An experimental investigation of the thermal conductivity and electrical resistivity of three porous 304L stainless steel 'Rigimesh' materials to 1300 K Interim report

Thermal conductivity and electrical resistivity measurements for three porous Rigimesh stainless steel materials from 300 to 1300

The thermal conductivity of two thermal insulating materials Final report

Test methods and procedures to determine thermal conductivity of polyurethane foam and aluminized Myla

Thermophysical properties of hot pressed beryllium

Experimental measurements of thermal conductivity, electrical resistivity, and specific heat with hot pressed beryllium specimen

Thermal energy storage material thermophysical property measurement and heat transfer impact

The thermophysical properties of salts having potential for thermal energy storage to provide peaking energy in conventional electric utility power plants were investigated. The power plants studied were the pressurized water reactor, boiling water reactor, supercritical steam reactor, and high temperature gas reactor. The salts considered were LiNO3, 63LiOH/37 LiCl eutectic, LiOH, and Na2B4O7. The thermal conductivity, specific heat (including latent heat of fusion), and density of each salt were measured for a temperature range of at least + or - 100 K of the measured melting point. Measurements were made with both reagent and commercial grades of each salt

The combined molecular adjuvant CASAC enhances the CD8+ T cell response to a tumor-associated self-antigen in aged, immunosenescent mice

BACKGROUND: Ineffective induction of T cell mediated immunity in older individuals remains a persistent challenge for vaccine development. Thus, there is a need for more efficient and sophisticated adjuvants that will complement novel vaccine strategies for the elderly. To this end, we have investigated a previously optimized, combined molecular adjuvant, CASAC (Combined Adjuvant for Synergistic Activation of Cellular immunity), incorporating two complementary Toll-like receptor agonists, CpG and polyI:C, a class-II epitope, and interferon (IFN)-γ in aged mice. FINDINGS: In aged mice with typical features of immunosenescence, antigen specific CD8+ T cell responses were stimulated after serial vaccinations with CASAC or Complete/Incomplete Freund's Adjuvant (CFA/IFA) and a class I epitope, deriving either from ovalbumin (SIINFEKL, SIL) or the melanoma-associated self-antigen, tyrosinase-related protein-2 (SVYDFFVWL, SVL). Pentamer analysis revealed that aged, CASAC/SIL-vaccinated animals had substantially higher frequencies of H-2K(b)/SIL-specific CD8+ T cells compared to the CFA/IFA-vaccinated groups. Similarly, higher frequencies of H-2K(b)/SVL-pentamer+ and IFN-γ+ CD8+ T cells were detected in the aged, CASAC + SVL-vaccinated mice than in their CFA/IFA-vaccinated counterparts. In both antigen settings, CASAC promoted significantly better functional CD8+ T cell activity. CONCLUSION: These studies demonstrate that functional CD8+ T cells, specific for both foreign and tumour-associated self-antigens, can be effectively induced in aged immunosenescent mice using the novel multi-factorial adjuvant CASAC

Is Brane Inflation Eternal?

In this paper, we show that eternal inflation of the random walk type is generically absent in the brane inflationary scenario. Depending on how the brane inflationary universe originated, eternal inflation of the false vacuum type is still quite possible. Since the inflaton is the position of the D3-brane relative to the anti-D3-brane inside the compactified bulk with finite size, its value is bounded. In DBI inflation, the warped space also restricts the amplitude of the scalar fluctuation. These upper bounds impose strong constraints on the possibility of eternal inflation. We find that eternal inflation due to the random walk of the inflaton field is absent in both the KKLMMT slow roll scenario and the DBI scenario. A more careful analysis for the slow-roll case is also presented using the Langevin equation, which gives very similar results. We discuss possible ways to obtain eternal inflation of the random walk type in brane inflation. In the multi-throat brane inflationary scenario, the branes may be generated by quantum tunneling and roll out the throat. Eternal inflation of the false vacuum type inevitably happens in this scenario due to the tunneling process. Since these scenarios have different cosmological predictions, more data from the cosmic microwave background radiation will hopefully select the specific scenario our universe has gone through.Comment: 32 pages; v2: references and comments adde

Accelerating universe emergent from the landscape

We propose that the existence of the string landscape suggests the universe can be in a quantum glass state, where an extremely large viscosity is generated, and long distance dynamics slows down. At the same time, the short distance dynamics is not altered due to the separation of time scales. This scenario can help to understand some controversies in cosmology, for example the natural existence of slow roll inflation and dark energy in the landscape, the apparent smallness of the cosmological constant. We see also that moduli stabilization is no longer necessary. We further identify the glass transition point, where the viscosity diverges, as the location of the cosmic horizon. We try to reconstruct the geometry of the accelerating universe from the structure of the landscape, and find that the metric should have an infinite jump when crossing the horizon. We predict that the static coordinate metric for dS space breaks down outside the horizon.Comment: 20 pages, no figures, harvma

Seeing motion and apparent motion

In apparent motion experiments, participants are presented with what is in fact a succession of two brief stationary stimuli at two different locations, but they report an impression of movement. Philosophers have recently debated whether apparent motion provides evidence in favour of a particular account of the nature of temporal experience. I argue that the existing discussion in this area is premised on a mistaken view of the phenomenology of apparent motion and, as a result, the space of possible philosophical positions has not yet been fully explored. In particular, I argue that the existence of apparent motion is compatible with an account of the nature of temporal experience that involves a version of direct realism. In doing so, I also argue against two other claims often made about apparent motion, viz. that apparent motion is the psychological phenomenon that underlies motion experience in the cinema, and that apparent motion is subjectively indistinguishable from real motion

Alpha oscillatory activity during attentional control in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and ASD+ADHD

BACKGROUND: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) share impairments in top-down and bottom-up modulation of attention. However, it is not yet well understood if co-occurrence of ASD and ADHD reflects a distinct or additive profile of attention deficits. We aimed to characterise alpha oscillatory activity (stimulus-locked alpha desynchronisation and prestimulus alpha) as an index of integration of top-down and bottom-up attentional processes in ASD and ADHD. METHODS: Children with ASD, ADHD, comorbid ASD+ADHD, and typically-developing children completed a fixed-choice reaction-time task (‘Fast task’) while neurophysiological activity was recorded. Outcome measures were derived from source-decomposed neurophysiological data. Main measures of interest were prestimulus alpha power and alpha desynchronisation (difference between poststimulus and prestimulus alpha). Poststimulus activity linked to attention allocation (P1, P3), attentional control (N2), and cognitive control (theta synchronisation, 100–600 ms) was also examined. ANOVA was used to test differences across diagnostics groups on these measures. Spearman’s correlations were used to investigate the relationship between attentional control processes (alpha oscillations), central executive functions (theta synchronisation), early visual processing (P1), and behavioural performance. RESULTS: Children with ADHD (ADHD and ASD+ADHD) showed attenuated alpha desynchronisation, indicating poor integration of top-down and bottom-up attentional processes. Children with ADHD showed reduced N2 and P3 amplitudes, while children with ASD (ASD and ASD+ADHD) showed greater N2 amplitude, indicating atypical attentional control and attention allocation across ASD and ADHD. In the ASD group, prestimulus alpha and theta synchronisation were negatively correlated, and alpha desynchronisation and theta synchronisation were positively correlated, suggesting an atypical association between attentional control processes and executive functions. CONCLUSIONS: ASD and ADHD are associated with disorder-specific impairments, while children with ASD+ADHD overall presented an additive profile with attentional deficits of both disorders. Importantly, these findings may inform the improvement of transdiagnostic procedures and optimisation of personalised intervention approaches

Cosmology of the Tachyon in Brane Inflation

In certain implementations of the brane inflationary paradigm, the exit from inflation occurs when the branes annihilate through tachyon condensation. We investigate various cosmological effects produced by this tachyonic era. We find that only a very small region of the parameter space (corresponding to slow-roll with tiny inflaton mass) allows for the tachyon to contribute some e-folds to inflation. In addition, non-adiabatic density perturbations are generated at the end of inflation. When the brane is moving relativistically this contribution can be of the same order as fluctuations produced 55 e-folds before the end of inflation. The additional contribution is very nearly scale-invariant and enhances the tensor/scalar ratio. Additional non-gaussianities will also be generated, sharpening current constraints on DBI-type models which already predict a significantly non-gaussian signal.Comment: 30 pages, 2 figures; v3, minor revision, JCAP versio