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Paper-based artifacts, such as ink and wash paintings, paper cuts, etc., when exposed in environment for a long time, are prone to embrittling, yellowing and ageing because of ultraviolet light and weather elements. In a museum, special measurements are adopted to avoid these damages, but for common households, a functional coating is a good solution. However, this is not an easy task as the coating must be removable and cannot damage the articles. Graphene oxide (GO) has the potential as ultraviolet shielding material for the protection of paper-based artifacts, but the application of monolithic GO coatings on paper-based artifacts is difficult. In this work, feasible GO/polyacrylonitrile composite films were prepared and their protection properties for rice paper were explored experimentally. When GO loading reached 2 %, the UV-A and UV-B blocking percentages of the film were 57.47 % and 70.86 %, respectively, with a visible light transmittance of 77.09 %. These films also performed good moisture resistance. With a good flexibility, they could be easily transferred onto and peeled off the rice paper surface without damaging the paper texture and patterns on it. These films basically meet the demand of paper-based artifacts protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of international trade has had as a consequence the expansion of possibilities of paying debt arising from the contractual relations and by exploiting the function of a payment instrument of debt securities. In this context it can be affirmed that the payment instruments meet the monetary functions, meaning that the creditor of the payment in a legal relation may be sated by using such an inscription, or he could deliver himself such an instrument to the payment debtor, establishing to him the obligation to pay at maturity the amount of the contract. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information about a rule related to business judgment in Florida. The rule provides protection to corporate directors from personal liability for most of their actions. In Florida, the business judgment rule evolved from common law. According to the rule in the state, a director has the obligation to discharge his duties in good faith, with ordinary care, and in a way in which the best interests of his company are ensured. However, if a director is found to be in breach of any of his duties, he is not necessarily considered to be liable for damages.

As immovable stone cultural heritage is kept in the open air, they are more susceptible to damage, and damage detection is very important for the protection and restoration of cultural heritage. This is especially true for gold-overlaid stone cultural heritage, which is usually more complicated than ordinary stone carvings. However, the detection of cultural heritage damages is mainly based on expert visual inspection, which is often subjective, time-consuming, and laborious. This paper uses the Mask R-CNN algorithm to rapidly and accurately detect the gold foil shedding of stone cultural heritage through two-dimensional images. The research data are from the high-precision images of the Dazu Thousand-Hand Bodhisattva Statue (World Heritage, UNESCO) in Chongqing, China. After cleaning and augmentation, 1900 images are input into Mask R-CNN model for training. Finally, the average precision value (AP) for detecting gold foil shedding is found to be 0.967. In order to test the performance of the model, the new images that do not participate in the training period are used, and it is found that the model can still accurately detect the gold foil shedding even if there are interference factors. This is the first attempt to detect the damages of gold-overlaid stone cultural heritage based on a deep learning algorithm, and it has achieved good results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the juridical issues concerning the material reparation of churches and sacred objects after the Iconoclastic Fury in 1566–1567, based on the works of Petrus Peckius (1529–1589). The Fury left an unprecedented path of destruction in many towns of the Low Countries. It presented society not only with political and religious challenges but also with a myriad of legal ones. As a Leuven law professor in this time of chaos, Peckius published the treatise "De sacrosanctis et catholicis Christi ecclesiis reparandis ac reficiendis" (1573). Peckius' take on the theme reveals an intricate analysis of the varied circumstances of destruction, the means of funding the repairs, and the liability of different actors – from the perpetrators of the destruction themselves to the prelate, the parishioners, and even town magistrates. After an initial overview of the Iconoclastic Fury and a brief biographical note on Peckius and his works, this paper will present Peckius' ideas in a 'timeline' of three phases: going, respectively, from the assessment of damages and planning the extent of restoration; to considerations on liability; and, finally, to the juridical means of enforcement. Along with each phase, we provide critical reflections on Peckius' influences and positions in the context of the Iconoclastic Fury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Country crises can provoke damages to a country's economic activity and citizens in a way that will always demand a deeper understanding of their determinants. Political issues are commonly mentioned as an important factor boosting these crises. This paper investigates the political factors behind financial crises and recessions. Design/methodology/approach: Using variables from the ICRG rating system, logistic panel regressions are run to determine whether or not the political risk variables explain country crises. Findings: Results disclose the importance of socioeconomic conditions to financial crises and recessions with no influence from the political arena. Against expectations, political instability does not help to explain crises. Political risk ratings also show their importance, demonstrating that the higher is the risk, the higher is the probability of debt and currency crises occurrence. Originality/value: The findings in this paper contribute to a growing literature of political risk and crises, enhancing the value of political risk assessment and increasing the application of its consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Once autonomous systems become more widespread, product liability is expected to be called for help to compensate damages. The defectiveness of autonomous systems as a condition of product liability is difficult to assess. This difficulty becomes more evident in the case of design defects because the consumer expectations test adopted by the EU Product Liability Directive has been criticized for its vagueness, but the new Proposal for Product Liability Directive (COM(2022) 495 final) preserves it. This paper defends that the consumer expectations test is still fit for purpose and able to accommodate challenges posed by the deployment of autonomous systems. The paper first attempts to bring together the cases where there are clear safety expectations regarding autonomous systems, so the defectiveness assessment is relatively easy. In case of unclear safety expectations, it is difficult to measure and decide whether an autonomous system is defective or not. Hence, the paper's second attempt is to make contribution to the concretization of the test in cases where it is difficult to know what to expect from autonomous systems. The public is entitled to expect the producers of autonomous systems to eliminate the harmful consequences of such products. Since the distinguishing feature of such products is their autonomy, producers are expected to consider the safety implications of the autonomy and eliminate the harmful consequences hereof. From the liability perspective, there are two main implications of autonomy that will be explored below: human–machine interaction and testing of autonomous systems. Accordingly, the difficulties arising from these two main implications should shape the scope and extent of the public's expectations and hence the producers' duties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The external public audit, plays one of the most important roles in ensuring the efficient management of public funds and contributes to the identification, combating and prevention of financial fraud, a contribution that can be evaluated by analysing deviations with financial implications on the public budgets. The objective of this paper is to highlight the existence of direct proportionality between the quality of public audits with the value of identified deviations. After reviewing the specialized literature, we used the qualitative methodology to synthesize the data contained in the Annual Public Reports on local public finances published by the Court of Accounts of Romania and we analysed factors as additional income, damages, referrals to criminal investigation bodies. The sample includes the territorial administrative units of the counties and municipality 's of Romania. The results of the study revealed that, although through its audit actions, the Court of Accounts of Romania identified deviations like additional income or damages with a constant value for the audited years, the referrals to the criminal investigation bodies are in a decrease. At the end of the paper the conclusions, future directions and limitations of the study are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the development of private actions for damages as a significant pillar of private enforcement of EU competition law and discusses the quantification and estimation of harm. Since the adoption of the EU Directive 2014/104/EU on Antitrust Damages Actions, private enforcement in Europe has undergone crucial clarifications in the case law of EU courts, yet the critical issue of quantifying damages in private actions has only recently been addressed by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). This paper takes a closer look at the recent ruling in the Tráficos Manuel Ferrer case (C-312/21) and assesses the implications of that case law for private enforcement proceedings. Concerning the allocation of procedural costs, this judgment has established that injured parties may be required to bear a cost risk, even if they are partially successful. This finding needs further reflection in the context of consumer claims for damages, as it is susceptible to add an additional cost burden on plaintiffs. The second intricate finding concerns the relation between the ability of national courts to estimate damages and the exhaustion of evidence disclosure. Taking the example of Spain, the paper advocates for the specific inclusion of the principle of proportionality when determining harm in private actions for damages and especially in cases involving consumers or smaller harmed parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Economia Contemporânea is the property of Revista de Economia Contemporanea and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

According to the Damages Directive victims of infringements of competition law are entitled to full compensation. To achieve this goal overcharges, passing-on, and volume effects should play a role in the calculation of damages (for any purchaser who is not yet the final consumer). Whereas the Damages Directive promotes the passing-on defence for the defendants, it does not regulate volume effects in depth. The computation of these effects requires information on counterfactual prices and quantities. Since this information cannot be observed, the size of the volume effect tends to be uncertain. This paper discusses policy-options that aspire to bring compensation closer to full compensation, given uncertainty about the size of the volume effect. Based on the maximin-principle, a principle for decision-making under uncertainty, not allowing a passing-on defence appears to be an attractive option since this may lead to the minimization of the maximum gap between actual and full compensation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers a supply chain consisting of a manufacturer and a retailer. The manufacturer sells its products through the retailer and an online platform and adopts green technology in the blockchain era. The platform can operate with marketplace mode or reselling mode. The network effect is considered to reflect the power of the platform to enlarge the potential market size. In the decentralised supply chain, the online platform encroaches the offline demand despite the same retail price. The increase of the network coefficient improves the abatement level, and