Small Value-add Local Food Retailer’s COVID-19 and Post-COVID-19 Strategies

The pandemic came as a blow to retailers that were already under pressure from online competitors that offered low prices and provided the convenience of shopping from home. The media tended to cover the plight and challenges for larger chain stores and big box retailers. However, the small local food providers and retailers also faced challenges and had to manage without the luxury of having dedicated staff and deep pockets with which to navigate through the pandemic. This paper explores the experiences and strategies used by 20 small local value-added food providers and retailers as they navigated the pandemic. Additionally, this paper discusses specific challenges that were unique to small local value-added food providers and reveals unique strategies and their accompanying tactics. Further, the study details the pandemic policies and tactics these small local value-added food providers and retailers plan to keep after the pandemic in order to better compete against larger competitors and to mitigate future disruptions caused by external forces beyond their control

Spacelab mission dependent training parametric resource requirements study

Training flows were developed for typical missions, resource relationships analyzed, and scheduling optimization algorithms defined. Parametric analyses were performed to study the effect of potential changes in mission model, mission complexity and training time required on the resource quantities required to support training of payload or mission specialists. Typical results of these analyses are presented both in graphic and tabular form

Judicial Control of Administrative Delay

Delay in administrative decisionmaking is a long standing problem that remains unresolved today. In a recent major study of the federal regulatory agencies, the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs noted that [m]ost federal regulatory proceedings are characterized by seemingly interminable delays. Regulatory agency delay is perceived by practitioners before regulatory agencies and administrative law judges within the regulatory agencies as one of the most serious problems facing those agencies. Agency delay is extremely costly to regulated industries and to the public, both as taxpayer and as consumer. According to the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, undue delay is a serious problem in the agency decisionmaking processes of licensing, adjudication, ratemaking, and enforcement. Similarly, notice and comment rulemaking is sometimes slower than agency adjudication. This article examines judicial efforts to control administrative delay. It will discuss jurisdictional grounds, substantive standards (primarily the Administrative Procedure Act, and due process of law), and judicial remedies for administrative delay. Federal and state cases will be examined in the sections on substantive standards and remedies. Only federal cases will be discussed in the jurisdiction section

Reducing Administrative Delay: Timeliness Procedures, Judicial Review of Agency Procedurees, Procedural Reform, and Legislative Oversight

Delay in administrative decisionmaking is a serious problem that can be resolved only by the combined efforts of the courts, the agencies, and the legislatures that have created the agencies. The gravity of the delay problem at the federal agency level is indicated by the recent statement of the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, in a major study, that [m]ost federal regulatory proceedings are characterized by seemingly interminable delays. Agency delay adds additional costs and imposes additional burdens on both the regulated industries and the consuming and taxpaying public. This article analyzes the problem of agency delay by examining procedural standards for timeliness, judicial review of agency procedures, procedural reforms, and the role of the legislatures in establishing administrative agencies and in controlling administrative delay. The first three sections of the article — standards, procedural review, and reforms — focus on the interrelationship between delayed decisionmaking and the procedures used by agencies to carry out the decisionmaking processes mandated by the enabling statutes which establish particular agencies. They will deal with procedural standards, such as those contained in the federal Administrative Procedure Act (A.P.A.), and will focus specifically on those standards that seek to ensure prompt agency action. Alternative ways to frame such standards will be discussed and will be evaluated for effectiveness. Judicial review of agency procedures, when those procedures are challenged because of undue delay, will then be examined

The Role of Demeanor Evidence in Determining Credibility of Witnesses in Fact Finding: The Views of ALJs

Prof. Ogden presents the views of administrative law judge’s on the role of demeanor evidence in determining the credibility of witnesses’ testimony in fact finding. The opinions of administrative law judges add an important new perspective on the issue of whether demeanor evidence increases the accuracy of credibility determinations. The views of administrative law judges were determined through the techniques of survey research, utilizing a questionnaire. After defining demeanor evidence for purposes of the study, Ogden explains the administrative law principle of judicial review that gives weight or deference to credibility determinations based on demeanor evidence. A statistical analysis of the gathered data is provided which demonstrates that administrative law judges view demeanor evidence to be of relatively low value. This finding warrants further study of the fact finding process as well as the process of determining credibility

Electric space-charge measurements in convective and other weather conditions

Theories of convection below cloud-base are reviewed, together with experimental techniques and evidence. It is concluded that, over land in sunny weather, a forced convection layer is probably overlain by one in which the heat flux is carried by buoyant plumes which may change their form at a few hundred metres. If space charge is considered as carried by air movement, the convection current i(_2) in forced convection is given by where k is von Karman's constant, z the height, u the mean horizontal wind-speed, and σ the space-charge density. In free convection where h is a number equal to about 0.9, H the heat flux, T the absolute temperature, Cp the specific heat and P the density of air, and g the acceleration due to gravity. Buoyant plumes will probably have space-charge density excesses, of magnitude much less than 1 pC m(^-3). Measurements of space-charge density with filtration apparatus show pulses lasting about 40 s, and about 40 pC m(^-3) high: these seem to be associated with free convection, but are probably not coincident with buoyant elements. The hori2sontal diameters and separations of the pulses are proportional to wind speed. The turbulence theory could be used to determine the charge given to the air by melting ice by measuring the space-charge density gradient over melting snow, A calculation from earlier results gives a charge of about 0.16 uC kgm(^-1) melted, similar to values obtained by other methods. Measurements of potential gradient near a small group of deciduous trees in stormy weather are provisionally explained in terms of point discharge, starting at about 1000 V m(^-1) and reaching 0.5 uA at 1650 V m(^-1). Observations in fog show negative space charge originating at power lines, confirming earlier work, and suggest the use of space charge measurements to study atmospheric diffusion from a point source