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Hydrogen can be used in the same energy processes as natural gas and become a tool for implementing the transition to a sustainable low-carbon economy. The level of contamination resulting from controlled combustion of hydrogen or methane-hydrogen mixture is relatively low, which will significantly reduce CO2 emissions. However, the use of hydrogen can involve considerable difficulties associated with the hydrogen compatibility of materials. With the increase in the production, storage and transportation of hydrogen gas, including through gas pipelines, hydrogen-resistant materials are needed. The main problem with hydrogen is its embrittling effect. Under the influence of hydrogen, pipelines materials can probably have the following: hydrogen charging of the surface layer under pressure, loss of plasticity at tensile loads, formation of cracks and blisters (by decogesia mechanism), diffusion to the stress concentrator according to adsorption theory, accumulation of hydrogen at the top of the crack (which can lead to cracking) and so on. To assess the possibility of using a pipeline system for transportation of hydrogen gas in large volumes, it is necessary to know hydrogen compatibility of pipe steel. Physical modeling of steel resistance to hydrogen embrittlement can be carried out using electrochemical and gas charging methods.

ABSTRACTThe dominant tradition in transport planning and policy practice considers travel as a derived activity and travel time as an economic disutility. A growing body of literature is challenging this perspective, demonstrating that being ‘on the move’ is a rich experience interlaced with profound shared and individual meanings that can have positive implications on quality of life, well-being and personal development. Yet, mobility in general, and commuting in particular, is often reported as one of the least pleasant daily experiences and as a source of massive environmental impacts. This exploratory article hypothesizes that flow theory, based on Csikszentmihalyi´s seminal work on optimal states of consciousness, has the potential to offer important insights that can contribute to research and policy action on achieving both sustainable and satisfying forms of daily mobility. The article draws on an online exploratory questionnaire in order to reflect on flow theory in relation to the capacity of different mobility modes to either facilitate or constrain the occurrence and duration of optimal states of consciousness. Preliminary conclusions provide a basis for outlining a set of future research directions aimed at better understanding mobility experiences and their relationships with flow theory.

ABSTRACTIn this dialogue the notion of “commoning mobility” is central. Anna Nikolaeva and Jan Duffhues both work on mobility issues in the city of Amsterdam – Anna as a mobility scholar at the University of Amsterdam and Jan as an innovation strategist at the municipality of Amsterdam. Each from their own professional perspective, they see the possibility of a new way of thinking about transitioning to more sustainable and inclusive mobilities. The notion of “commoning mobility” appears to capture that new way of thinking, yet many questions are open regarding its practical application. In this dialogue they together reflect on what “commoning mobility” might mean in practice, the role of different societal actors in it, the potential pitfalls of “commoning”, and the impact of the global pandemic on our relationship with mobility.

ABSTRACTAlthough place-specific social norms play at least as important a role as physical factors in encouraging cycling in mature cycling cities, few studies have explored these factors in detail. In order to address this research gap, this paper offers a qualitative exploration of what makes Amsterdam a “cycling city”. Through semi-structured interviews, the article explores the main factors which encourage cycling uptake among international newcomers to Amsterdam. Instead of relying on a division between “hard” and “soft” factors, we approach the city as a sociotechnical system, arguing that the material and social factors which encourage cycling in Amsterdam are co-constitutive. We identify seven main factors encouraging cycling, whichtend to be mutually reinforcing and highlight the critical role of the “human infrastructure” formed by cyclists themselves in encouraging cycling. Finally, our analysis uncovers a temporal dimension of cycling uptake, showing that many newcomers become increasingly reliant on cycling over time.

Taste is essential for the interaction of animals with their food and has co-evolved with diet. Humans have peopled a large range of environments and present a wide range of diets, but little is known about the diversity and evolution of human taste perception. We measured taste recognition thresholds across populations differing in lifestyles (hunter gatherers and farmers from Central Africa, nomad herders, and farmers from Central Asia). We also generated genome-wide genotype data and performed association studies and selection scans in order to link the phenotypic variation in taste sensitivity with genetic variation. We found that hunter gatherers have lower overall sensitivity as well as lower sensitivity to quinine and fructose than their farming neighbors. In parallel, there is strong population divergence in genes associated with tongue morphogenesis and genes involved in the transduction pathway of taste signals in the African populations. We find signals of recent selection in bitter taste-receptor genes for all four populations. Enrichment analysis on association scans for the various tastes confirmed already documented associations and revealed novel GO terms that are good candidates for being involved in taste perception. Our framework permitted us to gain insight into the genetic basis of taste sensitivity variation across populations and lifestyles.

AbstractQuantity and quality of social relations correlate with our happiness and physical health. Our (feeling of) connectedness also matters for the efficacy and functioning of communities and societies as a whole. Different mobility practices offer different conditions for being exposed to other people and the environment. Such exposure influences a sense of being connected to places, communities and societies. In transport planning practice and research, these relations are slowly getting attention. In this paper, we develop an analytical framework that offers a comprehensive understanding on if and how one’s experiences of being on the move influence the ability of an individual to develop a sense of connectedness. We develop hypotheses about these possible relations, that link literatures from mobilities research and sociology to advance transport planning research and practice. First, we discuss how the experiences of being mobile using different transport modes set different stages for the potential exposure to a diversity of socio-spatial environments. Second, we translate this into an analytical framework for understanding the relationships between connectedness and using different mobility modes. In the final part of the paper, we illustrate this by operationalising a number of potential indicators of connectedness (as dependent variables).

Our mainstream mobility thinking is narrowly framed: it highlights the role of mobility in economic and urban growth, individual speed and system efficiency, but obscures its role in reproducing inequalities, and in driving unsustainable developments on a global scale. Critically, however, this narrative obscures our view on the increasingly problematic societal and environmental ‘externalities’ of mobility, such as its significant contribution to climate change, air pollution, social exclusion, deaths and injuries, public health issues and landscape degradation. With such high stakes for our common mobility futures, how can we identify seeds of emerging alternatives, nurture and amplify their potential impact and empower emerging alternative futures?

The semantic category of expressivity serves to express additional notional shades of meaning. We divide the language means of the expressivity category into those of lexical and syntactical. We analyze the realization of expressive means in 5 communicative situations: communication between friends, communication between birth relatives, communication between colleagues, communication between an employer and an employee, communication between a lawyer and a witness. The analysis of these situations proves that realization and distribution of the expressive language means inside the situations are basically determined by the situational variables as well as the social roles of the speaker and the listener.

All-dielectric nanophotonics is a powerful tool for improvement of thin-film optotelectronic devices because of low optical losses, strong light localization, and chemical robustness against such materials as halide perovskites. However, large-scale and low-cost approaches to create functional nanostructures are still not developed. In our work, we show a novel method to create mesoporous electron transport layer based on optically resonant silicon nanoparticles incorporated into TiO2paste to be applied for perovskite (MAPbI3) solar cell. The inclusion of Mie-resonant silicon nanoparticles helps to improve light absorption by a perovskite layer without reduction of the active material. The management of Si nanoantennas concentration provides to reach a power conversion efficiency higher than 21% by increasing all main device parameters. Our multi-physical theoretical simulations of the solar cells with the resonant silicon nanoparticles provide physical understanding on the mechanisms of the device improvement as well as help to optimize the silicon nanoparticles concentration.