European Research Council

Abstract Being successfully introduced into the market only 30 years ago, lithium‐ion batteries have become state‐of‐the‐art power sources for portable electronic devices and the most promising candidate for energy storage in stationary or electric vehicle applications. This widespread use in a multitude of industrial and private applications leads to the need for recycling and reutilization of their constituent components. Improving the “recycling technology” of lithium ion batteries is a continuous effort and recycling is far from maturity today. The complexity of lithium ion batteries with varying active and inactive material chemistries interferes with the desire to establish one robust recycling procedure for all kinds of lithium ion batteries. Therefore, the current state of the art needs to be analyzed, improved, and adapted for the coming cell chemistries and components. This paper provides an overview of regulations and new battery directive demands. It covers current practices in material collection, sorting, transportation, handling, and recycling. Future generations of batteries will further increase the diversity of cell chemistry and components. Therefore, this paper presents predictions related to the challenges of future battery recycling with regard to battery materials and chemical composition, and discusses future approaches to battery recycling.

Heavy ion collision experiments recreating the quark-gluon plasma that filled the microseconds-old universe have established that it is a nearly perfect liquid that flows with such minimal dissipation that it cannot be seen as made of particles. String theory provides a powerful toolbox for studying matter with such properties. This book provides a comprehensive introduction to gauge/string duality and its applications to the study of the thermal and transport properties of quark-gluon plasma, the dynamics of how it forms, the hydrodynamics of how it flows, and its response to probes including jets and quarkonium mesons. Calculations are discussed in the context of data from RHIC and LHC and results from finite temperature lattice QCD. The book is an ideal reference for students and researchers in string theory, quantum field theory, quantum many-body physics, heavy ion physics and lattice QCD.

Climate change threatens to cause the largest refugee crisis in human history. Millions of people, largely in Africa and Asia, might be forced to leave their homes to seek refuge in other places or countries over the course of the century. Yet the current institutions, organizations, and funding mechanisms are not sufficiently equipped to deal with this looming crisis. The situation calls for new governance. We outline and discuss in this article a blueprint for a global governance architecture for the protection and voluntary resettlement of climate refugees—defined as people who have to leave their habitats because of sudden or gradual alterations in their natural environment related to one of three impacts of climate change: sea-level rise, extreme weather events, and drought and water scarcity. We provide an extensive review of current estimates of likely numbers and probable regions of origin of climate refugees. With a view to existing institutions, we argue against the extension of the definition of refugees under the 1951 Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. Key elements of our proposal are, instead, a new legal instrument specifically tailored for the needs of climate refugees—a Protocol on Recognition, Protection, and Resettlement of Climate Refugees to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change—as well as a separate funding mechanism.

Available evidence on the bioactive, nutritional and putative detrimental properties of gut microbial metabolites has been evaluated to support a more integrated view of how prebiotics might affect host health throughout life. The present literature inventory targeted evidence for the physiological and nutritional effects of metabolites, for example, SCFA, the potential toxicity of other metabolites and attempted to determine normal concentration ranges. Furthermore, the biological relevance of more holistic approaches like faecal water toxicity assays and metabolomics and the limitations of faecal measurements were addressed. Existing literature indicates that protein fermentation metabolites (phenol, p-cresol, indole, ammonia), typically considered as potentially harmful, occur at concentration ranges in the colon such that no toxic effects are expected either locally or following systemic absorption. The endproducts of saccharolytic fermentation, SCFA, may have effects on colonic health, host physiology, immunity, lipid and protein metabolism and appetite control. However, measuring SCFA concentrations in faeces is insufficient to assess the dynamic processes of their nutrikinetics. Existing literature on the usefulness of faecal water toxicity measures as indicators of cancer risk seems limited. In conclusion, at present there is insufficient evidence to use changes in faecal bacterial metabolite concentrations as markers of prebiotic effectiveness. Integration of results from metabolomics and metagenomics holds promise for understanding the health implications of prebiotic microbiome modulation but adequate tools for data integration and interpretation are currently lacking. Similarly, studies measuring metabolite fluxes in different body compartments to provide a more accurate picture of their nutrikinetics are needed.

