ESHHEAT-BONA VACANTIA-RIGHT OF STATE TO CLAIM UNCLAIMED ROYALTY PAYMENTS OF A CORPORATION

The State of Arkansas brought suit against defendant to recover various moneys, rents, royalties, credits, and other personal property, which had been unclaimed, forgotten, abandoned, or otherwise lost by-various persons, and which were allegedly in the possession of defendant. The state, not knowing who the previous owners were, submitted interrogatories to defendant which were designed to discover exactly what was in defendant\u27s possession, and who had been the last known owners thereof. The state based its claim on the statutes and on the common law doctrine of bona vacantia. Defendant\u27s demurrer was sustained. On appeal, held, affirmed. The state has no cause of action under the statutes, and there is no common law right of bona vacantia, because there is no allegation that a definitely named article of personal property was held without any known owner nor that a definitely known person had died or disappeared leaving a chose in action and having no known heirs. The interrogatories were not allowed because they were instituted for the purpose of obtaining information on which to base a subsequent proceeding, which subsequent proceeding would be dependent on the information obtained in the first proceeding. State v. Phillips Petroleum Co., (Ark. 1947) 206 S.W. (2d) 771

BILLS AND NOTES-PERSONAL LIABILITY OF AGENT WHO SIGNS NOTE WHICH PRINCIPAL HAS NO LEGAL POWER TO EXECUTE

Defendant gave a note, signed by him in his representative capacity as village president, to plaintiff in payment for services rendered to the village. Defendant signed after he was authorized to do so by a resolution of the village board of trustees. The facts showed that the parties understood the village to be the primary obligor on the note. Actually, the village had no legal power to make such notes and could not have been indebted by them. Plaintiff sued defendant as an individual and won a verdict in the trial court. On appeal, held, reversed. Defendant having signed in a representative capacity was not personally bound, inasmuch as he was given permission by the board of trustees, and because the plaintiff was charged with notice of the village\u27s lack of capacity. Greenlee v. Beaver, (Ill. 1948) 79 N.E. ( 2d) 822

INSURANCE-EFFECT OF INCONTESTABLE CLAUSE IN SUIT FOR REFORMATION OF POLICY

For over twenty years, defendant insurer accepted premiums on a life insurance policy issued to plaintiff. Defendant then discovered that a clerical error had been made in the original policy, as a result of which plaintiff\u27s premium payments were approximately one-half the premiums defendant normally received for the type of policy actually issued. Defendant asked for reformation of the policy on the ground of mistake, and the trial court granted the relief sought. On appeal, held, reversed. The action was barred by the incontestable clause. Richardson v. Travelers Insurance Co., (App. 9th, 1948) 171 F. (2d) 699

QUASI-CONTRACTS -- TAXATION -- RESCISSION OF GIFT FOR FAILURE TO ACHIEVE DONOR\u27S PURPOSE OF MINIMIZING FEDERAL INCOME TAXES

In 1937, plaintiff made a gift of stock in a closed corporation to his wife, the defendant. For two years defendant received cash dividends on the stock transferred to her and paid income taxes thereon. Late in 1938 the corporation was dissolved; the assets were distributed to the shareholders, and a partnership was formed. Defendant continued to report the income received by her from the partnership. In 1946, the Tax Court sustained the contention of the commissioner of internal revenue that the entire income from this partnership was taxable to plaintiff under the doctrine of Commissioner v. Tower. Plaintiff sought rescission of his gift, claiming that the gratuitous transfer had been induced by a. mistaken assumption as to tax consequences. The evidence showed that the prime purpose of the gift was to build up defendant\u27s estate and that the intent to reduce income taxes was only an incidental motive. Relief was denied by the trial court. On appeal, held, affirmed. Since the chief purpose in making the gift was not defeated, plaintiff was not entitled to equitable relief. Lowry v. Kavanagh, 322 Mich. 532, 34 N.W. (2d) 60 (1948)

Studies of the use of high-temperature nuclear heat from an HTGR for hydrogen production

The results of a study which surveyed various methods of hydrogen production using nuclear and fossil energy are presented. A description of these methods is provided, and efficiencies are calculated for each case. The process designs of systems that utilize the heat from a general atomic high temperature gas cooled reactor with a steam methane reformer and feed the reformer with substitute natural gas manufactured from coal, using reforming temperatures, are presented. The capital costs for these systems and the resultant hydrogen production price for these cases are discussed along with a research and development program

