Transparency Regime Research Articles

Ultra-high-pressure generation in the relativistic transparency regime in laser-irradiated nanowire arrays.

We show that an ultra-high-pressure plasma can be generated when an aligned nanowire is irradiated by a laser with relativistic transparent intensity. Using a particle-in-cell simulation, we demonstrate that the expanded plasma following the z pinch becomes relativistically transparent and compressed longitudinally by the oscillating component of the ponderomotive force. The compressed structure persists throughout the pulse duration with a maximum pressure of 40Tbar when irradiated with a laser at an intensity of 10^{23}Wcm^{-2},5× higher than the z-pinch pressure. These results suggest an alternative approach to extending the current attainable pressure in the laboratory.

Stabilization of modulation instability by control field in semiconductor quantum wells

This article explores the modulation instability of a continuous or quasi-continuous weak probe pulse in a three-level asymmetric double quantum wells under an electromagnetically induced transparency regime, controlled by a strong laser beam. The dynamics of modulation instability reveals that the instability gain as well as its bandwidth is greatly influenced by control field Rabi frequency. The probe pulse is found to be almost stable against modulation instability for higher values of control field Rabi frequency. The results of this investigation may potentially apply for oscillation free generation of supercontinuum in quantum well nanostructures.

Spectrally Selective Thermal Emission from Graphene Decorated with Metallic Nanoparticles

We showed in past work that nanopatterned monolayer graphene (NPG) enables spectrally selective thermal emission in the mid-infrared (mid-IR) from 3 to 12 μm. In that case, the spectral selection is realized by means of the localized surface plasmon (LSP) resonances inside graphene. Here, we show that graphene decorated with metallic nanoparticles, such as Ag nanocubes or nanospheres, also realizes spectrally selective thermal emission but, in this case, by means of acoustic graphene plasmons (AGPs) localized between graphene and the Ag nanoparticle inside a dielectric material. Our finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) calculations show that the spectrally selective thermal radiation emission can be tuned by means of a gate voltage into two different wavelength regimes, namely, the atmospherically opaque regime between λ = 5 and 8 μm or the atmospherically transparent regime between λ = 8 and 12 μm. This allows for electrical switching between a radiative heat trapping mode for the former regime and a radiative cooling mode for the latter regime. Our theoretical results can be used to develop graphene-based thermal management systems for smart fabrics.

Monitoring digital election campaigns: Assessing the transparency ecosystem in the United Kingdom

Digital election campaigning has undergone increased levels of scrutiny in recent years, with numerous calls for improved transparency. One key innovation has been the creation of online advertising archives offered by social media platforms such as Facebook, Google, and Snapchat. In this article, we compare what we know about digital campaigning in the United Kingdom from official election returns and Facebook and Google’s online advertising archives. We analyse whether both transparency sources provide agreed standards of completeness, consistency, accuracy, and accessibility. We find that – despite the United Kingdom having an effectively world-leading transparency regime – this is not the case. We therefore consider a number of potential reforms to increase knowledge of the workings of campaigns at the national level.

Fragmented Transparency: The Visibility of Agency Science in European Union Risk Regulation

AbstractResponding to mistrust in the European agencies’ risk assessments in politically salient cases, the European Union (EU) legislator, the European Food Safety Authority and the European Medicines Agency alike have accelerated their efforts to foster EU regulatory science transparency. These simultaneous endeavours have, however, taken place in a fragmented legislative and administrative context, with each agency operating under a different legal framework. By focusing on authorisation procedures, from registration of studies to authorisation of novel foods, pesticides and human medicines, this article examines the resulting regimes governing the disclosure of scientific data by EU agencies to identify common trends and sectoral specificities. Against the background of an overall shift towards enhanced transparency, we shed light on, first, the circulation of institutional arrangements and practices among agencies and, second, the new dimensions of transparency emerging from these developments. We also highlight the remaining sectoral differences and argue that they could have potentially large impacts on the amount and type of information disclosed and on the level of transparency perceived by stakeholders and citizens. We argue that more coherence across the sectoral transparency regimes is needed, in particular in light of the agencies’ contested legitimacy and of their increasing cooperation on cross-cutting issues like antimicrobial resistance and medicine and pesticide residues in food.

The promise of artificial intelligence in combating public corruption in the emerging economies: A conceptual framework

Abstract In this conceptual paper, we explore how artificial intelligence (AI) holds promise as an important and additional tool for combating corruption in public procurement in emerging economies. We aim to extend the understanding of how the emergent technology of AI may be another important tool in the fight against corruption in emerging economies. We discuss how AI and related emergent technologies can help build greater accountability and transparency regimes in public procurement, a key source of public corruption. We argue that there are infrastructural, social, ethical, and political challenges to the successful use of emerging technologies of AI in the fight against public corruption. We make inferences from the discussion and provide some tentative guidelines for policymakers. We suggest that using AI as part of a program of institutional reforms in the public sector would increase technology’s role and contributions to the fight against systemic corruption in public procurement in emerging economies.

Spin Navigator Based on Correcting Dipoles of the JINR Nuclotron

A spin navigator based on correcting dipoles has been proposed to manipulate the directions of protons spins in experiments at the Nuclotron synchrotron (JINR, Dubna). The polarization is controlled by means of the controllable distortion of the beam closed orbit by correcting dipoles, which ensures the significant enhancement of the action of the navigator on the spins of particles. A method has been proposed to measure the coherent effect of the lattice imperfection on the spin dynamics by the navigator. An idea of a spin compensator based on correcting dipoles is presented, which allows one to eliminate the effect of the lattice imperfection on the polarization. The proposed navigator and spin compensator make it possible to perform a series of experiments at the Nuclotron to verify a new polarization control technique called the spin transparency mode. The results are relevant for experiments with polarized beams in the spin transparency regime at the NICA (Dubna, Russia) and EIC (Brookhaven, United States) and the COSY synchrotron (Julich, Germany).

The Influence of NATO Regional Missile Defense on European Security

The problem of missile defense is considered by Russian researchers, first of all, as part of the strategic stability problem in relations between Russia and the United States. At the same time, the impact of regional missile defense (theater missile defense) on regional security remains largely unexplored. The US and NATO leadership continue to claim that Russia has deployed intermediate-range missiles in the European part of the country. As a response to this step, in addition to other measures of regional deterrence towards Russia, it is planned to strengthen NATO’s regional missile defense system. The purpose of this article is to determine the potential impact of enhancing NATO’s theater missile defense on regional security. The answer to this question is important for understanding the prospects for European security. This article provides a critical analysis of Western experts’ scenarios of actions of Russia and NATO around the Baltic countries the place and role of theater missile defense in these scenarios and compares the doctrinal guidelines of the United States and Russia regarding regional nonnuclear deterrence. There are situations in which NATO’s enhanced regional missile defense could strengthen regional deterrence, and there are situations where this is less likely. Taking into account the doctrinal guidelines of both sides, conclusions are drawn about the destabilizing potential of NATO’s regional missile defense enhancement and that, in strengthening regional stability, there is no alternative to arms control and transparency regimes.

Sustainability Transitions in Supply Chains: Augmenting Agency in Response to Political Tensions

We aim to advance the theory of sustainable supply chains by investigating politically induced structural transitions for sustainability using the case of the palm oil supply chain. We elaborate sustainability transitions mechanisms resulting from key supply chain stakeholders’ efforts to augment their agency for influence in response to political tensions from states and corporations. We find that political tensions render latent influence gaps salient as key supply chain stakeholders feel pressured to respond to criticisms either to fill the institutional gaps or to advance transparency regimes. Our findings contribute to theory, practice, and policy associated with the governance of sustainability transitions in supply chains considering its political economy.

The 2022 ICSID Rules: A Leap Toward Greater Transparency in ICSID Arbitration

The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) recently issued an amended set of rules to govern its arbitration proceedings.2 One of the core topics addressed by the new Rules is transparency and the mechanisms by which ICSID arbitrations—traditionally confidential—may be ‘opened’ to the public. On this issue, the 2013 UNCITRAL Rules on Transparency in Treaty-based Investor-State Arbitration played an influential role in shaping the new ICSID Rules.3 But ICSID took a slightly different approach by giving States more authority to decide which parts of the proceedings will be kept confidential. This note addresses ICSID’s new transparency regime and how it differs from UNCITRAL’s regime. The transparency movement began with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 2001. The three NAFTA States—Canada, Mexico and the United States—agreed that ‘nothing in the NAFTA precludes [them] from providing public access to documents submitted to, or issued by, a [NAFTA] tribunal’.4 Two years later, they allowed non-disputing parties to comment on the proceedings.5 One year later, they opened NAFTA hearings to the public.6

