1,584 research outputs found
Sustainable development and the nature of environmental legal principles
In this article, “things” lawyers call “principles” of environmental law will be discussed from a theoretical perspective. Three fundamental questions are answered: 1. Where does the high moral value that is usually attributed principles come from? 2. What is the exact difference between a principle and a legal rule, and between a principle and a policy? 3. What is the relationship between a principle and more concrete legal rules and policies? It is argued that principles of environmental law receive their high moral value from the ideal of sustainable development. An ideal is a value that is explicit, implicit or latent in the law, or the public and moral culture of a society or group that usually cannot be fully realised, and that partly transcends contingent, historical formulations, and implementations in terms of rules and principles. Principles form a necessary link between directly applicable and enforceable environmental legal rules and the underlying ideal. They are a necessary medium for ideals to find their way into concrete rules and can be used to bridge the gap between the morality of duty and the morality of aspiration. Because of their basis in (written or unwritten) law and their possible direct and intense influence on legal rules concerning activities that may harm the environment, they must be placed within the morality of duty: a bridgehead within the morality of duty reaching out for the morality of aspiration. From the general function of principles of forming a beachhead in the morality of duty, nine more concrete functions can be derived. These functions principles, both of a substantive and of a procedural nature, have, make it possible to distinguish them from legal rules. It must be acknowledged, however, that there is no very strict separation between principles on one side and rules on the other: environmental norms can be placed on a sliding scale with rules on one side and principles on the other side. Principles can become rules over time, when directly applicable in concrete cases. The nine functions are following: 1. principles can enhance the normative power of statutory rules; 2. principles can help to fill in open or unclear statutory rules; 3. principles can increase legal certainty and enhance the legitimacy of decision-making; 4. principles form the basis for new statutory rules; 5. principles give guidance to self-regulation; 6. principles create flexibility in the law; 7. principles help to implement international obligations; 8. principles stimulate the integration of environmental considerations into other policy fields; 9. principles are necessary to pursue an ideal.Principles thus influence the meaning of a rule but, at the same time, the application of a rule in a concrete case gives the relevant principle a clearer meaning than the principle has on its own. This goes for rules in various legal documents, such as acts and regulations, as well as transnational regulations, and self regulatory rules. Principles thus are dynamic beacons in a wild ocean of ever changing concrete environmental rules. Although the underlying ideal of sustainable development has a rather anthropocentric character, the danger of influencing environmental legal principles (and through principles legal rules and policies as well) in a highly anthropocentric way is small. Firstly, because man is an inseparable part of nature and is very much dependent on balanced and intact ecosystems, especially when future generations are considered as well. Secondly, there is a moral relationship between man and nature. Natural objects have an inherent value: not destroying these objects contributes to the virtue of man. The ecological aspects of the ideal of sustainable development can be sufficiently advanced in decision-making processes by governmental authorities and courts, because most principles that rule environmental decision-making processes create enough room to take into account the more eco-centred arguments
Thermalization and Cooling of Plasmon-Exciton Polaritons: Towards Quantum Condensation
We present indications of thermalization and cooling of quasi-particles, a
precursor for quantum condensation, in a plasmonic nanoparticle array. We
investigate a periodic array of metallic nanorods covered by a polymer layer
doped with an organic dye at room temperature. Surface lattice resonances of
the array---hybridized plasmonic/photonic modes---couple strongly to excitons
in the dye, and bosonic quasi-particles which we call
plasmon-exciton-polaritons (PEPs) are formed. By increasing the PEP density
through optical pumping, we observe thermalization and cooling of the strongly
coupled PEP band in the light emission dispersion diagram. For increased
pumping, we observe saturation of the strong coupling and emission in a new
weakly coupled band, which again shows signatures of thermalization and
cooling.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures including supplemental material. The newest
version includes new measurements and corrections to the interpretation of
the result
Tailor-made directional emission in nanoimprinted plasmonic-based light-emitting devices
We demonstrate an enhanced and tailor-made directional emission of light-emitting devices using nanoimprinted hexagonal arrays of aluminum nanoparticles. Fourier microscopy reveals that the luminescence of the device is not only determined by the material properties of the organic dye molecules but is also strongly influenced by the coherent scattering resulting from periodically arranged metal nanoparticles. Emitters can couple to lattice-induced hybrid plasmonic–photonic modes sustained by plasmonic arrays. Such modes enhance the spatial coherence of an emitting layer, allowing the efficient beaming of the emission along narrow angular and spectral ranges. We show that tailoring the separation of the nanoparticles in the array yields an accurate angular distribution of the emission. This combination of large-area metal nanostructures fabricated by nanoimprint lithography and light-emitting devices is beneficial for the design and optimization of solid-state lighting systems
Sustainable development and the nature of environmental legal principles
In this article, “things” lawyers call “principles” of environmental law will be discussed from a theoretical perspective. Three fundamental questions are answered: 1. Where does the high moral value that is usually attributed principles come from? 2. What is the exact difference between a principle and a legal rule, and between a principle and a policy? 3. What is the relationship between a principle and more concrete legal rules and policies?
It is argued that principles of environmental law receive their high moral value from the ideal of sustainable development. An ideal is a value that is explicit, implicit or latent in the law, or the public and moral culture of a society or group that usually cannot be fully realised, and that partly transcends contingent, historical formulations, and implementations in terms of rules and principles. Principles form a necessary link between directly applicable and enforceable environmental legal rules and the underlying ideal. They are a necessary medium for ideals to find their way into concrete rules and can be used to bridge the gap between the morality of duty and the morality of aspiration.
Because of their basis in (written or unwritten) law and their possible direct and intense influence on legal rules concerning activities that may harm the environment, they must be placed within the morality of duty: a bridgehead within the morality of duty reaching out for the morality of aspiration. From the general function of principles of forming a beachhead in the morality of duty, nine more concrete functions can be derived. These functions principles, both of a substantive and of a procedural nature, have, make it possible to distinguish them from legal rules.
 
From weak to strong coupling of localized surface plasmons to guided modes in a luminescent slab
We investigate a periodic array of aluminum nanoantennas embedded in a
light-emitting slab waveguide. By varying the waveguide thickness we
demonstrate the transition from weak to strong coupling between localized
surface plasmons in the nanoantennas and refractive index guided modes in the
waveguide. We experimentally observe a non-trivial relationship between
extinction and emission dispersion diagrams across the weak to strong coupling
transition. These results have implications for a broad class of photonic
structures where sources are embedded within coupled resonators. For
nanoantenna arrays, strong vs. weak coupling leads to drastic modifications of
radiation patterns without modifying the nanoantennas themselves, thereby
representing an unprecedented design strategy for nanoscale light sources
Substrate conformal imprint fabrication process of synthetic antiferromagnetic nanoplatelets
Methods to fabricate and characterize monodisperse magnetic nanoplatelets for
fluid/bio-based applications based on spintronic thin-film principles are a
challenge. This is due to the required top-down approach where the transfer of
optimized blanket films to free particles in a fluid while preserving the
magnetic properties is an uncharted field. Here, we explore the use of
substrate conformal imprint lithography (SCIL) as a fast and cost-effective
fabrication route. We analyze the size distribution of nominal 1.8 um and 120
nm diameter platelets and show the effect of the fabrication steps on the
magnetic properties which we explain through changes in the dominant
magnetization reversal mechanism as the size decreases. We show that SCIL
allows for efficient large-scale platelet fabrication and discuss how
application-specific requirements can be solved via process and material
engineering
In silico synchronization reveals regulators of nuclear ruptures in lamin A/C deficient model cells
The nuclear lamina is a critical regulator of nuclear structure and function. Nuclei from laminopathy patient cells experience repetitive disruptions of the nuclear envelope, causing transient intermingling of nuclear and cytoplasmic components. The exact causes and consequences of these events are not fully understood, but their stochastic occurrence complicates in-depth analyses. To resolve this, we have established a method that enables quantitative investigation of spontaneous nuclear ruptures, based on co-expression of a rmly bound nuclear reference marker and a uorescent protein that shuttles between the nucleus and cytoplasm during ruptures. Minimally invasive imaging of both reporters, combined with automated tracking and in silico synchronization of individual rupture events, allowed extracting information on rupture frequency and recovery kinetics. Using this approach, we found that rupture frequency correlates inversely with lamin A/C levels, and can be reduced in genome- edited LMNA knockout cells by blocking actomyosin contractility or inhibiting the acetyl-transferase protein NAT10. Nuclear signal recovery followed a kinetic that is co-determined by the severity of the rupture event, and could be prolonged by knockdown of the ESCRT-III complex component CHMP4B.
In conclusion, our approach reveals regulators of nuclear rupture induction and repair, which may have critical roles in disease development
Light trapping in ultrathin plasmonic solar cells
We report on the design, fabrication, and measurement of ultrathin film a-Si:H solar cells with nanostructured plasmonic back contacts, which demonstrate enhanced short circuit current densities compared to cells having flat or randomly textured back contacts. The primary photocurrent enhancement occurs in the spectral range from 550 nm to 800 nm. We use angle-resolved photocurrent spectroscopy to confirm that the enhanced absorption is due to coupling to guided modes supported by the cell. Full-field electromagnetic simulation of the absorption in the active a-Si:H layer agrees well with the experimental results. Furthermore, the nanopatterns were fabricated via an inexpensive, scalable, and precise nanopatterning method. These results should guide design of optimized, non-random nanostructured back reflectors for thin film solar cells
Quantum Rod Emission Coupled to Plasmonic Lattice Resonances: A Collective Directional Source of Polarized Light
We demonstrate that an array of optical antennas may render a thin layer of
randomly oriented semiconductor nanocrystals into an enhanced and highly
directional source of polarized light. The array sustains collective plasmonic
lattice resonances which are in spectral overlap with the emission of the
nanocrystals over narrow angular regions. Consequently, different photon
energies of visible light are enhanced and beamed into definite directions.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
- …