Reach and rich : the new economics of information and the provision of on-line legal services in the UK

The paper considers a number of issues including the use of the Web as an opportunity for smaller firms to break free from the traditional indicators of reputation and expertise such as the size and opulence of offices. It also reflects on the use of client-specific Extranets in addition to publicly available Internet sites. The paper concludes that although the Web provides reach, offering richness and the sense of community required for creating and sustaining relationships with potential clients can be difficult. Some suggestions are made for enhancing 'Richness' in Web sites

The Wiener-Hopf-Hilbert technique applied to problems in diffraction

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.A number of diffraction problems which have practical applications are examined using the Wiener-Hopf-Hilbert technique. Each problem is formulated as a matrix Wiener-Hopf equation, the solution of which requires the factor~sation of a matrix kernel. Since the determinant of the matrix kernel has poles in the cut plane, the Wiener-Hopf-Hilbert technique is modified to allow the usual arguments to follow through. In each case an explicit matrix factorisation is carried out and asymptotic expressions for the field scattered to infinity are obtained. The first problem solved is that of diffraction by a semi-infinite plane with different face impedances. The solution includes the case of an incident surface wave as well as an incident plane wave for an arbitrary angle of incidence. Graphs of the far-field are provided for various values of the half-plane impedance parameters. The second problem examined is diffraction by a half-plane in a moving fluid. This is solved without restriction on the impedance parameters of the half-plane and includes both the leading edge and trailing edge situations. The final problem is of radiation from an inductive wave-guide. Expressions are obtained for the field radiated at the waveguide mouth and the field reflected in the duct region.This work is funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC

Government Regulation: Insuring Safety and Quality

A brief outline of the regulation of biotechnology across the board in the United States today. An important feature of this discussion is that its focus is not on laws and regulations for the issues of biotechnology, but rather on science

Food Law & Policy: An Essay

Food has been the driving preoccupation of humans since the dawn of evolution. Exactly when food processing began and when the original hunter-gatherers settled down to develop agriculture-or even the question of which of these occurred first-remain issues of scholarly pursuit and debate. It is clear, however, that these events occurred millennia before the advent of recorded history; therefore, we must rely on largely adventitious discoveries of archeological artifacts to advance our developing knowledge of these events

Baryon and antibaryon production in hadron-hadron and hadron-nucleus interactions

Cascade baryon and anti-baryon yields have been measured in p+p and p+A collisions. After extraction of the projectile component in p+A interactions close similarities with A+A collisions concerning the nuclear enhancement factors are observed. In addition the importance of effects related to projectile isospin and to net baryon stopping is pointed out.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, Presented at Quark Matter 2002, Nantes, Franc

Elementary Hadronic Interactions at the CERN SPS

New data from the NA49 experiment at the CERN SPS concerning hadron+proton and hadron+nucleus interactions are discussed and compared to nucleus+nucleus collisions. Detailed information on baryonic momentum distributions and nuclear enhancement factors for kaons and cascade baryons are extracted.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures, to be published in the Proceedings of the XVIth International Conference on Ultrarelativistic Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions "Quark Matter 2002", Nantes, France, July 200

System size dependence of strangeness production at 158 AGeV

Strange particle production in A+A interactions at 158 AGeV is studied by the CERN experiment NA49 as a function of system size and collision geometry. Yields of charged kaons, phi and Lambda are measured and compared to those of pions in central C+C, Si+Si and centrality-selected Pb+Pb reactions. An overall increase of relative strangeness production with the size of the system is observed which does not scale with the number of participants. Arguing that rescattering of secondaries plays a minor role in small systems the observed strangeness enhancement can be related to the space-time density of the primary nucleon-nucleon collisions.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, Presented at Quark Matter 2002, Nantes, Franc