International law and the role of APEC in the gobernance of economic cooperation within the Asia Pacific region

The cumbersome administrative process of trading in the Asia Pacifi c region has lead to propose the creation of a Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacifi c Region (FTAAP), as part of the governance structure. In this respect, the Asia Pacifi c Economic Cooperation (APEC) would play a major role regarding the setting of guidelines for economic cooperation and a free and open approach to investments. It is also provided that APEC’s legal framework may be applied to the economic activities which have not been regulated by other international agreements, offering advantages as adapting to the real conditions of each state and the standardization of the already existing regulations. However, this non-binding framework, (soft law), does not foreclose, but complements the OMC’s binding legal framework (hard law).Las complicaciones administrativas del proceso comercial en la región Asia Pacífico han conducido a proponer la creación de un Área de Libre Comercio de la región Asia Pacífico, como parte de una estructura de gobierno. En este sentido, el Foro de Cooperación Económica de Asia Pacifico (APEC) puede desempeñar un papel preponderante en cuanto a fijar lineamientos para la cooperación económica y una aproximación libre y abierta para las inversiones. También se sostiene que el marco legal de APEC pueda ser aplicado a actividades económicas que no hayan sido reguladas por otros acuerdos internacionales, lo que ofrecería ventajas tales como la adaptación a las condiciones de cada estado y la estandarización de las regulaciones vigentes. No obstante, este esquema no vinculante, (soft law), no excluye, sino que complementa el esquema legal vinculante (hard law) de la Organización Mundial de Comercio (OMC)

Uniformity in International Trade Law: The Constitutional Obstacle

International trade is the life-blood of the Canadian economy. Exports have become the largest single source of jobs in Canada, providing employment for almost three million Canadians and accounting for approximately 30 per cent of the G.N.P.\u27 It is imperative that everything possible should be done to encourage the growth of this vital sector of the economy and that any impediments to such growth should be removed

Infrasonic observations of large-scale HE events

The Los Alamos Infrasound Program has been operating since about mid-1982, making routine measurements of low frequency atmospheric acoustic propagation. Generally, the authors work between 0.1 Hz to 10 Hz; however, much of the work is concerned with the narrower range of 0.5 to 5.0 Hz. Two permanent stations, St. George, UT, and Los Alamos, NM, have been operational since 1983, collecting data 24 hours a day. For the purposes of this discussion, the authors concentrate on their measurements of large, high explosive (HE) events at ranges of 250 km to 5330 km. Because their equipment is well suited for mobile deployments, they can easily establish temporary observing sites for special events. The measurements are from the permanent sites, as well as from various temporary sites. A few observations that are typical of the full data set are given

A Unified Model for Predicting the Open Hole Tensile and Compressive Strengths of Composite Laminates for Aerospace Applications

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/106429/1/AIAA2013-1613.pd

The effects of auditory contrast tuning upon speech intelligibility

We have previously identified neurons tuned to spectral contrast of wideband sounds in auditory cortex of awake marmoset monkeys. Because additive noise alters the spectral contrast of speech, contrast-tuned neurons, if present in human auditory cortex, may aid in extracting speech from noise. Given that this cortical function may be underdeveloped in individuals with sensorineural hearing loss, incorporating biologically-inspired algorithms into external signal processing devices could provide speech enhancement benefits to cochlear implantees. In this study we first constructed a computational signal processing algorithm to mimic auditory cortex contrast tuning. We then manipulated the shape of contrast channels and evaluated the intelligibility of reconstructed noisy speech using a metric to predict cochlear implant user perception. Candidate speech enhancement strategies were then tested in cochlear implantees with a hearing-in-noise test. Accentuation of intermediate contrast values or all contrast values improved computed intelligibility. Cochlear implant subjects showed significant improvement in noisy speech intelligibility with a contrast shaping procedure

Recent Developments in Precision Electroweak Physics

Developments in precision electroweak physics in the two years since the symposium are briefly summarized.Comment: Update on recent developments, prepared for the publication of the Proceedings of Alberto Sirlin Symposium, New York University, October 2000. 10 pages, 1 figur

Anthropogenic nutrients and harmful algae in coastal waters

© The Author(s), 2014. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Journal of Environmental Management 146 (2014): 206-216, doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2014.07.002.Harmful algal blooms (HABs) are thought to be increasing in coastal waters worldwide. Anthropogenic nutrient enrichment has been proposed as a principal causative factor of this increase through elevated inorganic and/or organic nutrient concentrations and modified nutrient ratios. We assess: 1) the level of understanding of the link between the amount, form and ratio of anthropogenic nutrients and HABs; 2) the evidence for a link between anthropogenically generated HABs and negative impacts on human health; and 3) the economic implications of anthropogenic nutrient/HAB interactions. We demonstrate that an anthropogenic nutrient-HAB link is far from universal, and where it has been demonstrated, it is most frequently associated with high biomass rather than low biomass (biotoxin producing) HABs. While organic nutrients have been shown to support the growth of a range of HAB species, insufficient evidence exists to clearly establish if these nutrients specifically promote the growth of harmful species in preference to benign ones, or if/how they influence toxicity of harmful species. We conclude that the role of anthropogenic nutrients in promoting HABs is site-specific, with hydrodynamic processes often determining whether blooms occur. We also find a lack of evidence of widespread significant adverse health impacts from anthropogenic nutrient-generated HABs, although this may be partly due to a lack of human/animal health and HAB monitoring. Detailed economic evaluation and cost/benefit analysis of the impact of anthropogenically generated HABs, or nutrient reduction schemes to alleviate them, is also frequently lacking.The work described here is based in part on a project ‘Harmful Algae, Nuisance Blooms and Anthropogenic Nutrient Enrichment’ funded by the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (contract ME2208). In addition KD was supported by the FP7 project Asimuth and funding from the NERC Shelf Seas Biogeochemistry and PURE Associates programmes. PJH was supported by University Grants Council of Hong Kong AoE project (AoE/P-04/0401). PH and LEF were funded by the US National Science Foundation (NSF) Award 1009106; LEF was funded in part by the European Regional Development Fund and European Social Fund (University of Exeter, Truro, Cornwall, UK). GM was supported by a NERC PhD studentship

Will “selfies” solve the identification crisis in lower socio-economic South Africans? A dental feature analysis of “selfies”

Identification in forensic odontology requires that a known characteristic of an individual’s dentition be compared with the same characteristic of the unknown decedent. In South Africa a number of factors render forensic identification of unknown individuals challenging. Many South Africans do not have access to modern dentistry, and consequently do not have ante-mortem dental records. In South Africa, 22 million people are said to own a smart phone, which accounts for close to 40% of the country's population. The aim of the study was to investigate selfies as a source of dental feature information in a government clinic catering to previously disadvantaged patients. Identifiable dental features were observed in 61 (5.6%) of the collected images (N=1098). The low number of useable selfies collected in this study could be attributed to: a lack of smiles seen in the received images. Individuals with poor dental aesthetics would commonly choose to takea selfie with a closed mouth where their teeth would not be visible. The most commonly identified dental features included: diastemas (49.2%), dental jewellery (37.7%), crowding (16.4%), difference in tooth height (16.3%), discoloured (8.2%) and missing teeth (8.2%). This studyfound that selfies cannot solve the identification crisis in lower socio-economic South Africans. Awareness of the importance of selfies in forensic identification should be increased

Sponge grade body fossil with cellular resolution dating 60 Myr before the Cambrian

An extraordinarily well preserved, 600-million-year (Myr)-old, three-dimensionally phosphatized fossil displaying multiple independent characters of modern adult sponges has been analyzed by SEM and synchrotron X-ray tomography. The fossilized animal (Eocyathispongia qiania gen. et sp. nov.) is slightly more than 1.2 mm wide and 1.1 mm tall, is composed of hundreds of thousands of cells, and has a gross structure consisting of three adjacent hollow tubes sharing a common base. The main tube is crowned with a large open funnel, and the others end in osculum-like openings to the exterior. The external surface is densely covered with flat tile-like cells closely resembling sponge pinacocytes, and this layer is punctuated with smaller pores. A dense patch of external structures that display the form of a lawn of sponge papillae has also survived. Within the main funnel, an area where features of the inner surface are preserved displays a regular pattern of uniform pits. Many of them are surrounded individually by distinct collars, mounted in a supporting reticulum. The possibility cannot be excluded that these pits are the remains of a field of choanocytes. The character set evinced by this specimen, ranging from general anatomy to cell type, uniquely indicates that this specimen is a fossil of probable poriferan affinity. So far, we have only this single specimen, and although its organized and complex cellular structure precludes any reasonable interpretation that its origin is abiogenic, confirmation that it is indeed a fossilized sponge will clearly require discovery of additional specimens

Household malaria knowledge and its association with bednet ownership in settings without large–scale distribution programs: Evidence from rural Madagascar

Background: Insecticide–treated bednets are effective at preventing malaria. This study focuses on household–level factors that are associated with bednet ownership in a rural area of Madagascar which had not been a recipient of large–scale ITN distribution. Methods: Data were gathered on individual and household characteristics, malaria knowledge, household assets and bednet ownership. Principal components analysis was used to construct both a wealth index based on household assets and a malaria knowledge index based on responses to questions about malaria. Bivariate and multivariate regressions were used to determine predictors of household bednet ownership and malaria knowledge. Results: Forty–seven of 560 households (8.4%) owned a bednet. In multivariate analysis, higher level of malaria knowledge among household members was the only variable significantly associated with bednet ownership (odds ratio 3.72, P < 0.001). Among respondents, predictors of higher malaria knowledge included higher education levels, female sex and reporting fever as the most frequent or dangerous illness in the community. Household wealth was not a significant predictor of bednet ownership or respondent malaria knowledge. Conclusion: In this setting of limited supply of affordable bednets, malaria knowledge was associated with an increased probability of household bednet ownership. Further studies should determine how such malaria knowledge evolves and if malaria–specific education programs could help overcome the barriers to bednet ownership among at–risk households living outside the reach of large–scale bednet distribution programs