The Survey of Schools: ICT in education commissioned in 2011 by the E uropean C ommission took place between J anuary 2011 and N ovember 2012, with data collection in autumn 2011. This article presents the main findings of the Survey based on over 190,000 questionnaire answers from students, teachers and head teachers in primary, lower and upper secondary schools randomly sampled. The article details the analytical framework design and the survey methodology implemented. It then presents the main ‘state of the art’ indicators that have been built, concerning ICT infrastructure and access to it, frequency of students' ICT based activities during lessons, level of teachers' and students' confidence in their digital competences, their opinion about using ICT for teaching and learning, and the school strategies to support ICT integration in teaching and learning. The article also presents the main findings of the exploratory part of the analysis, introducing the concepts of digitally supportive school , digitally confident and supportive teacher and digitally confident and supportive student , estimating their respective proportion at EU level on average and by country and investigating whether high percentage of digitally supportive schools include high percentages of digitally confident and positive teachers and students . A few recommendations for policy making at E uropean, national, regional/local and institutional levels conclude the article.

Proposed utilization schemes producing liquid fuels from captured CO₂ offer fewer climate mitigation benefits at higher costs than alternative systems.

Heavy ion collision experiments recreating the quark-gluon plasma that filled the nascent universe have established that it is a nearly perfect liquid that flows with such minimal dissipation that it cannot be seen as made of particles. String theory provides a powerful toolbox for studying matter with such properties. This book provides a comprehensive introduction to gauge/string duality and its applications to the study of the thermal and transport properties of quark-gluon plasma, the dynamics of how it forms, how it flows, and its response to probes including jets and quarkonium mesons. Calculations are discussed in the context of data from RHIC and LHC and results from finite temperature lattice QCD. This is an ideal reference for students and researchers in string theory, quantum field theory, quantum many-body physics, heavy ion physics and lattice QCD. This title from 2014 has been reissued as an Open Access publication on Cambridge Core.

AIMS: The Heart Failure Association (HFA) of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) developed the HFA Atlas to provide a contemporary description of heart failure (HF) epidemiology, resources, reimbursement of guideline-directed medical therapy (GDMT) and activities of the National Heart Failure Societies (NHFS) in ESC member countries. METHODS AND RESULTS: The HFA Atlas survey was conducted in 2018-2019 in 42 ESC countries. The quality and completeness of source data varied across countries. The median incidence of HF was 3.20 [interquartile range (IQR) 2.66-4.17] cases per 1000 person-years, ranging from ≤2 in Italy and Denmark to >6 in Germany. The median HF prevalence was 17.20 (IQR 14.30-21) cases per 1000 people, ranging from ≤12 in Greece and Spain to >30 in Lithuania and Germany. The median number of HF hospitalizations was 2671 (IQR 1771-4317) per million people annually, ranging from <1000 in Latvia and North Macedonia to >6000 in Romania, Germany and Norway. The median length of hospital stay for an admission with HF was 8.50 (IQR 7.38-10) days. Diagnostic and management resources for HF varied, with high-income ESC member countries having substantially more resources compared with middle-income countries. The median number of hospitals with dedicated HF centres was 1.16 (IQR 0.51-2.97) per million people, ranging from <0.10 in Russian Federation and Ukraine to >7 in Norway and Italy. Nearly all countries reported full or partial reimbursement of standard GDMT, except ivabradine and sacubitril/valsartan. Almost all countries reported having NHFS or working groups and nearly half had HF patient organizations. CONCLUSIONS: The first report from the HFA Atlas has shown considerable heterogeneity in HF disease burden, the resources available for its management and data quality across ESC member countries. The findings emphasize the need for a systematic approach to the capture of HF statistics so that inequalities and improvements in care may be quantified and addressed.

The adenosine A2A receptor (A2AR) is a prototypical G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) that couples to the heterotrimeric G protein GS. Here, we determine the structure by electron cryo-microscopy (cryo-EM) of A2AR at pH 7.5 bound to the small molecule agonist NECA and coupled to an engineered heterotrimeric G protein, which contains mini-GS, the βγ subunits and nanobody Nb35. Most regions of the complex have a resolution of ~3.8 Å or better. Comparison with the 3.4 Å resolution crystal structure shows that the receptor and mini-GS are virtually identical and that the density of the side chains and ligand are of comparable quality. However, the cryo-EM density map also indicates regions that are flexible in comparison to the crystal structures, which unexpectedly includes regions in the ligand binding pocket. In addition, an interaction between intracellular loop 1 of the receptor and the β subunit of the G protein was observed.

Nature has generously offered a wide range of herbs (e.g., thyme, oregano, rosemary, sage, mint, basil) rich in many polyphenols and other phenolic compounds with strong antioxidant and biochemical properties. This paper focuses on several natural occurring phenolic acids (caffeic, carnosic, ferulic, gallic, p-coumaric, rosmarinic, vanillic) and first gives an overview of their most common natural plant sources. A summary of the recently reported antioxidant activities of the phenolic acids in o/w emulsions is also provided as an in vitro lipid-based model system. Exploring the interfacial activity of phenolic acids could help to further elucidate their potential health properties against oxidative stress conditions of biological membranes (such as lipoproteins). Finally, this review reports on the latest literature evidence concerning specific biochemical properties of the examined phenolic acids.

Abstract During the last decades human activity has altered the natural cycle of nitrogen and phosphorus on a global scale, producing significant emissions to waters. In E urope, the amount of nutrients discharged from rivers to coastal waters as well as the effects of mitigation measures in place are known only partially, with no consistent temporal and spatial cover. In this study, we quantify the loads and concentration of nitrogen and phosphorus discharged in the E uropean seas over the period 1985–2005, and we discuss their impact on coastal ecosystems. To support our analysis, a catchment database covering the whole of E urope was developed together with data layers of nutrients diffuse and point sources, and the statistical model green was used to estimate the annual loads of nitrogen and phosphorus discharged in all E uropean seas. The results of this study show that during the last 20 years, E urope has discharged 4.1–4.8 Tg yr −1 of nitrogen and 0.2–0.3 Tg yr −1 of phosphorus to its coastal waters. We show that beside the N orth S ea and part of the B altic S ea, annual nutrient exports have not changed significantly, in spite of the implementation of measures to reduce nutrient sources, and that the N : P ratio has increased steadily, especially in the N orth, M editerranean and A tlantic seas. The response of river basins to changes in inputs was not linear, but influenced by climatic variations and nutrients previously accumulated in soils and aquifers. An analysis of the effects of E uropean environmental policies shows that measures to reduce phosphorus were more successful that those tackling nitrogen and that policies aimed at point sources were more effective or more effectively implemented than those controlling pollution from diffuse sources. The increase of the N : P ratio could fuel eutrophication in N ‐limited coastal ecosystems, reducing biodiversity and the ecosystem's resilience to future additional anthropogenic stress, such as climate change.

This book explains the underlying physics of synchrotron radiation and derives its main properties. It is divided into four parts. The first covers the general case of the electromagnetic fields created by an accelerated relativistic charge. The second part concentrates on the radiation emitted by a charge moving on a circular trajectory. The third looks at undulator radiation, covering plane weak undulators, strong undulators and other more general undulators. The final part deals with applications and investigates the optics of synchrotron radiation dominated by diffraction due to the small opening angle. It also includes a description of electron storage rings as radiation sources and the effect of the emitted radiation on the electron beam. This book provides a valuable reference for scientists and engineers in the field of accelerators, and all users of synchrotron radiation.

This paper explores how customers' perceptions of firms' corporate social responsibility (CSR) and fairness in their pricing strategy determine customers' behaviour as users of financial services. Specifically it proposes a model where CSR and price fairness positively determine customer loyalty through satisfaction and commitment. It also proposes that the entity's social responsibility actions influence customers' price fairness evaluations. To test this model, structural equation modelling is employed on a sample of 300 customers of banks and savings banks. Results show that both CSR and price fairness contribute to achieving customer loyalty, also confirming the roles of satisfaction and commitment as mediating variables. In addition, it is also shown that CSR influences customer perceptions of price fairness, in such a way that customers perceive that socially oriented firms are also fairer in their pricing strategies. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

During continuous speech, lip movements provide visual temporal signals that facilitate speech processing. Here, using MEG we directly investigated how these visual signals interact with rhythmic brain activity in participants listening to and seeing the speaker. First, we investigated coherence between oscillatory brain activity and speaker's lip movements and demonstrated significant entrainment in visual cortex. We then used partial coherence to remove contributions of the coherent auditory speech signal from the lip-brain coherence. Comparing this synchronization between different attention conditions revealed that attending visual speech enhances the coherence between activity in visual cortex and the speaker's lips. Further, we identified a significant partial coherence between left motor cortex and lip movements and this partial coherence directly predicted comprehension accuracy. Our results emphasize the importance of visually entrained and attention-modulated rhythmic brain activity for the enhancement of audiovisual speech processing.

To inform long-term policies on transport decarbonisation, the present paper analyses European road transport CO2 emission reduction options by 2050. The investigation focusses on measures improving tank to wheel vehicle efficiency, but takes into account upstream emissions of electric vehicles. Measures for vehicle efficiency improvement, transport smoothing, and transport reduction, as well as possible 2050 road vehicle fleet compositions have been quantified through expert group discussion and combined with fleet impact modelling to calculate scenario results. Outcomes show that tank to wheel road transport CO2 emission reductions up to 90% versus 1990 could be reached by 2050 through strong fleet electrification and if all measures achieve their best potential. Under ambitious fleet electrification scenarios, CO2 reduction of more than 60% is reached without measures, but causes substantial additional demand for low-carbon electricity, the availability of which is not covered in this paper. It is likely that policies will be a prerequisite for fleet electrification and efficiency increases of the order of magnitude assumed. Moreover, upstream CO2 emissions of electricity for battery and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles could add up to 40% of tank to wheel emissions, suggesting that complementary policies are needed to avoid shifting transport emissions to other sectors.

