Neutrality Rules Research Articles

Limited Practical Effect of APEC ODR: A Comparative Analysis of Platform ODR and APEC ODR

Abstract: The actual demand and effect of the ODR (Online Dispute Resolution) mechanism in the field of cross-border e-commerce dispute resolution are relatively limited, and the protection of the ODR mechanism within small and medium-sized cross-border e-commerce platforms is insufficient. The reasons why the ODR mechanism cannot be fully applied to such platform disputes include the complexity of cross-border, diverse types of disputes, cost of time and money, and limited scope of application of the ODR mechanism. In addition, the lack of neutrality and standardized operating rules of the ODR mechanism within the e-commerce platform directly affects the fairness of dispute resolution. Although APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) ODR mechanism has shown significant advantages in improving efficiency and ensuring information security, it fails to effectively balance efficiency and fairness in terms of application scope and practical effect. Based on this, there are insufficient fairness problems in the automatic process mechanism, evidence collection procedure, and process deadline setting in the APEC ODR process. In the future, the APEC ODR and other international dispute resolution mechanisms will continue to be more internationalized and standardized. In addition, we have to be alert to the anti-globalization risks reflected in the APEC ODR, avoid geopolitical interferences as much as possible, and prevent the emergence of trade protectionism.

Equitable, neutral, and efficient voting rules

In the context of voting, Moulin (1980) establishes that anonymity, neutrality, and efficiency are often incompatible unless one accepts indecision (i.e. ties). We show that versions of this incompatibility continue to hold for a natural weakening of anonymity proposed by Bartholdi et al. (2021) called equity. As equity is a relatively weak fairness requirement, the tension between fairness and efficiency in voting is deeper than previously established.

CPTPP State-Owned Enterprise Rules and Our Countermeasures

State-owned enterprises (soes) play an important role in the global economy. Some developed countries believe that because of the state nature of SOES, SOES enjoy more privileges and unfair competitive advantages than private enterprises, including government subsidies and regulatory incentives, so that their market competitiveness and overall strength are strong. In order to get rid of the “Official business” advantage of state-owned enterprises, promote the equal competition between state-owned enterprises and private enterprises, and reduce the concern of state-owned enterprises, the rules of our state-owned enterprises are gradually formed. For the first time in the international market, CPTPP specifically regulates the rules of state-owned enterprises. Compared with other free trade agreements, cPTPP's SOE rules are characterized by stronger competition neutrality rules, wider scope of application, more non-commercial aid rules and higher transparency. In the context of China's imminent accession to CPTPP, this paper analyzes the regulation of our state-owned enterprises that have signed the free trade agreement, and finds that the number of state-owned enterprises to be regulated in the free trade agreement is small and the level of regulation is low. Therefore, we must actively negotiate the new issues of state-owned enterprises and actively participate in the construction of international rules of state-owned enterprises. For the CPTPP high-level SOE rules negotiation, we should follow China's national conditions, study the introduction of ownership-neutral competition-neutral principle as the core, and further deepen the reform of state-owned enterprises, state-owned enterprises to standardize the way of subsidies.

Rapid identification of chemical components and screening of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors from Dalbergia odorifera based on mass defect and diagnostic ion filtering strategy, affinity ultrafiltration, and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.

Dalbergia odorifera is a natural product rich in pharmacological ingredients, but the comprehensive characterization and rapid profiling of active components remain a challenge. Thus, an integrated data mining and identification strategy was exploited to efficiently identify the chemical constituents and screen acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEIs) through affinity ultrafiltration and ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (AUF-UHPLC-MS). As a result, polygonal mass defect filtering, diagnostic product ions, and neutral loss rules were created for rapid structural classification and component identification. A total of 140 flavonoids were tentatively characterized, including 41 isoflavonoids, 23 flavanones, 21 isoflavans, 19 flavones and flavonols, 13 neoflavonoids, 11 isoflavanones, seven flavone glycosides, and five chalcones. Subsequently, six natural AChEIs including tectorigenin, fisetin, dalbergin, pterostilbene, isoliquiritigenin, and biochanin A were screened out using AUF-UHPLC-MS and molecular docking. Meanwhile, the AChE inhibitory activities of the six compounds were assessed in vitro, tectorigenin, fisetinand, and dalbergin have moderate inhibitory activity. In conclusion, a novel strategy for systematic characterization and further screening of active compounds in natural products was established, which provides a material basis for quality control of Dalbergia odorifera.

