Walks of bubbles on a hot wire in a liquid bath

When a horizontal resistive wire is heated up to the boiling point in a subcooled liquid bath, some vapor bubbles nucleate on its surface. Traditional nucleate boiling theory predicts that bubbles generated from active nucleate sites, grow up and depart from the heating surface due to buoyancy and inertia. However, we observed here a different behavior: the bubbles slide along the heated wire. In this situation, unexpected regimes are observed; from the simple sliding motion to bubble clustering. We noticed that bubbles could rapidly change their moving direction and may also interact. Finally, we propose an interpretation for both the attraction between the bubbles and the wire and for the motion of the bubbles on the wire in term of Marangoni effects

Lagrangian caps

We establish an $h$-principle for exact Lagrangian embeddings with concave Legendrian boundary. We prove, in particular, that in the complement of the unit ball $B$ in the standard symplectic $\R^{2n}, 2n\geq 6$, there exists an embedded Lagrangian $n$-disc transversely attached to $B$ along its Legendrian boundary.Comment: 38 pages, 6 figure

The Unexpected Effects of Caps on Non-Economic Damages

We study the economic and legal implications of the enactment of caps on noneconomic damages on parties in conflict who know that state supreme courts may strike down the caps as unconstitutional within a few years of enactment. We develop a simple screening model where parties have symmetric expectations regarding the probability of a strike down and asymmetric information regarding plaintiff’s non-economic harm. Our model makes several surprising predictions: First, caps may increase the length of resolution of disputes if the caps are low enough or the probability of a strike down is large enough. Second, although caps always increase the percentage of disputes that are settled out of courts, they do not necessarily save litigation expenses. Third, while caps always reduce the recoveries of plaintiffs with large claims, caps may increase recoveries of plaintiffs with low claims compared to their recoveries in states with no caps. We conclude that to increase welfare legislators have to tailor caps to the economic and constitutional circumstances in their state in ways which we characterize in the paper.Tort reform, caps on recoveries, length of dispute resolution

Swimming with captive dolphins: current debates and post-experience dissonance

Dolphins have widespread contemporary appeal and anthropomorphic social representations of dolphins have fuelled a growing desire in tourist populations to seek interaction with them. This paper is concerned with the staged performance of swim-with-dolphin interaction programmes in aquaria. Qualitative interviews with tourists who have swum with captive dolphins identified their immediate recollections and stressed the grace, size and power of dolphins, but also a belief that the experience was too staged, too short and too expensive. Post-purchase dissonance focused on concerns with the size of enclosures and about captivity, too many tricks, limited interpretation and unfulfilled expectations of a quality interaction

Contribution of the antibiotic chloramphenicol and its analogues as precursors of dichloroacetamide and other disinfection byproducts in drinking water

Dichloroacetamide (DCAcAm), a disinfection byproduct, has been detected in drinking water. Previous research showed that amino acids may be DCAcAm precursors. However, other precursors may be present. This study explored the contribution of the antibiotic chloramphenicol (CAP) and two of its analogues (thiamphenicol, TAP; florfenicol, FF) (referred to collectively as CAPs), which occur in wastewater-impacted source waters, to the formation of DCAcAm. Their formation yields were compared to free and combined amino acids, and they were investigated in filtered waters from drinking-water-treatment plants, heavily wastewater-impacted natural waters, and secondary effluents from wastewater treatment plants. CAPs had greater DCAcAm formation potential than two representative amino acid precursors. However, in drinking waters with ng/L levels of CAPs, they will not contribute as much to DCAcAm formation as the μg/L levels of amino acids. Also, the effect of advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) on DCAcAm formation from CAPs in real water samples during subsequent chlorination was evaluated. Preoxidation of CAPs with AOPs reduced the formation of DCAcAm during postchlorination. The results of this study suggest that CAPs should be considered as possible precursors of DCAcAm, especially in heavily wastewater-impacted waters