Making Claims for Migrant Workers: Human Rights and Citizenship

Migrant workers claims for greater protection in a globalized world are typically expressed either in the idiom of international human rights or citizenship. Instead of contrasting these two normative frames, the paper explores the extent to which human rights and citizenship discourses intersect when it comes to claims by migrant workers. An analysis of the international human and labour rights instruments that are specifically designed for migrant workers reveals how neither discourse questions the assumption of territorial state sovereignty. Drawing upon sociological and political approaches to human rights claims, I evaluate the Arendtian-inspired critique of international human rights, which is that they ignore the very basis ‘right to have rights’. In doing so, I discuss the different dimensions of citizenship and conclude that international rights can be used by migrant workers to assert right claims that reinforce a conception of citizenship that, although different from national citizenship, has the potential to address their distinctive social location

The vertical extent and kinematics of the HI in NGC 2403

The neutral hydrogen line profiles along the major axis of the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 2403 show a wing towards the sytemic velocity. This asymmetry can be explained with the presence of an abnormally thick HI disk (FWHM ~ 5 kpc) or with a two-component structure: a thin disk and a slowly rotating, thicker (1-3 kpc) HI layer. The latter model gives a better representation of the observations. These results throw a new light on the disk-halo connection. In particular, the decrease of rotational velocity with height above the plane may be the result of a galactic fountain flow. A vertically extended, slowly rotating HI layer may be common among spiral galaxies with high levels of star formation.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics Letter

Assessing the adaptation of arable farmers to climate change using DEA and bio-economic modelling

The objective of this article is to assess the impact of climate change on arable farming systems in Flevoland (the Netherlands) and to explore the adoption of different adaptation strategies. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is applied that uses empirical data from individual farms to identify “best” current farm practices and derive relationships regarding current farm managemen

High Latitude HI in NGC 2613: Buoyant Disk-Halo Outflow

We combine new VLA D array HI data of NGC 2613 with previous high resolution data to show new disk-halo features in this galaxy. The global HI distribution is modeled in detail using a technique which can disentangle the effects of inclination from scale height and can also solve for the average volume density distribution in and perpendicular to the disk. The model shows that the galaxy's inclination is on the low end of the range given by Chaves & Irwin (2001) and that the HI disk is thin (z_e = 188 pc), showing no evidence for halo. Numerous discrete disk-halo features are observed, however, achieving z heights up to 28 kpc from mid-plane. One prominent feature in particular, of mass, 8X10^7 Msun and height, 22 kpc, is seen on the advancing side of the galaxy at a projected galactocentric radius of 15.5 kpc. If this feature achieves such high latitudes because of events in the disk alone, then input energies of order ~ 10^{56} ergs are required. We have instead investigated the feasibility of such a large feature being produced via buoyancy (with drag) within a hot, pre-existing X-ray corona. Reasonable plume densities, temperatures, stall height (~ 11 kpc), outflow velocities and ages can indeed be achieved in this way. The advantage of this scenario is that the input energy need only be sufficient to produce blow-out, a condition which requires a reduction of three orders of magnitude in energy. If this is correct, there should be an observable X-ray halo around NGC 2613.Comment: 32 pages 7 gif figures, accepted by Ap

Adapting agriculture in 2050 in Flevoland; perspectives from stakeholders

Although recently more research has gone into farm level studies, little attention has been given to the variety of responses of farmers, considering their characteristics, objectives and the socio-economic, technological and political contexts (Reidsma et al, 2010). In the Agri-Adapt project we focus on farm level adaptation within an agricultural region considering the socio-economic context of 2050

PMI: A Delta Psi(m) Independent Pharmacological Regulator of Mitophagy

Mitophagy is central to mitochondrial and cellular homeostasis and operates via the PINK1/Parkin pathway targeting mitochondria devoid of membrane potential (ΔΨm) to autophagosomes. Although mitophagy is recognized as a fundamental cellular process, selective pharmacologic modulators of mitophagy are almost nonexistent. We developed a compound that increases the expression and signaling of the autophagic adaptor molecule P62/SQSTM1 and forces mitochondria into autophagy. The compound, P62-mediated mitophagy inducer (PMI), activates mitophagy without recruiting Parkin or collapsing ΔΨm and retains activity in cells devoid of a fully functional PINK1/Parkin pathway. PMI drives mitochondria to a process of quality control without compromising the bio-energetic competence of the whole network while exposing just those organelles to be recycled. Thus, PMI circumvents the toxicity and some of the nonspecific effects associated with the abrupt dissipation of ΔΨm by ionophores routinely used to induce mitophagy and represents a prototype pharmacological tool to investigate the molecular mechanisms of mitophagy

Inequality, Loneliness and Political Appearance: Picturing Radical Democracy with Hannah Arendt and Jacques Rancière

This is the final version. Available on open access from SAGE Publications via the DOI in this recordRadical democrats highlight dramatic moments of political action that disrupt everyday habits of perception, which sustain unequal social relations. In doing so, however, we sometimes neglect how social conditions, such as precarious employment, social dislocation and everyday exposure to violence, might undermine political agency or be contested in uneventful ways. Despite their differences, two thinkers who have significantly influenced radical democratic theory (Hannah Arendt and Jacques Rancière) have been similarly criticised for contributing to such a socially weightless picture of politics. However, attending to how they are preoccupied by the social conditions of inequality and loneliness enables us to recognize two distinct aspects of democratic politics: emancipation and civility. Cultivating an interpretive flexibility to shift between these aspects of politics might enable radical democrats to more clearly picture how struggles for appearances are limited and shaped by the social conditions within which they are enacted

Climate change adaptation in agriculture; the use of multi-scale modelling and stakeholder participation in the Netherlands

Abstract about a research project to develop a methodology to assess adaptation of agriculture to climatic and socio-economic changes at multiple scales, with a first application in the Province of Flevoland, the Netherlands