Trading autonomy for integration.

During the first decades of Saudi Arabian rule in the kingdom's present south-western provinces (Jîzân, 'Asîr), several local tribes were granted various kinds of local autonomy, particularly regarding customary law. This "soft" tribal policy stood in marked contrast to the king's dealing with tribes in central and northern Arabia during previous years. The present article examines for the Rijâl Alma' tribe of western 'Asîr some of the underlying local factors which, in addition to regional and international politics, were at work in those developments.Autonomie contre intégration. Quelques observations sur les rapports entre la tribu des Rijâl Alma' et le royaume d'Arabie Saoudite au XXe siècle. -- Au cours des premières décennies de souveraineté saoudienne dans les provinces du sud-ouest du royaume (Jîzân, 'Asîr), plusieurs tribus purent bénéficier d'une certaine autonomie locale, notamment dans le domaine du droit coutumier. Cette politique tribale "douce" contraste singulièrement avec la manière dont furent traitées les tribus d'Arabie centrale et septentrionale quelques années plus tôt. Le présent article examine les facteurs qui, outre les influences politiques régionales et internationales, contribuèrent à la situation spécifique des Rijâl Alma', une tribu de l''Asîr occidental

Pilots of history: Ethnographic fieldwork and anthropology’s explorations of the past

L’istituzione del Forum Malinowski per l’Etnografia e l’Antropologia in Sud Tirolo fornisce un’ottima opportunità alla rivista della principale associazione antropologica italiana per riconsiderare il significato dell’etnografia, così come intrapresa da Malinowski, in diversi campi di studio, in antropologia e oltre. Uno di questi campi è l’antropologia storica, e la storia stessa nel più ampio senso del termine. Questo articolo cerca di esplorare come l’eredità malinowskiana nel lavoro di campo etnografico potrebbe essere attivata ed elaborata in maniera utile e produttiva nei campi della storia e dell’antropologia storica. A questo scopo, la prima sezione del testo delinea come la nozione di un lavoro di campo empirico, sviluppata da Malinowski, fosse aperta a tutti i tipi d’indagine comparativa interdisciplinare. Alla fine, questi andranno a includere anche la storia, nonostante il risaputo ammonimento iniziale di Malinowski (Firth 2002). La seconda sezione entra nei dettagli del caso dei piloti marittimi e di altri mediatori culturali con esperienza cosmopolita nell’Oceano Indiano, al fine di dimostrare come le intuizioni etnografiche possano sostenere, arricchire e integrare i dati storici e, in assenza di questi, come possano diventare indicatori storicamente rilevanti a pieno diritto. Una sezione riassuntiva sottolinea come tutto ciò porti a nuovi compiti pionieristici per l’antropologia

Distinct genes related to drug response identified in ER positive and ER negative breast cancer cell lines

Breast cancer patients have different responses to chemotherapeutic treatments. Genes associated with drug response can provide insight to understand the mechanisms of drug resistance, identify promising therapeutic opportunities, and facilitate personalized treatment. Estrogen receptor (ER) positive and ER negative breast cancer have distinct clinical behavior and molecular properties. However, to date, few studies have rigorously assessed drug response genes in them. In this study, our goal was to systematically identify genes associated with multidrug response in ER positive and ER negative breast cancer cell lines. We tested 27 human breast cell lines for response to seven chemotherapeutic agents (cyclophosphamide, docetaxel, doxorubicin, epirubicin, fluorouracil, gemcitabine, and paclitaxel). We integrated publicly available gene expression profiles of these cell lines with their in vitro drug response patterns, then applied meta-analysis to identify genes related to multidrug response in ER positive and ER negative cells separately. One hundred eighty-eight genes were identified as related to multidrug response in ER positive and 32 genes in ER negative breast cell lines. Of these, only three genes (DBI, TOP2A, and PMVK) were common to both cell types. TOP2A was positively associated with drug response, and DBI was negatively associated with drug response. Interestingly, PMVK was positively associated with drug response in ER positive cells and negatively in ER negative cells. Functional analysis showed that while cell cycle affects drug response in both ER positive and negative cells, most biological processes that are involved in drug response are distinct. A number of signaling pathways that are uniquely enriched in ER positive cells have complex cross talk with ER signaling, while in ER negative cells, enriched pathways are related to metabolic functions. Taken together, our analysis indicates that distinct mechanisms are involved in multidrug response in ER positive and ER negative breast cells. © 2012 Shen et al

A Roadmap for HEP Software and Computing R&D for the 2020s

Particle physics has an ambitious and broad experimental programme for the coming decades. This programme requires large investments in detector hardware, either to build new facilities and experiments, or to upgrade existing ones. Similarly, it requires commensurate investment in the R&D of software to acquire, manage, process, and analyse the shear amounts of data to be recorded. In planning for the HL-LHC in particular, it is critical that all of the collaborating stakeholders agree on the software goals and priorities, and that the efforts complement each other. In this spirit, this white paper describes the R&D activities required to prepare for this software upgrade.Peer reviewe

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead