Ultrathin 2 nm gold as ideal impedance-matched absorber for infrared light

Thermal detectors are a cornerstone of infrared (IR) and terahertz (THz) technology due to their broad spectral range. These detectors call for suitable broad spectral absorbers with minimalthermal mass. Often this is realized by plasmonic absorbers, which ensure a high absorptivity butonly for a narrow spectral band. Alternativly, a common approach is based on impedance-matching the sheet resistance of a thin metallic film to half the free-space impedance. Thereby, it is possible to achieve a wavelength-independent absorptivity of up to 50 %, depending on the dielectric properties of the underlying substrate. However, existing absorber films typicallyrequire a thickness of the order of tens of nanometers, such as titanium nitride (14 nm), whichcan significantly deteriorate the response of a thermal transducers. Here, we present the application of ultrathin gold (2 nm) on top of a 1.2 nm copper oxide seed layer as an effective IR absorber. An almost wavelength-independent and long-time stable absorptivity of 47(3) %, ranging from 2 $\mu$m to 20 $\mu$m, could be obtained and is further discussed. The presented gold thin-film represents analmost ideal impedance-matched IR absorber that allows a significant improvement of state-of-the-art thermal detector technology

Punctuated equilibrium theory in Brazilian public policy: the case of Ceará

Este artigo faz uma análise do processo de decisão orçamental dos municípios do Estado do Ceará. Através deste estudo, procura-se perceber em que medida a distribuição dos orçamentos aos governos locais sofrem (ou não) variações. Já em um segundo momento, tenta-se depreender quais as receitas de cada um dos municípios (as variáveis independentes) que melhor descrevem e auxiliam a opção política de investimento local (esta será a variável dependente). Considerando o período de 2006 a 2010 e fazendo uso de um desenho de pesquisa de tipo transversal, conclui-se que nos governos locais do Ceará o investimento público apresenta períodos de estabilidade seguido por períodos de grande alteração dos orçamentos – confirmando a hipótese de pesquisa. Estas conclusões confirmam os pressupostos da teoria do equilíbrio pontuado. Conclui-se igualmente que o investimento público que vem sendo realizado é dependente das transferências que a União faz para os governos locais do Estado do Ceará e das receitas de capital. Face a estas condições, é pertinente equacionar até que nível e grau o endividamento pode ocorrer em virtude da escassez cada vez maior do financiamento público.This research aims to analyze the budget decision process in Ceará municipalities in order to understand in which way budget distributions change (or not) during the research period under consideration. This research also aims to understand which revenues (the independent variables) of each municipality better expla in the political choices for local government investments (the dependent variable). Making use of data from 2006 to 2010 and using a cross - sectional research design, the study concludes a stability in local government investments periods of stress where su ch investments have both positive and negative significant fluctuations – confirming our working hypothesis. These results confirm punctuated Equilibrium Theory assumptions and also find that local government public investment is dependent on money transfe rs from the central government and also from capital revenues. Thus, it is important to question to what degree public indebtedness should be allowed, due to a scarcity of public fundsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The Retroductive Cycle: The Research Process in Poststructuralist Discourse Analysis

In this chapter we suggest that an appeal to retroductive reasoning as a form of explanation distinct from induction and deduction can help frame the strategic and methodological issues of any research that takes seriously an anti-essentialist ontology rooted in poststructuralist discourse theory. Anti-essentialism captures the view that societies and social agents – indeed, history itself – do not contain essences – invariable and fixed properties of an object - that can be rationally extracted and used to characterize social phenomena. At the same time, although prominent in debates over how best to understand the production of theories and hypotheses in the natural sciences, we also argue that the concept of retroduction is relevant to a set of debates in the philosophy of social science. More precisely, it offers theoretical resources to develop a post-positivist picture of the study of social and political phenomena, thus furnishing important elements of a feasible and critical research strategy. We draw on arguments associated with a poststructuralist discourse-theoretical approach to social and political research to justify adopting the idea of a retroductive ‘cycle’. A retroductive understanding of the relationship between key elements of the social science research process offers us a useful way to think about research strategy and methodology from the point of view of post-positivism, including approaches informed by poststructuralist discourse theor

Spatializing the Ecological Leviathan: Territorial Strategies and the Production of Regional Natures

This paper explores a dual absence – the absence of the state within contemporary geographical analyses of nature; and the absence of nature within contemporary explorations of state power. We argue that the modern state continues to play a crucial role in framing social interactions with nature, while nature is still vital to states within their realization of different forms of material and ideological power. In order to reconnect analyses of the state and nature, this paper combines work on the production of nature and state strategy with Lefebvre’s recently translated writings on state space and territory. By focusing on the production of territory (or state space), we explore the interaction of the state and nature in the context of the political management of social and ecological space. We unravel the spatial entanglements of the state and nature through an analysis of the British state’s territorial strategies within the West Midlands region. By considering three key historical periods within the history of the West Mid-lands we reveal how the emergence of the regional space called the West Midlands is a product of the ongoing spatial dialectics of state and nature therein

