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Byline: Stephen Weatherill (1) Abstract: In July 2001 the European Commission published a Communication to the Council and the European Parliament, its so-called 'Green Paper' on European Contract Law (COM (2001) 398). This document seeks feedback on the options sketched by the Commission for future European Community action in the contract law field. The present note, which incorporates as an Appendix the text of the Green Paper itself, is designed to explain the background to the Commission's intervention (the first section, pp. 339--350 below), to provide a brief commentary on the content of the Green Paper (the second section, pp. 350--356) and then to assess the constitutional implications of a proposed advance towards a European Contract Law (the third section, pp. 356--371). It is argued that the debate about the creation of a European contract law is properly seen not merely as a matter of cultural feasibility and of commercial desirability, but that in addition assessment of the EC's potential contribution is heavily conditioned by increasing constitutional anxieties about the EC's legitimate role in the field of market regulation. The Green Paper avoids explicit treatment of the constitutional dimension of European contract law, yet, it is argued in this note, this is in fact unavoidable in the wake of the European Court's seminal judgment of October 2000 in the so-called 'Tobacco Advertising' case in which it for the first time invalidated a measure of harmonisation of laws on the basis that an insufficient connection with the process of market-building had been shown by the European Community's legislature. This demands that the constitutional validity of legislative proposals in the field of contract law be examined with care, for the EC, an entity created by an international Treaty, has been endowed with no general competence as lawmaker in this or any other field, even though past legislative practice may have tended to obscure this constitutionally fundamental principle. Author Affiliation: (1) European Community Law, University of Oxford, and Somerville College, Oxford, OX2 6HD Article History: Registration Date: 10/10/2004

Environmental regulations affect employment through productivity output and factor substitution. This paper employs a difference-in-differences (DID) method to investigate the effect of China's Two Control Zones (TCZ) policy on the urban employment in 287 cities from 1994 to 2009. We apply the DID method to two time points: 1998 for policy issuance and 2000 for the policy implementation. From the results of analyses on full-sample cities, the TCZ policy did not contribute to increasing total urban employment. Moreover, a negative impact on employment resulted from sulfur dioxide and acid rain controls in secondary and tertiary industries, respectively. In the acid rain control zone, the TCZ policy increased the average wage of urban workers. Negative effects on employment were observed in larger cities. The policy triggered labor migration from larger to smaller cities, resulting in significant increases in primary and tertiary industry employment in smaller cities, although the effects on mid-size cities were insignificant. This study provides important empirical evidence and insight into the impact of the TCZ policy on urban employment.

To further clarify the relationship between environmental regulation and green technology innovation and discuss how environmental regulation affects green technology innovation through import trade, this paper analyzes the impacts of environmental regulation and import trade on green technology innovation and the transmission effect of import trade based on panel data for 30 provinces in China for 2008 to 2017. The results show that (1) environmental regulation first plays a role in promoting green technology innovation and then restrains it, and import trade can significantly promote green technology innovation; (2) under the constraints of stronger environmental regulations, import trade has a significantly positive effect on green technology innovation; and (3) environmental regulation can further enhance the technology spillover effects of import trade in regions with high absorptive capacity and regions with high levels of R&D investment. This paper analyzes the impact of environmental regulation on green technology innovation from the perspective of import trade and makes up for the deficiencies of existing research. It also lays a foundation for scholars to study the relationship between environmental regulation and green technology innovation in the midst of heterogeneous government regulation capabilities and industries in the future., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

When the incentive mechanism of green finance fails to fully promote green technology innovation in industrial enterprises, local government environmental regulations become an important tool in correcting this market failure. However, due to the "follow the cost" hypothesis, the moderating effect of the local government environmental regulation is heterogeneous. In order to explore the impact mechanism of green finance development on the efficiency of green technology innovation in industrial enterprises, spatial effects as well as the heterogeneous moderating effect of local government environmental regulation, this paper systematically evaluates the development level of green finance in 30 provinces in China from 2009 to 2019. It estimates the efficiency of green technology innovation in industrial enterprises using the super-efficiency SBM model, and empirically analyzes the impact mechanism and moderating effect using the spatial Durbin model. The results show that: (1) green finance not only positively impacts the efficiency improvement of green technology innovation in industrial enterprises but also has significant spatial spillover effects; (2) local government environmental regulation has a nonlinear "inverted U-shaped" moderating effect between the green finance development and the efficiency of green technology innovation in industrial enterprises. Based on the research conclusions, this paper proposes policy recommendations from the perspectives of deepening the regional connectivity of green finance and promoting joint regulation by local governments., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

In recent years, green bonds have become an important part of the green financial system. In this paper, we investigate theoretically and empirically how green bond financing impacts corporate long-term value orientation. To study this relationship, we manually collect green bond financing data and use Python to construct a measure reflecting corporate long-term value. Using a sample of Chinese A-share bond issuing companies from 2016 to 2021, we find that (1) green bond financing can significantly promote companies to pursue long-term value, in which financing costs, management's strategic risk-taking, and external supervision are the underlying mechanisms. (2) There is a synergistic effect between green bond financing and environmental regulation, which can jointly improve the intensity of corporate long-term value orientation. (3) The relationship between green bond financing and corporate long-term value is more significant in enterprises with heavily polluting, lower risk-taking levels, less strategic change, and lower financial mismatch risk. Our findings reveal the "corrective" effect of green bond financing on management's strategic decision-making, which provides new empirical evidence for comprehensively and accurately evaluating the role of green bonds and promoting the development of the green bond market., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

