Accurately converting satellite instantaneous evapotranspiration (λETi) over time to daily evapotranspiration (λETd) is crucial for estimating regional evapotranspiration from remote sensing satellites, which plays an important role in effective water resource management. In this study, four upscaling methods based on the principle of energy balance, including the evaporative fraction method (Eva-f method), revised evaporative fraction method (R-Eva-f method), crop coefficient method (Kc-ET0 method) and direct canopy resistance method (Direct-rc method), were validated based on the measured data of the Bowen ratio energy balance system (BREB) in maize fields in northwestern (NW) and northeastern (NE) China (semi-arid and semi-humid continental climate regions) from 2021 to 2023. Results indicated that Eva-f and R-Eva-f methods were superior to Kc-ET0 and Direct-rc methods in both climatic regions and performed better between 10:00 and 11:00, with mean absolute errors (MAE) and coefficient of efficiency (ɛ) reaching <10 W/m2 and > 0.91, respectively. Comprehensive evaluation of the optimal upscaling time using global performance indicators (GPI) showed that the Eva-f method had the highest GPI of 0.59 at 12:00 for the NW, while the R-Eva-f method had the highest GPI of 1.18 at 11:00 for the NE. As a result, the Eva-f approach is recommended as the best way for upscaling evapotranspiration in NW, with 12:00 being the ideal upscaling time. The R-Eva-f method is the optimum upscaling method for the Northeast area, with an ideal upscaling time of 11:00. The comprehensive results of this study could be useful for converting λETi to λETd.

We report two congenitally malformed hearts found at autopsy to have common arterial trunk and pulmonary atresia. Both exhibited usual atrial arrangement, along with concordant atrioventricular connections. In one case, the common arterial trunk arose predominantly from the right ventricle, while the other had a balanced commitment. In both, the atretic pulmonary trunk arose from the left posterolateral aspect of the common trunk. Confluent right and left pulmonary arteries, which were hypoplastic but patent, were present. On the inner aspect of the common trunk, there was a dimple immediately adjacent to the atretic segment of the pulmonary component identified externally. In one case, the fibrous pulmonary component had been accidentally cut during dissection. A solitary coronary artery was identified in both cases.

This paper investigates if there is an optimum design of loaded-line phase shifters with respect to phase shift/loss figure of merit (FOM) and linearity. The investigation was performed by comparing six loaded-line phase shifters that were implemented in printed circuit board (PCB)technology with shunt-loaded hyperabrupt varactor-diodes. It was demonstrated that the hyperabrupt varactor’s C-V characteristics must be modeled with high accuracy to predict the nonlinear behavior. A polynomial varactor model was employed and experimentally validated. To extend the range of investigated parameter values, the extracted model was scaled and evaluated further in a circuit simulator. The investigation reveals that for a given varactor-capacitance, the phase shift/loss FOM is improved if the varactor-capacitance is evenly distributed and the unit cell length is much shorter than a quarter wavelength. The study demonstrates that the phase shift/loss depends mainly on the distribution of varactor-capacitance and Q factor. The intermodulation (IM) distortion is primarily proportional to the total varactor-capacitance per unit cell. The study also revealed that an increase in the varactor’s Q factor results in higher IM. Therefore, it is a trade-off between low loss and low IM.

Universal basic income (UBI) is becoming a prominent alternative to reform the welfare state, yet public support for this policy remains a puzzle. Existing scholarship empirically shows that certain groups like the low-income and left-wing show support, but it remains unclear if this translates to a preference for UBI over alternatives. This paper argues against this assumption: UBI challenges welfare norms and deservingness principles, suggesting people would typically prefer means-tested options. Drawing on a conjoint experiment, this paper empirically shows supportive evidence of the idea that support for a UBI does not translate into an inherent preference for UBI. These findings have widespread implications for both the UBI literature and the politics of welfare reform.

The formation of the civil militias (burgerwachten) in 1918 across a range of Dutch cities, in response to the threat of revolution, has received extremely limited attention in both Dutch and international historiography. They have never been studied in their own right, having been considered a largely local and politically irrelevant phenomenon. In fact this large voluntary organisation existed both locally and nationally, and recruited over 100,000 men and women, and had ties to state and fringe groups abroad. Reconstructing the formation and development of the militias, and analysing its character as a paramilitary and strikebreaking organisation, this article demonstrates that the militias were an important ideological formation. The militia institutionalised anti-Bolshevism and radical right paramilitarism in the Netherlands, and as such had a role to play in the counter-revolutionary network that was developed across Europe.

