The Singapore Convention : Five Years On

This chapter discusses the United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation 2018 ('The Singapore Convention on Mediation') that has sought to undergird international commercial mediation with a unified enforcement mechanism for settlements reached within the process. The chapter begins by discussing the origins and development of the Convention before examining its main provisions and underpinning rationale. By drawing on recent empirical evidence, the international reception thus far, and how the terms of the Convention are making inroads into States' domestic regimes, the chapter then casts an eye over the progress the Convention has made in the past 5 years. In discussing the potential future impact of the Convention, the chapter focuses on such issues as the development of common mediation standards, areas of uncertainty in the Convention's drafting and Convention's role in legitimising mediation in the eyes of would-be users and their lawyers

A Novel Use of Pseudospectra in Mathematical Biology : Understanding HPA Axis Sensitivity

The Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis is a major neuroendocrine system, and its dysregulation is implicated in various diseases. This system also presents interesting mathematical challenges for modeling. We consider a nonlinear delay differential equation model and calculate pseudospectra of three different linearizations: a time-dependent Jacobian, linearization around the limit cycle, and dynamic mode decomposition (DMD) analysis of Koopman operators (global linearization). The time-dependent Jacobian provided insight into experimental phenomena, explaining why rats respond differently to perturbations during corticosterone secretion's upward versus downward slopes. We developed new mathematical techniques for the other two linearizations to calculate pseudospectra on Banach spaces and apply DMD to delay differential equations, respectively. These methods helped establish local and global limit cycle stability and study transients. Additionally, we discuss using pseudospectra to substantiate the model in experimental contexts and establish bio-variability via data-driven methods. This work is the first to utilize pseudospectra to explore the HPA axis

Enhancing thermal properties and moisture resistance of eutectic molten salts via nanoencapsulation for medium-temperature thermal energy storage

A nanoencapsulation strategy was developed to addresses the limitations of molten salts as phase change materials (PCMs), including leakage and high hygroscopicity, which hinder their practical application in thermal energy storage. An eutectic molten salt LiNO3-NaNO3-KCl (LNK) was first prepared via aqueous solution evaporation, followed by SiO2 nanoencapsulation using a sol-gel process with methyltriethoxysilane (MTES) and tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) as co-precursors, resulting in nanoencapsulated LNK (NELNK). Characterization results revealed a phase change temperature of 174.7 °C, a supercooling degree of approximately 0 °C, a latent heat of 128.8 kJ/kg, and an encapsulation ratio of 66.2 %. NELNK also exhibited excellent thermal cycling stability, retaining 98.3 % of its energy storage efficiency after thermal cycles. Moisture absorption tests demonstrated significantly improved moisture resistance compared to the pristine LNK. This work successfully enhances the performance of LNK through modification of the SiO2 shell, offering a promising solution for medium-temperature thermal energy storage applications

Digital Transformation in Family Firms

The digital transformation, characterized by velocity, complexity and systemic change, is pervading societies throughout the world. This situation presents many opportunities and threats requiring firms to adapt. Financial investments, organizational support and complementary assets/capabilities are important firm requirements for adaptation. Family firms are the most common organizational form in the world, posing them to play a pivotal role in the digital transformation. Indeed, family firms possess unique attributes that can be leveraged to greatly benefit them for the digital transformation. This contribution outlines how some of the uniqueness attributes (financial preferences, specialist approaches to innovation, long-term employees and close ties to stakeholders), touching upon some of the relevant theories (Familiness, family ability-willingness paradox, family social capital, socio-emotional wealth, long-term orientation), may positively and or negatively influence family firms in the digital transformation. This contribution is relevant for scholars, policy makers and practitioners interested in family firms during the digital transformation

Field Notes from an Extinction

A novel of famine, extinction and Greak Auks in 1849s Ireland

Operators on injective tensor products of separable Banach spaces and spaces with few operators

We give a characterization of the operators on the injective tensor product $E \hat{\otimes}_\varepsilon X$ for any separable Banach space $E$ and any (non-separable) Banach space $X$ with few operators, in the sense that any operator $T: X \to X$ takes the form $T = \lambda I + S$ for a scalar $\lambda \in \mathbb{K}$ and an operator $S$ with separable range. This is used to give a classification of the complemented subspaces and closed operator ideals of spaces of the form $C_0(\omega \times K_\mathcal{A})$, where $K_\mathcal{A}$ is a locally compact Hausdorff space induced by an almost disjoint family $\mathcal{A}$ such that $C_0(K_\mathcal{A})$ has few operators

Underground futures : The essential role of the subsurface in a net zero carbon future

This viewpoint examines the overlooked yet crucial role of the underground in achieving net zero carbon transitions. Drawing on insights from the Underground Futures scoping study, a collaboration between Lancaster University and the British Geological Survey, the viewpoint explores how subsurface spaces, once associated with extraction, are now central to energy storage, carbon sequestration, and geothermal heat generation, and the governance and regulatory challenges this presents. Through interviews and focus groups with UK stakeholders, it identifies governance, limited data, and a lack of integrated planning as major barriers to sustainable underground use. The viewpoint bridges geoscience, spatial planning, and concepts from political geology to ultimately suggest that the underground is a dynamic and active component of planetary change, that is both shaping and being shaped by human efforts toward a sustainable net zero future