NEGLIGENCE-PROXIMATE CAUSE-INTERVENING ACT OF CHILD

In the race track arena of defendant\u27s fairground there were nightly fireworks displays. Three bombs, similar in appearance to ordinary firecrackers, but containing explosives more powerful than gunpowder, had failed to explode on the previous night. They had been wrapped in paper, placed in open wooden crates alongside three exposed bombs, and left unguarded in the arena firing area which was accessible to and traversed by the general public. The plaintiff\u27s older brother, aged thirteen, together with other children between twelve and fifteen years old, had climbed over a fence into the fairgrounds. In compassing the fairgrounds he discovered the bombs, took the defective ones, gave two to his friends and carried one to his home two miles away. The next morning while being handled by the infant plaintiff, who was seven years of age, the bomb exploded injuring him seriously. The jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff, and judgment was entered thereon. On appeal, held, affirmed. The intervening acts of the plaintiff\u27s brother did not as a matter of law break the causal chain. Two judges dissented. Kingsland v. Erie County Agr. Soc., 298 N.Y. 409, 84 N.E. (2d) 38 (1949)

POWER OF APPOINTMENT-VALIDITY OF EXERCISE SUBJECT TO A NO-CONTEST CLAUSE

The decedent received under the will of her husband a general testamentary power of appointment over a remainder interest. In her will she exercised the power, providing that any person benefiting under the power who in any manner should institute, encourage, or participate in proceedings for the avoidance of any part of the will should forfeit his right to any benefits from the power or from her estate. Held, exercise of a general testamentary power of appointment subject to a no-contest forfeiture provision is valid. Marx v. Rice, 1 N.J. 584, 65 A. (2d) 48 (1949)

CONFLICT OF LAWS-LIMITATION OF ACTIONS-STATUTE OF FORUM SHORTER THAN LIMITATION IN FOREIGN STATUTE CREATING CAUSE OF ACTION

Action was brought in a United States district court of Pennsylvania to recover for a death by wrongful act which occurred in Minnesota. The action was brought within the time limit of two years allowed by the Minnesota statute, but after the period of one year designated by the Pennsylvania statute for commencement of such action. The district court gave judgment for the defendant. On appeal, held, affirmed. Federal courts in diversity cases are bound by state rules of conflict of laws, and consequently the Pennsylvania rule that no action for wrongful death can be brought in Pennsylvania after the one year period of its statute controls, irrespective of the duration of the right under the statute creating it. Hughes v. Lucker, (3d Cir. 1949) 174 F. (2d) 285

LIBEL AND SLANDER-NECESSITY FOR ALLEGATION OF SPECIAL DAMAGES FOR DEFAMATION NOT SHOWN LIBELOUS PER SE

Defendants, the deacons, pastor, and clerk of the Gallatin Baptist Church, published to the church membership a letter to the plaintiff, an ordained minister of the Baptist Church, and a member of the Gallatin Church, requiring him to report and show cause why the hand of fellowship should not be withdrawn from him because of heresy. The plaintiff\u27s complaint for libel set out the letter published, but a motion to dismiss for failure to state a cause of action was sustained by the circuit court on the grounds that there was no allegation of special damages to the plaintiff. On appeal, held, affirmed. In the absence of an allegation of some special loss or injury, the charge of heresy in a church disciplinary proceeding is not libelous and actionable per se. Creekmore v. Runnels, et al., 359 Mo. 1020, 224 S.W. (2d) 1007 (1949)

REAL PROPERTY-TAX SALES-TITLE OF PURCHASER OF LAND SUBJECT TO EASEMENT

In an action to enforce a lien for taxes on real property, the defendants counterclaimed, asking for a declaratory judgment as to whether a sale of real property for nonpayment of taxes extinguishes an easement with which the property is burdened. The easement was appurtenant to an adjoining parcel of land. Held, an easement appurtenant is not extinguished by sale of the servient tenement for nonpayment of taxes. District of Columbia v. Capital Mortgage & Title Co., Inc., (D.C. Cir. 1949) 84 F. Supp. 788

INSURANCE-CONSUMMATION OF THE CONTRACT-DELIVERY OF THE POLICY

An application for life insurance was accepted, and a policy issued, mailed to, and received by the agent of the insurer. The application provided that the policy would not take effect until manual delivery thereof. The agent made several unsuccessful attempts to deliver the policy, but before any physical transmission of the policy, the insured died. The beneficiaries sued to recover the amount of the policy. The trial court gave judgment for the defendant insurance company. On appeal, held, affirmed. Manual delivery was a valid condition precedent. There having been no manual transmission to the insured, and the plaintiffs having failed to sustain the burden of showing that delivery to the agent of the insurer amounted to delivery to the insured, the policy never became effective. Smith v. Rio Grande Nat. Life Ins. Co., (Tex. Civ. App. 1950) 227 S.W. (2d) 579

