The history of the rectilinear diameter law

The formulation of the so-called law of rectilinear diameter for the determination of the critical volume of substances in the concluding decades of the nineteenth century became in a very useful and acceptably exact alternative tool for researchers in the field of critical phenomena. Its corresponding original expression, and even those of its early few modifications, were so mathematically simple that their use did not limit to exclusively contribute to remove the by then experimental obstacle for the estimating of this critical parameter, but also extended along several decades in the increasing applications of the principle of corresponding states.

The impact of the law 10,267/2001 in the brazilian rural registration

The publication of the Law 10,267 of 08/28/2001 changed the paradigm of rural registration in Brazil, because this law known as the "Law of Georeferencing" has created the National Registration of Rural Property, that unifies in a common basis different registrations present in several government agencies, such as the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA), the Secretariat of Federal Revenue, the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Natural Resources, and the National Indian Foundation. Also, this new registration system has a graphical component which has not existed until such date, where the boundaries of rural property are georeferenced to the Brazilian Geodetic System. This new paradigm has resulted in a standardization of the survey and its representation of rural properties according to the Technical Standard for Georeferencing of Rural Properties, published by INCRA in compliance with the new legislation. Due to the georeferencing, the creation of a public GIS of free access on the Internet was possible. Among the difficulties found it may be observed the great Brazilian territory, the need for specialized professionals, and especially the certification process that INCRA has to perform for each georeferenced property. It is hoped that this last difficulty is solved with the implementation of the Land Management System that will allow automated and online certification, making the process more transparent, agile and fast.

Restoration and succession of a bee community in southern St. Catharines, Ontario, within a ten-year study period

A wild bee community in southern St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, was studied from 2003 to 2012 to analyze the effects of primary succession on abundance and diversity. At a former landfill site near Brock University, which previously contained no bees, the number of bees and bee species was expected to increase rapidly following measures to restore the site to grassy meadow habitat. The Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis (IDH) states that over time, succession occurs. Abundance and diversity increase initially and peak when pioneers coexist with specialized species, then decline because of competitive exclusion. Alternatively, abundance and diversity may continue to increase and stabilize without declining. Bees were sampled repeatedly among years from newer restoration sites (revegetated in 2003), older restoration sites on the periphery of the former landfill (revegetated in 2000), and nearby low disturbance grassy field (i.e. control) sites. In the newer sites, bee abundance and diversity increased then decreased while in older restoration and control sites mainly decreased. This pattern of succession matches the general predictions of the IDH, although declines were at least partially related to drought. By 2006, total bee abundance levels converged among all sites, indicating rapid colonization and succession, and by 2012 diversity levels were similar among sites as well, suggesting that the bee community was fully restored or nearly so within the ten-year study period.

International Law as a Source of Constitutional Law

This article has the purpose to prove that the Customary International Law and the Conventional International Law are sources of Constitutional Law. First, it analyses the matter of the relations between International Law and National or Domestic law according with the theories dualism and monist and international decisions. Then, it studies the reception and the hierarchy of International Customary and Conventional Law to Domestic Law including Constitution. This matter has been studied according with several Constitutions and the international doctrine. Then, it considers the constitutional regulations about international law in the Constitution of the Republic of Colombia. The general conclusion is that International Law is incorporated in domestic law according with the Constitution of each country. But every state has the duty to carry out in good faith its obligations arising from treaties and other sources of International Law, and it may not invoke provisions in its Constitutions or its Laws as an excuse for failure to perform this duty. Accordingly, state practice and decided cases have established this provision, and the same rule is established in articles 27 and 46 of the Vienna Convention on Law of Treaties of 1969.

The vulnerable subject of negligence law

The approach taken by English courts to the duty of care question in negligence has been subject to harsh criticism in recent years. This article examines this fundamental issue in tort law, drawing upon Canadian and Australian jurisprudence by way of comparison. From this analysis, the concept of vulnerability is developed as a productive means of understanding the duty of care. Vulnerability is of increasing interest in legal and political theory and it is of particular relevance to the law of negligence. In addition to aiding doctrinal coherence, vulnerability – with its focus on relationships and care – has the potential to broaden the way in which the subject of tort law is conceived because it challenges dominant assumptions about autonomy as being prior to the relationships on which it is dependent.

