Intermediaries in agro-food networks in Turkey: How middlemen respond to transforming food market structures

Traditional wholesale intermediaries in the fresh fruit and vegetable segment tend to get expendable in markets with an increasing demand for traceability and for the fulfilment of quality and hygiene standards. The demand for these specifications is usually induced by transnational retail corporations that enter new market environments. This is also the case for Turkey, where since 2010 trade with fresh fruit and vegetable products can be conducted outside wholesale markets. Dualistic structures in accordance with socio-economic realities have emerged and the reactions of intermediaries towards these transformations vary between strategies of resilience and reworking. Therefore completely new purchasing channels emerge, whereby at the same time long-established trading patterns remain important to supply all groups of the society. This article is based on interviews conducted in Turkey

Ring Rotation in Ferrocene and Ferrocene-containing Polymers

Ferrocene is an organometallic molecular sandwich complex with an iron atom coordinated between two cyclopentadienyl rings. The reorientation of these rings in a process of rotational jump diffusion between multiple equilibrium sites on a circle is investigated using quasielastic neutron time of flight and backscattering spectroscopy experiments. Existing results on the ring rotation in bulk, crystalline ferrocene are extended, and the study is widened to oxidized ferrocenium cations in the triiodide complex FcI3, and to ferrocene containing polymers like poly(vinylferrocene) PVFc. Emphasis is put on a robust data analysis of neutron scattering data, including corrections for multiple scattering and simultaneous analysis of many data sets taken on different spectrometers. It is shown that the 5-fold rotational jump diffusion model needs to be extended to a non-equivalent sites model to account for rotational disorder in the monoclinic room temperature phase of ferrocene which is metastable down to 164K. In the triclinic phase below 164K, the combination of time of flight and backscattering spectroscopy enables to separate two dynamical processes due to crystallographically different molecules in the unit cell. In the triiodide complex of ferrocenium cations, FcI3, the barrier to rotation is found to be significantly lower than in bulk ferrocene. Moreover, a hitherto unknown phase transition is found at 85K which causes a discontinuity in the temperature dependence of the correlation time of the ring rotation in FcI3, very similar to the triclinic-monoclinic transition in ferrocene. The ring rotation above 85K is closer to continuous rotation due to its low barrier, while 5-fold jumps are favored below 85K. In the polymer PVFc, where ferrocene units are laterally attached to a polymer chain, it is shown that the ring rotation is still active, but the correlation times are broadly distributed. The neutron scattering data can be described very well by a rotation rate distribution model over the large temperature range from 80K to 350K. The average activation energy of the motion is 9.61(2)kJ/mol, with a distribution having circa one third of this value as second moment. Moreover, a vibrational study has been performed on ferrocene, FcI3, and various ferrocene containing polymers. It turns out that the vibrational fingerprint modes of the molecule are mildly affected when the ferrocene unit is laterally attached to a polymer chain, but more severely if it is incorporated into the polymer backbone. Finally, measurements under external magnetic fields did not reveal any field dependence of the ring rotation dynamics in oxidized PVFc, where the oxidation leads to magnetic moments on the ferrocene units. Even though unrelated to the main topic of ring rotation, these experiments nicely demonstrated inelastic magnetic neutron scattering on Zeeman split levels of the electronic ground state, and high resolution measurements allowed to directly observe nuclear hyperfine splitting in external magnetic fields

Oxide ion dynamics in hexagonal perovskite mixed conductor Ba 7 Nb 4 MoO 20: a comprehensive ab initio molecular dynamics study

Hexagonal perovskite Ba7Nb4MoO20-related materials are very promising solid electrolytes with high oxide ion conductivity and redox stability, making them potentially applicable in solid oxide fuel cells. Optimizing the properties of this family of materials necessitates atomic-level understanding of the oxide ion dynamics leading to high conductivity. Here we report extensive ab initio molecular dynamics simulations of Ba7Nb4MoO20 investigating oxide ion motions, which allowed the observation of a continuous diffusion pathway for oxide ions in the (ab) plane, but also revealed significant contribution of the oxygen atoms from crystallographic sites located outside this plane, to the long-range dynamics. To probe the timescale of oxide ion diffusion, complementary quasielastic neutron scattering experiments were carried out, and showed that oxide ion dynamics in Ba7Nb4MoO20, even at 950 °C, are too slow to be observable on a nanosecond timescale. Based on the atomic-level understanding of structure–property relationships afforded by this detailed computational study, we propose new materials design strategies with potential to significantly increase oxide ion conductivity in Ba7Nb4MoO20-related hexagonal perovskites, which target the simultaneous increase of the number of oxide ion charge carriers and rotational flexibility of the (Nb/Mo)Ox polyhedra

How Will Hydroelectric Power Generation Develop under Climate Change Scenarios?

