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The paper addresses the prospects and directions for the Visegrad nations' economies that should be produced and highlighted, with the purpose of giving substantive conclusions that policymakers and decision makers can use to determine their economies' future paths. Although the Visegrad countries are highlighted, the paper is a theoretical research that focuses on the technique of futures studies, specifically on determining the driving causes and significant areas, sectors - that will shape and define the future. To begin, we will examine the methodologies of futures studies and the changes brought about by the multidisciplinary approach, before highlighting and defining the positive and negative drivers of development, which will enable us to pinpoint those critical areas and sectors. The paper identifies six of these directions that can characterize and drive humanity's growth in the coming decades and discusses how the Visegrad countries can profit from them.

Solar wind (SW) quantities, referred to as coupling parameters (CPs), are often used in statistical studies devoted to the analysis of SW–magnetosphere–ionosphere couplings. Here, the CPs and their limitations in describing the magnetospheric response are reviewed. We argue that a better understanding of SW magnetospheric interactions could be achieved through estimations of the energy budget in the magnetosheath (MS), which is the interface region between the SW and magnetosphere. The energy budget involves the energy transfer between scales, energy transport between locations, and energy conversions between electromagnetic, kinetic, and thermal energy channels. To achieve consistency with the known multi-scale complexity in the MS, the energy terms have to be complemented with kinetic measures describing some aspects of ion–electron scale physics.

Low-frequency fluctuations in the interplanetary medium represent a turbulent environment where universal scaling behavior, generated by an energy cascade, has been investigated. On the contrary, in some regions, for example, the magnetosheath, universality of statistics of fluctuations is lost. However, at kinetic scales where energy must be dissipated, the energy conversion seems to be realized through a mechanism similar to the free solar wind. Here we propose a Langevin model for magnetic fluctuations at kinetic scales, showing that the resulting fluctuation–dissipation relation is capable of describing the gross features of the spectral observations at kinetic scales in the magnetosheath. The fluctuation–dissipation relation regulates the energy conversion by imposing a relationship between fluctuations and dissipation, which at high frequencies are active at the same time in the same range of scales and represent two ingredients of the same physical process.

Turbulent density fluctuations are investigated in the solar wind at sub-ion scales using calibrated spacecraft potential. The measurement technique using the spacecraft potential allows for a much higher time resolution and sensitivity when compared to direct measurements using plasma instruments. Using this novel method, density fluctuations can be measured with unprecedentedly high time resolutions for in situ measurements of solar wind plasma at 1 a.u. By investigating 1 h of high-time resolution data, the scale dependant kurtosis is calculated by varying the time lag τ to calculate increments between observations. The scale-dependent kurtosis is found to increase towards ion scales but then plateaus and remains fairly constant through the sub-ion range in a similar fashion to magnetic field measurements. The sub-ion range is also found to exhibit self-similar monofractal behavior contrasting sharply with the multi-fractal behavior at large scales. The scale-dependent kurtosis is also calculated using increments between two different spacecraft. When the time lags are converted using the ion bulk velocity to a comparable spatial lag, a discrepancy is observed between the two measurement techniques. Several different possibilities are discussed including a breakdown of Taylor’s hypothesis, high-frequency plasma waves, or intrinsic differences between sampling directions.

Fluctuation properties of the kinetic Alfvén mode, such as polarization of the wave electric and magnetic field around the mean magnetic field, parallel fluctuation to the mean field, ratios of the electric to magnetic field, and density fluctuations are analytically estimated by constructing the dielectric tensor of plasma based on the linear Vlasov theory. The dielectric tensor contains various fluid-picture processes in the lowest order, including polarization drift, Hall current, and diamagnetic current. Major discoveries from the dielectric tensor method in the kinetic Alfvén mode study are (1) identification of the mechanism of the field rotation sense reversal as a result of competition between the Hall and diamagnetic currents, (2) behavior of the parallel magnetic field fluctuation (in the compressive sense). The analytic expression of transport ratios serves as a diagnostic tool to study and identify the kinetic Alfvén mode in space plasma observations in the inner heliospheric domain.

The magnetosheath (MSH) plasma turbulence depends on the structure and properties of the bow shock (BS). Under quasi-parallel (Q||) and quasi-perpendicular (Q⊥) BS configurations the electromagnetic field and plasma quantities possess quite distinct behavior, e.g., being highly variable and structured in the Q|| case. Previous studies have reported abundance of thin current sheets (with typical scales of the order of the plasma kinetic scales) in the Q|| MSH, associated with magnetic reconnection, plasma heating, and acceleration. Here we use multipoint observations from Magnetospheric MultiScale (MMS) mission, where for the first time a comparative study of discontinuities and current sheets in both MSH geometries at very small spacecraft separation (of the order of the ion inertial length) is performed. In Q|| MSH the current density distribution is characterized by a heavy tail, populated by strong currents. There is high correlation between these currents and the discontinuities associated with large magnetic shears. Whilst, this seems not to be the case in Q⊥ MSH, where current sheets are virtually absent. We also investigate the effect of the discontinuities on the scaling of electromagnetic fluctuations in the MHD range and in the beginning of the kinetic range. There are two (one) orders of magnitude higher power in the magnetic (electric) field fluctuations in the Q|| MSH, as well as different spectral scaling, in comparison to the Q⊥ MSH configuration. This is an indication that the incoming solar wind turbulence is completely locally reorganized behind Q⊥ BS while even though modified by Q|| BS geometry, the downstream turbulence properties are still reminiscent to the ones upstream, the latter confirming previous observations. We show also that the two geometries are associated with different temperature anisotropies, plasma beta, and compressibility, where the Q⊥ MSH is unstable to mostly mirror mode plasma instability, while the Q|| MSH is unstable also to oblique and parallel fire-hose, and ion-cyclotron instabilities.

