Neue TiO2-Filme mit organisierter Mesoporosität und gezielter Modifizierung als Photokatalysatoren unter sichtbarem Licht

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Multilayered ordered mesoporous platinum/titania composite films: Does the photocatalytic activity benefit from the film thickness?

Multilayered films of TiO2 with ordered cubic mesoporosity were grown via layer-by-layer deposition on a conductive FTO (F-doped SnO 2) substrate by dip-coating and subsequent calcination at 400°C. Since platinum nanoparticles are known to enhance the photocatalytic activity, they were introduced into the TiO2 mesopores by pulsed electrodeposition. Additionally, sandwich-like layers with up to five alternating TiO2 and Pt layers were prepared. The photocatalytic gas-phase oxidation of acetaldehyde served as a test reaction to characterize the activity in the gas phase of both pristine TiO2 as well as Pt/TiO2 single- and multilayer films. The ordered mesoporous pristine TiO2 and Pt/TiO2 nanocomposites exhibited significantly higher photoactivity than commercial Pilkington Activ™ glass and dense TiO2 films. Moreover for pristine TiO2 films, those consisting of three layers (about 650 nm in thickness), were shown to be sufficient to achieve a maximum photonic efficiency of ζ = 0.45%. For the Pt/TiO2 system, however, a single-layer film with a total thickness of only about 220 nm exhibited an almost identical activity. Moreover, repetitive experiments demonstrated that the newly prepared photocatalyst films did not suffer from a decrease in the photocatalytic activity, evincing their potential for practical applications. © 2011 The Royal Society of Chemistry

A Strategy for the Implementation of the Compliance System in the Activities for Maritime Transport Enterprises

The article considers foreign experience of implementation of compliance programs for maritime transport enterprises. The important role of analysis is explained by the ability to evaluate the results and develop a strategy and tactics for the development of the enterprise, anticipate risks and prevent eventual bankruptcy. Strategy is a complex and powerful weapon with which a modern firm can withstand the conditions of a changing environment; this is a tool that can provide a serious help to an enterprise caught in conditions of instability. Therefore, strategy deserves the most serious attention as a management tool. Compliance control ensures the protection of the economic interests of the enterprise from potential risks in the early stages, which simplifies the neutralization of such risks. The compliance program of a stevedoring company includes a code of conduct, anti-corruption policies, as well as other documents and procedures necessary for the company to achieve its compliance goal (compliance documents). The company’s compliance program (Compliance System) is a universal recognized international system of threats counteraction and risk management, which ensures compliance of the company’s activities with the requirements of the State bodies, self-regulatory public and other organizations, compliance with the rules, recommendations and standards governing the company’s activities. The compliance program includes many compliance measures to ensure the achievement of the goals of the compliance program. Compliance measures represent a management and control system in an organization related to ensuring that the organization’s activities and personnel comply with the requirements of legislation, normative regulations, rules and standards of supervisory authorities, industry associations and self-regulatory organizations (codes of conduct, etc.). Work on creating a compliance program for maritime transport enterprises must necessarily lead to an understanding of the company’s own development strategy and to success, as it forces to answer strategically important questions, such as: identification of external and internal factors affecting risks; legal restrictions and regulations; court decisions; voluntary verification of compliance with relevant industry standards. The main requirements of compliance – business transparency, adherence to the legal and ethical norms and regulations – must be implemented by a management system (compliance program) that can be built and implemented in practice

Natural Resource-Based Socio-Economic System of Local Communities: Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change

Local rural communities challenge due to regional disparities on conditions and features of economic, infrastructural, social development etc. Most rural communities are strengthened by natural and environmental bases for economic development compared to urban areas. But during the last two decades they face the global challenge – climate change, which takes a risk of socio-economic system (SES), based on natural resources use. Agriculture and natural-based activities are the most vulnerable systems to climate change. This study aims to test the possibilities for Ukrainian local rural communities to adapt their SES, which are based mainly on natural resources use, toward the building of more resilient to climate change systems. Here, we develop the framework for assessment of vulnerability of community’ SES to climate change, using the integrated indicator-based approach. We estimate the Vulnerability Index for six rural communities, describing the integrated level and by subsystems level of vulnerability. Our assessment confirms the high vulnerability of agriculture and natural ecosystem to climate change. It is a crucial challenge for further socio-economic development of the rural SES with the monofunctional economy which is based on natural resources use. In addition, the problem is exacerbated by the high vulnerability of the social system and infrastructure for most studied communities. Understanding the vulnerable subsystems of community’ SES ensure timely response and the development of concrete policy actions at the community and state levels. In this study we substantiate the hotlist of actions for the most vulnerable subsystems

Method of parallel algebraic addition of time intervals

Спосіб паралельного алгебраїчного додавання тривалостей групи часових інтервалів оснований на накопиченні кратних тривалостей, причому порівнюють між собою тривалості часових інтервалів групи і виділяють часовий інтервал найменшої тривалості, формують поточну часткову тривалість, яка в подальшому позначається як поточна часткова тривалість, яка є кратною цій найменшій тривалості, шляхом її множення на кількість часових інтервалів у групі і формують нову групу часових інтервалів шляхом віднімання цієї найменшої тривалості від тривалості кожного часового інтервалу попередньої групи. Далі зазначені дії повторюють для кожної нової групи часових інтервалів до виділення інтервалу найменшої тривалості, яка дорівнює нулю. Первісну групу часових інтервалів поділяють на додатну та від'ємну групи за знаком тривалостей, у кожній групі одночасно виконують формування поточної часткової тривалості і нової поточної групи часових інтервалів, формують поточну часткову різницю між отриманими поточними частковими тривалостями, а отримані поточні часткові різниці тривалостей з урахуванням знака підсумовують. Таким чином знято обмеження на невід’ємність згаданих тривалостей, що розширює функціональні можливості способу.Предлагаемый способ параллельного алгебраического суммирования временных интервалов заключается в том, что сравнивают временные интервалы друг с другом, выделяют наименьший временной интервал, формируют усредненный временной интервал, кратный наименьшему интервалу, умножая длительность наименьшего интервала на количество интервалов в группе, формируют новую группу временных интервалов, вычитая длительность наименьшего интервала из длительности каждого интервала в предыдущей группе, повторяют указанные операции для каждой новой группы временных интервалов, пока не будет получен интервал с нулевой длительностью, разделяют исходную группу временных интервалов на интервалы с положительным и отрицательным знаками, определяют соответствующий усредненный временной интервал при формировании каждой новой группы временных интервалов, определяют разности усредненных временных интервалов и алгебраически, с учетом знаков, суммируют указанные разности. Настоящее изобретение позволяет расширить диапазон функциональных возможностей способа формирования временных интервалов с различной длительностью.The proposed method of parallel algebraic addition of time intervals consists in comparing time intervals with each other, isolating the minimal time interval, forming the averaged time interval by multiplying the length of the minimal time interval by the number of time intervals in the group, forming the new group of time intervals by subtracting the length of the minimal time interval from the length of each time interval in the preceding group, repeating the said operations for each new group of time intervals until the time interval with zero length is obtained, dividing the initial group of time intervals into positive and negative time intervals, determining the corresponding averaged time interval when forming each new group of time intervals, determining the differences of the averaged time intervals, and algebraically summing the said differences with consideration for signs. The present invention provides the possibility to extend the functionality range of a method for generating time intervals of different length