An evolving conception of discrimination in Europe

CESAA 19th ANNUAL EUROPE ESSAY COMPETITION 2011 - Postgraduate winner: Simone Abel (University of New South Wales)In 2007, the European Court of Human Rights’ Grand Chamber handed down its judgment in DH and Others v Czech Republic. The case arose out of the disproportionately high number of Roma children assigned places in segregated schools for children with intellectual disabilities in the Czech Republic. It was alleged that this practice discriminated against Roma children who had normal, or even above normal, intelligence levels. The applicants claimed that they had been discriminated against in the enjoyment of their right to education on account of their race or ethnic origin  TheCourt made a finding of indirect discrimination against the Czech government. Commentators have hailed this as a landmark judgment that expands the conception of discrimination under the European Convention on Human Rights. This paper will discuss how this finding differs from the First Chamber’s judgment and other ECHR caselaw to alter the conception of discrimination under the European Convention on Human Rights

Flow cytometric investigations on Pelargonium × crispum: an estimation of nuclear DNA contents with two different internal standards

Sieben Pelargonium × crispum Sorten, vier Zuchtklone und die Art P. crispum wurden mit der Durchflusszytometrie untersucht. Für die Bestimmung der DNA-Gehalte wurden die zwei internen Standards Tomate ‘Stupické’ (2C-Wert = 1.96 pg) und Blumenkohl ‘Korso’ (2C-Wert = 1.31 pg) verwendet. Wie erwartet, unterschieden sich die 2C-Werte der untersuchten diploiden Genotypen signifikant von denen der tetraploiden. Insgesamt variierten die 2C-Werte zwischen 0.97 und 2.18 pg DNA und bildeten drei signifikant unterschiedliche Gruppen. Die ermittelten DNA-Gehalte waren unabhängig vom verwendeten Standard mit einer Ausnahme: der DNA-Gehalt der Art P. crispum gemessen mit ‘Korso‘ unterschied sich signifikant vom DNA-Gehalt, der mit ‘Stupické’ bestimmt wurde. Die Standards ‘Stupické’ und ‘Korso’ sind für durchflusszytometrische Untersuchungen von Genotypen mit 2C-Werten < 1.8 pg wie Diploide der Sektion Pelar­gonium gleichermaßen geeignet. Jedoch ist die Tomate ‘Stupické’ ein ungeeigneter Standard für Geno­typen mit 2C-Werten von ca. 2 pg, weil sich die Positionen der 2C-Werte der Probe und des Standards überlappen.Seven Pelargonium × crispum cultivars, four breeding clones and the species P. crispum were analysed by flow cytometry. Tomato ‘Stupické’ (2C value = 1.96 pg) and cauliflower ‘Korso’ (2C value = 1.31 pg) were used as inter­nal standards to estimate the DNA content of the samples. As expected, the 2C values of the investigated diploid and tetraploid genotypes discriminated significantly. Overall, the mean 2C values ranged from 0.97 to 2.18 pg DNA and formed three significantly different groups. The estimation of the DNA content of the cultivars and breeding clones was independent of the standard used with one exception; for P. crispum the estim­ated DNA contents differed significantly. The standards ‘Stupické’ and ‘Korso’ are equally appropriate for flow cyto­metric investigation of genotypes with 2C values < 1.8 pg like diploid genotypes of the section Pelargonium. Tomato ‘Stupické’ is a rather impractical standard for geno­types with 2C values of about 2 pg, due to the overlapping positions of the 2C values of sample and standard

