Syrian Refugees and the Digital Passage to Europe: Smartphone Infrastructures and Affordances

This research examines the role of smartphones in refugees’ journeys. It traces the risks and possibilities afforded by smartphones for facilitating information, communication, and migration flows in the digital passage to Europe. For the Syrian and Iraqi refugee respondents in this France-based qualitative study, smartphones are lifelines, as important as water and food. They afford the planning, navigation, and documentation of journeys, enabling regular contact with family, friends, smugglers, and those who help them. However, refugees are simultaneously exposed to new forms of exploitation and surveillance with smartphones as migrations are financialised by smugglers and criminalized by European policies, and the digital passage is dependent on a contingent range of sociotechnical and material assemblages. Through an infrastructural lens, we capture the dialectical dynamics of opportunity and vulnerability, and the forms of resilience and solidarity, that arise as forced migration and digital connectivity coincide

Search for direct pair production of the top squark in all-hadronic final states in proton-proton collisions at s√=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The results of a search for direct pair production of the scalar partner to the top quark using an integrated luminosity of 20.1fb−1 of proton–proton collision data at √s = 8 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC are reported. The top squark is assumed to decay via t˜→tχ˜01 or t˜→ bχ˜±1 →bW(∗)χ˜01 , where χ˜01 (χ˜±1 ) denotes the lightest neutralino (chargino) in supersymmetric models. The search targets a fully-hadronic final state in events with four or more jets and large missing transverse momentum. No significant excess over the Standard Model background prediction is observed, and exclusion limits are reported in terms of the top squark and neutralino masses and as a function of the branching fraction of t˜ → tχ˜01 . For a branching fraction of 100%, top squark masses in the range 270–645 GeV are excluded for χ˜01 masses below 30 GeV. For a branching fraction of 50% to either t˜ → tχ˜01 or t˜ → bχ˜±1 , and assuming the χ˜±1 mass to be twice the χ˜01 mass, top squark masses in the range 250–550 GeV are excluded for χ˜01 masses below 60 GeV

Ghrelin

This work was supported by grants from the NIH (DP2DK105570-01 and 2P30DK046200 to MLA, DK21397 to HJG, K01DK098319 to KMH, K01MH091222 to LH, DK093848 to RJS, R01DK082590 to LS, R01DK097550 to JT, RO1 DK 076037 to MOT, R01DA024680 and R01MH085298 to JMZ, R01AG019230 and R01AG029740 to RGS) The Wellcome Trust (MK), Science Foundation Ireland (12/YI/B2480 to CWL), the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (MHT), the Deutsches Zentrum für Diabetesforschung (MHT), the Helmholtz Alliance ICEMED e Imaging and Curing Environmental Metabolic Diseases, through the Initiative and Networking Fund of the Helmholtz Association (MHT), and the Helmholtz cross-program topic “Metabolic Dysfunction” (MHT). Allan Geliebter was sponsored by NIH grants R01DK80153; R01DK074046; R03DK068603; P30DK26687

VCP suppresses proteopathic seeding in neurons

BACKGROUND: Neuronal uptake and subsequent spread of proteopathic seeds, such as αS (alpha-synuclein), Tau, and TDP-43, contribute to neurodegeneration. The cellular machinery participating in this process is poorly understood. One proteinopathy called multisystem proteinopathy (MSP) is associated with dominant mutations in Valosin Containing Protein (VCP). MSP patients have muscle and neuronal degeneration characterized by aggregate pathology that can include αS, Tau and TDP-43. METHODS: We performed a fluorescent cell sorting based genome-wide CRISPR-Cas9 screen in αS biosensors. αS and TDP-43 seeding activity under varied conditions was assessed using FRET/Flow biosensor cells or immunofluorescence for phosphorylated αS or TDP-43 in primary cultured neurons. We analyzed in vivo seeding activity by immunostaining for phosphorylated αS following intrastriatal injection of αS seeds in control or VCP disease mutation carrying mice. RESULTS: One hundred fifty-four genes were identified as suppressors of αS seeding. One suppressor, VCP when chemically or genetically inhibited increased αS seeding in cells and neurons. This was not due to an increase in αS uptake or αS protein levels. MSP-VCP mutation expression increased αS seeding in cells and neurons. Intrastriatal injection of αS preformed fibrils (PFF) into VCP-MSP mutation carrying mice increased phospho αS expression as compared to control mice. Cells stably expressing fluorescently tagged TDP-43 C-terminal fragment FRET pairs (TDP-43 biosensors) generate FRET when seeded with TDP-43 PFF but not monomeric TDP-43. VCP inhibition or MSP-VCP mutant expression increases TDP-43 seeding in TDP-43 biosensors. Similarly, treatment of neurons with TDP-43 PFFs generates high molecular weight insoluble phosphorylated TDP-43 after 5 days. This TDP-43 seed dependent increase in phosphorlyated TDP-43 is further augmented in MSP-VCP mutant expressing neurons. CONCLUSION: Using an unbiased screen, we identified the multifunctional AAA ATPase VCP as a suppressor of αS and TDP-43 aggregate seeding in cells and neurons. VCP facilitates the clearance of damaged lysosomes via lysophagy. We propose that VCP\u27s surveillance of permeabilized endosomes may protect against the proteopathic spread of pathogenic protein aggregates. The spread of distinct aggregate species may dictate the pleiotropic phenotypes and pathologies in VCP associated MSP

