Military Purposes Research Articles

Features of development to control example for conducting preliminary tests of automated information and control system for military purposes

Features of development to control example for conducting preliminary tests of automated information and control system for military purposes

A Mezőhegyesi Állami Gazdaság a gazdasági reform tükrében

The state stud-farms, although established primarily for military purposes, are the most prestigious units of modern Hungarian agriculture. The Mezőhegyes estate – later state farm, even later food-industry and agricultural combine – is one of the oldest of these, founded in 1784. After the decline of the military use of horse, Mezőhegyes and the other stud-farms developed into a model farm-role, with research and development (as a laboratory for technical and scientific processes), but also as a production-oriented plant farm. In this role, it had particular importance during the Kádár era, especially in the context of the reform process that began in the mid-1960s. The programme, known as the New Economic Mechanism, aimed to build market socialism, and although it was stopped at the macroeconomic level in the early 1970s, it remained in force in the agriculture. During this period, a distinctive symbiosis developed between the economic- and agricultural policy and the state farms (led by Mezőhegyes): the state model farms were the showcase for the reform policy (that was repeatedly put on the agenda), while they received unprecedented infrastructure upgrading and state support. All this allowed Mezőhegyes to achieve hyper-intensive growth in production indicators and to use impressive technical equipment, but by the end of the period serious rentability problems had emerged. This paper take a broad overview of the ’company history’ of the Mezőhegyes State Farm, based on the above aspects, and will be structured according to the terms of office of the estate’s directors during the period.

Biotechnological design of "soldier of the future": transhumanistic vector of military activity

Military technologies developed on the basis of transhumanistic ideas on the possibility of designing a human with given physical, mental, intellectual and other qualities that are able to influence the content of armed struggle in modern military conflicts. Biotechnological expansions and technical interventions in the physicality of military officers, on the one hand reduce the individual risk during combat operations, significantly increase functional indicators of the body, and maintain stable mental state; while on the other hand, increase the probability of application of military force and pose urgent social, anthropological and ethical problems. The subject of this research is the aspects of military activity associated with the projects of biotechnological expansion of the capabilities of the military. The article aims to assess the degree of impact of transhumanistic ideas upon military activity, as well as outline the consequences of biotechnological intervention in the physicality of military officers The theoretical-methodological framework leans on the systemic analysis; views of B. G. Yudin, P. D. Tishchenko and O. V. Popova on biotechnological improvement of a human. The scientific novelty lies in the statement that human is reasonably considered the weakest link in functionality of the complex military-technical systems; based on this factor and the effect from the growing NBIC-convergence, military science contributes to the rapid growth of projects on biotechnological improvement of the military. Biotechnological design of "soldier of the future" is justified by the desire to achieve military-technological superiority over the potential enemy. The advanced research in this area are carried out by scientific organizations of the US Department of Defense and are mostly secret. In this regard, there is no grounds to believe that the developers of military technologies, relying solely on pragmatic reasons of combat effectiveness, would not cross the fine line that separates human improvement and transmutation. The accompanying risks are critical, unpredictable changes in the military affairs and the nature of armed struggle. The constraining measures imply the development of international standards of human improvement for military purposes.

An Efficient Algorithm for Collision Avoidance Between a Solar Array Satellite and Space Debris

Half of the risk to any satellite is from debris collision. The main body of the satellite, housing the main electronics is encapsulated by bulletproof outer layers but most satellites include solar panels as the only energy source and they cannot be covered with multiple kevlar layers or any safety material. As space junk keeps on increasing, we seek to mitigate the tragedies related to it. Every collision in turn creates many new space junk particles which drives a positive feedback chain reaction, which could ultimately lead to a phenomenon known as “Kessler Syndrome”[1], which can render whole space unusable altogether. Several private companies like “LEO-Space” and government agencies are working to help solve this issue, yet some countries perform anti-satellite operations for military purposes each of which creates more than tens of thousands of pieces greater than 0.5 centimetres (that cannot be stopped by layers of protective material) traveling at relative speeds of up to 12km/sec on an average(which usually stay in their orbits for more than 100 years, depending on their altitudes and orbit). China (in 2007), the USA (in 2009), India (in 2019), and Russia (in 2021) have performed these so-called “tests” in the orbits of the altitude of the international space station creating countless debris of various sizes that would stay as a threat in most used orbit i.e. LEO(roughly 160km to 2000km above the earth’s surface).