The conceptualization of a proper approach to patent law, as it relates to drug patents and access to medicines, remains contested. This article joins the discourse by positing that an application of the communitarian approach of ubuntu to the might of human rights is a useful framing for normalizing equity-based interventions and would help tilt the balance of power from a narrow profit-seeking imperative to one that prioritizes the public good. It contends that, while private entity ubuntu, corporate social responsibility or charity yield some positive results, they are inadequate and must be buttressed by the right to health, which entails access to the necessary diagnostics, therapeutics and medicine for all. The article argues against the predominant hegemony of current thought, which has so far not yielded meaningful and timely access, and advocates for a rethink of the possibilities of more just outcomes through more just processes.

The objective of this paper is to analyse the impact of skill mismatch on labour turnover, unemployment, and informality, in the case of Colombia. We study Colombia because it is a developing country with one of the highest levels of unemployment and informality in Latin America, along with very restrictive institutions, such as the minimum wage. We found that skill mismatch can explain the high turnover of workers in the Colombian labour market, evident in the increase in hirings and also in separations. Additionally, we find a positive significant effect of skill mismatch on the levels of informality, but no significant effect on unemployment. This evidence remains even once we consider the role of labour market institutions such as minimum wage and non-wage labour costs.

This manuscript presents a millimeter-wave GaN high-power amplifier (HPA) intended for next generation inter-satellite links (ISLs). The proposed architecture achieves a fractional bandwidth wider than 18% in the V-band spectrum, to deliver a 10 Gbit/s throughput compatible with multi-thousand-km ISLs. Core of the HPA is the monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMIC ) power amplifier which covers the whole 59–71 GHz band with high efficiency through innovative topologies and a cutting-edge gallium nitride on silicon carbide (GaN-on-SiC) process. The MMIC is then parallelized by means of a 1-to-8 splitter/combiner to obtain a V-band 10 W GaN HPA. Measurement results show a peak small-signal gain of 25.6 dB, 6.5% peak power-added efficiency, and a maximum P1dB of 40.3 dBm.

The regulation of road transport supply chains has recently become a subject of international concern. A significant body of research shows that ensuring minimum rates of pay for truck drivers is important, not only to workers’ health and safety but also to achieving improved road safety outcomes and other policy objectives related to the viability of the road transport industry. For this study, we used an empirical analysis to quantitatively demonstrate the impact of South Korea’s Safe Rates System on factors of the work environment and driver behaviours that affect road safety. Specifically, we looked at the impact of the system on market structure, truck drivers’ monthly net income, average working time, time spent on maintenance, and the frequency of overloading, speeding, and drowsiness while driving. Our results suggest that increased rates of pay for owner truck drivers resulting from the implementation of the Safe Rates System led to a reduction in the average number of contracting steps between client companies who ship goods and the truck drivers who transport them, improvement in the level of market transparency, increased monthly income, decrease in total time worked, decrease in the frequency of overloading, speeding, and drowsiness while driving, and increase in time spent on vehicle maintenance. The level of compliance with the system by clients and transport companies also had an overall positive impact on the industry structure. By empirically demonstrating the system’s impact, our results provide statistical evidence useful to the debate on reintroduction of the Safe Rates System in Korea.

Future communication and radar sensing systems will require synchronization methods which are more versatile in terms of the systems involved in the synchronization process. We present an over-the-air frequency synchronization algorithm based on the standard and the generalized Kuramoto model which uses continuous wave (CW) signals. In contrast to other approaches, all nodes of the network participate equally, and synchronization can even be achieved in presence of a non-cooperative node. By changing the parameters of the radar or by modifying the synchronization algorithm, synchronization accuracy can be adjusted as well. All claims are supported by measurements conducted with CW radars. It will be demonstrated that our algorithm enables synchronization accuracies down to 1.92 ppb and thus could provide sufficient accuracy for velocity measurements on pedestrians.

