Waves of Change: Tourism and Vulnerability in San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua

Tourism is increasingly viewed and promoted as a viable and sustainable option for economic growth in developing countries. However, despite the rise of tourism and the growing popularity of hazard-prone destinations, little research has been done to assess the vulnerability of many tourism communities. What work has been done has focused primarily on post-shock management and planning without identifying underlying factors of vulnerability such plans would ideally mitigate. The goal of this thesis is to develop a methodology for assessing vulnerability in tourism communities in the developing world by assessing the vulnerability of the Nicaraguan community of San Juan del Sur. In 1992, the community was heavily damaged by a large tsunami. Since that event, the community has rebuilt and is now experiencing a boom in tourism. Field work conducted in the community suggests San Juan del Sur is highly exposed to future tsunami events and has heightened sensitivity to the effects of an event due to its heavy reliance on tourism activity

Mechanism of the photovoltaic effect in II-VI compounds Progress report, 1 Jan. - 31 Mar. 1970

Trapped charging and photovoltaic performance of Cu2S-CdS cell including heat treatment effect

Short-term forecasting photovoltaic solar power for home energy management systems

Accurate photovoltaic (PV) power forecasting is crucial to achieving massive PV integration in several areas, which is needed to successfully reduce or eliminate carbon dioxide from energy sources. This paper deals with short-term multi-step PV power forecasts used in model-based predictive control for home energy management systems. By employing radial basis function (RBFs) artificial neural networks (ANN), designed using a multi-objective genetic algorithm (MOGA) with data selected by an approximate convex-hull algorithm, it is shown that excellent forecasting results can be obtained. Two case studies are used: a special house located in the USA, and the other a typical residential house situated in the south of Portugal. In the latter case, one-step-ahead values for unscaled root mean square error (RMSE), mean relative error (MRE), normalized mean average error (NMAE), mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) and R2 of 0.16, 1.27%, 1.22%, 8% and 0.94 were obtained, respectively. These results compare very favorably with existing alternatives found in the literature.Programa Operacional Portugal 2020 and Operational Program CRESC Algarve 2020 grant 01/SAICT/2018. Antonio Ruano acknowledges the support of Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, through IDMEC, under LAETA, grant UIDB/50022/2020.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Cómo “cucharear” dinero del mar: La producción de medusas en La Mosquitia

La población del este de Asia ha consumido medusas por más de mil años. Por mucho tiempo, China ha sido el principal proveedor y consumidor. Fuerzas económicas y medio ambientales están empujando este mercado fuera de China y al interior de sociedades que no tienen tradición de captura ni consumo de medusas. La investigación, ejecutada alrededor de las comunidades de Bilwi y Tuapí, en la región autónoma del norte de Nicaragua, reporta la emergencia de una industria de producción de medusas a lo largo de la costa miskita en Nicaragua, lo cual parece tener un impacto significativo en la sociedad y economía locales. Esto está generando oportunidades de actividades asalariadas para los hombres miskitos, diferentes del buceo para capturar langostas, una ocupación peligrosa y frecuentemente mortal

Spin injection through the depletion layer: a theory of spin-polarized p-n junctions and solar cells

A drift-diffusion model for spin-charge transport in spin-polarized {\it p-n} junctions is developed and solved numerically for a realistic set of material parameters based on GaAs. It is demonstrated that spin polarization can be injected through the depletion layer by both minority and majority carriers, making all-semiconductor devices such as spin-polarized solar cells and bipolar transistors feasible. Spin-polarized {\it p-n} junctions allow for spin-polarized current generation, spin amplification, voltage control of spin polarization, and a significant extension of spin diffusion range.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition of CdTe for high efficiency thin film PV devices: Annual subcontract report, 26 January 1999--25 January 2000

ITN's three year project Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition (APCVD) of CdTe for High Efficiency Thin Film PV Devices has the overall objectives of improving thin film CdTe PV manufacturing technology and increasing CdTe PV device power conversion efficiency. CdTe deposition by APCVD employs the same reaction chemistry as has been used to deposit 16% efficient CdTe PV films, i.e., close spaced sublimation, but employs forced convection rather than diffusion as a mechanism of mass transport. Tasks of the APCVD program center on demonstration of APCVD of CdTe films, discovery of fundamental mass transport parameters, application of established engineering principles to the deposition of CdTe films, and verification of reactor design principles which could be used to design high throughput, high yield manufacturing equipment. Additional tasks relate to improved device measurement and characterization procedures that can lead to a more fundamental understanding of CdTe PV device operation and ultimately to higher device conversion efficiency and greater stability. Under the APCVD program, device analysis goes beyond conventional one-dimensional device characterization and analysis toward two dimension measurements and modeling. Accomplishments of the second year of the APCVD subcontract include: deposition of the first APCVD CdTe; identification of deficiencies in the first generation APCVD reactor; design, fabrication and testing of a ``simplified'' APCVD reactor; deposition of the first dense, adherent APCVD CdTe films; fabrication of the first APCVD CdTe PV device; modeling effects of CdSTe and SnOx layers; and electrical modeling of grain boundaries