PVEMC: Isolating the flavor-dependent EMC effect using parity-violating elastic scattering in SoLID

In order to better understand the EMC effect, we propose a clean and precise measurement of the flavor dependence of the EMC effect using parity-violating deep inelastic scattering on a $^{48}$Ca target. This measurement will provide an extremely sensitive test for flavor dependence in the modification of nuclear parton distribution functions (PDFs) for neutron-rich nuclei. A measurement of the flavor dependence will provide new and vital information and help to explain nucleon modification at the quark level. In addition to helping understand the origin of the EMC effect, a flavor-dependent nuclear pdf modification could significantly impact a range of processes, including neutrino-nucleus scattering, nuclear Drell-Yan processes, and e-A observables at the Electron-Ion Collider. The parity-violating asymmetry APV from $^{48}$Ca using an 11 GeV beam at $80\ \mu A$ will be measured using the SoLID detector in its PVDIS configuration. In 68 days of data taking, we will reach $0.7-1.3\%$ statistical precision for $0.2<x<0.7$ with $0.6-0.7\%$ systematic uncertainties. The goal is to make the first direct measurement of the flavor dependence of the EMC effect. The precision of the measurement will allow for quantification of the flavor-dependent effects, greatly improving our ability to differentiate between models of the EMC effect and constraining the u- and d-quark contributions in neutron rich nuclei.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures and one table. Proposal submitted to JLab PAC50 and conditionally approve

Perceptions of university assessment and feedback among post-16 school pupils

The transition between school and university can be problematic for students. Understanding students’ expectations about the system they are entering into is crucial in effecting a smooth transition. The school system involves small classes, often with teachers who know their students well. In contrast university involves large class sizes and a degree of anonymity for the student. In the UK National Student Survey responses for universities show that students are generally less happy about feedback relative to most other issues. The current study investigates school students’ expectations about assessment and feedback practices at university. Students were surveyed across Great Britain in 2006 and 2013. There were some significantly different responses from students between the two years of study in how coursework would be handled, but there were also many areas of consistency, demonstrating a clear pattern of expectation. For example, in both years of study 80 % of students expected personal verbal feedback on their university assignments. This study discusses how student expectations may be based on their school experiences rather than considering the reality of the university system they are entering into. Misconceptions may be affecting students’ responses to the NSS surveys on assessment and feedback

Security analysis for agroterrorism: applying the threat, vulnerability, consequence framework to developing countries

"We examine access to, use of, and participation in decisions on improved water supply in the Volta basin of Ghana, one of the first countries to introduce a community-based approach to rural water supply on a large scale. While 71 percent of the households interviewed have access to improved water, 43 percent of these continue to use unsafe sources as their main domestic water source. Our results indicate that quality perceptions and opportunity costs play an important role in households' choice of water source. The effect of prices and income levels on this choice differs according to the pricing system used. Given that supply characteristics such as the location and pricing system affect household decisions to use the improved source, households may try to influence these characteristics in their favor during the community decision-making process for the improved source. However, less than 40 percent of the households interviewed participated in decisions on location or technology. We argue that the decision whether to participate depends on three main factors: (i) the household's bargaining power, (ii) the potential benefits from influencing outcomes, and (iii) the cost of participation, (mainly opportunity cost of time). Our results indicate that bargaining power matters In some developing countries the potential exists for agroterrorism to cause widespread disruption through loss of sustenance, income and production. Defense of agriculture may also be problematic because of the lack stability and basic biosecurity infrastructure for the detection and prevention of diseases or invasive species. Currently new methodological approaches for terrorism risk assessments are being actively explored for resource prioritization. One such methodology for risk based allocation of resources is Threat, Vulnerability, and Consequence (TVC) Analysis. A qualitative application of the TVC framework is used to analyze the risk of agroterrorism in developing countries relative to industrialized countries. The analysis suggests that evidence exists to demonstrate general terrorist threats, vulnerability of agriculture and, depending on the country, potentially serious consequences arising from argoterrorism. Where specific threats emerge, action may be needed by the international community to strengthen biosecurity systems in developing countries through: increasing global cooperation, capacity building in monitoring, remediation and risk analysis technologies, and the dissemination of novel technologies for control of pests and diseases." Authors' AbstractCapacity strengthening, Water-supply Management, Agroterrorism, Biosecurity, Risk analysis, resource allocation, Terrorism, Governance,