International Law, Legal Diplomacy, and the Counter-ISIL Campaign: Some Observations

Speech as prepared for delivery by Brian Egan, Legal Adviser, U.S. Department of State; 110th Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law Washington, DC, April 1, 201

A qualitative study exploring behaviours which underpin different types of social media use

Despite the popularity of social media, we have little understanding of how “social” these platforms actually are. “Social media use” is often considered in generic terms or dichotomised into active or passive use. However, this does not explain the specific behaviours users engage in. We explored this in respect of different social media platforms; namely Instagram and Facebook. The overall sample of nine participants included four males and five females between the ages of 18 and 36. Participants took part in semi-structured interviews to describe their behaviours when using either Instagram (n = 4). or Facebook (n = 5). From reflexive thematic analysis, the first theme was “Determinants of using social media”, with two sub-themes. This main theme describes factors which generally motivate people to use the respective social media platform. However, the second theme was “Determinants of behaviours” with seven sub-themes, which relate more specifically to particular actions or behaviours which specific platforms afford users to be able to do. There were clear distinctions between what might constitute social media “use” (first theme) and social media “behaviours” (second theme). Our findings suggest that concepts of “active” and “passive” use are not sufficient to capture the complexities of underpinning behaviours or sensitive to the within-person and between-context variations which explain behaviours underpinning social media use

Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment Data Simulator

The Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment (CUTE) is a 6U NASA CubeSat carrying on-board a low-resolution (R~2000--3000), near-ultraviolet (2500--3300 {\AA}) spectrograph. It has a rectangular primary Cassegrain telescope to maximize the collecting area. CUTE, which is planned for launch in Spring 2020, is designed to monitor transiting extra-solar planets orbiting bright, nearby stars aiming at improving our understanding of planet atmospheric escape and star-planet interaction processes. We present here the CUTE data simulator, which we complemented with a basic data reduction pipeline. This pipeline will be then updated once the final CUTE data reduction pipeline is developed. We show here the application of the simulator to the HD209458 system and a first estimate of the precision on the measurement of the transit depth as a function of temperature and magnitude of the host star. We also present estimates of the effect of spacecraft jitter on the final spectral resolution. The simulator has been developed considering also scalability and adaptability to other missions carrying on-board a long-slit spectrograph. The data simulator will be used to inform the CUTE target selection, choose the spacecraft and instrument settings for each observation, and construct synthetic CUTE wavelength-dependent transit light curves on which to develop the CUTE data reduction pipeline.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments and System

CFIUS 第二部分?美国采取行动限制对华直接投资

This Perspective explores the implications for the home countries of large MNEs of the agreement reached by over 140 countries in 2021 to enact a corporate minimum tax of 15%. It argues that the corporate minimum tax complements the trend to reduce the negative impact of unfettered globalization on labor, and it protects the ability of home countries to finance a robust social safety net. Home countries should adopt the corporate minimum tax, and that includes the US, which last year failed to adapt its Global Intangible Low-Taxed Income approach to the corporate minimum tax

CFIUS part II? The US moves to restrict outbound FDI to China

The Biden Administration recently released its executive order to ban certain outbound U.S. FDI to China and implement reporting requirements for other investments in China. This Perspective provides important context for the order and highlights key issues the Administration must address in its draft rulemaking