Migrant minors in detention: Practical needs and the limits set by the European Convention

State officials report practical needs to put migrant minors in detention, and the European Convention on Human Rights sets legal limits on this practice. This article defines the scope of circumstances under which migrating minors may be detained by analyzing The European Court of Human Rights case law, using judgments in which the detention of migrant minors has been alleged a violation of Articles 3, 5.1, or 8. It also explores states’ needs for detaining such children, using data from 19 interviews with Swedish police officers, and compares these views with the case law. Police interviewees primarily describe two needs to detain children: to make deportations of children smooth and dignified, and to prevent minors from committing crimes. The investigation finds that migrant minor detentions are rarely permissible according to the Convention—especially under Article 3—and that the permissible scope is too small to meet the expressed practical needs. The actors involved in the issue of detaining migrant minors might have different perspectives on the issue, but they must not lose sight of the fact that these children are categorized as some of the most vulnerable in society and that their rights must be protected

It Takes Two

Theories of conflict emphasize dyadic interaction, yet existing empirical studies of civil war focus largely on state attributes and pay little attention to nonstate antagonists. We recast civil war in a dyadic perspective, and consider how nonstate actor attributes and their relationship to the state influence conflict dynamics. We argue that strong rebels, who pose a military challenge to the government, are likely to lead to short wars and concessions. Conflicts where rebels seem weak can become prolonged if rebels can operate in the periphery so as to defy a government victory yet are not strong enough to extract concessions. Conflicts should be shorter when potential insurgents can rely on alternative political means to violence. We examine these hypotheses in a dyadic analysis of civil war duration and outcomes, using new data on nonstate actors and conflict attributes, finding support for many of our conjectures. </jats:p

Elektroglottografi i realtidsfeedback för hållbar sångteknik

This master thesis describes early attempts at using electroglottography (EGG) to capture such changes in vocal fold vibration patterns that could be of interest to teachers of contemporary commercial music. After initial explorations, focus is placed on detecting potentially detrimental phonation; more specifically on the pressed quality often associated with loud singing in high register (belting). FonaDyn, a program written in the SuperCollider language, is used to detect pressedness using an algorithm based on K-means clustering of Fourier components of EGG cycles. Results indicate that pressedness affects phonation in ways detectable using EGG. Changes caused by pressedness seem to vary between registers and this variation is similar between subjects. Detection of pressedness in a subject is quite successful when training the algorithm on the same subject, but not always across subjects.Denna masteruppsats beskriver inledande försök att använda elektroglottografi (EGG) för att avläsa sådana förändringar i stämbandens vibrationsmönster som skulle kunna vara av intresse för sånglärare inom icke-klassisk stil. Tidiga undersökningar leder till att fortsatt fokus läggs på att detektera fonationstyper som kan orsaka röstskador; mer specifikt den typ av pressad röstkvalitet som ofta förknippas med stark sång i högt register (s.k. belting). FonaDyn, ett datorprogram skrivet i språket SuperCollider, används för att detektera pressad fonation med hjälp av K-means-klustring av EGG-cykler baserat på deras Fourierkomponenter. Resultaten indikerar att pressad fonation går att urskilja med hjälp av EGG. Kännetecknen för pressad fonation tycks skilja sig mellan röstregister och denna skillnad är snarlik hos olika försökspersoner. Programmet klarar av att känna igen pressad fonation hos samma person som algoritmen tränats på men inte alltid om algoritmen tränats på en annan sångare

Competition and Market-Entry Into the Swedish Pharmacy Market : A study on municipality level between 2011-2016

Between the 1970s and 2009 the Swedish pharmacy market was characterized by a governmental monopoly with Apoteket AB as the only market-actor. By the year 2009, market reforms and re-regulations allowed private companies to enter the pharmacy market. Still, pertaining to existing regulations (e.g the pricing of prescription drugs) the market cannot be described as entirely free. The purpose of this thesis was to examine how competition affects market-entry decisions. More precisely, how the number of pharmacy chains in a municipality affects the probability of a new pharmacy being opened. Conversely, the effect of competition on market-exit was also addressed. Using yearly data on municipality level, the sample incorporates all 290 Swedish municipalities, of which 287 were examined. The excluded municipalities are Stockholm, Göteborg and Malmö. The main estimations were made by means of Poisson regressions. Additionally, all estimations were also regressed using the Negative Binomial method. This study reports a negative relationship of market-entry and the number of existing pharmacy firms in a municipality of average size. Market Exit is on the other hand positively correlated with the number of pharmacy chains in an average municipality

On the path to universalism? The role of external instruments in the European court of human rights jurisprudence

In the multi-layered system of international human rights law, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) uses not only its own case-law but also external instruments (EI s) when interpreting the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). This article explores the horizontal judicial borrowing practice of the Court until 2020. The landscape includes a wide range of different sources, but with a clear preference for Council of Europe instruments and secondly United Nations sources. Bridging what EIs are cited with how they are used, a case-study is performed investigating the functions that the EIs serve under Article 3 ECHR. Although it is uncommon, explicitly relying on EI s suggests that the Court views it to be legitimate. Yet, it is not uncontroversial. The Court’s motivations in citing EI s can be understood as justified from a universal human rights perspective, and susceptible to criticism from the perspective that it could undermine State sovereignty

Bridge engineering with visual programming

Denna rapport har till uppgift att undersöka huruvida det med visuell programmering är möjligt att skapa en parametriskt modifierbar bromodell i programmet Tekla. Därefter är tanken att tillvägagångssättet ska jämföras mot traditionell modellering.  Rapporten börjar med att beskriva den brotyp som valts för arbetet, samt att beskriva de metoder och olika program som använts under arbetets gång. Därefter följer en redovisning av det ”visuella program” som tagits fram där varje del beskrivs för att läsaren ska få en djupare förståelse av tillvägagångssättet. Sedan följer en diskussionsdel där de olika avgränsningarna och resultatet diskuteras. The purpose of this thesis project is to investigate if it is possible to create a parametrically modifiable model in Tekla using visual programming. This procedure is then compared to traditional modeling to find out whether it is a viable alternative or not. The report starts with describing the bridge type chosen for the project, as well as describing the methods and different programs used during the work process. Thereafter follows an account of the "visual program" that has been developed where each part of the program is described in order for the reader to gain a deeper understanding of the approach. Then follows a discussion where the different delimitations and results are discussed

An empirical analysis of GitHub Copilot

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) has brought transformative changes to various fields, including software development. GitHub Copilot, an AI-powered code assistant developed by OpenAI in collaboration with Microsoft, has emerged as a promising tool that aims to enhance developers’ productivity by providing context-aware code suggestions. This bachelor’s thesis presents an empirical evaluation of GitHub Copilot, exploring its effectiveness and efficiency.  The study adopts a mixed-methods approach, combining both quantitative and qualitative techniques to assess GitHub Copilot’s performance in aiding software developers with solving work-related programming tasks. Additionally, after solving the tasks, a survey is conducted with the participants to gather their perceptions and overall impression of Copilot.  The results of the empirical evaluation provide evidence-based insights into the effects of using Copilot as a programming tool. Findings from the quantitative analysis reveal Copilot’s potential to significantly reduce development time, while also slightly increasing the code’s quality. Moreover, the qualitative analysis did not show any difference in the code’s efficiency when using Copilot.

Inverse Modeling of Biomechanical Tongue Control : From Articulation Data to Muscle Activation

We map real articulation data for five Swedish phonemen sequences onto parameters of a biomechanical tongue model that produces movement and muscle activations from position data. The movement produced is broadly correct and could likely be improved by a more fine tuned mapping. The muscle activations were found to vary between simulations using the same data but matched well with previous studies on muscle activity for vowels

An empirical analysis of GitHub Copilot

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) has brought transformative changes to various fields, including software development. GitHub Copilot, an AI-powered code assistant developed by OpenAI in collaboration with Microsoft, has emerged as a promising tool that aims to enhance developers’ productivity by providing context-aware code suggestions. This bachelor’s thesis presents an empirical evaluation of GitHub Copilot, exploring its effectiveness and efficiency.  The study adopts a mixed-methods approach, combining both quantitative and qualitative techniques to assess GitHub Copilot’s performance in aiding software developers with solving work-related programming tasks. Additionally, after solving the tasks, a survey is conducted with the participants to gather their perceptions and overall impression of Copilot.  The results of the empirical evaluation provide evidence-based insights into the effects of using Copilot as a programming tool. Findings from the quantitative analysis reveal Copilot’s potential to significantly reduce development time, while also slightly increasing the code’s quality. Moreover, the qualitative analysis did not show any difference in the code’s efficiency when using Copilot.