Book review: media and social justice by Sue Curry Jansen, Jefferson Pooley, and Lora Taub-Pervizpour

Media and Social Justice charts the work that critical media scholars and activists are undertaking to combat social injustice and misrepresentation in the media. The authors provide a diverse collection of examples, but conclude that there is still a long way to go before we can fully eliminate abuses of power. An excellent guide for students, with several interesting and innovative chapters, discovers Joel Sus

Book review: The US financial crisis: analysis andinterpretation: lessons for China

Cheng Siwei evaluates the effects of China’s countermeasures to the financial crisis and identifies the excessive growth of ‘fictitious capital’, a concept developed by Karl Marx, as its root cause. Joel Suss finds that while the author does provide excellent economic policy advice, he does not spell out policies that may shore up credibility and stop panic from spreading

Size-based ion selectivity of micropore electric double layers in capacitive deionization electrodes

Capacitive deionization (CDI) is a fast-emerging technology most commonly applied to brackish water desalination. In CDI, salt ions are removed from the feedwater and stored in electric double layers (EDLs) within micropores of electrically charged porous carbon electrodes. Recent experiments have demonstrated that CDI electrodes exhibit selective ion removal based on ion size, with the smaller ion being preferentially removed in the case of equal-valence ions. However, state-of-the-art CDI theory does not capture this observed selectivity, as it assumes volume-less point ions in the micropore EDLs. We here present a theory which includes multiple couterionic species, and relaxes the point ion assumption by incorporating ion volume exclusion interactions into a description of the micropore EDLs. The developed model is a coupled set of nonlinear algebraic equations which can be solved for micropore ion concentrations and electrode Donnan potential at cell equilibrium. We demonstrate that this model captures key features of the experimentally observed size-based ion selectivity of CDI electrodes

Five minutes with Patrick Dunleavy: “The Treasury have woefully misapplied our research estimates”

In late May 2014, the UK Treasury released a press release ahead of a major report UK minsters were issuing on the costs of setting up an independent Scottish state. Joel Suss, Managing Editor of British Politics and Policy blog, asks Patrick Dunleavy about the way in which the Treasury used his research findings to arrive at a figure of £2.7 billion, and about his Twitter intervention raising concerns about it, which caused a furore. How did this episode come about, and does it serve to illustrate the problems of mis-communication between civil servants and researchers

Investigation of the Pt-Al-Cr system as part of the development of the Pt-Al-Cr-Ru thermodynamic database

The ternary Pt-Al-Cr system was investigated as part of the continued development of a thermodynamic database for the Pt-Al-Cr-Ru system. Scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction analyses were used to obtain phase equilibria data. The alloys were studied in the as-cast condition, as well as after annealing at 600°C and 1000°C respectively. A solidification projection was constructed and a liquidus surface derived. Isothermal sections at 600°C and 1000°C were also determined. It was concluded that all phase regions were identified correctly since the results were selfconsistent. Three ternary phases were found and 19 ternary invariant reactions identified. A thermodynamic database was developed for the Pt-Al-Cr system using Thermo-Calc. Phase relations could be reasonably accurately predicted between 600°C and 1000°C, and even up to temperatures close to the melting point. However, the match between the calculated and experimental diagrams could be improved. As with the Pt-Cr-Ru system, problems with the constituting binary systems seemed to be the major cause for problems encountered in the modelling. Only once the Al-Pt and especially the Cr-Pt and Cr-Ru binary phase diagrams are confirmed more rigorously, the calculated ternary phase diagrams could be worked on with more confidence. More than half of the alloys investigated had hardnesses in excess of 600 HV10 regardless of their state of heat treatment. Based on the examination of hardness indentations, alloys in the Pt-Al-Cr system were also often brittle due to the presence of hard intermetallic compounds. Alloys containing ~Pt3Al showed better behaviour with regard to toughness which was encouraging for the Pt-based alloys that are being developed by Mintek

Canada’s Parti Québécois is playing a dangerous game in pursuit of a majority in Quebec

On April 7th, the people of the Canadian province of Québec will go to the polls in a snap election called by the governing Parti Québécois. Joel Suss argues that the election and its timing is an attempt by the Parti Québécois’ leader Pauline Marois to take advantage of support for its controversial charter of secularism, which would ban all displays of religious affiliation in public institutions. He writes that if the Parti Québécois is successful in its bid for re-election, Québec may soon be seeing a third referendum on the province’s future within Canada

Five minutes with Amartya Sen: “I think that Piketty’s conclusions mostly stand”

In an interview with British Politics and Policy at LSE’s editor Joel Suss and EUROPP’s editor Stuart Brown, Amartya Sen discusses Thomas Piketty’s recent work, the consequences of widening inequality, and his views on India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose BJP party won the country’s 2014 general election