CD4+ T-cell mediated immune regulation during Plasmodium yoelii infection

Der Verlauf einer Infektion mit Plasmodium wird durch die Homöostase des Immunsystems bestimmt. Es muss einerseits die Eliminierung des Parasiten durch eine adäquate Immunantwort garantieren, jedoch andererseits Immunpathologien, die durch eine starke pro-inflammatorische Immunantwort verursacht werden, verhindern. Welchen Einfluss Tregs auf den Infektionsverlauf haben, sowie ihr genauer molekularer Phänotyp ist noch weitestgehend unverstanden. Die Ergebnisse dieser Arbeit zeigen, dass es während der P. yoelii-Infektion zu einer Expansion von CD4+Foxp3+ Tregs kommt, die zudem eine verstärkte suppressive Fähigkeit aufweisen. Außerdem ist die Proliferationskapazität von CD4+CD25-Foxp3- T-Zellen eingeschränkt. Die spezifische Depletion von Foxp3+ Tregs in P. yoelii infizierten, Diphtherie-Toxin behandelten DEREG Mäusen zeigte, dass Foxp3+ Tregs den P. yoelii-Infektionsverlauf stark beeinflussen. So resultiert die Treg-Depletion während der P. yoelii-Infektion, in einer signifikanten Reduktion der Parasitämie, sowie einer signifikant verstärkten Aktivierung von CD4+ und CD8+ T-Zellen. Durch vergleichende Genexpressionsanalysen mittels Microarray-Technologie konnte ein großes Repertoire an Molekülen identifiziert werden, die während der P. yoelii-Infektion ausschließlich auf CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ Tregs und/oder CD4+CD25-Foxp3- T-Zellen hochreguliert sind. So ist die Expression der Treg-spezifischen Gene, wie CD103, GzmB, SOCS2, GITR, Penk-1, Garp, Klrg1, Lag3, CTLA-4, PD-1 und IL-10 in CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ Tregs nach P. yoelii-Infektion erhöht, was auch durchflusszytometrisch sowie mittels Real-Time PCR bestätigt werden konnte. Interessanterweise wird im Infektionsverlauf das anti-inflammatorische Zytokin IL-10 nicht nur von CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ Tregs, sondern auch von CD4+CD25-Foxp3- T-Zellen verstärkt produziert. Die Analyse von CD4+CD25-Foxp3-IL-10+ T-Zellen während der P. yoelii-Infektion zeigte, dass diese nicht in der Lage sind, die Proliferation von CD4+CD25- T-Zellen zu inhibieren, jedoch in Kokultur mit CD4+CD25- T-Zellen die Produktion pro-inflammatorischer Zytokine, wie IL-2 und TNF-a reduzieren. Die CD4+ T-Zell-spezifische Deletion von IL-10 in CD4cre x IL-10fl/fl (CD4IL10-KO) Mäusen geht mit einer signifikanten Reduktion der suppressiven Kapazität von Tregs nach P. yoelii-Infektion einher. Jedoch ist diese im Vergleich zu Tregs aus nicht infizierten Wildtyp (WT) Mäusen immer noch erhöht. Die Proliferationsfähigkeit von CD4+CD25- T-Zellen aus P. yoelii infizierten Mäusen wird durch den CD4+ T-Zell-spezifischen IL-10-KO nicht beeinflusst. Die Parasitämie während der Infektion von CD4IL10-KO Mäusen zeigte keine signifikanten Unterschiede im Vergleich zu P. yoelii infizierten WT Mäusen. Folglich hat CD4+ T-Zell-spezifisches IL-10 nur einen limitierenden Einfluss auf die Beseitigung des Parasiten. Demzufolge sind wahrscheinlich noch andere inhibitorische Moleküle, sowie auch andere Suppressionsmechanismen an der Inhibition der pro-inflammatorischen Immunantwort während der P. yoelii-Infektion beteiligt, die in weiterführenden Studien, basierend auf den in dieser Arbeit identifizierten Molekülen, untersucht werden sollen. Somit könnten geeignete Targets für eine gezielte effiziente Modulation der T-Zellantwort während der P. yoelii-Infektion identifiziert werden, was letztendlich zu einer erfolgreichen Bekämpfung des Parasiten führen soll

3D printing injectable microbeads using a composite liposomal ink for local treatment of peritoneal diseases.

