bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Taxation And A Clean And Healthy Environment: A Case Study Of The Mining Of Titanium In Kenya
Authors: Waris* Attiya
Published: November 2023

We are in the era of environmental activism.2 The upper atmosphere’s ozone layer is threatened by depletion,3 there is the risk of global warming and chemical pollution continues virtually unabated. To cite a few statistics, as far back as 1994 it was stated that the earth is losing 3,000 square metres of forest and 1,000 tons of topsoil every second.4 However, with continuing industrialization, known mineral sources are being depleted and mineral deposits that were easily and cheaply extractable are becoming exhausted. With rising prices of these minerals and their increased utility, the economic potential of mineral deposits in previously unexplored areas has led to an increase in mining interest in developing countries. Mining activity is well recognized as being an activity that changes an environment. No form of rehabilitation can ever put the land back into the position it was in before the mining took place. The mining process harms the environment in diverse ways including the excavation process, where the removal of the soil changes the structure of the land and removes flora and fauna as well as requiring the resettlement of people. The actual extraction process of the mineral also often requires chemicals or other additives to the soil that may destabilize inert minerals or, in extreme cases, cause radioactivity. This activity harms the people, animals, and vegetation, not only through their inevitable displacement but also by harming their health and at times causing death.
An Analysis Of The Effectiveness And The Side-Effects Of The German Wastewater Fee Law
Authors: Böhm1 Monika , Williamson2 Richard L
Published: November 2023

It is virtually an article of faith among economists and many other policy analysts that taxes or fees on pollution emissions have the potential to bring about environmental benefits at lower cost than command-and-control approaches.3 However, the details are critical. The establishing law and its implementing regulations and practices must ensure that the fees cover both the concentration and the quantity of the pollutants of greatest concern. The fees must be set high enough to have the desired ‘steering’ effect. Put differently, it must serve to induce polluters to undertake investments to reduce pollution if economically warranted, but not be so high as to have serious consequences for important sectors of the economy. Potential adverse side-effects from the imposition of such a scheme must be considered. Less frequently mentioned are beneficial side-effects. In this chapter, we report on the actual effects, both adverse and beneficial, of one such statute that imposes fees on pollutants contained in wastewater discharges, the German Abwasserabgabengesetz.4 Germany is an important country in its own right, but in comparative environmental law, it is especially relevant to North American observers because it is the country that utilizes the civil law system that is otherwise most similar to that of the United States and Canada: a democracy, a federation,5 a major industrial
Subsidy Impact Assessments And Subsidy Monitoring: Opportunities To Advance The Reform Of Environmentally Harmful Subsidies In Germany
Authors: Rave1 Tilmann
Published: November 2023

The need to reform environmentally harmful subsidies (EHS) has been repeatedly demanded in a number of policy documents on the European level, like the Broad Economic Policy Guidelines of the Council of the European Union, the sixth Environmental Action Programme of the European Commission, and the EU-Sustainability Strategy. Yet, despite of the influence of EU policy making on the financial and environmental policies of the Member States (notably EU state aid control) it is mostly up to national and regional policy-makers to realize fiscal and ecological sustainability goals more effectively. Some European countries seem to be more advanced in institutionalizing a kind of ‘green budgeting’ (especially some of the Scandinavian countries and the United Kingdom), but substantial progress has still to be achieved in most other European countries, including Germany.
Tax Reform As If Sustainability Mattered: A Policy Analysis To DemonstrAte The Viability Of Environmental Tax Shifting In Vancouver’S Sustainability Precinct
Authors: Dickson1,2 Mathew
Published: November 2023

Enclosed on the north by mountains, the west by ocean and on the east and south by the Agricultural Land Reserve and the US border, the City of Vancouver (hereinafter ‘Vancouver’) exists in a very confined region and, by nature, has become a compact city. These geographical constraints, particularly in the downtown/ central area, have forced Vancouver to move increasingly towards more concentrated development strategies. Perhaps the most successful and seminal in providing Vancouver with an endorsed policy direction was the Central Area Plan (CAP). This plan encouraged ‘living first in downtown’ by redeveloping high density neighbourhoods on remediated brownfield sites, enhancing local transit and reducing the need for transportation trips and commuting.3 Despite CAP’s success, which has resulted in a downtown population increase of 40,000 to 60,000,4 per capita resource consumption continues to increase, placing a strain on both municipal services and the surrounding natural environment. Vancouver’s ecological footprint is now 19 times its area and rising.5 Additionally, over the past decade, Vancouver’s industrial land base had consistently shrunk, reaching a low of 6 per cent in 1995.6 This shrinkage, and subsequent decline in job availability, has contravened CAP’s goals as greater numbers of residents have to commute or move out of Vancouver in search of work. These repercussions have caused Vancouver to consider developing a 223 hectare (550 acre/24 million ft2) parcel of vacant and/or largely underutilized urban land.7 This land, now known as The False Creek Sustainability Precinct (hereinafter ‘Precinct’), is well located in relation to the downtown area and has direct train links and port access. In 1999,
Estonian Ecological Tax Reform Successfully Launched
Authors: Lüpsik1 Silja
Published: November 2023

Fiscal policy has become an integrated component of promoting environmental sustainability in Estonia. In July 2005, the Estonian government agreed on the principles of the Ecological Tax Reform (ETR). This reform attempts to follow the successful examples of Sweden, Finland, and several other EU countries in making changes to their existing tax systems in order to support environmental protection initiatives. The goal of the proposed reform is to shift from using employment taxes and to adopt environmental taxes. By doing this, the regulator increases the value of environmental resources, promotes their efficient use, and reduces environmental harm caused by industry and the increasing use of private transport. More specifically, the initiated tax reform aims at increasing environmental resources and pollution charge rates and affects product and service prices. As a result, this reform is expected to encourage innovation, as well as stimulating economic development through production process efficiencies and energy saving. Along with the increased taxes on consumer goods and services, the personal marginal income tax rate has been reduced, which, combined with higher income tax allowances, results in increased household disposable income.2 The reform attempts to initiate individual behavioural change by encouraging less consumption and the efficient use of goods and services which have a relatively high environmental impact (such as electricity, and motor and heating fuels).
Marketing Market-Based Environmental Policy Instruments: The Case Of The Uk Climate Change Levy And The German Ecotax Reform
Authors: Cottrell1 Jacqueline
Published: November 2023

This chapter sets out to investigate ways of improving the political acceptance of environmental taxation—and more generally, other kinds of market-based instruments—based on the analysis of two case studies, the Environmental Tax Reform (‘Ecotax’) in Germany and the Climate Change Levy (CCL) in the United Kingdom. While the Ecotax was—and still is—poorly received, particularly by industry and the media, the CCL has been largely ignored. I contend that the reasons for this difference may well provide the policy-maker with several lessons for the future as regards the political acceptance of market-based instruments and other environmental fiscal reforms. There are several reasons why these two instruments lend themselves well to a comparison. First, they are similar instruments in many respects: both are a tax on energy; both incorporated special conditions and clauses to alleviate industry’s concerns as regards competition; both are classical examples of revenue-neutral taxes, taxes which incorporate an environmental tax shift from tax on ‘goods’ (in both cases, labour) to tax on ‘bads’ (energy use). Secondly, they were both implemented around the time of the steep rise in crude oil prices in autumn 2000, and so, to some degree at least, in a similar climate, where sensitivity towards energy prices was relatively high. Thirdly, the societies of Germany and the United Kingdom are also relatively similar, although knowledge of environmental issues is higher in Germany than in the United Kingdom, and the structure of the two economies is not as different as often supposed.2 A final and more personal justification for this comparison is that this study draws on my earlier research comparing the instruments themselves, and on an international conference organized by Green Budget Germany to investigate the two instruments, ‘Ecotaxes in Germany and the United Kingdom: A Business View’.
Market-Based Policies For Renewable Energy Source Electricity: A Comparative Evaluation
Authors: Duff* David G , Green† Andrew J
Published: November 2023

Around the world, countries face a number of concerns about electricity production, including greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution, reliance on foreign energy sources, and adequacy of supply. In order to address these concerns, governments have increasingly attempted to foster the development of so-called ‘new’ renewable sources of electricity: geothermal, solar, wind, and tidal or wave power. Although generation of electricity from these energy sources still accounts for a minuscule percentage of global electricity production,1 growth rates in energy supplied by these sources (particularly solar and wind) since 1971 greatly exceed growth rates for other sources of energy.2 More importantly, the use of new renewable source electricity varies considerably among different countries, suggesting that public policies can have a significant impact on the development and diffusion of renewable energy technologies.3 In order to encourage the production of electricity from these new renewable sources, governments have attempted to rely on various kinds of policy measures. In some countries, environmentally-related taxes like the United Kingdom’s Climate Change Levy operate to discourage the use of non-renewable energy and thereby encourage the production of electricity from new renewable sources. Other countries have sought to encourage the development of new sources of renewable energy through subsidies in the form of direct grants or low-interest loans or tax-delivered subsidies in the form of deductions or credits. Yet other jurisdictions have established guaranteed prices or ‘feed-in tariffs’ at which renewable energy can be sold to electricity distributors, or have adopted ‘renewable portfolio standards’ specifying that electricity distributors must obtain a stipulated quantity or percentage of electricity from renewable sources within specified periods. In addition to these measures, the development of new renewable energy sources has also been encouraged through voluntary targets for production or consumption. Not surprisingly, perhaps, most countries employ several of these instruments.
Designing Forest Carbon Markets For Efficiency, Ecology, And Equity
Authors: Elgie1 Stewart AG
Published: November 2023

The Kyoto Protocol is ushering in the first large-scale global experiment in market-based environmental protection, in the form of carbon emissions trading. In 2006, about 1.6 billion tonnes of carbon credits were traded, with a market value of roughly US$30 billion.2 That amount is expected to grow dramatically in 2008, when Kyoto’s main obligations come into force.3 Kyoto’s emission trading market differs from its domestic predecessors in more than just scale. It also represents the first global market for an ecosystem service; forest owners can now get paid for sequestering carbon in trees. Forest carbon storage can play an important role in mitigating climate change, since forest loss is responsible for almost one-quarter of all human-caused carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.4 The emerging market for forest carbon could also represent the beginning of a profound transformation in forest regulation and management— one with significant implications not only for climate change but also for forest ecosystems and communities that depend on them. The nature and extent of these implications will depend, to a large degree, on how forest carbon markets are designed. Despite these lofty possibilities, many environmental groups, and European countries, were very critical of including forest carbon trading in Kyoto,5 and some remain sceptical.6 Their concerns fall into three main categories:
Tax Strategies To Deal With An Environmental Disaster
Authors: Kreiser1 Larry , Sprohge2 Hans , Butcher3 Bill , Sirisom4 Julsuchada
Published: November 2023

In the last few years, the world has witnessed three major environmental disasters: a destructive tsunami in Southeast Asia; a devastating hurricane in the New Orleans area of the United States; and a disastrous earthquake in Pakistan and India. In the short term, government units responded to these disasters with medical assistance, temporary housing, and food relief for disaster victims. In the longer term, however, it is up to the citizens in a disaster area rather than the government to lead in disaster recovery efforts. The government, though, can and should assist in these redevelopment efforts in various ways. One way is to provide tax relief to disaster victims to help them overcome their losses and to provide tax incentives to encourage redevelopment in the disaster areas. Environmental taxation deals with the use of tax policy to promote environmental goals. When a natural disaster occurs, a significant disruption has taken place in the environment. Government bodies and other interested parties should take steps to reverse this environmental damage with enlightened policies for disaster recovery. Environmental taxation policies can be useful in assisting with these disaster recovery efforts. In this chapter, the authors review various environmental tax strategies used by the Federal government to support economic redevelopment in the New Orleans area after Hurricane Katrina struck the area in 2005. The authors also analyse whether key provisions of two hurricane tax acts passed by the United States Congress support their intended purpose.
An Ethics Committee for Patent Offices?
Authors: Petit* Elodie
Published: November 2023

Since 2002, in its opinion on the ‘ Ethical aspects of patenting inventions involving human stem cells’ , the European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies (EGE) considered that there may be a need to make ethical evaluations in the course of the examination of patent applications involving specific ethical dimensions. It would be desirable that such ethical evaluation becomes part of the review process of national patent offices or European Institutions like EPO and that advisory panels of independent experts are set up for that purpose.
Nanostructured materials
Authors: Lindsay S M
Published: November 2023

The science of nanostructured materials is evolving so rapidly that it is almost impossible to give a current account of the field, let alone one that would survive for any period of time in a text book. Therefore, the goal of this chapter is to outline some of the principles that underlie the nanoengineering of materials. The meaning of a nanostructure is context dependent, in the sense that the length scales associated with various physical phenomena that one might wish to engineer can be very different. Thus, we start with electronic properties in which the length scales are the Fermi wavelength and the mean free path of electrons. We then turn to optical materials where the length scale is the wavelength of light. Magnetic properties arise from a complex set of interactions that operate over many length scales. Thermal properties depend on the scattering length for thermal vibrations. In nanofluidic devices, length scales are chosen to optimize interactions with macromolecules dissolved in fluids or between fluids and the walls of a container. The chapter ends with a look at biomimetic materials, based on copying biological nanostructures, developed through the process of evolution in living systems. The effects of nanostructuring are different depending on the number of dimensions that are constrained to have nanoscale sizes, so for this reason I have generally given examples of nanostructuring in two (layers), one (wires), and zero dimensions (dots) for each class of material property, where appropriate.
The Discovery of the Electron (1897)
Authors: Brandt Siegmund
Published: November 2023

