65 research outputs found
The Criminalisation of Migration in Europe: A State-of-the-Art of the Academic Literature and Research. CEPS Liberty and Security in Europe No. 61, October 2013
In the last 30 years, a clear trend has come to define modern immigration law and policy. A set of seemingly disparate developments concerning the constant reinforcement of border controls, tightening of conditions of entry, expanding capacities for detention and deportation and the proliferation of criminal sanctions for migration offences, accompanied by an anxiety on the part of the press, public and political establishment regarding migrant criminality can now be seen to form a definitive shift in the European Union towards the so-called âcriminalisation of migrationâ.
This paper aims to provide an overview of the âstate-of-the-artâ in the academic literature and EU research on criminalisation of migration in Europe. It analyses three key manifestations of the so-called âcrimmigrationâ trend: discursive criminalisation; the use of criminal law for migration management; and immigrant detention, focusing both on developments in domestic legislation of EU member states but also the increasing conflation of mobility, crime and security which has accompanied EU integration. By identifying the trends, synergies and gaps in the scholarly approaches dealing with the criminalisation of migration, the paper seeks to provide a framework for on-going research under Work Package 8 of the FIDUCIA project
What role for migration policy in the Ukraine crisis? CEPS Commentaries, 27 March 2014
While the geopolitics of the Ukraine crisis have dominated headlines, little attention has been paid to the potential challenges arising from the movement of people from the region to the EU. Yet recent history should tell us this could be a grave oversight. As we witnessed during the Arab Spring in 2011, political upheaval can result in people fleeing their state in fear of persecution or seeking to leave their state in search of new horizons and economic opportunities. The EU would do well to learn from that experience and the policy failures that resulted from the Unionâs response of closing its borders and returning people to Africa. This Commentary argues that it is critical that â independently of the still uncertain outcome of the Ukraine crisis â the EU formulates and implements a credible policy strategy addressing the potential impact and benefits of mobility between Ukraine and the EU
EU Migration Policy in the wake of the Arab Spring. What prospects for EU-Southern Mediterranean Relations? MEDPRO Technical Report No. 15/August 2012
The outbreak of the Arab Spring and the unrest, revolution and war that followed during the course of 2011 have
forced the EU to acknowledge the need to radically re-think its policy approach towards the Southern
Mediterranean, including in the domain of migration. Migration and mobility now feature as key components of
High Representative Catherine Ashtonâs new framework for cooperation with the region (Partnership for
Democracy and Shared Prosperity), while the EU has declared its intention to strengthen its external migration
policy by setting up âmutually beneficialâ partnerships with third countries â so-called âDialogues for Migration,
Mobility and Securityâ â now placed at the centre of the EUâs renewed Global Approach to Migration and
Mobility (GAMM). However, the success of this approach and its potential to establish genuine cooperative
partnerships that will support smooth economic and political transformation in North Africa hinge on the
working arrangements and institutional configurations shaping the renewed GAMM at EU level which has long
been marked by internal fragmentation, a lack of transparency and a predominance of home affairs and security
actors.
