The legal regime of the continental shelf and associated areas

It is probable that no new doctrine of international law has received universal recognition so rapidly as has that of the Continental Shelf. Its being an extension of the outer limit of coastal state sovereignty endeared it to nationalistic pride, a matter evidenced by the time spent in discussing the nature of the rights, which ended by according the coastal state sovereign rights over its natural resources. These were further defined as being exclusive and unshared rights. As in the case of the territorial sea, the area of control was difficult to define. The present seaward limit of national sovereignty is defined at the edge of the Continental Shelf at 200 metres isobath or the depth to which the submarine areas can be exploited. Exploitability appears to be a poor criterion in these days of rapidly expanding marine technology. All reasonable geological boundaries of the sea floor (shore line, shelf edge, base of Continental Slope, toe of continental rise, axes of trenches, deepest parts of abyssal plains, and the mid ocean rift) are described according to their origin and value as seaward limits of national sovereignty for exploitation purposes. All contain uncertainties or deficiencies stemming from present inadequate knowledge of bathymetry, ambiguity of definition, or unreasonable relationship to areas of possible mineral resources. Accordingly a more precise definition of seaward boundaries for the areas under present national jurisdiction is most desirable, with some form of international regime applied to the deeper areas of ocean floor. For the purposes of this study the subject is divided into three main parts, namely:-(1) The theory of the Continental Shelf in international law.(2) The legal regime of the Continental Shelf, and(3) The legal regime of the deep-sea floor. Before considering the legal norms of the new doctrine, a geological and geographical study of the nature, origin and formation of the Shelf is given in Section One of Part One. This study is relevant to the legal aspects of the Shelf area in that it provides full data about the geophysical structure of the Shelf and associated areas. It also helps to determine how far jurists were willing to establish the legal framework of the Shelf in accordance with its geographical limits. A comparison between the geophysical and legal definitions of the Shelf is a good evidence of the limited extent to which the two concepts are uniform. In Part Two the question of the legal regime of the Shelf is examined from the point of view of the legal basis of claims to the Shelf area which, until recently, was regarded, like the waters above it, res communis. The nature of the rights asserted is also explored under both the unilateral claims of coastal states and the provision of the Geneva Convention on the Continental Shelf. The third item, which is examined under this heading, is the problem of delimitation. Here, a special consideration is given to the decision of the ICJ in the North Sea Continental Shelf Cases, Part Three deals with proposals de lege ferenda on the question of the legal regime of the deep-sea floor. The limited scope of this thesis did not allow more than recording the results achieved by the U,N, General Assembly and other international and national bodies. I have attempted in this study to present, in an inductive fashion, the work of all those who contributed to the establishment of the doctrine of the Continental Shelf. My task did not go further than displaying the various opinions on the subject, adding my own views where necessary. I am relieved to find that Dr. Mouton, in the introduction to his great work "The Continental Shelf," “states,"..., one can not solve a new problem alone. One has to put the opinions next to each other in their original wording, in order to "be able to attain a certain amount of progression in thought and give the reader the chance, without forcing him to go through all the sources, to compare the arguments and judge whether he can or can not agree with the conclusions we have reached, "Finally, as I read and re-read the manuscript and corrected the proofs, the words of a twelfth century Syrian judge repeatedly came to my mind: "Never have I met an author who is not ready to proclaim on the morrow of finishing his book, 'O, had I expressed this differently, how much better would it have been! Had such a statement been added, how much more correct, it would have been! Had this been moved forward, it would have read better and had that been omitted, it would have certainly been preferable,' In such experience there is indeed a great lesson; it provides full evidence that defect characterizes all works of man,'

Сoncerning the Question of Maintenance and Renewal of Cultural Landscape Around Wooden Church of Holy Spirit in Potelycz Village

Показано краєзнавчу цінність села Потелича Жовківського району Львівської області з дерев’яною церквою Святого Духа. Запропоновано сучасні способи відновлення (зокрема нові технології тривимірної візуалізації) та збереження ландшафту навколо сакральної дерев’яної пам’ятки.In the work there was shown local history value of Potelycz village of Zhovkva region, Lviv district taking into account wooden church of Holy Spirit. Contemporary techniques of restoration (including innovative 3D visualization technologies) and maintenance of landscape around sacral wooden monument were presented as well