In recent years, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) have been extensive concerned. However, few studies have focused on the impact of situational factors on corporate ESG practice decisions. Based on this, using 9428 observations of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2009 to 2019, this paper attempts to explore the impact of local official turnover on corporate ESG practices, and analyzes the boundary effects of this impact from three aspects: region, industry, and corporate. Our results suggest that (1) official turnover can lead to changes in economic policies and redistribution of political resources, which can stimulate companies' "risk aversion motivation" and "development motivation" and thus promote their ESG practices; (2) this effect is more significant in the high degree of government intervention, the high level of industry competition and private corporates. (3) Further test finds that only when the official turnover abnormally and the regional economic development well, official turnover can significantly contribute to corporate ESG. This paper enriches the relevant research on the decision-making scenarios of corporate ESG practices from the macro-institutional perspective., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Green merger and acquisition (GMA) is becoming a growing tendency for heavily polluting enterprises in recent years; however, the realization path of green transformation through GMA is still unexplored. Taking 48 Chinese heavily polluting enterprises that had GMA in 2018 as the research object, this paper constructs the "M&A attributes, Organizational characteristics, and External environment" (M-O-E) framework, by using the method of fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to reveal the configurations of conditions that lead to high levels of green innovation performance. The results show that the high green technology innovation performance after GMA of heavily polluting enterprises is the outcome of multiple antecedents, and no singular antecedent is sufficient for achieving it. Besides, there are three equivalent configurations of conditions to achieve green transformation: professional buyer, internal leading, and internal-external linkage. Among them, the professional buyer configuration highlights that the combination of M&A experience and M&A scale is of great importance, the internal leading configuration emphasizes that the existence of environmental awareness and organizational resources is the core conditions, and the internal-external linkage configuration requires simultaneous efforts of M&A experience and government environmental regulations. Our research contributes to the understanding of green transformation in heavily polluting enterprises from a configurational perspective, and provides a practice-oriented guide to achieve green transformation for the government and heavily polluting enterprises., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Developing a low-carbon economy is the only way for countries to achieve sustainable development. Carbon emission reduction policies and low-carbon technology (LCT) innovation play key roles in developing low-carbon economy. Under government reward and punishment regulations, based on the bilateral matching and evolutionary theories, this paper constructs an evolution model consisting of a manufacturer investing LCT and a supplier offering LCT to analyze multi-phase LCT investment strategies. Firstly, the profit optimization model of a green supply chain is constructed from the perspectives of centralized-matching (CM), decentralized-matching (DM), and mismatching (MM), and the spatial information internal evolution law of multi-phase LCT investment is described by the Markov chain. Then, a bilateral matching algorithm is proposed to solve the equilibrium solutions, and the evolution process of the three modes is analyzed by numerical simulation. Finally, based on the product green degree, we analyze the impact of subsidies and taxes on investment-production decisions. Analytical results show that the matching mechanism proposed in this paper can help supply chain firms to obtain stable matching and has a significant effect on the realization of "triple wins" of society, economy, and environment. The investment utility of CM is higher than that of DM and MM. Manufacturers are inclined to adopt LCT, and the investment level tends to be stable over time. Government reward and punishment regulations are helpful to motivate supply chain firms to invest in LCT, and the synergistic effect of subsidies and taxes is better than that of a single policy., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Resource integration of coal enterprises is conducive to reducing pollution and carbon emissions, thus alleviating environmental problems such as global warming. Government regulation has a great influence on enterprise behavior. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the strategies of government and coal enterprises in resource integration. Based on the perspective of government regulation, this paper discusses how to guide and restrict coal enterprises to conduct resource integration behavior, and whether the government supervises this behavior. First, through empirical research, government regulations of coal enterprises are given practical policy implications. Second, using evolutionary game and simulation technology, from the perspective of government regulation, we explore the complex behavioral interaction mechanism between the dominant and inferior coal enterprises, the mechanism between the government and coal enterprises, and analyze the impact of key factors on the dynamic evolution process. Finally, the sensitivity analysis of the selected parameters is discussed in details, which provides useful decision-making suggestions for the government and enterprises. In addition, this paper further analyzes the impact of different government policies on coal enterprises' green innovation strategies. Results demonstrate that (1) when the power gap between enterprises is large, the probability of dominant enterprises choosing resource integration converges to 1, while the probability of inferior enterprises converges to 0. Therefore, government regulations are invalid for inferior enterprises; (2) the combination of government regulations can help improve the efficiency of coal enterprises' strategic choices. With the increase in the intensity of government rewards and punishments, the probability of enterprise resource integration evolves from 0 to 1; (3) excessive government regulations make the choice between the government and coal companies tend to swing, because the probability of the two is between 0 and 1. Therefore, excessive government regulations cannot effectively achieve resource integration and government regulation. (4) The government subsidy strategy is less effective than the government's pollution penalty strategy in promoting the green innovation of enterprises. Our research shows that the government should choose different policy combinations and intensities to regulate resource integration according to the market power of coal enterprises, which provides theoretical reference and practical guidance for the government to regulate corporate resource integration behavior., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The present work is aimed at supplementing the authors' paper (2018). Our results on the approximation of distributions of sums of independent summands by the accompanying compound Poisson laws and the estimates of the proximity of sequential convolutions of multidimensional distributions on convex polyhedra are shown to be applicable almost automatically to the infinite-dimensional case. Bibliography: 14 titles., The aim of the present work is to provide a supplement to the authors' paper [4]. It is shown that our results on the approximation of distributions of sums of [...]

Crisis makes bold policy actions possible. In responding to socioeconomic and technological ruptures, policymakers create new imaginaries or revitalise existing ones. With the Australian Government's Job-Ready Graduates (JRG) reform during the COVID-19 pandemic as an empirical case, this paper shows how crisis instrumentalism and policy imaginaries intersect to effect swift policy changes. Drawing on a thematic analysis of key documents that constitute the JRG reform, we highlight three findings. First, the reformers used a new crisis context to repackage pre-existing policy agendas. Second, in justifying the timeliness of the reform, rather than constructing new imaginaries, the Government reactivated old neoliberal visions of society and the economy. Finally, the reform agendas are characterised by reductionist accounts of the value of university education, a nativist view of the future workforce, and the omissions of key issues: research training, social justice, and the urgency of decarbonising the economy. We close the paper by arguing that crisis makes swift reform possible to the extent that key actors can mobilise new or pre-existing policy imaginaries., Author(s): Tebeje Molla [sup.1] , Denise Cuthbert [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.1021.2, 0000 0001 0526 7079, School of Education, Deakin University, , Melbourne, Australia (2) grid.1017.7, 0000 0001 2163 3550, [...]