Turbulence in the Earth's magnetosheath at ion kinetic scales is investigated with the Magnetospheric MultiScale (MMS) spacecraft. The multi-point measurements allow the three dimensional power spectra in wave-vector space to be determined. Previously the three dimensional structure of fluctuations in the magnetic field and density (using spacecraft potential as a proxy) were possible with Cluster. However, using the excellent time resolution data set provided from both the Fluxgate Magnetometer (FGM) and the Fast Plasma Investigation (FPI) on MMS the spectra can be determined for a number of different parameters such as ion velocity, and ion temperatures parallel and perpendicular to the mean magnetic field directions. The spectra for different fluctuations show similar features to one another such as a strong power anisotropy with respect to the mean magnetic field direction, such that the energy decays faster in the direction parallel to the mean magnetic field than the perpendicular direction. A weak non-gyrotropy is also seen in the direction of the bulk velocity similar to what has been seen in magnetic field fluctuations with Cluster at ion kinetic scales in the solar wind. Velocity fluctuations are shown to be the most anisotropic. The density and temperature fluctuations exhibit similar anisotropies but are much weaker in comparison.

The process of conversion or dissipation of energy in nearly collisionless turbulent space plasma, is yet to be fully understood. The existing models offer different energy dissipation mechanisms which are based on wave particle interactions or non-resonant stochastic heating. There are other mechanisms of irreversible processes in space. For example, turbulence generated coherent structures, e.g., current sheets are ubiquitous in the solar wind and quasi-parallel magnetosheath. Reconnecting current sheets in plasma turbulence are converting magnetic energy to kinetic and thermal energy. It is important to understand how the multiple (reconnecting) current sheets contribute to spatial distribution of turbulent dissipation. However, detailed studies of such complex structures have been possible mainly via event studies in proper coordinate systems, in which the local inflow/outflow, electric and magnetic field directions, and gradients could be studied. Here we statistically investigate different energy exchange/dissipation (EED) measures defined in local magnetic field-aligned coordinates, as well as frame-independent scalars. The presented statistical comparisons based on the unique high-resolution MMS data contribute to better understanding of the plasma heating problem in turbulent space plasmas.

We investigate compressive turbulence at sub-ion scales with measurements from the Magnetospheric MultiScale Mission. The tetrahedral configuration and high time resolution density data obtained by calibrating spacecraft potential allow an investigation of the turbulent density fluctuations in the solar wind and their three-dimensional structure in the sub-ion range. The wave-vector associated with the highest energy density at each spacecraft frequency is obtained by application of the multipoint signal resonator technique to the four-point density data. The fluctuations show a strong wave-vector anisotropy k_{⊥}≫k_{∥} where the parallel and perpendicular symbols are with respect to the mean magnetic-field direction. The plasma frame frequencies show two populations, one below the proton cyclotron frequency ωΩ_{ci} consistent with ion Bernstein wave turbulence. Alternatively, these fluctuations may constitute KAWs that have undergone multiple wave-wave interactions, causing a broadening in the plasma frame frequencies. The scale-dependent kurtosis in this wave-vector region shows a reduction in intermittency at the small scales which can also be explained by the presence of wave activity. Our results suggest that small-scale turbulence exhibits linear-wave properties of kinetic Alfvén and possibly ion-Bernstein (magnetosonic) waves. Based on our results, we speculate that these waves may play a role in describing the observed reduction in intermittency at sub-ion scales.

This study focuses on the involvement of China in the above two African states, arguing that the development of the education sector, therefore the development via education is crucial for any of the states of the continent. It gives an overview of education as a significant aspect of human development in the context of opposing policies of the international financial institutions (IFIs) and the Chinese government. In the light of the FOCAC process, China’s involvement in the development of human resources on African soil will be looked at closely, also questioning whether or not China may present an ‘alternative’ to the IFIs in the field.

This study wishes to contribute to the relatively limited circle of academic publications on Hungary’s foreign policy – in particular, in the second decade of the twenty‑first century. First, it looks at major foreign policy priorities since the change of the political system in 1989 and their maintenance in the country’s external affairs policy agenda, together with the omnipresent desire to get re‑positioned “rightly”, “back” into the international community. The intention of the authors is to investigate the validity and possible execution of a “global opening” in an increasingly “interpolar globality”, and therefore, to provide a detailed analysis of the Hungarian “turn towards to East”. The new foreign policy document of the country contains a re‑positioning of Hungarian presence in five priority regions of the world, among which emphasis has obviously been laid on Central Europe and the Visegrád Group. The paper offers a critical analysis of both the potentials and challenges of the global opening.