Japan vs Uk Economy Essay Example

Japan vs Uk Economy Essay Contemporary history of Japan and UK Japan is the first Asian country to industrialise its economy and become on par with the advanced west. This is all down to a very strong and determined work ethic and their technological aptitude. They place very high emphasis on education and with a comparatively small defence allocation (1% GDP) they have one of the most technologically advanced economies in the world. Japan enjoyed real economic growth for three decades with a 10% average in the 1960s, 5% in the 1970s and 4% in the 1980s. However, growth slowed markedly in the 1990s to an average of 1. 7% due largely to inefficient investment and an asset price bubble in the late 1980s. In March 2011, Japan was hit with their strongest-ever earthquake, and a subsequent tsunami, which caused major devastation, killing thousands and damaging several nuclear power plants. The catastrophe disrupted the countrys economy and its energy infrastructure, and severely strained its capacity to deal with the humanitarian disaster (https://www. cia. gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ja. html). The UK was the first nation to industrialise by the mid nineteenth century she was considered the most advanced economy in the world. The British industrial revolution was founded on the basis of the market or capitalist economy. Adam smith is the father of the capitalist economy, he identified some key features of this system in his book â€Å"The Wealth of Nations† 1776, the features were: private ownership of resources; the price mechanism allocating scarce resources; laissez faire; competition; profit motive; and consumer sovereignty the Prior to 1979 the British approach to macroeconomic policies was very Keynesian. We will write a custom essay sample on Japan vs Uk Economy specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Japan vs Uk Economy specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Japan vs Uk Economy specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Britain joined the European Rate Mechanism (ERM) of the European Monetary System (EMS) which meant that the British pound was tied to the EU exchange rate (Woodward, 2004). Britain’s financial policies were influenced by the collapse in oil prices during the early part of 1986. This meant that the level of tax revenue was reduced and the government was forced to delay any major reductions in income taxation. The collapse meant that government could only manage a 1 percent reduction in the basic rate (Woodward, 2004). 992 saw the end of Britain’s membership of the ERM which also brought about a major recession, affecting those who had benefited from the economic boom of the 1980s. Thatcherism saw the privatisation of many state owned entities, including British Airways, British Telecom and British Gas amongst others. The global economic recession of 2009 saw Britain plunder into deep recession, which lead to rising inflation and unemployment. Current economic situation Japan’s economy is sustained by its highly educated and well motivated labour force (Rosser and Rosser, 2004). For decades employers have guaranteed lifetime employment to their employees, hence the reason for Japan’s employment stability. This guarantee over the past few years, have been eroding because of dual pressure from global competition and changes in the demographic domestically (https://www. cia. gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ja. html). Nakajima et al (2000) stated that Japan’s economic growth since the burst of the economic bubble in 1990 has been minimal, with an average GDP growth rate of less than 1 percent in the 1990’s. Rosser and Rosser (2004) pointed out that Japan was the first nation of non-European origin to industrialise and experience modern economic growth. Its slogan â€Å"Japanese spirit and Western ability† sums up Japan’s approach to economic development. They succeeded by maintaining the Japanese culture which inculcates a good work ethic with western technology. Japan’s fiscal policy has attracted attention because of the relatively low levels of government spending and taxation (Rosser and Rosser, 2004). Rosser and Rosser (2004) stated that many believe that Japan’s relatively low level of social transfer payments encourages savings and hard work. Japan’s economy like most of the developed economies has been in recovery after the global financial crisis of 2009 but the recent earthquake and tsunami has dealt a major blow to their economic growth and recovery. It is argued that Japan has run out of steam and its economic miracle is over. Japan seemed destined in the 1980s to take the number one spot as the world’s leading economy but given recent economic failures this seems highly unlikely in the foreseeable future. The UK economy enjoyed major improvement in its financial stability during the 1980s. However, there was a high price to pay as unemployment rose sharply in 1981 and 1982, with unemployment levels rising to over 3 million in 1983 and remaining above that level until mid 1987 (Sentance, 1998). In 2001-2002 the UK’s GDP growth slipped as the global downturn, the high value of the Pound Sterling and the bursting of the ‘new economy’ bubble hurt manufacturing and exports. Despite being one of Europe’s strongest economies the UK’s growth rate is 1. 6% and unemployment is 7. 9%, this is as a result of the most recent recession that started in the US in 2009, which hit all the major economies, more so the UK because of their close economic links to the US economy.