Climate change has a large impact on water resources and thus on hydropower. Hydroelectric power generation is closely linked to the regional hydrological situation of a watershed and reacts sensitively to changes in water quantity and seasonality. The development of hydroelectric power generation in the Upper Danube basin was modelled for two future decades, namely 2021-2030 and 2051-2060, using a special hydropower module coupled with the physically-based hydrological model PROMET. To cover a possible range of uncertainties, 16 climate scenarios were taken as meteorological drivers which were defined from different ensemble outputs of a stochastic climate generator, based on the IPCC-SRES-A1B emission scenario and four regional climate trends. Depending on the trends, the results show a slight to severe decline in hydroelectric power generation. Whilst the mean summer values indicate a decrease, the mean winter values display an increase. To show past and future regional differences within the Upper Danube basin, three hydropower plants at individual locations were selected. Inter-annual differences originate predominately from unequal contributions of the runoff compartments rain, snow-and ice-melt

Otakuism and the Appeal of Sex Robots

Social robots are becoming increasingly prevalent in everyday life and sex robots are a sub-category of especially high public interest and controversy. Starting from the concept of the otaku, a term from Japanese youth culture that describes secluded persons with a high affinity for fictional manga characters, we examine individual differences behind sex robot appeal (anime and manga fandom, interest in Japanese culture, preference for indoor activities, shyness). In an online-experiment, 261 participants read one out of three randomly assigned descriptions of future technologies (sex robot, nursing robot, genetically modified organism) and reported on their overall evaluation, eeriness, and contact/purchase intentions. Higher anime and manga fandom was associated with higher appeal for all three future technologies. For our male subsample, sex robots and GMOs stood out as shyness yielded a particularly strong relationship to contact/purchase intentions for these new technologies

Rotational Dynamics of Organic Cations in Formamidinium Lead Iodide Perovskites

We report results from quasi-elastic neutron scattering studies on the rotational dynamics of formamidinium (HC[NH2]2+, FA) and methylammonium (CH3NH3+, MA) cations in FA1-xMAxPbI3 with x = 0 and 0.4 and compare it to the dynamics in MAPbI3. For FAPbI3, the FA cation dynamics evolve from nearly isotropic rotations in the high-temperature (T > 285 K) cubic phase through reorientations between preferred orientations in the intermediate-temperature tetragonal phase (140 K < T ⩽ 285 K) to an even more complex dynamics, due to a disordered arrangement of the FA cations, in the low-temperature tetragonal phase (T ⩽ 140 K). For FA0.6MA0.4PbI3, the dynamics of the respective organic cations evolve from a relatively similar behavior to FAPbI3 and MAPbI3 at room temperature to a different behavior in the lower-temperature phases where the MA cation dynamics are a factor of 50 faster as compared to those of MAPbI3. This insight suggests that tuning the MA/FA cation ratio may be a promising approach to tailoring the dynamics and, in effect, optical properties of FA1-xMAxPbI

Oxide Ion Mobility in V- and P-doped Bi2O3-Based Solid Electrolytes: Combining Quasielastic Neutron Scattering with Ab Initio Molecular Dynamics

We report the direct observation of oxide ion dynamics on both nano- and picosecond timescales in the isostructural Bi2O3-derived solid electrolytes Bi0.852V0.148O1.648 and Bi0.852P0.148O1.648 using quasielastic neutron scattering. Comprehensive ab initio molecular dynamics simulations allowed us to reproduce the experimental picosecond timescale data by directly simulating the scattering function at various temperatures. Our analysis of the experimental data in conjunction with the simulations revealed the origin of the picosecond dynamics to be localized motions within the V–O and P–O sublattices, while nanosecond dynamics correspond to the diffusion of the oxide ions in the Bi–O sublattice via vacancy-hopping. This combined approach provides insight into the different oxide ion migration pathways and mechanisms in Bi0.852V0.148O1.648 and Bi0.852P0.148O1.648, with the flexibility of the V coordination environment playing an important role, consistent with the superior conductivity of the vanadate

Model of Inspiring Media

Scholars have increasingly explored the ways that media content can touch, move, and inspire audiences, leading to numerous beneficial outcomes including increased feelings of connectedness to and heightened motivations for doing good for others. Although this line of inquiry is relatively new, sufficient evidence and patterns of results have emerged such that a clearer picture of the inspiring media experience is coming into focus. This article has two primary goals. First, we seek to synthesize the existing research into a working and evolving model of inspiring media experiences reflecting five interrelated and symbiotic elements: exposure, message factors, responses, outcomes, and personal/situational factors. The model also identifies theoretical mechanisms underlying the previously observed positive effects. Secondly, the article explores situations in which, and precipitating factors present, when these hoped-for outcomes either fail to materialize or result in negative or maladaptive responses and outcomes. Ultimately, the model is proposed as a heuristic roadmap for future scholarship and as an invitation for critique and collaboration in the emerging field of positive media psychology

Predicting emotions and meta-emotions at the movies

Audiences are attracted to dramas and horror movies even though negative and ambivalent emotions are likely to be experienced. Research into the seemingly paradoxical enjoyment of this kind of media entertainment has typically focused on gender- and genre-specific needs and viewing motivations. Extending this line of research, the authors focus the role of the need for affect as a more general, gender- and genre-independent predictor of individual differences in the experience of emotions and meta-emotions (i.e., evaluative thoughts and feelings about one’s emotions). The article discusses a field study of moviegoers who attended the regular screening of a drama or a horror film. Results support the assumption that individuals high in need for affect experience higher levels of negative and ambivalent emotions and evaluate their emotions more positively on the level of meta-emotions. Controlling for the Big Five personality factors does not alter these effects. The results are discussed within an extended meta-emotion framework