A gamma-ray imager for arms control
Ascertaining the number of warheads on a missile-delivery systems by a remote, nonvisual inspection may be desirable in some arms-control verification scenarios. A gamma-ray imaging system (GRIS) has been developed to inspect for nuclear warheads by imaging the highly penetrating gamma-radiation emitted by radioactive materials integral to warheads. Such an image may be used to obtain the missile loadout. The authors describe the GRIS's operating principles and capabilities, present data, and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of such a system for arms control. They also present field results where GRIS was used on an emplaced Peacekeeper missile. Improvements to GRIS in light of the field trial results are presented.<<ETX>>
New family of binary arrays for coded aperture imaging.
We introduce a new family of binary arrays for use in coded aperture imaging which are predicted to have properties and sensitivity (SNR) equal to that of the uniformly redundant array (URA). The new arrays, called MURAs (modified URAs), have decoding coefficients all of which are unimodular, resulting in a reconstructed image with noise terms completely independent of image-source structure. Although the new arrays are derived from quadratic residues, they do not belong to the cyclic difference set or set of pseudonoise sequences and consequently are constructible in configurations forbidden to those designs, thus providing the user with a wider selection of aperture patterns to match his particular needs. With the addition of MURAs to the family of binary arrays, all prime numbers can now be used for making optimal coded apertures, increasing the number of available square patterns by more than a factor of 3.
The Impact of EU Unfair Contract Terms Law on U.S. Business-to-Consumer Internet Merchants
When the Court of Appeals for Versailles issued its decision in AOL France v. UFC Que Choisir2 in September 2005, it sent the message to U.S. Internet businesses that even contractual boilerplate localized for European markets may be invalid in European consumer transactions. In that case, a French consumer advocacy group challenged the terms AOL offered its French customers after AOL had made extensive revisions to its standard form contracts to respond to the concerns regarding those terms expressed in an advisory opinion by a French consumer protection agency. In 2004, a trial court invalidated nearly every term in the revised agreement; the appeals court affirmed on all counts. Subsequently, in July 2006 following concerns raised by the Office of Fair Trading (“OFT”), a United Kingdom government agency charged with “making sure markets work well for consumers,”3 Dell Corporation Limited changed its online terms and conditions to make them fairer to consumers.4 European consumer contract law had an impact in both cases. At issue for AOL France and Dell Corporation Limited was the application of France’s and the UK’s consumer contract law which is based on the Unfair Contract Terms Directive of 19945 and calls into question the validity of many of the terms that U.S. courts routinely enforce in transactions involving American consumers and merchants.