The problems of tactical litigation in the European Union: A case for a hybrid forum non conveniens & lis pendens model

In transnational commercial litigation involving state parties from multiple jurisdictions, disputes over jurisdiction often arise due to strategic manoeuvres by one party or state aimed at causing delays and disrupting the other party's case. This practice is known as ‘tactical litigation’. Common law countries have come up with the forum non conveniens doctrine, whereas civil law countries have adopted the lis pendens rule as solutions to tackle this problem. Furthermore, the Recast Brussels Regulation of 2012 endeavours to counter tactical litigation by reinforcing the use of choice of court agreements and encouraging party autonomy. Despite the existing mechanisms and regulations, some litigants have managed to exploit loopholes in the Recast Brussels Regulation and engage in abusive tactical litigation. Hence, the objective of this thesis is to propose a solution that combines the advantages of both the common law forum non conveniens doctrine and the civil law lis pendens rule to counter such abusive tactics. This harmonization will enhance flexibility, predictability, and certainty. The thesis will employ comparative, doctrinal, and case study approaches. The analysis of the European Court of Justice's ruling in the Gasser case will be used to examine the strict enforcement of the lis pendens rule, while the decision of the House of Lords in the Spiliada case will be used to illustrate the strict application of the forum non conveniens doctrine by the English courts. The strict interpretation of the lis pendens rule and the forum non conveniens doctrine has created opportunities for the use of tactical litigation in transnational commercial litigation

Aqueous synthesis of CdTe quantum dot as biological fluorescent probe for monitoring methyl parathion by fluoro-immunosensor

Bioconjugation of quantum dots (QDs) provide high resolution in biological fluorescent labelling as a result of physical and optical properties of QDs. This intrinsic property of QDs can be made use of for sensitive detection of target analytes including food and environmental monitoring. In this investigation, we report the bioconjugation of thiol stabilized CdTe QD for the sensitive detection of methyl parathion (MP) at picogram level. The specificity in the analysis was attributed by highly specific competitive immunological reactions between free MP and CdTe QD bioconjugated MP (MP-BSA-CdTe) for immobilized anti-MP IgY antibodies in a simple flow injection system. We also report the possible resonance energy transfer phenomenon as a result of nanobiomolecular interaction obtained through the bioconjugation of CdTe QD with protein bovine serum albumin (BSA). This has resulted in a significant change in the photo-absorption of CdTe QD, which can be made use for future nanosensor development

Determination of new coefficients in the angular momentum and energy fluxes at infinity to 9PN for eccentric Schwarzschild extreme-mass-ratio inspirals using mode-by-mode fitting

We present an extension of work in an earlier paper showing high precision comparisons between black hole perturbation theory and post-Newtonian (PN) theory in their region of overlapping validity for bound, eccentric-orbit, Schwarzschild extreme-mass-ratio inspirals. As before we apply a numerical fitting scheme to extract eccentricity coefficients in the PN expansion of the gravitational wave fluxes, which are then converted to exact analytic form using an integer-relation algorithm. In this work, however, we fit to individual $lmn$ modes to exploit simplifying factorizations that lie therein. Since the previous paper focused solely on the energy flux, here we concentrate initially on analyzing the angular momentum flux to infinity. A first step involves finding convenient forms for hereditary contributions to the flux at low-PN order, analogous to similar terms worked out previously for the energy flux. We then apply the upgraded techniques to find new PN terms through 9PN order and (at many PN orders) to $e^{30}$ in the power series in eccentricity. With the new approach applied to angular momentum fluxes, we return to the energy fluxes at infinity to extend those previous results. Like before, the underlying method uses a \textsc{Mathematica} code based on use of the Mano-Suzuki-Takasugi (MST) function expansion formalism to represent gravitational perturbations and spectral source integration (SSI) to find numerical results at arbitrarily high precision.Comment: 36 pages, 1 figur

Performance Comparison of Phase Change Materials and Metal-Insulator Transition Materials for Direct Current and Radio Frequency Switching Applications

Advanced understanding of the physics makes phase change materials (PCM) and metal-insulator transition (MIT) materials great candidates for direct current (DC) and radio frequency (RF) switching applications. In the literature, germanium telluride (GeTe), a PCM, and vanadium dioxide (VO2), an MIT material have been widely investigated for DC and RF switching applications due to their remarkable contrast in their OFF/ON state resistivity values. In this review, innovations in design, fabrication, and characterization associated with these PCM and MIT material-based RF switches, have been highlighted and critically reviewed from the early stage to the most recent works. We initially report on the growth of PCM and MIT materials and then discuss their DC characteristics. Afterwards, novel design approaches and notable fabrication processes; utilized to improve switching performance; are discussed and reviewed. Finally, a brief vis-á-vis comparison of resistivity, insertion loss, isolation loss, power consumption, RF power handling capability, switching speed, and reliability is provided to compare their performance to radio frequency microelectromechanical systems (RF MEMS) switches; which helps to demonstrate the current state-of-the-art, as well as insight into their potential in future applications

KEMAMPUAN SISWA KELAS VIII SMP NEGERI 13 BANDA ACEH MENGIDENTIFIKASI CIRI KEBAHASAAN DALAM TEKS DISKUSI

ABSTRAKKata kunci: mengidentifikasi, ciri kebahasaan, teks, diskusiPenelitian tentang Kemampuan Siswa Kelas VIII SMP Negeri 13 Banda Aceh Mengidentifikasi Ciri Kebahasaan dalam Teks Diskusi. Pendekatan yang digunakan adalah pendekatan kuantitatif dengan metode deskriptif. Populasi penelitian ini adalah siswa yang berjumlah 144 orang dan sampel yang diambil sebanyak 35 orang siswa kelas VIII SMP Negeri 13 Banda Aceh. Pengumpulan data dilakukan dengan teknik nontes. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa skor yang diperoleh oleh siswa dari keseluruhan aspek adalah 69. Skor ini berada pada rentag nilai 59-69 yang merupakan rentang nilai kategori cukup. Dilihat dari setiap aspek yang dinilai menunjukkan bahwa aspek penggunaan kata modalitas memperoleh nilai rata-rata 95, skor ini berada pada rentang nilai 85-100 kategori sangat baik, penggunaan kata kerja aksi memperoleh nilai rata-rata 58, skor ini berada pada rentang nilai 56-69 kategori cukup, penggunaan konjungsi perlawanan memperoleh nilai rata-rata 39, skor ini berada pada rentang nila

Nematic Liquid Crystal Composite Materials for DC and RF Switching

Liquid Crystals (LCs) are widely used in display devices, electro-optic modulators, and optical switches. A field-induced electrical conductivity modulation in pure liquid crystals is very low which makes it less preferable for direct current (DC) and radio-frequency (RF) switching applications. According to the literature, a conductivity enhancement is possible by nanoparticle doping. Considering this aspect, we reviewed published works focused on an electric field-induced conductivity modulation in carbon nanotube-doped liquid crystal composites (LC-CNT composites). A two to four order of magnitude switching in electrical conductivity is observed by several groups. Both in-plane and out-of-plane device configurations are used. In plane configurations are preferable for micro-device fabrication. In this review article, we discussed published works reporting the elastic and molecular interaction of a carbon nanotube (CNT) with LC molecules, temperature and CNT concentration effects on electrical conductivity, local heating, and phase transition behavior during switching. Reversibility and switching speed are the two most important performance parameters of a switching device. It was found that dual frequency nematic liquid crystals (DFNLC) show a faster switching with a good reversibility, but the switching ratio is only two order of magnitudes. A better way to ensure reversibility with a large switching magnitude is to use two pairs of in-plane electrodes in a cross configuration. For completeness and comparison purposes, we briefly reviewed other nanoparticle- (i.e., Au and Ag) doped LC composite’s conductivity behavior as well. Finally, based on the reported works reviewed in this article on field induced conductivity modulation, we proposed a novel idea of RF switching by LC composite materials. To support the idea, we simulated an LC composite-based RF device considering a simple analytical model. Our RF analysis suggests that a device made with an LC-CNT composite could show an acceptable performance. Several technological challenges needed to be addressed for a physical realization and are also discussed briefly

