The Future of Customs in the EU 2040: Results from a Real-time Delphi survey

A Real-time Delphi survey was carried out within the project The Future of Customs in the EU 2040: a foresight study performed by the European Commission Joint Research Centre on behalf of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union (DG TAXUD). The Real-time Delphi survey method is a structured expert survey methodology used to gather opinions on different possible developments in the long-term future on a given topic. This type of surveys is a useful way to elicit, collect and synthesise the opinions of a large group of experts and to give ideas to start a debate. In the survey the participants were asked to react to 16 statements formulated as if they were taking place in the year 2040. They cover different issues related to customs, such as the role of customs, trade, digital and technological development, human resources, and corruption and fraud.JRC.I.2-Foresight, Modelling, Behavioural Insights & Design for Polic

Regional Migration Governance in Africa: AU and RECs

This research provides an analysis of existing migration policies and policy architecture at the African continental level, as well as in the eight RECs, namely The Arab Maghreb Union (AMU), Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), East African Community (EAC), Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), Southern African Development Community (SADC), The Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD). The objectives of the analysis are to explore the multi-level migration governance in Africa and to draft the recent developments on the subject, especially linked to freedom of movements of persons within the continent. In line with the objectives, this research aims to answer the following questions: • Who are the key actors on regional migration governance in Africa, and how do they relate to each other? • Which are the migration legislation and policy initiatives of the African Union? • What are the legislative frameworks governing the freedom of movement of persons for each REC? • What are the main trends in policy development and what the assessment of current development?JRC.E.6-Demography, Migration and Governanc

Scanning the European Ecosystem of Distributed Ledger Technologies for Social and Public Good: What, Why, Where, How, and Ways to Move Forward

Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs), such as blockchains, are primarily tamper-resistant and time-stamped databases. They allow multiple parties to record, verify and share data on a peer-to-peer basis across a network, in decentralised, synchronised and transparent ways, with limited human intervention and reduced intermediate steps. These technologies are mostly known for business use cases, from cryptocurrencies to asset track and tracing. But there are numerous organisations nowadays searching for alternative ways to harness the potential of DLTs in the pursuit of public and social good, from local to global challenges, and towards more inclusive, cooperative, sustainable, ethical or accountable digital and physical worlds. This Science for Policy report explores the current status of this particular field both theoretically and empirically, in the framework of the project #DLT4Good: Co-creating a European Ecosystem of DLTs for Social and Public Good. Part One offers a conceptual overview of the connections between main features of DLTs and their potential for social and public good goals. Emphasis is placed on different approaches to decentralisation, and on core building blocks of DLTs linked with values such as trust, privacy, self-sovereignty, autonomy, inclusiveness, transparency, openness, or the commons. Part Two comprises a scanning of the current European ecosystem of DLT projects with activities in this field. It contains a summarized version of a database published online with 131 projects, and a quantitative review of main trends. It also includes a qualitative assessment of 10 projects selected from the larger sample to showcase this field and its diversity. Part Three concludes with six independent position papers and recommendations from experts and advisors of the #DLT4Good project. The main topics addressed range from decentralized governance to collaborative economies, with highlights on issues such as trust, verifiability, transparency, privacy or bottom-up coordination

The impact of surgical delay on resectability of colorectal cancer: An international prospective cohort study

AIM: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has provided a unique opportunity to explore the impact of surgical delays on cancer resectability. This study aimed to compare resectability for colorectal cancer patients undergoing delayed versus non-delayed surgery. METHODS: This was an international prospective cohort study of consecutive colorectal cancer patients with a decision for curative surgery (January-April 2020). Surgical delay was defined as an operation taking place more than 4 weeks after treatment decision, in a patient who did not receive neoadjuvant therapy. A subgroup analysis explored the effects of delay in elective patients only. The impact of longer delays was explored in a sensitivity analysis. The primary outcome was complete resection, defined as curative resection with an R0 margin. RESULTS: Overall, 5453 patients from 304 hospitals in 47 countries were included, of whom 6.6% (358/5453) did not receive their planned operation. Of the 4304 operated patients without neoadjuvant therapy, 40.5% (1744/4304) were delayed beyond 4 weeks. Delayed patients were more likely to be older, men, more comorbid, have higher body mass index and have rectal cancer and early stage disease. Delayed patients had higher unadjusted rates of complete resection (93.7% vs. 91.9%, P = 0.032) and lower rates of emergency surgery (4.5% vs. 22.5%, P < 0.001). After adjustment, delay was not associated with a lower rate of complete resection (OR 1.18, 95% CI 0.90-1.55, P = 0.224), which was consistent in elective patients only (OR 0.94, 95% CI 0.69-1.27, P = 0.672). Longer delays were not associated with poorer outcomes. CONCLUSION: One in 15 colorectal cancer patients did not receive their planned operation during the first wave of COVID-19. Surgical delay did not appear to compromise resectability, raising the hypothesis that any reduction in long-term survival attributable to delays is likely to be due to micro-metastatic disease

