Tax Havens as Producers of Corporate Law

This Review Essay situates Christopher Bruner’s new book, Re-imagining Offshore Finance, within the literature examining the regulation of cross-border finance and highlights its import for thinking about the complicated (and contested) relationship between territorially-configured domestic laws and the increasingly liberal movement of capital. Part I sets out the book’s central thesis. In addition to highlighting Bruner’s novel framework identifying the factors that propel certain small jurisdictions into becoming magnets for cross-border finance, I outline the limits of the framework in accounting for the stability in the overall demand for the commercialization of sovereignty, only one of which is facilitating international tax evasion. Part II examines the rise of offshore financial havens as they relate to the territorially-configured domestic rules — a subject that has yet to attract the attention that it deserves. While the rise of offshore financial havens has been viewed as typifying the continued dominance of territorial sovereignty, I show that it is private choice and juridical rules that have been privileged over strictly territorial conceptions of the law. I use recent developments in corporate law and bankruptcy law to show that domestic laws governing certain financial transactions are already ceding to privately-curated juridical rules, albeit not without resistance

Hard x-ray or gamma ray laser by a dense electron beam

A coherent x-ray or gamma ray can be created from a dense electron beam propagating through an intense laser undulator. It is analyzed by using the Landau damping theory which suits better than the conventional linear analysis for the free electron laser, as the electron beam energy spread is high. The analysis suggests that the currently available physical parameters would enable the generation of the coherent gamma ray of up to 100 keV. The electron quantum diffraction suppresses the FEL action, by which the maximum radiation energy to be generated is limited

The Use of Graduated Scenarios to Facilitate the Learning of Complex and Difficult-to-describe Concepts

There are many complex concepts in higher education learning that are difficult to convey to learners in words. Some examples are reflective learning, critical thinking, clinical reasoning; processes of evaluation (e.g. in art and design subjects) and professional practice (eg teaching itself). These are important concepts that evade straight forward uses of language that might explain how to ‘do’ them and how then to ‘do them better’ or at a ‘deeper level’ and so on. This paper explores a method that has been developed to facilitate the learning of such concepts - the graduated scenario technique. The paper describes the initial development of the method with respect to the concept of reflective learning. Graduated scenarios are based on two practices – firstly, the use of examples and demonstrations that show learners – in this case - how to write reflectively. Secondly they demonstrate the characteristics of deep reflection as opposed to superficial and descriptive reflection. This demonstration is made explicit at the end of the exercise, in a framework for,– in this case, reflective learning. The assumption is made that better quality learning emanates from deeper reflection (eg Hatton and Smith, 1995). The paper goes on to discuss the application of the graduated scenario technique to critical thinking. It then moves to a more generic approach, considering why such the technique appears to be helpful - and it provides examples of other areas of learning in which the it could be used

Conformational studies of various hemoglobins by natural-abundance 13C NMR spectroscopy

Studies of variously liganded hemoglobins (both from human and rabbit) by natural-abundance 13C NMR spectroscopy have revealed apparent conformational differences that have been interpreted on the basis of two quaternary structures for the α2ß2 tetramer, and variable tertiary structures for the individual α and ß subunits. In solution, rabbit hemoglobins appear to have somewhat more flexibility than human hemoglobins

The structure of sheared turbulence near a plane boundary

An analysis is presented of how a plane boundary affects the structure of turbulence in a sheared free stream. A uniform-shear boundary layer (USBL) is formulated with slip velocity condition at the surface, and inhomogeneous rapid distortion theory is applied. The effects of blocking by the surface on the turbulence structure in USBL is compared with those in the shear-free boundary layer (SFBL). Shear produces highly anisotropic eddies elongated in the flow direction. The vertical velocity variance is reduced with shear at all heights, roughly in proportion to the reduction in the homogeneous value, but the shape of the profile remains unchanged only near the surface. The streamwise integral scales increase with shear, indicating elongation of the streamwise extent of eddies

