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Effect of thickness on the electrical properties of PEDOT:PSS/Tween 80 films
Get PDFThe lower material and manufacturing costs of conductive polymers, particularly PEDOT:PSS, compared to indium tin oxide have led to significant research into their use in optoelectric devices. In this study, improvements of the electrical properties of PEDOT:PSS and PEDOT:PSS/Tween 80 via the production of multilayered films were investigated. A single layer of pristine PEDOT:PSS was found to give a sheet resistance of 1639 Ω□–1. The application of an additional three layers reduced this value to 29 Ω□-1, corresponding to an increase in conductivity from 2.6 to 18.3 Scm–1. A similar trend was also found with formulations containing Tween 80. X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy showed that the additional layers increased the crystalline order and induced a slight benzoid to quinoid shift. Surface profiling showed progressive increases in surface roughness with each additional layer of pristine PEDOT:PSS; however, this was mitigated by the presence of Tween 80 in the formulations
Nigerian electoral black market : where do party switchers go and why does it matter?
Get PDFWith most existing research on party switching concentrating on the drivers of defection and the electoral performance of defectors, this research sheds light on the events that occurred after MPs switched parties but before voters sanctioned them in the next election. Using Nigeria as a case study, I discover that instead of establishing their own parties and banking on their personal popularity for electoral victory as some have speculated in new democracies, switchers strive to stay within the dominant parties, thereby challenging generalised narratives of weak parties in Africa. Through the utilisation of qualitative and quantitative data from elite interviews and an original dataset, I equally discover that name recognition and fiercely contested primaries make dominant parties in Nigeria simultaneously the net gainers and losers of party defectors. Additionally, evidence shows that while switchers are more likely to get ballot access than non-switchers, they similarly become targets of party retaliation
Camel : E2E verifiable instant runoff voting without tallying authorities
No full textInstant Runoff Voting (IRV) is one example of ranked-choice voting. It provides many known benefits when used in elections, such as minimising vote splitting, ensuring few votes are wasted, and providing resistance to strategic voting. However, the voting and tallying procedures for IRV are much more complicated than those of plurality and are both error-prone and tedious. Many automated systems have been proposed to simplify these procedures in IRV. Some of these also employ cryptographic techniques to protect the secrecy of ballots and enable verification of the tally. Nearly all of these cryptographic systems require a set of trustworthy tallying authorities (TAs) to perform the encryption of votes and/or running of mix servers, which adds significant complexity to the implementation and election management. We address this issue by proposing Camel: an E2E verifiable solution for IRV that requires no TAs. Camel employs a novel representation and a universally verifiable shifting procedure for ballots that facilitate the elimination of
candidates as required in an IRV election. We combine these with a homomorphic encryption scheme and zero-knowledge proofs to protect the secrecy of the ballots and enable any party to verify the well-formedness of the ballots and the correctness of the tally in an IRV election. We examine the security of Camel and prove it maintains ballot secrecy by limiting the learned information (namely the tally) against a set of colluding voters
Smelling things
No full textIn this paper, we outline and defend a view on which in olfactory experience we can, and often do, smell ordinary things of various kinds—for instance, cookies, coffee, and cake burnings—and the olfactory properties they have. A challenge to this view are cases of smelling in the absence of the source of a smell, such as when a fishy smell lingers after the fish is gone. Such cases, many philosophers argue, show that what we perceive in olfactory experience are odour objects, and not ordinary things. On behalf of our opponent, we articulate a screening-off argument based on cases of lingering smells for the thesis that we do not smell ordinary things. We then develop an alternative account of these cases that is consistent with our view. In doing so, we call into question two claims that are typically built into the notion of an odour object
Direct-to-consumer genetic testing and the changing landscape of gamete donor conception : key issues for practitioners and stakeholders
Get PDFResearch question:
What impact does direct-to-consumer genetic testing (DTCGT) have on information sharing in relation to gamete donor conception?
Design:
This study used in-depth qualitative interviews with parents through donor conception, donors, donors’ relatives and donor-conceived people who have used, or considered using, DTCGT. Interviews were conducted between September 2021 and February 2023.
We interviewed 60 people who defined themselves as having been impacted by both donor conception and DTCGT. Fifty-seven of these were resident in the UK at the time of interview. The final sample included 19 (sperm, egg or embryo) donors, 25 donor-conceived people, 20 parents through donor conception and two relatives of donors. Five participants occupied more than one of these roles (hence the numbers do not total 60).
Results:
Our research shows that the rise of DTCGT is affecting how information about donor conception is managed. DTCGT: 1) shifts patterns of knowledge about donor conception; 2) increases flexibility regarding the age of access to information about donor relatives; 3) can lead to a growing role for non-professionals, including wider family members, in gatekeeping information about donor conception; 4) accentuates the impact of donor conception for donors’ and donor-conceived people's relatives; and 5) shapes and is shaped by the formal regulatory donor information management systems.
Conclusion:
Fertility professionals should inform people using, or considering, donor conception, or (potential) donors, about the different ways DTCGT can impact on sharing information about donor conception. Support is needed for those affected by these changes
Gender constitutionalism in Asia : a comparative framework
No full textConstitutions are not neutral with respect to sex, gender, or sexuality. The modern constitutional project is defined, rather, by a specific gender order: one premised on patriarchal and heteronormative gender roles as intrinsic to the political system it configures. Feminist constitutional law scholarship has confirmed this line of analysis, especially since the late twentieth century. In fact, such scholarship has demonstrated that to overcome deep gender bias entrenched in the practice and discipline of constitutional law, it is insufficient merely to add women and sexual and gender diverse persons (SGDP) to the domain of constitutional subjectivity, for instance by expanding their rights. Rather, for constitutional law to become a transformative tool in the struggle for gender justice a more radical approach is necessary. The resulting work on gender constitutionalism has included an analysis of central concepts and assumptions underlying mainstream constitutional theories and a systematisation of evolving trends, but also of persistent textual and doctrinal differences. It has required the identification of “opportunity structures” as crafted by constitutional moments and constitutional instruments, and as compared to other emancipatory venues. Ultimately, it has demanded forming strategic alliances, and repositories of inspiration to render constitutional texts gender-responsive, as well as reflective of international best practice and transnational social movements for gender equality
Are the effects of terrorism short-lived?
Get PDFTerrorism elicits strong public reactions immediately after the attack, with important implications for democratic institutions and individual well-being. Are these effects short-lived? We answer this question using a natural experiment design and combining data on terrorist attacks in the United Kingdom with a Continuous Monitoring Survey. We find that heightened risk perceptions and emotional reactions in the wake of deadly attacks do not dissipate in the very short run but are sustained over time and up to 120 days after the attacks. Whereas large-scale attacks cause a long-lasting shift in risk assessments and emotions, the corresponding effect of smaller-scale terrorism incidents appears to subside within one month. Overall, the impact of terrorism does not fade away easily
Politicisation, business lobbying, and the design of preferential trade agreements
No full textOur paper addresses the question of how governments respond to the politicisation of preferential trade agreements (PTA). How have governments responded to business interest mobilisation while negotiating PTAs? Moreover, if there has been an increase in the salience of a trade agreement, has this changed the government response? First, we assess politicisation in terms of the mobilisation patterns of private sector interests during PTA negotiations. Our central argument is that governments liberalise more when a broad range of business interests involving a large number of sectors mobilise in response to trade negotiations, as this would provide legitimacy to their policy positions. Second, we study governments’ reactions to the level of salience of the trade agreement at hand. We argue that governments liberalise less when the agreement in question is highly salient and provokes increased public debate. We take an actor-centred and comparative approach to our research questions and use a novel dataset of 157 PTAs covering the period from 2005 to 2018. Both of our hypotheses are supported by our analysis. Our results also reveal an important difference between PTA ‘depth’ and ‘rigidity’, which are often perceived as closely correlated in assessing trade openness
The effect of organic matter amendments on soil surface stability in conventionally cultivated arable fields
Get PDFIn this study, new and traditional organic wastes (green waste compost, farmyard manure (FYM), anaerobic digestate or straw) were ploughed into an arable field experiment at a range of rates (1–3 t C ha−1) and under spring and winter cropping rotations for 5 years. The stability of the soil surface structure ( .05) in MWD after any treatment. Potentially, this approach is too imprecise to detect differences, so pore‐scale analyses using CT scanning were used. There were no significant differences in porosity or pore shape (features associated with microbial activity) between the control and organic waste treatments. The results contradicted published data from the Broadbalk experiment (established in 1843), which was the basis for this study, so its soils were studied to understand this discrepancy. Broadbalk soils were classified as unstable, including soils treated with annual FYM applications. Instead, we found a significant relationship between MWD and clay content and previous interpretations had not taken this variable (23%–39% clay content) texture into consideration. In conclusion, to achieve a stable soil surface structure, a 150% improvement in aggregate stability would be needed here and ploughing in organic wastes was not a successful management approach on these arable field experiments