A Meandering Inflaton

If the cosmological inflationary scenario took place in the cosmic landscape in string theory, the inflaton, the scalar mode responsible for inflation, would have meandered in a complicated multi-dimensional potential. We show that this meandering property naturally leads to many e-folds of inflation, a necessary condition for a successful inflationary scenario. This behavior also leads to fluctuations in the primordial power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background radiation, which may be detected in a near future cosmic variance limited experiment like PLANCK.Comment: minor additions, matched to published versio

A Low-Cost Tele-Presence Wheelchair System

This paper presents the architecture and implementation of a tele-presence wheelchair system based on tele-presence robot, intelligent wheelchair, and touch screen technologies. The tele-presence wheelchair system consists of a commercial electric wheelchair, an add-on tele-presence interaction module, and a touchable live video image based user interface (called TIUI). The tele-presence interaction module is used to provide video-chatting for an elderly or disabled person with the family members or caregivers, and also captures the live video of an environment for tele-operation and semi-autonomous navigation. The user interface developed in our lab allows an operator to access the system anywhere and directly touch the live video image of the wheelchair to push it as if he/she did it in the presence. This paper also discusses the evaluation of the user experience

Thermophysical Properties and SANS Studies of Nanoemulsion Heat Transfer Fluids

Cooling is one of the most important technique challenges faced by a range of diverse industries and military needs. There is an urgent need for innovative heat transfer fluids with improved thermal properties over currently available ones. This chapter discusses the development and characterization of nanoemulsion heat transfer fluids with phase changeable nanodroplets to increase the thermophysical properties and the heat transfer rate of the fluid. Nanoemulsion heat transfer fluids can be formed by dispersing one fluid into another immiscible fluid as nanosized structures such as droplets and tubes, in which those nanostructures are swollen reverse micelles with the dispersed phase and stabilized by the surfactant molecules. In addition to the enhancement of thermophysical properties such as thermal conductivity by mixing another liquid of higher thermal conductivity, an even larger amount of heat can be absorbed or released when these nanodroplets undergo phase transition from liquid to gas or vice versa, and thus enhancing the heat transfer rate. Three types of nanoemulsion heat transfer fluids are introduced: alcohol-in-polyalphaolefin, water-in-FC-72, and water-in-polyalphaolefin. Structural and property characterizations of these nanoemulsion heat-transfer fluids are the two main aspects of this chapter. This chapter also identifies several critical issues in the nanoemulsion heat transfer fluids to be solved in the future

Antitumor Activity of Celery Loaded Lipid PLGA-TPGS Nanoparticles in Glioblastoma

Glioblastoma (GBM) is a highly aggressive brain tumor characterized by high recurrence and poor prognosis. Natural compounds are good alternatives for treating glioblastoma and are less toxic than synthetic drugs. Apigenin (AGN) is an effective phytochemical with strong antioxidant and anticancer potential. However, due to its high lipophilicity, the therapeutic effect is limited. Therefore, apigenin lipid polymer hybrid nanoparticles (LPHyNPs) were prepared and characterized according to various parameters in this study. The mean particle size (234.100±23.320 nm), PDI (0.330±0.098), zeta potential (-5.403±0.650 mV), EE (54.99±4.13%), etc. Besides, Morphological analysis by SEM showed that the spherical NP had dark nuclei, indicating that the drug was embedded in the nucleus. In vitro release studies showed that continuous release of AGN from LPHyNPs significantly increased the suspension level of AGN (P<0.05). Cell proliferation and apoptosis experiments showed that LPHyNPs could significantly inhibit cell proliferation and promote cell apoptosis. Therefore, the LPHyNPs developed may be an effective therapeutic system for the management of GBM

Every type A quiver loci is a Kazhdan-Lusztig variety

The Zariski closures of the orbits for representations of type A Dynkin quivers under the action of general linear groups exhibit a profound connection with Schubert varieties. In this paper, we present a scheme-theoretical isomorphism between type A quiver loci and the intersection of an opposite Schubert cell and Schubert variety, also known as a Kazhdan-Lusztig variety in geometric representation theory. Our results generalize and unify the Zelevinsky maps for equioriented type A quiver loci and bipartite type A quiver loci, as presented respectively by A. V. Zelevinsky in 1985 and by R. Kinser and J. Rajchgot in 2015. Through this isomorphism, we establish a direct and natural connection between type A quiver loci and Schubert varieties.Comment: 23 page

