Finding a Happy Ending for Foreign Investors: the Enforcement of Arbitration Awards in the People\u27s Republic of China

The Chinese judicial system has long been criticized for its rampant local protectionism and corruption and its lack of protections for foreign parties. To avoid litigation in China, most foreign investors insist on arbitration clauses in their contract. But even if they win the arbitration, foreigners must return to the Chinese courts to enforce the arbitration awards. Western lawyers, scholars and business people have repeatedly criticized the Chinese courts for their unwillingness to enforce arbitration awards in favor of foreign investors in favor of Chinese parties. Over the last ten years, the Chinese Supreme People’s Court has attempted to address this dilemma by promulgating a series of regulations, including the 1995 Reporting Mechanism; the 1995 Judges Law; 1998 Regulations Regarding the Issues of Fees and Investigation Periods; and the 2003 Directive Limiting Jurisdiction over Arbitration Awards with Foreign Elements. Furthermore, the Chinese government has taken the unprecedented step of allowing Western educational programs within its borders to educate Chinese judges, attorneys and legal officials in order to improve judicial fairness for foreign investors. The Chinese government has also recently permitted domestic tribunals to accept foreign-related arbitral disputes, resulting in increased competition and quality among the arbitral bodies. In this paper I will briefly describe the history of arbitration in China and the current Chinese arbitration bodies, including the rapidly growing presence of domestic arbitral tribunals such as the Beijing Arbitration Commission (BAC). I will then describe the structural and procedural weaknesses in the Chinese judicial system which may lead to foreigners’ difficulty in collecting arbitration awards. I will describe the steps taken by the Chinese government, judicial system arbitral bodies, including CIETAC and BAC, in order to improve the climate for foreign businesses, as well as foreign parties’ attempts to assist in this process. I will evaluate the purported success of these efforts and the reasons why further documentation is needed for a more complete evaluation. Finally, I will propose further suggestions which would improve fairness within the Chinese judicial branch

Characterizing Active Site Conformational Heterogeneity along the Trajectory of an Enzymatic Phosphoryl Transfer Reaction

States along the phosphoryl transfer reaction catalyzed by the nucleoside monophosphate kinase UmpK were captured and changes in the conformational heterogeneity of conserved active site arginine side-chains were quantified by NMR spin-relaxation methods. In addition to apo and ligand-bound UmpK, a transition state analog (TSA) complex was utilized to evaluate the extent to which active site conformational entropy contributes to the transition state free energy. The catalytically essential arginine side-chain guanidino groups were found to be remarkably rigid in the TSA complex, indicating that the enzyme has evolved to restrict the conformational freedom along its reaction path over the energy landscape, which in turn allows the phosphoryl transfer to occur selectively by avoiding side reactions

Reliability of manual segmentation of cornea, contact lens and tear film using a high-resolution OCT

In this study, we aimed to evaluate the intra/inter-session and intra/inter-observer variability of manual segmentation of thickness of the pre-lens tear film, contact lens (CL), post-lens tear film, epithelium, bowman’s layer, stroma and the whole cornea and CLs with a flat and a steep fit, using a commercial high-resolution spectral domain optical coherence tomographer (OCT). Two different observers obtained three repeated measures in two separate sessions. A high correlation was found between the values obtained by the two different observers, except for the thinner layers, epithelium, and Bowman’s layer. Inter-observer analysis showed a high consistency in the measurements obtained by both observers (r 2 ≥ 0.80; p < 0.001) for the thicker layers: CL, stroma, and total cornea. Intra-observer analysis of measurements obtained by each observer within the same session displayed no statistically significant differences between the three repeated measures for both observers (p > 0.05). The present results suggest that manual segmentation of anterior segment OCT images in CL wearers provides acceptable levels of repeatability between observers and between different sessions for the thinner layers, while presenting a high level of repeatability for the thicker layers.This work was supported by FEDER through the COMPETE Program and by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) in the framework of the Strategic Project PEST-C/FIS/UI607/2011. Supported in part by research grants to A. Cervino from the Universitat de Valencia (UV-AE-20070225), the "Jose Castillejo" Research Grant from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology (JC2008-00078) and the Spanish Network for Research in Optometry (SAF2008-01114-E)

On reminder effects, drop-outs and dominance: evidence from an online experiment on charitable giving

We present the results of an experiment that (a) shows the usefulness of screening out drop-outs and (b) tests whether different methods of payment and reminder intervals affect charitable giving. Following a lab session, participants could make online donations to charity for a total duration of three months. Our procedure justifying the exclusion of drop-outs consists in requiring participants to collect payments in person flexibly and as known in advance and as highlighted to them later. Our interpretation is that participants who failed to collect their positive payments under these circumstances are likely not to satisfy dominance. If we restrict the sample to subjects who did not drop out, but not otherwise, reminders significantly increase the overall amount of charitable giving. We also find that weekly reminders are no more effective than monthly reminders in increasing charitable giving, and that, in our three months duration experiment, standing orders do not increase giving relative to one-off donations

Transient Photoreceptor Deconstruction by CNTF Enhances rAAV-Mediated Cone Functional Rescue in Late Stage CNGB3-Achromatopsia

