Australian Insolvency Law and the 1992 ISDA Master Agreement—Catalyst, Reaction, and Solution

The reverberations of Enron’s financial collapse were heard on an international scale. Indeed, Enron Australia’s liquidation set off a flood of concern and speculation about the International Swaps and Derivatives Association’s (“ISDA”) model documentation for derivative transactions. A December 2003 opinion of the Supreme Court of New South Wales exposed a flaw in the ISDA 1992 Master Agreement. Two provisions of the agreement operate in tandem, creating a result which operates contrary to the clear meaning of the terms. This volatile interaction of the provisions effectively shifts the risk from the parties to the swap contract to the creditors of the defaulting party. This unexpected result poses a real concern for the creditors of parties to swap or derivative instruments governed by the 1992 Master Agreement. The ISDA has articulated policy goals to maintain market stability and efficiency. As the drafter of the model agreements, the ISDA has an ethical obligation to ensure that the terms of the agreement operate according to their clear meaning. Otherwise, the parties can best address the Agreement’s deficiencies by taking notice and contracting around them

Heliophysics: Prediction of Radiation Doses Received During Airplane Flights

No abstract availabl

Computation of Cosmic Ray Ionization and Dose at Mars: a Comparison of HZETRN and Planetocosmics for Proton and Alpha Particles

The ability to evaluate the cosmic ray environment at Mars is of interest for future manned exploration. To support exploration, tools must be developed to accurately access the radiation environment in both free space and on planetary surfaces. The primary tool NASA uses to quantify radiation exposure behind shielding materials is the space radiation transport code, HZETRN. In order to build confidence in HZETRN, code benchmarking against Monte Carlo radiation transport codes is often used. This work compares the dose calculations at Mars by HZETRN and the Geant4 application Planetocosmics. The dose at ground and the energy deposited in the atmosphere by galactic cosmic ray protons and alpha particles has been calculated for the Curiosity landing conditions. In addition, this work has considered Solar Energetic Particle events, allowing for the comparison of varying input radiation environments. The results for protons and alpha particles show very good agreement between HZETRN and Planetocosmics

Initial Results from the Radiation Dosimetry Experiment (RaD-X) Balloon Flight Mission

The NASA Radiation Dosimetry Experiment (RaD-X) high-altitude balloon mission was successfully launched from Fort Sumner, New Mexico USA on 25 September, 2015. Over 15 hours of science data were obtained from four dosimeters at altitudes above about 25 km. The four dosimeters flown on the RaD-X science payload are a Hawk version 3.0 Tissue Equivalent Proportional Counter (TEPC) manufactured by Far West Technologies, a Liulin dosimeter-spectrometer produced by the Solar Research and Technology Institute, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, a total ionizing dose detector manufactured by Teledyne Microelectronic Technologies, and the RaySure detector provided by the University of Surrey

Recent Developments in Three Dimensional Radiation Transport Using the Green's Function Technique

In the future, astronauts will be sent into space for longer durations of time compared to previous missions. The increased risk of exposure to dangerous radiation, such as Galactic Cosmic Rays and Solar Particle Events, is of great concern. Consequently, steps must be taken to ensure astronaut safety by providing adequate shielding. In order to better determine and verify shielding requirements, an accurate and efficient radiation transport code based on a fully three dimensional radiation transport model using the Green's function technique is being develope

Proton Lateral Broadening Distribution Comparisons Between GRNTRN, MCNPX, and Laboratory Beam Measurements

Recent developments in NASA s deterministic High charge (Z) and Energy TRaNsport (HZETRN) code have included lateral broadening of primary ion beams due to small-angle multiple Coulomb scattering, and coupling of the ion-nuclear scattering interactions with energy loss and straggling. This new version of HZETRN is based on Green function methods, called GRNTRN, and is suitable for modeling transport with both space environment and laboratory boundary conditions. Multiple scattering processes are a necessary extension to GRNTRN in order to accurately model ion beam experiments, to simulate the physical and biological-effective radiation dose, and to develop new methods and strategies for light ion radiation therapy. In this paper we compare GRNTRN simulations of proton lateral broadening distributions with beam measurements taken at Loma Linda University Proton Therapy Facility. The simulated and measured lateral broadening distributions are compared for a 250 MeV proton beam on aluminum, polyethylene, polystyrene, bone substitute, iron, and lead target materials. The GRNTRN results are also compared to simulations from the Monte Carlo MCNPX code for the same projectile-target combinations described above

Coupling of Multiple Coulomb Scattering with Energy Loss and Straggling in HZETRN

The new version of the HZETRN deterministic transport code based on Green's function methods, and the incorporation of ground-based laboratory boundary conditions, has lead to the development of analytical and numerical procedures to include off-axis dispersion of primary ion beams due to small-angle multiple Coulomb scattering. In this paper we present the theoretical formulation and computational procedures to compute ion beam broadening and a methodology towards achieving a self-consistent approach to coupling multiple scattering interactions with ionization energy loss and straggling. Our initial benchmark case is a 60 MeV proton beam on muscle tissue, for which we can compare various attributes of beam broadening with Monte Carlo simulations reported in the open literature

Characterization of the RaD-X Mission Instruments

The NASA Radiation Dosimetry Experiment (RaD-X) stratospheric balloon flight mission, launched on 25 September 2015, provided dosimetric measurements above the Pfotzer maximum. The goal of taking these measurements is to improve aviation radiation models by providing a characterization of cosmic ray primaries, which are the source of radiation exposure at aviation altitudes. The RaD-X science payload consists of four instruments. The main science instrument is a tissue-equivalent proportional counter (TEPC). The other instruments consisted of three solid state silicon dosimeters: Liulin, Teledyne total ionizing dose (TID) and RaySure detectors. To properly interpret the measurements, it is necessary to evaluate how the payload affects the radiation environment of the detectors. In addition, it is necessary to evaluate how the detectors react to the different particles impacting them. We present the results of the Geant-4 simulations of the interaction of the different radiations with the payload and the instruments. We show how it affect the measurements, and which instruments are better suited for future mission

RaD-X: Complementary measurements of dose rates at aviation altitudes

The RaD-X stratospheric balloon flight organized by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration was launched from Fort Sumner on 25 September 2015 and carried several instruments to measure the radiation field in the upper atmosphere at the average vertical cutoff rigidity Rc of 4.1 GV. The German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt) in cooperation with Lufthansa German Airlines supported this campaign with an independent measuring flight at the altitudes of civil aviation on a round trip from Germany to Japan. The goal was to measure dose rates under similar space weather conditions over an area on the Northern Hemisphere opposite to the RaD-X flight. Dose rates were measured in the target areas, i.e., around vertical cutoff rigidity Rc of 4.1 GV, at two flight altitudes for about 1 h at each position with acceptable counting statistics. The analysis of the space weather situation during the flights shows that measuring data were acquired under stable and moderate space weather conditions with a virtually undisturbed magnetosphere. The measured rates of absorbed dose in silicon and ambient dose equivalent complement the data recorded during the balloon flight. The combined measurements provide a set of experimental data suitable for validating and improving numerical models for the calculation of radiation exposure at aviation altitudes