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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: We report results from cathodoluminescence spectroscopy of boron nitride films grown on Si(100) substrates by ion-source-assisted magnetron sputtering of a hexagonal BN target. Three main peaks are observed in the near-band-gap region for hexagonal boron nitride films at energies of 4.90, 5.31, and 5.50 eV. We also report deep-level emission spectra of predominantly cubic boron nitride films which are correlated with sample growth conditions. In particular we show that the emission intensity, position, and linewidth are strongly dependent on the substrate bias voltage used during sample growth.

Notes: This study presents mortality data from a 20-year follow-up of 99 married men with drinking problems. Party-four of the sample had died and death certificates were obtained on 43. Cause of death was classified according to the Ninth Revision of the International Classification of Diseases. Most of the mortality excess was in the 45–54 year age group. The observed/expected mortality ratio was 3.64 for the group as a whole, 2.93 for the moderately dependent group and 4.41 for the severely dependent group. The commonest causes of death were carcinoma of the bronchus and diseases of the circulatory system. Cause of death was analysed in terms of years of life lost. The number of yean of life lost per death was highest for injury and poisoning. Only four of the 43 death certificates obtained mentioned “chronic alcoholism”.

Notes: Seven varieties of white clover (Trifolium repens L.), of varying leaf size from large to small, were sown with perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) in 1985, at an upland site, and compared over three harvest years under a cutting management (5-6 cuts), and under continuous grazing by sheep. Fertilizer N input totalled 80 kg ha−1 in both the cutting and the grazing trial. The same varieties were included in two official National List (NL) trials sown the same year at a nearby site; these comprised a yield trial with 6-7 cuts and a persistency trial mown very frequently (17 cuts) to simulate intensive grazing.At the upland site the large-leaved varieties, Milkanova and Blanca, were the highest yielding under cutting (mean 3·3 t DM ha−1), and the small-leaved S184 and Kent the lowest yielding (mean 2·3 t DM ha−1). The rankings were reversed under grazing (corresponding yields 1·1 and 2·1 t DM ha−1). The medium-leaved varieties Donna, Menna and Grasslands Huia behaved similarly to the large-leaved varieties. Ranking order in the cutting trial was similar to that in the NL trial.Ground covers after three harvest years differed significantly only under grazing, when the small-leaved varieties had a 2-3 times greater cover than the larger-leaved varieties. A poor separation of the varieties in the NL persistency trial suggests that defoliation was not sufficiently severe to simulate intensive grazing.These comparisons indicate that the performance of clover varieties under the cutting regimes used should not be extrapolated to continuous sheep grazing.

Notes: The effect of milk feeding on the ontogeny of serum IgA in breast and cow milk formula fed neonates was studied. There was a rise in serum IgA concentrations from the 2nd week in both groups, but no difference in rate of appearance or concentrations in relation to age, gestation or sex. The ingestion of RSV antibody-rich colostrum was associated with a rise in serum anti-RSV IgA in 2 preterm infants during the perinatal period. We suggest that there are 2 mechanisms which regulate the ontogeny of circulating IgA: an early but small intestinal uptake of colostral IgA, and a later endogenous production, which in this study was not influenced by composition of feeds.

Notes: Meissner effect measurements were used to characterize the effect of copper depletion and silver substitution on the bulk superconducting properties of YBa2Cu3Oy. A strong copper composition dependence of superconductivity was observed: A 20% depletion of copper from the samples resulted in an 88% decrease in the strength of superconductivity in YBa2Cu3Oy as measured by the Meissner effect. Because flux trapping and field penetration were likely to be significant in the high-Tc materials, it was difficult to determine the volume fraction of superconducting material in the samples. Variations in the lattice constants were consistent with copper composition-induced disorder on the orthorhombic lattice which became more pseudocubic, i.e., a(approximately-equal-to)b=c/3, with copper depletion. The addition of silver had essentially no effect on superconductivity or the lattice constants of YBa2Cu3Oy.