МІСТ ВІЙНИ

The large-scale war, which began on February 24, 2022, divided the history of independent Ukraine into two parts. The enemy attacked along the common state border. The offensive in the south on the Taurid section of the front had a special place. The formation of a large military group on the territory of the annexed Crimea would not have been possible without the regular movement of military units and special equipment across the Crimean Bridge across the Kerch Strait. The article raises the question of whether such use of this strategically important object of transport infrastructure is accidental or whether its construction was necessary for military purposes? To confirm their hypothesis, the authors analyze all the bridges that were built and operated for a certain (short) period between the Crimean and Taman peninsulas. These are the German bridge of 1943, the Soviet bridge of 1944-1945 and the modern bridge, built by the decision of the Russian federal government after the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula. It was established that all of them were built to ensure the implementation of military operations. An analysis of their construction directly indicates that these bridges were built in order to quickly move large military units in the Crimean direction. Thus, the existing Crimean bridge can rightly be called a bridge of war. In peacetime, there are no significant flows of people and goods that could determine the feasibility of its construction. It is worth noting that Ukrainian geographers, despite eight years of annexation of the Crimean Peninsula, have not published any publications on this issue. A natural question arises as to whether this is due to the fact that most of them were formed on the theoretical and methodological basis of the Soviet and post-Soviet scientific schools, where issues of military and political geography have always been marginal topics of open research. The authors propose to study the phenomenon of “bridge of war” to involve modern post-classical works of French geographers, which should help correct the situation in Ukrainian geography, when issues of territorial integrity and military action were to become priority rather than marginal topics of research.

Сутність і методичні підходи до оцінки економічного потенціалу країн світу як основи формування їх воєнної могутності

The purpose of the article is to define the essence of the concept of «economic potential» and analyze the existing methodical approaches to its assessment, also to determine the features of the use of the economic potential of the world countries during the formation of their military power. The article considers the approaches of various authors to the definition of the concept of «economic potential». Using the comparison method, similar and distinctive features between the above interpretations are determined. The authors’ own interpretation of the concept of «economic potential» is proposed, which is considered as the available resources of the country, ensuring the achievement of the maximum possible volume of production of military products and products of the defense-industrial complex, which can be used to support and develop the armed forces of the country, to comprehensively ensure the training, prevention and participation in various types of military conflicts. The approaches to determining the structural components of economic potential and methodical approaches to its assessment are analyzed. The carried out analysis proved the lack of a clear methodical approach to assessing the economic potential, which can be used to develop the military power of the countries of the world. It is defined that the methodical approach to assessing the economic potential of the world countries, which is aimed at determining the country’s ability to resist and prevent possible wars or military conflicts, should take into account the resource-based, scientific and innovative readiness of the country. In addition, the main attention should be paid to the possibility of financial support for the country to resist and prevent possible wars or military conflicts, as well as to form the potential of the armed forces capable of withstanding a strong enemy in the conditions of war. It is substantiated that the economic potential of the country should form the following: production capabilities of enterprises producing final products for military purposes; basic branches of military production, supplying in the mode of cooperation components, raw materials, fuel; infrastructure engaged in maintenance of the defense industry (transport, finance, communications, management); export-import potential and the system of foreign economic relations for the supply of military products, in particular weapons, military equipment; conditions for the scientific activity of the country, which is associated with the production of innovative products for military purposes.

The Orthophotomap of Lublin 1944: from Luftwaffe photographs to map application – idea, methods, contemporary challenges of processing and publishing archival aerial photographs

Abstract The origins of aerial photography can be traced back to the second half of the 19th century, and periods of World Wars contributed to the development of techniques for developing and disseminating aerial photographs for military purposes. In the literature, we find descriptions of the Polish Military Geographical Institute’s (WIG) use of aerial photography to update topographic maps of nearly 40% of the country’s area at the time. Unfortunately, the fate of the pre-war collection of photographs is difficult to establish. Given this, the aerial photographs from the period of the Second World War (German and Allied) constitute the oldest possible complete and consistent photographic documentation of Poland. The series of German prints (373-GXPRINTS) collected at the National Archives and Records Administration in College Park (NARA, USA) are maintained according to the most liberal policy on access and further use. At the same time, the organisation of the NARA archive and the extent to which the collection has been digitised (over one million images) leave a deficiency, and searching for images requires knowledge, methods and experience. In 2020–2021, the Department of Geomatics and Cartography of the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University implemented the project Development of the Ortophotomap of Lublin 1939–1945 (NCN, Miniatura 4.0. No. 2020/04/X/HS4/00382). The result of the project is a dedicated web portal https://ortolub.umcs.pl, consisting of a digital repository of aerial images, a map application and standardised GIS raster data services. The author believes this is a unique source base, with unprecedented detail. The publication of the project results under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA 4.0 licence is intended to foster the widest possible use of wartime aerial images in scientific research and popularisation activities. The process of developing a historical orthophotomap, as presented in the article, is universal and can be repeated on any set of aerial photographs. At the same time, development work is needed to automate the operations as fully as possible. In conclusion, current challenges and prospects for the development of historical orthophotomaps of national coverage are indicated.