THE MANAGEMENT OF AGE-RELATED MACULAR DEGENERATION (ARMD) IN AYURVEDIC PROSPECTIVE- A CRITICAL REVIEW

Age related macular degeneration a vision threatening disease is a degenerative disease affects man in fifth decade or onward. It is caused by irreversible damage of macula in old and risked patients like arteriosclerosis, smoking, Hypertension, DM etc. In fact ARMD appears to result from a combination of hereditary, environmental, and metabolic factors. The common complaints are difficulty vision in dim light, adaptation in different lighting condition, blurring or blind spot in central vision, and a straight line looks wavy etc. Macular degeneration is of two types, Dry and Wet type in which dry type is more prevalent. Although, macular degeneration is very common with age, Ayurveda advocates certain practice and drug which has proved better to get rid of macular degeneration. The drugs like Triphala, Tulsi, Spirulina, Punarnava, Shatavari having anti-oxidant and vitamin properties and yellow vegetable like carrot contain carotene are beneficial in ARMD. Drugs like Yastimadhu, Amala, Ginger, Cardamom, Rose, Curcumin etc. has been proven anti-angiogenic properties and are beneficial to prevent neo-vascular age-related macular degeneration (NVAMD). In one study found that Tarpanawith Triphala Ghrita is beneficial and in another study those with the highest dietary intake of lutein had a 57% lower risk for ARMD such as Kale, Spinach, Mustard green, Shatavari, etc

Metal-insulator Transition (MIT) Materials for Biomedical Applications

Transitional metal oxides get considerable interest in electronics and other engineering applications over few decades. These materials show several orders of magnitude metal-insulator transition (MIT) triggered by external stimuli. Bio-sensing using Vanadium dioxide (VO2), a MIT material is largely unexplored. In this short article, we investigate the VO2 based thermal sensor performance for measuring the biomolecule concentration. Active sensing layer is chromium and niobium co-doped VO2 as it shows 11.9%/°C temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) with practically no thermal hysteresis. Our study demonstrated that VO2 based microsensors can be used to measure the biomolecule concentrations, which produce temperature changes in the mK range. For 1mK change in temperature, the maximum detection voltage is near 0.4V

High-order post-Newtonian expansion of the generalized redshift invariant for eccentric-orbit, equatorial extreme-mass-ratio inspirals with a spinning primary

We derive new terms in the post-Newtonian (PN) expansion of the generalized redshift invariant $\langle u^t \rangle_\tau$ for a small body in eccentric, equatorial orbit about a massive Kerr black hole. The series is computed analytically using the Teukolsky formalism for first-order black hole perturbation theory (BHPT), along with the CCK method for metric reconstruction using the Hertz potential in ingoing radiation gauge. Modal contributions with small values of $l$ are derived via the semi-analytic solution of Mano-Suzuki-Takasugi (MST), while the remaining values of $l$ to infinity are determined via direct expansion of the Teukolsky equation. Each PN order is calculated as a series in eccentricity $e$ but kept exact in the primary black hole's spin parameter $a$. In total, the PN terms are expanded to $e^{16}$ through 6PN relative order, and separately to $e^{10}$ through 8PN relative order. Upon grouping eccentricity coefficients by spin dependence, we find that many resulting component terms can be simplified to closed-form functions of eccentricity, in close analogy to corresponding terms derived previously in the Schwarzschild limit. We use numerical calculations to compare convergence of the full series to its Schwarzschild counterpart and discuss implications for gravitational wave analysis.Comment: 23 pages, 2 figure