Results-Based Monitoring and Evaluation and Knowledge Management Approaches in Government to Government Partnerships: The Case of the Shandong and WCG Partnership

Government to Government (G2G) partnerships between countries in the BRICS partnerships have significantly increased and with it, the need for more effective evidence-based decision-making. In this process, improved M&E and KM has become prominent. In this context, the study investigated the need for Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E), as well as knowledge management (KM) systems in partnerships. This study focused on the development management aspects of such partnerships and the article is based on research information obtained through the PhD study by Dr Ivy Chen as well as updated research perspectives.The article concluded that a need existed to establish more advanced M&E and KM systems in G2G partnerships. The Readiness Assessment conducted regarding M&E showed that a need existed for Results-Based M&E that can be used to ensure evidence-based decision-making in the G2G partnerships. The Readiness Assessment showed that a definite need existed for Communities of Practice (COPs) beyond the formal meetings and that professionals and practitioners on both sides needed to exchange explicit and implicit knowledge. A need also existed for improved ICTs based-systems including dedicated portals where policy documentation, programme information and data, as well as M&E results, can be loaded and shared by Governments

Origin of Interfacial Polar Order in Incipient Ferroelectrics

There are ample experimental evidences indicating that the ferroelastic domain walls of incipient ferroelectrics, such as SrTiO3 and CaTiO3, are polar. The emergence of such interfacial polar order at a domain wall is exciting and believed to arise from the coupling between a primary order parameter, such as a strain or an antiferrodistortive (AFD) order parameter, and polarization. There have been several mechanisms proposed to explain the emergence of interfacial polar order, including biquadratic coupling, AFD-antiferroelectric coupling, and flexoelectric coupling. Using CaTiO3 as an example, we demonstrate, using both asymptotic analytics and numerical calculation, that the flexoelectric coupling is likely the dominant mechanism leading to the interfacial polar order

Erratum: Orientations of Low-Energy Domain Walls in Perovskites with Oxygen Octahedral Tilts (Physical Review B - Condensed Matter and Materials Physics (2014) 90 (220101))

In the Acknowledgment of the original article, the Award No. DMR-0820404 should be replaced by DMR-1420620

Strain Phase Separation: Formation of Ferroelastic Domain Structures

Phase decomposition is a well-known process leading to the formation of two-phase mixtures. Here we show that a strain imposed on a ferroelastic crystal promotes the formation of mixed phases and domains, i.e., strain phase separation with local strains determined by a common tangent construction on the free energy versus strain curves. It is demonstrated that a domain structure can be understood using the concepts of domain/phase rule, lever rule, and coherent and incoherent strain phase separation, in a complete analogy to phase decomposition. The proposed strain phase separation model is validated using phase-field simulations and experimental observations of PbTiO3 and BiFeO3 thin films as examples. The proposed model provides a simple tool to guide and design domain structures of ferroelastic systems