Experimental research and engineering application on bearing capacity of concrete-filled steel tube circular arch

The bearing property and deformation failure law of the CFST circular arch were investigated in order to provide direction for the optimization of the concrete-filled steel tube (CFST) support. The flexural bearing capacity test of the 194 mm × 10 mm CFST was performed initially in this study. It was primarily explored how bearing capacity and deformation of circular arches were affected by the slip of the arch foot and anti-bending strengthening, and the neutral layer migration rule and anti-bending strengthening mechanism of circular arches were examined. The bearing performance of the circular arch under the condition of the concentrated load of the vault and the usual uniform load of the entire span is then simulated in an orthogonal test by numerical simulation in order to extend the experimental investigation. The effect of variables including the steel tube’s outer diameter, thickness, slip of the arch foot, and the ratio of the arch rise to span on the bearing capacity of the circular arch is examined. The study demonstrates that under focused stress on the arch top or full-span normal uniform loading, the arch foot slip is the most important element impacting the CFST support’s bearing capacity. In steel tubes with the same outer diameter and wall thickness, the vector span ratio has a bigger influence than anti-bending strengthening. When the span ratio is the same, the influence of the outer diameter and wall thickness are equal and outweigh the influence of bending strengthening. The circular arch with an outside diameter of 168 mm, a wall thickness of 10 mm, and a rise-span ratio of 0.207 has the best performance characteristics under the influence of concentrated load, and the ultimate failure mechanism is local waist drum deformation failure. Based on the aforementioned study findings, the circular CFST support’s buckling deformation and drum deformation are examined, and a composite support consisting of “anchor net spray + CFST support” is directed for the north three deep track downhill of Yangcheng Coal Mine. Two failure types expose the failure mechanism and provide a technique for optimization. The support had contributed to the circular CFST arc arch’s best bearing performance in the event of waist drum deformation and failure.

Development of Chinas Front-End Automotive Industry in a Carbon-Neutral Environment

Carbon neutrality has a significant impact on Chinas ecological environment and sustainable economic development. In recent years, China has implemented many regulations on industries with high carbon emissions, especially onto the automotive industry. These regulations are not limited to controlling carbon emissions, relevant economic policies, and encouragement for the production of new energy vehicles. To investigate the potential factors that significantly influence the growth of the automobile sector, this article analyzes data from Chinas leading automotive industry in recent years. The findings show that the sales and carbon emissions of new energy vehicles have a significant positive correlation with the development of the automotive industry, while government subsidies have a negative correlation with the development of the automotive industry. This demonstrates the detrimental effects of carbon neutrality rules on the automobile sector, leading to the key conclusions that, from the standpoint of long-term growth, research on new energy vehicle should be prioritized.

Lifting a regulatory millstone around 5G investors’ neck – 5G network slicing versus EU-net neutrality?

