Classification of Matrix-Product Unitaries with Symmetries

We prove that matrix-product unitaries (MPUs) with on-site unitary symmetries are completely classified by the (chiral) index and the cohomology class of the symmetry group $G$, provided that we can add trivial and symmetric ancillas with arbitrary on-site representations of $G$. If the representations in both system and ancillas are fixed to be the same, we can define symmetry-protected indices (SPIs) which quantify the imbalance in the transport associated to each group element and greatly refines the classification. These SPIs are stable against disorder and measurable in interferometric experiments. Our results lead to a systematic construction of two-dimensional Floquet symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phases beyond the standard classification, and thus shed new light on understanding nonequilibrium phases of quantum matter.Comment: 6+16 pages, 3+8 figure

Antisemitismus und Recht

The publication of this work was supported by the Open Access Publication Fund of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.Was heißt es, über Antisemitismus und Recht nachzudenken? Aus interdisziplinärer Perspektive betrachten die Beiträger*innen erstmals die Zusammenhänge dieses Forschungsfelds. Zugänge aus unterschiedlichen Disziplinen wie unter anderem der Geschichtswissenschaft, Philosophie, Soziologie, Literaturwissenschaft und Rechtswissenschaft schließen erste Lücken, zeigen aber auch Probleme, Herausforderungen und Desiderate auf. Der Band schafft somit nicht zuletzt Grundlagen für ein verstärktes Wissen im Hinblick auf Antisemitismus in Rechtswissenschaft und -praxis

Model G8 Youth Summit 2007 Berlin: ein Projekt der Politikfabrik und der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Auswärtige Politik ; Abschlusserklärung

"Die in diesem Bericht abgedruckte Abschlusserklärung des 'Model G8 Youth Summit 2007', zu dem 76 Studierende aus 13 Nationen in Berlin zusammenkamen, zeigt auf, welche globalen Herausforderungen von der nachwachsenden Generation als wichtig erachtet werden und wie man ihnen mit gemeinsamen Lösungsansätzen begegnen könnte. Die Ergebnisse der Konferenz leisten einen Beitrag zur aktuellen Debatte und sollen den teilnehmenden Staats- und Regierungschefs des unmittelbar bevorstehenden G-8-Gipfels in Heiligendamm überreicht werden." (Autorenreferat

Contribution to the Auchenorrhyncha fauna of the Pálava Protected Landscape Area (Czech Republic): (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha et Cicadomorpha)

Ein Beitrag zur Zikadenfauna des Landschaftsschutzgebiets Pálava (Tschechische Republik). – Es wird eine Liste der Zikadenarten präsentiert, die im Rahmen der Exkursionen zur 17. Mitteleuropäischen Zikadentagung in Mikulov, Süd-Mähren, Tschechische Republik im August 2010 gesammelt wurden. Insgesamt konnten 133 Arten an den 4 Untersuchungsstandorten nachgewiesen werden. Eine Art, Macrosteles spinosus Kwon, 2013, wurde zum ersten Mal in der Tschechischen Republik nachgewiesen, 34 Arten sind neu für die Fauna des Landschaftsschutzgebiets Pálava und das Biosphärenreservat Dolní Morava. Naturschutzfachlich wertvoll ist das Gebiet aufgrund des Vorkommens vieler seltener, stenotoper Zikadenarten, insbesondere von Besiedlern der Trockenrasen, der offenen, trocken-warmen Buschvegetation und der letzten Binnensalzstellen.A list of Auchenorrhyncha species collected from field excursions during the 17th Central-European Auchenorrhyncha Meeting held in Mikulov, South Moravia, Czech Republic in August 2010 is given. A total of 133 species was recorded at four sites. One species, Macrosteles spinosus Kwon, 2013, is recorded for the first time for the Czech Republic and 34 species are new records for the fauna of the Pálava Protected Landscape Area and the Dolní Morava Biosphere Reserve. The area is valuable from a nature conservation viewpoint for the occurrence of many rare stenotopic Auchenorrhyncha species associated particularly with dry grassland vegetation, open xerothermic woodland and remnants of inland saltmarshes

Unrecht mit Recht?: Ein Reader zu Nationalsozialismus und juristischer Ausbildung

Der Reader vermittelt konkretes Wissen über gesetzliche Normen und juristische Meinungen, die in Bezug zu Funktion und Gebrauch des Rechts im Nationalsozialismus stehen. Er zeigt Kontinuitäten im juristischen Denken und Normenbestand bis in die Gegenwart auf, die Jurist*innen allzu oft nicht bewusst sind. Auch zeigt er, dass sich so manche dogmatische Figur nur unter Betrachtung der schwierigen Geschichte der juristischen Aufarbeitung des Nationalsozialismus verstehen lässt. Der Reader lädt damit ein, Vergangenheit und Gegenwart miteinander zu verbinden, und lässt aufmerken, wie viel an wichtigem Wissen für einen verantwortungsvollen Umgang mit dem Recht verloren geht, wenn es seines historischen Kontextes entkleidet wird. – Lena Foljanty (im Nachwort dieses Readers

Phenotypic and functional differences of HBV core-specific versus HBV polymerase-specific CD8+ T cells in chronically HBV-infected patients with low viral load

Objective A hallmark of chronic HBV (cHBV) infection is the presence of impaired HBV-specific CD8+ T cell responses. Functional T cell exhaustion induced by persistent antigen stimulation is considered a major mechanism underlying this impairment. However, due to their low frequencies in chronic infection, it is currently unknown whether HBV-specific CD8+ T cells targeting different epitopes are similarly impaired and share molecular profiles indicative of T cell exhaustion. Design By applying peptide-loaded MHC I tetramer-based enrichment, we could detect HBV-specific CD8+ T cells targeting epitopes in the HBV core and the polymerase proteins in the majority of 85 tested cHBV patients with low viral loads. Lower detection rates were obtained for envelope-specific CD8+ T cells. Subsequently, we performed phenotypic and functional in-depth analyses. Results HBV-specific CD8+ T cells are not terminally exhausted but rather exhibit a memory-like phenotype in patients with low viral load possibly reflecting weak ongoing cognate antigen recognition. Moreover, HBV-specific CD8+ T cells targeting core versus polymerase epitopes significantly differed in frequency, phenotype and function. In particular, in comparison with core-specific CD8+ T cells, a higher frequency of polymerase-specific CD8+ T cells expressed CD38, KLRG1 and Eomes accompanied by low T-bet expression and downregulated CD127 indicative of a more severe T cell exhaustion. In addition, polymerase-specific CD8+ T cells exhibited a reduced expansion capacity that was linked to a dysbalanced TCF1/BCL2 expression. Conclusions Overall, the molecular mechanisms underlying impaired T cell responses differ with respect to the targeted HBV antigens. These results have potential implications for immunotherapeutic approaches in HBV cure

Circulating endothelial cells are an early predictor in renal cell carcinoma for tumor response to sunitinib

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) have enriched the therapeutic options in patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC), which frequently induce morphological changes in tumors. However, only little is known about the biological activity of TKI. Circulating endothelial cells (CEC) have been associated with endothelial damage and, hence, may serve as a putative marker for the biological activity of TKI. The main objective of our study was to evaluate the predictive value of CEC, monocytes, and soluble vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (sVEGFR)-2 in RCC patients receiving sunitinib treatment.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Analyses of CEC, monocytes, and sVEGFR-2 were accomplished for twenty-six consecutive patients with metastatic RCC who received treatment with sunitinib (50 mg, 4 wks on 2 wks off schedule) at our institution in 2005 and 2006.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In RCC patients CEC are elevated to 49 ± 44/ml (control 8 ± 8/ml; P = 0.0001). Treatment with sunitinib is associated with an increase in CEC within 28 days of treatment in patients with a Progression free survival (PFS) above the median to 111 ± 61 (P = 0.0109), whereas changes in patients with a PFS below the median remain insignificant 69 ± 61/ml (P = 0.1848). Monocytes and sVEGFR2 are frequently altered upon sunitinib treatment, but fail to correlate with clinical response, defined by PFS above or below the median.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Sunitinib treatment is associated with an early increase of CEC in responding patients, suggesting superior endothelial cell damage in these patients as a putative predictive biomarker.</p

Genetic plasticity of the Shigella virulence plasmid is mediated by intra- and inter-molecular events between insertion sequences

Acquisition of a single copy, large virulence plasmid, pINV, led to the emergence of Shigella spp. from Escherichia coli. The plasmid encodes a Type III secretion system (T3SS) on a 30kb pathogenicity island (PAI), and is maintained in a bacterial population through a series of toxin:antitoxin (TA) systems which mediate post-segrega tional killing (PSK). The T3SS imposes a significant cost on the bacterium, and strains which have lost the plasmid and/or genes encoding the T3SS grow faster than wild-type strains in the laboratory, and fail to bind the indicator dye Congo Red (CR). Our aim was to define the molecular events in Shigella flexneri that cause loss of Type III secretion (T3S), and to examine whether TA systems exert positional effects on pINV. During growth at 37°C, we found that deletions of regions of the plasmid including the PAI lead to the emergence of CR-negative colonies; deletions occur through intra-molecula r recombination events between insertion sequences (ISs) flanking the PAI. Furthermore, by repositioning MvpAT (which belongs to the VapBC family of TA systems) near the PAI, we demonstrate that the location of this TA system alters the rearrangements that lead to loss of T3S, indicating that MvpAT acts both globally (by reducing loss of pINV through PSK) as well as locally (by preventing loss of adjacent sequences). During growth at environmental temperatures, we show for the first time that pINV spontaneously integrates into different sites in the chromosome, and this is mediated by inter-molecular events involving IS 1294. Integration leads to reduced PAI gene expression and impaired secretion through the T3SS, while excision of pINV from the chromosome restores T3SS function. Therefore, pINV integration provides a reversible mechanism for Shigella to circumvent the metabolic burden imposed by pINV. Intra- and inter-molecular events between ISs, which are abundant in Shigella spp., mediate plasticity of S. flexneri pINV

Attention modulates motor system activation during action observation: evidence for inhibitory rebound

Perceiving another individual’s actions activates the human motor system. We investigated whether this effect is stronger when the observed action is relevant to the observer’s task. The mu rhythm (oscillatory activity in the 8- to 13-Hz band over sensorimotor cortex) was measured while participants watched videos of grasping movements. In one of two conditions, the participants had to later report how many times they had seen a certain kind of grasp. In the other condition, they viewed the identical videos but had to later report how many times they had seen a certain colour change. The colour change and the grasp always occurred simultaneously. Results show mu rhythm attenuation when watching the videos relative to baseline. This attenuation was stronger when participants later reported the grasp rather than the colour, suggesting that the motor system is more strongly activated when the observed grasping actions were relevant to the observer’s task. Moreover, when the graspable object disappeared after the offset of the video, there was subsequent mu rhythm enhancement, reflecting a post-stimulus inhibitory rebound. This enhancement was again stronger when making judgments about the grasp than the colour, suggesting that the stronger activation is followed by a stronger inhibitory rebound

Beiträge zum 29. Darmstädter Geotechnik-Kolloquium am 7. März 2024

Themenschwerpunkte: 1. Klimawandelfolgen und Nachhaltigkeit 2. Digitalisierung und künstliche Intelligenz 3. Planung und Bemessung von Infrastrukturprojekten 4. Großprojekt