Migrants and the ‘business’ of the boat journey from Libya to Europe

By the time migrants and refugees successfully make it through the Sahara desert to Libya, Europe is only a boat ride away. Marthe Achtnich explores the challenges facing migrants at this juncture

Raumnutzungsverhalten der Larve des Grossen Glühwürmchens Lampyris noctiluca

Über das Raumnutzungsverhalten und die Mobilität der Larven des Grossen Glühwürmchens (Lampyris noctiluca) ist noch wenig bekannt. Für das Verständnis der räumlichen Verteilung sind Informationen bezüglich des Verhaltens der Larven von grosser Bedeutung, insbesondere weil der überwiegende Teil des mehrjährigen Entwicklungszyklus von der Larvenphase eingenommen wird. Aus diesem Grund wurde ein Feldversuch mit markierten Larven durchgeführt. Auf dem ehemaligen Schiessplatz Rehalp auf dem Stadtgebiet von Zürich wurden zwei Untersuchungsflächen (25 m2 und 288 m2) eingerichtet. Während 28 Untersuchungsnächten konnten innerhalb der Untersuchungsflächen 90 Larven markiert und deren Fundkoordinaten notiert werden. Für die Markierung wurden nummerierte Plättchen, welche mit unter Schwarzlicht fluoreszierender Farbe bemalt wurden, verwendet. Insgesamt konnten 361 Larvenfunde (Erst- und Wiederfunde) erfasst werden. 85.6 % der markierten Larven konnten wiedergefunden werden. Anhand der Wiederfundkoordinaten konnten die Bewegungen der Larven nachverfolgt werden und die genutzte Fläche anhand des Minimum-Konvex-Polygons abgeschätzt werden. Der Median des Aktionsraums der Larven liegt für den Untersuchungszeitraum bei rund vier Quadratmetern. Die mittlere zurückgelegte Strecke pro Nacht liegt bei 153 cm. Weiter wurde die Larvendichte geschätzt und mit dem Resultat von knapp einer Larve pro Quadratmeter konnte das Resultat einer früheren Untersuchung im Gebiet bestätigt werden. Weiter zeigt sich anhand der Bewegungen der Larven eine klare Präferenz für Bereiche mit lückiger Vegetation und starker Streuschicht. In den Randbereichen dichter Vegetationsgruppen konnten besonders viele Larvenbeobachtungen gemacht werden. Das Markieren der Larven mit unter Schwarzlicht fluoreszierender Farbe erleichterte das Wiederfinden der Larven ausserordentlich. Die speziell für diesen Versuch entwickelte Art der Markierung hat sich bewährt und kann für ähnliche Feldversuche empfohlen werden

Effectiveness of a home-based re-injury prevention program on motor control, return to sport and recurrence rates after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction: study protocol for a multicenter, single-blind, randomized controlled trial (PReP)

Background: Although anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear-prevention programs may be effective in the (secondary) prevention of a subsequent ACL injury, little is known, yet, on their effectiveness and feasibility. This study assesses the effects and implementation capacity of a secondary preventive motor-control training (the Stop-X program) after ACL reconstruction. Methods and design: A multicenter, single-blind, randomized controlled, prospective, superiority, two-arm design is adopted. Subsequent patients (18–35 years) with primary arthroscopic unilateral ACL reconstruction with autologous hamstring graft are enrolled. Postoperative guideline rehabilitation plus Classic follow-up treatment and guideline rehabilitation plus the Stop-X intervention will be compared. The onset of the Stop-X program as part of the postoperative follow-up treatment is individualized and function based. The participants must be released for the training components. The endpoint is the unrestricted return to sport (RTS) decision. Before (where applicable) reconstruction and after the clearance for the intervention (aimed at 4–8 months post surgery) until the unrestricted RTS decision (but at least until 12 months post surgery), all outcomes will be assessed once a month. Each participant is consequently measured at least five times to a maximum of 12 times. Twelve, 18 and 24 months after the surgery, follow-up-measurements and recurrence monitoring will follow. The primary outcome assessement (normalized knee-separation distance at the Drop Jump Screening Test (DJST)) is followed by the functional secondary outcomes assessements. The latter consist of quality assessments during simple (combined) balance side, balance front and single-leg hops for distance. All hop/jump tests are self-administered and filmed from the frontal view (3-m distance). All videos are transferred using safe big content transfer and subsequently (and blinded) expertly video-rated. Secondary outcomes are questionnaires on patient-reported knee function, kinesiophobia, RTS after ACL injury and training/therapy volume (frequency – intensity – type and time). All questionnaires are completed online using the participants’ pseudonym only. Group allocation is executed randomly. The training intervention (Stop-X arm) consists of self-administered home-based exercises. The exercises are step-wise graduated and follow wound healing and functional restoration criteria. The training frequency for both arms is scheduled to be three times per week, each time for a 30 min duration. The program follows current (secondary) prevention guidelines. Repeated measurements gain-score analyses using analyses of (co-)variance are performed for all outcomes. Trial registration: German Clinical Trials Register, identification number DRKS00015313. Registered on 1 October 2018

