On Investment Law and Questions of Change

This article analyses the various ways in which investment law raises questions of change. It distinguishes between changes in international investment norms, and changes in a host state’s regulatory system which is subject to the control of such norms, and explains how these different manifestations of change relate to the distinct yet interrelated issues of interpretation and application. The article explains why, given features of the contemporary investment regime, on questions of interpretation, concerning the content of international investment norms, arbitrators operate within wider processes of law-development over which states, as treaty masters, also exercise significant influence. In contrast, arbitrators dominate the process of applying international investment norms to particular investor-state disputes to determine whether changes in a host state’s regulatory system breach applicable investment norms. This claim is demonstrated in relation to the two most prominent investment treaty standards: fair and equitable treatment, and the protection against indirect expropriation

Failure to Take Reasonable Environmental Measures as a Breach of Investment Treaty?

A case comment on Peter A. Allard v The Government of Barbados, UNCITRAL Arbitration, PCA Case No. 2012-06, Award, 27 June 201

Ion mixing of markers in SiO2 and Si

The amount of atomic mixing in amorphous SiO2 and Si is studied by measuring the redistribution of thin metal markers due to irradiation with 300-keV Xe+ ions. In SiO2, the mixing efficiency appears to be independent of the chemical nature of marker atoms and can be explained in terms of a linear cascade model. In Si, the mixing is found to correlate with thermally activated diffusivities of the marker species

A low noise, high thermal stability, 0.1 K test facility for the Planck HFI bolometers

We are developing a facility which will be used to characterize the bolometric detectors for Planck, an ESA mission to investigate the Cosmic Microwave Background. The bolometers operate at 0.1 K, employing neutron-transmutation doped (NTD) Ge thermistors with resistances of several megohms to achieve NEPs~1×10^(–17) W Hz^(–1/2). Characterization of the intrinsic noise of the bolometers at frequencies as low as 0.010 Hz dictates a test apparatus thermal stability of 40 nK Hz^(–1/2) to that frequency. This temperature stability is achieved via a multi-stage isolation and control geometry with high resolution thermometry implemented with NTD Ge thermistors, JFET source followers, and dedicated lock-in amplifiers. The test facility accommodates 24 channels of differential signal readout, for measurement of bolometer V(I) characteristics and intrinsic noise. The test facility also provides for modulated radiation in the submillimeter band incident on the bolometers, for measurement of the optical speed-of-response; this illumination can be reduced below detectable limits without interrupting cryogenic operation. A commercial Oxford Instruments dilution refrigerator provides the cryogenic environment for the test facility

Letter, 1949 March 18, from Mechanical - Copyright Protection Society, Limited to Carson Robison

1 page, Paine is the secretary for the Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society, Limited

Development of a severe local storm prediction system: A 60-day test of a mesoscale primitive equation model

The progress and problems associated with the dynamical forecast system which was developed to predict severe storms are examined. The meteorological problem of severe convective storm forecasting is reviewed. The cascade hypothesis which forms the theoretical core of the nested grid dynamical numerical modelling system is described. The dynamical and numerical structure of the model used during the 1978 test period is presented and a preliminary description of a proposed multigrid system for future experiments and tests is provided. Six cases from the spring of 1978 are discussed to illustrate the model's performance and its problems. Potential solutions to the problems are examined

Some recent results in aerospace vehicle trajectory optimization techniques

Algorithms and computation techniques for solving trajectory optimization problem

Averaging and Adding in Children's Worth Judgements

Under the normative Expected Value (EV) model, multiple outcomes are additive, but in everyday worth judgement intuitive averaging prevails. Young children also use averaging in EV judgements, leading to a disordinal, crossover violation of utility when children average the part worths of simple gambles involving independent events (Schlottmann, 2000). This study explored the origins of this averaging bias in children‘s worth judgements, assessing whether averaging also appears for riskless judgements and for other types of risky judgements. In Experiment 1, 8- year-olds judged the worth of having either one or two squares of chocolates in two formally equivalent tasks: Children made additive worth judgements when chocolates varied in size, but used averaging when they varied in winning probability. Performance on the EV task was slightly more advanced when risky followed riskless judgements, with some evidence of transfer. In Experiment 2, 5-year-olds gave additive worth judgements when judging variable fractions of chocolate pies, with displays closely parallel to the spinner discs used for the gambles in Experiment 1. In Experiment 3, 5-yearolds gave additive worth judgements of gambles in which to win either one or two prizes, with alternative rather than independent probabilities of winning. Thus the overgeneralisation of averaging processes to EV judgement, while persistent, neither reflects a general difficulty with additive value judgement, nor with displays showing positive and negative information, nor with risky judgement per se. It may come into play because children have difficulty appreciating the implications of independence, apparent also in other domains. Despite such difficulty, children realize that risky game outcomes go beyond what they can see, and so may apply averaging, as default strategy for population judgement, whereas addition might be the default for judging the sample itself