Honk against homophobia : rethinking relations between media and sexual minorities

The theory of “symbolic annihilation” or “symbolic violence” has been used in academic literature to describe the way in which sexual minorities have been ignored, trivialized, or condemned by the media. This article aims to de-center research from issues of media representation to consider the capacity for minority groups to proactively use new media and its various avenues for interactivity, social networking, and feedback to fight social exclusion. This work suggests that new media has become a space in which the nominally marginal in society may acquire “social artillery”—a term used to describe how sexual minorities utilize their expanding and more readily accessible social connections in digital space to combat instances of homophobia. The research draws on the results of an inquiry into the relation between media and a regional youth social justice group in Australia tackling homophobia. The research demonstrates that the group is becoming increasingly adept and comfortable with using a cross-section of media platforms to fulfill their own objectives, rather than seeing themselves as passive subjects of media representation. This article argues that this sets an example for other socially excluded groups looking to renegotiate their relation with the media in regional areas

Landesque capital as an alternative to food storage in Melanesia: Irrigated taro terraces in New Georgia, Solomon Islands

In the Pacific islands, subsistence diversity made possible continuous production of food while welldeveloped exchange networks redistributed these foodstuffs as well as items within the prestige economy. All these were aspects of the ‘storage structures’ that enabled social and nutritional value to be saved, accumulated and later mobilised. In addition, there were investments in the land, landesque capital, which secured future food surpluses and so provided an alternative to food storage, in a region where the staple foods were mostly perishable, yams excepted, and food preservation was difficult. Landesque capital included such long-term improvements to productivity as terraces, mounds, irrigation channels, drainage ditches, soil structural changes and tree planting. These investments provided an effective alternative to food storage and made possible surplus production for exchange purposes. As an example, in the New Georgia group of the western Solomon Islands irrigated terraces, termed ruta, were constructed for growing the root crop taro (Colocasia esculenta). Surplus taro from ruta enabled inland groups to participate in regional exchange networks and so obtain the shell valuables that were produced by coastal groups. In this paper, we reconstruct how this exchange system worked in New Georgia using ethno-archaeological evidence, we chart its prehistoric rise and post-colonial fall, and we outline the factors that constrained its long-term expansion.Our gratitude for support during earlier fieldwork in the New Georgia group has already been expressed in previous publications. The 2014 project was supported by the Smuts Fund and Foreign Travel Fund, University of Cambridge, and by St John’s College, Cambridge.This is the accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Maney at http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/1749631414Y.000000004

The embedding of transnational entrepreneurs in diaspora networks:Leveraging the assets of foreignness

In this paper we examine how foreign actors capitalize on their ethnic identity to gain skills and capabilities that enable them to operate in a new and strange environment. We explore the mechanisms by which Bulgarian entrepreneurs in London use their ethnic identity to develop competitive advantage and business contacts. We find that the entrepreneurs studied gain access to a diaspora network, which enables them to develop essential business capabilities and integrate knowledge from both home and host country environments. The diaspora community possesses a collective asset (transactive memory) that allows its members to remove competition from the interfirm level to the network level (i.e., diaspora networks vs. networks of native businesspeople). Additionally, the cultural identity and networks to which community members have access provide bridging capabilities that allow diaspora businesspeople to make links to host country business partners and thus embed themselves in the host country environment. Thus, this paper adds to the growing body of work showing how foreignness can serve as an asset in addition to its better-known role as a liability

Capturing complexity: Mixing methods in the analysis of a European tobacco control policy network

Social network analysis (SNA), a method which can be used to explore networks in various contexts, has received increasing attention. Drawing on the development of European smoke-free policy, this paper explores how a mixed method approach to SNA can be utilised to investigate a complex policy network. Textual data from public documents, consultation submissions and websites were extracted, converted and analysed using plagiarism detection software and quantitative network analysis, and qualitative data from public documents and 35 interviews were thematically analysed. While the quantitative analysis enabled understanding of the network's structure and components, the qualitative analysis provided in-depth information about specific actors' positions, relationships and interactions. The paper establishes that SNA is suited to empirically testing and analysing networks in EU policymaking. It contributes to methodological debates about the antagonism between qualitative and quantitative approaches and demonstrates that qualitative and quantitative network analysis can offer a powerful tool for policy analysis