Highly quality-sensitive 5G use cases, such as metaverse-type applications, connected and autonomous driving or digitalised health applications, are the future of the mobile internet. These use cases will rely on 5G network slicing technology to ensure scalability and individually calibrated Quality of Service (QoS) levels. New electronic communications services ensuring specific QoS levels are subject to EU-net neutrality rules laid down in Regulation (EU) 2015/2120 and are currently being assessed by national regulatory authorities (NRAs) on a case-by-case basis. As acknowledged by the European Commission (EC) in its recent report on the implementation of the provisions of Regulation (EU) 2015/2120, this case-by-case approach results in legal uncertainty and acts as barrier to investments and innovation. In particular, it is often unclear to internet service providers (ISPs) if innovative quality-sensitive content, applications or services may be delivered via specialised services in accordance with Article 3 (5) of Regulation (EU) 2015/2120. The purpose of the article is to show a way to enhance legal certainty in the application of Article 3 (5) of Regulation (EU) 2015/2120 while preserving the fundamental digital rights of end-users regarding equal and non-discriminatory treatment of data traffic by ISPs as well as transparency. Specifically, striking this delicate balance could be achieved by introducing rebuttable presumptions to shift the burden of proving that “optimisation is necessary in order to meet requirements of the content, applications or services for a specific level of quality” (Article 3 (5) subpara. 1 of Regulation (EU) 2015/2120) and that specialised services are “not […] to the detriment of the availability or general quality of internet access services for end-users” (Article 3 (5) subpara. 2 of Regulation (EU) 2015/2120) away from ISPs and towards NRAs.

Quadratically Constrained Linear Programming-based energy-efficient driving for High-speed Trains with neutral zone and time window

Among the numerous challenges that are faced during the daily operation of high-speed rail, the management of the neutral zones in the catenary during unexpected disturbances remains underinvestigated. This study proposes a computerised method for managing the operations of a high-speed train with regenerative braking for passing neutral zones under disturbance to minimise energy consumption. For the first time, different mechanism-based Automatic Passing Neutral Zone systems, including the Magnetic Induction System and Automatic Train Protection, are analysed and modelled as location-based and time-based constraints, respectively. Motion constraints caused by disturbances are described by time windows. Forced coasting and air brake-allowed passing neutral zone rules are considered in these models. The original nonlinear model with location-based constraints is transcribed as a quadratically constrained linear model and then solved. The optimality consistency and its establishment condition between the original and transcribed models are analysed based on the Karush–Kuhn–Tucker conditions. A high-quality solution is obtained when the establishment condition holds. The model with time-based constraints is novelly transformed into an optimal switching point problem. A series of sub-problems are iteratively and efficiently solved. Comprehensive experiments are conducted based on practical data from a high-speed rail system in China. The proposed method is significantly beneficial when compared to Mixed-integer Linear Programming and Artificial Driving Algorithms. Moreover, the impacts of different mechanism-based automatic passing neutral zone systems, operation rules, and a combination of time window settings are extensively analysed.

Monitoring of the Tolitoli Regency Bawaslu on Violations of the Neutrality of the State Civil Apparatus in the Implementation of the 2020 Regional Head Elections

Neutrality is a principle that must be obeyed by all civil servants. However, several ASN’ in Tolitoli Regency were proven to have taken non-neutral actions towards pairs of Regional Head candidates in the 2020 Pilkada. The purpose of this study was to analyze how the monitoring of ASN neutrality in the Tolitoli Regency Pilkada resulted in violations. This study used empirical normative methods with qualitative descriptive analysis, namely studies laws that view law as principles, norms and their application in practice in society, produce descriptive data in the form of research notes or data found in the field. The results of the study revealed the lack of neutrality of ASN in Tolitoli Regency as evidenced by violations and facts on the ground, that violations of the principle of neutrality committed by ASN were due to weak sanctions achieved, there were still ASN’ who could not understand in detail the rules of neutrality regarding how to act neutrality. Perpetrators of violations are only subject to moral sanctions and are given administrative action in accordance with statutory regulations. In fact, this punishment did not make ASN afraid to commit violations and there were even ASN employees who received two KASN recommendations

The New Haven School Matters: An Inquiry into Insights of the Policy-oriented Jurisprudence for the Pedagogy of International Law in Iran

While the scope of the theories of international law has expanded over the past decades, the formalist rule-oriented approaches are still dominant scholarly traditions in Iranian legal studies. Describing the internal structure of the New Haven School of international law, the author suggests that the Iranian community of international law may embrace the methodological frame of policy-oriented jurisprudence in doctrinal legal research. It is an irrefutable fact that the rule-oriented schools (including positivism and natural law) could provide compelling insights into some features of international law; however, a profound understanding of the dynamic and changing process of international lawmaking requires moving beyond a set of supposedly fair and neutral legal rules. The policy-oriented perspective has provided a variety of intellectual tools and concepts (including the elements of the world constitutive process: participants, perspectives, arenas of decisions, bases of power, strategies and outcomes) to identify and influence the comprehensive process of authoritative decisions.

Allied Attestations: Troubling a Progressive Goodwill and ‘Duty to Speak Out’

ABSTRACT Increasingly fraught disputes over education have elevated local school boards as key sites of inquiry. In this critical ethnography, we examine how ostensibly neutral school board rules, routines, and relations play out in practice. We asked, How do (queer) youth of color proponents, white opponents, and white allies of an anti-oppressive educational program exercise their agency within the organizational contexts of one suburban California school board? Drawing on our field notes and 146 school board testimonies, we argue that white allies leveraged their social positioning (e.g. “As a white male …”) to counteract white opponents’ reactionary grassroots campaign. These allied attestations expressed progressive goodwill and yet reified violent hierarchies of human being that naturalized (queer) youth of color as illegitimate knowers. We discuss how an ethic of co-witnessing might interrupt hierarchies of truth and being encoded in school board organizational settings.

Gender wage and longevity gaps and the design of retirement systems

We study the design of pension benefits for male and female workers. Women live longer than men but have a lower wage. Individuals can be single or live in couples who pool their incomes. Social welfare is utilitarian but an increasing concave transformation of individuals’ lifetime utilities introduces the concern for redistribution across individuals with different lifespans.We derive the optimal direction of redistribution and show how it is affected by a gender neutrality rule. With singles only, a simple utilitarian solution implies redistribution from males to females. When the transformation is sufficiently concave redistribution may or may not be reversed. With couples only, the ranking of gender retirement ages is always reversed when the transformation is sufficiently concave.Under gender neutrality pension schemes must be self-selecting. Gender neutrality implies distortions of retirement decisions, limits redistribution and, negatively affects the group towards which redistribution is targeted. With couples, a first best that implies a lower retirement age for females can be implemented by a gender-neutral system. Otherwise, gender neutrality implies equal retirement ages and restricts the possibility to compensate the shorter-lived individuals. Calibrated simulations show that when singles and couples coexist, gender neutrality substantially limits redistribution in favor of single women and fully prevents redistribution in favor of male spouses.

NEUTRAL RIGHTS AND COLLECTIVE COUNTERMEASURES FOR ERGA OMNES VIOLATIONS

AbstractThe Western response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine has featured remarkable solidarity over diplomatic and sanctioning initiatives. This unity of action, however, has largely not extended to developing or non-Western States. Many such States have, instead, expressed their non-alignment in respect of Western ‘economic warfare’, albeit not infrequently while also condemning Russia's military actions. This article proposes an approach to reconciling the positions of States in different economic, geopolitical and regional/cultural alignments. First, it suggests that current norms on State responsibility do not rule out using collective countermeasures against States accused of erga omnes norm violations, including via sanctions not authorised by the United Nations but rather imposed by coalitions. At the same time, however, it is argued that individual third-party States retain extensive rights to decide whether or not to participate in such initiatives. This autonomous agency can be derived, in part, through the continued applicability of traditional neutrality principles that require all sides to a conflict to respect the status of neutral States. As collective countermeasure initiatives come to be used more frequently in response to global conflicts, the ‘forgotten’ rules of neutrality provide a useful guide for balancing inter-State legal relations.