The transparency of EU agency science: Towards a new proactive approach

Recent health and environmental crises have emphasized the importance of transparency of agency science, i.e. the scientific information that underpins public regulation. Yet how EU law shapes the transparency of EU agency science and whether it contributes to publicly holding experts to account for the quality of their advice, remains an open question. This article analyses the transparency regimes of three EU agencies.We show that the EU legal approach to transparency of agency science is undergoing significant change, through legislative reform and agency practice. The traditional “passive” approach based on the Access Regulation is fragmented and reveals several shortcomings. Recent trends, such as the 2021 reform of the General Food Law, indicate that the EU is moving towards “proactive transparency”, which improves expert accountability. Our study contributes to debates on EU risk regulation and the general reform of the Access Regulation. The article offers an interdisciplinary perspective informed by political epistemology, namely the study of the role of experts in public decision-making.

Optimisation of multi-petawatt laser-driven proton acceleration in the relativistic transparency regime

Laser-driven proton acceleration from ultrathin foils in the relativistic transparency regime is investigated using 2D and 3D particle-in-cell simulations. The optimisation of the maximum proton energy and the overall laser-to-proton energy conversion efficiency with the onset of transparency is investigated for linearly and circularly polarised laser light at intensities up to 2 × 1023 W cm−2. The effects of the rising edge of the laser intensity profile and radiation reaction at the most extreme laser intensity are considered. It is found that the time at which transparency occurs relative to the peak of the laser pulse interacting with the plasma is a defining parameter in the optimisation of proton acceleration, over the full range of parameters explored.

Protection of Foreign Investment in China: The Foreign Investment Law and the Changing Landscape

China’s foreign investment law regime has experienced significant changes in recent years. A milestone came with the passing of the Foreign Investment Law (FIL) in 2019, replacing the laws and regulations that had governed foreign investment in China for four decades. This article first undertakes a political economic analysis to determine the relevance of internal and external factors contributing to the changes. It then discusses the key characteristics of the FIL and reveals how it is designed to create a liberal, stable, fair, transparent and accountable regime to promote and protect foreign investment. Although the passage of the FIL ushered in a new era of foreign investment in China, many important issues remain unresolved and further actions must be taken to ensure its smooth implementation. To support the sustained development of its foreign investment regime, China must address existing laws and regulations that are incompatible with the new regime, clarify key issues that the new law fails to address, issue clearer guidance on national security, shorten its ‘negative list’, promote opening up and enhance regulatory transparency.

The ferroelectric nematic phase: an optimum liquid crystal candidate for nonlinear optics

ABSTRACT Materials that exhibit high nonlinear optical (NLO) susceptibilities are considered as promising candidates for a wide range of photonic and electronic applications. Here, we argue that the ferroelectric nematic (NF) materials have sufficient potentialities to become materials for the next-generation of NLO devices. We have carried out a study of the efficiency of optical second-harmonic generation in a prototype NF material, finding a nonlinear susceptibility of 5.6 pm.V−1 in the transparent regime, one of the highest ever reported in ferroelectric liquid crystals. Given the fact that the studied molecule was not specifically designed for NLO applications, we conclude there is still margin to obtain NF materials with enhanced properties that should allow their practical use.

Digitalization between environmental activism and counter-activism: The case of satellite data on deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon

This paper analyzes the uses of digital satellite data on deforestation in the Amazon region, drawing on poststructuralist studies of scientific knowledge practices and Science and Technology Studies (STS). Focusing on changes under the government of President Jair Bolsonaro, we argue that populist right-wing rhetoric, policies, and practices towards deforestation in the Amazon must be understood in the context of a broad and sophisticated effort to discredit and dismantle pre-existing knowledge infrastructures and transparency regime. These structures had developed over time with the aim of making deforestation visible and manageable. The dismantling of these structures is part of the effort to establish a competing alethurgy, i.e an assemblage of procedures and rituals that claim to manifest the “truth” about the Amazon. This new alethurgy depends, crucially, on a regime of hypertransparency which enables practices of environmental counter-activism. This new alethurgy promotes an extractivist use of the Amazon in which deforestation is an acceptable price to pay for economic development.

