Measuring and explaining cross-country immigration policies

The intensified international migration pressures of the recent decades prompted many developed countries to revise their immigration regulations and increase border controls. However, the development of these reforms as well as their effectiveness in actually managing new immigration flows remains poorly understood. The main reason is that migration regulations are hard to quantify, which has prevented the construction of a universal measure of migration policy. To fill this gap in the literature, we construct an indicator of the restrictiveness of immigration entry policy across countries as well as a more comprehensive indicator of migration policy that also accounts for staying requirements and regulations to foster integration. These indexes are then used to disentangle the factors determining the toughness of migration regulations. Our empirical framework combines elements from the median voter and interest group approach and accounts for cross-country correlation in migration policies. We find strong evidence of spatial correlation in particular in entry restrictiveness, while the impact of economic determinants of migration policy remains much more modest

Creating conditions of anomalous self-diffusion in a liquid with molecular dynamics

We propose a computational method to simulate anomalous self-diffusion in a simple liquid. The method is based on a molecular dynamics simulation on which we impose the following two conditions: firstly, the inter-particle interaction is described by a soft-core potential and secondly, the system is forced out of equilibrium. The latter can be achieved by subjecting the system to changes in the length scale at intermittent times. In many respects, our simulation system bears resemblance to slowly driven sandpile models displaying self-organised criticality. We find non-Gaussian single time step displacement distributions during the out-of-equilibrium time periods of the simulation.Comment: Extended version: 12 pages, 9 figure

Cost-effectiveness of infant vaccination with RIX4414 (Rotarix) in the UK.

This study estimated the cost-effectiveness of infant rotavirus vaccination with Rotarix in the UK, taking into account community rotavirus infections that do not present to the healthcare system. A Markov model compared the costs and outcomes of vaccination versus no vaccination in a hypothetical birth cohort of children followed over a lifetime, from a societal perspective and the perspective of the National Health Service (NHS). The model estimated costs and quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) lost due to death, hospitalisation, general practitioner (GP) consultation, emergency attendance and calls to NHS Direct for rotavirus infection in children aged <5 years. Time lost from work and parents' travel costs were also included in the societal perspective. The base case cost-effectiveness ratio for vaccination compared with no vaccination was pound23,298/QALY from the NHS perspective and pound11,459 from the societal perspective. In sensitivity analysis, the most important parameters were hospitalisation cost and number of GP consultations. Addition of Rotarix to the paediatric vaccination schedule would be a cost-effective policy option in the UK at the threshold range ( pound20,000-30,000/QALY) currently adopted by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence

L'édition du quatrième évangile et son enjeu inter-ecclesial

L’evangeli de Joan ha tingut com a primera preocupació, una edició final amb l’esforç de diàleg ambels altres seguidors de Jesús, representats en la figura emblemàtica de Simó Pere. Així doncs, no éspossible una lectura a nivell d’intercanvi intracomunitari. Aquesta contribució s’inicia des de l’últimcapítol de l’Evangeli en aquesta dimensió eclesiològica que ha estat reconeguda per molts estudiososdes dels estudis de R. Brown. Resseguint des del capítol 21, l’estudi mostra que una mateixa problemàticaestà present a través de tot el llibre fins l’edició final. La relació amb Marc, Mateu i Lluc no ésnomés una qüestió literària de major o menor dependència, sinó d’una atenció constant per part del’editor per a ser acceptat pels altres, tot mantenint el seu accés independent a la font. L’editor mostraen tot moment que ell sap de les altres tradicions, però pot donar la seva pròpia intel·ligència originali més profunda dels mateixos fets o dites. Aquest punt de vista intracomunitàri pot renovar la llumsobre la lectura tradicional del quart l’Evangeli

A labour market without boundaries? Integration paths for young journalists in French-speaking Belgium

This study aims to describe the growing influence of flexibility rationales on the early careers of young, francophone Belgian journalists. The study on the integration of new journalists enables us to grasp how the destandardisation of the beginnings of a career creates new identity forms in part distanced from the traditional values that had managed to make journalism a job that was distinct, recognised and more or less solidly positioned in the social sphere. At its most extreme, flexible rationale acts as a key factor in the increasingly frequent divide between a job and work. After having established these observations through a longitudinal study of a body of young journalists, the study analyses the impact of flexible rationales in the identity forms and the theoretical issue of boundaries between journalism and others business sectors