benefits the manufacturer and the platform but damages the retailer's profit. For the supply chain coordination, the abatement level with reselling mode in the centralised supply chain is less than that in the decentralised supply chain if the network coefficient is high. Both marketplace mode and reselling mode can coordinate the supply chain if the network coefficient is low. Blockchain technology helps the products become greener and brings more profits for the manufacturer and the platform. And it induces supply chain coordination. Based on real data of a supply chain, its profit is increased by 3% after coordination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to analyze the impact of logging activity on residual trees from logging yards from southwest Romania, located in plain, hill and mountain area and covered with a large variety of silvicultural works-first-intervention cuttings, preparatory and seed-cutting (shelterwood systems or selection systems), cuttings to increase light availability for regeneration (shelterwood systems), final cuttings (shelterwood systems). The impact of logging activity on the residual trees was analyzed based on the data obtained from the measurements made at the end of the vegetation season of 2019 and the beginning of the vegetation season of 2020. Based on the data obtained, the total number of tree damages in the variants studied on relief forms, the relationship between the number of tree damages and different stand characteristics, and the damages distribution by their types in the studied variants, were analyzed. Trees damage evaluation was done by determining damage indexes calculated as a ratio between the volume of damages found and the volume of damaged trees. The most important conclusions have been discussed in the context of other researches in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Courts are able to exercise broad discretion when they assess the quantum of damages due to loss of earning capacity and have considerable discretion in making an award. South African courts have adopted the approach that an actuarial computation is a valuable basis for establishing the quantum of damages. Actuarial calculations, by their nature, account for certain contingency factors such as inflation, income tax, mortality and the retirement age. It is commonplace to deduct a general contingency where the actuarial calculation makes no explicit allowance. General contingencies cover many considerations that vary from case to case. The only real difference between mortality and other contingencies is that more evidence is available in statistical form to show mortality rates. Despite various data limitations that do not currently allow for a full implementation of the model, this paper seeks to develop a three state Markov Chain model of working life expectancy in South Africa by gender and broad education level. Working life expectancy is inextricably linked to general contingency deductions and the results of this paper challenge some common law conventions and the level of general contingency deductions that have been adopted by South African courts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Collected Papers of Zagreb Law Faculty / Zbornik Pravnog Fakulteta u Zagrebu is the property of Sveuciliste u Zagrebu, Pravni Fakultet and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Within the realm of sustainable agriculture and the protection of crops, the presence of intruders poses a substantial risk, leading to potential crop damages and injuries. In our paper, we conceptualize intruders as objects. Consequently, the implementation of object detection emerges as a crucial safety and field protection measure, effectively mitigating the adverse consequences of such encounters. While deep learning techniques have proven to yield superior results in object detection, their computational and parameter requirements have posed challenges in their widespread implementation. This research paper presents an alert system AgriGuard equipped with a lightweight object detection model for enhancing security in agriculture fields. The proposed embedded system utilizes EmbdYOLOv3 and TinyEmbdYOLOv3 models, modified versions of YOLOv3 and TinyYOLOv3, respectively, to overcome challenges in object detection, such as occluded or look-alike animals. The system integrates ultrasonic sensors, raspberry pi, real-time object detectors, google firebase, and an android application to detect and alert farmers for unauthorized access. Experimental results show that EmbdYOLOv3 outperforms YOLOv3 by 36.85%, and TinyEmbdYOLOv3 outperforms Tiny-YOLOv3 by 14.48% under the same embedded environment. The study highlights the effectiveness of low-power IoT devices and deep learning techniques in providing robust security solutions for the agriculture industry, offering a potential approach for mitigating crop damages and ensuring field safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents comments on the study conducted by R.J. Chambers regarding the conversion of accounting into a genuine scientific discipline. They concern Chambers' criticism of the innumerable legal abuses of accounting, particularly those committed by professional accountants themselves. Almost every large public accounting firm has faced legal writs in damages, in thousands to millions of dollars, through demonstrated or admitted professional inadequacy. Businessmen, however, have always prized secrecy, especially privacy in financial matters for the tactical advantage it gives in dealing with others. Yet it is likely that the present corporate climate and the lax legalistic, supervisory and fiduciary attitude of many financial and accounting institutions will change as a result of the Enron scandal. Applied sciences may draw upon pure ones, but they can neither change their nature as servants to practical goals, nor can one expect from them to shed the human frailties that accompany the pursuit of such goals. The applied sciences cannot afford to draw artificial boundaries. These disciplines are too much intertwined with daily life, with the needs of humans, their aspirations and shortcomings.