This paper investigates the development of the Dialogues for Migration, Mobility and Security with the Southern
Mediterranean in a post-Lisbon Treaty institutional setting. It asks to what extent has the application of the
Lisbon Treaty and the creation of an âEU Foreign Ministerâ in High Representative Ashton, supported by a
European External Action Service (EEAS), remedied or re-invigorated the ideological and institutional struggles
around the implementation of the Global Approach? Who are the principal agents shaping and driving the
Dialogues for Migration, Mobility and Security? Who goes abroad to speak on the behalf of the EU in these
Dialogues and what impact does this have on the effectiveness, legitimacy and accountability of the Dialogues
under the renewed GAMM as well as the wider prospects for the Southern Mediterranean
National Programmes for Mass Surveillance of Personal Data in EU Member States and their Compatibility with EU Law
In the wake of the disclosures surrounding PRISM and other US surveillance
programmes, this study makes an assessment of the large-scale surveillance
practices by a selection of EU member states: the UK, Sweden, France,
Germany and the Netherlands. Given the large-scale nature of surveillance
practices at stake, which represent a reconfiguration of traditional intelligence
gathering, the study contends that an analysis of European surveillance
programmes cannot be reduced to a question of balance between data
protection versus national security, but has to be framed in terms of collective
freedoms and democracy. It finds that four of the five EU member states
selected for in-depth examination are engaging in some form of large-scale
interception and surveillance of communication data, and identifies parallels and
discrepancies between these programmes and the NSA-run operations. The
study argues that these surveillance programmes do not stand outside the
realm of EU intervention but can be engaged from an EU law perspective via (i)
an understanding of national security in a democratic rule of law framework
where fundamental human rights standards and judicial oversight constitute key
standards; (ii) the risks presented to the internal security of the Union as a
whole as well as the privacy of EU citizens as data owners, and (iii) the potential
spillover into the activities and responsibilities of EU agencies. The study then
presents a set of policy recommendations to the European Parliament
Photo-enhanced lithium-ion batteries using metal-organic framework
The development of photo-enhanced lithium-ion batteries, where exposing the electrodes to
light results in higher capacities, higher rate performance or self-charging, has recently gained
substantial traction. The challenge in these devices lies in the realisation of photo-electrodes
with good optical and electrochemical properties. Herein, we propose copperhexahydroxybenzene as the active photo-electrode material which both harvests light and
stores energy. This material was mixed with reduced graphene oxide as a conductive additive
and charge transfer medium to create photo-active electrodes. Under illumination, these
electrodes show improved charge storage kinetics resulting in the photo-accelerated charging
and discharging performance (i.e. specific capacities improvement from 107 mAh g-1
to 126
mAh g-1
at 200 mA g-1
and 79 mAh g-1
to 97 mAh g-1
at 2000 mA g-1
under 1 sun illumination
as compared to dark)
Pharmacokinetics of Mephedrone Enantiomers in Whole Blood after a Controlled Intranasal Administration to Healthy Human Volunteers
Mephedrone, which is one of the most popular synthetic cathinones, has one chiral centre and thus exists as two enantiomers: R-(+)-mephedrone and S-(−)-mephedrone. There are some preliminary data suggesting that the enantiomers of mephedrone may display enantioselective pharmacokinetics and exhibit different neurological effects. In this study, enantiomers of mephedrone were resolved via chromatographic chiral recognition and the absolute configuration was unambiguously determined by a combination of elution order and chiroptical analysis (i.e., circular dichroism). A chiral liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry method was fully validated and was applied to the analysis of whole blood samples collected from a controlled intranasal administration of racemic mephedrone hydrochloride to healthy male volunteers. Both enantiomers showed similar kinetics, however, R-(+)-mephedrone had a greater mean Cmax of 48.5 ± 11.9 ng/mL and a longer mean half-life of 1.92 ± 0.27 h compared with 44.6 ± 11.8 ng/mL and 1.63 ± 0.23 h for S-(−)-mephedrone, respectively. Moreover, R-(+)-mephedrone had a lower mean clearance and roughly 1.3 times greater mean area under the curve than S-(−)-mephedrone. Significant changes in the enantiomeric ratio over time were observed, which suggest that the analytes exhibit enantioselective pharmacokinetics. Even though the clinical significance of this finding is not yet fully understood, the study confirms that the chiral nature, and consequently the enantiomeric purity of mephedrone, can be a crucial consideration when interpreting toxicological results
Ammonium fluoride additive-modified interphase chemistry stabilizes zinc anodes in aqueous electrolytes
