Towards native higher-order remote procedure calls

We present a new abstract machine, called DCESH, which mod-els the execution of higher-order programs running in distributed architectures. DCESH implements a native general remote higher-order function call across node boundaries. It is a modernised ver-sion of SECD enriched with specialised communication features required for implementing the remote procedure call mechanism. The key correctness result is that the termination behaviour of the remote procedure call is indistinguishable (bisimilar) to that of a local call. The correctness proofs and the requisite definitions for DCESH and other related abstract machines are formalised using Agda. We also formalise a generic transactional mechanism for transparently handling failure in DCESHs. We use the DCESH as a target architecture for compiling a conventional call-by-value functional language ("Floskel") whic

Marine Protected Areas in the Exclusive Economic Zone: UNCLOS or the TPPA's Looming Presence?

This article considers the Minister for the Environment of New Zealand’s proposal for new marine protected areas legislation. If enacted, this proposed legislation would repeal the existing Marine Reserves Act 1971 and replace it with an Act providing for four different types of marine protected areas (MPA) to be set aside following a Board of Inquiry or collaborative process. All four areas would be within New Zealand’s territorial seas, because of the Government’s stance that MPAs outside this area would breach international law. The author argues that the new legislation would represent no material change in the existing position, and that the Government’s position may be motivated by the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, rather than the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea

Southern Catchments and the Evolution of New Zealand's Environmental Law

Our research team (the authors of this paper and Professor Jacinta Ruru) based at the School of Law, University of Canterbury and the Faculty of Law, University of Otago has been granted funding from the Building Research Levy through the New Zealand Building Research Association New Zealand (BRANZ) and the New Zealand Law Foundation to investigate the problems that have occurred with repairs, renovation, restoration, demolition or replacement of multi-dwelling units on a single title (for example, unit titles, cross leases, retirement villages and papakainga housing, or units or buildings where mixed commercial or industrial use is combined with residential use). Although the most obvious examples of events that trigger a need for such repair or restoration have been natural disasters (for example, the Christchurch earthquakes) and buildings that have been affected by New Zealand’s “leaky home” syndrome, problems may also be encountered on a much smaller scale with fires or other triggering events. This paper explains our methodology and reveals some of our early findings

Representations of sport in the revolutionary socialist press in Britain, 1988–2012

This paper considers how sport presents a dualism to those on the far left of the political spectrum. A long-standing, passionate debate has existed on the contradictory role played by sport, polarised between those who reject it as a bourgeois capitalist plague and those who argue for its reclamation and reformation. A case study is offered of a political party that has consistently used revolutionary Marxism as the basis for its activity and how this party, the largest in Britain, addresses sport in its publications. The study draws on empirical data to illustrate this debate by reporting findings from three socialist publications. When sport did feature it was often in relation to high profile sporting events with a critical tone adopted and typically focused on issues of commodification, exploitation and alienation of athletes and supporters. However, readers’ letters, printed in the same publications, revealed how this interpretation was not universally accepted, thus illustrating the contradictory nature of sport for those on the far left

Belief and Environmental Decision-Making: Some Recent New Zealand Experience

Two key piece of New Zealand's environmental legislation - the Resource Management Act 1991 and the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996 - contain references to Maori cultural and traditional relationships with land and other treasures (taonga) and the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi. In some recent controversial cases where Maori spiritual beliefs have been among the relevant environmental risks and effects argued under these provisions, decision-makers have wrongly test the veracity of the beliefs, rather than focus on the risks to and effects on the people holding the beliefs. More broadly, the cases also show how the practice of including reference to matter of belief in what are effectively lists of relevant - and frequently competing - considerations in environmental legislation tends to result in these matters being unlikely to determine decisions in situations where they are uncompromising

Fishing-Related Mortality, the Precautionary Principle and the Law in New Zealand