Russias Populists

Russias Populists Populist/Populism is a name retroactively given to the Russian intelligentsia who opposed the Tsarist regime and industrialization in the 1860s, ​70s, and 80s. Although the term is loose and covers a lot of different groups, overall the Populists wanted a better form of government for Russia than the existing Tsarist autocracy. They also feared the dehumanizing effects of the ​industrialization which was occurring in Western Europe, but which had so far largely left Russia alone. Russian Populism The Populists were essentially pre-Marxist socialists and believed that revolution and reform in the Russian empire must come through the peasants, who comprised 80% of the population. The Populists idealized peasants and the ‘Mir’, the Russian agricultural village, and believed that the peasant commune was the perfect basis for a socialist society, allowing Russia to skip Marx’s bourgeois and urban stage. Populists believed that industrialization would destroy the Mir, which in fact offered the best route to socialism, by forcing peasants into crowded cities. Peasants were generally illiterate, uneducated and living just above subsistence level, while the Populists were generally educated members of the upper and middle classes. You may be able to see a potential fault line between these two groups, but many Populists didnt, and it led to some nasty problems when they started Going to the People. Going to the People The Populists thus believed that it was their task to educate the peasants about revolution, and it was as patronizing as that sounds. Consequently, and inspired by an almost religious desire and belief in their powers of conversion, thousands of populists traveled to peasant villages to educate and inform them, as well as sometimes learn their ‘simple’ ways, in 1873-74. This practice became known as ‘Going to the People’, but it had no overall leadership and varied massively by location. Perhaps predictably, the peasants generally responded with suspicion, viewing the Populists as soft, interfering dreamers with no concept of real villages (accusations which werent exactly unfair, indeed, repeatedly proven), and the movement made no inroads. Indeed, in some locales, the Populists were arrested by the peasants and given to the police to be taken as far away as possible from the rural villages as possible. Terrorism Unfortunately, some Populists reacted to this disappointment by radicalizing and turning to terrorism to try and promote revolution. This had no overall effect on Russia, but terrorism thus increased in the 1870s, reaching a nadir in 1881 when a small Populist group called ‘The People’s Will’ – the ‘people’ in question numbered around 400 in total – succeeded in assassinating Tsar Alexander II. As he had shown an interest in reform, the result was a massive blow to the Populist’s morale and power and led to a Tsarist regime which became more repressive and reactionary in revenge. After this, the Populists faded away and transformed into other revolutionary groups, such as the Social Revolutionaries who would take part in the revolutions of 1917 (and be defeated by the Marxist socialists). However, some revolutionaries in Russia looked at the Populist’s terrorism with renewed interest and would adopt these methods themselves .

The Butcher of Milwaukee's Human Slaughterhouse Essay - 1

The Butcher of Milwaukee's Human Slaughterhouse - Essay Example The discovery that a man so confident, tidy, well mannered and clean was capable of such heinous murders, as well as cannibalism, would be a central aspect of this study. To investigate the motives and incentives that led a seemingly average man to indulge in a killing spree that lasted and went undetected for 13 years is what this essay will concentrate on. Furthermore, the analysis will be aided by the use of two theories that will scrutinize factors that have contributed to the crime in question and led to the constitution of Jeffrey Dahmer who came to be known as ‘the man who redefined serial murders’ by the Online criminologist. Â  According to Tru Crime Library, Detective Patrick Kennedy was the person who gained Jeffrey Dahmer’s trust and hence plummeted into the depths of his degeneracy. His killing spree of 13 years took root from fantasies about killing men and having sex with their corpses at the age of fourteen. By sixteen he had become an alcoholic with an intense interest in chemistry and dismembering animals. Research, as stated by Dr. Randall Lockwood (vice president of training and initiatives for the Humane Society of the United States), has found excessive links between animal cruelties in the early years of childhood to future serial killings. A common characteristic shared by serial killers like Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, and David Berkowitz. Â  In June of 1978, right after graduation, Dahmer committed his first murder. Steven Hicks, a hitchhiker that he picked up, had sex with and then drank beer with was the first of his victims.