Research on the Development Trend of Competitive Neutrality Rules

The "competitive neutrality" rule has been recognized by more and more countries and organizations. In the future, the rules are likely to be transformed into formal international economic and trade rules with hard constraints and become an important part of the new generation of international economic and trade rules. The core content of the rule includes three aspects. The first is to regulate the state's exercise of ownership of state-owned assets, the second is to require state-owned enterprises to improve corporate governance on the basis of corporatization, and the third is to require open and transparent management and operation of state-owned enterprises. In the future, the development of competitive neutrality rules will also face certain challenges.

T-spherical fuzzy information aggregation with multi-criteria decision-making

<abstract><p>T-spherical fuzzy sets (T-SPFSs) have gained popularity because of their ability to account for uncertainty more effectively and spanning a larger domain. The sum of the t-$ th $ power of membership grades in T-SPFSs is close to a unit interval, allowing for greater uncertainty. As a result, this set outperforms traditional fuzzy structures. The "multi-criteria decision-making" (MCDM) approach is a widely used technique that requires the use of some aggregation tools, and various such aggregation operators (AOs) have been developed over the years to achieve this purpose. The purpose of this paper is to propose some new operational laws and AOs for use in a T-spherical fuzzy environment. In this regard, we presented some new neutral or fair operational rules that combine the concept of proportional distribution to provide a neutral or fair solution to the membership, abstinence, and non-membership of T-spherical fuzzy numbers (T-SPFNs). Based on the obtained operational rules, we presented the "T-spherical fuzzy fairly weighted average operator" and the "T-spherical fuzzy fairly ordered weighted averaging operator". Compared to earlier methodologies, the proposed AOs provide more generalised, reliable, and accurate information. In addition, under T-SPFSs, an MCDM approach is developed employing suggested AOs with several decision-makers (DMs) and partial weight details. Finally, to demonstrate the applicability of the innovative technique, we give an actual case study of "food waste treatment technology" (FWTT) selection under T-SPFSs scenarios. A comparison with an existing model has also been undertaken to confirm the validity and robustness of the acquired results.</p></abstract>

Testa-ing the Limits of Neutral Rules: Judicial Federalism After Spokeo and TransUnion

Testa-ing the Limits of Neutral Rules: Judicial Federalism After Spokeo and TransUnion

War or peace? – International legal issues concerning the use of force in the Russia–Ukraine conflict

AbstractThe Russian Federation launched an armed invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, resulting in an international armed conflict of a level unprecedented since the Second World War. This article attempts to clarify the main international legal issues concerning the use of force and the support to of the belligerent parties. In the first part, it evaluates the Russian claims that the use of force is in accordance with the rules of international law, i.e. whether self-defence, the protection of nationals or humanitarian intervention could justify the intervention. In the second part, it investigates whether supporting one of the belligerent parties, especially Ukraine, could amount to a violation of the rules of neutrality or even constitute participation in the Russia–Ukraine conflict.

Informal Application of Islamic Rules in Turkey: The Imposition by RTÜK of Islamic Ethics on Television Broadcasting

ABSTRACT This article studies Islamisation in Turkey by analysing some performances of the Supreme Council of Radio and Television (RTÜK), the state agency with the duty of licensing and supervising the various media organizations. As the article demonstrates, Islamisation at RTÜK occurs with its informal incorporation of Islamic ethical principles in its professional decisions. This instance of Islamisation is significant, for it operates informally by engaging Islamic rules directly. RTÜK demonstrates neatly how a state agency can reference Islamic principles in the very act of justifying the rationale of its official decisions about the content of the media organ under its review. It is with such analyses that this article aims to propose a more rigorous conceptualisation and explanation of Islamisation in Turkey than the ones commonly available in the literature: It provides an in-depth analysis of Islamisation in the news media, a field that Islamist political actors know full well to be strategic in the transformation of a society; and by demonstrating that Islamisation endeavours in Turkey are not confined to the obvious organs of propagandisation like the news media, but they penetrate informally also the supposedly neutral statutory rules and regulations.

