Epistemic domination by data extraction: questioning the use of biometrics and mobile phone data analysis in asylum procedures

In a growing number of destination countries state authorities have started to use various digital devices such as analysis of data captured from mobile phones to verify asylum seekers' claimed country of origin. This move has prompted some critics to claim that asylum decision-making is increasingly delegated to machines. Based on fieldwork at a reception centre in Germany, this paper mobilises insights from science and technology studies (STS) to develop a framework that allows for more nuanced analyses and modes of critiques of the digitisation of asylum procedures. Rather than thinking human and non-human forms of agency as external to one another in order to juxtapose them in a zero-sum game, I comprehend the introduction of digital technologies as a reconfiguration of existing human-machine configurations. This conception highlights how the use digital technologies enables caseworkers to retain their position as an epistemic authority in asylum decision-making by assembling clues about asylum seekers' country of origin generated by digital technologies into hard juridical evidence. Subsequently, I develop an alternative critique that focuses on epistemic implications of the digitisation of asylum procedures. I identify a particular version of data colonialism that enables epistemic domination by means of data extraction.

Perspectives on weak interactions in complex materials at different length scales

Nanocomposite materials consist of nanometer-sized quantum objects such as atoms, molecules, voids or nanoparticles embedded in a host material. These quantum objects can be exploited as a super-structure, which can be designed to create material properties targeted for specific applications. For electromagnetism, such targeted properties include field enhancements around the bandgap of a semiconductor used for solar cells, directional decay in topological insulators, high kinetic inductance in superconducting circuits, and many more. Despite very different application areas, all of these properties are united by the common aim of exploiting collective interaction effects between quantum objects. The literature on the topic spreads over very many different disciplines and scientific communities. In this review, we present a cross-disciplinary overview of different approaches for the creation, analysis and theoretical description of nanocomposites with applications related to electromagnetic properties.

Digitisation and Sovereignty in Humanitarian Space: Technologies, Territories and Tensions

Debates are ongoing on the limits of - and possibilities for - sovereignty in the digital era. While most observers spotlight the implications of the Internet, cryptocurrencies, artificial intelligence/machine learning and advanced data analytics for the sovereignty of nation states, a critical yet under examined question concerns what digital innovations mean for authority, power and control in the humanitarian sphere in which different rules, values and expectations are thought to apply. This forum brings together practitioners and scholars to explore both conceptually and empirically how digitisation and datafication in aid are (re)shaping notions of sovereign power in humanitarian space. The forum's contributors challenge established understandings of sovereignty in new forms of digital humanitarian action. Among other focus areas, the forum draws attention to how cyber dependencies threaten international humanitarian organisations' purported digital sovereignty. It also contests the potential of technologies like blockchain to revolutionise notions of sovereignty in humanitarian assistance and hypothesises about the ineluctable parasitic qualities of humanitarian technology. The forum concludes by proposing that digital technologies deployed in migration contexts might be understood as 'sovereignty experiments'. We invite readers from scholarly, policy and practitioner communities alike to engage closely with these critical perspectives on digitisation and sovereignty in humanitarian space.

Long-term efficacy and health consumption before and after ablation of AF

Background

Atrial fibrillation (AF), the most common arrhythmia worldwide, is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Catheter ablation of AF is the most effective treatment option for symptomatic patients. The long-term efficacy is however not very well studied nor is health consumption before and after an ablation of atrial fibrillation.

Purpose

To study the long-term efficacy and health consumption before and after an ablation of AF in 1453 consecutive patients undergoing ablation in our institution.

Methods

Consecutive patients undergoing radiofrequency ablation for AF were included prospectively. 4 mm irrigated ablation (Biosense Webster) catheters and Carto® were used for all procedures. After a mean period of 4 years a survey measuring arrhythmia symptoms was sent out to all patients who were treated with an ablation of AF between 1st of January 2010 and 31st of December 2016. Data was collected from local registries, the national registry for catheter ablations and the national health registry. Health consumption measured as in-hospital visits two years before and after the procedure was assessed.

Results

877 (72.7%) patients had no further symptomatic arrhythmia four years after the procedure. Among the 329 patients who still reported symptoms 237 (72%) had milder, 65 (20%) had unchanged and 20 (8%, 1.3% of total) had worsened symptoms after e ablation.

The total number of in-hospital visits 2 years before and after the ablation was 4067. There were 2594 in-hospital visits before and 1473 after the ablation, a decrease by 43%. The majority of the these were arrhythmia related, 2264 and 908, respectively, a decrease by 60%. Seven patients had a stroke before the ablation and five after. The median length of stay was 1 day both before and after the ablation.

