MODERN APPROACH TOWARDS “STANDARD FORM” CONTRACTS: A LEGAL PERSPECTIVE

In “Standard Form” contracts, one party drafts the terms and conditions and the other party is invited to accept it or leave it. Only option for the invited party is either adhere to all the terms and conditions or leave it altogether. Standard forms are commonly used in the contemporary complex world of mass corporations, mass production of goods and services among others. The use of standard terms and condition is not only limited to contracts in commercial transactions but also in contracts with public authorities, multinational organizations and giant corporations, banking, insurance and transportations etc. These contracts are termed and named differently in different jurisdictions. Sometimes it is referred to as standard-form contract or boilerplate agreements. The Standard Form contracts s are used abundantly in every field. Examples include insurance contacts, employment contracts, banking contracts, transportation, online websites and software among others. This study aim to discuss the origin and historical evolution of the standard form contracts including its characteristics and features. This study will also provide a comparison between the standard contracts and the conventional contractual Paradigm. Additionally, the principle of freedom of contract and initial judicial response to the contracts of adhesion has also been discussed in this study. Finally, the application of strict contract theory and modern approach towards standard form contracts, doctrine of Unconscionability has been discussed from legal prospective. This study will help to understand the rights of weaker parties and to protect them in any unjust situation arises from any such contract

Can Autism be Catered with Artificial Intelligence-Assisted Intervention Technology? A Literature Review

This article presents an extensive literature review of technology based intervention methodologies for individuals facing Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Reviewed methodologies include: contemporary Computer Aided Systems (CAS), Computer Vision Assisted Technologies (CVAT) and Virtual Reality (VR) or Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Assisted interventions. The research over the past decade has provided enough demonstrations that individuals with ASD have a strong interest in technology based interventions, which are useful in both, clinical settings as well as at home and classrooms. Despite showing great promise, research in developing an advanced technology based intervention that is clinically quantitative for ASD is minimal. Moreover, the clinicians are generally not convinced about the potential of the technology based interventions due to non-empirical nature of published results. A major reason behind this lack of acceptability is that a vast majority of studies on distinct intervention methodologies do not follow any specific standard or research design. We conclude from our findings that there remains a gap between the research community of computer science, psychology and neuroscience to develop an AI assisted intervention technology for individuals suffering from ASD. Following the development of a standardized AI based intervention technology, a database needs to be developed, to devise effective AI algorithms

The behaviour of advanced quenched and tempered steels during arc welding and thermal cutting

Quenched & tempered (Q&T) wear-resistant plate steels with martensitic microstructures have been in use for many years in the mining, defence, and construction industry due to their excellent mechanical properties (up to 1700 MPa of tensile strength and \u3e10% elongation to failure). These mechanical properties are achieved by utilisation of up to 0.4 wt.% Carbon (C), \u3c1.5 wt.% Manganese (Mn), microalloying with Molybdenum (Mo), Chromium (Cr), Nickle (Ni), Titanium (Ti), and sometimes Boron (B), and a combination of carefully designed thermomechanical processing schedule and post rolling heat treatment. In the last 10 years addition of \u3c1.5 % Ti was shown to provide superior wear resistance at a moderate C content. Improvement in the wear resistance was achieved via the formation of TiC hard particles embedded in the tempered martensite matrix. Moderation of the C content in Ti-alloyed steels allowed to obtain steels with relatively low hardness, high toughness, and enhanced weldability (due to the low carbon equivalent of the steel composition). A combination of moderate hardness and high toughness positively influenced the wear resistance. Fabrication of tools and equipment from the Q&T steels is carried out using conventional fusion arc welding and thermal cutting with oxy-fuel or plasma jet. The main problem, in this case, is the formation of an edge microstructure highly susceptible to cold cracking or hydrogen-induced cracking (HIC), which results in deterioration of mechanical properties, making steel unsuitable for the required application. In the case of Ti-alloyed steels, the heat input associated with thermal cutting and welding alters the TiC particle size distribution, in addition to the tempering of the martensitic microstructure, occurring in conventional Q&T steels. However, fabrication parameters may be controlled to avoid catastrophic microstructure deterioration and product failure. Generally, a type of welding process, environment, alloy composition, joint geometry, and size are the main causes of cracking after cutting and welding. Cracking susceptibility increases as the weld metal hydrogen content, material strength, and thickness increase. Cold cracking will occur if three conditions are satisfied: susceptible microstructure; type and magnitude of residual stresses; and importantly, the level of diffusible hydrogen that enters the weld pool. Cold cracking can be avoided through the selection of controlled heat input (depends upon current, voltage, and travel speed of welding) and preheating temperature

Polymer Resonant Waveguide Gratings

This chapter deals with the advances in polymeric waveguide gratings for filtering and integrated optics applications. Optical polymer materials are widely used for planar and corrugated micro-optical waveguide grating structures ranging from down a micrometer to several hundred micrometers. Light in a polymeric waveguide is transmitted in discrete modes whose propagation orders depend on incident wavelength, waveguide dimensional parameters, and material properties. Diffracted optical structures are permittivity-modulated microstructures whose micro-relief surface profiles exhibit global/local periodicity. The resonant nature and location of such globally periodic structures (diffraction gratings) excite leaky waveguide modes which couple incident light into reflected/transmitted plane wave diffraction orders. It describes design & analysis, fabrication, and characterization of sub-wavelength polymer grating structures replicated in different polymeric materials (polycarbonate, cyclic olefin copolymer, Ormocomp) by a simple, cost-effective, accurate, and large scale production method. The master stamp (mold) for polymer replication is fabricated with an etchless process with smooth surface profile

Agency Problems, Product Market Competition and Dividend Policies in Pakistan

The present study investigates the influence of product market competition on the dividend policies of the listed companies at KSE 100 index in Pakistan. It identify whether product market competition mitigates agency problems between controlling shareholders and minority shareholders. In particular, we examine firm dividend policies in competitive market, the study use three statistical measures for the analysis of 30 textile firms. The result shows that the product market competition have no significant impact on dividend policies of Pakistan. This study recommends that the product market competition can be an effective tool that can force the managers to give cash to shareholders. Keywords: Agency Problem, Dividend Policy, Corporate Governance, Product Market Competition, Textile Industr

Preservation of Privacy of Big Data Using Efficient Anonymization Technique

Big data needs to be retained private because of the increase in the amount of data. Data is generated from social networks, organizations and various other ways, which is known as big data. Big data requires large storage as well as high computational power. At every stage, the data needs to be protected. Privacy preservation plays an important role in keeping sensitive information protected and private from any attack. Data anonymization is one of the techniques to anonymize data to keep it private and protected, which includes suppression, generalization, and bucketization. It keeps personal and private data anonymous from being known by others. But when it is implemented on big data, these techniques cause a great loss of information and also fail in defense of the privacy of big data. Moreover, for the scenario of big data, the anonymization should not only focus on hiding but also on other aspects. This paper aims to provide a technique that uses slicing, suppression, and functional encryption together to achieve better privacy of big data with data anonymization