2,245 research outputs found
Show Me the Money?: Washington Adopts the Cost Prohibitive Defense to Arbitration Clauses in Consumer Contracts
The scope of this Note focuses on whether the courts have adequately corrected the substantive failures of mandatory arbitration agreements when they permit consumers to prove prohibitive costs. Part II of this Note explores the origin and history behind the adoption of the FAA and the legislative desire to place parties of equal bargaining power in a position to arbitrate. Part III examines the acceptance of this defense in other jurisdictions. Part IV considers the Mendez case and analyzes Washington\u27s newly adopted approach to invalidate mandatory arbitration clauses in consumer contracts. Part V illustrates the appropriateness of this defense and addresses the benefits and burdens of applying it in the consumer context. Part VI concludes the Note, identifying the unjustified presumptions that undercut the value of arbitration as an alternative forum to resolve disputes in the consumer context and evaluating the cost prohibitive defense as an adequate response
Show Me the Money?: Washington Adopts the Cost Prohibitive Defense to Arbitration Clauses in Consumer Contracts
The scope of this Note focuses on whether the courts have adequately corrected the substantive failures of mandatory arbitration agreements when they permit consumers to prove prohibitive costs. Part II of this Note explores the origin and history behind the adoption of the FAA and the legislative desire to place parties of equal bargaining power in a position to arbitrate. Part III examines the acceptance of this defense in other jurisdictions. Part IV considers the Mendez case and analyzes Washington\u27s newly adopted approach to invalidate mandatory arbitration clauses in consumer contracts. Part V illustrates the appropriateness of this defense and addresses the benefits and burdens of applying it in the consumer context. Part VI concludes the Note, identifying the unjustified presumptions that undercut the value of arbitration as an alternative forum to resolve disputes in the consumer context and evaluating the cost prohibitive defense as an adequate response
Coarse-grained microscopic model of glass formers
We introduce a coarse-grained model for atomic glass formers. Its elements
are physically motivated local microscopic dynamical rules parameterized by
observables. Results of the model are established and used to interpret the
measured behaviors of supercooled fluids approaching glass transitions. The
model predicts the presence of a crossover from hierarchical super-Arrhenius
dynamics at short length scales to diffusive Arrhenius dynamics at large length
scales. This prediction distinguishes our model from other theories of glass
formers and can be tested by experiment.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
Stability of critical bubble in stretched fluid of square-gradient density-functional model with triple-parabolic free energy
The square-gradient density-functional model with triple-parabolic free
energy, that was used previously to study the homogeneous bubble nucleation [J.
Chem. Phys. 129, 104508 (2008)], is used to study the stability of the critical
bubble nucleated within the bulk under-saturated stretched fluid. The stability
of the bubble is studied by solving the Schr\"odinger equation for the
fluctuation. The negative eigenvalue corresponds to the unstable growing mode
of the fluctuation. Our results show that there is only one negative eigenvalue
whose eigenfunction represents the fluctuation that corresponds to the
isotropically growing or shrinking nucleus. In particular, this negative
eigenvalue survives up to the spinodal point. Therefore the critical bubble is
not fractal or ramified near the spinodal.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, Journal of Chemical Physics accepted for
publicatio
Heterogeneous condensation of the Lennard-Jones vapor onto a nanoscale seed particle
The heterogeneous condensation of a Lennard-Jones vapor onto a nanoscale seed
particle is studied using molecular dynamics simulations. Measuring the
nucleation rate and the height of the free energy barrier using the mean first
passage time method shows that the presence of a weakly interacting seed has
little effect on the work of forming very small cluster embryos but accelerates
the rate by lowering the barrier for larger clusters. We suggest that this
results from a competition between the energetic and entropic features of
cluster formation in the bulk and at the heterogeneity. As the interaction is
increased, the free energy of formation is reduced for all cluster sizes. We
also develop a simple phenomenological model of film formation on a small seed
that captures the general features of the nucleation process for small
heterogeneities. A comparison of our simulation results with the model shows
that heterogeneous classical nucleation theory provides a good estimate of the
critical size of the film but significantly over-estimates the size of the
barrier.Comment: 9 pages, 10 figures, In Print J. Chem. Phy
Mode Coupling relaxation scenario in a confined glass former
Molecular dynamics simulations of a Lennard-Jones binary mixture confined in
a disordered array of soft spheres are presented. The single particle dynamical
behavior of the glass former is examined upon supercooling. Predictions of mode
coupling theory are satisfied by the confined liquid. Estimates of the
crossover temperature are obtained by power law fit to the diffusion
coefficients and relaxation times of the late region. The exponent
of the von Schweidler law is also evaluated. Similarly to the bulk, different
values of the exponent are extracted from the power law fit to the
diffusion coefficients and relaxation times.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, changes in the text, accepted for publication on
Europhysics Letter
Is Random Close Packing of Spheres Well Defined?
