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Piracy at sea has existed almost since voyaging began and has been effectively subdued from time to time, principally by the Roman Imperial Navy in the 1st C and the British Navy in the 19th C. Over the past twenty five years piracy has once again been increasing such that it has now become of serious concern to the maritime community, in particular the seafarer, who as always bears the brunt of these attacks. In parallel with piracy itself the laws of piracy have developed from the Rhodian Laws through Roman Law, post Treaty of Westphalia Law both British and American until today the Law of Piracy is embodied in the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) of 1982. Under this Law piracy can only be committed on the high seas and with UNCLOS increasing the limit of the territorial sea from 3m1. to 12ml. many of the attacks upon shipping today cannot, legally, be classed as piracy but as armed robbery. Piracy and armed robbery at sea can consist of one or more of the following crimes upon the person: murder, violence actual or implied, rape, torture and disappearance and are considered a violation of the seafarers' human rights. The incidents and court cases cited in the thesis provide the basic information and evidence for this. On the high seas the flag state has jurisdiction over the ship flying its flag and all on board whatever their nationality. In the territorial sea the coastal state has jurisdiction over the safe passage of a ship and is responsible for maintaining order. Many of the states in whose territorial sea these attacks take place are considered failing states unable to maintain order at sea due to lack of political will, resources and corruption. These are matters of law, international relations and the structure of a globalised maritime industry. In effect this thesis argues that the flag or coastal State is failing by omission to uphold the human rights of the seafarer over whom it has jurisdiction. The seafarer may be able in one of the Human Rights Courts to obtain redress from these States but there are many prerequisites which are addressed in detail.

In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurde zunächst die Konservierung bekannter RpoS-assoziierter Funktionen für das V. cholerae Homolog untersucht. Dabei ergab die phänotypische Analyse der rpoS-Deletionsmutante, dass analog zu der Bedeutung als Regulator des Stationärphasen-Wachstums in E. coli, definierte Zelldichte-abhängige Eigenschaften in V. cholerae gleichermaßen der Kontrolle von RpoS unterliegen. In weiterführenden Experimenten konnte daraufhin die Konservierung der entsprechenden Promotorstrukturen über die funktionelle Komplementierung rpoS-abhängiger Gene durch das jeweils speziesfremde Protein aufgedeckt werden. Dahingegen konnte die Bedeutung von RpoS bei der Ausprägung der generellen Stress-Resistenz u. a. in E. coli für das V. cholerae Homolog über den gewählten experimentellen Ansatz nicht belegt werden. So wurden in Survival-Assays für keine der getesteten Stress-Bedingungen signifikante Unterschiede zwischen rpoS-Mutante und Wildtyp ermittelt. Die in E. coli gezeigte intrazelluläre Anreicherung des Sigmafaktors unter diversen Stress-Situationen konnte ebenfalls nicht nachgewiesen werden. Hinsichtlich der potentiellen Stellung von RpoS als globaler Regulator für Virulenz-assoziierte Gene, unterstützen und ergänzen die Ergebnisse der vorliegenden Arbeit die gegenwärtige Theorie, wonach RpoS das Ablösen der V. cholerae Zellen vom Darm-Epithel fördert. Die postulierte Bedeutung des alternativen Sigmafaktors in der letzten Phase der Pathogenese wurde über die RpoS-abhängige Sekretion der Mukin-degradierenden Protease HapA und die hier unabhängig nachgewiesene Transkriptionskontrolle von Chemotaxis-Genen bestätigt. In E. coli gilt als entscheidender Parameter für die dargelegten RpoS-Funktionen die intrazelluläre Konzentration des Masterregulators. Deshalb war ein weiteres zentrales Thema dieser Arbeit die Regulation des RpoS-Levels in V. cholerae. Neben der Identifizierung von Bedingungen, welche die RpoS-Expression beeinflussen, wurde vorrangig der Mechanismus der Proteolyse analysiert. Dabei wurden als RpoS-degradierende Komponenten in V. cholerae die Homologe des Proteolyse-Targetingfaktors RssB und des Protease-Komplexes ClpXP identifiziert. Die weitere Untersuchung der RpoS-Proteolyse ergab außerdem, dass bestimmte Stress-Signale den Abbau stark verzögern. Interessanterweise resultierten die gleichen Signale jedoch nicht in der Akkumulation von RpoS. Als weiterer Unterschied