SIMULATION OF THE SYSTEM FOR CALCULATING THE SUPPLY NEEDS OF SUBDIVISIONS WHITH OF UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES

The experience of conducting hostilities in the east of Ukraine, and after the full-scale invasion of the russian federation on February 24, 2022 in the entire territory, showed that the combat use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can lead not only to tactical successes, but also operational-tactical and strategic ones. At the same time, the generalization of such experience and the processing of statistical data on the use of UAV units appears as a hyper-promising direction of scientific activity. Considering the dynamism and rapidity of military actions, as well as the need to adapt to the conditions of hostilities, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are constantly acquiring the ability to repel the offensive of the overwhelming forces of the aggressor by equipping units with weapons of the domestic military-industrial complex, weapons supplied by partners, volunteer forces and enterprises of the national economy, supplying civil models of UAVs to military units. Such supply requires generalization and reasoning for the purpose of equal distribution in accordance with the purpose of military formations (units). Considering the fact that the UAVs used are often not of purely military purpose and are classified according to a very wide range of characteristic features, it is advisable to highlight a number of principle features to generalize the experience. The work distinguishes four such categories: by the scale of the tasks to be solved; by flight duration; by radius of action; by type of control system. The authors determined that these characteristic features are decisive for the formation of a system of providing combat units with unmanned aerial vehicles. It is known that with the active use of the enemy's radio-electronic warfare and the imperfection of the technological implementation of the drones used, there are delays in the performance of flight tasks, which can directly or indirectly reduce the combat potential of combat units. The purpose of the work is to model the system for calculating the needs of units for the provision of unmanned aerial vehicles for the formation of a reasonable approach to the distribution of resources of armed formations of various purposes.

МІЖНАРОДНО-ПРАВОВИЙ СТАТУС ДЕМІЛІТАРИЗОВАНОЇ ЗОНИ МІЖ ПІВНІЧНОЮ І ПІВДЕННОЮ КОРЕЄЮ (DMZ)

The article considers the international legal status of the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) and South Korea (Republic of Korea), its preconditions, and consequences. It was emphasized that the DMZ provides for the liquidation of military facilities and if that is not possible, a ban on their use for military purposes may be introduced at the stage of post-war relations between states or during the armistice. It is established that the creation of the demilitarized zone began in 1945 when two "allies" (the United States and the Soviet Union) shared control of the Korean Peninsula. It is emphasized that by 1948 the Soviet leadership had established a communist regime in the area north of the 38th parallel, and a US-backed military government had been formed in the south. The article notes that although the Korean War (1950-1953), aimed at resolving the question of "which regime represented the 'real' Korea," is still not over (North and South Korea are still formally at war, as the peace treaty after the de facto the end of the Korean War in 1953 was never signed), the conditional end of the conflict was the signing of the 1953 Armistice Agreement. The main content of the study is the analysis of the DMZ between North Korea and South Korea, the legal status of which is governed by the Armistice Agreement of 1953. The analysis of the agreement in the article is prohibited within the DMZ (Article 1, paragraph 6). The Military Ceasefire Commission and the Neutral Observation Commission, which were established under the 1953 Ceasefire Agreement, are mentioned. provided by this agreement, it is responsible for the implementation of a certain part. Discussion issues are being raised regarding the creation of the World Peace Park in the DMZ. The article examines the problems of the Joint Security Area (JSA), which is located in the border village of Panmunjom and is a meeting area for representatives of the North and South. It is noted that despite the presence of the DMZ and numerous attempts to establish relations between the two countries, there are still constant risks of escalation of the conflict between North Korea and South Korea, which causes constant tension for citizens of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the international community.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF WHEELED SEMI-FRAME POWER VEHICLES IN THE MODERN WORLD

