WHEN THE POOR WELCOME THE PERSECUTED: Recognizing the Economic Potential of Refugee Reception in Low-income Host Countries

While a ‘burden narrative’ dominates the popular and political discourse regarding the economic impact of refugees, scholars increasingly recognize their economic potential. One such scholar is economist Philippe Legrain who argues that welcoming refugees constitutes “a humanitarian investment that yields economic dividends” (Legrain, 2016, p.1). This paper investigates the validity of such claim in the context of low-income host countries via a comparative analysis of Tanzania and Uganda. The hypotheses derived of Legrain’s work confirm that low-income countries benefit economically as refugees improve market conditions by spurring demand, trade, and entrepreneurialism. Certain policies can strengthen such potential if prioritizing the right to work, freedom of movement and assistance programs encouraging entrepreneurialism. Doing so allows refugees and hosts to mutually benefit rather than to compete for economic opportunities

The Norwegian regional government reform – a two-case study comparison of regional merger processes

This thesis looks at the 2020 regional government reform in Norway, studying the processes in two merger cases of two former regions each. Qualitative interviews with regional politicians involved in the merger processes were employed to investigate strategies applied by regional actors during the reform, aimed at enabling or preventing the merger.Master's Thesis in Public AdministrationAORG351MASV-PUBA

recognizing the economic potential of refugee reception in low-income host countries

Published online : 15 March 2022While a ‘burden narrative’ dominates the popular and political discourse regarding the economic impact of refugees, scholars increasingly recognize their economic potential. One such scholar is economist Philippe Legrain who argues that welcoming refugees constitutes “a humanitarian investment that yields economic dividends” (Legrain, 2016, p.1). This paper investigates the validity of such claim in the context of low-income host countries via a comparative analysis of Tanzania and Uganda. The hypotheses derived of Legrain’s work confirm that low-income countries benefit economically as refugees improve market conditions by spurring demand, trade, and entrepreneurialism. Certain policies can strengthen such potential if prioritizing the right to work, freedom of movement and assistance programs encouraging entrepreneurialism. Doing so allows refugees and hosts to mutually benefit rather than to compete for economic opportunities

Grundrechte

Das Lehrbuch bearbeitet die Grundrechte des Grundgesetzes auf innovative Weise. Ein Team von Nachwuchswissenschaftler/-innen aus ganz Deutschland hat Grundlagenwissen für Studierende mit weiterführendem Wissen für Examenskandidat/-innen kombiniert. Auch kritische Stimmen und historisches Hintergrundwissen finden ihren Platz, werden für Studierende mit knappem Zeitbudget aber stets transparent gekennzeichnet. Das Lehrbuch arbeitet die europa- und völkerrechtlichen Verflechtungen der deutschen Rechtsordnung intensiv auf. Es nimmt pointiert zu aktuellen rechtspolitischen Debatten Stellung. Viele Beispiele und Verweise auf digitale, interaktive Übungen regen zum kritischen Denken und selbstständigen Lernen an. Das Lehrbuch wird ergänzt durch frei zugängliche Übungsfälle.Alle Kapitel lassen sich auf einer digitalen Plattform kommentieren. Als Initiative für offene Rechtswissenschaft (OpenRewi) sehen wir unsere Arbeit als Vorschlag – die Leser:innen sind ein Teil der Diskussion

Mutations in hepatitis C virus E2 located outside the CD81 binding sites lead to escape from broadly neutralizing antibodies but compromise virus infectivity.

Broadly neutralizing antibodies are commonly present in the sera of patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. To elucidate possible mechanisms of virus escape from these antibodies, retrovirus particles pseudotyped with HCV glycoproteins (HCVpp) isolated from sequential samples collected over a 26-year period from a chronically infected patient, H, were used to characterize the neutralization potential and binding affinity of a panel of anti-HCV E2 human monoclonal antibodies (HMAbs). Moreover, AP33, a neutralizing murine monoclonal antibody (MAb) to a linear epitope in E2, was also tested against selected variants. The HMAbs used were previously shown to broadly neutralize HCV and to recognize a cluster of highly immunogenic overlapping epitopes, designated domain B, containing residues that are also critical for binding of viral E2 glycoprotein to CD81, a receptor essential for virus entry. Escape variants were observed at different time points with some of the HMAbs. Other HMAbs neutralized all variants except for the isolate 02.E10, obtained in 2002, which was also resistant to MAb AP33. The 02.E10 HCVpp that have reduced binding affinities for all antibodies and for CD81 also showed reduced infectivity. Comparison of the 02.E10 nucleotide sequence with that of the strain H-derived consensus variant, H77c, revealed the former to have two mutations in E2, S501N and V506A, located outside the known CD81 binding sites. Substitution A506V in 02.E10 HCVpp restored binding to CD81, but its antibody neutralization sensitivity was only partially restored. Double substitutions comprising N501S and A506V synergistically restored 02.E10 HCVpp infectivity. Other mutations that are not part of the antibody binding epitope in the context of N501S and A506V were able to completely restore neutralization sensitivity. These findings showed that some nonlinear overlapping epitopes are more essential than others for viral fitness and consequently are more invariant during earlier years of chronic infection. Further, the ability of the 02.E10 consensus variant to escape neutralization by the tested antibodies could be a new mechanism of virus escape from immune containment. Mutations that are outside receptor binding sites resulted in structural changes leading to complete escape from domain B neutralizing antibodies, while simultaneously compromising viral fitness by reducing binding to CD81

