A note on the component structure in random intersection graphs with tunable clustering

We study the component structure in random intersection graphs with tunable clustering, and show that the average degree works as a threshold for a phase transition for the size of the largest component. That is, if the expected degree is less than one, the size of the largest component is a.a.s. of logarithmic order, but if the average degree is greater than one, a.a.s. a single large component of linear order emerges, and the size of the second largest component is at most of logarithmic order.Comment: 8 pages, Published at http://www.combinatorics.org/Volume_15/PDF/v15i1n10.pdf by the Electronic Journal of Combinatorics (http://www.combinatorics.org

The Legality of Dublin Transfers

There is no right to asylum, but there is a right not to be returned to persecution. The principle of non-refoulement, which is expressed in article 3 ECHR, encompasses this right and it is an essential part of individual rights protection. The Dublin Regulation presumes that EU member state are safe and it designates which member state is responsible to try an application for asylum. The regulation allows for the transfer of the applicant to the designated state – a practice known as a Dublin transfer. This thesis applies the sources of law and the means of interpretation of both international law and EU law to discern the requirements for a Dublin transfer to be legal according to the ECHR and the Dublin Regulation respectively. The findings are compared and discussed from an individual rights perspective. Both systems require that there should be substantial grounds for believing that the applicant faces a real risk of torture, inhumane or degrading treatment in the receiving state for the transfer to be precluded. The prohibition includes indirect refoulement. The requirements on the applicant to meet these prerequisites have been considerably lowered by the ECtHR. The Dublin Regulation contains the additional prerequisite that systemic flaws in the asylum procedure and the reception conditions should cause this risk. There is lacking consensus on how this provision should be interpreted, but there is ample ground to argue that it should be interpreted in a manner compatible with the ECHR. According to both systems, the presumption of safety can be rebutted. The transferring state has a duty to inspect the actual conditions if there is information available indicating that human rights are not respected in the receiving state. The CJEU maintains that the presumption of safety concerns the raison d’être of the EU. From an individual rights perspective it is unsatisfactory that the meaning of systemic flaws is unclear and that the responsibility to investigate is contingent upon third party information. The present Dublin III Regulation lacks a system to generally suspend transfers to certain states, which means that protections is granted on a case-by-case basis, where the authorities of the member states must assess whether other member states fulfil their international obligations.Det finns ingen rätt till asyl, men det finns en rätt att inte återsändas till förföljelse. Denna rätt omfattas av principen om non-refoulement, som uttrycks i artikel 3 EKMR, och är en grundläggande del i skyddet för individuella rättigheter. Dublinförordningen presumerar att EU länder är säkra och utpekar vilket land som ansvarar för att pröva en asylansökan. Förordningen tillåter att den sökande överförs till den ansvariga staten, vilket kallas för en Dublinöverföring. Denna uppsats tillämpar både folkrättens och EU-rättens källor och tolkningsmetoder för att utreda vilka krav som ställs enligt EKMR respektive Dublinförordningen för att en överföring ska vara laglig. Resultaten jämförs och diskuteras utifrån ett individrättsligt perspektiv. Båda system förutsätter att det finns starka skäl att tro att sökande löper en reell risk att utsättas för tortyr, omänsklig eller förnedrande behandling i mottagarlandet för att överföringen inte ska vara tillåten. Förbudet omfattar även indirekt refoulering. Kraven på den asylsökande för att uppfylla dessa rekvisit har sänkts betydligt av Europadomstolen. Dublinförordningen innehåller ett ytterligare rekvisit som stipulerar att risken ska orsakas av systematiska brister i asylförfarandet och i mottagningsvillkoren. Det saknas konsensus gällande hur detta rekvisit ska tolkas, men det finns goda grunder att argumentera för att det ska tolkas på ett sådant sätt att det överensstämmer med EKMR. Enligt de båda systemen, kan presumtionen att EU-länder är säkra kullkastas. Den överförande staten har en undersökningsplikt gällande de verkliga förhållandena, när det finns tillgänglig information som tyder på brister i respekten för mänskliga rättigheter i mottagarlandet. EU-domstolen anser att presumtionen för säkerhet angår EUs existensberättigande. Från ett individrättsligt perspektiv är det otillfredsställande att innebörden av systematiska brister är oklar och att undersökningsplikten är beroende av information från tredje part. Den nuvarande Dublinförordningen III saknar ett system för att generellt ställa in överföringar till vissa stater. Detta innebär att varje fall måste bedömas individuellt och att medlemsstaternas myndigheter är tvungna att bedöma huruvida andra medlemsländer lever upp till sina internationella åtaganden