zu der bekannten Proteolysekaskade in E. coli zeigte sich, dass das V. cholerae Homolog der RssB-aktivierenden Kinase ArcB (FexB) an der RpoS-Proteolyse nicht beteiligt ist. Indessen deuten die Ergebnisse weiterführender Experimente auf den Einfluss der Kinasen CheA-1 und CheA-3 des V. cholerae Chemotaxis-Systems auf die RpoS-Degradation. Aus diesem Grund wurde in der vorliegenden Arbeit ein zu E. coli abweichendes Modell der RpoS-Proteolyse postuliert, in welchem die aktiven CheA-Kinasen den Targetingfaktor RssB phosphorylieren und somit den Abbau einleiten. Die Beteiligung von MCP-Rezeptoren an der Kontrolle der intrazellulären RpoS-Konzentration und damit an der Transkription der Chemotaxisgene selbst, beschreibt erstmalig ein Regulationssystem, wonach innerhalb der Chemotaxis-Kaskade die Rezeptoraktivität wahrscheinlich über einen positiven „Feedback-Loop“ mit der eigenen Gen-Expression gekoppelt ist. Darüber hinaus deutete sich die Beteiligung der ATP-abhängigen Protease Lon an der RpoS-Proteolyse-Kaskade in V. cholerae an. Die Inaktivierung der in E. coli unter Hitzeschock-Bedingungen induzierten Protease resultierte in einem extrem beschleunigten RpoS-Abbau. Ein letztes Teilprojekt dieser Arbeit adressierte die Regulationsmechanismen der V. cholerae Osmostress-Adaptation. Während in E. coli der alternative Sigmafaktor dabei eine zentrale Rolle spielt, konnte die Beteiligung des V. cholerae RpoS an der Osmostress-Regulation jedoch nicht aufgedeckt werden. Dafür ergab die Funktionsanalyse eines neu definierten Osmostress-Sensors (OsmRK) die Kontrolle von ompU durch dieses Zwei-Komponentensystems unter hypertonen Bedingungen. Dieses Ergebnis überraschte, da bislang nur der Virulenzfaktor ToxR als Regulator für das Außenmembranporin beschrieben wurde. Die nachgewiesene ompU-Transkriptionskontrolle durch zwei Regulatoren führte zu der Hypothese eines unbekannten regulativen Netzwerkes, welchem mindestens 52 weitere Gene zugeordnet werden konnten. Insgesamt ist festzuhalten, dass die in dieser Arbeit durchgeführte molekulare Charakterisierung der RpoS-Proteolyse in V. cholerae Beweise für eine mögliche Verbindung zwischen der Transkriptionskontrolle für Motilitäts- und Chemotaxisgene mit der Chemotaxis-Reizwahrnehmung erbrachte. Eine derartige intermolekulare Verknüpfung wurde bislang für keinen anderen Organismus beschrieben und stellt somit eine neue Variante der Signaltransduktion innerhalb der Virulenz-assoziierten Genregulation dar. / In the present work conserved function of RpoS in E. coli was approached for its homolog in V. cholerae. Comprehensive phenotypical analysis of rpoS-mutant and wildtype revealed the involvement of RpoS in growth-phase-dependent processes, according to RpoS-function as stationary phase regulator in E. coli. In further experiments the conservation of RpoS-promoters in both species could be shown. To the contrary, the well-known function of E. coli RpoS as general stress-regulator could not be demonstrate for V. cholerae: By testing several stress conditions in survival assays, no significant differences were determined between rpoS mutant and wildtype. Additionally, the intracellular mode of RpoS accumulation in E. coli due to different stress conditions was also not observed in V. cholerae. Regarding the putative role of RpoS as a regulator for virulence-associated genes, the inhere described data support and complement the current theory of RpoS being involved in mucosal detachment of V. cholerae cells. In E. coli the intracellular concentration of RpoS is a decisive parameter for its described function. So far the homologs of the proteolysis targeting factor RssB and the ATP-depending terminal protease complex ClpXP were identified to be involved in V. cholerae RpoS-proteolysis. Further characterization also unravelled, that various stress signals slow down that degradation. But such conditions did not yield in the RpoS accumulation. Based on these differences to the E. coli dynamics of RpoS-degradation additional investigations were performed to gain more insights into the regulatory path of RpoS degradation in V. cholerae. In E. coli the ArcB kinase ist the sensor kinase for regulating the activity of RssB. In this study fexB was identified as arcB homolog in V. cholerae. But by monitoring the RpoS stability in the corresponding knock-out mutant no effect could be observed. Therefore the ArcB-system is not influencing RpoS stability in V. cholerae. Knowing, that RpoS is a major regulator for motility and chemotaxis in V. cholerae, it was investigated next whether other signal-kinases are involved in RpoS