Latin America: Nuclear Capabilities, Intentions and Threat Perceptions

Three key states are relevant in considering future nuclear proliferation in Latin America: Argentina, Brazil, and Venezuela. Argentina and Brazil are critical because of their relatively advanced nuclear capabilities. For historical and geopolitical reasons, neither Argentina nor Brazil is likely to reactive nuclear weapons programs. Venezuela’s President, Hugo Chávez, has repeatedly demonstrated interest in developing a nuclear program, yet Venezuela lacks any serious nuclear expertise. Even if it had the managerial and technological capacity, the lead-time to develop an indigenous nuclear program would be measured in decades. Acquisition of nuclear technology from international sources would be difficult because members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group would insist on safeguards, and potential non-Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) suppliers are highly surveilled, risking the exposure of such a program before Venezuela could put a deterrent into place. While South American states have historically opposed nuclear weapons, their acquisition by Brazil and Argentina would lead to little more than diplomatic condemnation. Brazil and Argentina are both geopolitically satisfied powers that are deeply embedded in a regional security community. On the other hand, Venezuela under President Chávez is perceived as a revisionist power seeking a transformation of the international system. Venezuelan acquisition of nuclear weapons would be met with alarm by the United States and Colombia, and it would prompt nuclear weapons development by Brazil and possibly Argentina, more for reasons of preserving regional leadership and prestige than for fear of a Venezuelan threat

The crisis in Venezuelan civil-military relations: from Punto Fijo to the Fifth Republic

For many who thought of Venezuela as a consolidated democracy, the 1992 coup attempts came as a complete surprise. Those familiar with the deterioration of its democratic regime, in contrast, were more surprised that the coups did not succeed. This article provides an institution-centered explanation of the puzzle of why the 1992 coups attempts occurred, why they failed, and why the Venezuelan military has remained quiescent in the years that followed. Institutions of civilian control created during the post-1958 "Punto Fijo" period, particularly those based on fragmenting the officer corps, prevented the collapse of the democratic regime in 1992. These same institutions allowed civilians to regain authority over the armed forces duting the Rafael Caldera administration and have ensured the subordination of the armed forces to the elected authorities to the present. It is also argued that the istitutional basis for civilan control has been dismantled during the Fifth Republic, heightening the likelihood of future civil-military conflict and threatening regime stability

Research on Improving Dynamic Business Procesess in HIS

Dynamic patient treatment processes are usually human-centric and often unique. So if you want to model the different processes of the patient treatment, system must be capable to dynamically change process components, for example activities and business rules at runtime. The problem of process dynamics has been actively investigated over the last few years but there are still problems to be solved. This paper presents related literature analysis of the dynamic business processes. The analysis shows that there is no unified view of dynamic business processes - the formulated problems and proposed approaches to implement dynamic processes are very different. The analysed approaches cannot fully implement dynamic processes because they do not fully confirm needed dynamic process requirements. In the paper new dynamic process model is presented and realised. Dynamic patient treatment process model was developed and realised

Efficiency of energy transfer in a light-harvesting system under quantum coherence

We investigate the role of quantum coherence in the efficiency of excitation transfer in a ring-hub arrangement of interacting two-level systems, mimicking a light-harvesting antenna connected to a reaction center as it is found in natural photosynthetic systems. By using a quantum jump approach, we demonstrate that in the presence of quantum coherent energy transfer and energetic disorder, the efficiency of excitation transfer from the antenna to the reaction center depends intimately on the quantum superposition properties of the initial state. In particular, we find that efficiency is sensitive to symmetric and asymmetric superposition of states in the basis of localized excitations, indicating that initial state properties can be used as a efficiency control parameter at low temperatures.Comment: Extended version of original paper. 7 pages, 2 figure

Property management enabled by artificial intelligence post Covid-19: an exploratory review and future propositions

The Covid-19 pandemic outbreak across the globe has disrupted human life and industry. The pandemic has affected every sector, with the real estate sector facing particular challenges. During the pandemic, property management became a crucial task and property managers were challenged to control risks and disruptions faced by their organizations. Recent innovative technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), have supported many sectors through sudden disruptions; this study was performed to examine the role of AI in the real estate and property management (PM) sectors. For this purpose, a systematic literature review was conducted using structural topic modeling and bibliometric analysis. Using appropriate keywords, the researchers found 175 articles on AI and PM research from 1980 to 2021 in the SCOPUS database. A bibliometric analysis was performed to identify research trends. Structural topic modelling (STM) identified ten emerging thematic topics in AI and PM. A comprehensive framework is proposed, and future research directions discussed.publishedVersio

USING THE PROFILED ELEMENTS TO INCREASE ELECTROCYCLONE EFFECTIVENESS

Increasing volumes of emitted flue gases require high-performance gas-cleaning devices. Aerosols can be purified in various types of devices. It is possible to intensify the operation of electrocyclones by optimising the various parameters and characteristics. The main of this is reduction of re-entrainment. For visual observation and quantification of the effectiveness of the profiled elements, a stand was assembled. The effectiveness of the profiled elements was demonstrated qualitatively and quantitatively. The most effective are the double C-shaped profiled elements