Realism and Jurisprudence: A Contemporary Assessment

Book Review of Realistic Theory of Law, by Brian Z. Tamanaha, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2017, p. 202, $34.99

Trispectrum versus Bispectrum in Single-Field Inflation

In the standard slow-roll inflationary cosmology, quantum fluctuations in a single field, the inflaton, generate approximately Gaussian primordial density perturbations. At present, the bispectrum and trispectrum of the density perturbations have not been observed and the probability distribution for these perturbations is consistent with Gaussianity. However, Planck satellite data will bring a new level of precision to bear on this issue, and it is possible that evidence for non-Gaussian effects in the primordial distribution will be discovered. One possibility is that a trispectrum will be observed without evidence for a non-zero bispectrum. It is not difficult for this to occur in inflationary models where quantum fluctuations in a field other than the inflaton contribute to the density perturbations. A natural question to ask is whether such an observation would rule out the standard scenarios. We explore this issue and find that it is possible to construct single-field models in which inflaton-generated primordial density perturbations have an observable trispectrum, but a bispectrum that is too small to be observed by the Planck satellite. However, an awkward fine tuning seems to be unavoidable.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures; journal versio

Longitudinal Aging Study in India: Vision, Design, Implementation, and Some Early Results

India is poised to experience a dramatic rise in its aging population in coming decades, yet comprehensive research and effective policy to confront this transition are lacking. According to projections constructed by the United Nations Population Division, the share of Indians aged 60 and over will increase from 8% today to 19% by 2050 (representing 323 million people, more than the entire US population in 2011). This demographic shift will pose significant challenges. India’s traditional reliance on private family networks to provide older people with care, companionship, and financial support will be stressed not only by the increasing number of aging Indians who rely on it, but also by changing household dynamics and patterns of spatial mobility among younger family members. The Longitudinal Aging Study in India (LASI) is intended to inform the design and expansion of a new generation of institutions – public and private – for the care and support of India’s population of older people by providing comprehensive data to the scientific and policy community. LASI is an evidence base for analyzing the (1) health, (2) economic and financial resources, and (3) living arrangements and social connections of older Indians. It enhances opportunities for cross-national analysis by adding India to the growing number of countries with harmonized data on their older populations. LASI surveys will be carried out every two years, providing longitudinal data to support research and policy development. This paper provides an overview of the conception and content of the 2010 LASI pilot survey that was conducted in four states: Punjab, Rajasthan, Karnataka, and Kerala. We highlight key aspects of the field work, such as response rates and interview duration, and discuss the breadth and quality of the economic, health, and social data collected. We pay close attention to the cultural and geographic diversity LASI is able to capture, and bring to light interesting patterns in, and relationships among, measures of health, social connectedness, labor force participation, and hardship among the elderly.aging, longitudinal, India

An ammonia sensor based on Lossy Mode Resonances on a tapered optical fibre coated with porphyrin-incorporated titanium dioxide

The development of a highly sensitive ammonia sensor is described. The sensor is formed by deposition of a nanoscale coating of titanium dioxide, containing a porphyrin as a functional material, onto a tapered optical fibre. The titanium dioxide coating allows coupling of light from the fundamental core mode to a lossy mode supported by the coating, thus creating a Lossy Mode Resonance (LMR) in the transmission spectrum. A change in the refractive index of the coating caused by the interaction of the porphyrin with ammonia causes a change in the centre wavelength of the LMR, allowing concentrations of ammonia in water as low as 0.1 ppm to be detected, with a response time of less than 30 s

Ammonia sensing using lossy mode resonances in a tapered optical fibre coated with porphyrin-incorporated titanium dioxide

The development of an ammonia sensor, formed by the deposition of a functionalised titanium dioxide film onto a tapered optical fibre is presented. The titanium dioxide coating allows the coupling of light from the fundamental core mode to a lossy mode supported by the coating, thus creating lossy mode resonance (LMR) in the transmission spectrum. The porphyrin compound that was used to functionalise the coating was removed from the titanium dioxide coating upon exposure to ammonia, causing a change in the refractive index of the coating and a concomitant shift in the central wavelength of the lossy mode resonance. Concentrations of ammonia as small as 1ppm was detected with a response time of less than 1min. © (2016) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only

Differential Uptake of Gold Nanoparticles by 2 Species of Tadpole, the Wood Frog (Lithobates Sylvaticus) and the Bullfrog (Lithobates Catesbeianus)

Engineered nanoparticles are aquatic contaminants of emerging concern that exert ecotoxicological effects on a wide variety of organisms. We exposed cetyltrimethylammonium bromide–capped spherical gold nanoparticles to wood frog and bullfrog tadpoles with conspecifics and in combination with the other species continuously for 21 d, then measured uptake and localization of gold. Wood frog tadpoles alone and in combination with bullfrog tadpoles took up significantly more gold than bullfrogs. Bullfrog tadpoles in combination with wood frogs took up significantly more gold than controls. The rank order of weight-normalized gold uptake was wood frogs in combination \u3e wood frogs alone \u3e bullfrogs in combination \u3e bullfrogs alone \u3e controls. In all gold-exposed groups of tadpoles, gold was concentrated in the anterior region compared with the posterior region of the body. The concentration of gold nanoparticles in the anterior region of wood frogs both alone and in combination with bullfrogs was significantly higher than the corresponding posterior regions. We also measured depuration time of gold in wood frogs. After 21 d in a solution of gold nanoparticles, tadpoles lost \u3e83% of internalized gold when placed in gold-free water for 5 d. After 10 d in gold-free water, tadpoles lost 94% of their gold. After 15 d, gold concentrations were below the level of detection. Our finding of differential uptake between closely related species living in similar habitats with overlapping geographical distributions argues against generalizing toxicological effects of nanoparticles for a large group of organisms based on measurements in only one species