Shaping Engineers, Making Gender Politics: Swedish Universities of Technology and the Creation of a Policy Field, 1976–1998

Despite a global reputation as a gender-equal nation, the labour market in Sweden is segregated. This particularly applies to engineering. Five decades of national gender equality policies and engineering recruitment campaigns have only partially transformed the situation. This thesis combines the study of two parallel and interlinked phenomena: the development of Swedish engineering education and profession, and the evolution of a national gender equality policy field. It examines how the Swedish engineering profession – represented by the universities of technology – from the mid-1970s, responded to demands from both national policies and from within the engineering communities. The push to act went in two directions; national policies pressured universities of technology to take measures, and representatives from the engineering communities often shaped gender equality policies. How engineering educators steered definitions of gender equality and the corresponding solutions in directions that suited their professional needs are at the heart of the analysis here. Drawing on previously unexplored archival sources and interviews and deploying a theoretical framework of professional boundary work (Thomas F. Gieryn), the dissertation argues that the Swedish male-dominated engineering profession, represented by their technical universities, conducted gender equality politics. The study adds to an emerging international research field on the history of gendered engineering (e.g. Amy Sue Bix, Nathan Ensmenger, Laura Ettinger, Mar Hicks, Alice Clifton-Morekis, Londa Schiebinger, Karin Zachmann) and the Swedish historiography of national gender equality politics. It presents Swedish historiography on the gendered culture in engineering and national gender equality policy to an international audience

Vibed: a prototyping tool for haptic game interfaces

Haptics in the form of vibrations in game interfaces have the potential to strengthen visual and audio components, and also improve accessibility for certain populations like people with deafblindness. However, building vibrotactile game interfaces is difficult and time consuming. Our research problem was how to make a prototyping tool that facilitated prototyping of vibrotactile game interfaces for phones and gamepads. The results include a description of the prototyping tool we built, which is called VibEd. It allows designers to draw vibrotactile patterns, referred to as vibes, that can easily be tested on phones and gamepads, and exported to code that can be used in game development. It is concluded, based on user tests, that a haptic game interface prototyping tool such as VibEd, can facilitate haptic game interface design and development, and by that contribute to game accessibility for persons with deafblindness

Determinants of customer satisfaction with socially responsible investments: Do ethical and environmental factors impact customer satisfaction with SRI profiled mutual funds?

Although much research has been published on green/ethical consumer behaviour, the question of how consumers evaluate pro-socially positioned products in the post-purchase stage is still virtually unexplored. This is troubling given the significance of post-purchase evaluations within general marketing theory. To address this gap in the literature, this study examines how a set of technical and functional quality attributes contribute to customer satisfaction in a socially responsible investment (SRI) setting. The results of the study show that perceived financial quality of the SRI mutual fund is the most important predictor of customer satisfaction. However, perceived social, ethical, and environmental (SEE) quality is also positively related to satisfaction for the SRI mutual fund. Based on these results, it is argued that although SEE quality is important to customers, marketers of pro-socially profiled products should primarily focus on conventional quality attributes, as a good SEE record unlikely to generate customer satisfaction alone.Customer satisfaction; ethics; perceived quality; socially responsible investment; mutual funds

Tanárképzés Németországban

Kétségtelen az, hogy a német iskolarendszer és a módszertani hagyományok hosszú időn át hatottak a magyar oktatásra. Fontos mérföldkövet jelentettek a tanárképzés szervezeti és tartalmi struktúrájában a ’90-es évek, amikor is a tanárképzés egységes kialakítása vált szükségessé. Olyan átfogó oktatási reformok kezdődtek, melyek a tanárképzés mellett az egész iskolarendszert érintették. A reformok kiterjedtek a tanárképzés megújítására is, melynek célja az volt, hogy a tanári pályát elismertebbé tegyék. A tanárképzés megújítása és az erről folyó viták azonban nem történnek zökkenőmentesen. A ’90-es évek végén a tanárképzéssel foglalkozó tanulmányok zömében a ’70-es, ’80-as évekből származtak, és empirikus megalapozottságuk nem volt elég részletes. Hiányoztak az olyan tanulmányok, melyek a tanárképzés hatékonyságát tartományokon átívelően vizsgálták (Schaefers, 2002)