Open Photoacoustic Cell for Blood Sugar Measurement: Numerical Calculation of Frequency Response

A new approach for continuous and non-invasive monitoring of the glucose concentration in human epidermis has been suggested recently. This method is based on photoacoustic (PA) analysis of human interstitial fluid. The measurement can be performed in vitro and in vivo and, therefore, may form the basis for a non-invasive monitoring of the blood sugar level for diabetes patients. It requires a windowless PA cell with an additional opening that is pressed onto the human skin. Since signals are weak, advantage is taken of acoustic resonances of the cell. Recently, a numerical approach based on the Finite Element (FE) Method has been successfully used for the calculation of the frequency response function of closed PA cells. This method has now been adapted to obtain the frequency response of the open cell. Despite the fact that loss due to sound radiation at the opening is not included, fairly good accordance with measurement is achieved

In search of a Tropical Gothic in Australian visual arts

The field of Gothic Studies concentrates almost exclusively on literature, cinema and popular culture. While Gothic themes in the visual arts of the Romantic period are well documented, and there is sporadic discussion about the re-emergence of the Gothic in contemporary visual arts, there is little to be found that addresses the Gothic in northern or tropical Australia. A broad review of largely European visual arts in tropical Australia reveals that Gothic themes and motifs tend to centre on aspects of the landscape. During Australia's early colonial period, the northern landscape is portrayed as a place of uncanny astonishment. An Australian Tropical Gothic re-appears for early modernists as a desolate landscape that embodies a mythology of peril, tragedy and despair. Finally, for a new wave of contemporary artists, including some significant Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, Gothic motifs emerge to animate tropical landscapes and draw attention to issues of environmental degradation and the dispossession of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples

How effective and legitimate is the European semester? Increasing role of the European parliament

The European Semester is a new institutional process that provides EU member states with ex-ante guidance on fiscal and structural objectives. The Semesterâ??s goals are ambitious and it is still uncertain how it will fit into the new EU economic governance framework. We find that member states are only slowly internalising the new procedure. Furthermore, the Semester has so far lacked legitimacy due to the minor role assigned to the European Parliament, the marginal involvement of national parliaments and the lack of transparency of the process at some stages. Finally, there remains room to clarify the implications from a unified legal text. In fact, diluting the legal separation of recommendations on National Reform Programmes and Council opinions on Stability and Convergence Programmes may compromise effective surveillance and governance. The European Parliament has an important role to play. It needs hold the Commission and the Council accountable. This and the overall objective of enhancing the new procedureâ??s effectiveness and legitimacy can be done by means of a regular Economic Dialogue on the Semester.

Failure of the International Monetary Fund & World Bank to Achieve Integral Development: A Critical Historical Assessment of Bretton Woods Institutions\u27 Policies, Structures & Governance

