The irresponsible director

To improve the position of one creditor for a company in insolvency is nearly always at another creditor’s expense. However, if directors could be held liable for their irresponsible behaviour, this may allow liquidators further opportunities to make directors to make good the loss to their companies or their companies’ creditors. This could be done by revisiting s.172 of the Companies Act 2006 which has not, so far, been particularly effective in improving directorial decision-making. Lessons may be learned from the wording of directors’ duties in other jurisdictions, in particular Ireland

Plasma interaction experiment 2 (PIX 2): Laboratory and flight results

The Plasma Interaction Experiments 1 and 2 (PIX 1 and 2) were designed as first steps toward understanding interactions between high-voltage solar arrays and the surrounding plasma. The PIX 2 consisted of an approximately 2000-sq cm array divided into four equal segments. Each of the segments could be biased independently and the current measured separately. In addition to the solar array segments, PIX 2 had a hot-wire-filament electron emitter and a spherical Langmuir probe. The emitter was operated when the array segments were biased positively bove 125 V. Thermal electrons from the emitter aided in balancing the electron currents collected by the array. Laboratory and flight results of PIX 2 are presented. At high positive voltages on the solar array segments, the flight currents were approximately an order of magnitude larger than the ground test currents. This is attributed to the tank walls in the laboratory interfering with the electron currents to the array segments. From previous tests it is known that the tank walls limit the electron currents at high voltages. This was the first verification of the extent of the laboratory tank effect on the plasma coupling current

BEEF DEMAND AND HEALTH AND FOOD SAFETY RISKS

The purpose of this paper is to provide an update on beef demand. More specifically, however, the purpose of the paper is to show how Canadian producers, processors and industry associations have helped to improve beef demand as a result of determined, focused efforts. By having the courage to address sensitive topics like health and safety, the beef industry has helped to improve the most important issue that they faced: the demand for their product.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

COMMENTARY ON EXCHANGE RATE IMPACTS ON HOG/PORK COMPETITIVENESS

Agribusiness,

MANDATORY PRICE REPORTING - ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF MISPLACED GOVERNMENT EFFORT IN AGRICULTURE

Agricultural and Food Policy,

Applications of living systems theory to life in space

The conceptual system and methodology of living systems theory appear to be of value to research on life in isolated environments. A space station, which must provide suitable conditions for human life in a stressful environment that meets none of the basic needs of life, is an extreme example of such isolation. A space station would include living systems at levels of individual human beings, groups of people engaged in a variety of activities, and the entire space crew as an organization. It could also carry living systems of other species, such as other animals and plants. Using the subsystem analysis of living systems theory, planners of a station, either in space or on a celestial body, would make sure that all the requirements for survival at all these levels had been considered. Attention would be given not only to the necessary matter and energy, but also the essential information flows that integrate and control living systems. Many variables for each subsystem could be monitored and kept in steady states. Use of living systems process analysis of the five flows of matter energy and information would assure that all members of the crew received what they needed

Configurational temperature of charge-stabilized colloidal monolayers

Recent theoretical advances show that the temperature of a system in equilibriumcan be measured from static snapshots of its constituents' instantaneous configurations, withoutregard to their dynamics. We report the first measurements of the configurational temperature in an experimental system. In particular, we introduce a hierarchy of hyperconfigurational temperature definitions, which we use to analyze monolayers of charge-stabilized colloidal spheres. Equality of the hyperconfigurational and bulk thermodynamic temperatures provides previously lacking thermodynamic self-consistency checks for the measured colloidal pair potentials, and thereby casts new light on anomalous like-charge colloidal attractions induced by geometric confinement.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure