A threat from within? Perceptions of Immigration in an Enlarging European Union

Scholars have taken a considerable interest in how global immigration to Europe generates public concern, but we still know little about the role that migration from within the European region has in fueling apprehensions. To better understand this, I examine how public attitudes towards immigration have responded to migration following the European Union\u2019s most extensive enlargement along its eastern border in 2004. Using recent advances in multilevel modeling, this article analyzes the longitudinal, cross-sectional relationship between east\u2013west internal European migration on public attitudes towards the economic and cultural aspects of immigration in Western Europe using individual-level data from the European Social Survey (2004\u20132014). The results demonstrate that growing populations of Central and Eastern European foreigners have contributed to Western Europeans\u2019 perception of immigration as an economic threat, even when taking into account simultaneous immigration from outside Europe. Moreover, the relationship between east\u2013west immigration and an individual\u2019s perception of immigration as a threat is conditional upon their socio-economic status. These findings underscore how within-European immigration in Western Europe has become consequential to the public\u2019s attitudes about immigration more generally

: = Quantified Ecology. Draft description of the continental environment using microvertebrates

International audienceFace à l'insuffisance des données isotopiques (18O/16O) sur le domaine continental, la méthode de l'écologie quantifiée tente de combler cette lacune à l'aide des microvertébrés. Les données de base sont présentées en annexe pour 145 espèces eurasiatiques et 450 stations météorologiques du même espace, offrant chacune 15 paramètres climatiques trentenaires. La technique de traitement des données est présentée sous forme d'un mode opératoire facilitant son emploi pour l'élaboration des graphiques. Des exemples de résultats sont donnés pour chacun des paramètres d'un même site. Les exemples suivants concernent strictement l'évolution de la moyenne des températures annuelles dans quatre gisements couvrant la fin du Pléistocène moyen et presque entièrement le Pléistocène supérieur. La courbe est comparée à des sites contemporains traités par d'autres méthodes. Un dernier diagramme retrace la synthèse du cheminement de la courbe et la compare à la courbe 18O/16O de Martinson (Martinson et al. 1987) portant sur les bryozoaires des fonds marins des cinq océans. Enfin, différents traitements sont proposés par transposition des formules des climatologues et concernent la continentalité, la pluviométrie, l'aridité et le confort mais elles ne sont pas développées

Dynamic Partitioning in Linear Relation Analysis. Application to the Verification of Synchronous Programs

We apply linear relation analysis [CH78, HPR97] to the verificationof declarative synchronous programs [Hal98]. In this approach,state partitioning plays an important role: on one hand the precision of the results highly depends on the fineness of the partitioning; on the other hand, a too much detailed partitioning may result in an exponential explosion of the analysis. In this paper we propose to consider very general partitions of the state space and to dynamically select a suitable partitioning according to the property to be proved. The presented approach is quite general and can be applied to other abstract interpretations.Keywords and Phrases: Abstract Interpretation, Partitioning,Linear Relation Analysis, Reactive Systems, Program Verificatio

Revisiting the labor market competition hypothesis in a comparative perspective: Does retirement affect opinion about immigration?:

Labor market competition is a leading explanation for defensive attitudes towards immigration but empirical support for this hypothesis is widely debated. This paper re-evaluates its explanatory power by investigating the relationship between labor market retirement and attitudes towards immigration in 14 European countries. The empirical results, based on an instrumental variable strategy to deal with potential endogeneity, find that although retirement is an important change in a person's labor market participation, it does not generally shift opinions. As a plausible explanation for this, I use a cross-national survey experiment to demonstrate that individuals who are retired retain socio-tropic orientations towards immigration, which, I argue, likely override their ego-tropic orientations. The combined evidence indicates that the labor market competition hypothesis may not be suitable as a comprehensive explanation for public opinion about immigration

Improving bladder cancer immunotherapy by tailoring protein secretion in mycobacteria

