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Recent research has shown that adopting a cooperative approach in agricultural production and exchange can be an effective and sustainable method in agri-food supply chains (SCs). However, existing studies have primarily focused on treating institutions as organizational components of agricultural production and exchange, with little attention given to the power dynamics inherent in agri-food collaboration. To bridge this gap, this study has integrated perspectives from new institutional economics (NIE) and political ecology. In particular, this study has drawn on the concept of “a bundle of powers” introduced by Ribot and Peluso (2003) in the “theory of access” framework. In this paper, I investigate the power dimensions of collaboration within agri-food SCs, emphasizing the importance of understanding the political relationships of agri-food production. My findings demonstrate that, while the networking between farmers and the edamame SC tends to be more socially sustainable, interactions with the rice SC have occasionally led to adverse outcomes such as indebtedness and impeded rice farming. These findings underscore the significance of taking into account the political and power dimensions of the agri-SC to comprehend and tackle the challenges encountered by farmers in their cultivation decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we comprehensively investigate the constant voltage stress (CVS) time-dependent breakdown and cycle-to-breakdown while considering metal-ferroelectric-metal (MFM) memory, which has distinct domain sizes induced by different doping species, i.e., Yttrium (Y) (Sample A) and Silicon (Si) (Sample B). Firstly, Y-doped and Si-doped HfO2 MFM devices exhibit domain sizes of 5.64 nm and 12.47 nm, respectively. Secondly, Si-doped HfO2 MFM devices (Sample B) have better CVS time-dependent breakdown and cycle-to-breakdown stability than Y-doped HfO2 MFM devices (Sample A). Therefore, a larger domain size showing higher extrapolated voltage under CVS time-dependent breakdown and cycle-to-breakdown evaluations was observed, indicating that the domain size crucially impacts the stability of MFM memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article shows that the descriptions of Southeast Asian geography contained in Ming and Qing Chinese sources that used observations collected from contemporary mariners reflect the structure of the maritime trading networks in the region. It examines several Chinese textual studies of Southeast Asia, navigational rutters, and maps, and uses geographic information system mapping to visualise and compare the extent of the authors' and cartographers' knowledge of the region. The article then takes the findings and situates them in the context of early modern Southeast Asian economic history to explain how the Chinese networks were transformed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the food regime concept has become an important approach for addressing the global food trade, most of its applications have utilized qualitative methods. This article applies a quantitative social network analysis (SNA) and a more-than-qualitative relational approach, drawing from the geography literature to explore regional food regimes in Asia in the World Trade Organization (WTO) era. Employing data from the Food and Agriculture Organization Corporate Statistical Database (FAOSTAT) and the Design of Trade Agreements (DESTA) project database, this paper's analysis of the governance of Asian regional vegetable trade networks reveals the multiplicity inherent in food regimes under the WTO. In this context, the topologies of food regimes—including degree centrality, betweenness centrality, and closeness centrality—reveal the emergence of a multi-polar food system in Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we leverage on a case study about the governance of groundwater and the hazard of land subsidence in Yunlin, Taiwan, to address the state's political strategies of producing 'hydro‐social territories'. Our goal is to examine how local agents and their knowledge of the socio‐technological system shape groundwater use, with particular attention on how that system has changed due to the governmentalized regulation of groundwater resources as a means to mitigate land subsidence. Drawing from the local agrarian development and its tube well irrigation networks that underlie the groundwater‐scape in this research, the paper demonstrates that the 'hydro‐social territory' itself is complicated, as local farmers who rely on groundwater are never fully controlled by the state, regardless of whether or not they use groundwater for agricultural cultivation or other purposes, yet at the same time, the intention of governmentalizing the local groundwater regime is concealed and has become more concrete with the introduction of new sciences and technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper examines how the proliferation of the new Japanese food‐safety regime has influenced the edamame industries of China and Taiwan—the two largest producers of edamame beans in the world. Edamame is not only a popular cuisine in the Asia‐Pacific region, it is also responsible for the largest‐scale frozen vegetable flow in East Asia. This study addresses how the interaction between geopolitical realities and the subcontracting of edamame crops has created an access regime governing the vegetable trade in East Asia. By addressing the complexity of the geopolitics related to contract farming, this study considers the extent to which the Japanese edamame trade has subordinated edamame producers in multiple places in Asia, while Taiwan's edamame industry has positioned itself to obtain preferential access to the edamame flow between Japan, Taiwan, and China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, the relaxation analysis is performed to understand the V TH instability in FeFETs with two different dopants, i.e., Si and Gd. The FeFETs with different dopants show the different delay-after-write characteristics, i.e., Gd:HfO 2 FeFETs show a better delay-after-write stability compared to the case of Si:HfO 2 FeFETs. With the relaxation analysis, Si:HfO 2 FeFETs exhibit an obvious V TH recovery during the relaxation phases. Furthermore, the power law fitting is used to analyze the V TH shift under the positive program bias, indicating that a wide and easily accessible defects can exist in the IL and/or Si:HfO 2 since the smaller overdrive voltage dependence exponent (γ) is obtained in Si:HfO 2. Last, the smaller V TH shift/recovery in Gd:HfO 2 FeFETs can be attributed to a relatively tighter defect distribution, indicating that the dopants in the ferroelectric layer and the defects in IL and/or ferroelectric dielectric have to be carefully optimized to achieve the better V TH stability. • Si:HfO 2 FeFETs exhibit an obvious V TH recovery during the relaxation phases. • The power law fitting is used to analyze the V TH shift, indicating that a wide and easily accessible defects can exist in the IL and/or Si:HfO 2. • The smaller V TH shift/recovery in Gd:HfO 2 FeFETs indicates that the dopants and the defects have to be carefully optimized to achieve the better V TH stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, the ferroelectric characteristic of a 5 nm Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 (HZO) metal-ferroelectric-insulator-semiconductor (MFIS) device is enhanced through strained complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS)-compatible TiN electrode engineering. Strained TiN top-layer electrodes with different nitrogen (N) concentrations are deposited by adjusting the sputtering process conditions. The TiN electrode with 18% N exhibits a compressive characteristic, which induces tensile stress in a 5 nm HZO film. A device with 18% N in TiN shows a higher remanent polarization (2Pr) and larger capacitance value than the compared sample, indicating that the strained TiN is promising for enhancing the ferroelectricity of sub-5 nm HZO devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Incidentally discovered adrenal lesions known as adrenal incidentalomas (AI) are being encountered with increasing frequency due to the widespread use of abdominal computed tomography (CT). The aim of this study was to identify the clinical predictors of malignancy in AI and to evaluate the accuracy of a recently proposed risk stratification algorithm. Methods: A retrospective analysis of 96 patients presenting with AI between 2004 and 2014 was undertaken; 66 patients underwent adrenalectomy, and 30 were managed non‐operatively. Univariate analysis including patient demographics, CT features of tumour size, density and heterogeneity was performed. Hormonal parameters including 24‐h urinary‐free cortisol and serum dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHEAS) were also included. A Cleveland Clinic risk stratification model utilizing adrenal size and density was evaluated. Results: The overall rate of malignancy was 8%. On univariate analysis, the following preoperative variables were predictive of malignancy – tumour size on pathology (P = 0.0031) and CT (P = 0.0016), heterogeneity on CT imaging (P = 0.0036), a relative percentage washout of less than 40% (P = 0.0178), elevated 24‐h urinary‐free cortisol levels (P = 0.0176), elevated DHEAs (P = 0.0061) and younger age at presentation (P < 0.0001). Evaluation of the Cleveland Clinic algorithm found an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.81 (95% confidence interval 0.52–1.00). Conclusion: CT characteristics of tumour size, density and heterogeneity are significantly associated with malignancy in AI and applied together reliably exclude malignancy. The risk stratification algorithm utilizing size and density alone may fail to identify some smaller adrenal cancers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]