Within an effective field theory derived from string theory, the universal axion has to be coupled to the the gravitational Chern-Simons (gCS) term. During any era when the axion field is varying, the vacuum fluctuation of the gravitational wave amplitude will then be circularly polarised, generating an expectation value for the gCS term. The polarisation may be observable through the Cosmic Microwave Background, and the vacuum expectation value of the gCS term may generate the baryon asymmetry of the Universe. We argue here that such effects cannot be computed without further input from string theory, since the `vacuum' in question is unlikely to be the field-theoretic one.

Even though the main purpose of the Medicaid expansion is to allow for a broader health coverage for the population, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) leaves aside undocumented immigrants. This situation leads us to question how illegal individuals are dealing with diseases and health problems: Are State Legislators or Courts addressing this issue? This paper focus on one particular branch, that is, the CA judicial branch, and focuses on trying to to provide an answer to the following questions : What is CA Court's role in interpreting the eligibility requirements under the ACA, in order to extend health coverage to uninsured immigrants? Is it good that it plays an active role in this factual and legal framework?

Are the hyperdiverse local forests of the western Amazon undergoing changes linked to global and local drivers such as climate change, or successional dynamics? We analyzed local climatic records to assess potential climatic changes in Yasun_? National Park, Ecuador, and compared two censuses (1995, 2012) of a palm community to assess changes in community structure and composition. Over 17 years, the structure and composition of this palm community remained remarkably stable. Soil humidity was significantly lower and canopy conditions were significantly more open in 2012 compared to 1995, but local climatic records showed that no significant changes in precipitation, temperatura or river level have occurred during the last decade. Thus, we found no evidence of recent directional shifts in climate or the palm community in Yasun_?. The absence of changes in local climate and plant community dynamics in Yasun_? contrasts with recent findings from eastern Amazon, where environmental change is driving significant changes in ecosystem dynamics. Our findings suggest that until now, local forests in the northwest Amazon may have escaped pressure from climate change. The stability of this rich palm community embedded in the hyperdiverse Yasuní National Park underlines its uniqueness as a sanctuary for the protection of Amazonian diversity from global change impacts.

The Visual Effects industry has made giant leaps in technology, but not so much in art. Following the mandates of the Renaissance artists a study in flying mechanics followed by a design that solve the problems of fantasy creatures and make them move and fly like a real animal. Dragons have a very important role in fantasy stories and have become a staple of animation and visual effects in live action movies and videogames. However a lot of dragon animations to date show biologically unrealistic flight movements. I propose a new design of a dragon skeleton that allows realistic flying animation while preserving all the physical characteristics that we expect to find in dragons. The new wing design allows for a greater range of movement and is also fully compatible with motion capture technologies.

Hummingbird tongues pick up a liquid, calorie-dense food that can- not be grasped, a physical challenge that has long inspired the study of nectar-transport mechanics. Existing biophysical models predict optimal hummingbird foraging on the basis of equations that assume that fluid rises through the tongue in the same way as through capillary tubes. We demonstrate that the hum- mingbird tongue does not function like a pair of tiny, static tubes drawing up floral nectar via capillary action. Instead, we show that the tongue tip is a dynamic liquid-trapping device that changes configuration and shape dramatically as it moves in and out of fluids. We also show that the tongue–fluid interactions are identi- cal in both living and dead birds, demonstrating that this mechan- ism is a function of the tongue structure itself, and therefore highly efficient because no energy expenditure by the bird is required to drive the opening and closing of the trap. Our results rule out previous conclusions from capillarity-based models of nectar feeding and highlight the necessity of developing a new biophy- sical model for nectar intake in hummingbirds. Our findings have ramifications for the study of feeding mechanics in other nectari- vorous birds, and for the understanding of the evolution of nectar- ivory in general. We propose a conceptual mechanical explanation for this unique fluid-trapping capacity, with far-reaching practical applications (e.g., biomimetics).

The primordial curvature perturbation may be due to a `curvaton' field, which dominates (or almost dominates) the energy density before it decays. In the simplest version of the curvaton model the scale of inflation has to be quite high corresponding to a Hubble parameter H>10^7 GeV. We here explore two modifications of the curvaton model which can instead allow inflation at a low scale. (i) The curvaton is a Pseudo Nambu-Goldstone Boson (PNGB), with a symmetry-breaking phase transition during inflation. (ii) The curvaton mass increases suddenly at some moment after the end of inflation but before the onset of the curvaton oscillations. Both proposals can work but not in a completely natural way. Also, the lower bound on the scale of inflation depends somewhat on the details of the framework used. Nevertheless, we show that inflation with H as low as 1 TeV or lower is possible to be attained.

Este artículo presenta una revisión de estudios comparativos entre las emisiones de material particulado por la combustión de diesel de petróleo, biodiesel y mezclas de los dos combustibles, basados no sólo en la concentración másica de las partículas emitidas, sino también en la distribución de su tamaño, concentración y composición química. Finalmente, se presenta la necesidad del país de realizar una caracterización completa de las emisiones de material particulado por la combustión de diesel, biodiesel de aceite de palma y mezclas de los dos, dadas las características particulares de estos combustibles en Colombia.

The FreshWaterMill project is a transfer of Environmentally Sound Technology (EST) from The Netherlands to Colombia that involves several Dutch companies, the Delft University of Technology and Coralina (corporation for sustainable development of the Archipelago San Andrés, Providence and Saint Kathleen). The installation place is Johnny Cay, a small islet 1.5 km northeast from San Andrés, Colombia, uninhabited and exclusive for touristic use (Van Tonningen, 2014). The technology is a wind powered reverse osmosis (RO) system that can fulfil the drinkable water and electricity demands of the Cay. This way can be alleviated the sanitary conditions resulting from unsustainable touristic practices. Moreover, this project is seen as a promoter of sustainable development in the Archipelago (Coralina, 2006), and as a potential solution to provide electricity and water to rural and remote areas of low utility coverage but abundant wind power. There are no environmental or social impact analyses that validate the sustainable character of the technology transfer. Moreover, although it is intended to improve the livelihood of target users their opinions are not reflected in the project plans. This situation resembles those factors that describe the trend to failure of technology transfers. Therefore this research made an integral assessment of the project as a Socio-Technical System (STS) to provide useful findings and recommendations that could lead it away from such trend. The Functions of Innovation Systems (FIS) framework (Van Alphen, 2008) was chosen for a systems approach analysis. Through this was found that poor planning, insufficient financial resources and ineffective communication channels are the most relevant barriers for a successful implementation of the FreshWaterMill. The most relevant drivers are the suitability of the place for a wind/RO system, the planning of a local educational center, a remarkable advocacy for Renewable Energy Technologies (RETs) in the Archipelago and the existence of local human capital and R&D on RE. Five conditions for self-organization were derived from the PAR (Participatory Action Research) methodology to explore the likeliness of self-organization for bottom-up management. Through this methodology was shown that the difficult relationship between the corporation and the touristic service providers, their lack of group cohesion, managerial and operational capacities, ignorance and/or misuse of instruments for self-organization, make unfeasible for this group to address the barriers and support the drivers of the project. Relevant conditions from the context not covered by the previous methodologies were also included. These reflected that the advocacy for RETs is counteracted by the fragmentation between institutional actors and their lack of managerial skills on technology topics, which makes them rely on national and international assistance to achieve a technological transition. The regular interaction that Johnny Cay workers will have with the windmill, the affinity of the life plan of young adults to the project objectives and the likeliness of this group to make economic contributions urges the need for a participatory approach. The socio-cultural crisis of the Archipelago supports this recommendation. However, the difficulty of institutional entities to understand and assume the roles that require a participatory approach and the path dependency on top-down regulation makes it a complex challenge. A participatory approach for the FreshWaterMill is indirectly supported by the management plan of the Natural Regional Park Johnny Cay and the Community and institutional participation board. Additional to the commitment of the corporation to assume an enabling role, the process needs a mediator so the touristic service.

According to the last census on 2005, Bogotá has a population of 7.363.782 inhabitants which makes it the sixth biggest city in Latin America and produces the 26% of the Colombian GDP, ranking on the tenth place, over cities as Caracas, Lima and Medellin. In 2010 occupied the 8th position on the ranking of the best cities for doing bussines in Latin America. In the last two decades Bogota has suffered several urban transformations, which largely have been influenced by the change of perspective with the arrival of visionary mayors as Enrique Peñalosa2 and Antanas Mockus. This drastic renovation on the city, had severe repercution even in the international context, with awards as the “Leone d’oro” as the best city in the Biennale di Venezia 2006, the Stockholm Challenge 2000 for the “car free day” and “Latin American Digital cities award” in 2004. However the positivism that at some point invaded Bogota citizens now its been seriously affected by the lack of continuity and evolution on the city programs, just 32% of the population considers that things on the city are on a good track3, furthermore the city has been hit by a public administration crisis by corruption cases. The role of digitalization in cities, for the flexibility of its tools and applications could determine a deffinitive step forward in developed countries, according to Paolo Fusero; “In the future while differences between rich and poor territories will become less significant, a new distinction will emerge between intelligent territories and those which do not have such aptitudes. An intelligent territory can apply adequate comunication techonologies within its perimeter in order to maximise efficiency.” (Fustero, 2008) Therefore the objective of this paper is to identify the strategy that the City of Bogota has adopted in order to implement its digitalization, but giving special importance on the iniciatives designed in order to extend its benefits to the most disadvantaged.

In many cultures palms offer a vast number of products, especially Non-Timber-Forest Products (NTFPs), which have been traditionally used by indigenous and mestizo groups in Latin America. Some species have gone beyond the domestic use and their commercialization has reached local, national and international markets. Among the palm products that are widely commercialized in South America are palm heart (Euterpe oleracea), extracted from the young unfolded spear leaves of the palms, and the handicraft woven from fibers (Astrocaryum chambira, A. malybo and A. standleyanum), all extracted from the leaflets. In Colombia, these four palm species are economically important for the harvesting communities as well as for wholesalers and retailers. However, commercialization has been based on the extraction of raw material from wild palm stands up to the point that several palm species are threatened by developing markets for their products, and the need of income for the harvest communities and industry. The general objective of this thesis is to describe the value chains of palm products from E. oleracea, A. chambira, A. malybo and A. standleyanum in different Colombian regional markets, as well as national and international markets, and to analyze the economic importance, potentials and implications of this trade. Data on the four value chains was gathered through interviewing all actors of the value chain and revising the literature about the commercialization of these palm products. This study assesses the main actors or organizations in the commercialization chains, their specific activities, different routes to trade products, and how well the chains currently work by conducting a qualitative and quantitative value chain analysis.Major results involve particular dynamics and distributions of the profits along each value chain, as well as common aspects: the value chains are short, simple, the commercialization channels need to be strengthened, the scarcity of the raw material is a crucial constraint for the commercialization of the products. Unsustainable harvest practices are common. Moreover, the marketing potential of each group of palm products as well as promised target markets are characterized. The principal contribution of this thesis consists in shedding light on the current status of the value chains of these four palm species in Colombia, and proposing possible routes of development to strive for sustainability in each of the value chains analysed. Moreover, this study provides information about the economic importance of the palm products to the local communities and the need to upgrade the commercialization channels, products and communal incentives to assign equitable incomes along the chain.