From Marrakesh to Glasgow: Looking Backward to Move Forward on Emissions Trading

The Paris Rulebook—nearly complete, but with the ‘markets’ text tied to Article 6 of the Paris Agreement unadopted after nearly three years—invites comparison with a similar effort under the Kyoto Protocol: the Marrakesh Accords. This article compares the Paris Rulebook and the 2001 Marrakesh Accords implementing the Kyoto Protocol as a way of exploring the similarities and differences in regulatory design between the two sub-regimes and their implications for sustainability and climate integrity. An in-depth analysis of the negotiating history and the text of the two instruments yields trenchant and perhaps unexpected conclusions. Issues that plagued the Marrakesh Accords also appear in similar form in the Paris Rulebook discussions around Article 6; however, because of the difference in structure between the two treaties, even more complex issues have arisen in the Rulebook negotiations. The article reflects on the fundamentally different purpose of the ‘markets’ text in the Rulebook in comparison with its Kyoto/Marrakesh precursor, as well as on the implications of those differences for the Article 6 negotiations.

Programmed Cell Death in Plants: Insights Into developmental and Stress-Induced Cell Death

: Programmed cell death (PCD) is a fundamental genetically controlled process in most organisms. PCD is responsible for the selective elimination of damaged or unwanted cells and organs to maintain cellular homeostasis during the organ’s development under normal conditions as well as during defense or adaptation to stressful conditions. PCD pathways have been extensively studied in animals. In plants, studies focusing on understanding the pathways of PCD have advanced significantly. However, the knowledge about the molecular basis of PCD is still very limited. Some PCD pathways that have been discovered in animals are not present in plants or found with a similar form. PCD in plants is developmentally controlled (by endogenous factors) to function in organ development and differentiations as well as environmentally induced (by exogenous stimuli) to help the plant in surviving under stress conditions. Here, we present a review of the role of PCD in plant development and explore different examples of stress-induced PCD as well as highlight the main differences between the plant and animal PCD.

SL(3, ℤ) Modularity and New Cardy limits of the $$ \mathcal{N} $$ = 4 superconformal index

The entropy of 1/16-th BPS AdS5 black holes can be microscopically accounted for by the superconformal index of the $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 4 super-Yang-Mills theory. One way to compute this is through a Cardy-like limit of a formula for the index obtained in [1] using the “S-transformation” of the elliptic Γ function. In this paper, we derive more general SL(3, ℤ) modular properties of the elliptic Γ function. We then use these properties to obtain a three integer parameter family of generalized Cardy-like limits of the $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 4 superconformal index. From these limits, we obtain entropy formulae that have a similar form as that of the original AdS5 black hole, up to an overall rescaling of the entropy. We interpret this both on the field theory and the gravitational side. Finally, we comment on how our work suggests a generalization of the Farey tail to four dimensions.

Blasius–Rayleigh–Stokes flow of nanofluid past an isothermal magnetized surface

The present article investigated the unsteady flow of a nanofluid past an isothermal magnetized plate emanating from a moving slot. This unique form of unsteady boundary layer flow is analogous to stretching/shrinking sheet problems subject to the direction of motion of the slot. Governing partial differential equation can be reduced into a similar form using the Blasius–Rayleigh–Stokes variable. The consequences of the movable slot and magnetic field on flow and heat transfer of nanofluid are examined by solving the problem numerically. The behavior of the magnetic field in the presence of nanoparticles is also examined. Effects of the magnetic field upon the existence of dual solutions for the specific range of moving slot parameter are also studied in detail.

Governance by Perpetual Conflict: How Early Colonial Political Practices Undermine Democracy in Post-Civil War Sri Lanka

The 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka established a semi-presidential system within the country with constitutional provisions for a powerful executive presidency. Three decades later, practices of the presidents in the post-war period show commonalities with the Sinhala monarchy that prevailed in early colonial Sri Lanka. To substantiate this argument, this paper focuses on four kings from the Sithavaka and Kandyan kingdoms who reigned in Sri Lanka during the Portuguese colonization and the early years of Dutch colonization, i.e. from 1521 to 1687. These kings governed by feeding off perpetual conflict, using such as a political tool to retain their dictatorial authority and political relevance. Despite being formally constrained by the 1978 Constitution, presidents in the post-war period engage in a similar form of governance. However, this local conceptualization of the executive as a monarch clashes with the substantive democratic rationality of the office of president, which requires constitutional and political checks that apply beyond elections. Due to this clash between governance by perpetual conflict, which gains legitimacy from and has been instituted since Sri Lanka’s early colonial past, and democratic governance, the establishment of democratic constitutional norms within the country has been unstable.

Writing and Pre-Writing in Early Archaic Methone and Eretria

This chapter concentrates on the important collections of early graffiti and non-alphabetic marks recently published from Methone and Eretria, and dating to the late eighth and early seventh centuries. It picks up Jeffery's emphasis on the materiality of writing, examining their placing on the whole pot or sherd, and it asks what these new graffiti contribute to our views about the spread of the early alphabet. It makes particular use of the graffiti which are not alphabetic, but which seem from placing and appearance to be engaged in a similar form of marking and communication to the obviously alphabetic marks. It argues that these early graffiti do not show the alphabet as necessarily trying to recreate sound or speech, but do show why there was such an impetus to take over the alphabet. In Methone and Eretria we see the 'seed bed' for the rapid spread of the alphabet.

Consciousness as a new form of the matter’s state

The article discusses the physical model of the implicative form of Consciousness in the form of a holographic wave matrix, for which the material basis is directly the phase environment that fills the entire Space. It is shown that a similar form of Consciousness that exists outside the human brain can be represented as a kind of software shell that controls all forms of matter by implementing a fractal cyclic iterative algorithm. The condition for the completion of each iterative cycle at each scale level is the observance of the laws of symmetry that ensure the survival of the object in the process of copying-incarnation.

Some Linguistic Features of the Baeu Rodo Scriptures

Zhuang, one of the fifty-six ethnic groups in China, enjoys the second largest population among all members in the Chinese family. The Baeu Rodo scriptures, a reflection of the Zhuang culture, are recited by indigenous ritual specialists called boumo for the important life-circle ceremonies of betrothal, marriage, birth, and death, or for cases of dealing with quarrels, summoning lost souls, and driving away devils. Based on the Baeu Rodo texts, it is concluded that the most impressive linguistic features of the Baeu Rodo scriptures are versification, waist-rhyme, and balanced repetition. The scriptures are written predominantly in five-syllable verse and they are in poetic form. Waist-rhyme is a rhyme in which the last syllable in the first line of a stanza rhymes with the middle syllable in the following line, which is extremely different from a rhyme in English. Balanced repetition refers to the structures that are in similar form and function and equal length but usually occur in two or more lines in verse, expressing the same idea or contrasting ones. The discussion of these striking features of the Baeu Rodo scriptures is of great significance, leading to a better understanding of the texts which serve as carriers of the traditional Zhuang culture and promoting the intercultural communication between the Zhuang people and the English people.

Normalisation and subformula property for a system of classical logic with Tarski’s rule

This paper considers a formalisation of classical logic using general introduction rules and general elimination rules. It proposes a definition of ‘maximal formula’, ‘segment’ and ‘maximal segment’ suitable to the system, and gives reduction procedures for them. It is then shown that deductions in the system convert into normal form, i.e. deductions that contain neither maximal formulas nor maximal segments, and that deductions in normal form satisfy the subformula property. Tarski’s Rule is treated as a general introduction rule for implication. The general introduction rule for negation has a similar form. Maximal formulas with implication or negation as main operator require reduction procedures of a more intricate kind not present in normalisation for intuitionist logic.

A Symmetric Three Degree of Freedom Tensegrity Mechanism with Dual Operation Modes for Robot Actuation

Tensegrity robots that use bio-inspired structures have many superior properties over conventional robots with regard to strength, weight, compliance and robustness, which are indispensable to planetary exploration and harsh environment applications. Existing research has presented various tensegrity robots with abundant capabilities in broad scenarios but mostly not focused on articulation and manipulability. In this paper, we propose a novel tensegrity mechanism for robot actuation which greatly improves the agility and efficiency compared with existing ones. The design integrates two separate tensegrity substructures inspired by shoulder and hip joints of the human body and features a similar form to a hexapod platform. It mitigates detrimental antagonistic forces in the structural network for optimising actuation controllability and efficiency. We validated the design both on a prototype and in a Chrono Engine simulation that represents the first physically accurate simulation of a wheeled tensegrity robot. It can reach up to approximately 58.9∘, 59.4∘ and 47.1∘ in pitch, yaw and roll motion, respectively. The mechanism demonstrates good agility and controllability as an actuated robot linkage while preserving desirable properties of tensegrity structures. The design would potentially inspire more possibilities of agile tensegrity implementations that enable future robots with enhanced compliance, robustness and efficiency without a tradeoff.