Cross-Border Investment, Conflict of Laws, and the Privatization of Securities Law

The rapid acceleration of transnational investing is occurring in an environment in which emerging markets, and foreign interest in these markets, are exploding. The issues involved with cross-border investment, conflict of laws and the privatization of securities law are examined

Linking food web functioning and habitat diversity for an ecosystem based management: A Mediterranean lagoon case-study

We propose a modelling approach relating the functioning of a transitional ecosystem with the spatial extension of its habitats. A test case is presented for the lagoon of Venice, discussing the results in the context of the application of current EU directives. The effects on food web functioning due to changes related to manageable and unmanageable drivers were investigated. The modelling procedure involved the use of steady-state food web models and network analysis, respectively applied to estimate the fluxes of energy associated with trophic interactions, and to compute indices of food web functioning. On the long term (hundred years) temporal scale, the model indicated that the expected loss of salt marshes will produce further changes at the system level, with a lagoon showing a decrease in the energy processing efficiency. On the short term scale, simulation results indicated that fishery management accompanied by seagrass restoration measures would produce a slight transition towards a more healthy system, with higher energy cycling, and maintaining a good balance between processing efficiency and resilience. Scenarios presented suggest that the effectiveness of short term management strategies can be better evaluated when contextualized in the long term trends of evolution of a system. We also remark the need for further studying the relationship between habitat diversity and indicators of food web functioning

Minimally invasive osteotomy for distal radius malunion: A preliminary series of 9 cases

AbstractThe rate of malunion after distal radius fractures is 25% after conservative treatment and 10% after surgery. Their main functional repercussion related to ulno-carpal conflict is loss of wrist motion. We report a retrospective clinical series of minimally invasive osteotomies. The series consisted of 9 cases of minimally invasive osteotomies with volar locking plate fixation. All osteotomies healed. The average pain was 5.3/10 preoperatively and 2.1/10 at last follow-up. The mean Quick DASH was 55.4/100 preoperatively and 24.24/100 at last follow-up. Compared to the opposite side, the average wrist flexion was 84.11%, the average wrist extension was 80.24%, the average pronation was 95.33% and the average supination was 93.9%. With similar results to those of the literature, our short series confirms the feasibility of minimally invasive osteotomy of the distal radius for extra-articular malunion.TypeCase-series.Level of evidenceIV

Ultrafast carrier dynamics in P doped InGaAs GaAs quantum dots

In this PhD project the effect of p doping on the carrier dynamics in InGaAs quantum dot amplifiers emitting near 1.3/mi at room temperature has been investigated by transient differential transmission spectroscopy (DTS) and four-wave mixing (FWM) experiments in a heterodyne detection scheme. From DTS experiments, an absorption bleaching on the order of few hundreds of ps and an ultrafast gain recovery were measured at operating condition, i.e. room temperature and with current injection. The faster absorption bleaching recovery observed in p doped amplifiers has been attributed to the carrier-carrier scattering due to built-in holes. Conversely, the gain compression recovery is limited by the lack of an electron reservoir in the dots which has been demonstrated in doped amplifiers. These findings should help in elucidating the role of p doping in the design of QD-based devices with high-speed performances. Temperature dependent DTS measurements have confirmed this interpretation and lead to a microstate model developed at 20 K to represent the gain dynamics. At room temperature the combined study of the gain and refractive index dynamics allows us to measure the line width enhancement factor. We observed that p doping is effective in reducing this parameter. By FWM experiments, the polarization decay of ground state excitonic transitions in the temperature range from 5K to 210 K has been measured to obtain the zero-phonon line (ZPL) width and its contribution to the homogeneous line shape. The temperature-dependent ZPL width is reproduced by a thermally-activated behaviour. This finding has been discussed in the framework of exciton-phonon interactions. Coulomb interaction is investigated by measuring the dephasing time versus injected current at 20 K. From measurements of the homogeneous broadenings of exciton and biexciton transitions we demonstrated that the carrier capture dominates on pure dephasing in these strongly confined dots. Moreover, a much faster dephasing is observed in p doped devices due to Coulomb interaction between built-in holes.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Natural recovery and policy interventions of coastal wetlands: Venice Lagoon (Northern Adriatic Sea, Italy) as a case study.

The goals of conservation and sustainable use of environmental ecosystems have increased the need for detailed knowledge of ecological evolution andr esponses to both anthropogenic pressures and recovery measures.The present study shows the effects of natural processes and planned intervention in terms of reducing nutrient inputs in a highly exploited coastal lagoon, describing itsevolution over a16-year period from the late1980s(when eutrophication was at its peak) until 2003. Changes in nutrient and carbonconcentrations in the top layer of sediments were investigated in parallel with macroalga land seagrassbiomass in the most anthropized basin of Venice Lagoon in four surveys conducted in accordance with the same protocols in 1987, 1993, 1998, and 2003. A pronounced reduction in trophic state (mainly total nitrogen, organic phosphorus, and organic carbon concentrations) and macroalgal biomass was recorded, together with the progressive expansion of seagrass meadows. General consideration sare also made on the effects of Manila clam farming and the shift from illegal to managed clam farming