Strontium isotope systematics of mixing groundwater and oil-field brine at Goose Lake in northeastern Montana, USA

Groundwater, surface water, and soil in the Goose Lake oil field in northeastern Montana have been affected by Cl- rich oil-field brines during long-term petroleum production. Ongoing multidisciplinary geochemical and geophysical studies have identified the degree and local extent of interaction between brine and groundwater. Fourteen samples representing groundwater, surface water, and brine were collected for Sr isotope analyses to evaluate the usefulness of 87Sr/86Sr in detecting small amounts of brine. Differences in Sr concentrations and 87Sr/86Sr are optimal at this site for the experiment. Strontium concentrations range from 0.13 to 36.9 mg/L, and corresponding 87Sr/86Sr values range from 0.71097 to 0.70828. The local brine has 168 mg/L Sr and a 87Sr/86Sr value of 0.70802. Mixing relationships are evident in the data set and illustrate the sensitivity of Sr in detecting small amounts of brine in groundwater. The location of data points on a Sr isotope-concentration plot is readily explained by an evaporation-mixing model. The model is supported by the variation in concentrations of most of the other solutes

Optical shield: measuring viscosity of turbid fluids using optical tweezers

The viscosity of a fluid can be measured by tracking the motion of a suspended micron-sized particle trapped by optical tweezers. However, when the particle density is high, additional particles entering the trap compromise the tracking procedure and degrade the accuracy of the measurement. In this work we introduce an additional Laguerre–Gaussian, i.e. annular, beam surrounding the trap, acting as an optical shield to exclude contaminating particles

Control over phase separation and nucleation using a laser-tweezing potential

Control over the nucleation of new phases is highly desirable but elusive. Even though there is a long history of crystallization engineering by varying physicochemical parameters, controlling which polymorph crystallizes or whether a molecule crystallizes or forms an amorphous precipitate is still a poorly understood practice. Although there are now numerous examples of control using laser-induced nucleation, the absence of physical understanding is preventing progress. Here we show that the proximity of a liquid–liquid critical point or the corresponding binodal line can be used by a laser-tweezing potential to induce concentration gradients. A simple theoretical model shows that the stored electromagnetic energy of the laser beam produces a free-energy potential that forces phase separation or triggers the nucleation of a new phase. Experiments in a liquid mixture using a low-power laser diode confirm the effect. Phase separation and nucleation using a laser-tweezing potential explains the physics behind non-photochemical laser-induced nucleation and suggests new ways of manipulating matter

Power spectrum analysis for optical tweezers. II: Laser wavelength dependence of parasitic filtering, and how to achieve high bandwidth

In a typical optical tweezers detection system, the position of a trapped object is determined from laser light impinging on a quadrant photodiode. When the laser is infrared and the photodiode is of silicon, they can act together as an unintended low-pass filter. This parasicit effect is due to the high transparency of silicon to near-infrared light. A simple model that accounts for this phenomenon is here solved for frequencies up to 100 kHz and for laser wavelengths between 750 and 1064 nm. The solution is applied to experimental data in the same range, and is demonstrated to give this detection system of optical tweezers a bandwidth, accuracy, and precision that are limited only by the data acquisition board's bandwidth and bandpass ripples, here 96.7 kHz and 0.005 dB, respectively. ©2006 American Institute of Physic

Nanoscale temperature measurements using non-equilibrium Brownian dynamics of a levitated nanosphere

Einstein realised that the fluctuations of a Brownian particle can be used to ascertain properties of its environment. A large number of experiments have since exploited the Brownian motion of colloidal particles for studies of dissipative processes, providing insight into soft matter physics, and leading to applications from energy harvesting to medical imaging. Here we use optically levitated nanospheres that are heated to investigate the non-equilibrium properties of the gas surrounding them. Analysing the sphere's Brownian motion allows us to determine the temperature of the centre-of-mass motion of the sphere, its surface temperature and the heated gas temperature in two spatial dimensions. We observe asymmetric heating of the sphere and gas, with temperatures reaching the melting point of the material. This method offers new opportunities for accurate temperature measurements with spatial resolution on the nanoscale, and a new means for testing non-equilibrium thermodynamicsComment: 5 pages, 4 figures, supplementary material available upon reques