Conclusion

Health consumption is significantly decreased after an ablation for AF. The long-term effect is good with freedom of symptomatic AF of approximately 70% after four years.

Funding Acknowledgement

Type of funding sources: Private grant(s) and/or Sponsorship. Main funding source(s): Biosense Webster Inc

Intermediate-Range Casimir-Polder Interaction Probed by High-Order Slow Atom Diffraction

At nanometer separation, the dominant interaction between an atom and a material surface is the fluctuation-induced Casimir-Polder potential. We demonstrate that slow atoms crossing a silicon nitride transmission nanograting are a remarkably sensitive probe for that potential. A 15% difference between nonretarded (van der Waals) and retarded Casimir-Polder potentials is discernible at distances smaller than 51 nm. We discuss the relative influence of various theoretical and experimental parameters on the potential in detail. Our work paves the way to high-precision measurement of the Casimir-Polder potential as a prerequisite for understanding fundamental physics and its relevance to applications in quantum-enhanced sensing.

Cryoablation as standard treatment of atrial flutter: a prospective, 2-center study (CASTAF)

BACKGROUND

Cryoablation (CRYO) of cavotricuspid isthmus (CTI)-dependent atrial flutter (AFL) has been shown to be non-inferior to radiofrequency ablation (RF) in terms of ablation success and is associated with less pain. However, procedural time has been significantly longer with CRYO compared to RF. A possible explanation for this could be that operators had less experience with CRYO than with RF. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that in the hands of experienced operators, cryoablation of CTI-dependent AFL is effective with procedure-time similar to what is reported for RF.

METHODS

This prospective 2-center study included 184 patients with CTI-dependent AFL - median age 66 years (range 28-83), 159 men (86%). Cryoablation was performed using a 9 F, 8 mm tip catheter (Freezor MAX, Medtronic, Inc, MN, USA). Ablation endpoint was bidirectional CTI-block. Pain was evaluated with a visual analogue scale (VAS 0-10). All operators had experience of at least 25 previous CTI-ablations with CRYO.

RESULTS

The acute success rate was 89%. Procedural time including an observation period of 30 min, was 115 ± 36 min which is similar to procedural times for RF in previous studies. Fluoroscopy time was 11 ± 9 min. Cryoablation was perceived as almost pain- free by the patients, VAS (mean) 1.8 ± 1.2. Success rate at 12-month follow-up (FU) was 88% in patients with primary success. No major adverse events occurred.

CONCLUSIONS

Cryoablation of CTI-dependent AFL is effective, with a low level of procedure-related pain. In experienced hands, the procedure time in this prospective non-randomised trial seems to be in the level of reported procedure times for RF. The long-term relapse rate appears to be higher than for RF.

Fast reconstruction of single-shot wide-angle diffraction images through deep learning

Single-shot x-ray imaging of short-lived nanostructures such as clusters and nanoparticles near a phase transition or non-crystalizing objects such as large proteins and viruses is currently the most elegant method for characterizing their structure. Using hard x-ray radiation provides scattering images that encode two-dimensional projections, which can be combined to identify the full three-dimensional object structure from multiple identical samples. Wide-angle scattering using XUV or soft x-rays, despite yielding lower resolution, provides three-dimensional structural information in a single shot and has opened routes towards the characterization of non-reproducible objects in the gas phase. The retrieval of the structural information contained in wide-angle scattering images is highly non-trivial, and currently no efficient rigorous algorithm is known. Here we show that deep learning networks, trained with simulated scattering data, allow for fast and accurate reconstruction of shape and orientation of nanoparticles from experimental images. The gain in speed compared to conventional retrieval techniques opens the route for automated structure reconstruction algorithms capable of real-time discrimination and pre-identification of nanostructures in scattering experiments with high repetition rate—thus representing the enabling technology for fast femtosecond nanocrystallography.

Doing statistics, enacting the nation: The performative powers of categories

It has been widely acknowledged in debates about nationalism and ethnicity that identity categories used for classifying people along the lines of culture, race, and ethnicity help to enact, that is, bring into being, the collective identities they name. However, we know little about how categories acquire their performative powers. The contribution of this paper is twofold: first, it proposes a conceptual framework based on concepts and insights from science and technology studies for investigating the performative powers of statistical identity categories and possibly also other domains. Second, it demonstrates, through an empirical study of two examples from Estonian and Dutch official population statistics, that statistical identity categories enact more than the groups to which they refer. We argue that they also enact national identities and notions of national belonging of majoritarian groups in the host countries. Therefore, statistical identity categories can be used as analytical lenses to study nationalism and processes of nation-building.

