A design principle for improved 3D AC electro-osmotic pumps

Three-dimensional (3D) AC electro-osmotic (ACEO) pumps have recently been developed that are much faster and more robust than previous planar designs. The basic idea is to create a ``fluid conveyor belt'' by placing opposing ACEO slip velocities at different heights. Current designs involve electrodes with electroplated steps, whose heights have been optimized in simulations and experiments. Here, we consider changing the boundary conditions--rather than the geometry--and predict that flow rates can be further doubled by fabricating 3D features with non-polarizable materials. This amplifies the fluid conveyor belt by removing opposing flows on the vertical surfaces, and it increases the slip velocities which drive the flow.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Physical Review

Regulating Mandatory Arbitration

Over the last twenty-five years, the Supreme Court has relied on party autonomy and the national policy favoring arbitration to expand the Federal Arbitration Act’s scope beyond Congress’s original intent. Choosing these loaded premises has allowed the Court to reach the outcomes it desires while denying that it is making any political or moral judgments in its decisions – a type of bureaucratic formalism. One controversial outcome of the Court’s formalism, overall, has been the increased prevalence of mandatory arbitration. Although it reduces judicial caseloads and lowers companies’ dispute-resolution costs, it also restricts or eliminates individual rights and reduces public regulation of the companies that require it. The Court has supported the spread of mandatory arbitration despite these negative effects. Because of the Court’s support, the parties being subjected to mandatory arbitration began asking lower courts for relief through the unconscionability doctrine in the early 1990s. And because the unconscionability doctrine could not provide the wide-scale relief they wanted, they also turned to Congress, convincing its members to introduce 139 anti-arbitration bills since 1995 – the majority of which proposed eliminating mandatory arbitration. A review of these efforts, including an original survey of these bills, reveals that these parties have been disregarding mandatory arbitration’s public benefits in favor of a rights-oriented, liberal approach that rejects regulation as a possible way to improve mandatory arbitration’s overall fairness. This Article shows that both the Supreme Court’s and the reform advocates’ approaches to mandatory arbitration are flawed. It makes more sense, at least for now, to continue mandatory arbitration’s use while improving its overall fairness through legislative or agency regulation. Regulating mandatory arbitration with the goal of improving its fairness is consistent with pragmatic principles and is superior to the Supreme Court’s formalism and the reform advocates’ liberalism in the current mandatory-arbitration context. Taking this approach will allow us to study mandatory arbitration over time before deciding whether to eliminate it – a fair way to proceed given the importance of the rights at stake and the positive effects that mandatory arbitration can (possibly) have on the public good

Non-State Actors in the Nuclear Black Market: Proposing an International Legal Framework for Preventing Nuclear Expertise Proliferation & Nuclear Smuggling by Non-State Actors

While there are a number of disincentives that prevent states from participating in the nuclear black market, most of these deterrents do not apply to non-state actors. This article focuses on the difficulties this situation presents in a time of global terrorism. The author points out that terrorists already have the money, means and motive to build or purchase nuclear devises. In analyzing this issue the author proposes two options. First, member parties could amend one of all of several existing treaties of the subject. Second, the international community can draft a new treaty or convention on nuclear smuggling and proliferation that focuses on preventing non-state actors from participating in the nuclear black market. After a thorough analysis of each of these options the paper concludes that the latter option is the best and most effective means of combating nuclear terrorism

Doublethink ing Privacy under the Multi-State Antiterrorism Information Exchange

This Article examines the development of the Matrix program and analyzes its effect on what Justices Warren and Brandeis termed the individual\u27s right to be let alone. To understand the Matrix\u27s effect on individual privacy, one must scrutinize the program in the context of United States history.From the Alien and Sedition Acts to the Red Squads of the 1960s and 1970. Part II of this Article examines how civil liberties often suffer unnecessarily in times of national crisis. Part III then discusses how this truism applies in the current war on terror and details the development and operation of the Matrix system, along with that of its predecessor, the Pentagon\u27s Total Information Awareness. Both programs, like the Alien and Sedition Acts and the Red Squads before, raise serious privacy concerns and deserve additional scrutiny. Finally, Part IV recognizes that, while the government should have the surveillance power necessary to strengthen national security, any exercise of the government\u27s surveillance power must give regard to the public good and to the sense of the people. \u27 More specifically, Part IV analyzes the Matrix in the context of the constitutional protections of the First and Fourteenth Amendments. However, realizing that these protections may not be broad enough to effectively control the Matrix program, Part IV also discusses the possibility of involving state legislatures in the privacy battle

