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Many scholars have regarded China's emergence as an economic force as a threat to democracy in Africa, presenting China as the exporter of an authoritarian model through its rising economic influence. This article investigates how well founded the contended Chinese economic threat to Africa is by both analyzing the data at a very fundamental level and applying time-series, cross-sectional analysis
We study a robust control problem for dynamical flow networks. In the considered framework, traffic flows along the links of a transportation network —modeled as a capacited multigraph— and queues up at the nodes, whereby control policies determine which incoming queues are to be allocated service simultaneously, within some predetermined scheduling constraints. We first prov
Honey bees are important pollinators and are subject to numerous stressors, such as changing floral resources, parasites, and agrochemical exposure. Pesticide exposure has been linked to the decline in the global honey bee population. We have limited knowledge of the metabolic pathways and synergistic effects of xenobiotics in bees. Quercetin is one of the most abundant phytochemicals in plants an
Over the past few decades, a significant increase in multi-drug-resistant pathogenic microorganisms has been of great concern and directed the research subject to the challenges that the distribution of resistance genes represent. Globally, high levels of multi-drug resistance represent a significant health threat and there is a growing requirement of rapid, accurate, real-time detection which pla
Background: Kidney biopsy registries all over the world benefit research, teaching and health policy. Comparison, aggregation and exchange of data is however greatly dependent on how registration and coding of kidney biopsy diagnoses are performed. This paper gives an overview over kidney biopsy registries, explores how these registries code kidney disease and identifies needs for improvement of c
Remodelling is an important process in bones in order to maintain bone mass and to recover cracks which naturally develop within the bone material. There is agreement in the literature that the piezoelectric characteristic of bones is one possible initiator of bone remodelling. In recent experimental studies, however, it has been found that cortical bone also exhibits flexoelectric properties whic
The environmental effects of the widespread use and production of plastic have gained attention in recent years. Plastic pollution in marine environments, and limitations to systems of circularity and recycling, are increasingly recognised as serious global problems. Policies and governance around plastic are thus expected to expand in scope. This article examines the Swedish public’s opinions on
Connected autonomous vehicles can significantly improve the safety and mobility of urban transportation systems. However, these systems are vulnerable to model uncertainties, wireless communication impairments, and external disturbances. In this article, we propose a new autonomous intersection management (AIM) system, called hierarchical model predictive control (HMPC). In HMPC, the intersection
The concept of food sovereignty is primarily taken as an alternative to the prevailing neoliberal food security model. However, the approach has hitherto not received adequate attention from policy makers. This could be because the discourse is marked by controversies and contradictions, particularly regarding its ability to address the challenges of feeding a rapidly growing global population. In
Climate change can strongly affect renewable energy production. The state of the art in projecting future renewable energy generation has focused on using regional climate prediction. However, regional climate prediction is characterized by inherent uncertainty due to the complexity of climate models. This work provides a comprehensive study to quantify the impact of climate uncertainties in proje
Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs) are products that have a short useful lifetime and are typically designed for single or limited uses followed by disposal. The disposable nature of FMCGs combined with ineffective waste recovery systems is causing global environmental problems. Various reusable packaging business models have emerged to tackle these problems; however, their influence is still low
In this study, a plant-wide model describing the fate of C, N and P compounds, upgraded to account for (on-site/off-site) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, was implemented within the International Water Association (IWA) Benchmarking Simulation Model No. 2 (BSM2) framework. The proposed approach includes the main biological N2O production pathways and mechanistically describes CO2 (biogenic/non-biog
Background: When and how people were able to engage in everyday occupations changed suddenly with the coronavirus pandemic. Defined as a risk group due to their age, people 70 years and older in Sweden experienced confinement, as did older adults globally. Aim: To explore how doing, being, becoming, and belonging as dimensions of occupation were manifested in the lives of Swedish people 70 years o
AimTo achieve the sustainable development goals there is no doubt that we need to transform e-commerce into a sustainable system. Individual efforts are not enough. We need changes at the system level. We also know that research and innovation are crucial for tackling this global and complex societal challenge. How do we transform e-commerce into a sustainable system? What key areas and issues nee
Mining is an economically-beneficial activity recognized as crucial in modern society since almost every aspect of our lives relies on minerals. However, intensive mining activities impose a severe strain on the water-energy nexus. In fact, mining ventures: i) need massive amount of water in various ore processing steps; ii) generate a huge amount of waste (tailings), generally transferred to tail