Research Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Research Assignment - Essay Example Walker describes the relationship of mother with the daughter that gradually upturned when the mother begins to understand and recognize the thoughts of her daughters, regarding the importance of cultural values. The same theme of parent-child relationship is described in several other narratives including short stories and poems like Tillie Olsen’s short story â€Å"I Stand Here Ironing† and Ben Johnson’s poems â€Å"On My First Son† and â€Å"On My First Daughter†. The authors of these work pieces have discussed the intricate relationship of parent and their children in quite different ways, and shows depth and potential involvedness within parent-child relationships. In â€Å"I Stand Here Ironing†, Olsen depicts a mother worried about the thinking style of her child whereas â€Å"Everyday Use† tells about the mother that is happy after realizing that her daughter possesses some true feelings and thinking in her heart regarding the i mportance of cultural heritage. The poems of Ben Johnsons also talks about the parent-child relationship but in a different manner as these are written to depict the sorrow of the parents on the death of their children. The essay describes these literary works to explain the variation in the depiction of a common theme of parent-child relationship. It is unveiled that the parent-child relationship is commonly used as the central theme in various narratives; however, the topic is so deep and multifaceted that the writers have described this theme in distinct styles. It is also unveiled that regardless of children age, position and social conditions the parents always have a deep love, affection and concern for their children shown these narratives in different styles. The short story â€Å"Everyday Use† depicts the intricate relationship between mother and her two daughters. There was disagreement among them over the issue of preservation of cultural heritage that ultimately a ffected their relationships. The mother and both the daughters understand the value for traditions; however, their perspectives about the treatment of the traditional things were different from one another. The story is written in the context of political and social transformation when African Americans were struggling to preserve their cultural values and identities (Bates, p154). The family described in the story had several things that remind them of their African culture roots, while the family members regard these things as their cultural heritage. However, the standpoint of mother and both daughters were different from each other because they view the traditions and cultural heritage in different ways. The mother earlier thought that her alder daughter Dee has the sense of appreciation for the traditional treasures, and that she understands the values of cultural heritage. The younger daughter, Maggie, seems quite insensible to her mother because she thinks Maggie gives no val ue to the traditional things and just regards those as items of everyday use. The relationship of the mother grew differently with both daughters on the basis of the opinions she held for them. The mother believes that the preservation and protection of cultural heritage shows that one should have value for the memories of their ancestors, so

Pearson Education Company and Its External Factors Essay

Pearson Education Company and Its External Factors - Essay Example Like any other organization, Pearson Education does not exist in a vacuum but operates in an environment that is characterized by stiff competition from other rival competitors like McGraw-Hill, Reed Elserivier, and Thomson among others. In this context, STEEPLE analysis mainly takes into consideration the environmental factors that may impact on the operations of business. According to information obtained online, there are mainly seven factors that affect the operations of business and these are social, technological, economic, environmental, political, legal and ethical. (See appendix 1). It is very important for any business to diagnose the external environment in which it is operating in order to gain a competitive advantage over the other competitors. An organization ought to strategically streamline its operations so as to be able to remain viable and profitable while at the same time ensuring that its operations conform to the expectations of the customers. Whilst there are v arious external factors, technological as well as economic factors form the basis of this study as going to be analyzed in detail. On the other hand, a SWOT analysis defines the relationship between the internal and external environmental factors in the appraisals in strategic analysis of the operations of a business (Robinson 1997). Basically, SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses which represent the internal environment of the firm while opportunities and threats are external environmental factors. It is primarily concerned with analyzing the key factors of the environment and the fundamental internal strengths and weaknesses of the organization which will help dictate the strategies appropriate to the firm. The internal factors include the operations of the employees at Pearson Education while the external factors are mainly concerned with technological developments as well as competition from the other rival players.

