Report on the Workshop on Refugee and Asylum Policy in Practice in Europe and North America

Western nations have struggled to accomplish the dual goals of refugee and asylum policies: (1) identifying and protecting Convention refugees as well as those fleeing civil conflict; and (2) controlling for abuse. The Workshop on Refugee and Asylum Policy in Practice in Europe and North America was organized to facilitate a transatlantic dialogue to explore just how well these asylum systems are balancing the dual goals. The workshop exa!llined key elements of the U.S. and European asylum systems: decision making on claims, deterrence of abuse, independent review, return of rejected asylum seekers, scope of the refugee concept, social rights and employment, international cooperation, and data and evaluation. The Workshop was convened by the Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM) of Georgetown University and the Center for the Study of Immigration, Integration and Citizenship Policies (CEPIC) of the Centre Nationale de Recherche Scientifique, with the support of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. It was held on July 1-3, 1999, at Oxford University. Workshop participants included government officials, scholars, and representatives from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) actively involved in analyzing and implementing refugee and asylum policies. This report outlines the major points of discussion and the areas of consensus at the Workshop, and emphasizes the issues in need of further analysis and agreement. Through this report, the Workshop seeks to encourage further discussion on refugee and asylum policies in practice in order to clarify, develop, and improve the existing mechanisms for protection

On the Stability of Compactified D=11 Supermembranes

We prove D=11 supermembrane theories wrapping around in an irreducible way over $S^{1} \times S^{1}\times M^{9}$ on the target manifold, have a hamiltonian with strict minima and without infinite dimensional valleys at the minima for the bosonic sector. The minima occur at monopole connections of an associated U(1) bundle over topologically non trivial Riemann surfaces of arbitrary genus. Explicit expressions for the minimal connections in terms of membrane maps are presented. The minimal maps and corresponding connections satisfy the BPS condition with half SUSY.Comment: 15 pages, latex. Added comments in conclusions and more reference

Conception préliminaire et optimisation multidisciplinaire d'avion à fuselage intégré

RÉSUMÉ: L'avion à fuselage intégré est un concept innovateur d'avion de transport qui offre des performances avantageuses dans le contexte actuel, où l'économie et l'environnement sont mis à l'avant-plan. Ce concept original nécessite de nouvelles méthodes de conception adaptées à ses particularités telles que le fort couplage de ses composantes. Toutefois, la littérature actuelle ne propose pas de solution adéquate pour la conception initiale. Ce projet propose une méthode complète de conception préliminaire permettant d'obtenir une première ébauche d'avion selon un cahier de charge. De plus, ce projet présente une procédure complète d'optimisation multidisciplinaire à basse fidélité ainsi qu'une procédure d'optimisation de problème aérodynamique utilisant des méthodes à plus haute fidélité. L'approche proposée pour l'élaboration de la méthode de conception préliminaire repose sur la simplicité et l'efficacité. La conception est effectuée manuellement, mais elle est guidée par une multitude d'outils dont plusieurs sont développés specifiquement pour ce type d'avion, tels que la paramétrisation géométrique; d'autres sont adaptes d'outils existants. Il s'agit d'outils basés sur des calculs empiriques, en plus d'un outil qui est basé sur une méthode numérique de basse fidélité. Cette méthode permet de générer un modèle d'avion ainsi que ses caractéristiques principales de performance, d'aérodynamisme, de stabilité et plus. Basé sur ces outils de conception, un premier processus d'optimisation est proposé permettant de raffiner le modèle initial. Une optimisation a été effectuée sur la forme en plan d'un avion à fuselage intégré de mission équivalant à celle du A340-600. Ses performances ont été grandement améliorées. Pour faire suite à cette première optimisation, la faisabilité d'une optimisation plus haute fidélité a été étudiée. Une procédure complète d'optimisation à l'aide d'outils CFD a été implémentée. Celle-ci est basée sur des calculs de type Euler et utilise le logiciel de CFD Fluent, le logiciel de maillage ICEM et le logiciel de modélisation 3D Catia. Cette procédure d'optimisation a permis d'ameliorer les caractéristiques de stabilité de l'avion. La méthode de conception préliminaire a été verifiée à l'aide de comparaisons avec un BWB publié dans la littérature et avec des avions classiques. Les calculs CFD ont été, pour leur part, valides avec l'aile Onera M6.----------ABSTRACT: The Blended Wing Body aircraft is an innovative concept of transport aircraft which offers an advantageous performance in the present trend of cost reduction and environmental protection. This original concept requires new design methods adapted to its specicity such as its strong coupling of components. Current literature does not offer a workable solution for the initial design. This project proposes a comprehensive method of preliminary design to obtain a first draft of an aircraft according to specifications. In addition, this project presents a comprehensive procedure for a low delity multidisciplinary optimization and a procedure for airfoil optimization using CFD. The proposed approach for developing the preliminary design method is based on simplicity and effciency. The design is done manually, but it is guided by a multitude of tools, several of which are developed specifically for this type of aircraft such as the geometric parameterization; others are adapted from existing tools. These tools are based on empirical calculations, and one is based on a numerical method of low fidelity. This design method allows to generate an aircraft model and to obtain its performance, aerodynamics, stability characteristics. Based on these design tools, a first optimization process is proposed to refine the initial model. Optimization was performed on the planform of a Blended Wing Body with a mission equivalent to that of the A340-600. Its performances have been greatly improved. Following this first optimization, the feasibility of a higher delity optimization has been studied. A complete optimization procedure using CFD tools has been implemented. This is based on calculations of Euler type and uses the CFD software Fluent, meshing software ICEM and 3D modeling software Catia. This optimization procedure has improved the stability characteristics of the aircraft. The preliminary design method was verified using comparisons with a BWB published in the literature as well as classic aircrafts. As to the CFD calculations, they were validated with ONERA M6 wing