Achromatopsia is a genetic disorder of cones, and one of the most common forms is a channelopathy caused by mutations in the β-subunit, CNGB3, of the cone cyclic nucleotide-gated (CNG) channel. Recombinant adeno-associated virus of serotype 5 (rAAV5)-mediated gene transfer of human CNGB3 cDNA to mutant dog cones results in functional and structural rescue in dogs \u3c0.5 years of age, but treatment is minimally effective in dogs \u3e1 year. We now test a new therapeutic concept by combining gene therapy with the administration of ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF). Intravitreal CNTF causes transient dedifferentiation of photoreceptors, a process called deconstruction, whereby visual cells become immature with short outer segments, and decreased retinal function and gene expression that subsequently return to normal. Cone function was successfully rescued in all mutant dogs treated between 14 and 42 months of age with this strategy. CNTF-mediated deconstruction and regeneration of the photoreceptor outer segments prepares the mutant cones optimally for gene augmentation therapy

Linkage between fitness of yeast cells and adenylate kinase catalysis

Enzymes have evolved with highly specific values of their catalytic parameters kcat and KM. This poses fundamental biological questions about the selection pressures responsible for evolutionary tuning of these parameters. Here we are address these questions for the enzyme adenylate kinase (Adk) in eukaryotic yeast cells. A plasmid shuffling system was developed to allow quantification of relative fitness (calculated from growth rates) of yeast in response to perturbations of Adk activity introduced through mutations. Biophysical characterization verified that all variants studied were properly folded and that the mutations did not cause any substantial differences to thermal stability. We found that cytosolic Adk is essential for yeast viability in our strain background and that viability could not be restored with a catalytically dead, although properly folded Adk variant. There exist a massive overcapacity of Adk catalytic activity and only 12% of the wild type kcat is required for optimal growth at the stress condition 20°C. In summary, the approach developed here has provided new insights into the evolutionary tuning of kcat for Adk in a eukaryotic organism. The developed methodology may also become useful for uncovering new aspects of active site dynamics and also in enzyme design since a large library of enzyme variants can be screened rapidly by identifying viable colonies

High prevalence of posterior polymorphous corneal dystrophy in the Czech Republic; linkage disequilibrium mapping and dating an ancestral mutation.

Posterior polymorphous corneal dystrophy (PPCD) is a rare autosomal dominant genetically heterogeneous disorder. Nineteen Czech PPCD pedigrees with 113 affected family members were identified, and 17 of these kindreds were genotyped for markers on chromosome 20p12.1- 20q12. Comparison of haplotypes in 81 affected members, 20 unaffected first degree relatives and 13 spouses, as well as 55 unrelated controls, supported the hypothesis of a shared ancestor in 12 families originating from one geographic location. In 38 affected individuals from nine of these pedigrees, a common haplotype was observed between D20S48 and D20S107 spanning approximately 23 Mb, demonstrating segregation of disease with the PPCD1 locus. This haplotype was not detected in 110 ethnically matched control chromosomes. Within the common founder haplotype, a core mini-haplotype was detected for D20S605, D20S182 and M189K2 in all 67 affected members from families 1-12, however alleles representing the core mini-haplotype were also detected in population matched controls. The most likely location of the responsible gene within the disease interval, and estimated mutational age, were inferred by linkage disequilibrium mapping (DMLE+2.3). The appearance of a disease-causing mutation was dated between 64-133 generations. The inferred ancestral locus carrying a PPCD1 disease-causing variant within the disease interval spans 60 Kb on 20p11.23, which contains a single known protein coding gene, ZNF133. However, direct sequence analysis of coding and untranslated exons did not reveal a potential pathogenic mutation. Microdeletion or duplication was also excluded by comparative genomic hybridization using a dense chromosome 20 specific array. Geographical origin, haplotype and statistical analysis suggest that in 14 unrelated families an as yet undiscovered mutation on 20p11.23 was inherited from a common ancestor. Prevalence of PPCD in the Czech Republic appears to be the highest worldwide and our data suggests that at least one other novel locus for PPCD also exists

A study on the functions of ubiquitin metabolic system related gene FBG2 in gastric cancer cell line

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>FBG2 (F-BOX6) gene is an important member in ubiquitin metabolic system F-BOX family, and forms E3 complex with the other members in the family. But its role in gastric cancer is still not clear. In the present study, we intended to investigate the influence of FBG2 on the growth, proliferation, apoptosis, invasion and cell cycle of the gastric cancer line MKN45 and gastric cell line HFE145.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>As a critical component of ubiquitin-protein ligase complex, FBG2 cDNA was subcloned into a constitutive vector PCDNA3.1 followed by transfection in MKN45 and HFE145 by using liposome. Then stable transfectants were selected and appraised. The apoptosis and cell cycles of these clones were analyzed by using flow cytometry. The growth and proliferation were analyzed by cell growth curves and colony-forming assay respectively. The invasion of these clones was tested by using cancer cell migration assay. The FBG2 stable expression clones(MKN-FBG2 and HFE-FBG2) and their control groups were detected and compared respectively.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>MKN-FBG2 grew faster than MKN45 and MKN-PC(MKN45 transfected with PCDNA3.1 vector). HFE-FBG2 grew faster than HFE145 and HFE-PC(HFE145 transfected with PCDNA3.1 vector). The cell counts of MKN-FBG2 in the forth, fifth, sixth and seventh days were significantly more than those of others (P < 0.05). Cell cycle analysis showed that MKN-FBG2 and HFE-FBG2 proliferated faster, proportions of cells in G2-M and S were different significantly with control groups (P < 0.05). Results of colony-forming assay showed that the colony formation rates of MKN-FBG2 and HFE-FBG2 were higher than those of control groups (P < 0.05). The results of cell migration assay were all negative.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>FBG2 can promote the growth and proliferation of gastric cancer cells and normal gastric cells. It can help tumor cell maintain malignant phenotype too. But it can have a negative influence on the apoptosis or the ability of invasion of gastric cancer cells.</p