Nanostructure Optical Biosensors

Nanostructure Optical Biosensors 5.1 Mach–Zehnder nanowire biosensor for detection of E.coli Silica nanowires [208] offer several advantages over other types of nanowires since they are based on materials used in the most important photonic and opto-electronic applications within the visible and the near-infrared ranges and as a result their optical properties are familiar [209]. Light guided along the optical nanowire leaves a large fraction of the guided field outside the wire as evanescent waves [210], [211] making it highly sensitive to the index change of the surrounding medium. Phase shift of the guided mode caused by index change of the surrounding medium is used as a criterion for sensitivity estimation. Our simulation shows that optical nanowire waveguides are very promising for developing high-sensitivity optical sensors of significantly reduced sizes. In the aforementioned work, changes in the optical field profile, the power confinement, and the propagation constant of the guided optical mode along the sensing arm have been studied. In the present work, the aforementioned structure has been analyzed using the more rigorous and versatile FEM approach and the variation of the effective index; the optical power distribution of the guided optical mode in both the reference and the sensing arm of the sensor have been studied, by optimizing the sensitivity of important silica nanowire parameters, such as the fibre core diameter, the specimen refractive index, the wavelength, and the temperature. 5.2 Mach–Zehnder based sensor structure The proposed Mach–Zehnder-based biosensor system is formed by using two uniform silica nanowires: one used as a reference arm and the other as a sensing arm is presented in Figure 5.1(a). Both arms are immersed in aqueous solution and the surface of the sensing arm is silanized and biomodified with specific receptors for higher selective detection. A layer around the wire is formed by the complex of chemical linker, antibody and E.Coli respectively as shown in the cross section of the composite waveguide in Figure 5.1(b). The chemical linker is MUDA [mercapto undecanoic acid], its RI is 1.463 and thickness is 1.69nm and is used as linker for antibody (RI is 1.41 and thickness is 2.98nm) and the target antigen is E.coli with average RI of 1.37 and average thickness of 0.4 – 0.7 microns [212]. (a) (b) Figure 5.1: Schematic diagram of (a) the proposed sensor and (b) the cross section view of the composite waveguide, with a specimen layer. A probe light that is launched through the nanowire propagates through the first 3 dB coupler, operating as an optical splitter, which divides it between the sensing and the reference arms, and it finally recombines via the second 3 dB coupler, working as an optical combiner, as shown in Figure 5.1(a). The phase shift caused by the index change due to the specimen placed in the sensing arm is numerically calculated and evaluated from the simulated signal output of the lower nanowire, as presented in Figure 5.1(a). 5.2.1 Modal Solution Initially, the optical properties of the reference and the sensing arm of the single mode silica nanowires immersed in aqueous solution have been examined, where the latter is coated with the linker, antibody and E.coli under detection and the 3-D optical field profile of the mode of the two arms, for a core diameter, D, of 400 nm is presented in Figure 5.2. Figure 5.2: (a) 3-D field profile of the Hx mode for the reference and the sensing arm for D = 400 nm The refractive index of the single-mode silica nanowire and the aqueous solution were considered to be 1.482 and 1.355, respectively, at an operating wavelength of 325 nm [213]. As can be seen from the field profiles of the optical mode for a core diameter, D, of 400 nm, in the reference arm shown in Figure 5.2 (a), the optical field is more confined in the silica core and the aqueous solution does not have much effect on the field profile. However, for a core diameter, D, of 400 nm, in the sensing arm shown in Figure 5.2 (b) a small change in the refractive index profile produces a larger change in the field profile. As can be concluded evanescent field in the sensing arm expands more outside due to change of refractive index in the aqueous solution. The optical field confinement in the reference and the sensing arms can be better viewed from the normalized field profile along the horizontal (x)-axis, as presented in Figure 5.3 for nanowire core diameter, D, of 150 nm. As can be seen from the earlier curves in Figure 5.3, the normalized optical fields for the reference and the sensing arms have small variation in the optical field profile. Figure 5.3: Hx along the x axis for a fibre diameter of D = 150 nm. 5.2.2 Effective Index Variation Next, the variation of the effective reactive index of Hx11 in the reference and the sensing arms with the silica nanowire diameter, D, has been examined, and the results are presented in Figure 5.4. Here, the effective index of the reference arm and the effective index difference between the two arms is plotted against core diameter, over a range of 100 nm to 800 nm. As can be seen from the aforementioned characteristics, as diameter, D, decreases, the effective index also reduces, and the rate of reduction slowly increases. The effective index difference between the reference and the sensing arm is presented in Figure 5.4. It is shown in the Figure 5.1, the effective index difference between the reference and the sensing arm decreases with the increase of the core diameter. However, for a core diameter, D, of 100 nm, peak value in à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬  neff is obtained and as the core diameter increases the effective index difference decreases. Figure 5.4: Effective index (ne) and effective index difference (à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬  neff) between the reference and sensing arms as a function of the fibre diameter (D). The effective index of the sensing arm is higher than the reference arm. It is due to increase of refractive index in the sensing arm with the addition of linker, antibody and E.coli. It can be noted that as the nanowire diameter is increased, the effective index asymptotically approaches that of the Silica refractive index, when most of optical power is confined in the Silica core. The effective index is dependent on the refractive index of surrounding medium. Therefore, single mode nanowires are suitable for sensing elements and sensitive to the index change of the surrounding medium. Figure 5.5: Change in effective index (ne) and effective index difference (à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬  neff) as a function of the wavelength (ÃŽ ») Next, the effective index for the reference arm and the effective index difference between the reference and the sensing arms are presented, with the variation of the wavelength, in Figure 5.5. As can be seen from the Figure 5.5, the effective index of reference arm decreases with the increase of the wavelength and the effective index difference increases linearly with the increase of the wavelength for core diameter of 400 nm. When the wavelength increases, the mode is weakly confined and penetrates more into the sensing region of the sensing arm hence increases the effective index. However, when the wavelength decreases, the mode is well confined and decays more into the core region hence decreases the effective index of sensing arm. 5.2.3 Power confinement Further, the power fraction in the aqueous solution for the reference and the sensing arm has also been studied with the variation of the nanowire core diameter and the result is presented in Figure 5.6. As can be seen from the aforementioned characteristics, for a core diameter, D, of 100nm the field extends mostly in the aqueous solution for both the reference and the sensing arms. However sensing arm exhibits more power in the aqueous solution than the power in the aqueous solution of reference arm. It is due to refractive index change in the aqueous solution of sensing arm when target antigen (E.Coli) is attached to immobilised antibody. As the value of D is increased further, the power in the aqueous solution is reduced since the field is more confined in the core region. Figure 5.6: Power fraction in aqueous solution for the sensing and the reference arms as a function of the fibre diameter (D). The change of the power fraction in the different regions of the sensing arm has been studied and is presented in Figure 5.7. As can be seen from the characteristics, shown in Figure 5.7, when the wavelength increases, the mode is weakly confined, and hence, less power is seen in the core region and more power is present in the cladding aqueous region. The mode is well confined for smaller wavelength values and more power is present in the core silica region. However, as the wavelength increases, the mode becomes weakly confined and more power is present in the aqueous solution region compared to the silica core region. Figure 5.7: Power fraction for the sensing arm as a function of wavelength for a fibre diameter of D = 400 nm 5.2.4 Effect of thickness Next, the change in the propagation constant ÃŽ ² of sensing arm and the power fraction in the aqueous solution of sensing arm as a function of the E.Coli thickness, for a core diameter of D = 400 nm, have been investigated and are presented in Figure 5.8. As the E.Coli thickness increases, both the propagation constant and the power fraction in the sensing arm decrease linearly. Figure 5.8: Change in propagation constant (ÃŽ ²) and power fraction in the E.coli with the variation of the E.coli thickness. As the thickness of E.coli increases the power fraction in the sensing arm and propagation constant of the sensing arm mode decreases with the increase in thickness of E.coli. This is due to the penetration of evanescent field into the sensing region decreases with increase of E.coli thickness. With the increase of sensing layer thickness evanescent field will not penetrate deep into the sensing region. However smaller nanowires with diameter of 100 nm and 200 nm may be used to penetrate more evanescent field into the sensing region. 