Effective Field Theory and Decoupling in Multi-field Inflation: An Illustrative Case Study

We explore the effects of heavy degrees of freedom on the evolution and perturbations of light modes in multifield inflation. We use a simple two-field model as an example to illustrate the subtleties of integrating out massive fields in a time-dependent background. We show that when adiabaticity is violated due to a sharp turn in field space, the roles of massive and massless field are interchanged, and furthermore the fields are strongly coupled; thus the system cannot be described by an effective single field action. Further analysis shows that the sharp turn imparts a non Bunch-Davis component in each perturbation mode, leading to oscillatory features in the power spectrum, and a large resonantly enhanced bispectrum.Comment: 24 pages, 2 figures, references adde

Towards a Global Reporting System for Development Cooperation on the SDGs: Promoting Transformational Potential and Impact

The proposed SDGs constitute a comprehensive, universal and interactive agenda of structural transformations as the pathway to sustainable development, leaving no-one behind while creating green economies. This new global development agenda demands a reporting system which both engages a much wider range of development co-operation actors than the traditional Development Co-operation Directorate (DCD-DAC) donors and reflects the radically changing structure and complexion of the global economy and development finance. Existing development cooperation reporting systems are not geared to supporting the programme design, implementation, coordination and review processes implicit in the SDGs. We propose a reporting system based around transformational potential and impact (TPI) statements in upstream programme and project reporting linked to the SDGs and involving all suppliers and forms of externally provided development cooperation, including market finance leveraged by sovereign creditworthiness. Our proposal provides a framework for thinking and acting at the level of transformation and facilitates the mapping of external cooperation to national and regional programmes of structural transformation. The TPI statements could thus constitute a commitment and review system analogous to the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) methodology being developed as the basis for a new global climate change regime to be agreed at the Paris Conference in December 2015

China's Development Finance: What Issues for Reporting and Monitoring Systems?

This article explores the implications of China's rise for global reporting and monitoring systems (RMSs) in the field of development cooperation. Beyond its fast?growing – albeit still modest – foreign aid, China has emerged in the last decade as a globally pre?eminent source of development finance. While China's endeavours are comparable to previous rising powers that strived to build linkages into global commodity chains and to participate in advanced industrial and technology value creation, what makes China distinct from OECD capital providers is its unprecedented scale, cohesive state?market banking and enterprise institutions, and extensive utilisation of official finance for risk?taking. This poses an existential crisis for DAC's ODA reporting system, helping to precipitate a wide?ranging renovation process. Hence, China's intentions and capacities regarding the reporting and monitoring of its development finance have a potentially formative influence on the development of a new, wider DAC reporting system and on other international RMSs in the development finance field as well

Thermal conductivity and viscosity of self-assembled alcohol/polyalphaolefin nanoemulsion fluids

Very large thermal conductivity enhancement had been reported earlier in colloidal suspensions of solid nanoparticles (i.e., nanofluids) and more recently also in oil-in-water emulsions. In this study, nanoemulsions of alcohol and polyalphaolefin (PAO) are spontaneously generated by self-assembly, and their thermal conductivity and viscosity are investigated experimentally. Alcohol and PAO have similar thermal conductivity values, so that the abnormal effects, such as particle Brownian motion, on thermal transport could be deducted in these alcohol/PAO nanoemulsion fluids. Small angle neutron-scattering measurement shows that the alcohol droplets are spheres of 0.8-nm radius in these nanoemulsion fluids. Both thermal conductivity and dynamic viscosity of the fluids are found to increase with alcohol droplet loading, as expected from classical theories. However, the measured conductivity increase is very moderate, e.g., a 2.3% increase for 9 vol%, in these fluids. This suggests that no anomalous enhancement of thermal conductivity is observed in the alcohol/PAO nanoemulsion fluids tested in this study