"Education is our weapon for the future": Access and non-access to higher education for refugees in Nakivale Refugee Settlement, Uganda

Master's thesis in Migrations and intercultural relationsAccess to higher education for refugees is limited and under-researched. Within the context of protracted refugee situations in the Global South, the relief focus of humanitarian assistance, as well as the lack of integration policy, restricts refugees’ living conditions and chances of being able to access further education. With a theoretical base in refugee studies and sociology of education, this study explores the conditions for access to higher education, by using a case study from Nakivale Refugee Settlement in Uganda. Following a qualitative research approach – interviews with education officers, but mainly refugees inside and outside the educational system – serves to demonstrate opportunities for and barriers to higher education, as well as provide accounts for lived experiences of access and non-access to education. The study also focuses on the refugees’ perspectives on their future and the end to their individual refugee situation, and what role higher education is perceived to have in relation to that. Findings suggest that although there in principle are no restrictions for refugees to access higher education institutions in Uganda, in practice there are structural constraints and various barriers which prevent access. In Nakivale Refugee Settlement there is a major discrepancy between educational realities and educational aspirations. Different future plans among the respondents, that challenge the dominating discourse of repatriation as the one solution to refugee situations, show how higher education is seen as having an important role in the preparation for all possible futures, and especially for an uncertain future which lies ahead for many refugees. Findings also point to how refugees have particular experiences related to being beneficiaries of humanitarian aid and having refugee status, thus being within a preserved dynamics of exclusion

Bi‐allelic pathogenic variants in NDUFC2 cause early‐onset Leigh syndrome and stalled biogenesis of complex I

Abstract Leigh syndrome is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder, most commonly observed in paediatric mitochondrial disease, and is often associated with pathogenic variants in complex I structural subunits or assembly factors resulting in isolated respiratory chain complex I deficiency. Clinical heterogeneity has been reported, but key diagnostic findings are developmental regression, elevated lactate and characteristic neuroimaging abnormalities. Here, we describe three affected children from two unrelated families who presented with Leigh syndrome due to homozygous variants (c.346_*7del and c.173A>T p.His58Leu) in NDUFC2, encoding a complex I subunit. Biochemical and functional investigation of subjects’ fibroblasts confirmed a severe defect in complex I activity, subunit expression and assembly. Lentiviral transduction of subjects’ fibroblasts with wild‐type NDUFC2 cDNA increased complex I assembly supporting the association of the identified NDUFC2 variants with mitochondrial pathology. Complexome profiling confirmed a loss of NDUFC2 and defective complex I assembly, revealing aberrant assembly intermediates suggestive of stalled biogenesis of the complex I holoenzyme and indicating a crucial role for NDUFC2 in the assembly of the membrane arm of complex I, particularly the ND2 module

30-Day Morbidity and Mortality of Bariatric Surgery During the COVID-19 Pandemic: a Multinational Cohort Study of 7704 Patients from 42 Countries.

BACKGROUND There are data on the safety of cancer surgery and the efficacy of preventive strategies on the prevention of postoperative symptomatic COVID-19 in these patients. But there is little such data for any elective surgery. The main objectives of this study were to examine the safety of bariatric surgery (BS) during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and to determine the efficacy of perioperative COVID-19 protective strategies on postoperative symptomatic COVID-19 rates. METHODS We conducted an international cohort study to determine all-cause and COVID-19-specific 30-day morbidity and mortality of BS performed between 01/05/2020 and 31/10/2020. RESULTS Four hundred ninety-nine surgeons from 185 centres in 42 countries provided data on 7704 patients. Elective primary BS (n = 7084) was associated with a 30-day morbidity of 6.76% (n = 479) and a 30-day mortality of 0.14% (n = 10). Emergency BS, revisional BS, insulin-treated type 2 diabetes, and untreated obstructive sleep apnoea were associated with increased complications on multivariable analysis. Forty-three patients developed symptomatic COVID-19 postoperatively, with a higher risk in non-whites. Preoperative self-isolation, preoperative testing for SARS-CoV-2, and surgery in institutions not concurrently treating COVID-19 patients did not reduce the incidence of postoperative COVID-19. Postoperative symptomatic COVID-19 was more likely if the surgery was performed during a COVID-19 peak in that country. CONCLUSIONS BS can be performed safely during the COVID-19 pandemic with appropriate perioperative protocols. There was no relationship between preoperative testing for COVID-19 and self-isolation with symptomatic postoperative COVID-19. The risk of postoperative COVID-19 risk was greater in non-whites or if BS was performed during a local peak