Law and Opinion in Hong Kong in 1988.

Many jurisprudential researchers have developed generalized theories but these theories have seldom been subject to empirical verification. Theoretical jurists also make assumptions and conjectures as to why and how the law functions and how the law should function based on observations and historical analysis. Each of their theses is usually biased towards the economic, social, political and religious environment of a particular era, and it may appear appropriate for that era. In the absence of verification based on scientific methods, these theses are merely conjectures which cannot be proved, and are often difficult to measure objectively. The use of information technology and statistical techniques should alleviate some of these problems. The reception of the Common Law in Hong Kong and Singapore and the successful adoption of the German Civil Code in Japan are evidence of supranational adaptability. The experiences of Hong Kong and Singapore can provide some useful information and data in analyzing the degree of success of the application of the Common Law in a different cultural setting. As schools of jurisprudence seldom explain the outcome of transplanting a dominant legal system to a society whose culture is foreign to it, it is submitted that information technology and statistical techniques can provide a better solution. This thesis consists of nine chapters. The first three chapters provide the cultural, historical and jurisprudential background relevant to the investigation of the application of English Common Law in contemporary Hong Kong. It is believed that an understanding of the cultural and historical past is the key to contemporary issues. The writer does not hold himself out as an expert in traditional Chinese jurisprudence and legal history, nor of Chinese law and custom in Hong Kong. Much of the information presented in the first three chapters was derived from published works. Chapters IV and V discuss the methodology in investigating the acceptance of the Common Law judicial system in Hong Kong, and Chapters VI and VII analyse the results of the investigations. The confidence of the people in the Common Law judicial system is directly correlated to the degree of success of transplanting a Common Law culture into Hong Kong as a dominant legal culture. Using selected methodologies, empirical data is analysed to determine the attitudes and values of the people towards the Common Law judicial system in Hong Kong. For the Common Law judicial system to be successfully maintained in Hong Kong after it becomes a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China on 1st July, 1997, the confidence of the Chinese population in its fairness and reasonableness is vital. Chapters VIII and IX are concerned with the future of the Common Law judicial system in Hong Kong after 30th June, 1997, and the recommendations for judicial development in the meantime. As this is a law thesis, the writer does not attempt to forecast the political developments of Hong Kong at that time, but relies on published works based on well established forecasting techniques. The law is stated as at 31st December, 1988

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Mass spectrometry for the assessment of the occurrence and biological consequences of DNA adducts

Exogenous and endogenous sources of chemical species can react, directly or after metabolic activation, with DNA to yield DNA adducts. If not repaired, DNA adducts may compromise cellular functions by blocking DNA replication and/or inducing mutations. Unambiguous identification of the structures and accurate measurements of the levels of DNA adducts in cellular and tissue DNA constitute the first and important step towards understanding the biological consequences of these adducts. The advances in mass spectrometry (MS) instrumentation in the past 2–3 decades have rendered MS an important tool for structure elucidation, quantification, and revelation of the biological consequences of DNA adducts. In this review, we summarized the development of MS techniques on these fronts for DNA adduct analysis. We placed our emphasis of discussion on sample preparation, the combination of MS with gas chromatography-or liquid chromatography (LC)-based separation techniques for the quantitative measurement of DNA adducts, and the use of LC-MS along with molecular biology tools for understanding the human health consequences of DNA adducts. The applications of mass spectrometry-based DNA adduct analysis for predicting the therapeutic outcome of anti-cancer agents, for monitoring the human exposure to endogenous and environmental genotoxic agents, and for DNA repair studies were also discussed

The concise guide to PHARMACOLOGY 2013/14:G protein-coupled receptors

The Concise Guide to PHARMACOLOGY 2013/14 provides concise overviews of the key properties of over 2000 human drug targets with their pharmacology, plus links to an open access knowledgebase of drug targets and their ligands (www.guidetopharmacology.org), which provides more detailed views of target and ligand properties. The full contents can be found at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bph.12444/full. G protein-coupled receptors are one of the seven major pharmacological targets into which the Guide is divided, with the others being G protein-coupled receptors, ligand-gated ion channels, ion channels, catalytic receptors, nuclear hormone receptors, transporters and enzymes. These are presented with nomenclature guidance and summary information on the best available pharmacological tools, alongside key references and suggestions for further reading. A new landscape format has easy to use tables comparing related targets. It is a condensed version of material contemporary to late 2013, which is presented in greater detail and constantly updated on the website www.guidetopharmacology.org, superseding data presented in previous Guides to Receptors and Channels. It is produced in conjunction with NC-IUPHAR and provides the official IUPHAR classification and nomenclature for human drug targets, where appropriate. It consolidates information previously curated and displayed separately in IUPHAR-DB and the Guide to Receptors and Channels, providing a permanent, citable, point-in-time record that will survive database updates

Search for intermediate-mass black hole binaries in the third observing run of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo

International audienceIntermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) span the approximate mass range 100−105 M⊙, between black holes (BHs) that formed by stellar collapse and the supermassive BHs at the centers of galaxies. Mergers of IMBH binaries are the most energetic gravitational-wave sources accessible by the terrestrial detector network. Searches of the first two observing runs of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo did not yield any significant IMBH binary signals. In the third observing run (O3), the increased network sensitivity enabled the detection of GW190521, a signal consistent with a binary merger of mass ∼150 M⊙ providing direct evidence of IMBH formation. Here, we report on a dedicated search of O3 data for further IMBH binary mergers, combining both modeled (matched filter) and model-independent search methods. We find some marginal candidates, but none are sufficiently significant to indicate detection of further IMBH mergers. We quantify the sensitivity of the individual search methods and of the combined search using a suite of IMBH binary signals obtained via numerical relativity, including the effects of spins misaligned with the binary orbital axis, and present the resulting upper limits on astrophysical merger rates. Our most stringent limit is for equal mass and aligned spin BH binary of total mass 200 M⊙ and effective aligned spin 0.8 at 0.056 Gpc−3 yr−1 (90% confidence), a factor of 3.5 more constraining than previous LIGO-Virgo limits. We also update the estimated rate of mergers similar to GW190521 to 0.08 Gpc−3 yr−1.Key words: gravitational waves / stars: black holes / black hole physicsCorresponding author: W. Del Pozzo, e-mail: [email protected]† Deceased, August 2020