5.2.5 Sensitivity The effective index change is produced either by a change of cover medium refractive index (homogeneous sensing) or by a change of thickness of E.coli which is immobilized on nanowire (surface sensing). Adlayer thickness and change of cover medium refractive index affects the effective index of the propagating optical mode. Measurement of sensitivity depends on optical field distribution in the sensing medium therefore the most important design task is to maximize the sensitivity of the biosensor. Figure 5.9 shows the change in effective index and waveguide sensitivity decreases with the increase in diameter, D, of silica nanowire. The larger effective index variation and waveguide sensitivity is achieved at a D = 100 nm. The greater the change in à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬  neff more sensitive the biosensor will be. Therefore, when D = 100nm maximum index difference is achieved. When the nanowire dimension becomes too large, most of the power is confined in the silica core and a smaller effective index difference is achieved hence lesser sensitivity. Figure 5.9: Variation of effective index difference, à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬  neff and waveguide sensitivity with Diameter, D (nm), of silica nanowire. When designing a sensor, the sensitivity is a very important parameter to evaluate the device performance. To study the sensitivity of our device, we use the sensor to detect the change in the effective index of mode with the change in the refractive index of surrounding medium. When there is an extremely small index change around the nanowire, the guided light is changed in its optical phase. We assumed the sensing area length, L = 75 µm. Calculated Δneff is about 0.0131/ÃŽ ¼m at the wavelength of 325 nm induced by coating the nanowire with E.coli layer for a 400nm diameter silica nanowire. Figure 5.10a: Sensitivity of the sensor as a function of the wavelength The phase shift (Δφ) of the sensing arm can be obtained as; (5.1) Where L is the effective length of sensitive area and Δneff is the effective index difference between the sensing arm and the reference arm, respectively. It is shown in the Figure 5.10a that the sensitivity of the device decreases with the increase in the wavelength and higher sensitivity of 697nm/RIU is achieved at wavelength of 325 nm. For comparison, the sensitivity of conventional Mach–Zehnder sensors based on integrated planar waveguides is much lower [209], showing that much higher sensitivity, or equivalently much smaller size can be achieved when sensing with silica nanowires. Figure 5.10b shows the variation of output power as a function of wavelength. MZI has two arms, one is used as sensing arm and another used as reference arm. The sensing arm is where the interaction between the biolayer and the optical signal takes places. After the propagation in these two arms, the two optical signals accumulate a phase shift Δφ. The optical power (Pout) at the exit of the interferometer is determined by the phase difference Δφ between the two waves at the junction which can be obtained as; Pout = 1+Cos Δφ (5.2) Figure 5.10b: Combined power as a function of wavelength, ÃŽ » (nm) In all variation of the wavelength, Δφ ≠  0, this is caused by the deposition of a biolayer around the sensing arm, therefore, the optical output power is different too in all variation of the wavelength. 5.3 Slot-waveguide biosensor for detection of DNA hybridisation. Slot waveguides present an interesting alternative when compared to rib or strip waveguide based biosensors where light is predominantly guided in the high index material. The light thus has little interaction with the biomaterial. This is a drawback for biosensing applications where small refractive index variations caused by biomolecular interactions are monitored. In case of slot waveguide, light is confined in a low index slot region sandwiched between two high index rails. Due to the discontinuity of the electric field at the interface between the rails and slot, a significant fraction of the electromagnetic field is localized in the slot. The sensitivity of an optical waveguide sensor relies on the amount of light in the medium to be sensed. Due to the increased amount of power confined in the slot region higher sensitivities will be achieved as compared to other waveguide based biosensors. Author of [128] has compared conventional slot waveguide, slot rib waveguides and Si wire for sensing of aqueous solution. However the work presented here is based on the slot waveguide micro ring resonation for the detection of DNA Hybridization binding of complementary DNA strands (targets) to DNA probes. Moreover we have calculated wavelength shift, device sensitivity, detection Limit, and power density and compared with the experimental work published in [214], [215], [216] and [217]. In the present work, the H-field Finite Element Method (FEM) based full-vector formulation is used for the solution of the TE and TM Slot Waveguide modes where the TE mode is highly confined in the slot region as compared to TM mode. In the FEM, a problem domain can suitably be divided into a patchwork of a finite number of subregions called â€Å"elements†. Each of the elements can have different shapes and sizes and by using many elements a complex problem can be accurately represented. In using the aforementioned approach, the field distribution in the transverse plane is obtained by the application of the variational formulation in the region. More recently, slot waveguide based biosensors have been investigated using Finite difference time domain method (FDTD) and Finite Element Method [218,219,220]. In the present work by optimising the slot waveguide parameters such as the slot width, guide width and guide height a compact biosensor is proposed. The aim of this work is to provide a novel comprehensive analysis defining the modal characteristics, effective index variation of ssDNA and dsDNA, surface sensitivity and power confinement in the DNA layer of a slot waveguide biosensor with a nanoscale cross-section, and in doing so, the effects of the critical size of such waveguide are also presented. To undertake such analysis, an accurate and numerically efficient vector-H-field finite-element method (VFEM) [221] is used to calculate the propagation constant, effective index, power confinement factor and the full-vectorial modal field profiles of the waveguide. The full-vectorial electric field (E) is also derived from the vector H-field obtained to characterize modal properties of such waveguides. 