Prototype ATLAS IBL Modules using the FE-I4A Front-End Readout Chip

The ATLAS Collaboration will upgrade its semiconductor pixel tracking detector with a new Insertable B-layer (IBL) between the existing pixel detector and the vacuum pipe of the Large Hadron Collider. The extreme operating conditions at this location have necessitated the development of new radiation hard pixel sensor technologies and a new front-end readout chip, called the FE-I4. Planar pixel sensors and 3D pixel sensors have been investigated to equip this new pixel layer, and prototype modules using the FE-I4A have been fabricated and characterized using 120 GeV pions at the CERN SPS and 4 GeV positrons at DESY, before and after module irradiation. Beam test results are presented, including charge collection efficiency, tracking efficiency and charge sharing.Comment: 45 pages, 30 figures, submitted to JINS

Determinants of Malaysian Trade Balance: An ARDL Bound Testing Approach - A Commentary

This commentary is served as an additional light both from theoretical and empirical perspectives, on the study by Duasa (Global Economic Review, 2007, 36, pp. 89-102) who examined the short- and long-run relationships between trade balance, real exchange rates, income, and money supply for Malaysia. The final words I would like to make are that the results documented by Duasa require further investigation before it can be generalized.Trade balance, open macro economy equilibrium, Malaysia,

The portfolio selection approach and short-run econometric-models of capital flows and the foreign-exchange market - a theoretical-analysis

This study attempts to provide a systematic theoretical analysis of the portfolio selection approach to the determination of inter-regional and international capital flows, and to identify the implications of this analysis for the appropriate specification of short-run econometric models of the foreign exchange market

International Forum Shopping and Transnational Lawsuits

International forum shopping in disputes on liability can be a legitimate procedural strategy for plaintiffs in looking for a favourable jurisdiction. But it demands careful consideration of the pros and cons. In particular, the assumption that the selected court will prefer its own law in any case is not always honoured. The true (and more reliable) motives for forum shopping are aiming at the procedural climate in the selected forum state that seems favourable to the plaintiff (in the case of U.S. courts: jury trial, pre-trial discovery, and class actions). The defendant has but a limited number of remedies and procedural tactics to react upon the claimant's forum shopping or anticipate it – which requires imagination and skilful reflection of all the conceivable steps to be taken by the plaintiff: ADR, anti-suit injunctions (only rarely available in continental Europe, however), declaratory actions for denial, torpedo suits, and, sometimes, the forum-non-conveniens objection. In order to keep undue excesses in forum shopping under control, it seems necessary that the international community, too, in conventions and treaties, agrees on reducing the choices and on banning exorbitant jurisdictions in national laws. The Geneva Papers (2006) 31, 293–303. doi:10.1057/palgrave.gpp.2510083