Iced Out: How Immigration Enforcement Has Interfered with Workers’ Rights

[Excerpt] In recent years, however, our federal government’s approach to immigration enforcement has severely interfered with the protection of labor rights for immigrant workers. The single-minded focus on immigration enforcement without regard to violations of workplace laws has enabled employers with rampant labor and employment violations to profit by employing workers who are terrified to complain about substandard wages, unsafe conditions, and lack of benefits, or to demand their right to bargain collectively

Resolving material-specific structures within Fe₃O₄|γ-Mn₂O₃ core|shell nanoparticles using anomalous small-angle X-ray scattering

Here it is demonstrated that multiple-energy, anomalous small-angle X-ray scattering (ASAXS) provides significant enhancement in sensitivity to internal material boundaries of layered nanoparticles compared with the traditional modeling of a single scattering energy, even for cases in which high scattering contrast naturally exists. Specifically, the material-specific structure of monodispersed Fe₃O₄|γ-Mn₂O₃ core|shell nanoparticles is determined, and the contribution of each component to the total scattering profile is identified with unprecedented clarity. We show that Fe₃O₄|γ-Mn₂O₃ core|shell nanoparticles with a diameter of 8.2 ± 0.2 nm consist of a core with a composition near Fe₃O₄ surrounded by a (Mn(x)Fe(1-x))₃O₄ shell with a graded composition, ranging from x ≈ 0.40 at the inner shell toward x ≈ 0.46 at the surface. Evaluation of the scattering contribution arising from the interference between material-specific layers additionally reveals the presence of Fe₃O₄ cores without a coating shell. Finally, it is found that the material-specific scattering profile shapes and chemical compositions extracted by this method are independent of the original input chemical compositions used in the analysis, revealing multiple-energy ASAXS as a powerful tool for determining internal nanostructured morphology even if the exact composition of the individual layers is not known a priori

Integrative epigenomics in Sjögren´s syndrome reveals novel pathways and a strong interaction between the HLA, autoantibodies and the interferon signature

Primary Sjögren's syndrome (SS) is a systemic autoimmune disease characterized by lymphocytic infiltration and damage of exocrine salivary and lacrimal glands. The etiology of SS is complex with environmental triggers and genetic factors involved. By conducting an integrated multi-omics study, we confirmed a vast coordinated hypomethylation and overexpression effects in IFN-related genes, what is known as the IFN signature. Stratified and conditional analyses suggest a strong interaction between SS-associated HLA genetic variation and the presence of Anti-Ro/SSA autoantibodies in driving the IFN epigenetic signature and determining SS. We report a novel epigenetic signature characterized by increased DNA methylation levels in a large number of genes enriched in pathways such as collagen metabolism and extracellular matrix organization. We identified potential new genetic variants associated with SS that might mediate their risk by altering DNA methylation or gene expression patterns, as well as disease-interacting genetic variants that exhibit regulatory function only in the SS population. Our study sheds new light on the interaction between genetics, autoantibody profiles, DNA methylation and gene expression in SS, and contributes to elucidate the genetic architecture of gene regulation in an autoimmune population

Retos y alternativas para la construcción de paz: una mirada desde el desarrollo rural

El desarrollo rural y la construcción de paz en Colombia constituyen una agenda prioritaria para las instituciones de educación superior a partir de la firma del Acuerdo de Paz entre el Gobierno Nacional y las FARC-EP. Esto ha derivado en la necesidad de profundizar el análisis sobre estrategias rurales que aporten a una buena vida de la población en territorios donde está cesando el ruido de las armas, pero con la comprensión de la incertidumbre apremiante que implica este proceso, por un lado, por la urgencia de generar respuestas rápidas y concretas de justicia social y equidad, y por otro, porque el cumplimiento de lo pactado es la garantía de escenarios de no repetición de la guerra en el país. Estas fueron algunas de las reflexiones que motivaron el proyecto de investigación “Alternativas de desarrollo rural para la construcción de paz: estrategias educativas para el fortalecimiento de capacidades en productores y jóvenes que contribuyan a la cadena productiva del café en los municipios de Leiva, Policarpa y Los Andes del departamento de Nariño con impacto internacional en la provincia del Carchi-Ecuador”. Como resultado investigativo se presenta esta obra que contiene el análisis de aportes teóricos y dinámicas territoriales respecto a la construcción de paz, la educación y la economía para el desarrollo rural.Coedición con la Universidad Cooperativa de Colombi

Retos y alternativas para la construcción de paz: una mirada desde el desarrollo rural