Copyright of Ius et Praxis (07172877) is the property of Universidad de Talca and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Judges march at times to pitiless conclusions under the prod of a remorseless logic which is supposed to leave them no alternative. They deplore the sacrificial rite. They perform it, none the less, with averted gaze, convinced as they plunge the knife that they obey the bidding of their office. The victim is offered up to the gods of jurisprudence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When a victim loses property due to an injurer's wrongful act, it must be decided whether the damages award should include the sales taxes associated with the lost property's replacement. This is especially acute when the victim can make other use of the damages award than replacement. This paper compares regimes that differ in how they treat sales taxes, focusing on possible distortions of consumption and care choices. We find that regimes that include sales taxes in damages awards only when incurred to replace the lost property (as, for instance, the German Civil Code does) induce suboptimal consumption and care incentives. Distortions of care incentives also depend on the nature of care expenditures (monetary or non-monetary). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decade, there has been a proliferation of mass antitrust damages cases before national courts of Member States. The procedural landscape varies very much, however, a number of MS have some form of compensatory and/or injunctive collective tool for consumers and other categories of victims from antitrust violations. Croatia has no such system in place, so the purpose of this article is to analyse the potential and limits of assignment and bundling of claims as an alternative to a full-fledged collective compensatory redress mechanism. The paper identifies advantages and possible disadvantages and limitations of this tool. The author argues, that while the general rules of contract law offer wide discretion and possibilities to organize a ‘collective’ action for damages though mass assignment, it falls short of consumer protection measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The compensation of consumers for damages stemming from a breach of EU competition law rules has been in the forefront of discussions in the last years. A recent important aspect of the debate is whether a mixing of public and private enforcement efforts could enhance the effectiveness of consumer compensation. In Hungary, consumer compensation for breach of another field of EU law (unfair commercial practices) has been championed by a public authority, the Hungarian Competition Authority, which has achieved significant results to the direct benefit of consumers in this respect. This paper reviews the authority’s recent practices, key decisions and main achievements in this area (including some earlier cases concerning antitrust) and then provides a detailed assessment of the corresponding advantages and disadvantages. The authors argue that some key achievements in Hungary in this respect are very well suited for further use in the development of consumer compensation in the field of antitrust law on both an EU and national level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Cuadernos de Política Criminal is the property of Dykinson SL and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Despite being the ultimate rule in the free market, the freedom of contract is fading away against the aim to protect the weaker party in contract law. The weaker party's socioeconomic interest can be breached in a specific way that would be summarized as the exploitation of religious beliefs. This type of exploitation is usually seen across Turkish society, but there is almost no jurisprudence concerning this subject. The paper evaluates potential legal solutions from the Turkish Code of Obligations (TCO). Theoretical views are compared to achieve an adequate way of compensation against the stronger party for the weaker party whose pecuniary damages occurred because of the contract that the latter signed with religious thoughts and inexplicable generosity for the former. Common law's undue influence and civil law's sandpile theory can suggest founded solutions against religious exploitation in the contract. Still, TCO art. 27 can give a suitable cause for the illegality: the contrariety to economic public order. This notion can prevent copied future contracts against the same group of weaker parties when the pioneer illegal contract is invalidated, and the exploiter must compensate the pecuniary damages of the counterparty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Chilena de Derecho Privado is the property of Fundacion Fernando Fueyo Laneri and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista de Administración Pública is the property of Centro de Estudios Politicos y Constitucionales and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista Digital de Derecho Administrativo is the property of Universidad Externado de Colombia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Protecting life from harm is a basic right granted to every individual. This study aims to determine the civil liability of electricity companies resulting from electrocution cases. For civil liability to arise, the harm can be direct or consequential. If it is direct, it must unconditionally be made good, and if it is consequential, three conditions must be met: a wrongful act, deliberate element, and the act led to the damage. The study examined the nature of the electricity company's liability for damage in light of the law specifying the types of liability related to this aspect, such as tort liability, which results from a person's wrongful act. The injured person can file a compensation lawsuit for the damage under the Civil Procedure Code. If the defendant complies willingly to pay an appropriate amount of compensation, there is no longer any need for litigation. The results of this paper suggest the need to add special by-laws addressing civil liability for damages resulting from things or machines under the General Electricity Law. In addition to issuing statutes addressing the criminal liability under the same law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista del Instituto Colombiano de Derecho Procesal is the property of Instituto Colombiano de Derecho Procesal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Secure energy providing is a critical feature of sustainable societies, where this subject requires reliable operation of generation, transmission and distribution infrastructures. In order to achieve the mentioned goal, the influence of uncertainties should be analyzed using appropriate methods, criteria and tools. The high‐impact low‐probability (HILP) events are special uncertainties that can affect the safe operation and lead to irreparable damages. This paper presents a comprehensive review of resilience in electrical energy systems consisting of fundamental concepts and definitions, challenges, enhancements and future proceedings. In this regard, a resilience evaluation framework is designed first in which all the necessary actions for a resilience study are defined. In the next step, various HILP events are introduced and then the resilience concept is defined accurately and related curves are investigated. Afterwards, the resilience assessment indices and quantitative measures are described and their details and applications are precisely explained. As well, the resilience enhancement strategies are discussed from short‐term and long‐term perspectives and eventually, resilience‐based objective functions and optimization approaches are classified in the last part. It is noteworthy that the main research gaps are also clarified according to the reviewed papers and further suggestions are expressed to cope with the declared problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last few decades, an increasing economic and social flooding damages trend has been recorded worldwide. Although this situation was initially associated with climate change, recently different institutions and scientific papers have related this trend to two main reasons: (i) a human population increase and (ii) the number of assets located in floodable areas. In this regard, this paper analyses evolutions in flood damages and their causes in a Mediterranean area, the provinces of Alicante and Murcia, between 1996 and 2016. The duration of this period, from a flood risk management policy point of view, is very important because it encompasses one of the most important legislative periods at a national and European level. As a main result, this paper establishes a temporal and spatial pattern related to increases in flood damages and their main influence on coastal areas, respectively, due to certain economic, spatial and temporal factors. As a conclusion, these trends demonstrate the inefficiency of flood risk management policies, especially those connected with spatial planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social science researchers as well as legal practitioners in India are yet to explore how imprisonment of a person affects his or her entire familial set-up. The existing literature suggests myriad problems associated with the imprisonment of a family member, categorized under social, economic and psychological arenas. Methodologically, the present paper is based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted from March 2012 to February 2013 in Central Jail, Srinagar, with prisoners and their families. This paper primarily attempts to explore how imprisonment affects the families of prisoners? It also attempts to explore how families respond to the imprisonment of their family member, their coping patterns, their encounter with the wings of criminal justice system and other collateral damages. The study yielded multiple results ranging from disturbances in socio-economic affairs to disputes in inter-familial and intra-familial relationships and weakening of community ties besides other socio-economic disturbances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Yearbook of Antitrust & Regulatory Studies is the property of University of Warsaw and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Civil procedure for survivors of sexual abuse seeking damages is frequently criticized for its insensitivity to the needs of survivors. Class actions are often pointed to as a less harmful alternative. A review of the jurisprudence of sexual abuse class actions demonstrates how courts' thinking on the issue has evolved over the past two decades and gives clues as to where these actions are headed. This paper explores the experience of class action procedure from the perspectives of both representative plaintiffs and general class members. The needs of these two groups can at times conflict and lead to problems. There are also inherent issues that arise from the individual experience of trauma being litigated on aggregate. Based on the review of these experiences, this paper makes five key recommendations on ways class action procedure can be amended in the context of sexual abuse actions to accommodate the needs of survivors and otherwise be more trauma informed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of natural resource damage assessment (NRDA) is to compensate the public for losses to natural resources from past or ongoing hazardous releases, including losses that may persist into the future. Compensation is delivered in the form of restoration projects. Resolving NRDA liability requires balancing losses and restoration benefits over multiple decades and converting them into a present value for calculating appropriate damages. For the past two decades, NRDA practitioners have used a real discount rate of 3 % to convert losses and benefits to a present value equivalent. That rate was based, in part, on real historical yields on risk-free debt (e.g., the real rate of return on 3-month Treasury bills). Declining interest rates on risk-free debt in recent years has led to suggestions to reexamine the historical consensus discount rate. This paper reviews two alternative conceptual paradigms for selecting a discount rate in NRDA cases: the social rate of time preference and discount rates for tort cases. We summarize historical data for empirically implementing the two paradigms and discuss the ramifications of the different options. Based on our review, we suggest maintaining the 3 % consensus as a practical solution to a range of empirical candidates within the two conceptual paradigms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the damage caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake and the meaning of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant accident, and reflects on the evacuees' experiences over past 12 years. During