proteolysis. Thereby, the known chemotaxis kinases were tested. Knockout mutants of cheAs and subsequent analysis of RpoS half-life revealed, that cheA-1 and cheA-3 did alter RpoS proteolysis to slow down the degradation, whereas cheA-2 mutant did not. Therefore, it can be postulated, that a different mode of RpoS-proteolysis is operating in V. cholerae in which active CheA-1 and CheA-3 may be responsible for RssB phosphorylation, hence leading to RpoS degradation. That kind of interaction may also include the output signalling of the MCP-receptors regulating CheA kinase activity. Since the cheA genes are also under transcriptional control by RpoS a new regulation system can be postulated, where MCP signal output links transcriptional regulation of motility and chemotaxis via RpoS stability in a “positive feedback loop”. Additionally, data are presented, where the ATP depending protease Lon is also involved in RpoS proteolysis in an inverted manner. Lon, which in E. coli is a heat shock induced protease, seems to recognize and degrade substrates in V. cholerae operating in RpoS degradation in the RssB-depending branch. That phenotype was observed as an accelerated RpoS degradation in a lon background. Finally, the complex regulatory pathway of osmo-regulation was characterized. In E. coli RpoS plays a central role. However, in V. cholerae RpoS could not be identified to participate in osmo-regulation, instead a new defined osmostress-sensor (OsmRK) was characterized. In first analysis, it was found that osmRK knockout mutants showed a deregulated ompU expression under hyperosmotic conditions. Considering, that so far only the well known virulence regulator ToxR was identified to act on the ompU promoter, a novel regulatory network was suggested, which regulates at least further 52 genes. In summary, the components of RpoS proteolysis in V. cholerae were unravelled and characterized. Additionally, evidence could be gathered, which indicates a linkage between transcriptional control of motility and chemotaxis genes and the chemotaxis-signalling pathway. So far, such an regulatory pathway has not been described before and would represent a novel branch of signal transduction in bacteria.

容保衡. / 複印手稿本. / Thesis (M.A.)--香港中文大學硏究院哲學部. / Fu yin shou gao ben. / Includes bibliographical references. / Rong Baoheng. / Thesis (M.A.)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue yan jiu yuan zhe xue bu. / 序言 --- p.i-iii / Chapter 第一章： --- 導論 --- p.1-9 / Chapter 第二章： --- 意義與命題 --- p.10-35 / Chapter 第三章： --- 邏輯文法 --- p.36-71 / Chapter 第四章： --- 邏輯真理 --- p.72-103 / Chapter 第五章： --- 從標準邏輯到異制邏輯 --- p.134-147 / Chapter 第六章： --- 結論´ؤ評瑰英對約定主義者的批評 --- p.148-174 / 註釋 --- p.175-191 / 書目選錄

The detonation of an explosive in water leads to a complex set of chemical and physical phenomena. When the detonation wave reaches the surface of the explosive it reacts violently with the water, producing a shock wave propagating outwards and also a nearly spherical gaseous bubble of detonation products. The fact that the characteristic time scales of these two phenomena differ by approximately two orders of magnitude has often been exploited by utilising independent models to describe the shock and the bubble. In this thesis both the shock and the bubble are examined using a range of methods from a differential equation solver approach through to full hydrocode simulation. With the increasing use of the hydrocode approach for the underwater explosion (UNDEX) problem and the subsequent loading of a structure, then a verification and validation process is required to ensure its accuracy. In this study the capability of the hydrocode to model the shock and the bubble and also their interaction with a rigid structure and with a flexible structure, has been assessed. This has been done computationally, by using faster running purpose built codes, and also by comparison with experimental data. A familiarisation work-up of the boundary integral code for the incompressible bubble flow, which included incorporating modifications into the code in order to investigate the pathlines swept out by the particles in the fluid during the expansion and collapse of the bubble. The boundary integral code was also used to provide a comparison with the Kelvin impulse method with respect to the computation of the zones of explosion bubble collapse direction in a shallow water environment. The validation and verification work carried out and the comparisons of the various computational approaches, make this multifaceted study a useful reference for research workers in the field of UNDEX phenomena.