This paper contends that the inclusion of meso- and micro-level perspectives has been under exploration in the study of the internationalization of humanities and social sciences, in particular, in a state-mandated system where policy interventions in higher education and knowledge production have typically been aligned with state construction and national development. It argues that institutional and individual responses to state policies on the internationalization of humanities and social sciences should be investigated due to their respective roles in policymaking and implementation. It has, therefore, retrieved recent and historical policy documents during the post-WTO period and collected empirical data from two Chinese universities. A constructivist-interpretivist qualitative approach and a qualitative case study strategy were adopted for this investigation. Based on an in-depth analysis of the empirical data, this paper reveals the gap between the macro-level ambition of achieving outward-oriented diffusion of innovations and the local-level realities, as well as institutional dilemmas and conflicts in facilitating the internationalization., Author(s): Jie Zheng [sup.1] , Hantian Wu [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.22069.3f, 0000 0004 0369 6365, Faculty of Education, East China Normal University, , Shanghai, China (2) grid.13402.34, 0000 0004 [...]

In this paper, we study the system of equations of a boundary layer for a nonlinearly viscous, electrically conductive liquid described by a rheological law proposed by O. A. Ladyzhenskaya for incompressible media. The boundary-layer equations for the Ladyzhenskaya model were first obtained from Prandtl's axioms. By the Mises transform, the system of boundary-layer equations can be reduced to a single quasilinear equation. The main method used in this paper is the Crocco transform, which turns the system of boundary-layer equations into a quasilinear degenerate parabolic equation. In contrast to the Mises variables, the Crocco substitution allows one to study both stationary and nonstationary equations. Keywords and phrases: symmetric boundary layer, O. A. Ladyzhenskaya's equations, Crocco transform, electrically conductive liquid. AMS Subject Classification: 35K55, 1. Introduction. Various problems of hydrodynamics, mechanics, and physics are related to the motions electrically conductive liquids. For example, such problems appear in aviation and shipbuilding engineering and development of [...]

This paper shifts the discussion of low-carbon technology from science to the economy, especially the reactions of a manufacturer to government regulations. One major concern in this paper is uncertainty about the effects of government regulation on the manufacturing industry. On the trust side, will manufacturers trust the government's commitment to strictly supervise carbon emission reduction? Will a manufacturer that is involved in traditional industry consciously follow a low-carbon policy? On the profit side, does equilibrium between a manufacturer and a government exist on deciding which strategy to undertake to meet a profit maximization objective under carbon emission reduction? To identify the best solutions to these problems, this paper estimates the economic benefits of manufacturers associated with policy regulations in a low-carbon technology market. The problem of an interest conflict between the government and the manufacturer is formalized as a game theoretic model, and a mixed strategy Nash equilibrium is derived and analyzed. The experiment results indicate that when the punishment levied on the manufacturer or the loss to the government is sizable, the manufacturer will be prone to developing innovative technology and the government will be unlikely to supervise the manufacturer.

A quarter of a century after South Africa's transition to democracy, the rhetoric of 'transformation' remains firmly ingrained in its higher education policy and discourse. In many of the reviews, reports, proposals, and frameworks on the transformation of the South African university system, one thing stands out: an oversupply of rhetoric and a dearth of empirical data. This article is a direct response to how infrequently data has been used and seeks to reveal the actual quantum of change, albeit with a focus on an admittedly singular element on the transformation spectrum but one which nevertheless preoccupies South Africans: equity (or race). The evidence presented in the paper shows that the absence of a clear articulation of transformation, accompanied by a lack of indicators and targets to track progress over time, hinders the progression of the discourse to equally important dimensions of performance such as efficiency, success and productivity-all of which are critical in determining the university's role in national development. The paper goes on to show that based on the data available, the public university system in South Africa is transforming given the increases over time in the number of black students and staff. However, without a clearly articulated idea of what constitutes change, one cannot claim a transformed system, and the political narrative of no transformation is likely to prevail., Author(s): François B. Van Schalkwyk [sup.1] , Milandré H. van Lill [sup.1] , Nico Cloete [sup.1] , Tracy G. Bailey [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.11956.3a, 0000 0001 2214 904X, DSI-NRF [...]

The paper examines the open problems that experts of space law shall increasingly address over the next few years, according to four different sets of legal issues. Such differentiation sheds light on what is old and what is new with today's troubles of space law, e.g., the privatization of space, vis-à-vis the challenges that AI raises in this field. Some AI challenges depend on its unique features, e.g., autonomy and opacity, and how they affect pillars of the law, whether on Earth or in space missions. The paper insists on a further class of legal issues that AI systems raise, however, only in outer space. We shall never overlook the constraints of a hazardous and hostile environment, such as on a mission between Mars and the Moon. The aim of this paper is to illustrate what is still mostly unexplored or in its infancy in this kind of research, namely, the fourfold ways in which the uniqueness of AI and that of outer space impact both ethical and legal standards. Such standards shall provide for thresholds of evaluation according to which courts and legislators evaluate the pros and cons of technology. Our claim is that a new generation of sui generis standards of space law, stricter or more flexible standards for AI systems in outer space, down to the 'principle of equality' between human standards and robotic standards, will follow as a result of this twofold uniqueness of AI and of outer space., Author(s): Ugo Pagallo [sup.1], Eleonora Bassi [sup.2], Massimo Durante [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.7605.4, 0000 0001 2336 6580, Law Department, University of Turin, , Turin, Italy (2) NEXA Center for [...]

The main research question addressed in this paper is the following: What are the consequences of the purge of the communists and their sympathizers for the development of postwar Japanese society during the Allied Occupation (known as the Red Purge)? According to conventional wisdom, the Red Purge was an illegal and unfair suppression regarding the freedom of speech and a threat to the very survival of democracy in Japan. Surveying previous works on the Red Purge demonstrates that not a single work discusses any constructive aspect of the Red Purge. Criticizing this trend in the historiography, Thomas French correctly pointed out that these previous works tended to neglect or undervalue violent and aggressive behaviors of the Japanese Communist Party and its militant policy after mid-1949. This paper goes a little further, trying to find, if any, constructive aspects of the Red Purge. My hypothesis is that the Red Purge had many destructive and biased measures, but it was paradoxically a necessary evil to help establish a law-abiding Japanese society. The architects of the Red Purge, General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, the Japanese government, and corporate executives, were careful not to violate the constitution or labor laws when they executed the Red Purge. They established an important precedent that they had to act in accordance with the constitution and laws. In a paradoxical way, going through the Red Purge actually made Japan a law-abiding country in the long run. This paper tests the validity of this hypothesis., Author(s): Yoneyuki Sugita [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.468937.7, 0000 0004 0643 028X, Kobe Women's Junior College, , 4â7â2, Nakamachi, Chuoâku, Kobe, Hyogo, Japan Introduction The main research question addressed in [...]

The focus of this paper is one of James Prescott Joule's scientific contributions: the laws of heat production by electric currents in conductors. In 1841, the 22 years old Joule published a paper with the title 'On the heat evolved by metallic conductors of electricity, and in the cells of a battery during electrolysis' where he presented an experimental study of that phenomenon and proposed two laws that were allegedly supported by his trials. On closer inspection, both his laboratory work and his inferences can be challenged. The emphasis of this article is an attempt to understand Joule's experimental undertaking, its highpoints and shortcomings, by a detailed analysis of this specific episode and by studying the precedents of his work and subsequent advancements. It is possible to point out several serious deficiencies of that investigation, and Joule's contemporaries, such as Edmond Becquerel and Heinrich Lenz, did criticize some of his flaws and undertook new experiments to provide a sound basis for those laws. Besides providing a historical examination of that specific episode, this article uses this case study to tackle some features of the nature of science that may contribute to scientific education., Author(s): R. A. Martins [sup.1], A. P. B. Silva [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.411249.b, 0000 0001 0514 7202, PECMA, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, , São Paulo, SP, Brazil (2) [...]

This paper argues that there are value and design-based problems in current ambitions for the Metaverse. With the Metaverse deepening longstanding commercial surveillance practices, the paper focuses on data protection harms from biometric and emotion data, the gauging of first-person perspectives, and sensitivities around profiling of avatars. The paper advances two notions to address harms and data protection: surveillant physics and virtual realist governance. Surveillant physics refers to surveillance informing the laws of how that reality operates: this is a useful concept given the granular control that platforms have over virtual worlds and the laws by which they function. Virtual realist governance builds on the longstanding principle of virtual realism and David Chalmer's recent theorising of Reality+ that demands that the virtual is taken to be real, meaning that experiences of virtual objects and what occurs in-world are treated as meaningful. The paper progresses to further consider governance questions, both around technical and ethical standards, but also data protection ideas such as personal data stores, and data trusts, that were not conceived as Metaverse-based ideas, but have greater chance of being realised as basic premises of the Metaverse are being designed. Although this paper is regretfully pessimistic, finding that a root problem of current ambitions for the Metaverse is that the public good and the commons are missing, it sees virtual realist scope for modes of resistance unseen in other digital realms., Author(s): Andrew McStay [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.7362.0, 0000000118820937, School of History, Law and Social Sciences, Bangor University, , Wales, UK Introduction The so-called Metaverse is widely advocated by much [...]

Research and national data illustrate that female victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) are more likely to be killed if their abuser has access to a firearm (Campbell et al. Trauma, Violence & Abuse, 8(3), 246-69, 2007 (See CR5); Gwinn Evaluation Review, 30(3), 237-44, 2006 (See CR15); Sorenson Evaluation Review 30, 361, 2006 (See CR27)). A crucial part of protecting victims lies with the state's ability to successfully track and remove firearms from Civil Protection Orders (CPO). While recent research on the court's responses to firearms and IPV is robust (Fleury-Steiner et al. Violence Against Women, 1-12, 2016 (See CR12); Stockl et al. Lancet, 382, 859-865. 2013 (See CR30); Logan and Walker Violence and Victims, 25, 332-348, 2010 (See CR20)), there is a notable lack of practitioner voices within the academic dialogue focusing on concrete responses to firearms within IPV. The author uses their experience as an administrator within Delaware Family Court and their experience as a researcher to focus research into informed practices that will result in better court compliance with the firearms ban. The current paper outlines concrete practices followed by Delaware Family Court to address the firearms ban and lists considerations for other jurisdictions to engage with as they begin to improve their processes. The current paper aims to center practitioner experiences into the conversation to not only add to current academic research, but to provide other courts and legal practitioners with concrete practices that they can bring to their jurisdictions., Author(s): Ava T. Carcirieri [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.33489.35, 0000 0001 0454 4791, University of Delaware, and State of Delaware Family Court, , 19716, Newark, DE, USA Research and national [...]

The problems with China's regional industrial overcapacity are often influenced by local governments. This study constructs a framework that includes the resource and environmental costs to analyze overcapacity using the non-radial direction distance function and the price method to measure industrial capacity utilization and market segmentation in 29 provinces in China from 2002 to 2014. The empirical analysis of the spatial panel econometric model shows that (1) the industrial capacity utilization in China's provinces has a ladder-type distribution with a gradual decrease from east to west and there is a severe overcapacity in the traditional heavy industry areas; (2) local government intervention has serious negative effects on regional industry utilization and factor market segmentation more significantly inhibits the utilization rate of regional industry than commodity market segmentation; (3) economic openness improves the utilization rate of industrial capacity while the internet penetration rate and regional environmental management investment have no significant impact; and(4) a higher degree of openness and active private economic development have a positive spatial spillover effect, while there is a significant negative spatial spillover effect from local government intervention and industrial structure sophistication. This paper includes the impact of resources and the environment in overcapacity evaluations, which should guide sustainable development in emerging economies.

Cell and tissue-based products, such as autologous adult stem cells, are being prescribed by physicians across the world for diseases and illnesses that they have neither been approved for or been demonstrated as safe and effective in formal clinical trials. These doctors often form part of informal transnational networks that exploit differences and similarities in the regulatory systems across geographical contexts. In this paper, we examine the regulatory infrastructure of five geographically diverse but socio-economically comparable countries with the aim of identifying similarities and differences in how these products are regulated and governed within clinical contexts. We find that while there are many subtle technical differences in how these regulations are implemented, they are sufficiently similar that it is difficult to explain why these practices appear more prevalent in some countries and not in others. We conclude with suggestions for how international governance frameworks might be improved to discourage the exploitation of vulnerable patient populations while enabling innovation in the clinical application of cellular therapies.

This methods paper describes the fractional factorial design within the context of an evaluation of campus bystander programming. Prior evaluations include relative program comparisons, but do not reflect campus implementation of specific aspects of prevention programming. Campuses use combinations of programs, delivered across modalities, audiences, intensity, and degrees of requirement. Bystander program evaluation, in a natural experiment, must consider combinations of these components. This evaluation offers a novel application of the fractional factorial framework, considering combinations of program components, as implemented, within a multi-campus quasi-experimental design. Leveraging qualitative data, cluster analysis provides an initial identification of bystander program component combinations, mapped to experimental conditions. SAS v9.4 PROC FACTEX constructs possible fractional factorial designs to estimate main effects. From key informant interviews, primary program components are determined: delivery method, level of skill-building, degree of requirement, and intended audience. A total of seven combinations are identified. Using presence or absence of program components, a partial factorial structure is identified, where component clusters comprised seven of the 2.sup.4 = 16 possible combinations. The smallest number of experimental conditions necessary for estimating these effects is determined with PROC FACTEX. Resulting designs indicate the necessary experimental conditions for determining bystander program component effectiveness available within this study. Our fractional factorial approach offers a novel strategy for planning an evaluation of several bystander program component combinations. This paper provides foundational elements needed to implement a bystander evaluation design, with the requisite emphasis on program components and relevant combinations, while optimizing number of participating campuses., Author(s): Heather M. Bush [sup.1] , Danielle Davidov [sup.2] , Candace J. Brancato [sup.3] , Emily R. Clear [sup.3] , Ann L. Coker [sup.4] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.266539.d, 0000 0004 [...]

The German Act on Autonomous Driving constitutes the first national framework on level four autonomous vehicles and has received attention from policy makers, AI ethics scholars and legal experts in autonomous driving. Owing to Germany's role as a global hub for car manufacturing, the following paper sheds light on the act's position within the ethical discourse and how it reconfigures the balance between legislation and ethical frameworks. Specifically, in this paper, we highlight areas that need to be more worked out in the future either through ethical conventions, corporate measures or legal measures and examine how the law can be incorporated into the existing discourse on the regulation of technologies. Based on this examination, we derive implications for future discourse and elaborate on companies' responsibilities in developing autonomous driving technologies in an ethical sense., Author(s): Alexander Kriebitz [sup.1], Raphael Max [sup.1], Christoph Lütge [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.6936.a, 0000000123222966, Chair of Business Ethics, TUM School of Governance, Technical University of Munich, , Arcisstr. 21, [...]

The term "off-label drug use" refers to drugs that have not yet acquired "approved" status or drugs that have acquired "approved" status but are used with a different dosage, route, or administration method other than that for which the drug has been approved. In New Zealand, the Medicines Act 1981 specifically allows for off-label drug use. However, this authority is limited by the Health and Disability Commissioner (Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers' Rights) Regulations 1996 and the common law, which require that off-label drug use is of an acceptable standard, that the patient should be fully informed, and that the patient should give informed consent. Off-label drug use is an important issue because the current law provides medical practitioners very wide discretionary power, without providing clarification for what is required of the practitioner in exercising his or her discretion in prescribing off-label. This paper discusses possible solutions to this issue, for example, establishing protocol for off-label use, an electronic database of off-label use, and the amendment of legal provisions.

This paper uses a large sample of students from a Dutch university to describe variations in academic performance following a change in the strictness of academic dismissal policies. The research setting includes one moment in which the performance threshold for academic dismissal has been changed, keeping constant other characteristics of the educational system. Using a descriptive approach, we show that after the threshold has been raised the number of credits earned by academically weak students increases. A higher threshold level also brings their study effort forward in time, as evidenced by a decrease in the number of no-shows and an increase in the number of credits earned during regular exams. We also show that some students perceive the minimum performance level as a target level. The evidence suggests that variations in the implementation of academic dismissal policies affect students' tendency to procrastinate, especially among weaker students., Author(s): Ivo J.M. Arnold [sup.1] [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) https://ror.org/057w15z03, grid.6906.9, 0000 0000 9262 1349, Erasmus School of Economics, Erasmus University Rotterdam, , Rotterdam, Netherlands (2) https://ror.org/018528593, grid.449564.e, 0000 0004 [...]

The 1988 Dawkins reforms were designed, at least in part, to encourage public universities to organize themselves as if they were corporate enterprises, in order to create a more efficient and competitive sector that was less reliant on government funding. This paper assesses whether successive policy changes since the 1988 Dawkins reforms have achieved these efficiency, competition, and funding objectives. It does so by examining their financial performance over time, applying the techniques employed by investment analysts in the private sector to assess the performance of market participants. It demonstrates that the policy changes have reduced efficiency and competitiveness, and weakened the financial position of a number of universities. It provides empirical support for previous research highlighting the significant structural and regulatory constraints on the creation of a competitive market in higher education. Furthermore, it demonstrates that 35 years of policy change have merely reinforced pre-existing market positions and that, even before the impact of the COVID pandemic is considered, the financial position of the sector has been weakened as a result of the changes., Author(s): Stephen Ingram [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) https://ror.org/01rxfrp27, grid.1018.8, 0000 0001 2342 0938, Department of Politics, Media and Philosophy, La Trobe University, , Plenty Rd, 3086, Bundoora, VIC, Australia Introduction [...]

In the present paper, we study infinitesimal symmetries, natural infinitesimal symmetries, Newtonoid sections, infinitesimal Noether symmetries, and conservation laws for Hamiltonian systems within the general framework of Lie algebroids. Using dynamical covariant derivatives and Jacobi endomorphisms, we find invariant equations of some type of symmetries and prove that the canonical nonlinear connection induced by a regular Hamiltonian can be determined by these symmetries. Finally, we present examples from the optimal control theory that prove that the framework of Lie algebroids is more useful than the cotangent bundle in order to study the symmetries for the dynamics induced by a Hamiltonian function. Keywords and phrases: infinitesimal symmetries, Lie algebroids, Hamiltonian systems, conservation laws, dynamical covariant derivative, Jacobi endomorphism. AMS Subject Classification: 17B66, 37J15, 53C05, 70H33, 70H05, 1. Introduction. It is well known that symmetries play an important role in all field theories and can be used in order to decrease the number of degree of freedom [...]

