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,'

Patterns of differential introgression in a salamander hybrid zone: inferences from genetic data and ecological niche modelling

Hybrid zones have yielded considerable insight into many evolutionary processes, including speciation and the maintenance of species boundaries. Presented here are analyses from a hybrid zone that occurs among three salamanders – Plethodon jordani , Plethodon metcalfi and Plethodon teyahalee – from the southern Appalachian Mountains. Using a novel statistical approach for analysis of non-clinal, multispecies hybrid zones, we examined spatial patterns of variation at four markers: single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) located in the mtDNA ND2 gene and the nuclear DNA ILF3 gene, and the morphological markers of red cheek pigmentation and white flecks. Concordance of the ILF3 marker and both morphological markers across four transects is observed. In three of the four transects, however, the pattern of mtDNA is discordant from all other markers, with a higher representation of P. metcalfi mtDNA in the northern and lower elevation localities than is expected given the ILF3 marker and morphology. To explore whether climate plays a role in the position of the hybrid zone, we created ecological niche models for P. jordani and P. metcalfi . Modelling results suggest that hybrid zone position is not determined by steep gradients in climatic suitability for either species. Instead, the hybrid zone lies in a climatically homogenous region that is broadly suitable for both P. jordani and P. metcalfi . We discuss various selective (natural selection associated with climate) and behavioural processes (sex-biased dispersal, asymmetric reproductive isolation) that might explain the discordance in the extent to which mtDNA and nuclear DNA and colour-pattern traits have moved across this hybrid zone.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/79135/1/j.1365-294X.2010.04796.x.pd

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

Multifractals of Normalized First Passage Time in Sierpinski Gasket

The multifractal behavior of the normalized first passage time is investigated on the two dimensional Sierpinski gasket with both absorbing and reflecting barriers. The normalized first passage time for Sinai model and the logistic model to arrive at the absorbing barrier after starting from an arbitrary site, especially obtained by the calculation via the Monte Carlo simulation, is discussed numerically. The generalized dimension and the spectrum are also estimated from the distribution of the normalized first passage time, and compared with the results on the finitely square lattice.Comment: 10 pages, Latex, with 3 figures and 1 table. to be published in J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. Vol.67(1998

Guided assembly of nanoparticles on electrostatically charged nanocrystalline diamond thin films

We apply atomic force microscope for local electrostatic charging of oxygen-terminated nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) thin films deposited on silicon, to induce electrostatically driven self-assembly of colloidal alumina nanoparticles into micro-patterns. Considering possible capacitive, sp2 phase and spatial uniformity factors to charging, we employ films with sub-100 nm thickness and about 60% relative sp2 phase content, probe the spatial material uniformity by Raman and electron microscopy, and repeat experiments at various positions. We demonstrate that electrostatic potential contrast on the NCD films varies between 0.1 and 1.2 V and that the contrast of more than ±1 V (as detected by Kelvin force microscopy) is able to induce self-assembly of the nanoparticles via coulombic and polarization forces. This opens prospects for applications of diamond and its unique set of properties in self-assembly of nano-devices and nano-systems

Upper Limits on a Stochastic Background of Gravitational Waves

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory has performed a third science run with much improved sensitivities of all three interferometers. We present an analysis of approximately 200 hours of data acquired during this run, used to search for a stochastic background of gravitational radiation. We place upper bounds on the energy density stored as gravitational radiation for three different spectral power laws. For the flat spectrum, our limit of Ω_0<8.4×10^(-4) in the 69–156 Hz band is ~10^5 times lower than the previous result in this frequency range

Geometry-controlled kinetics

It has long been appreciated that transport properties can control reaction kinetics. This effect can be characterized by the time it takes a diffusing molecule to reach a target -- the first-passage time (FPT). Although essential to quantify the kinetics of reactions on all time scales, determining the FPT distribution was deemed so far intractable. Here, we calculate analytically this FPT distribution and show that transport processes as various as regular diffusion, anomalous diffusion, diffusion in disordered media and in fractals fall into the same universality classes. Beyond this theoretical aspect, this result changes the views on standard reaction kinetics. More precisely, we argue that geometry can become a key parameter so far ignored in this context, and introduce the concept of "geometry-controlled kinetics". These findings could help understand the crucial role of spatial organization of genes in transcription kinetics, and more generally the impact of geometry on diffusion-limited reactions.Comment: Submitted versio

Limits on Gravitational-Wave Emission from Selected Pulsars Using LIGO Data

We place direct upper limits on the amplitude of gravitational waves from 28 isolated radio pulsars by a coherent multidetector analysis of the data collected during the second science run of the LIGO interferometric detectors. These are the first direct upper limits for 26 of the 28 pulsars. We use coordinated radio observations for the first time to build radio-guided phase templates for the expected gravitational-wave signals. The unprecedented sensitivity of the detectors allows us to set strain upper limits as low as a few times 10^(-24). These strain limits translate into limits on the equatorial ellipticities of the pulsars, which are smaller than 10^(-5) for the four closest pulsars