus which enable aid subversion is therefore required

The Role of Lifelong Learning in Political Stability and Non-Violence: Evidence from Africa

Purpose – Education as a weapon in the fight against conflict and violence remains widely debated in policy and academic circles. Against the background of growing political instability in Africa and the central role of the knowledge economy in 21st century development, this paper provides three contributions to existing literature. It assesses how political stability/ non-violence is linked to the incremental, synergy and lifelong learning effects of education. Design/methodology/approach – We define lifelong learning as the combined knowledge acquired during primary, secondary and tertiary education. Principal component analysis is used to reduce the dimensions of educational and political indicators. An endogeneity robust dynamic system Generalized Methods of Moments is used for the estimations. Findings – We establish three main findings. First, education is a useful weapon in the fight against political instability. Second, there is an incremental effect of education in the transition from secondary to tertiary schools. Third, lifelong learning also has positive and synergy effects. This means that the impact of lifelong learning is higher than the combined independent effects of various educational levels. The empirical evidence is based on 53 African countries for the period 1996-2010. Practical implications – A plethora of policy implications are discussed, inter alia: how the drive towards increasing the knowledge economy through lifelong learning can be an effective tool in the fight against violence and political insurgency in Africa. Originality/value – As the continent is nursing knowledge economy ambitions, the paper is original in investigating the determinants of political stability/non violence from three dimensions of education attainment: the incremental, the lifelong learning and a synergy effect

Compatibility of 3-D printed devices in cleanroom environments for semiconductor processing

3-D printing has potential to revolutionize manufacturing of customized low-cost scientific equipment, and numerous self-designed applications have already been realized and demonstrated. However, the applicability of 3-D printed devices to cleanrooms used for semiconductor processing is not as straightforward, as the controlled environment sets strict requirements for the allowed materials and items. This work investigates the opportunity to utilize 3-D printing in cleanrooms by analyzing three potentially suitable polymers (polylactic acid (PLA), acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and polypropylene (PP)) for two applications that do not require particular chemical compatibility: a custom single wafer storage box and a wafer positioner for a metrology system. The designed equipment supplements commercial selection by introducing support for samples with non-standard shape or size and simultaneously reduces the price of often extensively expensive cleanroom equipment. The results show that the single wafer boxes 3-D printed from PLA and ABS generate as little particles as a commercial equivalent, whereas slightly more particles are found from a wafer stored in the self-printed PP box. Nevertheless, the number of particles on all wafers is in the same order of magnitude, indicating that 3-D printed boxes are not significant particle sources. The 3-D wafer positioner seems to cause a negligible particle increase on the manipulated wafer, while abrasion of the mechanical parts generate larger numbers of particles that may disperse in the environment. Regular cleaning of those parts is thus recommended, and applicability in a cleanroom environment will depend on the cleanliness constraints. Elemental analysis reveals that 3-D printed objects contain no other harmful metal impurities than those originating from colorants. Thus, 3-D printing filaments with natural color should be preferred for purposes, where metal contamination could be an issue, including semiconductor processing. Finally, 3-D printing filaments considered in this study are shown to be resistant to isopropanol and deionized water, which is critical for efficient cleaning for use of 3-D printed objects in cleanrooms. The results demonstrate that simple 3-D printed objects, such as wafer boxes or tweezers, are not notable contamination sources, and hence, are equally suitable for use in cleanrooms as the commercial equivalents

Effective passivation of p+ and n+ emitters using SiO2/Al2O3/SiNx stacks: Surface passivation mechanisms and application to industrial p-PERT bifacial Si solar cells

In this paper, we present an effective emitter passivation scheme using SiO2/Al2O3/SiNx stacks. Our study shows that SiO2/Al2O3/SiNx stacks can well passivate both p+ and n+ emitters due to an excellent chemical passivation combined with a weak field-effect passivation. Good quality boron and phosphorus emitters were achieved over a broad emitter-doping range, as demonstrated by post-fired emitter saturation current of 20 and 30 fA cm−2, respectively. Based on the results obtained with SiO2/Al2O3/SiNx emitter passivation, we present an industrial roadmap for a p-PERT bifacial cell structure. Using this roadmap, we demonstrate industrial p-PERT bifacial cells with front side efficiency of 20.5%, rear side efficiency of 19.8% (bifaciality factor BF = 0.98) for rear textured cells and 17.5% (BF = 0.85) for rear planar cells. In particular, the cells with bifacial SiO2/Al2O3/SiNx passivation on both p+ and n+ emitters also demonstrate promising performance and a simplified cell process. The results show that SiO2/Al2O3/SiNx emitter passivation scheme is a promising candidate for photovoltaic industry.Peer reviewe

Realising the Carbon Benefits of Sustainable Land Management Practices: Guidelines for Estimation of Soil Organic Carbon in the Context of Land Degradation Neutrality Planning and Monitoring

Land degradation is one of the threats to human and natural systems. Fortunately, over the past few decades awareness of this challenge has grown, and 122 countries have committed to setting land degradation neutrality (LDN) targets, of which 84 have officially validated their targets, and 51 have put their targets into legislation. In this concept, LDN is achieved if new degradation is balanced by reversal of degradation elsewhere in the same land type by restoration or rehabilitation. The primary instrument for achieving LDN is through the implementation of sustainable land management (SLM) practices. Because of its multifunctional roles and its sensitivity to land management soil organic carbon (SOC) was selected as one of three indicators for LDN. Compared with the other global LDN indicators, that is, land cover change and land productivity dynamics (LPD) (measured as net primary productivity), SOC is challenging to manage and monitor at large scales. Moreover, SOC density in soils can vary greatly, even on the scale of meters, and fluctuates over time, for example between seasons. Comparative evaluation of SOC change between different SLM options (e.g. for land planning), tracking SOC dynamics through time (i.e. SOC monitoring) and effectively mapping SOC changes at large scales (e.g. for verifying LDN achievement) requires the combination of rigorous soil sampling schemes and the use of software tools/biophysical models for SOC assessment. To provide practical guidance to support the deployment of SLM interventions to maintain or enhance SOC stocks, for LDN and for other objectives such as landbased climate change adaption and/or mitigation a series of decision trees was developed, based on the latest available knowledge. This report reviews and compares available tools and models for SOC estimation. It presents practical guidance for land managers and puts forward policy-oriented proposals. Guidance for land managers emphasizes the selection of SLM practices to maintain or enhance soil organic carbon and achieve LDN. It addresses the choice of SLM practices suited to the local socio-economic and biophysical context; methods for measurement and monitoring of SOC; and the use of tools/ models for SOC assessment to estimate SOC and map SOC, and how to choose an appropriate tool/model according to the purpose. Policy-oriented options include to (i) share the guidance for land managers at the appropriate level; (ii) monitor SOC change as an indicator of SLM intervention to support assessment of LDN achievement in 2030; (iii) apply gender-responsive actions addressing gender-based differences and promote gender equality and women’s empowerment; (iv) design a framework for LDN Planning and means to support it