Method for X-ray study under extreme temperature and pressure conditions

Vacuum chamber environmental simulator and X ray camera are used to study the stability of various minerals in extreme environmental conditions. An ion pump creates the desired vacuum. Exact sample positioning is obtained with a bellows sealed linear motion feed-through. Temperature control is by means of fluid conductive heat transfer

Crystallisation of Collective Action in the Emergence of a Geographical Indication System

Replaced with revised version of paper 09/20/11.collective action, geographical indications, clusters, translation cycles, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Labor and Human Capital,

Could Sex Differences in White Matter be Explained by g ratio?

Recent studies with magnetic resonance imaging suggest that age-related changes in white matter during male adolescence may indicate an increase in g ratio wherein the radial growth of an axon outpaces a corresponding increase in myelin thickness. We review the original Rushton (1951) model where a g ratio of ∼0.6 represents an optimal relationship between the axon and fibre diameters vis-à-vis conduction velocity, and point out evidence indicating slightly higher g ratio in large-diameter fibres. We estimate that fibres with a diameter larger than 9.6 μm will have a relatively thinner myelin sheath, and brains with increasingly larger proportions of such large-diameter fibres will have progressively lower concentration of myelin. We conclude by pointing out possible implications of “suboptimal” g ratio for the emergence of “disconnection” disorders, such as schizophrenia, in late adolescence

Thyroxine differentially modulates the peripheral clock: lessons from the human hair follicle

The human hair follicle (HF) exhibits peripheral clock activity, with knock-down of clock genes (BMAL1 and PER1) prolonging active hair growth (anagen) and increasing pigmentation. Similarly, thyroid hormones prolong anagen and stimulate pigmentation in cultured human HFs. In addition they are recognized as key regulators of the central clock that controls circadian rhythmicity. Therefore, we asked whether thyroxine (T4) also influences peripheral clock activity in the human HF. Over 24 hours we found a significant reduction in protein levels of BMAL1 and PER1, with their transcript levels also decreasing significantly. Furthermore, while all clock genes maintained their rhythmicity in both the control and T4 treated HFs, there was a significant reduction in the amplitude of BMAL1 and PER1 in T4 (100 nM) treated HFs. Accompanying this, cell-cycle progression marker Cyclin D1 was also assessed appearing to show an induced circadian rhythmicity by T4 however, this was not significant. Contrary to short term cultures, after 6 days, transcript and/or protein levels of all core clock genes (BMAL1, PER1, clock, CRY1, CRY2) were up-regulated in T4 treated HFs. BMAL1 and PER1 mRNA was also up-regulated in the HF bulge, the location of HF epithelial stem cells. Together this provides the first direct evidence that T4 modulates the expression of the peripheral molecular clock. Thus, patients with thyroid dysfunction may also show a disordered peripheral clock, which raises the possibility that short term, pulsatile treatment with T4 might permit one to modulate circadian activity in peripheral tissues as a target to treat clock-related disease

ORGANISATION, COOPERATION AND REDUCTION: A SOCIO-ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF ILLEGAL MARKET ACTORS FACILITATING IRREGULAR MIGRATION AT EU-INTERNAL TRANSIT POINTS

The facilitation of irregular migration by organised criminal groups [OCGs] at EU-internal transit points represents a specific illegal market type. This PhD thesis uses a mixed methodology approach to study this market with a focus on Italy, one of the main entry and transit countries for irregular migrants aiming to reach Central and Northern Europe, as well as the pulsating heart of intense EU-public and political debate around issues of mismanaged, undocumented immigration. While the debate has concentrated on the organised smuggling of irregular migrants via sea routes, less attention has been paid to EU-inland routes. What is known about the latter is mainly restricted to sporadic cases in which smuggling journeys have ended tragically. This has led to the rather uninformed and sensationalist notion that the market for human smuggling is monopolised by highly structured and sophisticated transnational OCGs. However, existing empirical evidence rather suggests OCGs to be weakly-tied and fragmented in structure. Considering that these OCGs operate on a highly uncertain market, which lacks in institutional control and formal contracts, it becomes not only interesting, but vital to understand how these OCGs nevertheless execute their business successfully. The purpose of this thesis is to shed light on the organisational structure of OCGs operating on this illegal market type, to elucidate how its decentralised structure influences the market\u2019s operation, and to analyse relational mechanisms that induce cooperative rather than opportunistic behaviour by illegal market actors. In doing so, the specificities and parallels of this distinct illegal market actor are compared to human smuggling organisations operating at EU-external borders. On the basis of these results, novel market reduction measures are pointed out, which are context-tailored, as well as more generally applicable to countering human smuggling into and within the EU. The study aims to achieve its purpose through a context-specific socio-economic analysis of organised human smuggling at transit points internally to the EU by means of: (i) a critical review of the literature on EU-related human smuggling; (ii) a thematic analysis of secondary sources as well as expert interviews on EU-internal organised human smuggling, and finally, (iii) a social network analysis of a selected, large-scale human smuggling organisation in Northern Italy. Together, these three different analyses lead to significant conclusions. OCGs involved in EU-internal human smuggling exhibit a decentralised organsational structure, which includes at most a two-tier level, including resourceful smugglers at the top and precarious individuals at the bottom. These OCGs are constituted not only by foreign- but also largely by European actors. Common ethnicity appears to facilitate cooperation between smugglers, as well as the criminal experience of a few. Compared to increasingly structured OCGs operating at the borders of Europe, the EU-internal human smuggling market appears still less organised and less violent and/or life-threatening for migrants. The latter is exhibited by a shift from physical transport to the progressive use of fraudulent documents on the EU-internal human smuggling market, which however might indicate increased involvement of resourcesful smugglers. It is argued that such a highly resilient illegal market structure can only be countered through (i) the improved targeting of high-tier smugglers but more importantly, necessitates (ii) recruitment prevention strategies that target the marginalisation and socio-economic precarity of smugglers, which are measures that notably overlap with the aim to reduce the demand of irregular migrants for smuggling services in the first place

Mapping the topographic epitopes of a model antigen

The thesis describes the development of a method for determining the antigenicity of different regions of the surface of a protein. The method involved the construction of a set of mutant antigens in which cysteine residues had been introduced at different points in the surface of the antigen. Each mutant protein was tethered through the surface cysteine residue and a bifunctional chemical cross-linker to solid phase, allowing the creation of an array of mutant antigens, each oriented so as to expose or to mask different topological regions of the antigen surface. Indeed, as expected, binding of a set of monoclonal antibodies proved sensitive to the orientation of the antigen. By use of this array of oriented antigen it became possible to compare the different regions of the antigen surface for binding to rabbit antiserum, and thereby to create a topological map of the antibody response. When the immunisations were undertaken with use of Freund's adjuvant, the antibody response to β-lactamase was mainly directed against a region centered on a flexible loop. Furthermore it comprised antibodies cross-reactive to both native and denatured protein. By contrast, in the absence of Freund's adjuvant, the antibody response was more evenly distributed, and with few cross reactive antibodies. This suggested that Freund's adjuvant denatures β-lactamase (as was confirmed experimentally), and that the appearance of dominant epitopes may follow the presentation of denatured protein to the immune system. These observations have implications for understanding the basis for dominance of B-cell epitopes, and also for design of vaccines