Welfare and mobility: Migrants’ experiences of social welfare protection in transnational and translocal spaces

This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the chapter’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.As migrants throughout the world make important contributions to their families’ social welfare, migration often implies changes in the ways in which individual’s and families’ needs for economic and social-welfare protection are met. This book contributes to the existing literature on transnational mobility and social protection by bringing in empirical evidence from across the globe which illustrates the multitude of mechanisms in which welfare concerns shape individual and family decisions about mobility and vice versa. By focusing on individuals, households and families rather than on nation states, the book’s contributors distance themselves from the macro and nation-state level of analysis in the field of migration and welfare research. Despite the emphasis on migrants’ subjective rationalities, the book’s chapters often highlight the political nature of many dilemmas faced by migrants and their families and expose national-welfare systems’ inherent sedentary bias. This book is designed for a broad range of audiences, from established scholars and policy-makers to graduate students of Sociology, Political Science, Anthropology and Human Geography who are interested in transnational mobility and social protection. We hope that the readers will find the contributions to this book insightful and valuable for their understanding of migrants’ experiences of social-welfare protection in a globalised world.publishedVersio

A phytochemical comparison of saw palmetto products using gas chromatography and (1) H nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy metabolomic profiling

© 2014 The Authors. Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Royal Pharmaceutical Society. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly citedPreparations containing saw palmetto berries are used in the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). There are many products on the market, and relatively little is known about their chemical variability and specifically the composition and quality of different saw palmetto products notwithstanding that in 2000, an international consultation paper from the major urological associations from the five continents on treatments for BPH demanded further research on this topic. Here, we compare two analytical approaches and characterise 57 different saw palmetto products.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

The Gdap1 knockout mouse mechanistically links redox control to Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease

Mutations in the mitochondrial fission factor GDAP1 are associated with severe peripheral neuropathies, but why the CNS remains unaffected is unclear. Using a Gdap1−/− mouse, Niemann et al. demonstrate that a CNS-expressed Gdap1 paralogue changes its subcellular localisation under oxidative stress conditions to also act as a mitochondrial fission facto

Non-random, individual-specific methylation profiles are present at the sixth CTCF binding site in the human H19/IGF2 imprinting control region

Expression of imprinted genes is classically associated with differential methylation of specific CpG-rich DNA regions (DMRs). The H19/IGF2 locus is considered a paradigm for epigenetic regulation. In mice, as in humans, the essential H19 DMR—target of the CTCF insulator—is located between the two genes. Here, we performed a pyrosequencing-based quantitative analysis of its CpG methylation in normal human tissues. The quantitative analysis of the methylation level in the H19 DMR revealed three unexpected discrete, individual-specific methylation states. This epigenetic polymorphism was confined to the sixth CTCF binding site while a unique median-methylated profile was found at the third CTCF binding site as well as in the H19 promoter. Monoallelic expression of H19 and IGF2 was maintained independently of the methylation status at the sixth CTCF binding site and the IGF2 DMR2 displayed a median-methylated profile in all individuals and tissues analyzed. Interestingly, the methylation profile was genetically transmitted. Transgenerational inheritance of the H19 methylation profile was compatible with a simple model involving one gene with three alleles. The existence of three individual-specific epigenotypes in the H19 DMR in a non-pathological situation means it is important to reconsider the diagnostic value and functional importance of the sixth CTCF binding site

Intrinsic flexibility of B-DNA: the experimental TRX scale

B-DNA flexibility, crucial for DNA–protein recognition, is sequence dependent. Free DNA in solution would in principle be the best reference state to uncover the relation between base sequences and their intrinsic flexibility; however, this has long been hampered by a lack of suitable experimental data. We investigated this relationship by compiling and analyzing a large dataset of NMR 31P chemical shifts in solution. These measurements reflect the BI ↔ BII equilibrium in DNA, intimately correlated to helicoidal descriptors of the curvature, winding and groove dimensions. Comparing the ten complementary DNA dinucleotide steps indicates that some steps are much more flexible than others. This malleability is primarily controlled at the dinucleotide level, modulated by the tetranucleotide environment. Our analyses provide an experimental scale called TRX that quantifies the intrinsic flexibility of the ten dinucleotide steps in terms of Twist, Roll, and X-disp (base pair displacement). Applying the TRX scale to DNA sequences optimized for nucleosome formation reveals a 10 base-pair periodic alternation of stiff and flexible regions. Thus, DNA flexibility captured by the TRX scale is relevant to nucleosome formation, suggesting that this scale may be of general interest to better understand protein-DNA recognition

The logics of transit : the anticipation of onward mobility and its consequences for social and economic relations in Istanbul

This article departs from Istanbul as a transit location experiencing a constant inflow and outflow of (African) migrants, and the strong narrative among African migrants that Istanbul has nothing to offer and should be transited as fast as possible. As a consequence of this, the article identifies migrants' constant anticipation of each other's potential leaving - the logic of transit - as a useful concept to understand social and economic migrant relations in a situation of transit. Thus it offers an analysis of how this logic permeates the formation and maintenance of social networks and, consequently, impacts on trajectories of mobility. Developed through in-depth analysis of the migrants' lived experiences, it offers a new angle on transit movements and the condition of transit in general

Migration and the formation of transnational economic networks between Africa and Turkey : the socio-economic establishment of migrants in situ and in mobility

Turkey is often perceived as a transit place for migrants and refugees from the African continent. While many indeed continue to other countries and the country still precludes official local integration, the past decade has witnessed a growing number of African migrants settling in Istanbul. This article draws attention to the opportunity structures that enable this type of settlement. The article presents the argument that it is the presence of small-scale transnationally embedded traders from the same countries that enable the socio-economic stability of their co-nationals both locally as well as transnationally. The concept that is able to account for this development is establishment in situ and establishment in mobility, which is seen as exactly the definitional barrier between transit and settlement