“New Judgment” and the Federal Habeas Statutes

Prisoners love to file habeas petitions. Maybe a little too much. That is why Congress drafted the federal habeas statutes to preclude prisoners from filing “second or successive” petitions attacking their judgments. This essay explains the shortcomings of how some courts have assessed that meaning, and it proposes a straightforward test for determining when a new judgment exists

Manifest Disregard and the Imperfect Procedural Justice of Arbitration

This is the published version

Manifest Disregard and the Imperfect Procedural Justice of Arbitration

Arbitration is an efficient dispute-resolution system that respects parties’ right to an accurate award. But because arbitration is designed to be efficient, accuracy is not guaranteed. This presents a challenge when courts are asked to confirm or vacate arbitrators’ decisions. Judges dislike approving inaccurate awards, especially in cases where parties have unequal bargaining power. Yet, judges also recognize arbitration’s limited-review principle. So they are forced to balance their desire for accuracy against arbitration’s efficiency policy. Efficiency typically wins at the expense of accurate outcomes. This Article contends that courts place too much emphasis on the efficiency policy in mandatory arbitration. Consider the narrow manifest disregard standard that most courts apply. It is virtually impossible to vacate an award under this standard because the court must have proof that the arbitrator consciously disregarded known, applicable law. Consequently, parties subjected to mandatory arbitration have little chance of overturning inaccurate awards, which is problematic from a procedural justice standpoint because parties like decision control. This Article proposes giving parties greater decision control by allowing them to appeal arbitrators’ awards for legal error. This expanded standard creates a procedural mechanism for correcting arbitrators’ mistakes, thereby enhancing mandatory arbitration’s procedural justice

Decays of mesons with charm quarks on the lattice

We investigate mesons containing charm quarks on fine lattices with a^{-1} \sim 5 GeV. The quenched approximation is employed using the Wilson gauge action at \beta = 6.6 and nonperturbatively O(a) improved Wilson quarks. We present results for decay constants using various interpolating fields and give preliminary results for form factors of semileptonic decays of D_s mesons to light pseudoscalar mesons.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, talk presented at the XXV International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, 30 July - 4 August 2007, Regensburg, German

Thromboxane and Stable Prostaglandin Endoperoxide Analogs Stimulate Water Permeability in the Toad Urinary Bladder

The effects of thromboxane B2 and the stable prostaglandin endoperoxide analogs (15Z)-hydroxy - 9α - 1 lα - (epoxymethano)prosta - 5Z,13E – dienoic acid (U44069) and (15Z)-hydroxy-1 lα,9α-(epoxymethano) prosta-5Z,13E-dienoic acid (U46619) were tested on water flow across the toad urinary bladder. In the presence of indomethacin or meclofenamic acid, inhibitors of prostaglandin and thromboxane A2 synthesis, thromboxane B2 stimulated water flow in a dose-dependent manner. U44069 (1 µM) stimulated water flow from 3.6±0.8 to 12.4±1.2 mg/min per 10 cm2 hemibladder surface area, while U46619 (1 µM) stimulated water flow from 2.8± 1.0 to 21.8±2.0 mg/min per 10 cm2. The prostaglandin endoperoxide/thromboxane A2 antagonist trans-13-azaprostanoic acid, an inhibitor of vasopressin-stimulated water flow, inhibited thromboxane B2- and U46619-stimulated water flow in a dose-dependent manner. The inactive cis-13-azaprostanoic acid did not inhibit vasopressin-stimulated water flow in untreated hemibladders and had no effect on U46619-stimulated water flow in indomethacin or meclofenamic acid pretreated hemibladders. U46619 (1 µM) enhanced vasopressin-stimulated water flow in indomethacin pretreated hemibladders, producing a significant parallel shift (P \u3c 0.001) in the dose-response relationship to submaximal concentrations of vasopressin (0.1-0.6 mU/ml), while not affecting water flow stimulated by supramaximal concentrations of vasopressin (10 mU/ml). trans-13-Azaprostanoic acid abolished the potentiating effects of U46619 on vasopressin-stimulated water flow. These results show that thromboxane A2-like compounds stimulate water flow in the toad urinary bladder

The Effect of Forum Selection Clauses on District Courts’ Authority to Compel Arbitration

This is a short piece written for the AAA\u27s Dispute Resolution Journal on two competing provisions in Section 4 of the FAA. One provision tells district courts to compel arbitration in accordance with the parties\u27 agreement, including any forum selection clause. The other says that the court can compel arbitration only within its own territory. This, of course, creates a problem when the forum selection clause calls for arbitration in another jurisdiction. This short article addresses the conflict, showing how courts tend to rule on the issue (as of 2006)