Enduring the great recession: Economic integration in the European Union.

Unlabelled: Scholars have long feared that regional economic specialization, fostered by freer trade, would make the European Union vulnerable to economic downturn. The most acute concerns have been over the adoption of the common currency: by adopting the euro, countries renounce their ability to meet an asymmetric shock with independent revaluations of their currencies. We systematically test the prediction that regional specialization increases vulnerability to economic downturn using a novel dataset that covers all of the EU's subnational regions and major sectors of the economy between 2000 and 2013.

Infrared and Raman spectral signatures of aromatic nitration in thermoplastic urethanes.

The spectral signatures of nitro attack of the aromatic portion of thermoplastic urethanes (TPU) were determined. Eight fragment molecules were synthesized that represent the nitrated and pristine methylenediphenyl section common to many TPUs. Infrared (IR) and Raman (785 nm illumination) spectra were collected and modeled using the B3LYP/6-31G(d)//B3LYP/6-31G(d) model chemistry.