Despite its long history, there are many fundamental issues concerning random
packings of spheres that remain elusive, including a precise definition of
random close packing (RCP). We argue that the current picture of RCP cannot be
made mathematically precise and support this conclusion via a molecular
dynamics study of hard spheres using the Lubachevsky-Stillinger compression
algorithm. We suggest that this impasse can be broken by introducing the new
concept of a maximally random jammed state, which can be made precise.Comment: 6 pages total, 2 figure
Potential energy landscape-based extended van der Waals equation
The inherent structures ({\it IS}) are the local minima of the potential
energy surface or landscape, , of an {\it N} atom system.
Stillinger has given an exact {\it IS} formulation of thermodynamics. Here the
implications for the equation of state are investigated. It is shown that the
van der Waals ({\it vdW}) equation, with density-dependent and
coefficients, holds on the high-temperature plateau of the averaged {\it IS}
energy. However, an additional ``landscape'' contribution to the pressure is
found at lower . The resulting extended {\it vdW} equation, unlike the
original, is capable of yielding a water-like density anomaly, flat isotherms
in the coexistence region {\it vs} {\it vdW} loops, and several other desirable
features. The plateau energy, the width of the distribution of {\it IS}, and
the ``top of the landscape'' temperature are simulated over a broad reduced
density range, , in the Lennard-Jones fluid. Fits to the
data yield an explicit equation of state, which is argued to be useful at high
density; it nevertheless reproduces the known values of and at the
critical point
A test of non-equilibrium thermodynamics in glassy systems: the soft-sphere case
The scaling properties of the soft-sphere potential allow the derivation of
an exact expression for the pressure of a frozen liquid, i.e., the pressure
corresponding to configurations which are local minima in its multidimensional
potential energy landscape. The existence of such a relation offers the unique
possibility for testing the recently proposed extension of the liquid free
energy to glassy out-of-equilibrium conditions and the associated expression
for the temperature of the configurational degrees of freedom. We demonstrate
that the non-equilibrium free energy provides an exact description of the
soft-sphere pressure in glass states
On the Wang-Landau Method for Off-Lattice Simulations in the "Uniform" Ensemble
We present a rigorous derivation for off-lattice implementations of the
so-called "random-walk" algorithm recently introduced by Wang and Landau [PRL
86, 2050 (2001)]. Originally developed for discrete systems, the algorithm
samples configurations according to their inverse density of states using
Monte-Carlo moves; the estimate for the density of states is refined at each
simulation step and is ultimately used to calculate thermodynamic properties.
We present an implementation for atomic systems based on a rigorous separation
of kinetic and configurational contributions to the density of states. By
constructing a "uniform" ensemble for configurational degrees of freedom--in
which all potential energies, volumes, and numbers of particles are equally
probable--we establish a framework for the correct implementation of simulation
acceptance criteria and calculation of thermodynamic averages in the continuum
case. To demonstrate the generality of our approach, we perform sample
calculations for the Lennard-Jones fluid using two implementation variants and
in both cases find good agreement with established literature values for the
vapor-liquid coexistence locus.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figure
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