Man's exploration of space

Apollo spacecraft developmen

Metals resources: products in turmoil

Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Policy Formulation, Implementation and Feedback in EU Merger Control

This paper analyses the formulation of the EU Merger Control Regulation (MCR) and its implementation via the 1992 Nestlé/Perrier merger. It offers two arguments. First, these phases of policy development occurred in ‘macro’ and ‘micro’ policy communities found at the supranational level of governance. The first community consists of larger Commission and business interests that formulated the MCR and the second of specific actors within the ‘macro’ community - the Merger Task Force and the firms – that implemented the rules. Secondly, the development of these communities can be explained by private interest theory. The conclusions highlight two main lessons for students of comparative European politics. First, the concept of ‘macro’ and ‘micro’ communities existing at both the formulation and implementation phases of policy offers a framework for comparativists to better analyse which types of actors will interact during different stages of the policy-making process. It is argued that while the (larger) ‘macro’ community helps define the nature of the regulations, a related, but not necessarily equally composed, ‘micro’ community eventually implements the rules, potentially changing the nature of the policy itself via a ‘feedback’ mechanism. Secondly, this study suggests that comparativists must pay more attention to the private interests of policy-makers and how these are intertwined with their ‘private fears.’ Such interests and fears guide policy-makers while simultaneously constrain them from acting alone.

Control system integration

This lecture begins with a definition of an accelerator control system, and then reviews the control system architectures that have been deployed at the larger accelerator facilities. This discussion naturally leads to identification of the major subsystems and their interfaces. We shall explore general strategies for integrating intelligent devices and signal processing subsystems based on gate arrays and programmable DSPs. The following topics will also be covered: physical packaging; timing and synchronization; local and global communication technologies; interfacing to machine protection systems; remote debugging; configuration management and source code control; and integration of commercial software tools. Several practical realizations will be presented

Ab initio electronic structure calculations of solid, solution-processed metallotetrabenzoporphyrins

An ab initio study of the electronic structures of solid metallotetrabenzoporphyrins (MTBPs) utilized in organic transistors and photovoltaics is presented. Bandstructures, densities of states, and orbitals are calculated for H2, Cu, Ni, and Zn core substitutions of the unit cell of solid TBP, as deposited via soluble precursors that are thermally annealed to produce polycrystalline, semiconducting thin-films. While the unit cells of the studied MTBPs are nearly isomorphous, substitution of the core atoms alters the structure of the bands around the energy bandgap and the composition of the densities of states. Cu and Ni core substitutions introduce nearly-dispersionless energy bands near the valence and conduction band edges, respectively, that form acceptor or deep generation/recombination states.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, 4 table

Better Go it Alone: An Extension of Fiduciary Duties for Investment Fund Managers in Securities Class Action Opt-Outs

Securities class actions provide a vehicle for plaintiffs to recover billions of dollars in settlement awards. Given the prevalence of institutional investors in the market for publicly traded securities, it is no surprise that large investment funds are often implicated as lead plaintiffs in securities class actions. Despite having recoverable claims in many of these settlements, these investment funds often fail to participate in the action on behalf of their beneficiaries (their investors). Some scholars argue that fund managers have a fiduciary obligation to participate in claim filing and monitoring processes in an effort to recover settlement awards and to maximize the value of their beneficiaries’ investments. Courts have yet to hold fund managers liable for failure to do so. This Note explores a separate but related phenomenon: the increased prevalence of class action “opt-outs” in which a plaintiff may choose not to be a part of the action in favor of pursuing a separate action, and hopefully recover more than would be available within the class action structure. Inherent in the opt-out calculus is the risk of receiving nothing at all. Given this phenomenon, this Note asks whether it would make sense to extend fiduciary duties to contemplate opt-out behavior in an effort to encourage fund managers to monitor those securities class actions that implicate their respective funds. According to this argument, a fund manager would have a duty to opt out when the recovery outside the class action was likely greater, and when there was a reasonable likelihood that such recovery could be obtained. At the moment, such an extension would not be appropriate. A clear departure from case law related to fiduciary duties and officer liability, such an extension would also inject too much legally encouraged risk taking into the capital markets; it would undermine many of the valid policy objectives of the securities class action; and it would place an undue burden on fund managers to take monitoring obligations to unprecedented levels

Further development of a charged liquid colloid source for electrostatic propulsion Final report

Performance characteristics of charged liquid droplet electrostatic propulsion syste