China’s U-shaped Line in the South China Sea Revisited

Despite its existence on the Chinese maps for more than six decades, the U-shaped line, as a traditional maritime boundary line of China in the South China Sea, has never received a wide recognition in the world community, much less by the other claimant states in the South China Sea. The U-shaped line is a legal conundrum not only for China but also for the world community, particularly after the map with the U-shaped line, together with China's Notes Verbale with respect to the claims to the outer continental shelves made by Malaysia and Vietnam, were submitted to the UN Commission on the Limits of Continental Shelf in May 2009. This article discusses China's recent practice relating to the U-shaped line as well as the external factors that affect the validity of the line and tries to unravel the legal puzzle posed by the line

Impact of Front-end Air Flow Conditions on AC Performance and Real-World Fuel Economy

Active grille shutter (AGS) in a vehicle provides aerodynamic benefit at high vehicle speed by closing the front-end grille opening. At the same time, this causes lesser air to flow through the cooling module which includes the condenser. This results in a higher head pressure (AC compressor discharge pressure of the refrigerant). Higher head pressure causes the compressor to work more thereby possibly negating the aerodynamic benefits. This thesis shows a model-based method to quantify the fuel consumption in different scenarios to justify the AGS position (fully open or fully closed) to have better fuel economy. The impact of AGS is more felt at highway speed, so the AGS will be open at low speed or idle. This thesis focuses on the tradeoff between the aerodynamic performance and the compressor power consumption at high vehicle speeds and mid-ambient conditions (26.7°C and 32.2°C). The results from the steady-state simulations show a tiny reduction in the fuel consumption rate for AGS closed condition by comparing to AGS open condition; while the results for the transient cycle show a remarkable reduction in the fuel consumption rate when the vehicle reaches the highest speed of 128.7 km/h. However, at the low-speed range, there is no benefit in fuel economy with AGS closed, as expected

The Legal Status of the U-shaped Line in the South China Sea and Its Legal Implications for Sovereignty, Sovereign Rights and Maritime Jurisdiction

The U-shaped line in the South China Sea has been challenged in the international community and such a challenge has reached its climax when the Philippines presented China with a Notification and Statement of Claim under Article 287 and Annex VII of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOS Convention) on 22 January 2013. In its Statement of Claim, the Philippines requests the Annex VII Arbitral Tribunal to adjudge and declare that China’s maritime claims based on the U-shaped line are contrary to the LOS Convention and invalid. Against this background, this paper will analyze the issues concerning the related submissions of the Philippines

Superconductivity in the η\eta-carbide-type oxides Zr4Rh2Ox

We report on the synthesis and the superconductivity of Zr$_4$Rh$_2$O$_{x}$ ($x$ = 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 1.0). These compounds crystallize in the $\eta$-carbide structure, which is a filled version of the complex intermetallic Ti$_2$Ni structure. We find that in the system Zr$_4$Rh$_2$O$_{x}$, already a small amount ($x$ $\geq$ 0.4) of oxygen addition stabilizes the $\eta$-carbide structure over the more common intermetallic CuAl$_2$ structure-type, in which Zr$_2$Rh crystallizes. We show that Zr$_4$Rh$_2$O$_{0.7}$ and Zr$_4$Rh$_2$O are bulk superconductors with critical temperatures of $T_c \approx$ 2.8 K and 4.7 K in the resistivity, respectively. Our analysis of the superconducting properties reveal both compounds to be strongly type-II superconductors with critical fields up to $\mu_0 H_{c1}$(0) $\approx$ 8.8 mT and $\mu_0 H_{c2}$(0) $\approx$ 6.08 T. Our results support that the $\eta$-carbides are a versatile family of compounds for the investigation of the interplay of interstitial doping on physical properties, especially for superconductivity

A fuzzy logic-based text classification method for social media

Social media offer abundant information for studying people’s behaviors, emotions and opinions during the evolution of various rare events such as natural disasters. It is useful to analyze the correlation between social media and human-affected events. This study uses Hurricane Sandy 2012 related Twitter text data to conduct information extraction and text classification. Considering that the original data contains different topics, we need to find the data related to Hurricane Sandy. A fuzzy logic-based approach is introduced to solve the problem of text classification. Inputs used in the proposed fuzzy logic-based model are multiple useful features extracted from each Twitter’s message. The output is its degree of relevance for each message to Sandy. A number of fuzzy rules are designed and different defuzzification methods are combined in order to obtain desired classification results. This work compares the proposed method with the well-known keyword search method in terms of correctness rate and quantity. The result shows that the proposed fuzzy logic-based approach is more suitable to classify Twitter messages than keyword word method

State Practice in Deep Seabed Mining: The Case of the People’s Republic of China

Under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the international deep seabed area is named “the Area”, which, together with its resources, is the common heritage of mankind.1 No State should claim or exercise sovereignty or sovereign rights over any part of the Area or its resources, nor should any State or natural or legal person appropriate any part thereof.2 Since deep seabed areas beyond the limit of national jurisdiction have been treated as the common heritage of mankind, all activities there are governed by the international regime created under the UNCLOS. The International Seabed Authority (ISA) was accordingly established on 16 November 1994, upon the entry into force of the UNCLOS. The ISA has its headquarters in Kingston, Jamaica and functions as the representative of the whole of mankind for the management of deep seabed mining. The ISA is an autonomous international organization under the UNCLOS and the 1994 Agreement relating to the Implementation of Part XI of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (the 1994 Agreement),3 and through it States Parties to the UNCLOS can, in accordance with the regime for the seabed and ocean floor and subsoil thereof beyond the limits of national jurisdiction (the Area) established in Part XI and the 1994 Agreement, organize and control activities in the Area, particularly with a view to administering the resources of the Area.4 Deep seabed mining,once described as ‘a remote possibility’,5 has gradually become a more realistic proposition, as can be seen from the increased activities carried out by States concerned. In State practice, China’s activities and contributions to the deep seabed mining regime merits closer examination