Scholars worldwide have clearly demonstrated the inability of the Bretton Woods Institutions (the BWIs ) to promote authentic sustainable development.\u27 Some have criticized the BWIs for their inability to rehabilitate, evolve, and reform their respective policies. Some scholars argue that the core of this problem is the voting structures of the BWIs. Additional critiques address the lack of transparency and limited participation by developing countries in formulation of BWIs\u27 policies; both deficiencies have resulted in fewer developing countries benefiting from these policies. Acknowledging these critiques, this article will argue that current BWI policies must be fundamentally redesigned, since many are archaic and others are counter-productive to integral sustainable development in the current global economy. Further, the article will argue that the dominant nations in the BWI have forced their political agendas on the rest of the world while hiding behind the veil of these multilateral funding institutions. In making these arguments, the article will begin with a review of the origin, purpose, and structures of the BWIs and offer a brief critique of their voting structures. Next, this article will analyze and critique the neoliberal revival of the classical laissez-faire liberal ideology now on a global scale, and show how it has played out in the Asian financial crisis, the current world financial crisis, and the on-going debt crisis. Two case studies will then be provided and discussed: one on Argentina; and a second on Sub-Saharan Africa. The paper will then analyze other institutions\u27 alternative solutions to the ongoing problems with the BWI, specifically the Monterey Consensus, developed by the United Nations Financing for Development process, the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries, created by the World Bank, and the G-20, a policy-advising group of 20 countries claiming to represent the most systemically significant world\u27s economies. Finally, a conclusion will summarize this article\u27s critique of the BWIs and suggest alternative lines of strategy. Part II first reviews the events and global instability that led to the Bretton Woods Conference creating the early BWIs, and then explains the Bretton Woods Conference itself and the global response to the creation of the BWIs. Part II then concludes with a critical analysis of the IMF and World Bank voting structures. Part III begins by showing how neoliberal agendas influence the policies of the BWIs through vote and governance. A historical analysis of the rise of the contemporary neoliberal ideology is then provided. At the heart of this has been the University of Chicago School of Economics, led by the late Professor Milton Friedman, and the Austrian School of Economics. Both were highly influential in developing a new and problematic model of so-called global \u27development\u27 for the BWIs. Part III then examines loan conditionality; the mechanism by which the BWIs pressure other countries into accepting neoliberal ideas. Part III concludes by providing a critical analysis of the neoliberal ideology in its application to the Asian Financial Crisis, along with case studies showing its impact on Argentina and Sub-Saharan Africa. Part IV analyzes alternative solutions, which have been put forth by various global endeavors. It begins with an examination of the Monterrey Consensus, the product of an international conference held in Monterrey, Mexico. Part IV then examines The Heavily Indebted Poor Countries, a program created by the World Bank and the IMF, which currently classifies forty developing countries with high levels of poverty and debt which are eligible for special assistance.\u27 Finally, the G-20 is a group of twenty countries that hold periodic meetings to review and promote discussions pertaining to the promotion of international financial stability and the governance of the world economy. Finally, Part V concludes that the BWIs, due to their lending policies and governing structures, have restrained true global development. The BWIs have served as impediments to authentic development and these institutions are in need of fundamental reform including overhauls to their policies, voting systems, and governance structures. Part V proposes alternative strategies for authentic sustainable development through other multilateral global institutions

Sex, Race, and Age: Double Discrimination in Torts And Taxes

This Article first provides the traditional scholarly survey of legislative history, statutory analysis, and governmental and judicial interpretations. Part II reviews the history of § 104(a)(2) and offers a substantive inquiry into the Supreme Court opinions in United States v. Burke, Commissioner v. Schleier, and in the major cases leading up to these decisions. Part III then reviews the tax policy assumptions supporting § 104(a)(2) from a perspective of both before and after the 1996 amendments. Part IV chronicles the history and current status of various federally enacted civil rights statutes. This part then presents a historical overview of the emergence of tort reform at the federal and state levels— a reform in many ways diametrically opposed to that of civil rights legislation evolving and expanding the scope of protections and remedies. These two movements— civil rights and tort reform— elucidate the current status of § 104(a)(2). With respect to § 104(a)(2), tort reform takes place not in the traditional sense, Congress passing federal tort reform, but rather through the “back door”— tort reform in a taxing statute. Part V criticizes the judicial craftsmanship used in United States v. Burke and Commissioner v. Schleier. Part VI archives the well-documented negative psychological, physical, social, economical, and societal consequences that result from various forms of discrimination. Part VII applies psychoanalytic and cognitive theories of psychology to support the thesis that the 1996 amendment to § 104(a)(2) is a product of unconscious judicial and legislative discrimination. Finally, Part VIII concludes the Article, recommending that Congress take immediate action to remedy the tax discrimination leveled against victims of dignatory torts and raise revenues to support the exclusion by disallowing deductions for amounts paid to victims of discrimination by the tortfeasors. In an effort to effectively influence the drafting of appropriate legislation, this Article will conclusively demonstrate that in the context of § 104(a)(2) there are no sustainable or well-founded tax or social policy justifications for treating victims of nonphysical injuries differently from those of physical injuries. Rather, broad social and congressional policy requires that victims of discrimination, in all its forms, be treated equally for tax purposes

The Traveling Salesman Problem Under Squared Euclidean Distances

Let $P$ be a set of points in $\mathbb{R}^d$, and let $\alpha \ge 1$ be a real number. We define the distance between two points $p,q\in P$ as $|pq|^{\alpha}$, where $|pq|$ denotes the standard Euclidean distance between $p$ and $q$. We denote the traveling salesman problem under this distance function by TSP($d,\alpha$). We design a 5-approximation algorithm for TSP(2,2) and generalize this result to obtain an approximation factor of $3^{\alpha-1}+\sqrt{6}^{\alpha}/3$ for $d=2$ and all $\alpha\ge2$. We also study the variant Rev-TSP of the problem where the traveling salesman is allowed to revisit points. We present a polynomial-time approximation scheme for Rev-TSP$(2,\alpha)$ with $\alpha\ge2$, and we show that Rev-TSP$(d, \alpha)$ is APX-hard if $d\ge3$ and $\alpha>1$. The APX-hardness proof carries over to TSP$(d, \alpha)$ for the same parameter ranges.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures. (v2) Minor linguistic change

Critical Slowing Down of Cluster Algorithms for Ising Models Coupled to 2-d Gravity

We simulate single and multiple Ising models coupled to 2-d gravity using both the Swendsen-Wang and Wolff algorithms to update the spins. We study the integrated autocorrelation time and find that there is considerable critical slowing down, particularly in the magnetization. We argue that this is primarily due to the local nature of the dynamical triangulation algorithm and to the generation of a distribution of baby universes which inhibits cluster growth.Comment: 7 pages including 5 postscript figures, epsf.sty late

How effective and legitimate is the European semester? Increasing the role of the European parliament. Bruegel Working Paper 2011/09, September 2011

The European Semester is a new institutional process that provides EU member states with ex-ante guidance on fiscal and structural objectives. The Semester’s goals are ambitious and it is still uncertain how it will fit into the new EU economic governance framework. We find that member states are only slowly internalising the new procedure. Furthermore, the Semester has so far lacked legitimacy due to the minor role assigned to the European Parliament, the marginal involvement of national parliaments and the lack of transparency of the process at some stages. Finally, there remains room to clarify the implications from a unified legal text. In fact, diluting the legal separation of recommendations on National Reform Programmes and Council opinions on Stability and Convergence Programmes may compromise effective surveillance and governance. The European Parliament has an important role to play. It needs hold the Commission and the Council accountable. This and the overall objective of enhancing the new procedure’s effectiveness and legitimacy can be done by means of a regular Economic Dialogue on the Semester

Applied Force and sEMG Muscle Activity Required To Operate Pistol Grip Control in an Electric Utility Aerial Bucket

Electric utility line workers report high levels of fatigue in forearm muscles when operating a conventional pistol grip control in aerial buckets. This study measured the applied force and surface electromyographic (sEMG) signals from four upper extremity muscles required to operate the pistol grip control in two tasks. The first task was movement of the pistol grip in six directions (up/down, forward/rearward, clockwise/counter-clockwise), and the second task was movement of the bucket from its resting position on the truck bed to an overhead conductor on top of a 40 ft tall pole. The force applied to the pistol grip was measured in 14 aerial bucket trucks, and sEMG activity was measured on eight apprentice line workers. The applied force required to move the pistol grip control in the six directions ranged from 12 to 15 lb. The sEMG activity in the extensor digitorum communis (EDC) forearm muscle was approximately twice as great or more than the other three muscles (flexor digitorum superficialis, triceps, and biceps). Line workers exerted 14 to 30% MVCEMG to move the pistol grip in the six directions. Average %MVCEMG of the EDC to move the bucket from the truck platform to an overhead line ranged from 26 to 30% across the four phases of the task. The sEMG findings from this study provide physiologic evidence to support the anecdotal reports of muscle fatigue from line workers after using the pistol grip control for repeated, long durations