In 1897 cathode rays were known for nearly three decades. They were produced in a gas discharge and gave rise to X rays when they fell on matter, e.g., the glass wall of a discharge tube. But their nature was unknown. There was contradictory experimental evidence. Some researchers took them for charged particles, in fact for ions which were familiar from electrolysis. Perrin had determined the sign of their charge to be negative. Others, among them Heinrich Hertz, who was unable to influence the rays by an electric field and to detect a magnetic field which should be caused by the rays if they were moving charges, took them to be electromagnetic waves.
Bothe and Geiger – Coincidence Experiments (1925)
Authors: Brandt Siegmund
Published: November 2023

In 1914 Bothe obtained his Ph.D. in Berlin with work done under Planck. Already a little earlier, at the end of 1913, he had become assistant to Geiger at the Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt. Geiger who had returned to Germany in 1912 had set up the laboratory for radium research there. At the same time as Bothe another promising young scientist joined Geiger in Berlin: James Chadwick, coming from Rutherford’s group in Manchester where Geiger had worked before. When the First World War broke out, Chadwick was interned in Berlin. Bothe volunteered for the army, was taken prisoner in Russia in 1915, and sent to Siberia where he stayed till 1920. Fortunately, the two young men were able to continue doing science in their captivity although with severely restricted means. On his return to Germany, Bothe brought with him his Russian bride, to whom he was soon married, and continued to work with Geiger at the Reichsanstalt.
Heisenberg and the Creation of Quantum Mechanics (1925)
Authors: Brandt Siegmund
Published: November 2023

There is a certain similarity in the early lives of Planck and of Heisenberg [1,2]. Both had fathers who were professors at the University of Munich, both visited the Maximilians-Gymnasium in Munich, and both went to see a professor in Munich to seek advice for their studies. We have mentioned at the beginning of the Prologue how Jolly in vain tried to dissuade Planck from studying physics. Heisenberg, in his autobiographic book [3], which is devised as a series of conversations, tells us of a similar experience. In the autumn of 1920, when he was about to enter the university, his first choice was mathematics. He wanted not only to do course work but also learn about problems of current interest. This, he thought, he could do best by participating in a professor’s seminar usually reserved to advanced students and Ph.D. candidates. He asked for an interview with Lindemann , the most distinguished mathematician in Munich, who was famous for having proved that the number π is transcendental. But the old professor and the young student found no understanding, partly because Lindemann’s dog noisily interfered. The result was that Heisenberg opted for theoretical physics and went to ask Sommerfeld to be admitted to his seminar. Sommerfeld agreed. At that time Pauli, only a year older than Heisenberg, was already actively doing research under Sommerfeld. The two young men became life-long friends.
Schrödinger Creates Wave Mechanics (1926)
Authors: Brandt Siegmund
Published: November 2023

The breakthrough to quantum mechanics was, as we have seen in Episode 37, achieved by Heisenberg in the summer of 1925 and the theory, in the form now known as matrix mechanics, was completed a little later by Born, Heisenberg, and Jordan. From his first days as a student Heisenberg had belonged to groups which worked on quantum theory. He was, so to speak, totally immersed in the field and reached his solution at the age of twenty-three. At the turn of the year 1925/26 quantum mechanics was created again, now clad as wave mechanics [1], by Schrödinger, who did not belong to an active research group in the field and who was then thirty-eight. As soon as it appeared wave mechanics was popular with physicists, because it was based on familiar differential equations and not on matrix formalism which was practically unknown.
Quantum Mechanics and Relativity – The Dirac Equation (1928)
Authors: Brandt Siegmund
Published: November 2023

Dalitz, who relates this story, adds that ‘this has been preserved to this day’ [1]. It was this philosophy that Dirac used when he found the equation that now bears his name. Unlike many results in theoretical physics it was neither inspired by unexplained measurements nor by physical insight but only by considerations of mathematical ‘beauty’ or, in other words, simplicity. In the Dirac equation not only quantum mechanics and the special theory of relativity were married, but also the spin of the electron is contained in it without any ad hoc assumption. So far, so good. But the equation not just beautifully described known phenomena, it did more. It predicted the existence of electrons with negative energy. This was at first held to be a severe problem of the theory but was finally understood as great progress, because negative-energy electrons could be interpreted as hitherto unknown particles. Thus, the existence of new particles was predicted which had all properties of the electron except for the electric charge, which must be positive rather than negative. These particles were indeed found four years after the equation. Dirac is often quoted to have said that his equation ‘contains most of physics and all of chemistry’. This, however, is not the case, although in a paper on the (non-relativistic) Quantum Mechanics of Many-Electron Systems, quite unrelated to the Dirac equation, similar words appear [2]: ‘The underlying physical laws necessary for the mathematical theory of a large part of physics and the whole of chemistry are thus completely known, and the difficulty is only that the exact application of these laws leads to equations much to complicated to be soluble.’ We begin this episode by mentioning briefly the work, previous to Dirac’s, on the reconciliation of quantum mechanics with special relativity and with spin, respectively.
Lawrence and the Cyclotron (1931)
Authors: Brandt Siegmund
Published: November 2023

One night early in 1929 in Berkeley, California, Ernest Lawrence [1,2], in his habitual effort to keep abreast of the literature, came across an article in a German journal on electrical engineering. Lawrence had recently arrived from Yale University although his friends there had warned him of the ‘unscientific climate of the West’ [2]. In 1930 he would become the youngest full professor on the Berkeley faculty. The article that caught his eye was based on the doctoral dissertation which Wideröe [3], a young Norwegian engineer, had submitted to the Technische Hochschule in Aachen [4]; it was entitled On a New Principle for the Production of High Voltages. Lawrence later described how he extracted the relevant information from that paper [5]: ‘Not being able to read German easily, I merely looked at the diagrams and photographs of Wideröe’s apparatus and from the various figures in the article was able to determine his general approach to the problem … ‘ Lawrence was interested because the paper demonstrated a new way to accelerate charged particles.
CP – Another Symmetry Broken: The Peculiar System of the Neutral K Meson and Its Antiparticle (1964)
Authors: Brandt Siegmund
Published: November 2023

Before the ‘Fall of Parity’ in 1957 (Episode 77), it was taken for granted that the laws of physics were mirror symmetric. For every given process the mirrorinverted process should be possible. Also believed to hold was time-inversion symmetry , the symmetry between a process and the corresponding one with time running backwards. Of course, time cannot really be inverted but time inversion of a process is equivalent to viewing the process in a film with the projector running backwards. The symmetry says that the projected process should also be possible in reality. Another symmetry is that of charge conjugation . The name is a little misleading; what is implied is the replacement of every particle by its antiparticle and vice versa. For every process the one with this replacement performed should be possible, too.
Blackbody Radiation from the Early Universe (1965)
Authors: Brandt Siegmund
Published: November 2023

The foundations for radio astronomy were laid in 1933 in the Bell Telephone Laboratories in Holmdel, New Jersey. A young physicist from Oklahoma, Jansky , had been given the task to investigate the phenomenon called static , disturbing communication by short radio waves. Working with a rotatable antenna at a wavelength of 14.5 metres, he identified near and distant thunderstorms as sources of static but also the centre of our galaxy [1]. The development of radar for military use resulted in sensitive receivers for wavelengths of centimetres and below, which were put to scientific application after the Second World War. The interstellar gas, which contains atoms and molecules emitting radiation in this range, for instance, hydrogen H and cyan CN, thus became ‘visible’. Radio astronomy was established as a new field of research. In 1965, also at the Bell Labs in Holmdel, a particular type of radiation from space was discovered by Penzias and Wilson, two physicists who had become radio astronomers.
Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) – The New Theory of Strong Interaction (1973)
Authors: Brandt Siegmund
Published: November 2023

The riddle of the strong interaction, i.e., of the force that keeps the nucleus together, was finally solved in the early 1970s in a rather unexpected way. In previous episodes we told of various attempts to describe nuclear forces, in particular, Heisenberg’s introduction of isospin (Episode 51) and Yukawa’s postulate of the meson as carrier of the strong force (Episode 57). While these theories led to important developments, they failed to reach their original goal. The present theory was arrived at in three steps. First, quarks were postulated to have an additional property which was to come in three different forms, soon called colours . Second, a Yang–Mills theory, similar to the one successfully constructed for the electroweak interaction (Episode 90), was formulated using as gauge symmetry an SU (3) group providing transformations between the three colours. Finally, this type of theory was found to have an astonishing property called asymptotic freedom : The nearer two quarks come to each other, the smaller is the force between them. Small distances are reached only for very high momentum transfer between the two quarks; in such situations quarks approach the behaviour of free particles. On the other hand, the force increases with rising distance or falling momentum transfer. Let us now look at the developments in a little more detail.
The Discovery of the Gluon (1979)
Authors: Brandt Siegmund
Published: November 2023

In Episode 14 we witnessed Perrin uncover ‘la réalité moleculaire’, the reality of atoms and molecules, in a time when these objects were considered still far from real by many. By experimental analysis he showed that a visible phenomenon , the Brownian motion of tiny spheres, was caused by the movement of molecules, although the latter remained invisible. The experiments discussed now prove the ‘reality of quarks and gluons’, although, as mentioned in Episode 92, these particles are confined inside hadrons and do not exist as separate entities. Perrin observed his little spheres instead of the invisible molecules; particle physicists study jets of hadrons instead of the confined quarks and gluons. The first to do so was Hanson as a member of the Stanford–Berkeley group which had discovered the charm quark with the Mark I detector at the SPEAR collider (Episode 93
The Quantum Hall Effect (1980)
Authors: Brandt Siegmund
Published: November 2023

Superconductivity (Episode 18) and superfluidity (Episode 58), both discovered unexpectedly, were later shown to be quantum phenomena on a macroscopic scale, not on the scale of atoms, nuclei, or particles. Another such macroscopic phenomenon, the quantum Hall effect , was observed in the small hours of 5 February 1980, by von Klitzing. It, too, came as a complete surprise.
Relativistic transformations and the equivalence principle
Authors: Perkins D H
Published: November 2023

As a precursor of a discussion of invariance principles and symmetries in Chapter 3, we summarize in this chapter relativistic transformations and Lorentz invariance, the Equivalence Principle, and important solutions of the Einstein field equations of general relativity. These are central to our discussions of cosmology in later chapters. Readers familiar with these topics can skip to Chapter 3. The special theory of relativity, proposed by Einstein in 1905, involves transformations between inertial frames (IFs) of reference. An IF is one in which Newton’s law of inertia holds: a body in such a frame not acted on by any external force continues in its state of rest or of uniform motion in a straight line. Although an IF is, strictly speaking, an idealized concept, a reference frame far removed from any fields or gravitating masses approximates to such a frame, as does a lift in free fall on Earth. On the scale of experiments in high-energy physics at accelerators, gravitational effects are negligibly small and to all intents and purposes the laboratory can be treated as an IF. However, on the scale of the cosmos, gravity is the most important of the fundamental interactions. We list here the coordinate transformations, called Lorentz transformations, among IFs in special relativity. These are obtained from two assumptions: that the coordinate transformations should be linear (to agree with the Galilean transformations in the non-relativistic limit); and that the velocity of light c in vacuum should be the same in all IFs (as observed in numerous experiments).
Conservation rules, symmetries, and the Standard Model of particle physics
Authors: Perkins D H
Published: November 2023

One of the most important concepts in physics is that of the symmetry or invariance of a system under a particular operation. For example, a snowflake is invariant under a 60 rotation in the plane of the flake, and this tells us something about the physics of the molecular bonding in water. In fact, conservation rules and the associated symmetries have been called the backbone of high-energy particle physics. Not all conservation rules are absolute. While conservation of electric charge or of energy and momentum are, as far as we know, sacrosanct in all situations, some quantities—for example, conservation of parity—that is, invariance under spatial reflection—hold for certain types of fundamental interaction but not for others. Moreover, on the enormous distance and time scales of the universe at large, it turns out that some quantum numbers, such as baryon number, which seem to be exactly conserved under laboratory conditions, are violated in cosmology. This violation presumably occurred at a very early, very hot stage of the universe, involving some new type of interaction at energies far above what can be obtained by accelerators on Earth.
Extensions of the Standard Model
Authors: Perkins D H
Published: November 2023

The Standard Model described in Chapter 3, which has given a magnificently accurate account of a huge range of data from accelerator experiments since its inception, does, however, have limitations. As examples, it assumes neutrinos are massless, in conflict with recent experimental results, and has theoretical difficulties with topics as diverse as the so-called hierarchy problem, or of accounting for the baryon asymmetry of the universe. As will be indicated in later chapters, it is indeed on the scale of the universe that it fails to take into account completely new forms of matter and energy, which have only really become apparent since the Standard Model was first introduced in the mid-1970s. Finally of course, it does not include gravity. Including gravity with the other fundamental interactions is still an unsolved problem. Of course, we do not know what better theory will eventually replace the Standard Model, although whatever that is, the Standard Model will surely be a part of it. In this chapter, we just outline some new directions in physics going beyond it. As was pointed out in Chapter 1, the question as to the nature of neutrinos— whether they are Dirac or Majorana particles—is still open. In the Standard Model, neutrinos are assumed to be massless—an assumption in accord with all the data available when the Standard Model first appeared. But, as described below, evidence from neutrino flavour oscillations, appearing after 1990 showed the neutrino masses to be finite, although very small. The fact that the masses of the light neutrinos, of order 0.1 eV/c, are some ten orders of magnitude less than the typical masses of the known Dirac particles, such as quarks and charged leptons, suggests that they might indeed be Majorana particles, the smallness of the mass arising from the so-called see-saw mechanism described below.
Dark matter and dark energy components
Authors: Perkins D H
Published: November 2023

In Chapter 5 we already noted that it appears that a large fraction of the matter in the universe is dark (i.e. non-luminous) matter. The need to postulate such dark matter was noted as early as the 1930s by Zwicky, who observed that galaxies in the Coma cluster seemed to be moving too rapidly to be held together by the gravitational attraction of the visible matter. Obviously, we can hardly be satisfied with our picture of the universe until the nature and distribution of such vast quantities of matter has been settled. For example, an important question is whether this dark matter is in the form of new types of (stable) elementary particle, which have been roaming around since the earliest stages of the Big Bang: and if so, what are such particles, and why have we not met with them in accelerator experiments? Or, could it be that some of the dark matter is agglomerated in the form of non-luminous stellar objects made out of the same matter as ordinary stars, or as mini black holes or whatever? According to present ideas, the quark and lepton constituents of matter with which we are familiar in experiments at accelerators, produced in the numbers foreseen by the model of nucleosynthesis in the early universe described in Chapter 6, can account for only about 4% of the present energy density of the universe. Dark matter is estimated to account for some 20% of the total energy density, but the bulk of the energy density—that is, some 76%—has to be assigned to ‘dark energy’, which in Chapter 5 was identified with vacuum energy. However, the true source of the dark energy—like that of the dark matter—is unknown at present.
Development of structure in the early universe
Authors: Perkins D H
Published: November 2023

The Big Bang model described in Chapter 5 seems to give a rather convincing description of the development of the early universe. It is underpinned by three striking phenomena: This success is all the more remarkable since the principal tenets of the model— isotropy and homogeneity of the ‘cosmic fluid’—are to be contrasted with the universe today, characterized by a decidedly non-isotropic, non-homogeneous nature—galaxies, galactic clusters, voids, and so forth. The question arises: how did we get from the uniformity of the Big Bang model to the present universe with its lumpy structure? As described in the following pages, it can plausibly be argued that this structure had its origins in quantum fluctuations in energy density which occurred in the very early universe and were then ‘frozen-out’ when the universe underwent an exponential and superluminal expansion stage called inflation. These tiny fluctuations in density and temperature—typically at the 10 level—then acted as seeds for the development of much greater fluctuations in density via the subsequent process of gravitational collapse during the epoch of matter domination. In Section 8.3 we outline the inflation scenario, which was postulated over two decades ago in response to some difficulties with the Big Bang model, mainly with respect to the initial conditions which are apparently required. Later in the chapter we touch on the subject of galaxy formation. One of the most remarkable features of the universe is that stars are always clumped into galaxies each containing of order 10 stars.
Monitoring key performance indicators
Authors: Heijden Hans Van Der
Published: November 2023

As a manager you will spend a substantial portion of your time studying the performance of entities and relationships, and invoke some corrective action in case that performance falls below certain thresholds. Under these circumstances it is often helpful if a management information system not only displays the performance itself but also the changes in performance over time. In addition, a management information system can alert a manager as soon as performance changes unexpectedly. On the basis of such an alert, one could then decide whether such corrective action is required.
Epilogue
Authors: Heijden Hans Van Der
Published: November 2023

In this book, I have set out to address key managerial skills that are needed to design management information systems. We have looked at the structuring of data first, followed by the querying of data, and finally data aggregation and visualization. We then discussed two types of management decisions, and I demonstrated how the design skills could be put to use in order to support those decisions.
Family Friendly Rights
Authors: Palca Julia , Taylor Catherine
Published: November 2023

In addition to the rights on maternity and adoption described in the previous chapter, there are a whole range of additional rights available to those who are parents or who take parental responsibility for a child. These rights derive from a mixture of European Directives (Parental Leave; Time off for Dependants; PartTime Workers’ Rights) and the Government’s ‘family friendly’ initiative (Paternity Leave; the right to request flexible working which now extends to those responsible for other family members as well as children).
Industrial Action
Authors: Palca Julia , Taylor Catherine
Published: November 2023

The law relating to trade disputes is extremely complex and therefore what follows is very much an outline of the relevant principles. The law is primarily enshrined in TULR(C)A 1992. There are also two applicable Codes of Practice, Code of Practice: Picketing (1992) and Code of Practice: Industrial Action Ballots and Notice to Employers (2005).
Dismissals
Authors: Palca Julia , Taylor Catherine
Published: November 2023

All employees have the right not to be wrongfully or unfairly dismissed. These rights are distinct but overlapping. Wrongful dismissal occurs, in essence, when a person is dismissed in breach of the contract of employment, normally when dismissed without being given notice or paid in lieu of notice. No minimum period of employment is necessary. A claim can be brought in the Employment Tribunal, but the claim is limited to $25,000. If the value of the claim is higher than $25,000, the claim should be brought in the High Court or county court.
Redundancy
Authors: Palca Julia , Taylor Catherine
Published: November 2023

