1,895 research outputs found
Symbolic power: the future of nuclear energy in Lithuania
EU accession states may have thrown off their Soviet past in political terms, but abandoning some of the Soviet era technologies is proving to be harder. Civil nuclear power is on the way out in most of Europe, but for some ex-Soviet countries this may present serious problems of economic, social and cultural transformation -- especially in countries like Lithuania, where nuclear power supplies the bulk of the electricity.
The issue has come to a head given the EU's insistence that several ex-Soviet states must agree to close their nuclear plant as a condition of EU entry. Lithuania is the accession country most wedded to and certainly most reliant on nuclear power. It has a nuclear plant which uses a technology (the RBMK, Chernobyl-type reactor) which the EU has insisted should be closed rapidly on safety grounds. This has proved an unpopular requirement in Lithuania for a variety of reasons. There are problem with ensuring continued energy supplies and replacing the lost employment and earning power.
However Lithuania also has a more general commitment to this technology as a symbol of national prowess and independence. During and immediately after the struggle for national independence in 1991, the country had a mass anti-nuclear movement. This has been analysed as a covert expression of nationalist and anti-Soviet feeling, given that most opposition to nuclear power evaporated after independence (Dawson 1996). Subsequently the EU ruled that Lithuania's Ignalina nuclear plant should be closed. Yet now it is widely seen as a national asset, a view reinforced by resentment about the EU apparently imposing an unwarranted closure policy.
This article will analyse how public and policy views on nuclear power have changed over time in Lithuania and how its symbolic meaning has changed during different phases of transformation of the Lithuanian society
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Winter 1970
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Operational experience with the GEM detector assembly lines for the CMS forward muon upgrade
The CMS Collaboration has been developing large-area triple-gas electron multiplier (GEM) detectors to be installed in the muon Endcap regions of the CMS experiment in 2019 to maintain forward muon trigger and tracking performance at the High-Luminosity upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC); 10 preproduction detectors were built at CERN to commission the first assembly line and the quality controls (QCs). These were installed in the CMS detector in early 2017 and participated in the 2017 LHC run. The collaboration has prepared several additional assembly and QC lines for distributed mass production of 160 GEM detectors at various sites worldwide. In 2017, these additional production sites have optimized construction techniques and QC procedures and validated them against common specifications by constructing additional preproduction detectors. Using the specific experience from one production site as an example, we discuss how the QCs make use of independent hardware and trained personnel to ensure fast and reliable production. Preliminary results on the construction status of CMS GEM detectors are presented with details of the assembly sites involvement
Engineering of quantum dot photon sources via electro-elastic fields
The possibility to generate and manipulate non-classical light using the
tools of mature semiconductor technology carries great promise for the
implementation of quantum communication science. This is indeed one of the main
driving forces behind ongoing research on the study of semiconductor quantum
dots. Often referred to as artificial atoms, quantum dots can generate single
and entangled photons on demand and, unlike their natural counterpart, can be
easily integrated into well-established optoelectronic devices. However, the
inherent random nature of the quantum dot growth processes results in a lack of
control of their emission properties. This represents a major roadblock towards
the exploitation of these quantum emitters in the foreseen applications. This
chapter describes a novel class of quantum dot devices that uses the combined
action of strain and electric fields to reshape the emission properties of
single quantum dots. The resulting electro-elastic fields allow for control of
emission and binding energies, charge states, and energy level splittings and
are suitable to correct for the quantum dot structural asymmetries that usually
prevent these semiconductor nanostructures from emitting polarization-entangled
photons. Key experiments in this field are presented and future directions are
discussed.Comment: to appear as a book chapter in a compilation "Engineering the
Atom-Photon Interaction" published by Springer in 2015, edited by A.
Predojevic and M. W. Mitchel
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Conflict and Astroturfing in Niyamgiri: The Importance of National Advocacy Networks in Anti-Corporate Social Movements
Traditional models of transnational advocacy networks (TANs) and stakeholder management do not capture the nuance and dynamics of (counter-)organising processes around anti-corporate mobilisation. Based on the case of a resistance movement against a planned bauxite mine on tribal land in India, we develop a process theory of interactions between local, national and international actors within transnational advocacy networks. These encounters are not always friendly and are often characterised by conflict between actors with disparate goals and interests. We highlight the importance of national advocacy networks (NANs) in anti-corporate social movements and describe the conflicts and disruptions that result from ignoring them. Our findings also point to the role of corporate counter-mobilisation strategies in shaping resistance movements. Our narrative revolves around a particular focal actor in the anti-mining campaign: a young tribal man who emerged as a passionate spokesperson of the movement, but later became a supporter of the controversial mine. Our findings contribute to a richer understanding of the processes underlying transnational and national anti-corporate mobilisation
Measurements of production cross sections of polarized same-sign W boson pairs in association with two jets in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV
The first measurements of production cross sections of polarized same-sign (WW +/-)-W-+/- boson pairs in proton-proton collisions are reported. The measurements are based on a data sample collected with the CMS detector at the LHC at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb(-1). Events are selected by requiring exactly two same-sign leptons, electrons or muons, moderate missing transverse momentum, and two jets with a large rapidity separation and a large dijet mass to enhance the contribution of same-sign (WW +/-)-W-+/- scattering events. An observed (expected) 95% confidence level upper limit of 1.17 (0.88) fbis set on the production cross section for longitudinally polarized same-sign W-+/- W-+/- boson pairs. The electroweak production of same-sign W-+/- W-+/- boson pairs with at least one of the W bosons longitudinally polarized is measured with an observed (expected) significance of 2.3 (3.1) standard deviations. (C) 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V.Peer reviewe
Measurement of the CP-violating phase phi(s) in the B-s(0) -> J/psi phi(1020) -> mu(+)mu-K+K- channel in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV
The CP-violating weak phase ?s and the decay width difference ??s between the light and heavy B0s mass eigenstates are measured with the CMS detector at the LHC in a sample of 48 500 reconstructed B0s? J/I) d (1020) ?11+11? K+K? events. The measurement is based on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 96.4 fb?1, collected in proton-proton collisions at ?s = 13 TeV in 2017?2018. To extract the values of ?s and ??s, a time-dependent and flavor-tagged angular analysis of the 11+11?K+K? final state is performed. The analysis employs a dedicated tagging trigger and a novel opposite-side muon flavor tagger based on machine learning techniques. The measurement yields ?s = ?11 ?50 (stat) ? 10 (syst) mrad and ??s = 0.114 ? 0.014 (stat)? 0.007 (syst) ps?1, in agreement with the standard model predictions. When combined with the previous CMS measurement at ?s = 8 TeV, the following values are obtained: ?s = ?21 ? 44 (stat) ? 10 (syst) mrad, ??s = 0.1032 ? 0.0095 (stat) ? 0.0048 (syst) ps?1, a significant improvement over the 8 TeV result. ? 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY licensePeer reviewe
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