The article presents the development and improvement of wheeled semi-frame power vehicles based on the semi-frame tractor of the Kirovets family since its manufacture and the use of its modifications at the present time. (Research purpose) The research purpose is analyzing the stages of development and prospects for the use of wheeled semi-frame power vehicles, considering the possibilities of their use not only in industry, agriculture, but also in eliminating the consequences of natural disasters, man-made disasters, military disaster. (Materials and methods) The article presents historical information about the creation of Soviet-made wheeled semi-frame tractors and photographs of their use in agriculture and in military operations. (Results and discussion) The appearance of the most powerful tractor of the Soviet Union, the K-700, was a huge achievement of the domestic tractor industry. The use of semi-frame tractors of this type had a double meaning of use, since it could be used both for military purposes and in industry or agriculture. The prospects for the development of new models of wheeled power vehicles based on existing modifications and the order of their application at the present time are described. The new promising wheeled and tracked tractors of industrial significance based on a front wheel loader with special protection PK-55S and tracked tractors B10M2 and B12, which have no analogues in the modern world, are appearing now. (Conclusions) The issues of development and use efficiency of new-generation machine-tractor units in various fields of human activity remain relevant today.

Administration and War Finance: Extraordinary Taxes in Hungary at the Beginning of the Reign of King Matthias (1458–1466)

In the first decade of the reign of King Matthias Corvinus, extraordinary taxes were imposed to provide revenues with which the state could recover the Holy Crown, fund the campaigns against “Czech” mercenaries who were causing upheavals in the northern parts of the kingdom, and make preparations for imminent conflicts in the south because of the continuous threat of Ottoman attacks. The extraordinary taxes were mostly used for military purposes, more specifically, to finance the wars and military campaigns against the Czech warbands and the Turks. However, the manner in which these taxes were administrated varied considerably, as did their scope. During the period in question, there were particular taxes for some counties or rather regions (especially for the northeastern) and countrywide levies. Furthermore, it was possible for the nobility to be granted an exemption from the obligation to serve in the military in person or provide soldiers for the military (the so-called militia portalis) by paying an extraordinary tax (and thus essentially purchasing this exemption). There was a close connection between the administration of the extraordinary tax and the process of recruitment. Members of the royal court who served as officers in the royal army often took part in the taxation as tax collectors, and they probably used these taxes directly to pay their mercenaries.

КОСМОС КАК ЧАСТЬ ГЛОБАЛЬНОГО ИНФОРМАЦИОННОГО ПРОСТРАНСТВА В ПЕРИОД ВОЕННЫХ ДЕЙСТВИЙ

Purpose: To identify the current possibilities of the use of artificial earth satellites for military purposes, as well as the problems of illegal destructive use of satellites during hostilities based on analysis and systematization according to various parameters of functions of satellites as part of the modern global information space and to develop proposals that can reduce the likelihood of escalation of the conflict during the crisis. Research method: analysis of open sources on the purposeful use of modern AES, synthesis and scientific forecasting, expert assessment, factological analysis of the AES within the framework of a systematic approach. Result: the article presents an analysis and systematization significant dynamic changes at the cosmic level of the global information space associated with the large-scale spread and significant increase in the number of artificial earth satellites, as well as with the growing importance of satellites for military purposes. The article pres- ents the classification of satellites performing military functions, reveals the possibilities of modern satellites in the period of crisis and military operations and the analysis of the US satellite constellation as a leader in this field. The author poses the problems of the illegal destructive use of artificial earth satellites during military conflicts, as- sociated with this increase in the risk of cyber threats and an increase in the likelihood of escalation of the conflict, threats to Russia, international security and strategic stability. The article proves the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the satellite constellation are today one of the most important indicators of the influence and potential of the state in the world. Scientific novelty: Proposals have been developed to minimize threats to Russia, as well as to reduce the likeli- hood of an escalation of the conflict during the crisis.

