A Simultaneous Equation Model of Globalization, Corruption, Democracy, Human Development and Social Progress

This study builds a simultaneous equation model that establishes inter-connections among the measures of globalization, measures of democracy, human development, corruption perception index and per capita income, which in turn jointly influence social progress. The model has eleven equations in which the response variables and the predictor variables are log-linearly related. The empirical data used for estimation of the model pertain to the period 2006-2016 for 116 countries distributed over all the continents. The model has been estimated by the conventional Two-Stage Least Squares (2-SLS) and alternatively by a modified 2-SLS in which, at the second stage, Shapley value regression has been used to ameliorate the detrimental effects of collinearity among the predictor variables. It has been found that the modified 2-SLS outperforms the conventional 2-SLS. Empirically, it has been established that globalization, democracy, human development and low level of corruption are reinforcing each other and they together explain social progress quite well

Negative Refraction in Time-Varying Strongly Coupled Plasmonic-Antenna-Epsilon-Near-Zero Systems

Time-varying metasurfaces are emerging as a powerful instrument for the dynamical control of the electromagnetic properties of a propagating wave. Here we demonstrate an efficient time-varying metasurface based on plasmonic nano-antennas strongly coupled to an epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) deeply subwavelength film. The plasmonic resonance of the metal resonators strongly interacts with the optical ENZ modes, providing a Rabi level spitting of similar to 30%. Optical pumping at frequency. induces a nonlinear polarization oscillating at 2 omega responsible for an efficient generation of a phase conjugate and a negative refracted beam with a conversion efficiency that is more than 4 orders of magnitude greater compared to the bare ENZ film. The introduction of a strongly coupled plasmonic system therefore provides a simple and effective route towards the implementation of ENZ physics at the nanoscale

Solar thermoplasmonic nanofurnace for high-temperature heterogeneous catalysis

Most of existing solar thermal technologies require highly concentrated solar power to operate in the temperature range 300-600 \ub0C. Here, thin films of refractory plasmonic TiN cylindrical nanocavities manufactured via flexible and scalable process are presented. The fabricated TiN films show polarization-insensitive 95% broadband absorption in the visible and near-infrared spectral ranges and act as plasmonic "nanofurnaces" capable of reaching temperatures above 600 \ub0C under moderately concentrated solar irradiation (&tild;20 Suns). The demonstrated structures can be used to control nanometer-scale chemistry with zeptoliter (10-21 L) volumetric precision, catalyzing C - C bond formation and melting inorganic deposits. Also shown is the possibility to perform solar thermal CO oxidation at rates of 16 mol h-1 m-2 and with a solar-to-heat thermoplasmonic efficiency of 63%. Access to scalable, cost-effective refractory plasmonic nanofurnaces opens the way to the development of modular solar thermal devices for sustainable catalytic processes