An Early Reduction in Treg Cells Correlates with Enhanced Local Inflammation in Cutaneous Leishmaniasis in CCR6-Deficient Mice

Resistance to Leishmania major infection is dependent on the development of a cell-mediated Th1 immune response in resistant C57BL/6 mice whereas Th2-prone BALB/c mice develop non-healing lesions after infection. The chemokine receptor CCR6 is shared by anti-inflammatory regulatory T cells and pro-inflammatory Th17 cells. In a recent study we showed that C57BL/6 mice deficient in CCR6 exhibited enhanced footpad swelling and impaired T helper cell migration indicated by reduced recruitment of total T helper cells into the skin after infection and a reduced delayed type hypersensitivity reaction. Based on these findings we tested whether the lack of CCR6 alters Treg or Th17 cell responses during the course of Leishmania major infection. When we analyzed T cell subsets in the lymph nodes of CCR6-deficient mice, Th17 cell numbers were not different. However, reduced numbers of Treg cells paralleled with a stronger IFNγ response. Furthermore, the early increase in IFNγ-producing cells correlated with increased local tissue inflammation at later time points. Our data indicate an important role of CCR6 for Treg cells and a redundant role for Th17 cells in a Th1 cell-driven anti-parasitic immune response against Leishmania major parasites in resistant C57BL/6 mice

Diffusive Josephson junctions made out of multiwalled carbon nanotubes

We have investigated electrical transport in diffusive multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNT) contacted using superconducting leads made of Ti/Al/Ti sandwich structure. We measure proximity-induced supercurrents up to Icm = 1.3 nA and find tunability by the gate voltage due to variation of the Thouless energy via the diffusion constant that is controlled by scattering in the MWNT. The modeling of these results by long, diffusive SNS junctions, supplemented with phase diffusion effects is discussed: the agreement between theory and experiments is tested especially on the basis of the temperature dependence of the Josephson coupling energy. In order to prove conclusively that the diffusive model works for MWNT proximity junctions, we propose an improved measurement scheme that is based on the kinetic inductance of superconducting junctions.Peer reviewe

Raising awareness about cloud security in industry through a board game

Today, many products and solutions are provided on the cloud; however, the amount and financial losses due to cloud security incidents illustrate the critical need to do more to protect cloud assets adequately. A gap lies in transferring what cloud and security standards recommend and require to industry practitioners working in the front line. It is of paramount importance to raise awareness about cloud security of these industrial practitioners. Under the guidance of design science paradigm, we introduce a serious game to help participants understand the inherent risks, understand the different roles, and encourage proactive defensive thinking in defending cloud assets. In our game, we designed and implemented an automated evaluator as a novel element. We invite the players to build defense plans and attack plans for which the evaluator calculates success likelihoods. The primary target group is industry practitioners, whereas people with limited background knowledge about cloud security can also participate in and benefit from the game. We design the game and organize several trial runs in an industrial setting. Observations of the trial runs and collected feedback indicate that the game ideas and logic are useful and provide help in raising awareness of cloud security in industry. Our preliminary results share insight into the design of the serious game and are discussed in this paper.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Duality-invariant Quantum Field Theories of Charges and Monopoles

We present a manifestly Lorentz- and SO(2)-Duality-invariant local Quantum Field Theory of electric charges, Dirac magnetic monopoles and dyons. The manifest invariances are achieved by means of the PST-mechanism. The dynamics for classical point particles is described by an action functional living on a circle, if the Dirac-Schwinger quantization condition for electric and magnetic charges holds. The inconsistent classical field theory depends on an arbitrary, but fixed, external vector field, a generalization of the Dirac-string. Nevertheless, the Quantum Field Theory, obtained from this classical action via a functional integral approach, turns out to be independent of the particular vector field chosen, and thus consistent, if the Dirac-Schwinger quantization condition holds. We provide explicit expressions for the generating functionals of observables, proving that they are Dirac-string independent. Since Lorentz-invariance is manifest at each step, the quantum theory admits also a manifestly diffeomorphism invariant coupling to external gravity. Relations with previous formulations, and with SO(2)--non invariant theories are clarified.Comment: 49 pages, LaTeX, no figure