this time, several lawsuits demanding the clarification of responsibility for the accident and compensation for damages have been filed against TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) and the Japanese Government. The "loss and transformation of hometowns (furusato in Japanese)" has become one of the key issues in these lawsuits. While the casees were being litigated, the mandated "evacuation designated zones" were gradually lifted. Even in the "Difficult‐to‐Return Areas" where annual integrated doses of radioactive substances are over 50 mSv and evacuation orders are still in effect, efforts are being made to lift the evacuation orders. Because they were forced to leave their places of residence, evacuees have claimed, "we lost oue furusato [hometown]." However, because they are able to return after evacuation orders are lifted, both TEPCO and the Japanese Government have insisted that "their furusato has not been lost" and "they cannot claim compensation for furusato damages." In this paper, I call the irreversible and absolute damage caused by the nuclear power plant accident "the deprivation of furusato." I look at furusato from three aspects: the relationship between people and nature, the connection between people, and notions of persistence and sustainability. Then, I discuss what kind of reconstruction is being promoted to respond to the deprivation of furusato and for whom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accompanied by the rapid popularization of camera surveillance devices, tremendous pedestrian images can be acquired. Since a huge part of surveillance cameras are deployed out-of-door, many obtained images may contain some kinds of flaws, such as content defection and tone disorder. In this paper, a newly designed adversarial framework, namely DD-GAN, is proposed which could simultaneously recover both mentioned image damages. DD-GAN consists of three parts: generator, tone discriminator and inpainting discriminator. DD-GAN emphasizes the fusion of image inpainting and tone correction through the GAN network. In this way, we construct two generative adversarial losses, for two completely different functions, achieving the efficient combination of tone correction and image inpainting. Extensive experiments are conducted to verified the effectiveness of the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Anales de Derecho is the property of Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Murcia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Collected Papers of the Law Faculty of the University of Rijeka / Zbornik Pravnog Fakulteta Sveučilišta u Rijeci is the property of Pravni fakultet Sveucilista u Rijeci and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper considers the impact and relevance of consequential losses in commercial property claims. As with all civil claims relating to property, the amount of damages sought should be a reflection of the claimant's loss as a result of the breaches of covenant. In some instances, this is much more than the cost of the works required to remedy any physical breaches of contract. By the same token, due to the effect of section 18(1) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1927, the loss can be significantly less than the cost of works. This is because section 18(1) seeks to limit damages for breaches of repairing obligations in leases to the impact of those breaches on the value of the landlord's interest under consideration, be it leasehold or freehold. Further, section 18(1) introduces the concept of supersession whereby the cost of remedying a breach of contract is negated by the subsequent actions of the landlord. For example, the cost of remedying cracking in an internal partition wall is rendered nugatory if the same wall is subsequently demolished by the landlord. The cracking is irrelevant and no loss has been suffered. Whereas the preparation of a schedule of dilapidations is an essential first step in calculating the claimant's loss, the cost of works arrived at through the costed schedule should be seen as exactly that — an essential first step. Consideration also needs to be given to whether the scheduled works are actually representative of the consequences of the breaches on the value of the interest. This will entail looking at the likely future of the building following the end of any tenancies, the state of the property market at the time those tenancies end and in particular whether rental levels are stable, volatile or somewhere in between. In many instances, this will involve discussion with practitioners in other disciplines associated with the property cycle. As important as the consideration of valuation, diminution and supersession to the assessment of loss is the analysis of the many different areas in which consequential losses may apply. These are complicated and potentially taxing areas but are no less relevant to the calculations of loss as those posed by the principles expressed by section 18(1). This paper seeks to explore the principles surrounding consequential losses so that practitioners will have an understanding to enable them to consider the types and magnitude of those applying to their various situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, to study the frequency and severity of traffic accidents, a combination of geographic information system and spatial analysis has been used. For this purpose, methods of planar and network statistics including kernel density estimation and nearest neighbor distance analysis were applied for three types of accidents including fatal, injury, and material property damages. In addition, drawbacks of the traditional planar point pattern and the benefits of network analysis are offered. The network statistics are executed through SANET version 4 and ArcMap on the Semnan–Garmsar road in Iran. The nearest neighbor output analysis is consist of four curves, and regarding the fact that the amounts for accidents resulting in fatalities, injuries, and damages, the observed value curve is above the 5% confidence interval; accidents in the study region are more clustered than would be expected by random chance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In this paper, aluminum beams in undamaged status and with single and double damage scenarios as slots with the ratio of the slot depth to the beam