Learning Based Super Resolution Application for Hyperspectral Images

Due to its spectral properties, hyperspectral imaging is superior to other types of imaging tools in identifying, distinguishing and classifying objects. Hyperspectral imaging instruments can detect light reflected from certain wavelengths between infrared and ultraviolet, apart from the wavelength that the human eye can distinguish on the electromagnetic spectrum. While this feature provides detailed information about the spectral feature of the object under investigation, it causes its spatial resolution to be low due to the technical overlap between spatial resolution and spectral resolution. Today, applications of hyperspectral images are increasing in important fields such as agriculture, mining, medicine and pharmacy, especially for military purposes. In order for applications to produce more precise results, high spatial resolution is required, as well as high spectral information. Hardware solving of low spatial resolution problem is a difficult and costly method. Therefore, software solution is an interesting area in the field of image processing. In this thesis, a hybrid solution method based on deep learning and sparse representation is proposed to increase the low spatial resolution of hyperspectral images. The method obtains a super-resolution image from a single hyperspectral image with a low spatial image with a deep convolutional mesh. Later, the super-resolution image obtained and the original low-spatial-resolution hyperspectral image are fused with the dictionary learning method, resulting in a new super-resolution image with high spectral and spatial resolutions. The application results show that our method achieves successful results compared to many super resolution applications in the literature.

Conceptual design and operation testing of military movable noiseless power supplier (MNPS)

This study verifies the concept and test of the MNPS owing to the increase in advanced weapon systems used in the Korean defense field. MNPS used solar power to eliminate noise, a risk factor of the existing power supply systems, and it was designed in a size that can be mounted on a small tactical vehicle in various battlefield situations. When sunlight is used as a power supplier, in case there is no light, its use is limited; therefore, it can be used after charging through an energy storage device. In addition, it was designed considering scalability to increase the amount of electricity generated through the solar panel or increase the storage capacity. Finally, the power characteristics were analyzed through a test to determine if the output was constant, and through this, it was possible to confirm its feasibility of use for military purposes.

Краткая история послевоенной советской инженерной психологии и эргономики в лицах

The article deals with a brief history in the faces of post-war engineering psychology and ergonomics. It is shown that the emergence of disciplines in the Soviet Union taking into account the human factor while building complex systems of guided weapons and their improvement was an organized process of specialists’ joint activities in a wide class of scientific and practical disciplines involved in designing and operating ergatic systems for general and military purposes. Prominent representatives of the engineering-psychological and ergonomic discourse of the Soviet engineering psychology and ergonomics of the post-war period are considered in historical and personal terms. Their contribution to the theory and practice of designing man-machine systems is considered. The article shows the existence of local scientific schools in the field of human factor problems, the schools have arisen around the authoritative leaders and scholars solving scientific, design and organizational tasks for creating a new technology. The main literature sources, which served as a scientific and educational-methodological basis for developing domestic engineering psychology and ergonomics, are highlighted. The centres of advancing academic research and applying scientific developments into practice in the field of engineering psychology and ergonomics in modern Russia are stressed.

Vehicle Routing Problem When Using UAVs

Introduction. In recent years, the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is growing rapidly. Initially introduced for military purposes, drones and related technologies have been successfully switched to a number of new civilian applications in the last few years, such as delivery, logistics, surveillance, entertainment, and more. They also opened up new opportunities, such as working in difficult or dangerous areas. The UAV has the potential to solve the problem of air mobility, allowing to change transport and logistics in the future. Combining UAVs with traditional land vehicles can solve the last-mile delivery problem by achieving significant improvements in distribution costs and speed of vehicle delivery. One of the biggest challenges is to plan UAV routes with a number of constraints, including time, distance or energy costs, cargo weight, environmental and environmental conditions (such as wind direction or obstacles), UAV battery life, and demand requirements. users you want to visit. Thus, it revealed the need to classify different types of research and study the general characteristics of the study area. This article aims to help identify the main topics and new areas of research, as well as provides a published overview of the current state and contribution to the problem of UAV routing, as well as a general categorization of the problem of vehicle routing (VRP). The purpose of the paper is to analyze the scientific contributions to the problem of UAV routing to determine the main characteristics of these problems, as well as trends in research and recent improvements. Results. Sources are classified according to the areas of application of UAVs; methods that include exact, heuristic, metaheuristic, and mixed algorithms are mentioned. Conclusions. An overview of the work on routing problems using UAVs and the tasks they generate, trends in research and recent developments. Keywords: Unmanned aerial vehicle, routing, vehicle, optimization.