The agency of international students has long been neglected and undertheorised, though recent literature indicates that this has started to change. This paper systematically reviews 51 studies that address student agency in international higher education. Focusing on research published in the last two decades (2000-2020), the review draws on studies that foreground student voices, or international students' perspectives, rather than the perspectives of teachers, administrators or policymakers. A detailed discussion of how international student agency is positioned in the literature found that agency appears as either: a research object, as part of a theoretical or conceptual framework, or an emergent finding. Furthermore, our analysis suggests that the term 'agency' is often used as a buzzword rather than as a fleshed-out concept. Thus, drawing on this initial analysis, the review synthesises varying but overlapping conceptualisations of international student agency in the literature into an integrative framework. Implications for future research are drawn, based on our findings about the understudied populations and methodological limitations in the literature., Author(s): Kelsey Inouye [sup.1] , Soyoung Lee [sup.1] , Yusuf Ikbal Oldac [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.4991.5, 0000 0004 1936 8948, Department of Education, University of Oxford, , 15 Norham [...]

Chelation products can be helpful in the treatment of metal poisoning. However, many unapproved products with unproven effectiveness and safety are marketed to consumers, frequently via the internet. This paper describes the primary responsibility of the Health Fraud and Consumer Outreach Branch of the United States Food and Drug Administration to identify and address health fraud products. Efforts to prevent direct and indirect hazards to the population's health through regulatory actions are described.

The information on academic performance rates-what percentage of the enrolled credits a student can pass in one academic year-showed traditionally a relatively low students' academic performance at Spanish public universities. However, over the period 2008-2014, the academic productivity of undergraduate students at public higher education institutions improved considerably. In this period, Spanish universities experienced changes related to the structuring of the educational curriculum-the homogenization of undergraduate university degrees-and the policy of tuition fees. In relation to the latter, the entry into force of the Royal Decree-Law 14/2012 (the so-called Decreto Wert) allowed universities a considerable increase in tuition fees. Using data for Spanish public universities for the academic years 2008/2009 and 2013/2014, this paper studied to what extent this educational law contributed to the improvement of the academic performance of undergraduate students. Using a stochastic frontier analysis for panel data, this paper showed that the increase in undergraduate tuition fees (first enrolment) acted as a catalyst in reducing the inefficiencies of the Spanish public university system., Author(s): Manuel Salas-Velasco [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (Aff1) 0000000121678994, grid.4489.1, Department of Applied Economics, Business School, University of Granada, , Campus Cartuja, 18071, Granada, Spain Introduction The Spanish university system is [...]

The paper focuses on concerns and legal challenges brought on by the use of algorithms. A particular class of algorithms that augment or replace analysis and decision-making by humans, i.e. data analytics and machine learning, is under scrutiny. Taking into account Balkin's work on 'the laws of an algorithmic society', attention is drawn to obligations of transparency, matters of due process, and accountability. This US-centric analysis on drawbacks and loopholes of current legal systems is complemented with the analysis of norms and principles of the EU data protection law, or 'GDPR'. The aim is twofold. On the one hand, the intent is to shed light on some crucial differences between the US and EU law on the regulation of algorithmic operators, both public and private. Whereas, in the USA, scholars debate whether and to what extent new duties and responsibilities of algorithmic operators, e.g. information fiduciaries, have to amend the current framework of self-regulation and light government-as shown by the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy report from November 2016-in EU law much of the new duties and responsibilities of algorithmic operators have been passed upon them as data controllers. Whether such approaches will successfully tackle the normative challenges of the algorithmic society is, on the other hand, an open issue that will likely represent the main topic of debate over the next years. Disagreement may concern: (i) the terms framing the legal question in e.g. statistical purposes of the data processing; (ii) how such terms are related to each other in legal reasoning (e.g. a right to explanation as valid law in the EU); and (iii) legal hard cases that will increasingly have to do with the principles that are at stake also but not only in data protection (e.g. informational self-determination). By entrusting such legal hard cases to algorithms, or some sort of smart artificial agent, humans still bear full responsibility for the judgment of what is socially, ethically, and legally 'plain' and 'hard' in social affairs. The balance between delegation of decisions to algorithms and non-delegation will be the leitmotiv of the algorithmic society. Since the devil is in the detail, the current paper is devoted to some of them., Author(s): Ugo Pagallo [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (Aff1) 0000 0001 2336 6580, grid.7605.4, Law School, University of Torino, , Lungo Dora Siena 100 A, 10153, Torino, Italy Introduction There is a [...]

Structural measures of tobacco prevention are effective and cost-efficient measures to reduce tobacco consumption and the related health and economic consequences. However, Germany has been very reluctant in implementing tobacco control laws for several decades. Only recently has Germany increased its efforts in tobacco control, which has resulted in a decrease of tobacco consumption and in a decrease of smoking rates, especially in youths. This paper summarizes the evidence-based measures of tobacco prevention as well as the progress of recent German tobacco control policies. Finally, the barriers of further effective tobacco control policies are discussed and illustrated with examples. For decades, politics gave in to pressure and influence of lobbyists of the strong tobacco industry, which deceived the public and politics for their economic interests and in order to establish a high social acceptance of smoking. In addition, there is the phenomenon of "denialism", which means the convinced denial of scientific findings regarding smoking and smoking prevention in opponents of tobacco control, who are not directly affiliated with the tobacco industry.

In a joint work with S. Bianchini [8] (see also [6, 7]), we proved a quadratic interaction estimate for the system of conservation laws [mathematical expression not reproducible], where u : [0, [infinity]) x R [right arrow] [R.sup.n], f : [R.sup.n] [right arrow] [R.sup.n] is strictly hyperbolic, and Tot.Var. ([u.sub.0]) [much less than] 1. For a wavefront solution in which only two wavefronts at a time interact, such an estimate can be written in the form [mathematical expression not reproducible], where [[alpha].sub.j] and [[alpha]'.sub.j] are the wavefronts interacting at the interaction time [t.sub.j], [sigma](*) is the speed, [absolute value of (*)] denotes the strength, and C(f) is a constant depending only on f (see [8, Theorem 1.1] or Theorem 3.1 in the present paper for a more general form). The aim of this paper is to provide the reader with a proof for such a quadratic estimate in a simplified setting, in which: * all the main ideas of the construction are presented; * all the technicalities of the proof in the general setting [8] are avoided., CONTENTS 1. Introduction 2. Preliminaries 3. The Main Theorem References UDC 517 I wish to thank Prof. Stefano Bianchini, who carefully read my manuscript and gave me many helpful suggestions. [...]

