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International Relations Looks at Customary International Law: A Traditionalist's Defence
No full textAbstract A recent influential article by two American law professors, one of whom has held high positions in the US Government, asserts that customary international law plays little or no role in decisions by states. It rests this conclusion on the basis of an analysis that relies on game theory or public choice analysis. It attempts to confirm this result by surveying the history of customary international law controversies. It is the purpose of this essay to demonstrate that the article omits many other important controversies in which arguments about custom have exerted considerable influence
Orlandi Sharp-interface limit of a Ginzburg-Landau functional with a random external field
No full textAbstract. We add a random bulk term, modeling the interaction with the impurities of the medium, to a standard functional in the gradient theory of phase transitions consisting of a gradient term with a double well potential. For the resulting functional we study the asymptotic properties of minimizers and minimal energy under a rescaling in space, i.e. on the macroscopic scale. By bounding the energy from below by a coarse-grained, discrete functional, we show that for a suitable strength of the random field the random energy functional has two types of random global minimizers, corresponding to two phases. Then we derive the macroscopic cost of low-energy "excited" states that correspond to a bubble of one phase surrounded by the opposite phase
Rice Blast Disease Forecasting for Northern Philippines
No full textAbstract: -Rice blast disease has become an enigmatic problem in several rice growing ecosystems of both tropical and temperate regions of the world. In this study, we develop models for predicting the occurrence and severity of rice blast disease, with the aim of helping to prevent or at least mitigate the spread of such disease. Data from 2 government agencies in selected provinces from northern Philippines were gathered, cleaned and synchronized for the purpose of building the predictive models. After the data synchronization, dimensionality reduction of the feature space was done, using Principal Component Analysis (PCA), to determine the most important weather features that contribute to the occurrence of the rice blast disease. Using these identified features, ANN and SVM binary classifiers (for prediction of the occurrence or non-occurrence of rice blast) and regression models (for estimation of the severity of an occurring rice blast) were built and tested. These classifiers and regression models produced sufficiently accurate results, with the SVM models showing a significantly better predictive power than the corresponding ANN models. These findings can be used in developing a system for forecasting rice blast, which may help reduce the occurrence of the disease
NEW CHROMOSOME COUNTS AND KARYOTYPE STUDY OF FOUR ONOBRYCHIS SPECIES FROM IRAN
No full textKaryotypic observations showed that 4 species including 0 scorbiculata, 0 melanotricha, 0 aucheri subsp. teheranica and 0. oxyptera have 2n=16 chromosomes and according to the basic number ofx=8, they are diploids. 0. oxyptera has got the least total length (31.07) and average chromosome length (3.88) but the most TF% of 36.43% which refers to its most asymmetrical karyotype. The karyotypes can be divided as lA (0. scorbiculata and 0. melanotricha), 18 (0 aucheri subsp. teheranica) and 28 (0. oxyptera) due to Stebbins classification
Determinants of the prevalence of the cloacal cestode Cloacotaenia megalops in teal wintering in the French Camargue
No full textAbstract Eurasian teal Anas crecca (n=46,581) were inspected during ringing operations for the presence of the hymenolepidid cloacal cestode Cloacotaenia megalops between 1954 and 1971 while wintering in the Camargue, Southern France. These birds become infected when ingesting seed shrimps (Ostracoda) that act as intermediate hosts, largely while on migration across Western Europe. The prevalence ranged from 4% to 14% per year and increased significantly over time. This long-term trend was further supported by studying 366 teal shot in 2006-2008, for which prevalence of C. megalops was 27.6%. We found no evidence to suggest that this increase in prevalence has been caused by an increase in temperature, but eutrophication and an increase in duck densities are potential contributing factors. Adult teal were more likely to be infected than first-year birds and females more so than males, probably due to differences in diet and/or habitat use. Within a given age−sex class, heavier birds were more infected than lighter ones, suggesting low pathogenicity and a causal effect of ingestion rate. Within a year, the highest prevalence was observed in mid-winter
HOW FAST ARE ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING (ERP) SYSTEMS MOVING TO THE CLOUD?
No full textABSTRACT Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems evolved from traditionally isolated applications such as payroll, billing, purchasing, sales, etc. -that neither shared a common base of data, nor interacted well with one another. The need for an integrated view of enterprise systems led to the development of sophisticated and complex software packages that could be tailored for different organizations and provide different modules (e.g. Human Resources, Financial/Accounting, and Logistics), that would interact with one another and use a common base of data. ERP systems were leased or purchased, tailored and installed as in-house computer systems resisting industry outsourcing trends. Cloud Computing, and particularly Software as a Service (SaaS), is moving in-house systems to Private and Public Clouds. Sixty percent of the organizations studied already use Cloud services. Customers Relationship Management (CRM) is prominent among the services moved to the Cloud, but close to 20% of the organization respondents moved the ERP modules of human resources and financial/account systems to the Public Cloud. New ERP development is increasingly Cloud-based, while conventional in-house ERP is decreasing. The factors that are motivating the move to the Cloud as reported by 40% of the respondents are faster access to new functionality, increase in revenue by offering new products sooner, better resource utilization, decrease of IT costs, and decentralization. Finally, the factors that are hindering the move to the Public Cloud as perceived by over 30% of the respondents are security, regulations, reliability, capability and maturity of Cloud services, in addition to IT governance and SLAs
HARMONIC REDUCTION AS ANCILLARY SERVICE BY INVERTERS FOR DISTRIBUTED ENERGY RESOURCES (DER) IN ELECTRICITY DISTRIBUTION NETWORKS
No full textABSTRACT Can inverters for Distributed Energy Resources (DER) contribute to the reduction of harmonic in electricity distribution networks? In theory they can, however one must not underestimate the effort to be taken in practice, to override issues like reducing the output capacitance of the inverter itself. In this paper computer simulations will give insight in requirements to be placed on inverters for DER, to let them contribute to the reduction of harmonics in electricity distribution networks
EMPLOYEE PERCEPTION TOWARDS TALENT MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES -AN EMPIRICAL STUDY WITH REFERENCE TO SOFTWARE COMPANIES IN CHENNAI CITY
No full textABSTRACT People are the greatest asset of software companies around the world. Retaining key potentials in this hyper competitive Indian business environment is the crucial challenge faced by HR managers in Information Technology sector. This paper makes an attempt to study the employee perception towards talent management strategies among Software Developers working in IT companies in Chennai city. To measure the employee perception, talent management strategies such as Alternative Work Schedule (AWS), Wellness Programs, Mentoring/Coaching, Job Rotation and New Assignments, Rewards and recognition system, Employee Suggestion Program, Training opportunities -job related& Personal Development, Employee Engagement Program, Retention bonus / scheme, Share Option (Esop) were taken for the study and compared with the demographic variables such as gender, age, experience, income & designation. Descriptive statistics of the demographic variables of the respondents are tabulated. To measure the significant association among Demographic variable and Talent Management strategies chi-square test was employed
Assessing thermal comfort of dwellings in summer using EnergyPlus
No full textSUMMARY The simulation of a building as a whole offers an image of its behaviour, reflecting the complex relation established between the outdoor environment factors, the building characteristics, the use by its occupants, and the parameters which intervene in satisfying the comfort criteria. This paper gives an overview of the use of building simulation in Romania. It focuses on summer comfort