Inaccuracy in foreign trade statistics of LDCs: The case of the ASEAN area

The foreign trade statistics of developing countries are relatively abundant and generally considered more reliable than data on their national accounts. This study reports the results of an accuracy test applied to export and import data from five developing countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand), all members of ASEAN, a grouping which offers a particularly interesting sample of developing countries for this type of investigation

Infrared nanoimaging and nanospectroscopy of electrochemical energy storage materials and interfaces

Electrochemical interfaces are central to the function and performance of energy storage devices. Thus, the development of new methods to characterize these interfaces, in conjunction with electrochemical performance, is essential for bridging the existing knowledge gaps and accelerating the development of energy storage technologies. Of particular need is the ability to characterize surfaces or interfaces in a non-destructive way with adequate resolution to discern individual structural and chemical building blocks. To this end, sub-diffraction-limit low-energy infrared optical probes that exploit near-field interactions within atomic force microscopy platforms, such as pseudoheterodyne nanoimaging, photothermal nanoimaging and nanospectroscopy, and nanoscale Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, are all powerful emerging techniques. These are capable of non-destructive surface probing and imaging at nanometer resolution. This review outlines recent efforts to characterize ex situ,in situ,andoperando electrode materials and electrochemical interfaces in rechargeable batteries with these advanced infrared near-field probes

Applications of optogenetic tandem-cell units for in vitro study of cardiac electrophysiology

Optogenetics and tandem-cell units are an important tool for studying cardiac electrophysiology, and this work explores a few of the exciting avenues of study they enable. In Chapters 2 and 3, myofibroblasts and fibroblasts are transduced with channelrhodopsin-2 and co-cultured with cardiomyocytes to acutely demonstrate that both are electrically connected enough to cardiomyocytes to produce changes in cardiomyocyte electrophysiology, which has implications for treating conduction slowing after cardiac injury. In Chapter 4, a simple, scalable method to use tandem-cell units to point-pace cells in culture to mature them is developed, which has the potential to make them more useful for in vitro study, drug testing, and tissue engineering. Finally, in Chapter 5, an engineered tissue from decellularized extracellular matrix is developed that represents the next step for the applications in the previous chapters by providing important physiological cues, which should improve their relevance and accuracy

Accumulation of Zearalenone in Herbage of Winter Pasture Situated in West Poland

The importance of winter pastures in beef production in Europe has been growing steadily. In Poland, especially in its western part, there are already farms which utilise pasture swards during late autumn and winter. The major problem, however, is the quality of forage ingested by animals as it tends to deteriorate with the passage of the vegetation season with danger of accumulation of various mycotoxins (Laser et al., 2003) of which the most important is zearalenone (ZEA)

An infrared, Raman, and X-ray database of battery interphase components

Further technological advancement of both lithium-ion and emerging battery technologies can be catalyzed by an improved understanding of the chemistry and working mechanisms of the solid electrolyte interphases (SEIs) that form at electrochemically active battery interfaces. However, collecting and interpreting spectroscopy results of SEIs is difficult for several reasons, including the chemically diverse composition of SEIs. To address this challenge, we herein present a vibrational spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction data library of ten suggested SEI chemical constituents relevant to both lithium-ion and emerging battery chemistries. The data library includes attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction data, collected in inert atmospheres afforded by custom designed sample holders. The data library presented in this work (and online repository) alleviates challenges with locating related work that is either diffusely spread throughout the literature, or is non-existent, and provides energy storage researchers streamlined access to vital SEI-relevant data that can catalyse future battery research efforts.Comment: JML and RK jointly supervised this work. 26 pages, 8 figures, 8 table

Laser-produced plasma EUV source based on tin-rich, thin-layer targets

In this paper a new approach to a laser-produced plasma EUV source based on a tin target is presented. A thin layer of pure tin and composite layers consisting of Sn with Si, SiO and LiF are investigated. The target composed of several thin layers produces less debris than the other targets and provides a conversion efficiency (CE) in the 13.5-nm +/- 1% band at least comparable to the CE for the pure tin slab target. The largest CE was observed for the target composed of a mixture of Sn and LiF, due to the fact that lithium, similarly to tin, is a strong emitter at 13.5 nm