Anomalous Dimensions and Non-Gaussianity

We analyze the signatures of inflationary models that are coupled to strongly interacting field theories, a basic class of multifield models also motivated by their role in providing dynamically small scales. Near the squeezed limit of the bispectrum, we find a simple scaling behavior determined by operator dimensions, which are constrained by the appropriate unitarity bounds. Specifically, we analyze two simple and calculable classes of examples: conformal field theories (CFTs), and large-N CFTs deformed by relevant time-dependent double-trace operators. Together these two classes of examples exhibit a wide range of scalings and shapes of the bispectrum, including nearly equilateral, orthogonal and local non-Gaussianity in different regimes. Along the way, we compare and contrast the shape and amplitude with previous results on weakly coupled fields coupled to inflation. This signature provides a precision test for strongly coupled sectors coupled to inflation via irrelevant operators suppressed by a high mass scale up to 1000 times the inflationary Hubble scale.Comment: 40 pages, 10 figure

New silver nanoparticles induce apoptosis-like process in E. coli and interfere with mammalian copper metabolism

Iurii A Orlov,1,2 Tatiana P Sankova,1,2 Polina S Babich,3 Ilya M Sosnin,1,4 Ekaterina Yu Ilyechova,1,5 Demid A Kirilenko,1,6 Pavel N Brunkov,1,6 Gennadii L Ataev,3 Alexey E Romanov,1,4,6 Ludmila V Puchkova1,2,5 1International Research and Education Center “Functional materials and devices of optoelectronics and microelectronics”, ITMO University, 2Department of Biophysics, Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University, 3Department of Zoology, Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia, St Petersburg, 4Nanocatalysts and Functional Materials Laboratory, Togliatti State University, Togliatti, 5Department of Molecular Genetics, Research Institute of Experimental Medicine, 6Ioffe Institute, St Petersburg, Russia Abstract: Silver nanoparticles (SNPs) are new functional materials that are widely used in biomedical and industrial technologies. Two main features that make SNPs valuable are their strong antibacterial effects and low toxicity to eukaryotes. In this study, SNPs were synthesized using a modified method of reducing the metal ions to their atomic state followed by crystallization. SNPs were characterized by UV/vis spectroscopy, X-ray diffractometry, atomic force microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The SNPs were spherically shaped with an average linear dimension of 20 nm. In aqueous solution, the SNPs were beige-yellow in color, and they formed a black color in bacteria-rich growth media. The toxicity and bioavailability of the SNPs were tested using Escherichia coli cells and C57Bl/6 mice. Although the SNPs displayed bactericidal activity, an E. coli cell strain transformed with an expression plasmid carrying a human CTR1 ectodomain with three motives that bind Cu(II), Cu(I), and Ag(I) demonstrated increased resistance to treatment with SNPs. TEM showed that the SNPs were absorbed by the E. coli cell, and flow cytometry showed that the SNPs induced apoptosis-like death. In mice treated with SNPs (daily intraperitoneal injection of 10 µg SNPs/g body weight over 4 days), the ceruloplasmin (Cp) oxidase activity in the blood serum decreased. However, level of Cp gene expression, the relative contents of the Cp protein in the Golgi complex and in the serum did not change. Treatment with SNPs did not influence the activity of superoxide dismutase 1 in the liver and had no apparent toxic effects in mice. These findings expand the scope of application for the use of new SNPs. The data are discussed in a paradigm, in which the effects of SNPs are caused by the interference of silver ions with copper metabolism. Keywords: silver nanoparticles, bioavailability, apoptosis-like death, mammalian copper metabolism, copper statu

State-of-the-practice in product configuration - a survey of 10 cases in the Finnish industry

The design and production of goods that satisfy the special needs of individual customers are of central interest to the European industry. A major trend is to improve customer specific adaptation with configurable products. We are interested in the methods, practices and tools that support product configuration tasks. The research described in this paper is meant to guide our future work. We have 1) established a framework for understanding the problem area of product configuration in a fairly wide sense by identifying a number of factors and 2) carried out ten actual case studies using the proposed framework. Our framework consists of five problem areas that are further refined into a number of factors characterising the areas. The problem areas cover the economic importance of product configuration, the complexity of the configuration task, the nature of the configuration process, long term management of configuration related product knowledge and the interfaces to other processes ..