Institutional Independence: Lawyers and the Administrative State

The institutional structure where federal government lawyers practice is fraught with political and economic pressures that undermine the ability of lawyers to exercise independent professional judgment. A lack of candid legal advice in this space not only removes a pivotal fail-safe between legal and illegal state action but also precariously imbalances the powerful administrative state, exposing it to undue political influence. For these reasons, this Article argues that structural changes to administrative institutions must be made to support and nurture lawyers’ ability to independently determine the bounds of legality. Previous scholarship has examined the role of professional independence for lawyers generally; however, the legal academy has yet to explore the centrality of professional independence to administrative law or the structural pressures influencing its exercise. This Article joins a body of work that adopts a new institutionalist approach to professional misconduct. In doing so, this Article makes three principal contributions: (1) it outlines why institutionally sustained professional independence is essential to the federal administrative state; (2) it identifies institutional failings that impede government lawyers’ exercise of professional independent judgment; and (3) it proposes institution-based solutions to facilitate professionally independent conduct by government lawyers. By insulating government lawyers from excessive interference on core professional judgment calls, civil society may rely on these lawyers to help protect the basic structure of the rule of law

Multiscale modeling of heat conduction in graphene laminates

We developed a combined atomistic-continuum hierarchical multiscale approach to explore the effective thermal conductivity of graphene laminates. To this aim, we first performed molecular dynamics simulations in order to study the heat conduction at atomistic level. Using the non-equilibrium molecular dynamics method, we evaluated the length dependent thermal conductivity of graphene as well as the thermal contact conductance between two individual graphene sheets. In the next step, based on the results provided by the molecular dynamics simulations, we constructed finite element models of graphene laminates to probe the effective thermal conductivity at macroscopic level. A similar methodology was also developed to study the thermal conductivity of laminates made from hexagonal boron-nitride (h-BN) films. In agreement with recent experimental observations, our multiscale modeling confirms that the flake size is the main factor that affects the thermal conductivity of graphene and h-BN laminates. Provided information by the proposed multiscale approach could be used to guide experimental studies to fabricate laminates with tunable thermal conduction properties

Self-assembling multiblock amphiphiles: Molecular design, supramolecular structure, and mechanical properties

We perform off-lattice, canonical ensemble molecular dynamics simulations of the self-assembly of long segmented copolymers consisting of alternating, tunably attractive and hydrophobic {\em binder} domains, connected by hydrophilic {\em linker} chains whose length may be separately controlled. In such systems, the molecular design of the molecule directly determines the balance between energetic and entropic tendencies. We determine the structural phase diagram of this system, which shows collapsed states (dominated by the attractive linkers' energies), swollen states (dominated by the random coil linkers' entropies) as well as intermediate network hydrogel phases, where the long molecules exhibit partial collapse to a {\em single molecule network} state. We present an analysis of the connectivity and spatial structure of this network phase, and relate its basic topology to mechanical properties, using a modified rubber elasticity model. The mechanical properties are further characterized in a direct computational implementation of oscillatory rheology measurements. We find that it is possible to optimize the mechanical performance by an appropriate choice of molecular design, which may point the way to novel synthetics that make optimal mechanical use of constituent polymers

A new class of ff-deformed charge coherent states and their nonclassical properties

Two-mode charge (pair) coherent states has been introduced previously by using $<\eta|$ representation. In the present paper we reobtain these states by a rather different method. Then, using the nonlinear coherent states approach and based on a simple manner by which the representation of two-mode charge coherent states is introduced, we generalize the bosonic creation and annihilation operators to the $f$-deformed ladder operators and construct a new class of $f$-deformed charge coherent states. Unlike the (linear) pair coherent states, our presented structure has the potentiality to generate a large class of pair coherent states with various nonclassicality signs and physical properties which are of interest. Along this purpose, we use a few well-known nonlinearity functions associated with particular quantum systems as some physical appearances of our presented formalism. After introducing the explicit form of the above correlated states in two-mode Fock-space, several nonclassicality features of the corresponding states (as well as the two-mode linear charge coherent states) are numerically investigated by calculating quadrature squeezing, Mandel parameter, second-order correlation function, second-order correlation function between the two modes and Cauchy-Schwartz inequality. Also, the oscillatory behaviour of the photon count and the quasi-probability (Husimi) function of the associated states will be discussed.Comment: 22 pages, Accepted for J. Phys A: Math. Theor. Special Issue on Coherent State

Evolutions towards a new LSPR particle: Nano-sinusoid Progress in Electromagnetic Research (PIER)

This paper proposes a novel nano-sinusoid particle to be employed in enhanced localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) bio-sensing devices. Numerical investigations are carried out to demonstrate advantages o®ered by the proposed nano-particle on LSPR enhancement over other nano-particles including noble nano-triangles and nano-diamonds. Although nano-triangles exhibit high concentration of the electric ¯eld near their tips, when illuminated with a light polarized along the tip axis, they present only one hot spot at the vertex along the polarization direction. To create a structure with two hot spots, which is desired in bio-sensing applications, two nano-triangles can be put back-to-back. Therefore, a nano-diamond particle is obtained which exhibits two hot spots and presents higher enhancements than nano-triangles for the same resonant wavelength. The main drawback of the nano-diamonds is the °uctuation in their physical size-plasmon spectrum relationships, due to a high level of singularity as the result of their four sharp tip points. The proposed nano-sinusoid overcomes this disadvantage while maintaining the bene¯ts of having two hot spots and high enhancement

Mechanical properties and thermal conductivity of graphitic carbon nitride: A molecular dynamics study

Graphitic carbon nitride nanosheets are among 2D attractive materials due to presenting unusual physicochemical properties.Nevertheless, no adequate information exists about their mechanical and thermal properties. Therefore, we used classical molecular dynamics simulations to explore the thermal conductivity and mechanical response of two main structures of single-layer triazine-basedg-C3N4 films.By performing uniaxial tensile modeling, we found remarkable elastic modulus of 320 and 210 GPa, and tensile strength of 47 GPa and 30 GPa for two different structures of g-C3N4sheets. Using equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations, the thermal conductivity of free-standing g-C3N4 structures were also predicted to be around 7.6 W/mK and 3.5 W/mK. Our study suggests the g-C3N4films as exciting candidate for reinforcement of polymeric materials mechanical properties