New Zealand is one of two OECD countries in the world where direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medicine (DTCA-PM) is permitted. Increase in such activity in recent years has resulted in a disproportionate increase in dispensary volume of heavily advertised medicines. Concern for the potential harm to healthcare consumers and the public healthcare system has prompted the medical profession to call for a ban on DTCA-PM as the best way of protecting the public interest. Such blanket prohibition however also interferes with the public's right of access to information. This paper will examine if banning DTCA-PM would constitute a justified form of paternalism in the context of today's New Zealand.

The background of this paper is the ongoing dismantling of the social insurance systems in favour of commercialisation and privatisation of insurances needed for illness, old age and premature death. This combined with the increased possibility of using genetic testing for differentiating personal insurance premiums has the potentiality of creating a 'genetic proletariat'--an uninsurable high-risk population. The common way of handling this problem in Sweden, and many other developed countries around the North Atlantic, has been to regulate insurance companies' right to ask for and use genetic information in various ways. There is a distinction between partial regulation (that allows insurance companies access to genetic information from genetic tests already made, sometimes only above a specified amount, but not to demand new tests) and total regulation (that forbids insurance companies to ask for or use any genetic information). I will argue that these forms of regulation probably will have adverse consequences given the dismantling of collective social insurance systems. If this is convincing, a better way to solve the problem of an uninsurable high-risk population (and other problems) is to resurrect the collective, obligatory insurance systems in which the individual risk profile does not constitute a basis for premium determination. Both arguments cast in terms of consequences and justice render support for this conclusion.

Switzerland is a federal State where policy decisions regarding long-term care regulation are by rights incumbent upon regional and local governments. This situation is in part responsible for the large number of small nursing homes operating in Switzerland. Moreover, long-term care for the elderly is supplied by public, private for-profit and non-profit nursing homes, respectively. The paper presents an econometric estimation of a stochastic cost frontier using cross-section data for a sample of 886 Swiss nursing homes operating in 1998. The results of this analysis are used to examine the relationship between cost efficiency, the alternative institutional forms and the different regulatory settings.

Broad calls to narrow the role of police in American society have begun to include arguments to reduce the carceral responding to intimate partner violence (IPV) and add a stronger social response. The field's improved understanding of lethality risk assessment; better classification of offender risk by past involvement with general violence or family only violence; and positive findings from trials of relationship strengthening interventions as couples counseling, restorative justice practices, and mediation, call for exploring relationship-strengthening approaches to complement more carceral approaches. Yet, a half century of adherence to traditional IPV service approaches that have steered away from relationship strengthening has generated an array of procedures and policies that need to change before the IPV services field can broaden and become more responsive. These changes are likely to be more fitting across racial and cultural groups and more suited for those seeking to improve relationship safety. This paper reviews these trends and considers legislative remedies that would facilitate the emergence of additional safe, empowering, relationship-responsive, trauma sensitive additions to IPV services., Author(s): Richard P. Barth [sup.1] , Harriet C. Jiranek [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.411024.2, 0000 0001 2175 4264, University of Maryland Carey School of Law, , Baltimore, MD, USA Recent [...]

The purpose of this research was to examine associations between subjective wellbeing and emotional intelligence in the Lithuanian youth sample. In the research, a simple random sample consisted of 556 respondents. The procedure was administered online and followed the General Data Protection Regulation guidelines. Before data gathering, this study was reviewed and approved by the research ethics board of the Institute of Management and Psychology. The study revealed strong positive associations between subjective wellbeing and emotional intelligence, and the fit of the model on associations between the variables of wellbeing and emotional intelligence was good. The theoretical significance of the study is that the paper reveals the essence of the existence of a latent factor of subjective well-being. The practical significance is that the results of the study can be used in the practice of psychological counseling and psychodiagnostics to assess the relationship between subjective well-being and emotional intelligence., Author(s): Aiste Dirzyte [sup.1], Aleksandras Patapas [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.9424.b, 0000 0004 1937 1776, Institute of Psychology, Mykolas Romeris University, LT-08303, 20 Ateities Str., Vilnius, Republic of Lithuania; Faculty [...]

In this paper, an explicit classification of formal A-modules over the ring of integers of a local field up to a strict isomorphism is obtained in the case of small ramification. Canonical representatives in each class of isomorphic formal A-modules are described. These results generalize the classification of [Z.sub.p]-modules in small ramification. Bibliography: 2 titles., UDC 512.741 1. Introduction In paper [1], formal groups ([Z.sub.p]-modules) were classified in terms of their logarithms. Two invariants of formal group laws have been considered, which provide a complete [...]

This study examines recent changes in Swedish regulations for child maintenance in relation to post-separation families with experiences of either intimate partner violence (IPV) or conflict. The reform limited the possibility to rely on the state for maintenance in cases of cooperation difficulties. For IPV cases, the Swedish Social Insurance Agency (SSIA) can function as an intermediary between parents, but such exceptions are made upon assessment and require disclosure of IPV. This study investigates consequences of the maintenance reform and the ways in which it may re-actualize conflict and IPV between separated parents. Data consist of 649 recorded phone calls (~ 55 h) to the SSIA concerning maintenance. Disclosures of post-separation conflict or IPV were found in 132 of these calls; these calls were analyzed using thematic analysis. The maintenance reform's requirement to reinstate contact with a former partner can re-actualize experiences of parental conflict as well as IPV by (a) re-surfacing physical or psychological abuse; (b) continued or accelerated cooperative difficulties; (c) renewed financial control; and (d) 'paper abuse' and new possibilities to display diligence or exert camouflaged control. This can take the form of explicit acts of abuse, anxiety or concern caused by the renewed contact, or being forced to deal with difficult memories. We argue that the Swedish maintenance reform ignores the reality of parental conflicts and IPV by re-actualizing such experiences in a range of ways., Author(s): Helena Tegler [sup.1] , Stina Fernqvist [sup.1] , Marie Flinkfeldt [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.8993.b, 0000 0004 1936 9457, Center for Social Work (CESAR), Department of Sociology, Uppsala University, [...]

Discrete three-point probability laws are considered. Necessary and sufficient conditions for belonging to a new class of quasi-infinitely divisible laws are obtained. The results are formulated in terms of the points and their probabilities, as well as in terms of the property of separability from zero of characteristic functions. Bibliography: 13 titles., 1. INTRODUCTION The present paper is devoted to the study of a new class of quasi-infinitely divisible probability laws. This class is a natural extension of the class of infinitely [...]