Although the earliest political text from early China, namely the Canon of Documents, comprises speeches attributed to ancient kings, for most of the Eastern Zhou period (770–255 BCE) monarchs remained conspicuously silent. This article surveys the instances of the rulers’ speeches in major historical collections and a sample of philosophical texts from the Warring States period. I demonstrate that the rulers’ voice in these texts is overwhelmingly confined to short questions, approval of proposed policies, or other insignificant uttering. I argue that this silence was deliberately built into the texts by their composers, so as to preserve the intellectual authority in the hands of the educated elite. It was only with the imperial unification of 221 BCE and the dramatic change in the balance of power between the emperors and the intellectuals that the royal speech regained its prominence and political importance.

Titania slag, produced from smelting placer ilmenite concentrates and used as a feedstock for TiO2 pigment production, contains low levels of radioactivity due to thorium and uranium. This study investigated the distribution and speciation of thorium in Rio Tinto Chloride Slag (RTCS), which contains an average of 170 ppm Th and 16 ppm U, using a variety of analytical methods from powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) analysis to bulk and laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS and LA-ICP-MS), electron microprobe analysis (EMPA), quantitative evaluation of materials by scanning electron microscopy (QEMSCAN), Raman spectroscopy, microbeam synchrotron X-ray fluorescence (µsXRF) mapping, synchrotron Laue X-ray diffraction (LXRD) and synchrotron X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS). Our data demonstrate that ∼99.4% of Th in the RTCS is hosted by a chevkinite-like Th–REE–Ti aluminosilicate containing an average of 8.05±0.64 wt.% ThO2. The Th–REE–Ti aluminosilicate occurs as acicular (∼0.3×12 µm) or tabular (∼5×15 µm) crystals in association with a Th-bearing aluminosilicate glass (0.41±0.35 wt.% ThO2) as infillings either in interstitials or along the fractures of the main Ti–Fe oxides of the sassite–ferropseudobrookite solid-solution series. The Th–REE–Ti aluminosilicate and associated Th-bearing aluminosilicate glass formed probably during the quenching stage of the titania slag production. LA-ICP-MS analyses and µsXRF mapping show that the main Ti–Fe oxides in the RTCS contain an average of only 0.32±0.60 ppm Th. Future pyrometallurgy operations that utilise Th- and U-bearing heavy mineral sands must consider their environmental effects and mitigate radioactivity. In addition, preferential acid dissolution of the Th–REE–Ti aluminosilicate in RTCS and other titania slags may be used to recover Th and REE for dual environmental and economic benefits.

Pteridophytes are excellent ecological indicators of habitat quality. In this study, we built a model that predicts the habitat suitability of Elaphoglossum beddomei Sledge, an epiphytic or lithophytic and endemic pteridophyte in Southern Western Ghats, by using the technique of species distribution modelling. The occurrence data of E. beddomei from field explorations as well as from various herbaria were collected during 2018–2022. These occurrence data along with climatic data were processed by R packages. The processed data were further analysed using MaxEnt software to project the distribution of E. beddomei in future climatic scenarios. After correlation analysis, five bioclimatic variables – Mean Temperature of Wettest Quarter (bio8), Precipitation of Driest Quarter (bio17), Precipitation of Warmest Quarter (bio18), Precipitation of Wettest Quarter (bio16) and Temperature Annual Range (BIO5-BIO6) (bio7) – were selected from 19 bioclimatic variables with less correlation. Precipitation of Warmest Quarter (bio18) had the most influence in determining the distribution of E. beddomei, with a permutation importance of 83%. Conversely, Temperature Annual Range (BIO5-BIO6) (bio7) and Precipitation of Driest Quarter (bio17) showed least influence in determining the distribution of E. beddomei, and hence, the models created without these variables are considered for prediction. The habitat suitability predictions of the model indicate that the potential habitats of the species may get reduced in Southern Western Ghats in future climatic scenarios. It is in tune with the predicted expansion of drier climatic zones in Southern Western Ghats, which may reduce the suitable habitats for the E. beddomei in near future. So, it demands formulating suitable strategies for reducing the emission of greenhouse gases, regenerating forests and conserving forests by implementing more stringent policies on the environment to protect such highly habitat-specific evergreen elements.