Length spectra and degeneration of flat metrics

In this paper we consider flat metrics (semi-translation structures) on surfaces of finite type. There are two main results. The first is a complete description of when a set of simple closed curves is spectrally rigid, that is, when the length vector determines a metric among the class of flat metrics. Secondly, we give an embedding into the space of geodesic currents and use this to get a boundary for the space of flat metrics. The geometric interpretation is that flat metrics degenerate to "mixed structures" on the surface: part flat metric and part measured foliation.Comment: 36 page

Local structure of intercomponent energy transfer in homogeneous turbulent shear flow

Intercomponent energy transfer by pressure-strain-rate was investigated for homogeneous turbulent shear flow. The rapid and slow parts of turbulent pressure (decomposed according to the influence of the mean deformation rate) are found to be uncorrelated; this finding provides strong justification for current modeling procedure in which the pressure-strain-rate term is split into the corresponding parts. Issues pertinent to scales involved in the intercomponent energy transfer are addressed in comparison with those for the Reynolds-stress and vorticity fields. A physical picture of the energy transfer process is described from a detailed study of instantaneous events of high transfer regions. It was found that the most significant intercomponent energy transfer events are highly localized in space and are imbedded within a region of concentrated vorticity

Conservative treatment of boundary interfaces for overlaid grids and multi-level grid adaptations

Conservative algorithms for boundary interfaces of overlaid grids are presented. The basic method is zeroth order, and is extended to a higher order method using interpolation and subcell decomposition. The present method, strictly based on a conservative constraint, is tested with overlaid grids for various applications of unsteady and steady supersonic inviscid flows with strong shock waves. The algorithm is also applied to a multi-level grid adaptation in which the next level finer grid is overlaid on the coarse base grid with an arbitrary orientation

Pressure-strain-rate events in homogeneous turbulent shear flow

A detailed study of the intercomponent energy transfer processes by the pressure-strain-rate in homogeneous turbulent shear flow is presented. Probability density functions (pdf's) and contour plots of the rapid and slow pressure-strain-rate show that the energy transfer processes are extremely peaky, with high-magnitude events dominating low-magnitude fluctuations, as reflected by very high flatness factors of the pressure-strain-rate. A concept of the energy transfer class was applied to investigate details of the direction as well as magnitude of the energy transfer processes. In incompressible flow, six disjoint energy transfer classes exist. Examination of contours in instantaneous fields, pdf's and weighted pdf's of the pressure-strain-rate indicates that in the low magnitude regions all six classes play an important role, but in the high magnitude regions four classes of transfer processes, dominate. The contribution to the average slow pressure-strain-rate from the high magnitude fluctuations is only 50 percent or less. The relative significance of high and low magnitude transfer events is discussed

Competition between spin density wave order and superconductivity in the underdoped cuprates

We describe the interplay between d-wave superconductivity and spin density wave (SDW) order in a theory of the hole-doped cuprates at hole densities below optimal doping. The theory assumes local SDW order, and associated electron and hole pocket Fermi surfaces of charge carriers in the normal state. We describe quantum and thermal fluctuations in the orientation of the local SDW order, which lead to d-wave superconductivity: we compute the superconducting critical temperature and magnetic field in a `minimal' universal theory. We also describe the back-action of the superconductivity on the SDW order, showing that SDW order is more stable in the metal. Our results capture key aspects of the phase diagram of Demler et al. (cond-mat/0103192) obtained in a phenomenological quantum theory of competing orders. Finally, we propose a finite temperature crossover phase diagram for the cuprates. In the metallic state, these are controlled by a `hidden' quantum critical point near optimal doping involving the onset of SDW order in a metal. However, the onset of superconductivity results in a decrease in stability of the SDW order, and consequently the actual SDW quantum critical point appears at a significantly lower doping. All our analysis is placed in the context of recent experimental results.Comment: 27 pages, 11 figures; (v2) added clarifications and refs, and corrected numerical errors (thanks to A. Chubukov