thickness of 7% and 28% were constructed at the University of Lisbon, Portugal. Then, with the help of the shrearography method, the modal rotations of each beam were calculated for the first to third vibration mode shapes. By deriving the modal rotations, the modal strains were obtained and introduced as the input of 22 different families of 2D wavelet transforms with three different scales 1, 7, and 15. Utilizing the wavelet coefficients as damage indices, the results showed that the sensitivity of modal curvatures is higher than other modal data for identifying the location of damages. In addition, among scales 1, 7, and 15, considering scale 7 for wavelet families provides more suitable results. On the other hand, the sinc and isodog wavelet families showed a better ability to reveal the damage location than other wavelets. Investigating the ratio of the maximum value of the wavelet coefficients in the middle part of the beams to the maximum value of the wavelet coefficients in the boundaries showed that among the two selected wavelets, sinc and isodog, the sinc wavelet is more sensitive than the isodog wavelet in identifying damages with obtained results of 0.81, 7.81 and 27.10 for first, second and third damage scenarios, respectively. And therefore, it can be considered the best wavelet for detecting artificial damage in the tested aluminum beams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial intelligence (AI) systems advising healthcare professionals will be widely introduced into healthcare settings within the next 5–10 years. This paper considers how this will sit with tort/negligence based legal approaches to compensation for medical error. It argues that the introduction of AI systems will provide an additional argument pointing towards no-fault compensation as the better legal solution to compensation for medical error in modern health care systems. The paper falls into four parts. The first part rehearses the main arguments for and against no-fault compensation. The second explains why it is likely that AI systems will be widely introduced. The third part analyses why it is difficult to fit AI systems into fault-based compensation systems while the final part suggests how no-fault compensation could provide a possible solution to such challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For nearly two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented disruption to those living in Canada and around the world. To curb its spread and mitigate its impacts, all levels of government have taken drastic measures to limit movement and social gathering. This has prompted plaintiffs to launch class proceedings alleging unjustifiable violations of Charter rights and to claim awards in damages. This paper examines whether these proceedings are likely to be successful, and ultimately determines that they will not. This paper then argues that the status quo which supports this result is defensible and just. To estimate their likelihood of success, this paper first surveys the history of Charter class actions in Canada and then considers several that have emerged from the COVID-19 context. This paper then reviews the certification test, particularly the cause of action, common issues, and preferable procedure stages, and finds that it is reasonable to expect courts to certify at least some of these class actions. However, since these proceedings likely will and should be denied damages, this would in turn reduce the likelihood of future certification at the preferable procedure stage. Specifically, the Supreme Court of Canada outlined in Vancouver (City) v Ward that courts may refrain from granting damage awards where they would frustrate good governance. This is the main barrier to COVID-19 class actions, as liability in damages would dissuade governments from acting in the best interests of Canadians. As a result, courts should not grant these awards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Boko Haram insurgency brings with it unprecedented consequences, particularly in records of multiple deaths and devastating effects on socioeconomic dynamics of the nation. Since no state would stay without responding to threats to its national security, the federal government of Nigeria adopted both kinetic and non-kinetic approaches to counter the impact of terrorism on its shores. With several attacks from Boko Haram and the resultant consequences in terms of deaths, displacement and economic damages, the group has remained a potent force particularly in the Northeast and the Sahel region. In the midst of these contending realities is the Corona Virus Disease (COVID -19) that broke out from Wuhan, China in December 2019. Within the space of few months, the outbreak spiralled into a public health emergency and global pandemic; with rapid spread, high casualty rate and negative impacts on global health and economy. Accordingly, Nigeria like other nations was hit by the virus, causing disruption in its already fragile economy coupled with internal security threats. As a measure of containment, the global lockdown measures resulted in less economic patronage which translated into vulnerabilities like crime rate increase. While other countries were seeking answers to the question of health security, Nigeria was faced with the double tragedy of Boko Haram on one hand; and health insecurity on the other with attendant consequences. In this view, application of technology in combating insecurity as well as health emergencies will be the way to go, particularly, in a world that is technologically driven. This paper examines the imperative of technology in counter insurgency operations. It will adopt the historical approach in its analysis to build a pragmatic approach to reversing the trend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The GDPR should have strong and effective enforcement mechanisms. However, in practice, these mechanisms are lacking, as Data Protection Authorities (DPAs) are underfunded and undermanned. Collective claims could be a solution. By pooling resources, individually insignificant damages (scattered damages) can be claimed in an economically sensible way. To facilitate collective claims, in December 2020 the European Union (EU) adopted a new directive containing a union-wide framework for collective claims. This paper explores whether collective