The peritoneal cavity offers an attractive administration route for challenging-to-treat diseases, such as peritoneal carcinomatosis, post-surgical adhesions, and peritoneal fibrosis. Achieving a uniform and prolonged drug distribution throughout the entire peritoneal space, though, is difficult due to high clearance rates, among others. To address such an unmet clinical need, alternative drug delivery approaches providing sustained drug release, reduced clearance rates, and a patient-centric strategy are required. Here, we describe the development of a 3D-printed composite platform for the sustained release of the tyrosine kinase inhibitor gefitinib (GEF), a small molecule drug with therapeutic applications for peritoneal metastasis and post-surgical adhesions. We present a robust method for the production of biodegradable liposome-loaded hydrogel microbeads that can overcome the pharmacokinetic limitations of small molecules with fast clearance rates, a current bottleneck for the intraperitoneal (IP) administration of these therapeutics. By means of an electromagnetic droplet printhead, we 3D printed microbeads employing an alginate-based ink loaded with GEF-containing multilamellar vesicles (MLVs). The sustained release of GEF from microbeads was demonstrated. In vitro studies on an immortalized human hepatic cancer cell line (Huh-7) proved concentration-dependent cell death. These findings demonstrate the potential of 3D-printed alginate microbeads containing liposomes for delivering small drug compounds into the peritoneum, overcoming previous limitations of IP drug delivery

Superpartner spectrum of minimal gaugino-gauge mediation

We evaluate the sparticle mass spectrum in the minimal four-dimensional construction that interpolates between gaugino and ordinary gauge mediation at the weak scale. We find that even in the hybrid case -- when the messenger scale is comparable to the mass of the additional gauge particles -- both the right-handed as well as the left-handed sleptons are lighter than the bino in the low-scale mediation regime. This implies a chain of lepton production and, consequently, striking signatures that may be probed at the LHC already in the near future.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures; V2: refs and a few comments added; V3 title change

LICIACube: CubeSat Unique Engineering Challenges on the DART Mission

The NASA Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft launched November 24, 2021 carrying LICIACube, a 6U CubeSat. As a low-cost mission utilizing a ship-and-shoot launch campaign during a global pandemic, the DART and LICIACube teams encountered many unique engineering challenges during integration and test (I&T). This paper explores both the successes and lessons learned in reducing the engineering risk from the procurement of an additional flight dispenser to providing and sharing of EM hardware for providing remote support of various tests. The DART mission is led by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL) in Laurel, Maryland. DART is an on-orbit demonstration of asteroid deflection using the kinetic impactor technique on a binary near-Earth asteroid system called Didymos. The system is composed of two asteroids: the larger asteroid Didymos (diameter: 780 meters, 0.48 miles), and the smaller moonlet asteroid, Dimorphos (diameter: 160 meters, 525 feet), which orbits the larger asteroid. The DART spacecraft, built at JHU/APL, is set to impact Dimorphos nearly head-on (in the fall of 2022), shortening the time it takes the small asteroid moonlet to orbit Didymos by several minutes. The Light Italian CubeSat for Imaging of Asteroids (LICIACube), DART’s companion CubeSat, was contributed to the DART mission by the Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI) and built by Argotec in Turin, Italy. LICIACube will be deployed from the DART spacecraft roughly ten days prior to DART\u27s impact to capture images of the event and its effects. The CubeSat will provide imagery documentation of the impact, as well as in situ observation of the impact site and resultant ejecta plume. The design of the LICIACube spacecraft is based on a 6U platform and carries two instruments: LEIA (LICIACube Explorer Imaging for Asteroid), a narrow field panchromatic camera to acquire images from long distance with a high spatial resolution and LUKE (LICIACube Unit Key Explorer), a wide field RGB camera, allowing a multicolor analysis of the asteroidal environment

On Bernoulli Decompositions for Random Variables, Concentration Bounds, and Spectral Localization

As was noted already by A. N. Kolmogorov, any random variable has a Bernoulli component. This observation provides a tool for the extension of results which are known for Bernoulli random variables to arbitrary distributions. Two applications are provided here: i. an anti-concentration bound for a class of functions of independent random variables, where probabilistic bounds are extracted from combinatorial results, and ii. a proof, based on the Bernoulli case, of spectral localization for random Schroedinger operators with arbitrary probability distributions for the single site coupling constants. For a general random variable, the Bernoulli component may be defined so that its conditional variance is uniformly positive. The natural maximization problem is an optimal transport question which is also addressed here