The international law implications of the Turkish/Kurdish conflict

This article considers the threaties and customs governing armed conflict in the context of the long standing insurgency in southeast Turkey. The first part of the article analyzes the existing treaty and customary law concerning the threshold of an armed conflict and concludes that the insurgency in Southeast Turkey existing since 1984 rises to the level of an armed conflict based on criteria identified both in treaty and customary international law. The next consideration is the classification of this conflict and this part concludes that this situation is a non-international armed conflict due to lack of involvement of forces of another country. Finally, this article considers international humanitarian law applicable to this non-international armed conflict and reveals that as a result of the monumental International Committee of the Red Cross customary humanitarian law study, particularly with respect to the law of targeting, that the rules applicable to international and non-international armed conflict have never been closer.

Humanitarian law, human rights law and the bifurcation of armed conflict

This article offers a fresh examination of the distinction drawn in international humanitarian law (IHL) between international and non-international armed conflicts. In particular, it considers this issue from the under-explored perspective of the influence of international human rights law (IHRL). It is demonstrated how, over time, the effect of IHRL on this distinction in IHL has changed dramatically. Whereas traditionally IHRL encouraged the partial elimination of the distinction between types of armed conflict, more recently it has been invoked in debates in a manner that would preserve what remains of the distinction. By exploring this important issue, it is hoped that the present article will contribute to the ongoing debates regarding the future development of the law of non-international armed conflict.

A simple graphical model of small mammal succession after fire in the Brazilian cerrado

We studied the succession of small mammal species after fire in the cerrado (Neotropical savanna) of Central Brazil. Populations of small mammals were sampled with live-trapping techniques in a series of nine sites of different successional age, ranging from 1 to 26 years after fire. Ten species of small mammals were captured through all the seral stages of succession. Species richness ranged from two to seven species by seral stage. The species were arranged in different groups with respect to abundance along the succession: the first was composed of early successional species that peaked <2 years after fire (Calomys callosus, C. tener, Thalpomys cerradensis, Mus musculus, Thylamys velutinus); the second occurred or peaked 2-3 years after fire (Necromys lasiurus, Gracilinanus sp., Oryzomys scoth). Gracilinanus agilis peaked in the last seral stage. Species richness of small mammals showed an abrupt decrease from an average of four species immediately after fire to two species 5-26 years after the last fire. We propose a simple graphical model to explain the pattern of species richness of small mammals after fire in the cerrado. This model assumes that the occurrence of species of small mammals is determined by habitat selection behavior by each species along a habitat gradient. The habitat gradient is defined as the ratio of cover of herbaceous to woody vegetation. The replacement of species results from a trade-off in habitat requirements for the two habitat variables.

Relativistic Archimedes law for fast moving bodies and the general-relativistic resolution of the submarine paradox

We investigate and solve in the context of general relativity the apparent paradox which appears when bodies floating in a background fluid are set in relativistic motion. Suppose some macroscopic body, say, a submarine designed to lie just in equilibrium when it rests (totally) immersed in a certain background fluid. The puzzle arises when different observers are asked to describe what is expected to happen when the submarine is given some high velocity parallel to the direction of the fluid surface. on the one hand, according to observers at rest with the fluid, the submarine would contract and, thus, sink as a consequence of the density increase. on the other hand, mariners at rest with the submarine using an analogous reasoning for the fluid elements would reach the opposite conclusion. The general relativistic extension of the Archimedes law for moving bodies shows that the submarine sinks. As an extra bonus, this problem suggests a new gedankenexperiment for the generalized second law of thermodynamics.

The impact of the law 10,267/2001 in the brazilian rural registration

The publication of the Law 10,267 of 08/28/2001 changed the paradigm of rural registration in Brazil, because this law known as the Law of Georeferencing has created the National Registration of Rural Property, that unifies in a common basis different registrations present in several government agencies, such as the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA), the Secretariat of Federal Revenue, the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Natural Resources, and the National Indian Foundation. Also, this new registration system has a graphical component which has not existed until such date, where the boundaries of rural property are georeferenced to the Brazilian Geodetic System. This new paradigm has resulted in a standardization of the survey and its representation of rural properties according to the Technical Standard for Georeferencing of Rural Properties, published by INCRA in compliance with the new legislation. Due to the georeferencing, the creation of a public GIS of free access on the Internet was possible. Among the difficulties found it may be observed the great Brazilian territory, the need for specialized professionals, and especially the certification process that INCRA has to perform for each georeferenced property. It is hoped that this last difficulty is solved with the implementation of the Land Management System that will allow automated and online certification, making the process more transparent, agile and fast.