Measures to reduce fishing-related mortality of marine animals in New Zealand fisheries may be installed under legislation including the Fisheries Act 1996. Thus, a reserve has been made and a mortality limit has, until very recently, been set each year to protect New Zealand sea lions around their Auckland Islands breeding ground. These sea lions once bred all around the coastline of New Zealand but, decimated by hunting, the species’ range is now restricted to three breeding colonies in the sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands. In recognition of this and an estimated population decline of 50 percent in the last ten years that is probably attributable to the impact of fishing-related mortality, New Zealand sea lion is now classified as a critically endangered species. Similarly, restrictions on inshore trawling and set netting have been introduced at many locations around New Zealand to protect Hector’s dolphin, a threatened endemic species, and its critically endangered sub-species Maui’s dolphin, from the effects of fishing-related mortality. Still, research shows that this species is unlikely to recover without further protection, and that fishing-related mortality is its main threat. It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that overall, the measures that have been installed to protect these animals are too limited and too weak. The same can be said of existing rules that require larger off-shore vessels in some fisheries to fish at night and deploy bird-scaring devices in order to protect seabirds, including endemic species of albatross and petrel. More than 3,000 seabirds still die in New Zealand fisheries each year, even though it has been shown that some of the species inevitably involved are unable to sustain any fishing-related deaths. Though weak, many of the measures installed to protect marine animals from fishing activities have been challenged by the fishing industry in court. For measures under the Fisheries Act (the sea lion mortality limit and the Hector’s dolphin set net and trawling restrictions) much of the legal argument has focussed on section 10 of this Act, which introduced a precautionary approach into the Act: All persons exercising or performing functions, duties, or powers under this Act, in relation to the utilisation of fisheries resources or ensuring sustainability, shall take into account the following information principles: (a) Decisions should be based on the best available information: (b) Decision makers should consider any uncertainty in the information available in any case: (c) Decision makers should be cautious when information is uncertain, unreliable, or inadequate: (d) The absence of, or any uncertainty in, any information should not be used as a reason for postponing or failing to take any measure to achieve the purpose of this Act. When s 10 was enacted, paragraph (d) attracted all the attention. However, in the litigation paragraph (a) has been emphasised and ‘precautionary decisions’ made by the Minister have been struck down. This paper reviews the cases and argues that they show how best available information statements like paragraph (a) ‘can actually work against the [precautionary] principle with respect to [its] second application – whether to prohibit or restrict an existing activity before there is conclusive proof of harm.’[1] This is crucial: it is paragraph (d) that captures the raison d\u27être of the idea of precaution, but the structure of s 10 and the way it is being read and applied are effectively denying its potential. [1] Warwick Gullett, ‘The Threshold Test of the Precautionary Principle in Australian Courts and Tribunals: Lessons for Judicial Review’ in E Fisher, J Jones and R von Schomberg (eds), Implementing the Precautionary Principle: Perspectives and Prospects (Edward Elgar, 2006) 182-20

A study of the moment-redistribution behaviour of continuous post-tensioned segmental box girders.

The present trend in long-span concrete bridges is towards the use of continuous segmental prestressed concrete construction. The trend, naturally, is an economic one reflecting the technological advances which have been made in the factory production of precast concrete elements, in the techniques of handling these elements and in using them as "building blocks" in assembling large structures. Recently precast concrete elements weighing up to 600 tons were used in the bridge over the Oosterschelde in Holland

Providing for Rāhui in the Law of Aotearoa New Zealand

This article examines the place and nature of rāhui (Māori ‘temporary protection’ for natural resources) in the law of Aotearoa New Zealand. The word “rāhui” is used in legislation in New Zealand to describe certain conservation areas and associated conservation agreements, and to denote some particular means or measures that can be used for conservation or sustainability purposes, including in fisheries management. The authors discuss the differences between this legislative construct of rāhui, and the term as originally understood

Updates in heart failure.

This review provides a contemporary overview of HF management and highlights the key studies which have informed recent European HF guidelines

Primary leptomeningeal oligodendrogliomatosis

Primary leptomeningeal oligodendrogliomas (PLOs) are rare intracranial malignancies where tumors grow in the subarachnoid space without an obvious connection to the brain or spinal cord parenchyma. Adding to the three previously reported cases of PLO with no parenchymal involvement we report a fourth case of the same in this paper in a 50-year-old woman presenting with unrelenting headaches. CT scan of her head revealed hydrocephalus and MRI revealed diffuse enhancement of her leptomeninges throughout her brain and spine, prominent over the basilar region. Biopsy obtained using a frameless stereotactic biopsy showed sharply defined cell borders, clear cytoplasm, and rounded nuclei consistent with an oligodendroglioma. Our case suggests that PLO can mimic diffuse forms of granulomatous meningitis and should be suspected in patients that clinically and radiographically present like granulomatous meningitis but without blood or CSF markers for the same