claims are a feasible enforcement mechanism for data protection violations given the concept of damages under article 82 GDPR. So, it will be explained what types of damages can be claimed collectively. The current concept of damages under article 82 GDPR is analysed at the EU level, taking into account the principle of autonomy, case law, and literature. This will show the boundaries within which Member States must operate when awarding damages under the GDPR. The paper explores the Dutch jurisdiction, to illustrate the interchange between EU law and Member state law. The Dutch jurisdiction is of special interest here, first, because Dutch courts have recently been applying the GDPR to award damages of up to € 2,500 per case. Second, because the Dutch framework for collective damages was renewed in 2020, which contains many similarities with the Collective Claim Directive. Currently, several collective GDPR claims have been filed in the Netherlands under the new framework, with a collective worth of several billion euros. A 'perfect storm' is forming due to the combination of stronger collective claims frameworks and a tentative trend to award non-pecuniary GDPR damages on an individual level. GDPR non-compliance can thus lead to multi-billion claims that scale with the number of victims. Such claims can dwarf even the heftiest GDPR fines DPAs can impose. Collective GDPR claims have the potential to become a bright scenario for data subjects and daring legal entrepreneurs, and to result in a daunting future for data controllers and processors, who face scalable liability in a world of scalable business models. However, all hinges on the concept of damages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with the system of employer's insurance for damages in the event of a work accident or occupational disease from the perspective of financial law (especially tax law). First of all, the author discusses the theoretical nature of this insurance and its establishment in the Czech legal system. In the following parts of the paper, the author deals with further legal implications of the results of his findings, namely whether the paid insurance premium has the character of a tax or an insurance premium from a theoretical point of view. He then places these results in the context of the assessment of constitutionality within the meaning of Article 11(5) and Article 4(1) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flood events bring havoc to transportation assets including bridges, culverts, and roadways on an annual basis. This has been an increasing trend in the recent years, especially in Midwestern states. Millions of dollars are spent to repair or replace transportation infrastructure every year due to damage suffered from floods. With a major drive within transportation agencies to consider the risks associated with transportation asset damages, and provide optimized plans for pre-event mitigation and postevent recovery, there is a need for better estimation of the type of damages observed after inland flood events and the associated costs for the repair and recovery of these damages. Most previous studies have focused on recovery after earthquakes, which by nature imposes a different organizational and response effect on the agencies. The limited number of studies on other hazards such as coastal flooding is based on sparse survey data. This paper specifically aims to address the existing gap in the availability of data on damages and costs that are observed after actual inland flood events. For this purpose, the damage patterns associated with scour, high water levels, debris accumulation, abutment wash out, and other damages have been identified. The extreme flood events throughout a 16-year span (1998–2014) that were documented as part of the emergency relief funds have been considered. Repair tasks associated with each damage mode are identified based on actual project documents and costs are broken down by each of these tasks. This component by itself is a leap forward in collection of types of damages and associated costs for inland flood events. In addition, generalized linear models are conducted to identify the relationships between flood stage, bridge characteristics, and damage level using both Gaussian and binomial distributions of the responses. Analyses shows that the maximum water elevation at a bridge location is statistically significant in determining the probability of bridge damage. There are also many other bridge attributes including length, width, skew angle, and pier width that have a correlation to different damage modes of bridges. A series of National Bridge Inventory condition ratings are analyzed with the scour criticality rating and superstructure rating both being significant predictors in the probability of multiple bridge damage modes. This paper is the first known effort aims at identifying the type of damages associated with inland flood events, the associated repair tasks, and costs of recovery through a coordinate data collection effort from actual events and completed projects and is expected to majorly contribute to future studies aimed at assessing the resilience of transportation infrastructure under inland flooding events by providing better estimates of the recovery tasks and costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an alternative to the workhorse linear OLS regression model when predicting "but-for" prices in cartel damage estimation. By replicating the dataset from a prominent Vitamin C antitrust case of price-fixing, I show that a supervized machine learning algorithm achieves more accurate predictions of prices based on cross-validated out-of-sample testing than the OLS model applied by the court expert. The machine learning algorithm is therefore better suited in this case to predict prices for the counterfactual scenario that no cartel existed, and to calculate damages based on those predictions. I find that the machine learning algorithm p redicts damages that are 14% lower than those predicted by the court expert's OLS model. Given that millions of dollars are usually at stake in cartel litigation cases, it is recommended that machine learning algorithms should be in the toolbox of practitioners attempting to derive the most accurate estimate of cartel-related damages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]