"Migrants, States, and EU Citizenship's Unfulfilled Promise"

A constant aim of EU citizenship, and indeed the entire project of European integration, has always been to lower barriers and create a common space. If the complete elimination of national borders remains elusive, their importance has been diminished in striking ways by the development of EU citizenship and the ban against nationality based discrimination. Yet the barriers to free movement have been lowered in differential ways. Most citizens of EU member states now enjoy residence, employment and other rights throughout Europe. The extension of some rights to some categories of citizens of some new member states is admittedly sometimes subject to transition periods, but these expire. By contrast, third country nationals -- individuals who do not hold citizenship of one of the member states, even though they may have resided for many years, or even been born in Europe -- remain largely excluded from the benefits of EU citizenship. Various initiatives over the years have opened up limited rights for third country nationals. But the difficulty of enacting these rights, and current moves to more restrictive immigration and naturalization policies, highlight the continuing exclusivity of EU citizenship: immigrants migrate to national polities, and they become European only by virtue of incorporation into national states. This means that EU citizenship's transformative potential remains unrealized.Glendon College (York University

Micromachined bulk PZT piezoelectric vibration harverster to improve effectiveness over low amplitude and low frequency vibrations

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Newborns modulate their crawling in response to their native language but not another language

Human newborns can propel themselves to their mother's breast when positioned skin to skin on her abdomen just after birth. For decades, researchers have considered this primitive crawling behavior a spinal reflex, immune to supra spinal control. However, recent research suggests that neonatal crawling is already responsive to visual and olfactory stimuli processed at a supra spinal level. Here we report that a few hours post birth, French newborns can also modulate their crawling in response to their native language – a source of information that is processed supra-spinally. The crawling patterns of 23 French-born newborns were recorded on video and via an infrared motion capture system during two randomly ordered 2-min trials. The newborns were secured on a mini skateboard to facilitate arm and leg movements during their crawling propulsion. They heard a repetitive sequence of the same sentences either in French, their native language, or in English, a rhythmically different and hence discriminable unfamiliar language, on each trial. In French, compared to English, crawling was enhanced, with significantly more arm and leg steps and significantly more and larger trunk rotations in the cephalo-caudal axis. Moreover, newborns rotated their heads and trunk toward the appropriate loud speaker when hearing French but not English. These preliminary findings suggest that newborn crawling is not a simple stereotyped reflex under spinal control, but a complex pattern that can be modulated in response to higher-order, supra-spinally processed stimuli. The findings open fascinating questions about the range of stimuli to which newborn crawling is responsive

Microsystems for the electrochemical and optical monitoring of bioenergetic activities of isolated mitochondria

International audienceMitochondria are known as central players in many cellular processes including oxidative phosphorylation, oxidative stress and signaling through the production of reactive oxygen species, or the activation of apoptosis by the cytochrome c release. Consequently, they play a key role in the progression of diseases linked to ageing, including cancers and neurodegenerative troubles. Thus, lots of efforts are currently devoted to develop innovative therapies based on the modulation of mitochondrial activity. This implies increasing demand for devices allowing the analysis of metabolic processes at the scale of isolated mitochondria. In this context, we developed the ElecWell (electrochemical microwell), based on the integration of ring nanoelectrodes (RNE) into silica microwell arrays made on glass substrates [1]. The new generation of ElecWell devices was adapted to a temperature-controlled microscopy platform. Two planar electrodes were integrated to obtain a complete electrochemical cell and allow experiments in closed-flow-through configuration (Figure 1A). Methods were developed to enhance the filling rate of microwells by mitochondria and to reduce biofouling (Figure 1B). First results were obtained with mitochondria isolated from rodent cardiomyocytes. Oxygen consumption was measured locally by cyclic voltammetry at the RNEs (Figure 1C) whereas individual variations of mitochondrial membrane potential were monitored by fluorescence microscopy (Figure 1D), [2]. Next steps consist in performing simultaneous measurements and to reach the electrochemical detection of the bioenergetic activity of single mitochondria with individually addressable microwells. [1] Sékli Belaïdi F. et al., Sensors Actuators B-Chemical, 2016, 232, 345 [2] Vajrala V.S. et al, Integrative Biology, 2016, 8, 836. Figure 1: (A) the 2 nd generation of the ElecWell device mounted on its microscopy platform; (B) mitochondria into microwells (TMRM fluorescence); (C) variations of dissolved oxygen concentration versus time; (D) variations of mitochondrial membrane potential versus time, both as function of activator/inhibitor additions

Powering a Commercial Datalogger by Energy Harvesting from Generated Aeroacoustic Noise Powering a Commercial Datalogger by Energy Harvesting from Generated Aeroacoustic Noise

International audienceThis paper reports the experimental demonstration of a wireless sensor node only powered by an aeroacoustic energy harvesting device, meant to be installed on an aircraft outside skin. New results related to the physical characterization of the energy conversion process are presented. Optimized interface electronics has been designed, which allows demonstrating aeroacoustic power generation by supplying a commercial wireless datalogger in conditions representative of an actual flight