Water Demand Management in England and Wales: constructions of the domestic water-user

YesMeasures to manage demand include implicit and explicit messages about domestic water-users which have important potential impacts on their perceptions and practices. Drawing on recent literature, this paper identifies three different ¿dimensions¿ along which demand management measures¿ constructions of the water-user may vary: these relate to whether the water user is passive or active, whether they are motivated by individual or common needs, and whether they perceive water as a right or a commodity. Demand management measures currently used in England and Wales are then discussed and analysed. The paper concludes by highlighting the importance of communications associated with demand management, and in particular, notes the need to consider the cumulative impact of messages and their interactions with people¿s existing understandings

FISH mapping and molecular organization of the major repetitive sequences of tomato

This paper presents a bird's-eye view of the major repeats and chromatin types of tomato. Using fluorescence in-situ hybridization (FISH) with Cot-1, Cot-10 and Cot-100 DNA as probes we mapped repetitive sequences of different complexity on pachytene complements. Cot-100 was found to cover all heterochromatin regions, and could be used to identify repeat-rich clones in BAC filter hybridization. Next we established the chromosomal locations of the tandem and dispersed repeats with respect to euchromatin, nucleolar organizer regions (NORs), heterochromatin, and centromeres. The tomato genomic repeats TGRII and TGRIII appeared to be major components of the pericentromeres, whereas the newly discovered TGRIV repeat was found mainly in the structural centromeres. The highly methylated NOR of chromosome 2 is rich in [GACA](4), a microsatellite that also forms part of the pericentromeres, together with [GA](8), [GATA](4) and Ty1-copia. Based on the morphology of pachytene chromosomes and the distribution of repeats studied so far, we now propose six different chromatin classes for tomato: (1) euchromatin, (2) chromomeres, (3) distal heterochromatin and interstitial heterochromatic knobs, (4) pericentromere heterochromatin, (5) functional centromere heterochromatin and (6) nucleolar organizer regio

Polarizable Force Fields for CO₂ and CH₄ Adsorption in M-MOF-74

(Graph Presented) The family of M-MOF-74, with M = Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mg, Mn, Ni, Ti, V, and Zn, provides opportunities for numerous energy related gas separation applications. The pore structure of M-MOF-74 exhibits a high internal surface area and an exceptionally large adsorption capacity. The chemical environment of the adsorbate molecule in M-MOF-74 can be tuned by exchanging the metal ion incorporated in the structure. To optimize materials for a given separation process, insights into how the choice of the metal ion affects the interaction strength with adsorbate molecules and how to model these interactions are essential. Here, we quantitatively highlight the importance of polarization by comparing the proposed polarizable force field to orbital interaction energies from DFT calculations. Adsorption isotherms and heats of adsorption are computed for CO2, CH4, and their mixtures in M-MOF-74 with all 10 metal ions. The results are compared to experimental data, and to previous simulation results using nonpolarizable force fields derived from quantum mechanics. To the best of our knowledge, the developed polarizable force field is the only one so far trying to cover such a large set of possible metal ions. For the majority of metal ions, our simulations are in good agreement with experiments, demonstrating the effectiveness of our polarizable potential and the transferability of the adopted approach.</p

Impacts of Covid-19 on developing countries and the catch-up effect

Since its emergence, COVID-19 has disrupted life globally. The World Bank, IMF, and OECD determined the pandemic to have had a severe impact on the world's economy in 2020, even more so than the World Financial Crisis in 2008. Whilst COVID-19 affected all countries, developing markets were especially vulnerable to the crisis due to their high employment rates in the informal sector and lower fiscal capabilities. Whilst forecasts for global economic growth in 2021 are optimistic, the recovery will vary between the different regions and income levels. This thesis aimed to compare the impacts of the pandemic on the economies of developing and advanced countries. The paper focused on evaluating developing markets' future capabilities to converge their GDP per capita with developed countries through higher GDP growth rates. Therefore, economic growth was analysed per region and income level for 2020, and forecasts for 2021 until 2026 were assessed. Additionally, the long-term impact of the decline of production factors in 2020 and the importance of existing levels of production factors for future development were evaluated. The findings revealed that the pandemic severely impacted both advanced and emerging economies. However, the crisis affected future growth prospects to varying degrees in the different regions of the world. As advanced economies recover fast, convergence is deemed volatile until 2022, and each region of emerging markets experiences divergent GDP per capita growth for at least one year. While Asian and European emerging markets display higher than average growth, Latin America can sustain growth rates similar to those in advanced economies. In contrast, the African countries and the Middle East struggle the most to reach high growth, mainly exhibiting divergent per capita growth rates in the future. Nonetheless, overcoming the effects of the pandemic is essential for all emerging markets, as a prolonged impact would considerably damage their convergence possibilities. Therefore, the rapid distribution of vaccines, leading to a faster reopening of the economies, is essential. The current forecast indicates that the decline in production factors during 2020 has a limited impact on future GDP per capita growth. Combined with additional economic contributions provided by governments, this supports a positive outlook for the future. To continue achieving sustained growth, emerging economies need to focus on advancing their level of investment and on further improving and expanding access to education. Lastly, the institutions within emerging countries, such as the rule of law, need to be strengthened. All the mentioned factors have shown a significant relation with higher growth and were recommended policy measures to support development in emerging economies even before COVID-19. However, since the pandemic is still ongoing, its impact should be re-evaluated continuously to derive the necessary policies to support the global economic recovery