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Notes: A photolithographic technique for fabrication of very smooth and highly uniform metallic, free-standing, inductive meshes, is described. The fabrication process was developed in order to produce highly reflective, low-loss Fabry–Perot étalon elements for use in the infrared spectral region. The measured rms smoothness of the grids is typically ≤30 A(ring). Because of their nickel core, the mechanical strength of the grids is such that they can be easily stretched flat on stainless-steel rings.

Notes: Thirty-five patients with menorrhagia were treated in a double-blind crossover study with naproxen sodium and mefenamic acid after measurement of their blood loss during control menstrual cycles. Treatment with these compounds reduced the excessive bleeding by an average of 46 and 47% respectively. Drugs in the prostaglandin synthetase inhibitor group are considered to have an important place in the treatment of menorrhagia.

Notes: Four articles have been published in this Journal about the historic cattle trial, Pickett v Tyson Fresh Meats, Inc., in which Plaintiff cattlemen alleged that Tyson/IBP--the buyer--used captive (contracted) supplies of cattle to manipulate the cash market in violation of the 1921 Packers & Stockyards Act (PSA). The first article gave a Trial's eye view by David Domina who served as co-lead counsel representing Plaintiff cattlemen. Domina's article led to a published comment by Thomas Green who was the lead attorney representing Tyson during the Trial phase of lengthy legal proceedings. Green alleged that Domina's article was "littered with rank speculation and baseless opinion." Domina countered that "proof is not litter, and evidence is not rank speculation" and that Green's commentary was "abusive." The adversarial exchange between Domina and Green was followed by another advocacy article in which William Rosales maintained that Pickett "represents an opportunity for the judiciary to reform the meatpacking industry (and) awaken the (PSA's) intended power to dethrone the economic kings of the meatpacking industry."After a five week Trial in Federal Court, the Jury found Tyson/IBP guilty on all counts and assessed actual damages of $1.28 billion over 2/1994 -10/2002. Justice for Plaintiff cattlemen was short, as the Trial Judge set aside the Jury's verdict--a rare but not unprecedented legal action--and entered summary judgment for Tyson. The Eleventh Appellate Court subsequently sided with the Trial Judge. On March 24, 2006, the United States Supreme Court denied without comment Plaintiff's Petition to rehear the case, thus ending legal activities in Pickett v Tyson and effectively killing similar legal action pending against two other major beef packers, Excel (Cargill) and Swift (ConAgra).This article emphasizes three significant and troubling legal and economic issues from the historic litigation: (1) the Courts' narrow and extreme interpretation of the antitrust rule-of-reason; (2) the Courts' endorsement of a "meeting the competition" defense, and (3) whether the Courts inserted themselves above the Jury as fact-finders in the case, contrary to the 7th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that establishes the Jury as the only fact-finder in civil litigation.In essence Pickett was filed under the Packers and Stockyards Act, tried under Sherman and Clayton antitrust law, and overturned, in part, under the Robinson-Patman Act.

Notes: Abstract. Statistical analysis of monitoring data is becoming a necessary part of many ground- and surface-water quality management activities. To meet this need a statistical software package for microcomputers called WQStat II has been designed and produced specifically for water quality applications. The software provides tools for data management, summarizing data characteristics, analyzing trends, comparing medians of two or more groups of data, and evaluating excursions or standards violations. To minimize problems associated with nonnormal data and nondetects, WQStat relies primarily on graphical and nonparametric approaches.

Notes: We report transport critical-current measurements of the YBa2Cu3Oy high-Tc superconductors using a contactless transformer technique. A critical-current density of 15.9±1.0 A/cm was observed at 77 K for samples fabricated by a standard preparation method for the high-Tc superconductors. The addition of a small amount of silver to samples of YBa2Cu3Oy has a dramatic degrading effect on the critical current. This is in sharp contrast to the Meissner-effect results, where silver addition has a minimal effect. No significant systematic frequency dependence of the critical-current determination was found between 10 and 5000 Hz. Visual observations of "blips'' in oscilloscope traces and an extrapolation of signals to zero blip height gave consistent results and established an uncertainty of ∼3% for critical-current determination. The range of dimensions of the ring-shaped samples yielded an uncertainty of ∼3% for the cross-sectional area. The overall uncertainty for an absolute measurement of the critical-current density is consequently ∼6%. The uncertainty in relative measurements of the critical-current density is very much less.

Notes: The environmental quality objective and standards (EQO/EQS) approach to controlling and assessing estuarine pollution is described together with details of the information necessary to assess the health of the fish populations and determine whether the EQO/EQS are being met in an estuary. These concepts are illustrated by examples from the Forth estuary, Scotland, involving studies of the ecology, pathology, biochemistry and contaminant bioaccumulation of fish in relation to the benthos, water quality and anthropogenic influences.