This article presents results of a European Commission Joint Research Centre study to analyse the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions and energy efficiency of various options for alternative aviation fuels. Interest in alternative aviation fuels is growing, as the sector seeks viable options to reduce increasing GHG emissions. For biofuels non-biogenic emissions arise from cultivation, harvesting and transport of the feedstock, as well as from their conversion into biofuel. It is important to consider whether any emissions reductions benefits are justified by the energy efficiency of each alternative. This article is focussed on American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) certifiable alternative drop-in biojet fuels [1], i.e. non-fossil hydrocarbon fuels which have (i) the same chemical structure and (ii) can be blended with conventional jet fuels, (iii) can use the same jet fuel supply infrastructure, and (iv) do not require modification of the aircraft. The results indicate that the biofuels studied tended to exhibit lower GHG than conventional jet fuels although indirect effects or existing uses of materials were not included in this study. Some biofuels performed better at reducing GHG than others (for example biofuels from wastes and residues). A large and important effect on emissions is seen due to land type used for cultivation and whether methane capture is used for certain pathways. GHG savings results vary due to the Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) methodology chosen for dealing with emissions and co-products. Certain pathways are notably more energy intensive than others and strong GHG reduction does not always coincide with high energy efficiency. An overview of industry initiatives and critical EU legislation relating to aviation biofuels is given. The insights from this work are expected to be of use for decision-makers considering investment options in this sector.

Megiddo (Israel) is a key site for the study of the stratigraphy, chronology, and history of the Bronze and Iron ages in the Levant. The article presents a Bayesian chronological model for seven ceramic typology phases and 10 stratigraphic horizons at this site, covering the Late Bronze and much of the Iron Age. The model is based on 78 samples, which provided 190 determinations—the most thorough set of radiocarbon determinations known so far in a single site in the Levant. This set of data provides a reliable skeleton for the discussion of cultural processes and historical events in the region and beyond, including the periods of the Egyptian Empire in Canaan and the Northern Kingdom of Israel.

Cryo-electron tomography (cryoET) has become a powerful technique at the interface of structural biology and cell biology, due to its unique ability for imaging cells in their native state and determining structures of macromolecular complexes in their cellular context. A limitation of cryoET is its restriction to relatively thin samples. Sample thinning by cryo-focused ion beam (cryoFIB) milling has significantly expanded the range of samples that can be analyzed by cryoET. Unfortunately, cryoFIB milling is low-throughput, time-consuming and manual. Here, we report a method for fully automated sequential cryoFIB preparation of high-quality lamellae, including rough milling and polishing. We reproducibly applied this method to eukaryotic and bacterial model organisms, and show that the resulting lamellae are suitable for cryoET imaging and subtomogram averaging. Since our method reduces the time required for lamella preparation and minimizes the need for user input, we envision the technique will render previously inaccessible projects feasible.

High stiffness and strength combiend with low weight are the advantages offered by carbon fibers in the manufacture of reinforced composites. Effective use of these materials depends on an understanding of structure–property relationships One method of help in this work in small angle X‐ray scattering (SAXS), where the intensity distributions (see figure) can be used to determine orientation, shape, size and volume fraction of structural features resulting from different processing temperatures. equation image

This book is a basic introduction to the principles of circular particle accelerators and storage rings, for scientists, engineers and mathematicians. Particle accelerators used to be the exclusive province of physicists exploring the structure of the most fundamental constituents of matter. Nowadays, particle accelerators have also found uses as tools in many other areas, including materials science, chemistry, and medical science. Many people from these fields of study, as well as from particle physics, have learned about accelerators at various courses organised by CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research which has established a reputation as the world's top accelerator facility. Kjell Johnsen and Phil Bryant, the authors of this book, are distinguished accelerator physicists who have also run the CERN Accelerator School. The text they present here starts with a historical introduction to the field and an outline of the basic concepts of particle acceleration and phase focusing. It goes on to give more details of how the transverse and longitudinal motions of the particle beams can be analysed, including treatments of lattice design, compensation schemes, transition crossing, and other radio frequency effects. The book will be an essential reference to anyone working with particle accelerators as a designer, operator or user, as well as being a good preparation for those intending to go to the frontiers of accelerator physics.