Rydberg Excitons in the Presence of an Ultralow-Density Electron-Hole Plasma

We study the Rydberg exciton absorption of Cu_{2}O in the presence of free carriers injected by above-band-gap illumination. Already at plasma densities ρ_{EH} below one hundredth electron-hole pair per μm^{3}, exciton lines are bleached, starting from the highest observed principal quantum number, while their energies remain constant. Simultaneously, the band gap decreases by correlation effects with the plasma. An exciton line loses oscillator strength when the band gap approaches its energy, vanishing completely at the crossing point. Adapting a plasma-physics description, we describe the observations by an effective Bohr radius that increases with rising plasma density, reflecting the Coulomb interaction screening by the plasma.

Signatures of Quantum Coherences in Rydberg Excitons

Coherent optical control of individual particles has been demonstrated both for atoms and semiconductor quantum dots. Here we demonstrate the emergence of quantum coherent effects in semiconductor Rydberg excitons in bulk Cu_{2}O. Because of the spectral proximity between two adjacent Rydberg exciton states, a single-frequency laser may pump both resonances with little dissipation from the detuning. As a consequence, additional resonances appear in the absorption spectrum that correspond to dressed states consisting of two Rydberg exciton levels coupled to the excitonic vacuum, forming a V-type three-level system, but driven only by one laser light source. We show that the level of pure dephasing in this system is extremely low. These observations are a crucial step towards coherently controlled quantum technologies in a bulk semiconductor.

Distilling Gaussian states with Gaussian operations is impossible

We show that no distillation protocol for Gaussian quantum states exists that relies on (i) arbitrary local unitary operations that preserve the Gaussian character of the state and (ii) homodyne detection together with classical communication and postprocessing by means of local Gaussian unitary operations on two symmetric identically prepared copies. This is in contrast to the finite-dimensional case, where entanglement can be distilled in an iterative protocol using two copies at a time. The ramifications for the distribution of Gaussian states over large distances will be outlined. We also comment on the generality of the approach and sketch the most general form of a Gaussian local operation with classical communication in a bipartite setting.

Advanced integrated mouse YAC map including BAC framework

Functional characterization of the mouse genome requires the availability of a comprehensive physical map to obtain molecular access to chromosomal regions of interest. Positional cloning remains a crucial way of linking phenotype with particular genes. A key step and frequent stumbling block in positional cloning is making a contig of a genetically defined candidate region. The most efficient first step is isolating YAC (Yeast Artificial Chromosome) clones. A robust, detailed YAC contig map is thus an important tool. Employing Interspersed Repetitive Sequence (IRS)-PCR genomics, we have generated an advanced second-generation YAC contig map of the mouse genome that doubles both the depth of clones and the density of markers available. In addition to the primarily YAC-based map, we located 1942 BAC (Bacterial Artificial Chromosome) clones. This allows us to present for the first time a dense framework of BACs spanning the genome of the mouse, which, for instance, can serve as a nucleus for genomic sequencing. Four large-insert mouse YAC libraries from three different strains are included in our data, and our analysis incorporates the data of Hunter et al. and Nusbaum et al. There is a total of 20,205 markers on the final map, 12,033 from our own data, and a total of 56,093 YACs, of which 44,401 are positive for more than one marker.

Characterization of the mouse Src homology 3 domain gene Sh3d2c on Chr 7 demonstrates coexpression with huntingtin in the brain and identifies the processed pseudogene Sh3d2c-ps1 on Chr 2

Formation of intracellular protein complexes is often mediated by Src homology 3 domain-containing proteins interacting with proline-rich target sequences on other proteins. The Sh3d2c gene or its rat/human orthologs have been implicated in synaptic vesicle recycling due to interaction with dynamin I and synaptojanin in nerve terminals. In a yeast two-hybrid system, association with a huntingtin fragment containing an elongated stretch of polyglutamines was observed recently. By genetic mapping and fluorescence in situ hybridization we demonstrate the localization of Sh3d2c on mouse chromosome 7. A processed pseudogene of Sh3d2c, Sh3d2c-ps1, was identified and mapped to mouse chromosome 2. Using RNA in situ hybridization, we show that Sh3d2c is transcribed in various regions of the brain. The striatum, hippocampus, cortex, basal hypothalamus, brain stem, and cerebellum are the most prominent sites of expression. Because huntingtin and Sh3d2c are coexpressed in most regions of the brain, it can be speculated that there is a link between the association of huntingtin/Sh3d2c and the pathogenesis of Huntington disease.