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The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is the major next-generation observatory for ground-based very-high-energy gamma-ray astronomy. It will improve the sensitivity of current ground-based instruments by a factor of five to twenty, depending on the energy, greatly improving both their angular and energy resolutions over four decades in energy (from 20 GeV to 300 TeV). This achievement will be possible by using tens of imaging Cherenkov telescopes of three successive sizes. They will be arranged into two arrays, one per hemisphere, located on the La Palma island (Spain) and in Paranal (Chile). We present here the optimised and final telescope arrays for both CTA sites, as well as their foreseen performance, resulting from the analysis of three different large-scale Monte Carlo productions. Astroparticle physics 111, 35 - 53 (2019). doi:10.1016/j.astropartphys.2019.04.001 Published by Elsevier Science, Amsterdam [u.a.]

Thermochemical systems for energy conversion are just at the interface between chemical and thermal engineering because the final aim is a transformation of energy, while the specific tool is a thermally driven chemical reaction. Designing the efficient systems calls for appropriate choice of chemical process, comprehensive analysis of its thermodynamics and kinetics, intensification of heat and mass transfer, intelligent integration of components into overall heat device, etc. This paper reviews the joint activity of the six institutes from the four countries on applying chemical reactions in modern devices for production of cold, which are driven by solar heat.

Riverine systems act as converging pathways for discarded litter within drainage basins, becoming key elements in gauging the transfer of mismanaged waste into the ocean. However, riverine litter data are scarce and biased towards microplastics, generally lacking information about larger items. Based on the first ever database of riverine floating macrolitter across Europe, we have estimated that between 307 and 925 million litter items are released annually from Europe into the ocean. The plastic fraction represented 82% of the observed litter, mainly fragments and single-use items (that is, bottles, packaging and bags). Our modelled estimates show that a major portion of the total litter loading is routed through small-sized drainage basins (<100 km2), indicating the relevance of small rivers, streams and coastal run-off. Moreover, the major contribution of high-income countries to the macrolitter inputs suggests that reducing ocean pollution cannot be achieved only by improving waste management, but also requires changing consumption habits and behaviour to curb waste generation at source. The inability of countries with well-developed recovery systems to control the leakage of waste into the environment further supports the need to regulate the production and use of plastic on a global scale. We acknowledge the additional members (coordinators and observers) of RiLON, listed in Supplementary Data 5, for their support in the field data collection and feedback during the data quality control. D.G.-F. was supported by the JRC institutional exploratory project RIMMEL (272346), PLASTREND (BBVA Foundation) and the European Union (H2020-MSCA-IF-2018 846843 - LitRivus). J.V. and C.M.-C. were supported by the MIDaS project (Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, CTM2016-77106-R, AEI/FEDER/UE). Peer reviewed

AbstractCurrent analyses and predictions of spatially explicit patterns and processes in ecology most often rely on climate data interpolated from standardized weather stations. This interpolated climate data represents long‐term average thermal conditions at coarse spatial resolutions only. Hence, many climate‐forcing factors that operate at fine spatiotemporal resolutions are overlooked. This is particularly important in relation to effects of observation height (e.g. vegetation, snow and soil characteristics) and in habitats varying in their exposure to radiation, moisture and wind (e.g. topography, radiative forcing or cold‐air pooling). Since organisms living close to the ground relate more strongly to these microclimatic conditions than to free‐air temperatures, microclimatic ground and near‐surface data are needed to provide realistic forecasts of the fate of such organisms under anthropogenic climate change, as well as of the functioning of the ecosystems they live in. To fill this critical gap, we highlight a call for temperature time series submissions to SoilTemp, a geospatial database initiative compiling soil and near‐surface temperature data from all over the world. Currently, this database contains time series from 7,538 temperature sensors from 51 countries across all key biomes. The database will pave the way toward an improved global understanding of microclimate and bridge the gap between the available climate data and the climate at fine spatiotemporal resolutions relevant to most organisms and ecosystem processes.

Composite CdSe: poly(3-methylthiophene) (P3MT) nanoparticles have been synthesized via polymerization of 3-methylthiophene (3MT) in the presence of CdSe particles of nanorod or dot-like morphology and dispersed in the poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) matrix. The effect of the P3MT layer to mediate charge and energy transfer between CdSe and P3HT in the ternary nanocomposite system has been studied using electronic absorption, photoluminescence spectroscopy, and current-voltage measurements. The energy level diagram of the composite system has been deduced based on optical and electrochemical data of the separate components of the system. The contribution of the low- and high-molecular fractions of P3MT to control the charge transfer in order to optimize the intermediary role of P3MT is analyzed. Particularly, it was shown that excitation of the low-molecular P3MT leads to energy transfer to both CdSe and P3HT components, and it also serves as a barrier against recombination of electrons and holes separated at CdSe and P3HT, respectively. Thus, the role of the P3MT interlayer in assisting the charge separation and increasing an open-circuit voltage in the photovoltaic cell based on the ternary system is demonstrated. © Springer-Verlag 2012.