Devising matrix technology for forecasting the dynamics in the operation of a closed military logistics system

There is a tendency of intensive development of a new scientific area aimed at optimizing the processes of comprehensive ensuring the life of society and industrial processes of countries, specifically logistics, and its more important aspect, military logistics. This paper considers typical contradictions between the need and opportunities for additional development of the theory of processes involving this system. On the one hand, the military has important, dynamic, multifaceted processes for the comprehensive provision of their combat operations to analyze, which requires significant intensification of the development of methods and models for quantitative analysis of the effectiveness of the functioning of military logistics systems. On the other hand, there is now limited availability of theoretical developments and the practical application of the necessary, convenient, effective mathematical tools aimed at computerization of solving the problems of providing military scientific and technical problems in real time. Matrix technology for forecasting the dynamics of functioning of closed systems of military logistics of various military purposes is proposed. Matrix calculus makes it possible to obtain intermediate and ultimate results in a compact form and carry out complex and cumbersome calculations using effective algorithms. A method to precisely solve the system of linear differential equations describing processes of arbitrary type has been proposed. The method is based on the use of the operational calculus by Laplace. The possibilities of the method and procedures of forecasting are illustrated by solving practical military tasks that arise during the functioning of military logistics systems of varying complexity. These tasks differ in configuration, different numbers of possible states, and state transitions

Methodological Aspects of the Military-Economic Significance of Agriculture and Modern Problems of Military Food Resources in Ukraine

Today, the study of the military-economic significance of agriculture is given considerable attention by both the leadership of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the state as a whole, so the main purpose of the article is to determine some methodological aspects of the militaryeconomic significance of agriculture to strengthen the military-economic potential of the state and reveal the problems of using food resources for military purposes. In the article, the authors analyse statistical data on the dynamics of the main indicators that characterise the military-economic significance of the agro-industrial complex in the general system of national security of the state, as well as the dynamics of their growth over the years, with further research of correlations between these indicators and defence expenditures of Ukraine in order to develop recommendations for assessing the importance of indicators for the development of the agricultural sector in ensuring a sufficient level of military-economic potential of the state. Through the analysis, the economic capabilities of the state to provide Armed Forces were established, the views on determining the share of GDP in the protection of national interests in order to strengthen the country’s MEP were formed, the main priorities for further development of the country as a whole were formulated. Also in the article, using the method of an expert survey based on pairwise comparisons, the indicators of the contribution of the main components to the overall indicator of sufficiency of the level of military and economic potential of the state are evaluated in order to determine the importance of the agricultural sector in the development of this potential. Based on the results, it was determined that the basis of any MEP of the state is the stability of the functioning of industry and the agricultural sector, since this is the basis for ensuring the country’s defence capability as a whole. The collected statistical data and practical results obtained can be useful for specialists in the defence and agricultural sectors of the state, as well as scientists for conducting further research in the area defined in the article

Heat-Induced Dry Hydrolysis of Sodium Borohydride/Oxalic Acid Dihydrate Composite for Hydrogen Production.

The generation of hydrogen, free of poisonous gas, combined with a lightweight proton-exchange membrane fuel cell can expand the use of hydrogen energy from conventional ground transportation vehicles and power stations to a variety of flying vehicles and wearable devices for civilian and military purposes. Herein, a hydrogen fuel composite composed of sodium borohydride (SB) and oxalic acid dihydrate (OA·2H2O) is introduced. The SB/OA·2H2O composite was easily decomposed to generate pure hydrogen at a trigger temperature of 50 °C, at which the water molecules of the OA·2H2O component were effectively liberated, inducing hydrolysis of the SB component to produce hydrogen gas. This dry hydrolysis-based hydrogen generation using the SB/OA·2H2O composite has the merits of rapidly generating hydrogen (i.e., 0.4 g of the composite can be fully decomposed within a minute at low temperatures), free of poisonous gas, in approximately 5 wt % yield (the theoretical maximum value).

Exploiting the Urban System? The Frictions of Military Finance and Diplomacy in the Dutch Republic, 1688–1714

Abstract This article examines how international military finance operated in the Dutch Republic between 1688–1714. The region’s unique urban geography in which the political and financial infrastructures crucial for military financing were geographically dispersed created stresses and strains. These inconveniences were overcome due to the Republic’s excellent intra-urban infrastructure – creating fast and reliable communication between the different urban centers – and their reliance on (semi-)private agents, the solliciteurs-militair. As a result, the urban system created a level of flexibility: credit for military purposes could be found both in The Hague and Amsterdam, rather than having to rely on a single city as was the case in London. This focus on the urban has broader historiographical importance because recent scholarship on early modern war and state formation is increasingly questioning whether the focus on political and financial centralization is necessarily the best way to understand these processes.