This paper revisits the commercial peace hypothesis using global event data from 1989 to 2019. We show that greater imports consistently worsen bilateral relations, with the effect strengthening after the 2008 financial crisis. The negative impact is most pronounced in democracies, high-income countries and those with elevated unemployment, where globalisation's distributive conflicts more easily shape foreign policy. Instrumental variable estimates confirm causality, and analyses using militarised interstate disputes reveal that trade-driven tensions extend beyond diplomacy to overt conflict. These findings challenge the optimistic view that economic interdependence fosters peace.
Individualized head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) require accurate pinna geometry, yet commodity multi-view captures leave the ear region self-occluded and weakly textured. We present a practical pipeline that couples ear-centric acquisition with 3D Gaussian splatting (3DGS) and the boundary element method (BEM) for complete HRTF computation. The protocol augments horizontal views with per-ear elevated captures under directional lighting; 3DGS training with depth-distortion regularization yields watertight meshes via truncated signed distance function (TSDF) fusion. Standardized head coordinates and ear-canal annotations interface the mesh with BEM. Experimental evaluations demonstrate that our method achieves lower ear-region geometric error and lowerfull-band spectral distortion compared to existing image-based personalized reconstruction baselines including AudioEar, NeuS, and Metashape MVS.
Gender ideology can affect household energy consumption; however, the existing literature has ignored this aspect. Using data from household surveys, this study employs econometric modeling to examine the impact of gender ideology on household cooking fuel choices and their underlying mechanisms. The results show that an emancipatory gender ideology can substantially promote adoption of clean cooking fuels by households. The results of the mechanistic analysis show that gender ideology encourages the adoption of clean cooking fuels through two pathways: increased internet use and exercise. Furthermore, the impact of gender ideology on households' choice of cooking fuel is moderated by income and the importance of internet, with neighborhood spillover effects and heterogeneity. The HOUSE model, developed by integrating households and neighbors, clarifies the complex relationship between gender ideology and household cooking fuel choice. This study provides meaningful theoretical and practical guidance for encouraging rural households to adopt cleaner cooking fuel.
Hydroxymethyl hydroperoxide (HMHP, HOCH2OOH) is one of the most abundant organic peroxides (POs) in the atmosphere. Owing to its extremely high solubility, HMHP readily partitions into cloudwater and aerosol liquid water, where it hydrolyzes to hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and formaldehyde (HCHO). However, previous studies were conducted in dilute solutions and did not adequately account for the high-salinity characteristic of deliquesced aerosol particles. Here, we systematically investigate the combined effects of pH (0–6), temperature (277–313 K), ionic strength (0–10 M), and ion identity (NH4+, Na+, SO42–, and Cl–) on the hydrolysis kinetics of HMHP. For the first time, a parametrization formula describing the dependence of the hydrolysis rate constant on ionic strength is established, demonstrating that ionic strength exerts only a limited influence on HMHP hydrolysis. However, it is found that in highly concentrated ammonium salt solutions, HMHP undergoes a previously unrecognized NH3-driven reaction pathway. This new pathway competes with hydrolysis, accelerating the apparent transformation rate of HMHP by more than an order of magnitude while significantly reducing the yield of H2O2 and HCHO. Our findings highlight that future atmospheric chemical models should fully account for the NH3-driven pathway in aqueous-phase reactions of POs, thereby enabling a more accurate assessment of the role of POs in atmospheric oxidant cycling and secondary particulate matter formation.
Transistor-integrated flexible pressure sensors have received considerable interest in emerging fields such as humanoid robotics, prosthetics, and implantable electronics. However, existing designs for these integrated sensors often exhibit a trade-off between pressure response and operating voltage, thus significantly limiting their practical applications. In this letter, we report a unique device design of integrated pressure sensors based on deformable microstructured electrodes capacitively coupled with floating-gate carbon nanotube transistors. The microstructured electrodes can dramatically enhance the pressure-introduced electrostatic control of the transistor, enabling a substantial improvement in the transduced pressure response at low operating voltages. With this unique design, we achieve a high pressure response of $10^5$ and an ultrahigh sensitivity up to $10^4 \text kPa^\text - 1$ at a low operating voltage below 3 V, which holds great promise for the development of advanced functionalized flexible electronics.
The dissolution of manganese (Mn) (hydr)oxides induced by low-molecular-weight organic compounds (LMWOCs) critically influences Mn and carbon cycling, yet limited high-resolution characterization hinders mechanistic understanding. Here, we investigated the dissolution kinetics of Mn(III/IV) (hydr)oxides mediated by citric acid, pyruvic acid, oxalic acid, and hydroquinone, as well as the controlling factors (LMWOC type and concentration, pH, and coexisting ions), by real-time and in-situ electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance (EQCM), complemented by grazing-incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering (GIWAXS) and kinetic modeling. Hydroquinone and citric acid promoted significant dissolution at pH 5 and 6, with hydroquinone dominating initially but slowing later; at pH 7, hydroquinone remained highly effective, far surpassing citric acid. In contrast, pyruvic acid and oxalic acid at pH 5, 6, and 7 showed negligible dissolution. Citric acid– and hydroquinone–mediated dissolution exhibited characteristic S-shaped kinetics with induction, acceleration, and deceleration stages, indicating an autocatalytic pathway, whereas pyruvic acid and oxalic acid showed no such pattern. Analysis of controlling factors showed that citric acid–mediated dissolution increased with increasing citric acid concentration and decreasing pH. Coexisting ions, including NO3−, Cl−, SO42− (5–50 mM), and Mg2+, Ca2+, Zn2+ (0.5–4 mM), inhibited the dissolution. Notably, HPO42− and P2O74− (0.1–1 mM) and Mn2+ (0.5–4 mM) exhibited concentration-dependent dual effects on dissolution, arising from competing promotive and inhibitory processes. GIWAXS analysis revealed that citric acid–mediated dissolution of Mn(III/IV) (hydr)oxides was facet-dependent, whereas exogenous Mn2+ promoted non-selective citric acid–mediated dissolution. This study provides insights into complex interfacial geochemical processes on redox-active minerals.