Providing More Efficient Access to Government Records: A Use Case Involving Application of Machine Learning to Improve FOIA Review for the Deliberative Process Privilege

At present, the review process for material that is exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in the United States of America, and under many similar government transparency regimes worldwide, is entirely manual. Public access to the records of their government is thus inhibited by the long backlogs of material awaiting such reviews. This article studies one aspect of that problem by first creating a new public test collection with annotations for one class of exempt material subject to the deliberative process privilege, and then by using that test collection to study the ability of current text classification techniques to identify those materials that are exempt from release under that privilege. Results show that when the system is trained and evaluated using annotations from the same reviewer, even difficult cases can often be reliably detected. However, results also show that differences in reviewer interpretations, differences in record custodians, and differences in topics of the records used for training and testing can pose challenges.

The Implementation of the Precautionary Principle in Nuclear Safety Regulation: Challenges and Prospects

The precautionary principle has been implemented in many fields including environment protection, biological diversity, and climate change. In the field of international nuclear safety regulation, the implementation of this principle is in an ongoing process. Since Japan declared to discharge Fukushima nuclear waste water into the ocean, the precautionary principle was put on the stage, and some debates are invoked on it. As is observed by this article, the precautionary principle has not been effectively implemented in nuclear safety regulation, specifically in nuclear safety law making, law enforcement, and judicial application. The reasons can be found from two main challenges: indeterminacy of perceived risk level required to justify precautionary action and hard balance of national interest and community interest in nuclear safety. In a long-term perspective, the framework of international nuclear safety regulation has to respond to these challenges, both by clarifying the precautionary principle in legal binding nuclear safety documents and moving towards a more transparent, fair, and effective enforcement regime in order to promote safer, more sustainable, and efficient civilian nuclear utilization around the world.

Structure-selected graphene/metallic surface plasmon coupling regime and infrared modulation application

Here we present a graphene-based long-wavelength infrared modulator characteristic of extra-high contrast, where the frequency detuning degree of magnetic and electric surface plasmons (SPs) is controllable by the gated graphene Fermi energy. If the device is designed to work in a strong SP-coupling regime by selecting an appropriate low-lossy gate dielectric thickness, a modulation depth (MD) up to ∼100% but insertion loss (IL) as low as ∼−0.37 dB is achievable. Moreover, a compromised MD > 90% with IL < −1.0 dB is still retainable in two broadband ranges. The disclosed underlying mechanism to the device working state in the strong, electromagnetic-induced transparency (EIT), or weak SP-coupling regime, indicates the coupling regime shows a strong dependence on the dielectric thickness, which is related to the magnetic-SP mode volume, while the working wavelength can be selected in a broader spectral range by scaling the device geometry. These findings are helpful to construct those optoelectronics for infrared absorption enhancement, EIT, and strong coupling spectral characteristic itself.

The Accidental Origins, Underappreciated Limits, and Enduring Promises of Platform Transparency Reporting about Information Operations

&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; Intense public and regulatory pressure following revelations of Russian interference in the US 2016 election led social media platforms to develop new policies to demonstrate how they had addressed the troll-shaped blind spot in their content moderation practices. This moment also gave rise to new transparency regimes that endure to this day and have unique characteristics, notably: the release of regular public reports of enforcement measures; the provision of underlying data to external stakeholders and, sometimes, the public; and collaboration across industry and with government. Despite these positive features, platform policies and transparency regimes related to information operations remain poorly understood. Underappreciated ambiguities and inconsistencies in platforms’ work in this area create perverse incentives for enforcement and distort public understanding of information operations. Highlighting these weaknesses is important as platforms expand content moderation practices in ways that build on the methods used in this domain. As platforms expand these practices, they are not continuing to invest in their transparency regimes, and the early promise and momentum behind the creation of these pockets of transparency are being lost as public and regulatory focus turns to other areas of content moderation.&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D;

The butterfly effect: Theoretical implications of an apparently minor corporate transparency proposal

The UK government has proposed a seemingly minor change to the UK corporate transparency regime, being to require Companies House to verify the identity of new directors of companies, persons of significant control and those incorporating companies, to help in the fight against corporate crime. These proposals seem sensible and innocuous. However, there are a number of theoretical implications which flow from this seemingly minor change. First, it starts the process of making the UK corporate register an effective gatekeeper. Second, it involves the state more in the establishment and operation of the company, strengthening the argument that the corporate form somehow exists as a gift from the state. Third, shareholders are ignored, which challenges argumentation structures for those who believe in shareholder primacy. This illustrates how dependent ostensibly universal company law theory is on a particular doctrinal structure, and thus how exposed particular calibrations of arguments are to being undermined. Every time the UK government proposes a minor change to company law doctrine, the butterfly flaps her wings and those advancing existing company law argumentation structures must brace themselves.