Based on a new characterization, two new goodness-of-fit tests for Pareto I type distribution family with arbitrary shape-parameter [lambda] are constructed. For these tests, the limiting distributions are described, the local Bahadur efficiencies for natural alternatives are calculated, and the asymptotic comparison of test statistics is performed. Bibliography: 11 titles., 1. INTRODUCTION The purpose of the present paper is to construct and study new goodness-of-fit tests asymptotically for the classical Pareto distribution, based on some characterization. The classical Pareto distribution [...]

The paper considers Q-homeomorphisms with respect to the p-module in the complex plane at p > 2. The behavior of such a mapping class at infinity has been analyzed. The lower power order has been estimated. Keywords. Q-homeomorphisms, p-module of a family of curves, condenser, p-capacity of the condenser., 1. Introduction Let us have a family [GAMMA] of curves [gamma] in the complex plane [??]. A Borel function [Please download the PDF to view the mathematical expression] is called [...]

In this paper, we propose the mathematical formulation of the problem on injection of a cold gas into a porous medium accompanied by the formation of gas hydrate. The mathematical formulation of the problem is an initial-boundary-value problem for a system of nonlinear partial differential equations expressing the laws of conservation of mass and energy supplemented by the conditions of mass and heat balance on the moving boundary of phase transitions. Within the framework of the rectilinear parallel approximation, we construct approximate analytical solutions with a temperature jump at the boundary where the gas hydrate appears. These solutions describe the relationship between the coordinate of the boundary of phase transition and the parameters of the injected gas and the porous medium. Keywords and phrases: differential equation, mathematical model, analytical solutions, filtration, gas hydrate, phase transition. AMS Subject Classification: 35C06, 76S05, 76N15, 82B26, 1. Introduction. At present, natural gas is a widely used and convenient source of energy (see [3]). This is largely due to the very high efficiency of power generation, high [...]

Prior to the pandemic, approxiately 42,000 students from countries in sub-Saharan countries in Africa enrolled in U.S. universities (IIE 2021). Despite this strong and growing presence, little research exists focusing on their experiences of education in the U.S. Through a small-scale study of the experiences of graduate students from sub-Saharan African countries, we see evidence of material and discursive representations of race that produce material inequalities that are then used to legitimize racial formations. We couple these experiences to the background of campus internationalization policies and the university's responses to argue that the policies reproduce and reinforce cultural and social racism that positions white Americans as the norm and unproblematically contributes to Western supremacist positionality in the academy and beyond for economic benefit. In this paper, we demonstrate ways in which the implementation of campus internationalization programs is part of the larger discourse of racism on both the national and international arenas, perpetuating white superiority and implementing policies that reproduce the inequities that reify and legitimize neoracism., Author(s): Nyaradzai Changamire [sup.1] , Chrystal A. George Mwangi [sup.2] , Jacqueline Mosselson [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.266683.f, 0000 0001 2166 5835, Department of Educational Policy, Research and Administration, University [...]

The paper presents a method for calculating a portfolio with a guaranteed return at a given confidence level. The portfolio is calculated using a sample of the returns of the assets included in the portfolio. The problem is considered in a nonparametric statistical setting, that is, the assumptions were not made on the distribution law of the return vector, and a parametric statistical setting with normal law distribution. The main elements of the method are an ellipsoid of minimum volume containing a given number of sample elements and a method for calculating it. The minimum size ellipsoid containing a sample has long been used in mathematical statistics to obtain robust estimates of the mean and covariance matrix, as well as in machine learning, so its application for an optimal portfolio looks natural., Author(s): Grigory Beliavsky [sup.1], Natalia Danilova [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.182798.d, 0000 0001 2172 8170, Vorovich Institute of Mathematics, Mechanics and Computer Sciences, South Federal University, , Milchakova st., 8a, [...]

This is a policy paper supporting the vision of ASEAN leaders in the project of ASEAN Community building. However, it goes beyond their declarations to argue for a more thorough going adoption of the norms of the United Nations and to promote more people-to-people activities and ASEAN consciousness among the people. ASEAN was established in 1967 with the aim to strengthen regional cooperation to deal with the geopolitical challenges of the Cold War. It has scored successes in the realm of economy. Driven by the dynamics of globalization, ASEAN has aspired to become a full-fledged community of nations. It aims to widen its scope to include social and cultural dimensions, social justice, and human rights. The most progressive manifestation of this is the ASEAN Charter. To advance the project of the ASEAN Community, this paper makes suggestions at two levels, namely the level of ideas and the level of activities, with some reflections on nation building. A nation at peace with itself based on social justice and human rights contributes to regional community building. If and when it does come about, the ASEAN Community will represent a new ASEAN identity, with a new moral and political order, and it will be able to articulate global issues in international forums with moral authority and moral coherence., Author(s): Michael S. H. Heng [sup.1] [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) Center for Ethnic Studies and Development, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand (2) Institute of Malaysian and International Studies, National [...]

We consider a second-order nonlinear degenerate parabolic equation in the case, where the flux vector and the nonstrictly increasing diffusion function are merely continuous. In the case of zero diffusion, this equation degenerates into a first order quasilinear equation (conservation law). It is known that in the general case under consideration an entropy solution (in the sense of Kruzhkov-Carrillo) of the Cauchy problem can be nonunique. Therefore, it is important to study special entropy solutions of the Cauchy problem and to find additional conditions on the input data of the problem that are sufficient for uniqueness. In this paper, we obtain some new results in this direction. Namely, the existence of the largest and the smallest entropy solutions of the Cauchy problem is proved. With the help of this result, the uniqueness of the entropy solution with periodic initial data is established. More generally, the comparison principle is proved for entropy sub- and supersolutions, in the case where at least one of the initial functions is periodic. The obtained results are a generalization of the results known for conservation laws to the parabolic case., UDC 517.957 CONTENTS 1. Introduction 988 2. Auxiliary Statements 990 3. Main Results 1000 References 1007 1. Introduction In the half-space [product] = [R.sub.+] * [R.sup.n], [R.sub.+] = (0, +[infinity]), [...]