The analysis of the blood flow dynamics (hemodynamics) in tubes is crucial when investigating the rupture of different types of aneurysms. The blood viscosity nonlinear dependence on the flow shear rate creates complicated manifestations of the blood pulsations. Although a great number of studies exists, experimental and numerical, this phenomenon is still not very well understood. The aim of the present work is to propose a numerical model of the oscillatory blood flow in a tube on the basis of the Carreau model of the blood viscosity (nonlinear model with respect to the shear rate). The obtained results for the flow velocity and tangential stress on the tube wall are compared well with other authors’ results.

We show that unexpected financial windfalls increase corruption in local government. Our analysis uses a new data set on flood-related transfers, and the associated spending infringements, which the Bulgarian central government distributed to municipalities following torrential rains in 2004 and 2005. Using information from the publicly available audit reports, we are able to build a unique objective index of corruption. We also exploit the quasi-random nature of the rainfall shock (conditional on controls for ground flood risk) to isolate exogenous variation in the amount of funds received by each municipality. Our results imply that a 10% increase in the per capita amount of disbursed funds leads to a 9.8% increase in corruption. We also present suggestive evidence that more corrupt mayors anticipated punishment by voters and dropped out of the next election race. Our results highlight the governance pitfalls of nontax transfers, such as disaster relief or assistance from international organizations, even in moderately strong democracies.