An employer in financial difficulty often needs to reduce the number of its employees by making them redundant and an employee properly made redundant is entitled to a redundancy payment, calculated on a sliding scale, in accordance with age and length of service. Redundancy is potentially a fair reason for dismissal. However, an employee who is unfairly selected for redundancy will be unfairly dismissed. An employer must consult with employees before making them redundant, and, where making 20 or more people redundant within three months, must also enter into collective consultation. Most tribunal cases concerning redundancy revolve around: whether the people selected for redundancy are actually redundant; whether they have been selected for some unfair reason; whether proper individual consultation and/or collective consultation has been implemented; and the compensation to which any redundant person is entitled.
Future Employment Law Changes
Authors: Palca Julia , Taylor Catherine
Published: November 2023

This chapter is appreciably shorter than that which appeared in the previous edition, as there are no great developments in sight—rather, the Government is looking at consolidating existing legislation. Nonetheless, set out below are the likely key changes between now and the next edition of the book.
Derivatives
Authors: Castagnino John-Peter
Published: November 2023

This book is a practical guide to derivatives, setting out a straightforward and easily understood explanation of the basic concepts, the different types of derivative product, who uses derivatives, and why and how derivatives are used. The book explains both more established products (such as futures, options, and swaps) and more innovative products (such as CPPI structures and those derivative contracts used as financing tools). The expansion of the derivative market to cover different underlying assets (such as freight, power trading, emissions trading, and hedge funds) is explored. The author provides guidance as to the legal and regulatory treatment of derivatives. The book looks at the key documents that are used in both the exchange-based and over-the-counter (OTC) markets and explores the important materials published by ISDA .The book also discusses other related topics including the accounting and tax treatments of derivatives. The book considers the background to current legal trends, including the developing strand of English case law on claims for the misselling of derivative products and the retail offer of derivatives, which has recently been the subject of considerable debate within the financial services industry. The third edition includes a new discussion of the retail offer of derivatives, and discusses a greater number of derivative products (including CPPI structures, derivatives used as financing tools, power trading, emissions trading, multi-asset derivatives, fund-linked derivatives, derivatives based on "computed data", and the different wrappers" in which derivative exposures are made available). It provides greatly expanded discussion of the ISDA documents used in the over-the-counter (OTC) market and looks in more detail at the duty of care (selling and misselling, including the recent decision in the "Springwell" litigation).
An Overview
Authors: Castagnino John-Peter
Published: November 2023

The right of a party conferred under a derivative contract might be the right to buy or to sell a specified quantity of the underlying at a specified price at a specified time, or the right to receive one or more payments (such as interest, the amount of which is calculated with reference to an underlying notional amount of money). Exercise of a right by a party can result in that party assuming obligations, for example the exercise of the right to buy the underlying gives rise to the obligation to pay the specified price for that underlying. The right of one party is the obligation of the other, hence the right of one party to choose whether or not to buy a specified quantity of the underlying (and thereby assume the obligation to pay the specified price) becomes the obligation of the other party to sell that specified quantity if that right is exercised, and that other party of course then has the right to receive payment of the specified price.
Key Concepts
Authors: Castagnino John-Peter
Published: November 2023

A party to a derivative contract is said to open a position when entering into the contract. A position can be opened either by buying the derivative contract or by selling the derivative contract. A position that has been opened by buying is a long position, and a position that has been opened by selling is a short position. An open position is closed by entering into a transaction equal and opposite to the transaction in which the position was opened, although of course the opening price and the closing price will tend to differ (this difference of course generating the profit or the loss made). For example, a trader opens a position by selling five lots of the March FTSE 100 index future, and the trader is therefore short five lots of the December future. The trader would subsequently close this position by buying five lots of the December future.
The Legal Framework
Authors: Castagnino John-Peter
Published: November 2023

Financial services legislation, and the regulation that is made under that legislation, together provide the legal framework for the financial markets, including of course the derivative markets. This legal framework establishes the system for the regulation of the derivative markets, provides a definition of each type of derivative market, and provides a definition of each type of derivative contract that is dealt. This chapter considers the sources of the applicable legislation and regulation, the regulatory concept of the general prohibition, the types of regulated activity which fall within the scope of the regulatory system, the different legal market structures, and the increasing volumes of EU legislation which set the overall standards that are implemented at the national level throughout the European Economic Area. Financial services regulation is a wide subject, and this chapter can only set out a brief survey of the more basic principles in the context of the subject matter of this book. However, these principles of course underpin the derivative markets, and accordingly some of the fundamental principles introduced in this chapter are examined in greater depth elsewhere, particularly in Chapter 8.