The rapid proliferation of many different engineered nanomaterials (defined as materials designed and produced to have structural features with at least one dimension of 100 nanometers or less) presents a dilemma to regulators regarding hazard identification. The International Life Sciences Institute Research Foundation/Risk Science Institute convened an expert working group to develop a screening strategy for the hazard identification of engineered nanomaterials. The working group report presents the elements of a screening strategy rather than a detailed testing protocol. Based on an evaluation of the limited data currently available, the report presents a broad data gathering strategy applicable to this early stage in the development of a risk assessment process for

BackgroundStudies in monkeys with intranasally instilled gold ultrafine particles (UFPs; < 100 nm) and in rats with inhaled carbon UFPs suggested that solid UFPs deposited in the nose travel along the olfactory nerve to the olfactory bulb.MethodsTo determine if olfactory translocation occurs for other solid metal UFPs and assess potential health effects, we exposed groups of rats to manganese (Mn) oxide UFPs (30 nm; ~ 500 μg/m3) with either both nostrils patent or the right nostril occluded. We analyzed Mn in lung, liver, olfactory bulb, and other brain regions, and we performed gene and protein analyses.ResultsAfter 12 days of exposure with both nostrils patent, Mn concentrations in the olfactory bulb increased 3.5-fold, whereas lung Mn concentrations doubled; there were also increases in striatum, frontal cortex, and cerebellum. Lung lavage analysis showed no indications of lung inflammation, whereas increases in olfactory bulb tumor necrosis factor-α mRNA (~ 8-fold) and protein (~ 30-fold) were found after 11 days of exposure and, to a lesser degree, in other brain regions with increased Mn levels. Macrophage inflammatory protein-2, glial fibrillary acidic protein, and neuronal cell adhesion molecule mRNA were also increased in olfactory bulb. With the right nostril occluded for a 2-day exposure, Mn accumulated only in the left olfactory bulb. Solubilization of the Mn oxide UFPs was < 1.5% per day.ConclusionsWe conclude that the olfactory neuronal pathway is efficient for translocating inhaled Mn oxide as solid UFPs to the central nervous system and that this can result in inflammatory changes. We suggest that despite differences between human and rodent olfactory systems, this pathway is relevant in humans.

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Results of a search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum are reported. The search uses proton-proton collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.2 fb −1 at ffiffi ffi s p ¼ 13 TeV collected in 2015 with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Events are required to have at least one jet with a transverse momentum above 250 GeV and no leptons. Several signal regions are considered with increasing missing-transverse-momentum requirements between E miss T > 250 GeV and E miss T > 700 GeV. Good agreement is observed between the number of events in data and Standard Model predictions. The results are translated into exclusion limits in models with large extra spatial dimensions, pair production of weakly interacting dark-matter candidates, and the production of supersymmetric particles in several compressed scenarios.

The luminosity determination for the ATLAS detector at the LHC during pp collisions at  8 TeV in 2012 is presented. The evaluation of the luminosity scale is performed using several luminometers, and comparisons between these luminosity detectors are made to assess the accuracy, consistency and long-term stability of the results. A luminosity uncertainty of is obtained for the of pp collision data delivered to ATLAS at  8 TeV in 2012.