Expanding Choreography through Everyday Movement in the Work of plan b

This book arises from the shared interest in practices of writing of artists and scholars in the field of performance, dance, and visual arts. For all authors writing is - in various forms and to different ends - an essential part of their work: as a movement practice and a mode of self-reflection, an aesthetic and epistemic practice. The different approaches converge in the idea of an "expanded writing" as a broad approach to writing that encompasses note taking, scribbling, engraving, documenting, producing text as well as choreographing. Book as the result of a 2 year Volkswagen Stiftung funded project Writing Movement

Ultrafast optical rotations of electron spins in quantum dots

Coherent manipulation of quantum bits (qubits) on time scales much shorter than the coherence time is a key prerequisite for quantum information processing. Electron spins in quantum dots (QDs) are particularly attractive for implementations of qubits. Efficient optical methods for initialization and readout of spins have been developed in recent years. Spin coherence times in the microsecond range have been demonstrated, so that spin control by picosecond optical pulses would be highly desirable. Then a large number of spin rotations could be performed while coherence is maintained. A major remaining challenge is demonstration of such rotations with high fidelity. Here we use an ensemble of QD electron spins focused into a small number of precession modes about a magnetic field by periodic optical pumping. We demonstrate ultrafast optical rotations of spins about arbitrary axes on a picosecond time scale using laser pulses as control fields.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

Machine-learning-aided prediction of brain metastases development in non-small-cell lung cancers

Purpose Non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) shows a high incidence of brain metastases (BM). Early detection is crucial to improve clinical prospects. We trained and validated classifier models to identify patients with a high risk of developing BM, as they could potentially benefit from surveillance brain MRI. Methods Consecutive patients with an initial diagnosis of NSCLC from January 2011 to April 2019 and an in-house chest-CT scan (staging) were retrospectively recruited at a German lung cancer center. Brain imaging was performed at initial diagnosis and in case of neurological symptoms (follow-up). Subjects lost to follow-up or still alive without BM at the data cut-off point (12/2020) were excluded. Covariates included clinical and/or 3D-radiomics-features of the primary tumor from staging chest-CT. Four machine learning models for prediction (80/20 training) were compared. Gini Importance and SHAP were used as measures of importance; sensitivity, specificity, area under the precision-recall curve, and Matthew's Correlation Coefficient as evaluation metrics. Results Three hundred and ninety-five patients compromised the clinical cohort. Predictive models based on clinical features offered the best performance (tuned to maximize recall: sensitivity∼70%, specificity∼60%). Radiomics features failed to provide sufficient information, likely due to the heterogeneity of imaging data. Adenocarcinoma histology, lymph node invasion, and histological tumor grade were positively correlated with the prediction of BM, age, and squamous cell carcinoma histology were negatively correlated. A subgroup discovery analysis identified 2 candidate patient subpopulations appearing to present a higher risk of BM (female patients + adenocarcinoma histology, adenocarcinoma patients + no other distant metastases). Conclusion Analysis of the importance of input features suggests that the models are learning the relevant relationships between clinical features/development of BM. A higher number of samples is to be prioritized to improve performance. Employed prospectively at initial diagnosis, such models can help select high-risk subgroups for surveillance brain MRI

Simple Questionnaires to Improve Pooling Strategies for SARS-CoV-2 Laboratory Testing

Background: Liberal PCR testing for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is key to contain the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Combined multi-sample testing in pools instead of single tests might enhance laboratory capacity and reduce costs, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Objective: The purpose of our study was to assess the value of a simple questionnaire to guide and further improve pooling strategies for SARS-CoV-2 laboratory testing. Methods: Pharyngeal swabs for SARS-CoV-2 testing were obtained from healthcare and police staff, hospital inpatients, and nursing home residents in the southwestern part of Germany. We designed a simple questionnaire, which included questions pertaining to a suggestive clinical symptomatology, recent travel history, and contact with confirmed cases to stratify an individual’s pre-test probability of having contracted COVID-19. The questionnaire was adapted repeatedly in face of the unfolding pandemic in response to the evolving epidemiology and observed clinical symptomatology. Based on the response patterns, samples were either tested individually or in multi-sample pools. We compared the pool positivity rate and the number of total PCR tests required to obtain individual results between this questionnaire-based pooling strategy and randomly assembled pools. Findings: Between March 11 and July 5, 2020, we processed 25,978 samples using random pooling (n = 6,012; 23.1%) or questionnaire-based pooling (n = 19,966; 76.9%). The overall prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 was 0.9% (n = 238). Pool positivity (14.6% vs. 1.2%) and individual SARS-CoV-2 prevalence (3.4% vs. 0.1%) were higher in the random pooling group than in the questionnaire group. The average number of PCR tests needed to obtain the individual result for one participant was 0.27 tests in the random pooling group, as compared to 0.09 in the questionnaire-based pooling group, leading to a laboratory capacity increase of 73% and 91%, respectively, as compared to single PCR testing. Conclusions: Strategies that combine pool testing with a questionnaire-based risk stratification can increase laboratory testing capacities for COVID-19 and might be important tools, particularly in resource-constrained settings