El desarrollo rural y la construcción de paz en Colombia constituyen una agenda prioritaria para las instituciones de educación superior a partir de la firma del Acuerdo de Paz entre el Gobierno Nacional y las FARC-EP. Esto ha derivado en la necesidad de profundizar el análisis sobre estrategias rurales que aporten a una buena vida de la población en territorios donde está cesando el ruido de las armas, pero con la comprensión de la incertidumbre apremiante que implica este proceso, por un lado, por la urgencia de generar respuestas rápidas y concretas de justicia social y equidad, y por otro, porque el cumplimiento de lo pactado es la garantía de escenarios de no repetición de la guerra en el país. Estas fueron algunas de las reflexiones que motivaron el proyecto de investigación “Alternativas de desarrollo rural para la construcción de paz: estrategias educativas para el fortalecimiento de capacidades en productores y jóvenes que contribuyan a la cadena productiva del café en los municipios de Leiva, Policarpa y Los Andes del departamento de Nariño con impacto internacional en la provincia del Carchi-Ecuador”. Como resultado investigativo se presenta esta obra que contiene el análisis de aportes teóricos y dinámicas territoriales respecto a la construcción de paz, la educación y la economía para el desarrollo rural.Coedición con la Universidad Cooperativa de Colombi

Complement component C4 structural variation and quantitative traits contribute to sex-biased vulnerability in systemic sclerosis

Altres ajuts: Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER), "A way of making Europe".Copy number (CN) polymorphisms of complement C4 play distinct roles in many conditions, including immune-mediated diseases. We investigated the association of C4 CN with systemic sclerosis (SSc) risk. Imputed total C4, C4A, C4B, and HERV-K CN were analyzed in 26,633 individuals and validated in an independent cohort. Our results showed that higher C4 CN confers protection to SSc, and deviations from CN parity of C4A and C4B augmented risk. The protection contributed per copy of C4A and C4B differed by sex. Stronger protection was afforded by C4A in men and by C4B in women. C4 CN correlated well with its gene expression and serum protein levels, and less C4 was detected for both in SSc patients. Conditioned analysis suggests that C4 genetics strongly contributes to the SSc association within the major histocompatibility complex locus and highlights classical alleles and amino acid variants of HLA-DRB1 and HLA-DPB1 as C4-independent signals

New insights into the genetic etiology of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias

Characterization of the genetic landscape of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related dementias (ADD) provides a unique opportunity for a better understanding of the associated pathophysiological processes. We performed a two-stage genome-wide association study totaling 111,326 clinically diagnosed/'proxy' AD cases and 677,663 controls. We found 75 risk loci, of which 42 were new at the time of analysis. Pathway enrichment analyses confirmed the involvement of amyloid/tau pathways and highlighted microglia implication. Gene prioritization in the new loci identified 31 genes that were suggestive of new genetically associated processes, including the tumor necrosis factor alpha pathway through the linear ubiquitin chain assembly complex. We also built a new genetic risk score associated with the risk of future AD/dementia or progression from mild cognitive impairment to AD/dementia. The improvement in prediction led to a 1.6- to 1.9-fold increase in AD risk from the lowest to the highest decile, in addition to effects of age and the APOE ε4 allele

Juxtaposing BTE and ATE – on the role of the European insurance industry in funding civil litigation

One of the ways in which legal services are financed, and indeed shaped, is through private insurance arrangement. Two contrasting types of legal expenses insurance contracts (LEI) seem to dominate in Europe: before the event (BTE) and after the event (ATE) legal expenses insurance. Notwithstanding institutional differences between different legal systems, BTE and ATE insurance arrangements may be instrumental if government policy is geared towards strengthening a market-oriented system of financing access to justice for individuals and business. At the same time, emphasizing the role of a private industry as a keeper of the gates to justice raises issues of accountability and transparency, not readily reconcilable with demands of competition. Moreover, multiple actors (clients, lawyers, courts, insurers) are involved, causing behavioural dynamics which are not easily predicted or influenced. Against this background, this paper looks into BTE and ATE arrangements by analysing the particularities of BTE and ATE arrangements currently available in some European jurisdictions and by painting a picture of their respective markets and legal contexts. This allows for some reflection on the performance of BTE and ATE providers as both financiers and keepers. Two issues emerge from the analysis that are worthy of some further reflection. Firstly, there is the problematic long-term sustainability of some ATE products. Secondly, the challenges faced by policymakers that would like to nudge consumers into voluntarily taking out BTE LEI

Penilaian Kinerja Keuangan Koperasi di Kabupaten Pelalawan

This paper describe development and financial performance of cooperative in District Pelalawan among 2007 - 2008. Studies on primary and secondary cooperative in 12 sub-districts. Method in this stady use performance measuring of productivity, efficiency, growth, liquidity, and solvability of cooperative. Productivity of cooperative in Pelalawan was highly but efficiency still low. Profit and income were highly, even liquidity of cooperative very high, and solvability was good

Search for stop and higgsino production using diphoton Higgs boson decays

Results are presented of a search for a "natural" supersymmetry scenario with gauge mediated symmetry breaking. It is assumed that only the supersymmetric partners of the top-quark (stop) and the Higgs boson (higgsino) are accessible. Events are examined in which there are two photons forming a Higgs boson candidate, and at least two b-quark jets. In 19.7 inverse femtobarns of proton-proton collision data at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV, recorded in the CMS experiment, no evidence of a signal is found and lower limits at the 95% confidence level are set, excluding the stop mass below 360 to 410 GeV, depending on the higgsino mass