5.3.1 Slot waveguide structure Figure 5.11: Slot Waveguide Biosensor A slot waveguide is investigated for the biosensing applications. The slot waveguide is formed by two Si wires close to each other having nanometer dimensions as shown in Figure 5.11. Refractive index (RI) of silicon, silicon oxide and water is taken as 3.476, 1.444 and 1.31 respectively at an operating wavelength of 1550nm. The sensing structure is first coated with a linker layer (silanes) whose refractive index is taken as 1.42 [222] having a thickness of t=1 nm. The refractive index of ssDNA and dsDNA is taken as 1.456 and 1.53 [223] respectively. The thickness of the DNA probe layer is taken as n=8 nm and remains unchanged when binding of complementary DNA strands (targets) to DNA probes happens i.e., only refrective index changes from 1.456 (ssDNA) to 1.53 (dsDNA). A waveguide height, GH = 320 nm and high index region width, GW = 180 nm [128], slot width, SW = 100 nm, linker layer thickness of t=1 nm and DNA probe thickness of n=8 nm is considered for the initial simulation study. 5.3.2 Modal solutions In the study of modal field profile, the H-field based VFEM is used to obtain the modal solutions of such a waveguide. For this study, due to the availability of two-fold symmetry of the waveguide structure, only a half of the structure is considered, in which more than 80,000 irregular sized first order triangular elements have been employed to represent the waveguide structure. It takes about 2 minutes cpu time on a dual-core Pentium processor computer running solaris platform. Figure 5.12: Hy field of the Hy11 mode Figure 5.13: Hy Contour of Hy11 mode The structure supports both fundamental quasi-TE and quasi-TM modes. For the quasi-TE mode the Hy field component is dominant, and Hx and Hz are the nondominant components. The dominant Hy field component of the Hy11 mode is shown in Figure 5.12 for the waveguide width, GW = 180 nm and height, GH = 320 nm In its contour plot as shown in Figure 5.13 it is clearly visible that the modal confinement is much stronger in the slot region. Due to the large index contrast at interfaces, the normal electric field undergoes a large discontinuity, which results in a field enhancement in the slot region.

Vonneguts Changing Women :: essays research papers fc

Vonnegut's Changing Women What follows is an argument to the effect that, in the novels written before 1973, Vonnegut's female characters generally are presented negatively, either as pro-authority anti-individualists or as helpless or male-manipulated victims who never "grow" in either a personal or literary sense. In addition I maintain that, in at least two of Vonnegut's later novels, certain female characters exercise individuality in their own existences and effect positively the awareness and attitudes of male characters. From the beginning of Player Piano (1952) through Slaughterhouse Five (1969), Kurt Vonnegut describes the characters of his various worlds in terms of their victimization at the hands of a dehumanizing, or perhaps a better term might be "deindividualizing," technologically fixated, industrial/militaristic society. Time and time again in these novels the role of the individual is subsumed in the miasma that passes for "social responsibility." Like the real world in which every human being exists, Vonnegut's literary worlds feature nameless and faceless authorities (when such authorities are offered at all) who seem to be the masters in local, regional, global, and sometimes interstellar chess games. Often, as is the case in Vonnegut's 1951 "All the King's Men," these "manipulators" move their all-too-sentient pieces in what at times, for the victims, must seem to be diabolical--and what certainly are tragic--maneuvers. In The Sirens of Titan (1959) and Slaughterhouse Five the "accidental" nature or intergalactic point of view of the authority that seems to be "in charge of things" serves to distance humans from personal responsibility for the results of such maneuvering--as such results are described in the novels. In Sirens, for example, the inappropriate and often asinine behaviors of Malachi Constant are shown to be products of the direct influence of the Tralfamadorians who for millennia have manipulated human societies simply to communicate with a mechanized messenger shipwrecked on Saturn's largest moon. The same excuse can be made for the ultimate human manipulator in the novel, Winston Niles Rumfoord, as it can for the actions and attitudes of Bee, Rumfoord's wife and the mother of Constant's son, Chrono. That the communications sent to Salo on Titan consist of such inane and, given the non-human nature of the receiver, unimportant content as, "Be patient. We h aven't forgotten about you," and, "You will be on your way before you know it" (271), only makes more pathetic the fact that Tralfamadore has influenced directly the rise and fall of countless human civilizations in order to deliver such messages.