Efficient analysis and design of low-loss whispering-gallery-mode coupled resonator optical waveguide bends

Waveguides composed of electromagnetically-coupled optical microcavities (coupled resonator optical waveguides or CROWs) can be used for light guiding, slowing and storage. In this paper, we present a two-dimensional analysis of finite-size straight and curved CROW sections based on a rigorous Muller boundary integral equations method. We study mechanisms of the coupling of whispering gallery (WG) modes and guiding light around bends in CROWs composed of both identical and size-mismatched microdisk resonators. Our accurate analysis reveals differences in WG modes coupling in the vicinity of bends in CROWs composed of optically-large and wavelength-scale microcavities. We propose and discuss possible ways to design low-loss CROW bends and to reduce bend losses. These include selecting specific bend angles depending on the azimuthal order of the WG mode and tuning the radius of the microdisk positioned at the CROW bend.Comment: 8 pages with 10 figures (to appear in IEEE/OSA J. Lightwave Technology, 2007

Условия и особенности военно-профессиональной деятельности миротворческих подразделений

У статті проаналізовано умови та особливості військово-професійної діяльності миротворчих підрозділів, а також висвітлено основні групи стресогенних факторів, які можуть здійснювати вплив на військово-професійну діяльність миротворців.In the article the conditions and peculiarities of military-professional activity of peacemaking subdivisions are analysed, and also basic groups of stressors, that can render influence on military-professional activity of peacemakers, are covered.В статье проанализированы условия и особенности военно-профессиональной деятельности миротворческих подразделений, а также освещены основные группы стрессогенных факторов, которые могут оказывать влияние на военно-профессиональную деятельность миротворцев

Greening the Desert

Greening the Desert brings a criminal justice lens to the phenomenon of legal deserts in small, tribal, and rural (STAR) communities—vast areas with few, if any, practicing attorneys. The report explores STAR criminal justice communities and describes strategies and initiatives to green these criminal law deserts. Using case studies, the report offers concrete examples of successful innovations. It also includes cautionary notes about risks that may arise with the implementation of strategies to recruit, train, and retain STAR practitioners.https://scholar.smu.edu/deasoncenter/1000/thumbnail.jp

The Prosecutor Lobby

Prosecutors shape the use of the criminal law at many points during criminal proceedings but there is an earlier point in the process where prosecutors have influence: during the legislative process. The conventional wisdom in legal scholarship is that prosecutors are powerful and successful lobbyists who routinely support laws that make the criminal law more punitive and oppose criminal justice reform. In this Article, we test that narrative with an empirical assessment of prosecutor lobbying in America. Using an original dataset of four years of legislative activity from all fifty states, we analyze how frequently prosecutors lobbied, the issues on which they lobbied, the positions they took, and how often they succeeded. Our data tell a complex story of partial success for the prosecutor lobby. Prosecutors are less successful than expected when lobbying against bills, and they are most successful when lobbying in favor of criminal justice reform. By analyzing not only national data, but also data from each state, we document that prosecutorial success is correlated with Republican control of the state legislature. We further conclude that perceived expertise does not drive prosecutorial lobbying success and that legislatures in some contexts respond to the prosecutor lobby much as they would to any other self-interested rent-seeking lobbyists

The Biosimilars Act: The United States’ Entry into Regulating Biosimilars and its Implications, 12 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 322 (2013)

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is most well-known for creating a mandate requiring individuals to have health insurance. However, another provision of the Act, the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act, created a new process for companies to introduce biosimilars, products that are highly similar to licensed drugs in terms of purity, safety, and potency, but have minor differences in the inactive ingredients. This provision seeks to alleviate strain on companies introducing biosimilars by creating an abbreviated pathway for their approval by the Food and Drug Administration, similar to an Abbreviated New Drug Application under the Hatch-Waxman Act. This article provides a comprehensive overview of the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act and contrasts it with the Hatch-Waxman Act and European Law on Biosimilars. Strategies for patent claiming and resolving patent disputes are then discussed

Modulation of Functional Activities of Chicken Heterophils by Recombinant Chicken IFN-γ

The objective of the present studies was to examine the in vitro effects of recombinant chicken interferon-γ (rChIFN-γ) on shape change, phagocytosis, and the oxidative/nonoxidative killing activities of day-old chicken heterophils. Heterophils (4 × 106/ml) were incubated with various concentrations of recombinant ChIFN-γ from both Escherichia coli and transfected Cos cells for 2 h at 39°C. The incubation of the neonatal heterophils with rChIFN-γ resulted in significantly greater numbers of cells with membrane shape change when compared with the mock-treated heterophils. Both Cos cell-derived and E. coli-derived ChIFN-γ significantly increased (p < 0.01) the phagocytosis of opsonized or nonopsonized Salmonella enteritidis by the neonatal heterophils in a concentration-dependent manner. Incubation with ChIFN-γ induced no direct stimulation of the respiratory burst by the chicken heterophils but did prime the heterophils for a significantly strengthened respiratory burst to subsequent stimulation with opsonized zymosan (OZ). Lastly, incubation of the heterophils with ChIFN-γ primed the cells for a significant increase in the release of β-D-glucuronidase following stimulation with OZ. These results show that neonatal avian heterophils can respond to cytokine modulation with enhanced functional competence, suggesting that ChIFN-γ can enhance the immune competence of the innate defenses of chickens during the first week of life

One transition, many transitions? A corpus-based study of societal sustainability transition discourses in four civil society’s proposals

When the civil society makes ‘transition’ its label, it cannot be assumed that different civil society actors share compatible varieties of localist or radical transformationists discourses. This study has comparatively analyzed the discourses in four civil society sustainability transition proposals using a corpus-based methodology. We found that the proposals are similar as they identify the economy as an object and an entry point for transition, frame the economy as embedded in the socio–ecological system, ascribe agency to grassroots movements for transitions from the bottom–up. We also found crucial differences among the discourses regarding the role of the State, the degree of reform or radical innovation, the degree of imaginative character of the sustainability vision, the degree of opposition to capitalism. We suggest that insights on how the civil society employs notions of transition with respect to the themes of politics, emotions and place can help advance theorizations and practices of societal sustainability transitions led by the civil society