Charged-particle distributions at low transverse momentum in √s=13 13 TeV pp interactions measured with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements of distributions of charged particles produced in proton–proton collisions with a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV are presented. The data were recorded by the ATLAS detector at the LHC and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 151 μb −1 μb−1 . The particles are required to have a transverse momentum greater than 100 MeV and an absolute pseudorapidity less than 2.5. The charged-particle multiplicity, its dependence on transverse momentum and pseudorapidity and the dependence of the mean transverse momentum on multiplicity are measured in events containing at least two charged particles satisfying the above kinematic criteria. The results are corrected for detector effects and compared to the predictions from several Monte Carlo event generators

Measurement of the cross section for inclusive isolated-photon production in pp collisions at √s=13TeV using the ATLAS detector

Inclusive isolated-photon production in pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13TeVis studied with the ATLAS detector at the LHC using a data set with an integrated luminosity of 3.2fb−1. The cross section is measured as a function of the photon transverse energy above 125GeVin different regions of photon pseudorapidity. Next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD and Monte Carlo event-generator predictions are compared to the cross-section measurements and provide an adequate description of the data

Managing Visibility and Validity of Distress Calls with an Ad-Hoc SOS System

The availability of ICT services can be severely disrupted in the aftermath of disasters. Ad-hoc assemblages of communication technology have the potential to bridge such breakdowns. This article investigates the use of an ad-hoc system for sending SOS signals in a large-scale exercise that simulated a terrorist attack. In this context, we found that the sensitivity that was introduced by the adversarial nature of the situation posed unexpected challenges for our approach, as giving away one's location in the immediate danger of a terrorist attack became an issue both for first responders and the affected people in the area. We show how practices of calling for help and reacting to help calls can be affected by such a system and affect the management of the visibility and validity of SOS calls, implying a need for further negotiation in situations where communication is sensitive and technically restrained

Studies of Zγ production in association with a high-mass dijet system in pp collisions at √s=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The production of a Z boson and a photon in association with a high-mass dijet system is studied using 20.2 fb −1 of proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of s=8 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector in 2012 at the Large Hadron Collider. Final states with a photon and a Z boson decaying into a pair of either electrons, muons, or neutrinos are analysed. Electroweak and total pp → Zγjj cross-sections are extracted in two fiducial regions with different sensitivities to electroweak production processes. Quartic couplings of vector bosons are studied in regions of phase space with an enhanced contribution from pure electroweak production, sensitive to vector-boson scattering processes VV → Zγ. No deviations from Standard Model predictions are observed and constraints are placed on anomalous couplings parameterized by higher-dimensional operators using effective field theory.[Figure not available: see fulltext.]

Search for pairs of highly collimated photon-jets in pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Results of a search for the pair production of photon-jets—collimated groupings of photons—in the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider are reported. Highly collimated photon-jets can arise from the decay of new, highly boosted particles that can decay to multiple photons collimated enough to be identified in the electromagnetic calorimeter as a single, photonlike energy cluster. Data from proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.7  fb−1, were collected in 2015 and 2016. Candidate photon-jet pair production events are selected from those containing two reconstructed photons using a set of identification criteria much less stringent than that typically used for the selection of photons, with additional criteria applied to provide improved sensitivity to photon-jets. Narrow excesses in the reconstructed diphoton mass spectra are searched for. The observed mass spectra are consistent with the Standard Model background expectation. The results are interpreted in the context of a model containing a new, high-mass scalar particle with narrow width, X, that decays into pairs of photon-jets via new, light particles, a. Upper limits are placed on the cross section times the product of branching ratios σ×B(X→aa)×B(a→γγ)2 for 200  GeV<mX<2  TeV and for ranges of ma from a lower mass of 100 MeV up to between 2 and 10 GeV, depending upon mX. Upper limits are also placed on σ×B(X→aa)×B(a→3π0)2 for the same range of mX and for ranges of ma from a lower mass of 500 MeV up to between 2 and 10 GeV

3-cocycles, non-associative star-products and the magnetic paradigm of R-flux string vacua

We consider the geometric and non-geometric faces of closed string vacua arising by T-duality from principal torus bundles with constant H-flux and pay attention to their double phase space description encompassing all toroidal coordinates, momenta and their dual on equal footing. We construct a star-product algebra on functions in phase space that is manifestly duality invariant and substitutes for canonical quantization. The 3-cocycles of the Abelian group of translations in double phase space are seen to account for non-associativity of the star-product. We also provide alternative cohomological descriptions of non-associativity and draw analogies with the quantization of point-particles in the field of a Dirac monopole or other distributions of magnetic charge. The magnetic field analogue of the R-flux string model is provided by a constant uniform distribution of magnetic charge in space and non-associativity manifests as breaking of angular symmetry. The Poincare vector comes to rescue angular symmetry as well as associativity and also allow for quantization in terms of operators and Hilbert space only in the case of charged particles moving in the field of a single magnetic monopole