Category: research

China’s Perspective on the Relation of Sovereignty and Human Rights: The Practice and Reasons

China’s Perspective on the Relation of  Sovereignty and Human Rights: The Practice and Reasons

  1. Introduction

Different from the western countries, Chinese perceive the contemporary world order in a sovereignty-bound thinking. As a result, Chinese government sees state sovereignty as the basis of human rights[1], which overweighs the human rights to some extent. This perspective has caused a veritable and arguable explosion of human rights discussion[2].

After the Second World War, the Unite Nations has made the protection of human rights one of the most important issues in modern international society. As a permanent member of UN, China has laid more and more emphasis on the promotion of human rights and has achieved a lot during the past decades. However, China is still criticized and doubted by both of the west and domestic dissidents for China’s unique thought on the relationship between sovereignty and human rights, and for facts of the diminishing but existing human rights violations.

In order to confront with pressures from outside and inside, we need to give a solid and impartial understanding of China’s opinion. In doing so, this presentation will concentrate on the practice of the promotion on human rights and reasons of having the unique thoughts on the relationship between sovereignty and human rights of the People’s Republic of China. Inevitably, it first will give a brief overview of conceptions of sovereignty and human rights, and contentions on the relationship between the two to give a background of the discourse.

[1] See: Speech by Liu Huaqiu, Head of the Chinese Delegation at the World Conference on Human Rights(Vienna: Permanent Mission of the PRC to the United Nations in Vienna, 15 June 1993).

[2] Michael C. Davis, Chinese Perspectives on the Bangkok Declaration and the Development of Human Rights in Asia, 89 Am. Soc’y Int’l L. Proc. 157, 157 (1995).

 

M.Sun

电商利用个人信息的界限

电商利用个人信息的界限

摘要：有相当一部分“隐私权保护论者”认为应当对电商利用个人信息的行为进行严格限制，并将个人信息保护与所谓的“网络隐私权”等同。这种“唯隐私权保护至上”的观点，无视了电商的发展离不开数据的采集以及积极开发的现实。而本文将本着协调个人信息保护以及电子商务发展的思想，通过分析电子商务保护个人信息的实际困境；并在此基础上通过对于诸如个人信息的收集、二次利用以及归属等电商保护个人信息的争议问题的回应，大致勾画出电商保护个人信息的边界。从我国国情出发，文章认为在现阶段可以通过制定比较宽松的《个人信息保护法》，以对电商利用个人信息的行为进行规制。总体来说，我国应对电商利用个人信息的行为本着较为宽容的态度。

关键词：电子商务 个人信息 网络隐私权 保护边界

 

孙婧文

On the Relationship Between Viscosity and Surface Tension

Summary
Flow rates and pulling forces were measured in several solutions to determine the correlation between surface tension and viscosity. Because these fluid properties arise from intermolecular bonding, a positive correlation was expected. To study the relationship between viscosity and surface tension, solutions with different concentrations of agar and flour were used. Differences in viscosity were determined by differences in flow rate. The flow rates were determined from the time that the solutions took to flow through a tube. The surface tension (Newtons/meter) was determined by the pulling force exerted on a needle placed on the surface of the solution, which was weighed using grains of rice put on a scale. Surprisingly, we found that the solutions with a higher viscosity than water had either less or the same surface tension as water, and we suspect this is due to the unchanged intermolecular bonding of water molecules (hydrogen bonding) causing surface tension as viscosity increased. A possible explanation is that the viscosity of a fluid is influenced more by the friction caused by the interactions between large molecules with a lot of polar atoms, causing attraction between them.

Ruihan Wei, Ji-Hong Chen, Jan D. Huizinga

Click here for PDF file: September2014(1)

Temperature and precipitation responses to a stratospheric aerosol geoengineering experiment using the Community Climate System Model 4

Summary
As the global climate continues to change it may become critical to explore possibilities for climate intervention and remediation to counteract warming by greenhouse gases. One such ‘geoengineering solution’ proposes to inject reflective aerosol particles into the atmosphere to decrease insolation, the amount of radiation coming from the sun received by the Earth. Given constraints due to a lack of technology and restricted physical experimentation, we study the unintended potential consequences of this experimental solution by examining the temperature and precipitation response to historical scenarios, projected radiative forcing, and idealized geoengineering scenarios to counteract radiative forcing due to human influences, using the Community Climate System Model version 4, CCSM4. The model projects increased temperature globally, increased precipitation in the Tropical Pacific, and decreased precipitation in some semi-arid regions if climate change continues without mitigation. Although these changes are not as severe with geoengineering, global temperature and precipitation are still redistributed globally. This research helps to understand the possible effects of geoengineering on the radiative balance affecting the Earth’s temperature and hydrologic cycle.

Aspen Anderson and Toby Ault

Click here for PDF file: August2014(1)

The Analysis of the Effects of Smoke and Water Vapor on Insect Pheromone Communication and Physical Condition: An Investigation of the Causes of Colony Collapse Disorder

Summary
Since the outbreak of honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) disappearance in the phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder (CCD) in 2006, investigations dedicated to finding the causes of CCD have suggested possible factors; however, a singular cause has not yet been identified. This project aims at identifying how external factors in the environment, such as water vapor and smoke, can affect the social behavior and physical condition of honey bees. It was hypothesized that water vapor could block insect pheromone communication and that smoke could accumulate on the antennae of insects, interrupting pheromone communication. House crickets (Acheta domesticus) were used to test water vapor’s effect on pheromone communication because they communicate with pheromones like honey bees. Crickets were exposed to vinegar, mimicking the alarm pheromone, to confirm a social response. Next, we tested water vapor’s ability to block pheromone communication. To test the effect of smoke’s presence in the environment, red harvester ants (Pogonomyrmex barbatus) were used, due to their anatomical similarity to bees. The red harvester ant experiments measured the degree to which smoke particles accumulated on their body parts. The results showed that smoke particles did accumulate during exposure to smoke. This study provides evidence that external factors in the environment of insects may act as pheromone blocking agents and thus obstruct the insects’ ability to communicate through pheromone messages. This conclusion may provide an explanation for the observations in CCD such as the honey bee disappearance and diminishing health.

Orvill Delatorre and Ann Lambert