Some Law and Economics of Historic Shipwrecks

This paper examines how US and proposed international law relate to the recovery of archaeological data from historic shipwrecks. It argues that US federal admiralty law of salvage gives far less protection to historic submerged sites than do US laws protecting archaeological sites on US federal and Indian lands. The paper offers a simple model in which the net present value of the salvage and archaeological investigation of an historic shipwreck is maximized. It is suggested that salvage law gives insufficient protection to archaeological data, but that UNESCO's Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage goes too far in the other direction. It is also suggested that a move towards maximizing the net present value of a wreck would be promoted if the US admiralty courts explicitly tied the size of salvage awards to the quality of the archaeology performed.

Murky Waters: The Law and Economics of Salvaging Historic Shipwrecks

The salvage of historic shipwrecks involves a debate between salvors, who wish to maximize profit, and archeologists, who wish to preserve historical value. Traditionally, salvage of shipwrecks has been governed by admiralty law, but the Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987 transferred title of historically important wrecks in U.S. waters to the state in whose waters the wreck is found, thereby abrogating admiralty law. This paper examines incentives to locate and salvage historic wrecks under traditional admiralty law and proposes an efficient reward scheme. It then re-considers current U.S. and international law in light of the results.

Saint Mathew Law and Bonini Paradox in Textual Theory of Complex Models

The mathematical models of the complex reality are texts belonging to a certain literature that is written in a semi-formal language, denominated L(MT) by the authors whose laws linguistic mathematics have been previously defined. This text possesses linguistic entropy that is the reflection of the physical entropy of the processes of real world that said text describes. Through the temperature of information defined by Mandelbrot, the authors begin a text-reality thermodynamic theory that drives to the existence of information attractors, or highly structured point, settling down a heterogeneity of the space text, the same one that of ontologic space, completing the well-known law of Saint Mathew, of the General Theory of Systems and formulated by Margalef saying: “To the one that has more he will be given, and to the one that doesn't have he will even be removed it little that it possesses.

Translations of the Ottoman constitutional laws: the Wilayet Administrative Law, the Municipal Law and various other laws

Ottoman constitutional law of the 7th Dhil Hujjah, 1293 AH [December 24, 1876 AD] as amended. -- Regulations of the Chamber of deputies. -- Regulations of the Senate. -- Provisional law of administration of wilayets of the 13th March, 1329 AH [March 26, 1913 AD] as amended. -- Municipal law of the 27th Ramadhan, 1294 AH [October 5, 1877 AD] as amended. -- Law regulating chambers of commerce and industry, dated the 31st May, 1326 AH [June 13, 1910 AD]. -- Provisional law of expropriation on behalf of municipalities dated the 21st Kanun Thani, 1329 AH [February 3, 1914 AD]. -- Regulations of expropriation for public purposes, dated the 24th Tashrin Thani, 1295 AH [December 6, 1879 AD] as amended. -- The Press law of the 16th Tamuz, 1325 AH [July 29, 1910 AD] as amended.

CONSTITUTIONAL JUSTICE IN AFRICA: An Examination of Constitutional Positivism, Fundamental Law and Rights in Ghana and Nigeria

This work explores the idea of constitutional justice in Africa with a focus on constitutional interpretation in Ghana and Nigeria. The objective is to develop a theory of constitutional interpretation based upon a conception of law that allows the existing constitutions of Ghana and Nigeria to be construed by the courts as law in a manner that best serves the collective wellbeing of the people. The project involves an examination of both legal theory and substantive constitutional law. The theoretical argument will be applied to show how a proper understanding of the ideals of the rule of law and constitutionalism in Ghana and Nigeria necessitate the conclusion that socio-economic rights in those countries are constitutionally protected and judicially enforceable. The thesis argues that this conclusion follows from a general claim that constitutions should represent a ‘fundamental law’ and must be construed as an aspirational moral ideal for the common good of the people. The argument is essentially about the inherent character of ‘legality’ or the ‘rule of law.’ It weaves together ideas developed by Lon Fuller, Ronald Dworkin, T.R.S. Allan and David Dyzenhaus, as well as the strand of common law constitutionalism associated with Sir Edward Coke, to develop a moral sense of ‘law’ that transcends the confines of positive or explicit law while remaining inherently ‘legal’ as opposed to purely moral or political. What emerges is an unwritten fundamental law of reason located between pure morality or natural law on the one hand and strict, explicit, or positive law on the other. It is argued that this fundamental law is, or should be, the basis of constitutional interpretation, especially in transitional democracies like Ghana and Nigeria, and that it grounds constitutional protection for socio-economic rights. Equipped with this theory of law, courts in developing African countries like Ghana and Nigeria will be in a better position to contribute towards developing a real sense of constitutional justice for Africa.