Natural Islands for a 125 GeV Higgs in the scale-invariant NMSSM

We study whether a 125 GeV standard model-like Higgs boson can be accommodated within the scale-invariant NMSSM in a way that is natural in all respects, i.e., not only is the stop mass and hence its loop contribution to Higgs mass of natural size, but we do not allow significant tuning of NMSSM parameters as well. We pursue as much as possible an analytic approach which gives clear insights on various ways to accommodate such a Higgs mass, while conducting complementary numerical analyses. We consider both scenarios with singlet-like state being heavier and lighter than SM-like Higgs. With A-terms being small, we find for the NMSSM to be perturbative up to GUT scale, it is not possible to get 125 GeV Higgs mass, which is true even if we tune parameters of NMSSM. If we allow some of the couplings to become non-perturbative below the GUT scale, then the non-tuned option implies that the singlet self-coupling, kappa, is larger than the singlet-Higgs coupling, lambda, which itself is order 1. This leads to a Landau pole for these couplings close to the weak scale, in particular below ~10^4 TeV. In both the perturbative and non-perturbative NMSSM, allowing large A_lambda, A_kappa gives "more room" to accommodate a 125 GeV Higgs, but a tuning of these A-terms may be needed. In our analysis we also conduct a careful study of the constraints on the parameter space from requiring global stability of the desired vacuum fitting a 125 GeV Higgs, which is complementary to existing literature. In particular, as the singlet-Higgs coupling lambda increases, vacuum stability becomes more serious of an issue.Comment: 34 pages, 4 figures, references added, minor corrections to text and figures, version to be published in JHE

Gravitational Lensing Effects on High Redshift Type II Supernova Studies with NGST

We derive the expected Type II SN differential number counts, N(m), and Hubble diagram for SCDM and LCDM cosmological models, taking into account the effects of gravitational lensing (GL) produced by the intervening cosmological mass. The mass distribution of dark matter halos (ie the lenses) is obtained by means of a Monte Carlo method applied to the Press-Schechter mass function. The halos are assumed to have a NFW density profile, in agreement with recent simulations of hierarchical cosmological models. Up to z=15, the (SCDM, LCDM) models predict a total number of (857, 3656) SNII/yr in 100 surveyed 4' times 4' fields of the Next Generation Space Telescope. NGST will be able to reach the peak of the N(m) curve, located at AB approx 30(31) for SCDM(LCDM) in J and K wavelength bands and detect (75%, 51%) of the above SN events. This will allow a detailed study of the early cosmic star formation history, as traced by SNIIe. N(m) is only very mildly affected by the inclusion of lensing effects. In addition, GL introduces a moderate uncertainty in the determination of cosmological parameters from Hubble diagrams, when these are pushed to higher $z$. For example, for a ``true'' LCDM with (Omega_M= 0.4, Omega_Lambda=0.6), without proper account of GL, one would instead derive (Omega_{M}=0.36^{+0.15}_{-0.12}, Omega_{Lambda}=0.60^{+0.12}_{-0.24}). We briefly compare our results with previous similar work and discuss the limitations of the model.Comment: 19 pages including 6 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA

Stuckelberg Axions and the Effective Action of Anomalous Abelian Models 2. A SU(3)_C x SU(2)_W x U(1)_Y x U(1)_B model and its signature at the LHC

We elaborate on an extension of the Standard Model with a gauge structure enlarged by a single anomalous U(1), where the presence of a Wess-Zumino term is motivated by the Green-Schwarz mechanism of string theory. The additional gauge interaction is anomalous and requires an axion for anomaly cancelation. The pseudoscalar implements the St\"{u}ckelberg mechanism and undergoes mixing with the standard Higgs sector to render the additional U(1) massive. We consider a 2-Higgs doublet model. We show that the anomalous effective vertices involving neutral currents are potentially observable. We clarify their role in the case of simple processes such as $Z^*\to \gamma \gamma$, which are at variance with respect to the Standard Model. A brief discussion of the implications of these studies for the LHC is included.Comment: 50 pages, 16 figures, replaced with revised final versio