Bladder cancer is the 4th to 10th most common cancer worldwide, with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) counting for 70-75% of cases. Standard treatment of NMIBC includes resection of the tumor followed by intravesical treatment with Mycobacterium bovis BCG (BCG). BCG is a live but attenuated vaccine strain well-known for its use against tuberculosis, an infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. BCG bacteria induce a local inflammatory response that not only clears the bacterium but also eradicates the remaining tumor cells. Although effective, BCG treatment may still show up to 30% recurrences. The research described in this thesis aims for improvement of bladder cancer treatment. First, since secretion and surface display of (tumor) antigens might improve BCG anti-tumor efficacy, the aim was to enable heterologous secretion in mycobacteria. Mycobacteria use specialized secretion systems to secrete proteins over their unique cell envelope, known as Type VII secretion systems. For heterologous secretion we focused on one of these systems, the ESX-5 system. Model protein OVA was fused to the PE and linker domain of ESX-5 substrate LipY. Screening of an M. marinum error-prone PCR mutant library showed that two mutations in OVA or deletion of the linker domain lead to increased secretion. Thus, the ESX-5 secretion system is suitable for heterologous secretion in mycobacteria but optimization is required for each desired heterologous protein. Second, we focused on the function of ESX-5. Studying the processing of LipY in more detail lead to the discovery of PecA, an ESX-5 dependent secreted aspartic protease that cleaves the PE domain of LipY, other PE_PGRS proteins and itself. Furthermore, deletion of pecA resulted in an attenuated phenotype in zebrafish larvae. Next, we studied the role of ESX-5 in fatty acid uptake. In tuberculosis mycobacteria reside in the lungs inside structures known as granulomas, in which lipids form the main energy source. By screening for transposon mutants showing increased growth on Tween 80 as sole carbon source, two PE proteins, MMAR_0369 and MMAR_4321, were identified to be able to cleave fatty acids. These cutinase-like proteins harbor an α/β hydrolase domain, a domain also predicted for multiple other proteins in M. tuberculosis and M. marinum. Together, these findings demonstrated that PE proteins can have distinctive functions depicted by their C-terminal domains and not by the PE domain by which they are usually categorized. The main aim was to improve bladder cancer immunotherapy. To study anti-tumor activity in vivo we used an orthotopic bladder cancer mouse model. We showed that combining multimodal imaging techniques, e.g. high ultrasound imaging, photoacoustic imaging and bioluminescent imaging, enables longitudinal studies on tumor development in the bladder. The integration of individual strengths enabled sensitive and improved quantification and understanding of tumor biology and ultimately can aid in the discovery and development of new therapeutics. Finally, we tested the hypothesis that anti-tumor activity can be improved by enhancing bacterial binding to the bladder wall. Recently, Salmonella enterica Typhi Ty21a (Ty21a), an oral vaccine strain against typhoid fever, has been shown to be potentially more effective against bladder cancer than BCG. Labeling of Ty21a with adhesion protein FimH resulted in a ~5 fold increased binding to the mouse bladder in vivo. Furthermore, a single bladder cancer mouse study showed a modest increase in median survival for mice treated with FimH-labeled Ty21a. In conclusion, this thesis presents a study on mycobacterial protein secretion in order to improve bladder cancer immunotherapy. We identified novel functions for 3 PE proteins providing more insight into the function of ESX- 5 and its role in virulence. Furthermore, we showed that labeling Ty21a with FimH shows promise for improving bladder cancer treatment

La grotte de la Chauve-Souris à Donzère (Drôme, France) : L'environnement holocène par la méthode quantitative appliquée aux microvertébrés. Essai de définition et application

International audienceThe « Chauve-Souris » cave at Donzére (Drôme, France). Holocene environment by quantitative method applied on microvertebrates. Definition and application attempt.- The study of microfauna collected by one of us (J.V.) during the excavation of the « Chauve-Souris » cave (Donzère, Drôme, France) widely covers the second half of Holocene and chiefly final Neolithic and final Bronze Age. Species are relatively common except the Iberic Vole (Microtus cabrerae Thomas, 1906 ) only ibéric to day, and Romanian Bat (Rhinolophus mehelyi Matschie, 1901), disappeared of France or in way to disappearing. The common Mouse (Mus musculus L., 1758) appears briefly during Final Neolithic and seems to settle durably during Final Bronze Age. The medio-rhodanian position of the site records animal fluctuations as well as human migrations fixed in ceramic styles. But, in more, by its sensibility, fauna transcribes human influence on environment, (ex. : deforestation), climatic modifications and also, if we believe in the coïncidence of some accidents of th thermic curve, with the atmospheric rate of residual 14C. Biometric data used for bats determination are added in annexes.L'étude de la microfaune de la grotte de la Chauve-Souris (Donzère, Drôme) couvre largement la seconde moitié de l'Holocène et principalement les époques du Néolithique final et du Bronze final. Les espèces rencontrées sont relativement banales hormis le Campagnol ibérique (Microtus cabrerae Thomas, 1906) devenu strictement ibérique et le Rhinolophe de Roumanie (Rhinolophus mehelyi Matschie, 1901) disparu récemment de France ou en voie de disparition. La Souris grise (Mus musculus L., 1758) fait une apparition fugace au Néolithique final et semble s'implanter durablement durant le Bronze final. La position médio-rhodanienne du site enregistre les fluctuations animales autant que les migrations humaines imprimées dans les styles de céramiques. Mais la faune en plus, par sa sensibilité, transcrit l'influence humaine sur l'environnement (ex. : la déforestation), les changements climatiques, et même, si l'on en croit la coïncidence de quelques accidents de la courbe thermique, avec les variations du taux de 14C résiduel atmosphérique. Les données biométriques utilisées pour la détermination des Chiroptères sont ajoutées en annexe

Succinct Representations for Abstract Interpretation

Abstract interpretation techniques can be made more precise by distinguishing paths inside loops, at the expense of possibly exponential complexity. SMT-solving techniques and sparse representations of paths and sets of paths avoid this pitfall. We improve previously proposed techniques for guided static analysis and the generation of disjunctive invariants by combining them with techniques for succinct representations of paths and symbolic representations for transitions based on static single assignment. Because of the non-monotonicity of the results of abstract interpretation with widening operators, it is difficult to conclude that some abstraction is more precise than another based on theoretical local precision results. We thus conducted extensive comparisons between our new techniques and previous ones, on a variety of open-source packages.Comment: Static analysis symposium (SAS), Deauville : France (2012