How Specifiers Learn About Structural Materials

Many wood products are underutilized in the construction of nonresidential buildings. To understand better why this is so, a mail survey was conducted in both Canada and the United States to determine how specifiers (arcitects and structural engineers) learn about building materials.Results indicate that, while architectural schools spend an adequate amount of time teaching students about timber design, engineering schools devote little time to teaching wood use as compared to time spent teaching students about steel and concrete. This is despite the fact that over 60% of the specifiers who work on buildings less than five stories in height have designed with wood. However, much of the learning about materials occurs on the job, where the most effective means of education include reading materials, data files, manuals, cororate promotion, and word of mouth. Specifiers who do not currently use wood are likely to be most influenced to do so through the use of physical examples such as demonstration buildings and case studies.Long-term cooperative programs, including lobbying efforts and promotional campaigns, are needed to ensure that material specifiers have the knowledge and training required to be able to use traditional and new wood products that are ideally suited for nonresidential construction in North America

The Example of State Forestry Information System (SFIS) Data Application to Prognosis of Changes in Pine Forests

W pracy pokazano zastosowanie danych z podsystemu «Las» Systemu Informatycznego Lasów Państwowych (SILP) w Polsce do prognozowania zmian lasów sosnowych. Zaprezentowano specjalnie opracowany blok «GAP TAKSACYJNY» modelu komputerowego pozwalający na automatyczne wczytywanie uśrednionych danych taksacyjnych dla wydzieleń leśnych i przeprowadzenie prognoz na przykładzie nadleśnictwa Tuczno z Wielkopolski.The paper shows the application of data from the subsystem «Forest» State Forestry Information System (SILP) in Poland for forecasting changes in pine forests. There was presented a specially designed block «GAP TAKSACYJNY» of computer model that allows the automatic loading of sub-compartment forests data and carrying out prognosis on the example of forest district Tuczno in Wielkopolska

Viewpoint on Emv2, the onlhy endogenous ecotropic murine leukemia virus of C57BL/6 mice

Here I comment on the articles by Lee and colleagues (Retrovirology 2011, 8:82) and Lee and Cho (Retrovirology 2012, 9:23) dealing with an endogenous ecotropic mouse leukemia virus found in C57BL mice

Appearance Wood Products and Psychological Well-Being

The study of how people's psychological health and well-being can be connected to wood used in appearance applications is a new and relatively unexplored area of inquiry, despite strong theoretical support, intuitive reasoning, and a growing recognition of the importance of healthful living. This research attempted to better understand this phenomenon by mapping out people's perceptions of wood used in interior applications. Specifically, the aim of this exploratory study was to determine what types of environments appearance wood products can create and to gauge whether or not the use of these types of products could have positive impacts on people's emotional states. To that end, a total of 119 respondents from the Greater Vancouver Regional Area were asked to partake in a three-part experimental study, consisting of a q-sort exercise, personal interviews, and a self-administered survey. The findings suggest that people's response to wood is, for the most part, extremely positive, with subjects generally showing a strong preference for rooms containing many wood details. There also appears to be a strong belief that the use of wood can help to create healthful environments, and commonly evoked descriptors for wood rooms include "warm," "comfortable," "relaxing," "natural," and "inviting." The reasons underlying these findings are complex and further exploration rooted in the field of environmental psychology is warranted. However, the results of this study could have potentially far-reaching implications for manufacturers of appearance wood products seeking to differentiate themselves in an increasingly competitive marketplace. Specifically, these findings point to an opportunity to market wood in an entirely new and innovative manner with the inclusion of potential psychological benefits into the total product concept

Design of a pulse power supply unit for micro-ECM

Electrochemical micro-machining (μECM) requires a particular pulse power supply unit (PSU) to be developed in order to achieve desired machining performance. This paper summarises the development of a pulse PSU meeting the requirements of μECM. The pulse power supply provides tens of nanosecond pulse duration, positive and negative bias voltages and a polarity switching functionality. It fulfils the needs for tool preparation with reversed pulsed ECM on the machine. Moreover, the PSU is equipped with an ultrafast overcurrent protection which prevents the tool electrode from being damaged in case of short circuits. The developed pulse PSU was used to fabricate micro-tools out of 170 μm WC-Co alloy shafts via micro-electrochemical turning and drill deep holes via μECM in a disk made of 18NiCr6. The electrolyte used for both processes was a mixture of sulphuric acid and NaNO3 aqueous solutions.The research reported in this paper is supported by the European Commission within the project “Minimizing Defects in Micro-Manufacturing Applications (MIDEMMA)” (FP7-2011-NMP-ICT-FoF-285614