The Admiralty Interview Board (AIB) is the Royal Navy‘s assessment centre whose role is to select young people for officer training. The two aims of the study were (1) to investigate the relative value of psychometric versus other assessment centre selection measures and (2) the value of these and other approaches for selecting naval commanding officers for practitioners. The AIB selection data was used to investigate the long-term prediction of some of the selection measures, particularly the psychometric tests, in predicting the outcome for students attending the Submarine Command Course. Few pieces of research have looked at the long-term prediction of a real command situation. This research examines the prediction of a practical naval command situation where the student has to make rapid decisions under pressure and where failure to make the correct decision could be costly. A literature review showed that whilst cognitive tests, personality inventories and other assessment measures can predict job performance and training successes, the meta-analytical techniques used to pool research studies have produced inconsistent findings that could confuse practitioners. The students attended the command course, on average, thirteen years after the initial AIB selection process. Selection scores were available for 93 students, 57 of whom also completed a 'Big-Five' personality inventory and an Occupational Stress Indicator (OSI) at the start of the 24-week course. The average age of the students starting the course was 32. The students were assessed throughout the course and were graded as pass or fail. They were also given an A to F Course Grade. In addition, 88 students were graded on twenty aspects of performance covering eight tactical grades, three administrative grades and nine personality grades. The results showed that the means of the pass and fail groups on the AIB Non-verbal test were statistically significantly different with a moderate effect size. The correlation for this relationship (with the A to F Course Grade) was 0.20. The Non-verbal test score also correlated with the course instructor‘s grades on tactical performance at 0.30 and the Verbal test correlated 0.23 with the administration grades. None of the other AIB selection measures showed significant results. While this is a disappointing result, the students were a very homogeneous group and to obtain these findings for the Non-verbal and Verbal test after thirteen years shows the predictive power of these tests. Although the findings may be of theoretical interest the low correlations mean that not much variance in performance is explained. The tests would not be a useful screening device to reduce the failure rate on the course because there would be too much misclassification. None of the Big Five personality scales predicted success on the course or the other course grades but statistically significant differences were found for the means of two the OSI scales: these were for 'Ambition' and a Type A Behaviour measure. Ambition was the only scale which correlated significantly with the A to F Course Grade at 0.43. Ambition was also found to correlate with the total score for the twenty performance grades, the tactical grades and the personality grades and several individual performance grades including Practical Ability, Leadership and Command Presence with correlations approaching 0.4. Further research on this aspect of behaviour may be worthwhile. However, there are lessons to be learned. The literature review shows that practitioners need to scrutinize journal articles and book chapters on the validity of selection measures extremely carefully. It may be that measures which have been shown to predict the performance of junior staff are inappropriate for the selection of more senior staff with similar job experience.

Práce hodnotí systém financování základních škol v městské části Praha 10. V úvodní části je seznámení s legislativní úpravou ve školství. Vymezují se zde vztahy škol a systému státní správy a samosprávy. Dále je zde naznačena metoda financování.

Práce se zabývá reklamou, její definicí, výhodami a nevýhodami. Rovněž se věnuje prvku, který se v reklamě používá, a to dporučovatelům. Podrobněji je rozbrána problematika celebrit v reklamě. Zejména se zabývám jejich výběrěm a rizikům, která jsou s nimi spojena. Parktická část se věnuje vlastnímu výzkumu názorů české veřejnosti k reklamám, ve kterých vystupují celebrity.