171,043 research outputs found
Renegotiating shipping contracts in turbulent economic times
No full textThis chapter considers the legal circumstances impacting on the feasibility of the relevant parties coming together to renegotiate their shipping contracts – notably large scale contracts such as charterparties – in times of economic hardship. The imperatives of insolvency law and shipping law are not always the same. Insolvency law is pivoted on a state imposed belief that corporate assets should be protected at times of insolvency. This work attempts to prove that shipping relationships and realities do not always render the continuation of a shipping contractual relationship worth preserving and so shows and tests the tension between insolvency law and party autonomy in that regard
A thematic and comparative evaluation of executory contracts and ipso facto clauses
No full textThis introduction is designed to draw on the rich materials the national reports have produced and to reach some preliminary findings on the study. In particular, it suggests that despite the policy concerns about reorganisation, rescue and the preservation of value in the context of executory contracts, the legal rules can in themselves lead to results which may not sit well with the policy objectives
Disaster-resilient virtual-network mapping and adaptation in optical networks
No full textToday's Internet applications include grid- and cloud-computing services which can be implemented by mapping virtual networks (VNs) over physical infrastructure such as an optical network. VN mapping is a resource-allocation problem where fractions of the resources (e.g., bandwidth and processing) in the physical infrastructure (e.g., optical network and servers/data-centers) are provisioned for specific applications. Researchers have been studying the survivable VN mapping (SVNM) problem against physical-infrastructure failures (typically by deterministic failure models), because this type of failure may disconnect one or more VNs, and/or reduce their capacities. However, disasters can cause multiple link/node failures which may disconnect many VNs and dramatically increase the post-disaster vulnerability to correlated cascading failures. Hence, we investigate the disaster-resilient and post-disaster- survivable VN mapping problem using a probabilistic model to reduce the expected VN disconnections and capacity loss, while providing an adaptation to minimize VN disconnections by any postdisaster single-physical-link failure. We model the problem as an integer linear program (ILP). Numerical examples show that our approach reduces VN disconnections and the expected capacity loss after a disaster.</p
25 Theoretical Modeling and Measurement Comparison of Season-long Rice Field Monitoring
No full textAbstract The development of a theoretical model to describe the scattering mechanisms involved in the remote sensing of rice crops is essential, as it ensures correct application of remote sensing data for rice monitoring. The theoretical model used in this study is based on the radiative transfer theory applied on a layered dense discrete random medium. The dense medium phase and amplitude correction theory (DM-PACT), which considers the coherent effects of the scatterers, is incorporated in the development of the phase matrices of the scatterers, which are modeled after the physical geometry of the plants. Ground truth measurements of rice fields were acquired at Sungai Burung, Selangor, Malaysia for an entire season. These measurements are used in the theoretical model to calculate the backscattering coefficients of rice fields. The results are then compared to those obtained from RADARSAT images to test the validity of the model. Comparisons show promising results, but further research is required to improve on the current model
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
No full textThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Recent advances of nanoporous adsorbents for light hydrocarbon (C-1 - C-3) separation
No full textHydrocarbons are exclusively composed of carbon and hydrogen and serve as crucial raw materials for several chemical processes. Light hydrocarbons are produced via catalytic cracking and the dehydrogenation of long chain hydrocarbons and require effective separation due to undesirable components or impurities. Adsorptive separation is considered a promising technique because of its lower energy consumption than conventional processes (e.g., cryogenic distillation), and advances in materials science have led to the development of various nanoporous functional materials. This review focuses on the recent progress of nanoporous adsorbents developed for light hydrocarbon separation, which is classified into (1) acetylene separation, (2) alkene/alkane separation, and (3) propyne separation. The potential limitations of such adsorbents in practical applications are critically discussed, and future perspectives are presented.
Harmonic analysis of compact Lie supergroups
No full textWe realize the irreducible representations of a compact Lie supergroup G, with a contragredient simple Lie superalgebra, in the space of square integrable (in the sense of Berezin) holomorphic sections on X=GA, A is the real torus in the complexification of G. We give an explicit realization of unitary representations when G=SU(1|1)
Mitomycin C in highly myopic eyes - Author reply
No full textOphthalmology. 2005 Feb;112(2):208-18; discussion 219.
Mitomycin C modulation of corneal wound healing after photorefractive keratectomy in highly myopic eyes.
Gambato C, Ghirlando A, Moretto E, Busato F, Midena E.
SourceRefractive Surgery Service and Antimetabolite Therapy Research Unit, Department of Ophthalmology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy.
Abstract
PURPOSE: To evaluate the role of topical mitomycin C in corneal wound healing (CWH) after photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) in highly myopic eyes.
DESIGN: Prospective, double-masked, randomized clinical trial.
PARTICIPANTS: Seventy-two eyes of 36 patients affected by high (>7 diopters) myopia.
METHODS: In each patient, one eye was randomly assigned to PRK with intraoperative topical 0.02% mitomycin C application, and the fellow eye was treated with a placebo. Postoperatively, mitomycin C-treated eyes received artificial tears (3 times daily, tapered in 3 months), whereas the fellow eye was treated with fluorometholone sodium 2% and artificial tears (3 times daily, tapered in 3 months).
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Uncorrected visual acuity (UCVA) and best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), contrast sensitivity, manifest refraction, and biomicroscopy. Contrast sensitivity was determined using the Pelli-Robson chart. Corneal confocal microscopy documented CWH.
RESULTS: Mean follow-up was 18 months (range, 12-36). No side effects or toxic effects were documented. At 12-month follow-up examination, UCVAs (logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution) were 0.4+/-0.48 and 0.5+/-0.53 (P = .03) in mitomycin C-treated eyes and corticosteroid-treated eyes, respectively. At 1 year, corneal haze developed in 20% of corticosteroid-treated eyes, versus 0% of mitomycin C-treated eyes. At 12, 24, and 36 months, corneal confocal microscopy showed activated keratocytes and extracellular matrix significantly more evident in untreated eyes (Ps = 0.004, 0.024, and 0.046, respectively).
CONCLUSION: Topical intraoperative application of 0.02% mitomycin C can reduce haze formation in highly myopic eyes undergoing PRK.
Comment in
Ophthalmology. 2006 Feb;113(2):357; author reply 357-8
Hierarchically Structured HKUST-1 Nanocrystals for Enhanced SF<sub>6</sub> Capture and Recovery
No full textHKUST-1, an inexpensive metal organic framework possessing open metal sites, has a great potential for capture and recovery of SF6. In this work, the structural property of HKUST-1 was modified to yield a hierarchically structured HKUST-1 nanocrystal exhibiting a superior performance with higher SF6 uptake (4.98 mmol g(-1) at 25 degrees C and 1 bar), better SF6/N-2 selectivity (similar to 70 at 25 degrees C), faster SF6 adsorpton kinetics, and lower energy penalty for regeneration compared to those of bulk HKUST-1 crystal as well as those of conventional zeolite and porous carbon adsorbents. Higher surface area and the presence of mesoporosity to facilitate the transport of SF6 to active sites residing in microporous spaces were found to be key factors contributing to such enhancement. The outstanding potential utility of our HKUST-1 crystal in industrial applications was also validated with an idealized vacuum swing adsorption model.
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