The Modern Trend Towards Exclusion of Recourse Against Transnational Arbitral Awards: A European Perspective

This Article will analyze this trend [the liberal tradition in international commercial arbitration] and attempt to assess its impact on the efficiency of international commercial arbitration as a viable alternative to litigation before the national judiciary. Where appropriate, the new laws will be compared to the UNCITRAL Model Law (the Model Law ), today\u27s archetype of modern commercial arbitration laws. Finally, this Article will focus on the possible influence of the new laws on arbitration laws of other states, taking the Federal Republic of Germany as an illustrative example

Renegotiation and Adaptation of International Investment Contracts

In modern-day international investment practice, especially in connection with the exploitation of natural resources, Production Sharing Agreements have come to take over the role of the classic concession agreement. Like their predecessors, these contracts are particularly vulnerable to disturbances in the commercial balance agreed to, or assumed by, the parties at the conclusion of the contract. This vulnerability has three primary causes. First, these are classic examples of long term contracts. In the petroleum industry, the commitment of significant capital for exploration, particularly in development, and the assumption of considerable risk, particularly in exploration, require contracts covering up to and over ten years of exploration, and over twenty years of an initial production phase. The long duration of these contracts makes them particularly susceptible to political or economic influences which are unforeseeable at the time of contract conclusion, but which from the investor\u27s point of view have a negative effect on the economic equilibrium of the contract. Second, the investor will initially incur significant costs in setting the exploration strategy in motion (sunk costs), which will only be recovered over the duration of the contract. The investor therefore unavoidably depends on the contract actually being carried out for the length of time and on the basis of the framework initially negotiated with the host country. Third, many host countries make use of the investor\u27s prisoner\u27s dilemma, pressing for changes to the originally negotiated equilibrium in their favor once the venture has begun, i.e. once the investor has a large amount of sunk costs at stake. In particular, this is likely where exploration plans have proven to be more profitable than originally expected. These negative changes in the investment climate occur through amendments to the relevant laws, tax increases or a more or less forced renegotiation of the contract (obsolescing bargaining)... This article will examine ways to protect the investor against these sorts of risks and uncertainties. Two scenarios need to be distinguished. In the first scenario discussed infra in Section II, the contract contains no specific adjustment or renegotiation clause. In the second scenario, discussed infra in Section III, the parties have included special provisions in their contract to deal with these cases

Variants of human chorionic gonadotropin from pregnant women and tumor patients recognized by monoclonal antibodies

In biological fluids, hCG and its free alpha- (hCG alpha) and beta-subunits (hCG beta), occur in multiple forms. These various forms differ at the molecular level primarily in glycosylation, but also differ in protein backbone modifications corresponding to the urinary low molecular weight fragment of the hCG beta-subunit (beta-core fragment). This microheterogeneous nature can be demonstrated by isoelectric focusing in which variants are separated into bands with different isoelectric points (pI). To determine whether such isoelectric variants differ in antigenicity and consequently might escape immunoassay detection due to overspecificity of monoclonal antibodies (MCA), urinary pregnancy hCG (NIH, CR123) and tumor hCG preparations, such as a tumor-specific acidic variant of hCG (hCGav) and the hCG beta-core fragment, were separated by isoelectric focusing in the absence or presence of 8 M urea, or by sodium docedyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and enzymatically immunostained using an MCA panel directed against 17 different hCG epitopes. MCA against 14 different epitopes accessible on holo-hCG recognized all pI variants of pregnancy holo-hCG or tumor-derived hCGav, as was true for the three MCA recognizing epitopes hidden on holo-hCG but accessible on the free subunits after hCG dissociation by urea. We conclude that each individual pI-isoform of holo-hCG and its free subunits expresses the entire set of epitopes recognized by our MCA panel. The carbohydrate moieties that form a biochemical basis for hCG heterogeneity seem to be neither of major antigenic relevance, nor are they structurally related to any particular epitope. Thus, various glycosylation forms of hCG, hCG alpha, hCG beta, and hCG beta-core in normal as well as in pathological samples should safely be detectable and measureable by immunoassays employing MCA with appropriate subunit specificity

Development of an integrated solar-fossil powered steam generation system for industrial applications

Das Poster gibt eine kurze Einführung in das Projekt SolSteam, in dem die Integration solaren Prozessdampfes in einen konventionellen Dampferzeuger untersucht wird

Bank liquidity creation and risk taking during distress

Liquidity creation is one of banks' raisons d'être. But what happens to liquidity creation and risk taking when a bank is identified as distressed by regulatory bodies and subjected to regulatory interventions and/or receives capital injections? What are the long-run effects of such interventions? To address these questions, we exploit a unique dataset of German universal banks for the period 1999 - 2008. Our main findings are as follows. First, regulatory interventions and capital injections are followed by lower levels of liquidity creation. The probability of a decline in liquidity creation increases to up to around 50 percent when such actions are taken. Second, bank risk taking decreases in the aftermath of regulatory interventions and capital injections. Third, while banks' liquidity creation market shares decline over the five years following such disciplinary measures, they also reduce their risk exposure over this period to become safer banks. --Liquidity creation,bank distress,regulatory interventions,capital injections

Change in intraindividual ICHD-II headache diagnosis over time: A follow-up of the DMKG headache study

Background: Change in headache diagnoses over time within the same individual is not well studied in the adult population. In this study, we prospectively examined the individual variation of migraine and tension-type headache (TTH) diagnoses over time. Methods: As part of the epidemiological Deutsche Migrane und Kopfschmerzgesellschaft (DMKG) headache study, 1312 participants were personally interviewed and 1122 responded to a second mailed questionnaire 2.2 years later. Headaches were assigned to migraine or TTH at two different points in time using the International Headache Classification, ICHD-II. We used broad (definite and probable subtypes) and strict (only definite type) definitions of migraine and TTH. Results: Using the broad definition increased the reproducibility of migraine diagnosis from 48.0% to 62.0% and of TTH from 59.0% to 65.0%. A constant TTH diagnosis was related to a higher social status (OR 2.81; 95% CI 1.43-5.53) a higher level of education (OR 1.96; 95% CI 1.00-3.85) and physical inactivity (OR 2.28; 95% CI 1.16-4.49). A constant diagnosis of definite migraine was associated with severe headache (OR 2.64; 95% CI 0.97-7.21) and frequent use of headache medication (OR 4.73; 95% CI 0.95-23.60). The result that coexisting TTH decreased the likelihood of a constant migraine (OR 0.29; 95% CI 0.10-0.85) is assumed to indicate response variability. Conclusions: In epidemiological studies, definite and probable subtypes should be included in the diagnosis to increase the diagnostic accuracy

Electronic Band Dispersion of Graphene Nanoribbons via Fourier-Transformed Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy

Atomically precise armchair graphene nanoribbons of width $N=7$ (7-AGNRs) are investigated by scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS) on Au(111). The analysis of energy-dependent standing wave patterns of finite length ribbons allows, by Fourier transformation, the direct extraction of the dispersion relation of frontier electronic states. Aided by density functional theory calculations, we assign the states to the valence band, the conduction band and the next empty band of 7-AGNRs, determine effective masses of $0.42\pm 0.08\,m_e$, $0.40\pm 0.18\,m_e$ and $0.20\pm 0.03\,m_e$, respectively, and a band gap of $2.37\pm 0.06$ eV.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figure

The problems of production and sales of finished products

Effective activity of any enterprise is carried out proceeding from results of work - profit or a loss. For obtaining necessary profit level, it is necessary to organize correctly accounting, namely, to avoid such problems as: incorrect formation of accounting policies, doubtful information on prime cost of finished goods, low-quality work of accounting service at the enterprise, etc. It is necessary to find the reasons for this period of results of work, and with all confidence to approach the analysis of indicators, to open and realize reserves of improvement of indicators

Untersammelsdorf Tunnel – Challenges, Special Measures and use of Special Shotcrete for Tunneling in Lacustrine Clay

The 665 m long, twin-track Untersammelsdorf Tunnel is being built in the course of the construction of the Koralmbahn line between Graz and Klagenfurt. The tunnel is located in extremely challenging subsoil conditions consisting of silty to fine sandy lacustrine deposits. The developed tunneling concept provided wide-ranging special underground engineering measures as piling, jet grouting and temporary struts and represents a unique construction method to date. Accordingly, numerous challenges arose in the design phase, which could be verified by carrying out extensive trials and investigations in the preparatory period or for which fallback levels had to be provided for the support system. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract