Conventional wisdom holds that in non-democracies, a strong central state can reward and punish local administrations through a merit-based promotion system, which should restrain corruption. But much evidence shows that rampant corruption coexists with powerful central governments. This study...

The effects of adding various carbon nanofillers on the thermal conductivity and energy storage properties of paraffin-based nanocomposite phase change materials (PCMs) for thermal energy storage were investigated experimentally. These included short and long multi-walled carbon nanotubes,...

The irrigation districts of the upper Yellow River basin face a progressive reduction of water allocation and the need to apply water-saving practices due to increasing water scarcity. The adoption of such practices will lead to lower water tables, hopefully in conjunction with controlled soil...

Aiming at investigating an appropriate furrow irrigation management strategy for high melon yields and water productivity (WP), a new coupled model was developed based on the CHAIN_2D and the crop growth model of EPIC. In the coupled model, the root water uptake model of Vrugt was coupled with...

Water resources allocated to the agricultural sector in the Yellow River basin are being reduced due to severe water scarcity and increased demand by the non-agricultural sectors. In large-scale irrigation districts, the application of water-saving practices, e.g., improving the canal system,...

Considering the current water scarcity of Northwest China, aiming at sustainable agricultural development in this region, it is required to identify and apply the most appropriate practices for water-saving, and yield and water productivity improvement. Relative to the tomato crop, a two-year...

Non-isothermal crystallization of aqueous nanofluids in the presence of two types of high aspect-ratio carbon nano-additives, i.e., carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs), was characterized by means of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). A parametric investigation was...

We extend the differentiated product model, first developed by Bowley (1924), by relaxing the assumption that each firm produces only one differentiated product. By doing so, we are able to analyze the potential for collusive market segmentation in a two-stage decision framework, first in...