Energy poverty and indoor cooling: an overlooked issue in Europe

Conceptually, many energy poverty studies to date have been narrowly focused on inadequate indoor heating, paying little attention to other domestic energy services. Yet there are indications that a growing number of households in Europe are struggling to achieve adequate levels of indoor cooling, with adverse consequences for their health, well-being and productivity. This situation is exacerbated by changing global weather patterns, with many countries facing increases in the frequency and intensity of extreme heatwaves. There is limited understanding of the ways in which households respond to extreme heat, and consequently how this might create greater demand for indoor space cooling and air conditioning, and the consequences for increased stress on power grids and conflicts with carbon reduction goals. Using custom-built survey data collected from 2,337 households in Gdańsk (Poland), Prague (Czech Republic), Budapest (Hungary) and Skopje (FYR Macedonia), along with in-depth qualitative fieldwork with 55 households in the same cities, this paper presents novel evidence on the issue of summertime energy poverty and space cooling difficulties. We identify the driving forces of household vulnerability to excessive indoor heat, in terms of risk of exposure, adaptive capacity, and sensitivity, and explore the implications for addressing energy poverty

MSSM-inspired multifield inflation

Despite the fact that experimentally with a high degree of statistical significance only a single Standard Model--like Higgs boson is discovered at the LHC, extended Higgs sectors with multiple scalar fields not excluded by combined fits of the data are more preferable theoretically for internally consistent realistic models of particle physics. We analyze the inflationary scenarios which could be induced by the two-Higgs doublet potential of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) where five scalar fields have nonminimal couplings to gravity. Observables following from such MSSM-inspired multifield inflation are calculated and a number of consistent inflationary scenarios are constructed. Cosmological evolution with different initial conditions for the multifield system leads to consequences fully compatible with observational data on the spectral index and the tensor-to-scalar ratio. It is demonstrated that the strong coupling approximation is precise enough to describe such inflationary scenarios.Comment: 27 pages, 4 figures, 5 tables. Version to appear in JHEP. Additions made to the text of the Introduction dealing with the issues of conformity of this multifield model and models of N=1 supergravity (pages 2-3). Added new inflationary scenarios, which are an artifact of such analysis (pages 11-12, Tables 1-4). Additional comments on page 9 and page 13. New references adde

High Pressure studies of the magnetic phase transition in MnSi: revisited

New measurements of AC magnetic susceptibility and DC resistivity of a high quality single crystal MnSi were carried out at high pressure making use of helium as a pressure medium. The form of the AC magnetic susceptibility curves at the magnetic phase transition suddenly changes upon helium solidification. This implies strong sensitivity of magnetic properties of MnSi to non hydrostatic stresses and suggests that the early claims on the existence of a tricritical point at the phase transition line are probably a result of misinterpretation of the experimental data. At the same time resistivity behavior at the phase transition does not show such a significant influence of helium solidification. The sharp peak at the temperature derivative of resistivity, signifying the first order nature of the phase transition in MnSi successfully survived helium crystallization and continued the same way to the highest pressure.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figure

Interplay between lattice, orbital, and magnetic degrees of freedom in the chain-polymer Cu(II) breathing crystals

The chain-polymer Cu(II) breathing crystals C21H19CuF12N4O6 were studied using the x-ray diffraction and ab initio band structure calculations. We show that the crystal structure modification at T=146 K, associated with the spin crossover transition, induces the changes of the orbital order in half of the Cu sites. This in turn results in the switch of the magnetic interaction sign in accordance with the Goodenough-Kanamori-Andersen theory of the coupling between the orbital and spin degrees of freedom.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figure

THE MISSION OF THE REGIONAL UNIVERSITY AND ITS FOCUS ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN CAPITAL IN THE REGION

The purpose of the article: The article clarifies and justifies the mission of a modern regional university, which focuses on the activities of a university on the development of human capital in the region.Materials and methods: Based on the data of scientific literature, strategic documents of the state, materials of regional statistics, surveys of respondents, the strategic direction of the formation of a regional university is justified - orientation of its mission, research and educational activities on the development of human capital. A range of directions for improving the functioning of a regional university has been proposed and justified in order to bring the content of its activities in line with the regional focus and the new mission.Results of the research: Regional universities are presented in the article as high-tech educational organizations of higher education, the vector of strategic development of which should be focused on maximum integration into the economy and social sphere of the regions. Structural components of human capital are proposed - education capital, health capital, labor, cultural and moral capital, intellectual capital, entrepreneurial capital, social capital, cyclically interacting with each other in the process of personal and professional development of a teacher. Applications: This research can be used for universities, teachers, and students. Novelty/Originality: In this research, the model of The mission of the regional university and its focus on the development of human capital in the region is presented in a comprehensive and complete manner

Elastic properties of FeSi

Measurements of the sound velocities in a single crystal of FeSi were performed in the temperature range 4-300 K. Elastic constants $C_{12}$ and $C_{44}$ deviate from a quasiharmonic behavior at high temperature; whereas, $C_{12}$ increases anomalously in the entire range of temperature, indicating a change in the electron structure of this materia