Solid-state nitrogen-15 nuclear magnetic resonance analysis of biologically reduced 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene in a soil slurry remediation

Soil contaminated with 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) and spiked with [14C]- and [15N3]-TNT was subjected to an anaerobic–aerobic soil slurry treatment and subsequently analyzed by radiocounting and solid-state 15N nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. This treatment led to a complete disappearance of extractable radioactivity originating from TNT and almost all of the radioactivity was recovered in the insoluble soil fraction. As revealed by solid-state 15N NMR, a major fraction of partially reduced metabolites of TNT was immobilized into the soil during the early stage of the anaerobic treatment, although some of the compounds (i.e., aminodinitrotoluenes and azoxy compounds) were extractable by methanol. Considerable 15N intensity was assigned to condensation products of TNT metabolites. A smaller signal indicated the formation of azoxy N. This signal and the signal for nitro groups were not observed at the end of the anaerobic phase, revealing further reduction and/or transformation of their corresponding compounds. An increase of the relative proportion of the condensation products occurred with increasing anaerobic incubation. Aerobic incubation resulted in a further decrease of aromatic amines, presumably due to oxidative transformations or their involvement in further condensation reactions. The results of the study demonstrate that the anaerobic–aerobic soil slurry treatment represents an efficient strategy for immobilizing reduced TNT in soils.Peer reviewe

Mobility in crisis: Sub-Saharan migrantsâ journeys through Libya and Malta

This thesis is a multi-sited ethnography of sub-Saharan migrants' journeys through Libya and by boat to Malta. Its overall aim is to understand how undocumented migrants make and conceptualise their complex journeys through shifting regulatory landscapes. The thesis draws upon, and consequently develops, understandings of migrantsâ mobilities, both within anthropology and wider migration studies. Over the course of their journey through Libya and Malta, sub-Saharan migrants move across uneven topographies in place and time, from the vast expanse of the Sahara Desert to the turbulent Mediterranean Sea, from situations of detention to everyday houses in society, from the hands of smugglers to the arms of the law. To this end, the thesis is guided by three wider objectives. First, investigating how different forms of mobility are part of migrants' journeys. Second, examining how migrants navigate such journeys. And third, understanding the ways in which migrants encounter and negotiate borders en route. These objectives are engaged with through a multi-sited ethnography tracing migrantsâ journeys through five contexts: sites of confinement and detention in Libya, everyday spaces of Libyan society, the boat crossing, and finally the legal framework in Malta. These varying contexts prompt comparisons across particular sites, processes and practices on a journey, highlighting elements that might be generalized and those that are specific. The ethnography is presented in five chapters, their sequence mirroring the overall journey of migrants through Libya and Malta. Unpacking the journey and mobility, this thesis develops a set of interrelated arguments. First, it deconstructs the notion of migrants as a homogenized group of people on a linear trajectory aimed at Europe. It goes beyond typologized understandings of migrants, such as legal, illegal, refugee or asylum seeker, that fix migrants into static categories linked to the state or specific crisis situations. Second, it front-stages the journey as a focal point of inquiry, thereby addressing a theme under-acknowledged in the anthropology of mobility and migration. This enables a move beyond state-centric and isolated understandings of migrantsâ mobilities to one that accounts for the multiplicity of journeys and processes en route. Third, this emphasis on the journey highlights the importance of thinking through relations involving multiple actors and bordering encounters. Taken together, these arguments advance important insights into the anthropologies of mobility and migration. The thesis makes wider contributions by conceptualizing an 'architecture' of the journey, constituted by three inter-related components: mobility, navigation, and borders. They offer a more nuanced understanding of migration and mobility in (post-)conflict settings, one that not only has implications for understanding sub-Saharan migrantsâ journeys through Libya and by boat to Europe, but one also relevant to other crisis contexts as well.</p

