Technology Assessment and Experimentation Plan

An assessment is given of the critical and enhancing technologies necessary to build the basic personal terminal (BPT), the supplier, and the Network Management Center (NMC). The experimentation plan for testing the Personal Access Satellite System (PASS) utilizing ACTS is detailed. The experiment plan gives a list of candidate experiments and describes the proposed experimental set-up. ACTS will be used in the Microwave Switch Matrix (MSM) mode. The Microwave Switch Matrix - Link Evaluation Terminal (MSM-LET) at the NASA Lewis Research Center will serve as the microwave front-end for the PASS supplier and the NMC. Link budgets are given for both the forward and return links between the supplier and the basic personal terminal. The equipment required for the experiments is identified

CLIP/CETL Fellowship Report 2006/7 : Enhancing practice - to investigate an appropriate strategy for using Clip Cetl enhanced textile facilities to improve the student learning experience

To investigate and identify an appropriate strategy to inform the planning of course teams for the use of LCF’s enhanced textile facility at Lime Grove. The project aimed to design material to underpin workshop based specialist skills and establish a system to encourage the creative use of new equipment. The work aimed to enrich the student learning experience and enable students’ learning to be organised on a more flexible basis by supporting independent learning

Playing Politics with Schengen

The European Commission has been at the forefront of criticism of France and Denmark for re-introducing border controls. This was not because they in fact threatened Schengen but because such decisions undermine the Commission’s power as the executive of Europe

Entry Denied: Revolution in North Africa and the Continued Centrality of Migration to European Responses

The recent revolutions in Tunisia and Libya have brought the issue of trans-Mediterranean migration to the forefront of popular discussions about Europe’s relationship with its immediate neighbors in the Middle East and North Africa. It was on the back of hyperbolic and cataclysmic predictions of Europe being “swamped” by migrants that the case for intervention in Libya was partly made and following this, a number of EU member states have agreed on a temporary suspension of the Schengen Agreement

Searching for accountability in EU migration-management practices

The uprisings in North Africa, the subsequent increase in migrants crossing the Mediterranean and the cataclysmic predictions about an end to the Schengen acquis has highlighted a hitherto under-investigated policy practice of the EU: migration-management. Polly Pallister-Wilkins scrutinizes current practices in search of accountability

Antecedents of the Idea of Human Rights: A Survey of Perspectives

human development, human rights

Developing and agreeing a capability list in the British context: What can be learnt from social survey data on ‘rights’?

The paper examines what can be learnt about the 'valuation' of freedoms and opportunities (or capabilities) using a general population social survey data source on values. On the assumption that rights can be understood as protecting underlying critical freedoms and opportunities, social survey data on public attitudes towards the rights that people "should have" is interpreted as providing empirical evidence on the 'valuation' of freedoms and opportunities by individuals and groups. The paper addresses the extent to which data of this type provides empirical evidence of the 'valuation' of the 10 domains of freedom and opportunity that are specified in the capability lists for adults and children that have been developed and applied in previous projects (namely, Life; Health; Physical security; Legal security; Standard of living; Education and learning; Productive and valued activities; Individual, family and social life; Identity and self-respect; Participation, influence and voice). Particular emphasis is put on moving beyond the 'legalistic' methodology for deriving a 'human rights-based capability list' applied in previous projects, and examining whether empirical research on values provides an alternative, overlapping or supplementary informational base for deriving a list of this type. The research findings can be interpreted as providing broad empirical underpinnings for the 'valuation' of nine out of the ten domains of freedom and opportunity specified in the capability lists that have been developed and applied in previous projects. The Life domain was effectively not covered by the research exercise, since the underlying social survey data did not include questions on public attitudes towards the right to life.Capability approach, capability lists, human rights, public attitudes, values