Climate Change and the Use of the Dispute Settlement Regime of the Law of the Sea Convention

This article explores the connection between obligations to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions under the climate change regime and obligations to protect the marine environment under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Within the context of the state of the science on the links between climate change and the marine environment, the article considers whether the emission of greenhouse gases as a result of human activity constitutes a violation of various obligations under the UNCLOS. Having identified a number of possible violations, the article proceeds to consider the application of the binding dispute settlement process under the UNCLOS and the possibility of a successful claim.     

我国医患纠纷处理的几种尝试及思考

现阶段我国的医患纠纷日益增多,医患矛盾尖锐。寻求合理的医患纠纷处理方式具有重要现实意义。对于医患纠纷的处理,世界各国均有较多尝试,美国、德国、日本、中国台湾地区等也出现了诸多处理方式。通过对这些处理方式的比较与分析,旨在吸取经验,为改善医患关系,提高医疗服务质量抛砖引玉。     

不同国家医患纠纷处理方式研究

现阶段我国的医患纠纷日益增多,医患矛盾尖锐。寻求合理的医患纠纷处理方式具有重要现实意义。对于医患纠纷的处理,世界各国均有较多尝试。美国、德国、日本、中国台湾地区等也出现了诸多处理方式。通过对这些处理方式的比较与分析,旨在吸取经验,为改善医患关系,提高医疗服务质量抛砖引玉。     

A Note on the M/V “Louisa” Case

In the M/V “Louisa” case of 28 May 2013, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea held that it had no jurisdiction, even though it had established prima facie jurisdiction at the provisional measures stage. The M/V “Louisa” case thus gives rise to questions regarding the relationship between prima facie jurisdiction and jurisdiction on the merits. Moreover, the M/V “Louisa” Judgment also sheds some light on the applicability of the doctrine of abuse of rights provided in Article 300 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.     

The complex barnacle perfume: identification of waterborne pheromone homologues in Balanus improvisus and their differential expression during settlement

A key question in barnacle biology is the nature of cues that induce gregarious settlement. One of the characterised cues is the waterborne settlement pheromone (WSP). This study aimed to identify WSP homologues in Balanus improvisus and to investigate their expression during settlement. Six WSP homologues were identified, all containing an N-terminal signal peptide, a conserved core region, and a variable C-terminus comprising several -GR- and -HDDH- motifs. The B. improvisus WSP homologues were expressed in all settlement stages but showed different expression patterns. The homologue most similar to the B. amphitrite WSP was the most abundant and was constantly expressed during settlement. In contrast, several of the other WSP homologues showed the greatest expression in the juvenile stage. The presence of several WSP homologues suggests the existence of a pheromone mix, where con-specificity might be determined by a combination of sequence characteristics and the concentration of the individual components.     

医疗投诉预警指数的建立及应用

应用环境质量指数的方法和原理,对国内5 385起医疗投诉进行分析。发现医疗投诉事件发生的主要原因为：医疗服务不到位（X₁）、医护人员态度不佳（X₂）、医院行政管理不善（X₃）、社会导向等因素不良而致的病人心理取向及药品质量等原因（X₄）。进一步推导出医疗投诉的预警指数：Ai=0.40X₁+0.32X₂+0.16X₃+0.12X₄ ,并提出了使用该指数的方法。应用此指数对某医院的医疗投诉进行评价,表明该院医疗投诉预警指数为1.25,属警报水平（Ⅲ级）,同时也指出了该院医疗投诉的重点检查对象和治理的重点。应用此指数不仅可以对医疗投诉事件进行前瞻性的预测,确定重点的管理对象,而且可以找出主要的隐患和管理重点,为宏观管理确定依据。     

Unconditional Non-Asymptotic One-Sided Tests for Independent Binomial Proportions When the Interest Lies in Showing Non-Inferiority and/or Superiority

For two independent binomial proportions Barnard (1947) has introduced a method to construct a non-asymptotic unconditional test by maximisation of the probabilities over the ‘classical’ null hypothesis H₀= {(θ₁, θ₂) ∈ [0, 1]²: θ₁ = θ₂}. It is shown that this method is also useful when studying test problems for different null hypotheses such as, for example, shifted null hypotheses of the form H₀ = {(θ₁, θ₂) ∈ [0, 1]²: θ₂ ≤ θ₁ ± Δ } for non-inferiority and 1-sided superiority problems (including the classical null hypothesis with a 1-sided alternative hypothesis). We will derive some results for the more general ‘shifted’ null hypotheses of the form H₀ = {(θ₁, θ₂) ∈ [0, 1]²: θ₂ ≤ g(θ₁ )} where g is a non decreasing curvilinear function of θ₁. Two examples for such null hypotheses in the regulatory setting are given. It is shown that the usual asymptotic approximations by the normal distribution may be quite unreliable. Non-asymptotic unconditional tests (and the corresponding p-values) may, therefore, be an alternative, particularly because the effort to compute non-asymptotic unconditional p-values for such more complex situations does not increase as compared to the classical situation. For ‘classical’ null hypotheses it is known that the number of possible p-values derived by the unconditional method is very large, albeit finite, and the same is true for the null hypotheses studied in this paper. In most of the situations investigated it becomes obvious that Barnard's CSM test (1947) when adapted to the respective null space is again a very powerful test. A theorem is provided which in addition to allowing fast algorithms to compute unconditional non-asymptotical p-values fills a methodological gap in the calculation of exact unconditional p-values as it is implemented, for example, in Stat Xact 3 for Windows (1995).