Suborbital flights: selected legal issues

We will soon be confronted with regular operation of suborbital vehicles. These vehicles constitute a technological novelty for which there is not yet a specific legal framework. Taking into consideration the ambiguity which exits in international law, suborbital flights have fostered lengthy debates over defining the appropriate legal regime to govern the various legal aspects of these flights. Traffic management and environmental protection issues of suborbital flight are among the areas which need to be regulated. The present research tries to give an overview of the legal issues associated with the regulation of suborbital flights and to advance the discussion in the light of possible regulatory scenarios on the environmental and traffic management aspects of these flights. The present study suggests that further clarification and development of the existing legal frameworks for aviation and space activities, careful study of the different aspects of suborbital flights and the foreseeable impacts they might have on different areas including environment and traffic management concerns, as well as possible inclusion of such flights under ICAO's regulatory system are among the considerations which need to be taken into account in relation to regulating suborbital flights.Nous serons bientôt confrontés à trafic régulier de véhicules suborbitaux. Ces véhicules constituent une nouveauté technologique pour laquelle il n'existe pas encore de cadre juridique particulier. Tenant compte de ce vide juridique en droit international, les vols suborbitaux ont suscité de longs débats portant sur la nature du régime juridique requis pour régir les différents aspects juridiques de ces vols. La gestion du trafic des vols suborbitaux ainsi quel a protection de l'environnement comptent parmi les secteurs ayant besoin de réglementation. La présente recherche a pour objectif de fournir un survol des questions juridiques liées à la réglementation des vols suborbitaux et de faire avancer les discussions sur les scénari de réglementation par rapport aux aspects environnementaux et de circulation de ces vols. La présente étude propose la clarification et le développent des cadres juridiques existantes en matière d'aviation et activités spatiales. De plus, elle aborde soigneusement les différents aspects des vols suborbitaux et leurs impacts éventuels sur divers secours, dont l'environnement, et la gestion du trafic. Par ailleurs, l'adoption éventuelle des vols suborbitaux sous le système de réglementation l'OACI représente quelques'un des éléments qui nécessitent une réflexion relative a la réglementation de ces vols suborbitaux

Measuring the relative efficiency of insurance industry: Evidence from Tehran Stock Exchange

Measuring the relative efficiency in insurance industry plays essential role for productivity improvement in insurance industry. In this paper, we present an empirical investigation to measure the relative efficiency of some insurance firms listed on Tehran Stock Exchange using data envelopment analysis (DEA) over the period 2011-2013. The proposed study of this paper uses four inputs namely; total assets, price to earnings ratio, beta and sigma and four outputs namely; net earnings, one-year, two-year and three-year returns. The study uses two methods of input and output oriented DEA to measures the relative efficiencies of 9 banks and the results indicate that most insurance firms perform well in terms of efficiency

Blockade of HIF-1α and STAT3 by hyaluronate-conjugated TAT- chitosan-SPION nanoparticles loaded with siRNA molecules prevents tumor growth

HIF-1α and STAT3 are two of the critical factors in the growth, proliferation, and metastasis of cancer cells and play a crucial role in inhibiting anti-cancer immune responses. Therefore, we used superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPION) nanoparticles (NPs) coated with thiolated chitosan (ChT) and trimethyl chitosan (TMC) and functionalized with hyaluronate (H) and TAT peptide for delivery of siRNA molecules against STAT3 and HIF-1α to cancer cells both in vivo and in vitro. The results indicated that tumor cell transfection with siRNAencapsulated NPs robustly inhibited proliferation and migration and induced apoptosis in tumor cells. Furthermore, simultaneous silencing of HIF-1α and STAT3 significantly repressed cancer development in two different tumor types (4T1 breast cancer and CT26 colon cancer) which were associated with upregulation of cytotoxic T lymphocytes and IFN-γ secretion. The findings suggest inhibiting the HIF-1α/ STAT3 axis by SPION-TMC-ChT-TAT-H NPs as an effective way to treat cancer