Problematizing Europe’s Borders in the Context of the Recent Refugee Crisis

The fundamental problem of Europe’s borders is how a bounded social reality is to be organized, primarily meaning who is to be included and who is to be excluded. The present refugee crisis has only served to expose and intensify this raison d\u27être of borders as exclusionary mechanisms which carry great political, economic, and symbolic weight, frequently much to the detriment of those excluded by them. Primarily drawing from the international political sociological work of Didier Bigo and affiliated scholars, I present a theoretical paper coupled with relevant empirical examples to present a critique of the exclusionary modes of operation of Europe’s borders and the techniques that enable them. Exploring the constitution of Europe’s borders as technologically-enabled to decouple from the conventional spatial groundings of borders, I analyze the relationality between the logics, objectives and functions of Europe’s borders in relation to the dominant discursive framing of refugees and migrants in the context of the recent migrant crisis in Europe. I hold that this tragic event has not suddenly created new problems for Europe’s borders, immigration, and asylum systems, but simply exposed the multiple failures of the control and management practices inbuilt in the EU’s border regime

Frequency-Tunable Josephson Junction Resonator for Quantum Computing

We have fabricated and measured a high-Q Josephson junction resonator with a tunable resonance frequency. A dc magnetic flux allows the resonance frequency to be changed by over 10 %. Weak coupling to the environment allows a quality factor of $\thicksim$7000 when on average less than one photon is stored in the resonator. At large photon numbers, the nonlinearity of the Josephson junction creates two stable oscillation states. This resonator can be used as a tool for investigating the quality of Josephson junctions in qubits below the single photon limit, and can be used as a microwave qubit readout at high photon numbers.Comment: 3 pages, 5 figure

Implementation of a low-mach number modification for high-order finite-volume schemes for arbitrary hybrid unstructured meshes

An implementation of a novel low-mach number treatment for high-order finite-volume schemes using arbitrary hybrid unstructured meshes is presented in this paper. Low-Mach order modifications for Godunov type finite-volume schemes have been implemented successfully for structured and unstructured meshes, however the methods break down for hybrid mesh topologies containing multiple element types. The modification is applied to the UCNS3D finite-volume framework for compressible flow configurations, which have been shown as very capable of handling any type of grid topology. The numerical methods under consideration are the Monotonic Upstream-Centered Scheme for Conservation Laws (MUSCL) and the Weighted Essentially Non-Oscillatory (WENO) schemes for two-dimensional mixed-element type unstructured meshes. In the present study the HLLC Approximate Riemann Solver is used with an explicit TVD Runge-Kutta 3rd-order method due to its excellent scalability. These schemes (up to 5th-order) are applied to well established two-dimensional and three-dimensional test cases. The challenges that occur when applying these methods to low-mach flow configurations is thoroughly analysed and possible improvements and further test cases are suggested

The integrated dynamic land use and transport model MARS

Cities worldwide face problems like congestion or outward migration of businesses. The involved transport and land use interactions require innovative tools. The dynamic Land Use and Transport Interaction model MARS (Metropolitan Activity Relocation Simulator) is part of a structured decision making process. Cities are seen as self organizing systems. MARS uses Causal Loop Diagrams from Systems Dynamics to explain cause and effect relations. MARS has been benchmarked against other published models. A user friendly interface has been developed to support decision makers. Its usefulness was tested through workshops in Asia. This paper describes the basis, capabilities and uses of MARS

An inlet analysis for the NASA hypersonic research engine aerothermodynamic integration model

A theoretical analysis for the inlet of the NASA Hypersonic Research Engine (HRE) Aerothermodynamic Integration Model (AIM) has been undertaken by use of a method-of-characteristics computer program. The purpose of the analysis was to obtain pretest information on the full-scale HRE inlet in support of the experimental AIM program (completed May 1974). Mass-flow-ratio and additive-drag-coefficient schedules were obtained that well defined the range effected in the AIM tests. Mass-weighted average inlet total-pressure recovery, kinetic energy efficiency, and throat Mach numbers were obtained

Caution needed when linking weather extremes to amplified planetary waves

Copyright © 2013 National Academy of Science

Half-century air temperature change above Antarctica: Observed trends and spatial reconstructions

Copyright © 2012 American Geophysical UnionThis study provides a comprehensive analysis of observed 50-year (1961–2010) seasonal air temperature trends from radiosonde ascents above Antarctica. Comparisons between multiple radiosonde data sets (homogenized in different ways) at each of eight Antarctic stations reveals substantial differences in the upper-air temperature trend magnitudes and their statistical significance between data sets. However, when considering the average of these data sets at each station, or averaging across all stations, a robust vertical profile of half-century temperature change emerges, characterized by mid-tropospheric warming and stratospheric cooling. Statistically significant Multistation-mean 500 hPa warming (0.1 to 0.2°C decade−1) is found in all seasons, whereas the lower stratospheric cooling has been manifest primarily in austral spring and summer, but with larger magnitudes (−1.0 to −2.0°C decade−1). We undertake the first spatial reconstructions of pan-Antarctic upper-air temperature trends. They strongly suggest that both the year-round mid-tropospheric warming and spring and summer lower stratospheric cooling have occurred above the entire continent, although their magnitudes and significance vary regionally. The reconstructed 500 hPa warming trends in winter and spring are largest over West Antarctica, the Ross Ice shelf, Victoria Land and Oates Land, and show close resemblance to those found in previously published surface temperature trend reconstructions, suggesting coupling between the surface and trends aloft. We speculate that the winter and spring mid-tropospheric warming may, in part, be driven by tropical ocean warming, analogous to proposed mechanisms for the co-located surface warming. The spring and summer lower stratospheric cooling is entirely consistent with the temperature response to ozone depletion