Mobility in crisis: Sub-Saharan migrants’ journeys through Libya and Malta

This thesis is a multi-sited ethnography of sub-Saharan migrants' journeys through Libya and by boat to Malta. Its overall aim is to understand how undocumented migrants make and conceptualise their complex journeys through shifting regulatory landscapes. The thesis draws upon, and consequently develops, understandings of migrants’ mobilities, both within anthropology and wider migration studies. Over the course of their journey through Libya and Malta, sub-Saharan migrants move across uneven topographies in place and time, from the vast expanse of the Sahara Desert to the turbulent Mediterranean Sea, from situations of detention to everyday houses in society, from the hands of smugglers to the arms of the law. To this end, the thesis is guided by three wider objectives. First, investigating how different forms of mobility are part of migrants' journeys. Second, examining how migrants navigate such journeys. And third, understanding the ways in which migrants encounter and negotiate borders en route. These objectives are engaged with through a multi-sited ethnography tracing migrants’ journeys through five contexts: sites of confinement and detention in Libya, everyday spaces of Libyan society, the boat crossing, and finally the legal framework in Malta. These varying contexts prompt comparisons across particular sites, processes and practices on a journey, highlighting elements that might be generalized and those that are specific. The ethnography is presented in five chapters, their sequence mirroring the overall journey of migrants through Libya and Malta. Unpacking the journey and mobility, this thesis develops a set of interrelated arguments. First, it deconstructs the notion of migrants as a homogenized group of people on a linear trajectory aimed at Europe. It goes beyond typologized understandings of migrants, such as legal, illegal, refugee or asylum seeker, that fix migrants into static categories linked to the state or specific crisis situations. Second, it front-stages the journey as a focal point of inquiry, thereby addressing a theme under-acknowledged in the anthropology of mobility and migration. This enables a move beyond state-centric and isolated understandings of migrants’ mobilities to one that accounts for the multiplicity of journeys and processes en route. Third, this emphasis on the journey highlights the importance of thinking through relations involving multiple actors and bordering encounters. Taken together, these arguments advance important insights into the anthropologies of mobility and migration. The thesis makes wider contributions by conceptualizing an 'architecture' of the journey, constituted by three inter-related components: mobility, navigation, and borders. They offer a more nuanced understanding of migration and mobility in (post-)conflict settings, one that not only has implications for understanding sub-Saharan migrants’ journeys through Libya and by boat to Europe, but one also relevant to other crisis contexts as well.</p

Bordering practices: migrants, mobility, and affect in Libya

In Libya's context of fragmented state authority, what does it mean for sub-Saharan migrants to be legible to state and criminal actors through their bodies rather than through the law? How do they experience and navigate precarity? Examining informal bordering practices in Libya reveals a mode of migration governance that is based less on legally restricting mobility and more on allowing uncertainty to proliferate and on exploiting migrants’ lives. In this system, certain bodies become targets for policing according to their skin color, documents, and blood tests, which can lead migrants to be extorted for money and detained. Migrants cope with such informal borderwork through affective labor. This plays a vital role in shaping their mobility decisions. By linking informal bordering practices with affect and mobilities, we can recast formal, state-centered ideas about migration governance

Bioeconomy and migrants’ lives in Libya

This essay examines how a bioeconomy might be understood in a context of fragmented state authority in Libya, where mobilities are commodified by different actors, but not always tethered to a state-centric biopolitics of managing migration. It focuses on the unauthorized journeys of migrants moving through Libya and onward by boat to Europe. In this context, economies tapping into human vitality can be clandestine, where lines between state and criminal actors, as well as the value and disposability of life, become blurred. They are also contingent on intimate relations between migrants&#x2014;proximities and labors of care through which mobile lives are reproduced and from which various predatory economic formations profit. Moving beyond the Foucauldian biopolitics that often inform studies of migration, security, and the state, ethnographic attention to value generation and extraction in the borderlands foregrounds economic relations as sets of intersecting practices in which mobile life and its disposability constitute a vital thread

Waiting to move on: migration, borderwork and mobility economies in Libya

Migrants’ mobilities in the fragmented state context of Libya are shaped by different dynamics of waiting. These dynamics emerge through intersections between transnational and local bordering practices. Examining the temporal effects of borderwork ethnographically by focusing on the lives of migrants who attempt to move on by boat to Europe, this article goes beyond depictions of waiting as an empty lived experience of time, to locate it within wider migration and mobility economies in borderlands. Migrants’ time is reproduced through intimate practices of care and labour and the ways in which they intermesh with a clandestine and often predatory economy where state and criminal actors profit from mobile lives. Focusing on migrants’ lived experiences of waiting to move on in contexts of fragmented state authority like Libya allows us to challenge fixed understandings of temporality as well as state-linked borderwork and its effects in Europe’s wider borderlands