Harmonisation in the rules governing the recognition of foreign judicial ship sales

Ships, the high-value asset used in both seagoing and inland navigation, and in which various legal and natural persons have interests, must be secured against legal risks arising from any cross-border legal divergence. Legal certainty of ownership of the ship is therefore desirable but it is under challenge with regard to the judicial sale of a ship: the effects of a judicial sale may be denied in a jurisdiction other than the place where it was sold under the principles of state jurisdiction. Multiple efforts have been made to address legal uncertainty. Particularly important is a new treaty governing the international effects of judicial sales: the United Nations Convention on the International Effects of Judicial Sales of Ships (Beijing Convention). This dissertation is intended to contribute to that process by setting out two tasks; first, it seeks to identify the obstacles to the recognition of foreign judicial sales, providing additional knowledge which may aid national legal orders when deciding recognition approaches; second, it looks for a universal solution that better guarantees recognition which would benefit shipping. A comparative legal research exercise exploring similarities and dissimilarities in the municipal and international laws governing the recognition and sale procedures is undertaken. Research results are presented in this kappa and research papers, exhibiting the profuse difficulties a party seeking recognition may encounter in the current legal framework, and explains the new recognition approach under the Beijing Convention. Based on the research findings, a universal solution is proposed that avoids révision au fond, defines the finality of a judicial sale, and sets forth a fixed number of grounds for denial of recognition which may bring greater certainty. This purported optimal solution should guarantee equal treatment for all foreign sales seeking recognition before the registry while minimising the registrar’s burden of finding and examining foreign laws. In the interest of universality, this solution better accommodates disagreeing principles underlying certain aspects of the sale, viz., the ship’s location at the time of sale, the notification of sale, and the variance in the standard sale, namely, court-approved private sales, in a manner that more states may accept. This solution is largely in line with the recognition approach under the Beijing Convention. Considering the greater legal certainty the new instrument may bring, ratification is supported

Efficacy and Safety of Transglutaminase-Induced Corneal Stiffening in Rabbits

Purpose: To evaluate the biomechanical efficacy and safety of in vivo microbial transglutaminase (Tgases)-induced corneal crosslinking in a rabbit model. Methods: A total of 34 white New Zealand rabbits were divided into two groups, a biochemistry group and a photochemistry group. The right eye of every rabbit was treated and left eyes served as negative controls. In the biochemistry group, a 1 U/mL solution of crosslinking agent microbial Tgases (Tgases CXL) was applied to the corneal surface, while in the photochemistry group, clinical ultraviolet A-riboflavin crosslinking (UVA/RF CXL) was used. Efficacy and safety evaluated on the 14th day after the procedures. Twelve pairs of corneal strips were harvested from the eyes of 12 euthanized rabbits in every group, and uniaxial tensile tests were performed to evaluate ex vivo biomechanical effects. The CXL-treated eye to its corresponding untreated eye ratio of tangent modulus were calculated. Another five pairs of corneal button were excised from euthanized animals in every group for corneal stroma and endothelium staining to evaluate changes in keratocyte distribution and endothelial cell damage. Results: In tensile tests, tangent modulus was statistically higher in the Tgases CXL groups under 1.0 MPa (26.59 +/- 4.54 vs. 21.47 +/- 4.72 MPa, P = 0.04) and 1.5 MPa (29.75 +/- 5.01 vs. 20.47 +/- 6.63 MPa, P = 0.00). The tangent modulus ratio of Tgases group (1.72 +/- 1.0 vs. 1.05 +/- 0.22, P = 0.04) was significantly higher than that of UVA/RF under 1.5-MPa stress. The distribution of keratocytes in the corneal stroma and the morphologies of endothelial cells were similar in Tgases CXL-treated and untreated corneas. However, in the UVA/RF CXL group, keratocytes in the anterior half of stromal thickness were lost, and clear endothelial cell apoptosis was observed. Conclusions: Tgases-CXL effectively stiffened the cornea and caused no damage to the endotheliumand keratocytes in the cornea. This crosslinking method could be useful as a next-generation treatment for corneal ectasia and could replace CXL of photochemistry

An Experiment Monitoring Signals of Coal Bed Simulation under Forced Vibration Conditions

An experiment simulating coal seam under forced vibration conditions was conducted. Acceleration response and microseism signal during the experiment were collected and analyzed. It is found that, with an increasing amount of vibration, the natural frequency of the specimen decreases, and this phenomenon reflects fractures appearing in the specimen. Acceleration response signals show that peaks in shock excitation frequency and shock excitation acceleration affect the acceleration response, which reflects damage to the specimen. When shock excitation frequency nears natural frequency, the acceleration response first decreases and then increases. When resonance occurs, it reaches its maximum value. As shock excitation acceleration peaks increase, the acceleration response peak of the specimen also increases. We conclude that destruction is mainly concentrated in the coal seam evidenced by specimen destruction situation. Then shock excitation frequency and shock excitation acceleration influence on microseism signals were analyzed by Hilbert-Huang transform. By receiving these signals and analyzing their characteristics, it is beneficial to develop new methods to predict disasters underground dynamically in the future

characteristicsofcrackpatternscontrollingtheretainedstrengthofceramicsafterthermalshock

The physical mechanisms that determine the retained strength of ceramics after thermal shock are studied by measuring experimentally and statistically the density and depth of cracks produced in the interior of the ceramics. The analysis indicates that the key factor controlling the retained strength is the maximum depth of cracks rather than the density of cracks in the ceramics. The result presented here forms a basis to further understand the thermal shock behavior of ceramic

Osmotic Pressure and Its Biological Implications

Gaining insight into osmotic pressure and its biological implications is pivotal for revealing mechanisms underlying numerous fundamental biological processes across scales and will contribute to the biomedical and pharmaceutical fields. This review aims to provide an overview of the current understanding, focusing on two central issues: (i) how to determine theoretically osmotic pressure and (ii) how osmotic pressure affects important biological activities. More specifically, we discuss the representative theoretical equations and models for different solutions, emphasizing their applicability and limitations, and summarize the effect of osmotic pressure on lipid phase separation, cell division, and differentiation, focusing on the mechanisms underlying the osmotic pressure dependence of these biological processes. We highlight that new theory of osmotic pressure applicable for all experimentally feasible temperatures and solute concentrations needs to be developed, and further studies regarding the role of osmotic pressure in other biological processes should also be carried out to improve our comprehensive and in-depth understanding. Moreover, we point out the importance and challenges of developing techniques for the in vivo measurement of osmotic pressure

Characterization of Ceramic Thermal Shock Cracks Based on the Multifractal Spectrum

Ceramics are commonly used as high-temperature structural materials which are easy to fracture because of the propagation of thermal shock cracks. Characterizing and controlling crack propagation are significant for the improvement of the thermal shock resistance of ceramics. However, observing crack morphology, based on macro and SEM images, costs much time and potentially includes subjective factors. In addition, complex cracks cannot be counted and will be simplified or omitted. Fractals are suitable to describe complex and inhomogeneous structures, and the multifractal spectrum describes this complexity and heterogeneity in more detail. This paper proposes a crack characterization method based on the multifractal spectrum. After thermal shocks, the multifractal spectrum of alumina ceramics was obtained, and the crack fractal features were extracted. Then, a deep learning method was employed to extract features and automatically classify ceramic crack materials with different strengths, with a recognition accuracy of 87.5%