Search for microscopic black holes and string balls in final states with leptons and jets with the ATLAS detector at √s = 8 TeV

A search for an excess of events with multiple high transverse momentum objects including charged leptons and jets is presented, using 20.3 fb−1 of proton-proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider in 2012 at a centre-of-mass energy of √s = 8TeV. No excess of events beyond Standard Model expectations is observed. Using extra-dimensional models for black hole and string ball production and decay, exclusion contours are determined as a function of the mass threshold for production and the fundamental gravity scale for two, four and six extra dimensions. For six extra dimensions, mass thresholds of 4.8–6.2TeV are excluded at 95% confidence level, depending on the fundamental gravity scale and model assumptions. Upper limits on the fiducial cross-sections for non-Standard Model production of these final states are set.

Protective anti-tumor immunity induced by vaccination with recombinant adenoviruses encoding multiple tumor-associated cytotoxic T lymphocyte epitopes in a string-of-beads fashion

Vaccines harboring genes that encode functional oncoproteins are intrinsically hazardous, as their application may lead to introduction of these genes into normal cells and thereby to tumorigenesis. On the other hand, oncoproteins are especially attractive targets for immunotherapy of cancer, as their expression is generally required for tumor growth, making the arisal of tumor variants lacking these antigens unlikely. Using murine tumor models, we investigated the efficacy of polyepitope recombinant adenovirus (rAd) vaccines, which encode only the immunogenic T cell epitopes derived from several oncogenes, for the induction of protective anti-tumor immunity. We chose to employ rAd, as these are safe vectors that do not induce the side effects associated with, for example, vaccinia virus vaccines. A single polyepitope rAd was shown to give rise to presentation of both H-2 and human leukocyte antigen-restricted cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) epitopes. Moreover, vaccination with a rAd encoding H-2-restricted CTL epitopes, derived from human adenovirus type 5 early region 1 and human papilloma virus type 16-induced tumors, elicited strong tumor-reactive CTL and protected the vaccinated animals against an otherwise lethal challenge with either of these tumors. The protection induced was superior compared with that obtained by vaccination with irradiated tumor cells. Thus, vaccination with polyepitope rAd is a powerful approach for the induction of protective anti-tumor immunity that allows simultaneous immunization against multiple tumor-associated T cell epitopes, restricted by various major histocompatibility complex haplotypes.

Cysteine String Protein Functions Directly in Regulated Exocytosis

Cysteine string protein (Csp) is essential for neurotransmitter release in Drosophila. It has been suggested that Csp functions by regulating the activity of presynaptic Ca2+ channels, thus controlling exocytosis. We have examined the effect of overexpressing Csp1 in PC12 cells, a neuroendocrine cell line. PC12 cell clones overexpressing Csp1 did not show any changes in morphology, granule number or distribution, or in the levels of other key exocytotic proteins. This overexpression did not affect intracellular Ca2+ signals after depolarization, suggesting that Csp1 has no gross effect on Ca2+ channel activity in PC12 cells. In contrast, we show that Csp1 overexpression enhances the extent of exocytosis from permeabilized cells in response to Ca2+ or GTPγS in the absence of Ca2+. Because secretion from permeabilized cells is not influenced by Ca2+ channel activity, this represents the first demonstration that Csp has a direct role in regulated exocytosis.

Pulling a single chromatin fiber reveals the forces that maintain its higher-order structure

Single chicken erythrocyte chromatin fibers were stretched and released at room temperature with force-measuring laser tweezers. In low ionic strength, the stretch-release curves reveal a process of continuous deformation with little or no internucleosomal attraction. A persistence length of 30 nm and a stretch modulus of ≈5 pN is determined for the fibers. At forces of 20 pN and higher, the fibers are modified irreversibly, probably through the mechanical removal of the histone cores from native chromatin. In 40–150 mM NaCl, a distinctive condensation-decondensation transition appears between 5 and 6 pN, corresponding to an internucleosomal attraction energy of ≈2.0 kcal/mol per nucleosome. Thus, in physiological ionic strength the fibers possess a dynamic structure in which the fiber locally interconverting between “open” and “closed” states because of thermal fluctuations.

Free energy reconstruction from nonequilibrium single-molecule pulling experiments

Laser tweezers and atomic force microscopes are increasingly used to probe the interactions and mechanical properties of individual molecules. Unfortunately, using such time-dependent perturbations to force rare molecular events also drives the system away from equilibrium. Nevertheless, we show how equilibrium free energy profiles can be extracted rigorously from repeated nonequilibrium force measurements on the basis of an extension of Jarzynski's remarkable identity between free energies and the irreversible work.

Quantisation of the bosonic string

In this work we review the basic principles of the theory of the relativistic bosonic string through the study of the action functionals of Nambu-Goto and Polyakov and the techniques required for their canonical, light-cone, and path-integral quantisation. For this purpose, we briefly review the main properties of the gauge symmetries and conformal field theory involved in the techniques studied.

Pulling the Strings: Party Group Coordinators in the European Parliament

Since its post-Lisbon increase in (legislative and non-legislative) powers, the European Parliament (EP) is more relevant than ever in the geographically diversified multilevel system of the EU. Party group coordinators occupy a crucial position in collective decision-making within the EP. However, knowledge about these pivotal actors is absent. This raises the question as to who these party group coordinators are, what they do, and what indeed makes a good coordinator. A new data set shows that in 2012, more than one-fifth of coordinators of the three largest and most influential groups are German, with British and Spanish coordinators ranking a distant second before Romanians. Among coordinators from NMS, only one-eighth were newcomers.

Antitrust on the ‘G string’: What’s behind the Commission’s investigations of Google and Gazprom? CEPS Commentary, 15 June 2015

The past few weeks have marked a shift of gear in EU antitrust enforcement. First, the new European Commissioner for Competition Margarethe Vestager announced on April 15th that the Commission had sent a Statement of Objections to Google, arguing that the giant IT company abused its dominant position in the “general Internet search” market and also in the market for mobile operating systems, apps and services. Exactly one week later, she also sent a Statement of Objections to Gazprom for having created artificial barriers to trade between certain EU countries, preventing gas flows and competition across national borders and charging unfair prices in five Central and Eastern European countries. It is indeed hard to recall any other time in which two investigations of this size – both potentially leading to billions of euros of fines – have been launched almost simultaneously.

Basic principles of violin playing : a report prepared for the MENC Committee on String Instruction in the Schools

Mode of access: Internet.

The Star collection of instrumental music; arranged for wind and string instruments, and for the use of small bands and orchestras.

Contains arrangements of songs, selections from operas, dances, etc.

Streichquartett, op. 54 no. 1, G moll = [music] : String quartet, G minor /

Duration: ca.. 25 min.

Concerto grosso for string orchestra, no. 5, D major. [music] /

"Edition Eulenburg, no. 268".

Two sketches for string quartet based on Indian themes.

Mode of access: Internet.

Molly on the shore; Irish reel on 2 Cork reel tunes set for string four-some or string band.

For 2 violins, viola, violoncello.