Fake smiles: customer reactions to employees' display inauthenticity and choice restrictions

Frontline employees’ fake smiles (i.e., positive emotion display inauthenticity) frequently occur despite firms’ efforts to ensure real smiles in service delivery. Previous research on the effects of display inauthenticity on customers reveals considerable heterogeneity. Attempts to resolve this have largely been limited to stable and dispositional factors, which often escape managerial control. The present research investigates the impacts of display inauthenticity, choice restrictions, and their interaction on service performance. Choice restrictions may buffer inauthenticity effects as demonstrated by results from three factorial experiments in different contexts (e.g., restrictions of service provider choice in predelivery in Study 1 and in-store choice restrictions during service delivery in Studies 2 and 3). Frontline employees’ display inauthenticity negatively affects service performance only if customers are subjected to low but not high choice restrictions. The interaction effect is explained by customers’ interdependent self-construal and is generalizable to actual spending behaviors. Our findings inform managers about the interplay of increasingly common inauthenticity and choice restrictions due to market shocks such as COVID-19 and provide insights into managerial interventions that can be used to mitigate the effects of inauthenticity on customers.</p

Sifu - a cybersecurity awareness platform with challenge assessment and intelligent coach

Software vulnerabilities, when actively exploited by malicious parties, can lead to catastrophic consequences. Proper handling of software vulnerabilities is essential in the industrial context, particularly when the software is deployed in critical infrastructures. Therefore, several industrial standards mandate secure coding guidelines and industrial software developers’ training, as software quality is a significant contributor to secure software. CyberSecurity Challenges (CSC) form a method that combines serious game techniques with cybersecurity and secure coding guidelines to raise secure coding awareness of software developers in the industry. These cybersecurity awareness events have been used with success in industrial environments. However, until now, these coached events took place on-site. In the present work, we briefly introduce cybersecurity challenges and propose a novel platform that allows these events to take place online. The introduced cybersecurity awareness platform, which the authors call Sifu, performs automatic assessment of challenges in compliance to secure coding guidelines, and uses an artificial intelligence method to provide players with solution-guiding hints. Furthermore, due to its characteristics, the Sifu platform allows for remote (online) learning, in times of social distancing. The CyberSecurity Challenges events based on the Sifu platform were evaluated during four online real-life CSC events. We report on three surveys showing that the Sifu platform’s CSC events are adequate to raise industry software developers awareness on secure coding.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

CyberSecurity challenges for software developer awareness training in industrial environments

Awareness of cybersecurity topics facilitates software developers to produce secure code. This awareness is especially important in industrial environments for the products and services in critical infrastructures. In this work, we address how to raise awareness of software developers on the topic of secure coding. We propose the “CyberSecurity Challenges”, a serious game designed to be used in an industrial environment and address software developers’ needs. Our work distills the experience gained in conducting these CyberSecurity Challenges in an industrial setting. The main contributions are the design of the CyberSecurity Challenges events, the analysis of the perceived benefits, and practical advice for practitioners who wish to design or refine these games.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Wedge-Local Quantum Fields and Noncommutative Minkowski Space

Within the setting of a recently proposed model of quantum fields on noncommutative Minkowski spacetime, the consequences of the consistent application of the proper, untwisted Poincare group as the symmetry group are investigated. The emergent model contains an infinite family of fields which are labelled by different noncommutativity parameters, and related to each other by Lorentz transformations. The relative localization properties of these fields are investigated, and it is shown that to each field one can assign a wedge-shaped localization region of Minkowski space. This assignment is consistent with the principles of covariance and locality, i.e. fields localized in spacelike separated wedges commute. Regarding the model as a non-local, but wedge-local, quantum field theory on ordinary (commutative) Minkowski spacetime, it is possible to determine two-particle S-matrix elements, which turn out to be non-trivial. Some partial negative results concerning the existence of observables with sharper localization properties are also obtained.Comment: Version to appear in JHEP, 27 page