De novo Assembly of the Brugia malayi Genome Using Long Reads from a Single MinION Flowcell

Filarial nematode infections cause a substantial global disease burden. Genomic studies of filarial worms can improve our understanding of their biology and epidemiology. However, genomic information from field isolates is limited and available reference genomes are often discontinuous. Single molecule sequencing technologies can reduce the cost of genome sequencing and long reads produced from these devices can improve the contiguity and completeness of genome assemblies. In addition, these new technologies can make generation and analysis of large numbers of field isolates feasible. In this study, we assessed the performance of the Oxford Nanopore Technologies MinION for sequencing and assembling the genome of Brugia malayi, a human parasite widely used in filariasis research. Using data from a single MinION flowcell, a 90.3 Mb nuclear genome was assembled into 202 contigs with an N50 of 2.4 Mb. This assembly covered 96.9% of the well-defined B. malayi reference genome with 99.2% identity. The complete mitochondrial genome was obtained with individual reads and the nearly complete genome of the endosymbiotic bacteria Wolbachia was assembled alongside the nuclear genome. Long-read data from the MinION produced an assembly that approached the quality of a well-established reference genome using comparably fewer resources

Conseil-santé dans la médecine de premier recours, partie 2

Les maladies non transmissibles (MNT, en anglais «non-communicable diseases») ont gagné du terrain dans le monde entier. Les approches de conseil fourni au cabinet médical ont déjà été présentées dans un premier article. Le présent article se consacre aux conditions permettant à ces approches de déployer leur efficacité au niveau de la population. Ceci est illustré sur la base des programmes suisses actuels «Vivre sans tabac», PAPRICA et «Coaching Santé» ainsi que de l’exemple historique «Ça débouche sur quoi?»

Comparative effectiveness of contact tracing interventions in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review

Contact tracing is a non-pharmaceutical intervention (NPI) widely used in the control of the COVID-19 pandemic. Its effectiveness may depend on a number of factors including the proportion of contacts traced, delays in tracing, the mode of contact tracing (e.g. forward, backward or bidirectional contact training), the types of contacts who are traced (e.g. contacts of index cases or contacts of contacts of index cases), or the setting where contacts are traced (e.g. the household or the workplace). We performed a systematic review of the evidence regarding the comparative effectiveness of contact tracing interventions. 78 studies were included in the review, 12 observational (ten ecological studies, one retrospective cohort study and one pre-post study with two patient cohorts) and 66 mathematical modelling studies. Based on the results from six of the 12 observational studies, contact tracing can be effective at controlling COVID-19. Two high quality ecological studies showed the incremental effectiveness of adding digital contact tracing to manual contact tracing. One ecological study of intermediate quality showed that increases in contact tracing were associated with a drop in COVID-19 mortality, and a pre-post study of acceptable quality showed that prompt contact tracing of contacts of COVID-19 case clusters / symptomatic individuals led to a reduction in the reproduction number R. Within the seven observational studies exploring the effectiveness of contact tracing in the context of the implementation of other non-pharmaceutical interventions, contact tracing was found to have an effect on COVID-19 epidemic control in two studies and not in the remaining five studies. However, a limitation in many of these studies is the lack of description of the extent of implementation of contact tracing interventions. Based on the results from the mathematical modelling studies, we identified the following highly effective policies: (1) manual contact tracing with high tracing coverage and either medium-term immunity, highly efficacious isolation/quarantine and/ or physical distancing (2) hybrid manual and digital contact tracing with high app adoption with highly effective isolation/ quarantine and social distancing, (3) secondary contact tracing, (4) eliminating contact tracing delays, (5) bidirectional contact tracing, (6) contact tracing with high coverage in reopening educational institutions. We also highlighted the role of social distancing to enhance the effectiveness of some of these interventions in the context of 2020 lockdown reopening. While limited, the evidence from observational studies shows a role for manual and digital contact tracing in controlling the COVID-19 epidemic. More empirical studies accounting for the extent of contact tracing implementation are required.Peer Reviewe