Buyer beware: analysis of changes to the 2021 Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services physician fee schedule for shoulder surgeons Medicare physician fee schedule changes

BackgroundBecause of budget neutrality rules in the United States Congress, the rates for reimbursable medical expenses with Medicare have been on a recent and consistent decline. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) continued to proceed with cuts to the 2021 physician fee schedule. There has been an overall 3.3% decrease in the valuation of work relative value units per CMS guidelines. Conversely, CMS has increased the value of certain in office evaluation and management (E/M) services and changed the criteria for level of visit based on complexity of decision-making. The direct effects of these changes to shoulder and elbow surgeons are unknown. This study evaluates the effect of these changes in Medicare reimbursement from 2020 to 2021 among a group of high-volume shoulder and elbow surgeons. MethodsBilling data were queried for 9 fellowship-trained shoulder & elbow surgeons at a high-volume surgical practice from 2020 to 2021. Office-based E/M and surgical codes for shoulder arthroplasty and other common shoulder and elbow codes were used. We compared volume data and change to reimbursement using the 2020 and 2021 Medicare physician fee schedule. The impact of increased E/M billing levels using the new 2021 CMS criteria was also calculated and compared between years. ResultsComparing 2020 to 2021, there was a 18.7% decrease in level 3 visits (17,208 vs. 13,990) and a corresponding 371% increase in level 4 visits billed (1138 vs. 5362). Evaluating the overall impact of this shift on reimbursement from office-based E/M codes, there was a significant increase with an average of $57,954 per surgeon (range = $20,394-$118,916) for this group of 9 surgeons. However, surgical reimbursement for most commonly performed arthroscopic and open shoulder and elbow procedures decreased for 5 of 9 surgeons, with an average decrease of $13,015 (range = −$80,980 to $44,246). When arthroplasty reimbursements were combined with those for other common procedures, there was a decreased surgical reimbursement, totaling $117,135 for all surgeons combined. ConclusionIn this practice of 9 high-volume shoulder and elbow surgeons, a significant decrease in CMS reimbursement related to surgical procedural reimbursement from 2020 to 2021 was experienced. However, increasing the rates of E/M reimbursement and the augmented visit level rules helped offset and exceed the lost revenue from surgical procedures. Caution must be taken: this one time increase in office-based billing coupled with continued annual cuts to surgical procedure valuation is not a sustainable model moving forward. Level of EvidenceLevel IV; Retrospective Case Series; Economic Model.

Neutrosophic Fuzzy Association Rule Generation-Based Big Data Mining Analysis Algorithm

As a very common and classic big data (BD) mining algorithm, the association rule data mining (DM) algorithm is often used to determine the internal correlation between different items and set a certain threshold to determine the size of the correlation. However, the traditional association rule algorithm is more suitable for establishing Boolean association rules between different items of different types of data, and hardening the sharp boundaries of the data causes the performance of the association rules to decrease. In order to overcome this shortcoming of classic DM, this article introduces association rules, support and confidence, the Apriori algorithm and fuzzy association rules based on the neutrosophic fuzzy association rule (NFAR). This paper is based on the data set of the supermarket purchase goods database, by drawing a radar chart to describe the correlation between different goods and different item sets support, and confidence calculation based on association rules support. Finally, the association rules are generated. Compared to the results produced by NFAR and ordinary association rules, the accuracy of the NFAR association rules algorithm in small data sets is 88.48%, while the accuracy of traditional association rules algorithm is only 80.87%, nearly 8 percentage points higher. On large data sets, the prediction accuracy of the neutral fuzzy association rules algorithm is 95.68%, while that of the traditional method is only 89.63%. Therefore, the NFAR algorithm can improve the accuracy and effectiveness of DM. This algorithm has great application prospects and development space in big DM and analysis.