Herein, ammonium fluoride is reported as an additive within 1 M ZnSO4 aqueous electrolyte to improve zinc anodes. The as-formed electrostatic shielding layer and ZnF2-rich solid-state interphase layer can jointly inhibit side reactions and dendrite growth. Consequently, symmetric ZnâZn cells, asymmetric ZnâCu cells and ZnâMnO2 cells with the additives present dramatically enhanced performance in comparison to the ones with pure ZnSO4 electrolyte counterparts. This work proposes a facile but effective method to achieve highly reversible zinc anodes
LowâField Actuating Magnetic Elastomer Membranes Characterized using FibreâOptic Interferometry
Smart robotic devices remotely powered by magnetic field have emerged as versatile tools for wide biomedical applications. Soft magnetic elastomer (ME) composite membranes with high flexibility and responsiveness are frequently incorporated to enable local actuation for wireless sensing or cargo delivery. However, the fabrication of thin ME membranes with good control in geometry and uniformity remains challenging, as well as the optimization of their actuating performances under low fields (milliâTesla). In this work, the development of ME membranes comprising of lowâcost magnetic powder and highly soft elastomer through a simple templateâassisted doctor blading approach, is reported. The fabricated ME membranes are controllable in size (up to centimetreâscale), thickness (tens of microns) and high particle loading (up to 70 wt.%). Conflicting tradeâoff effects of particle concentration upon magnetic responsiveness and mechanical stiffness are investigated and found to be balanced off as it exceeds 60 wt.%. A highly sensitive fibreâoptic interferometric sensing system and a customized fibreâferruleâmembrane probe are first proposed to enable dynamic actuation and realâtime displacement characterization. Freeâstanding ME membranes are magnetically excited under low field down to 2 mT, and optically monitored with nanometer accuracy. The fast and consistent responses of ME membranes showcase their promising biomedical applications in nanoscale actuation and sensing
Lowâfield actuating magnetic elastomer membranes characterized using fibreâoptic interferometry
Smart robotic devices remotely powered by magnetic field have emerged as versatile tools for wide biomedical applications. Soft magnetic elastomer (ME) composite membranes with high flexibility and responsiveness are frequently incorporated to enable local actuation for wireless sensing or cargo delivery. However, the fabrication of thin ME membranes with good control in geometry and uniformity remains challenging, as well as the optimization of their actuating performances under low fields (milliâTesla). In this work, the development of ME membranes comprising of lowâcost magnetic powder and highly soft elastomer through a simple templateâassisted doctor blading approach, is reported. The fabricated ME membranes are controllable in size (up to centimetreâscale), thickness (tens of microns) and high particle loading (up to 70 wt.%). Conflicting tradeâoff effects of particle concentration upon magnetic responsiveness and mechanical stiffness are investigated and found to be balanced off as it exceeds 60 wt.%. A highly sensitive fibreâoptic interferometric sensing system and a customized fibreâferruleâmembrane probe are first proposed to enable dynamic actuation and realâtime displacement characterization. Freeâstanding ME membranes are magnetically excited under low field down to 2 mT, and optically monitored with nanometer accuracy. The fast and consistent responses of ME membranes showcase their promising biomedical applications in nanoscale actuation and sensing
Effect of a pediatric early warning system on all-cause mortality in Hospitalized pediatric patients: The epoch randomized clinical trial
IMPORTANCE: There is limited evidence that the use of severity of illness scores in pediatric patients can facilitate timely admission to the intensive care unit or improve patient outcomes. OBJECTIVE: To determine the effect of the Bedside Paediatric Early Warning System (BedsidePEWS) on all-cause hospital mortality and late admission to the intensive care unit (ICU), cardiac arrest, and ICU resource use. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: A multicenter cluster randomized trial of 21 hospitals located in 7 countries (Belgium, Canada, England, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, and the Netherlands) that provided inpatient pediatric care for infants (gestational age â„37 weeks) to teenagers (aged â€18 years). Participating hospitals had continuous physician staffing and subspecialized pediatric services. Patient enrollment began on February 28, 2011, and ended on June 21, 2015. Follow-up ended on July 19, 2015. INTERVENTIONS: The BedsidePEWS intervention (10 hospitals) was compared with usual care (no severity of illness score; 11 hospitals). MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: The primary outcome was all-cause hospital mortality. The secondary outcome was a significant clinical deterioration event, which was defined as a composite outcome reflecting late ICU admission. Regression analyses accounted for hospital-level clustering and baseline rates. RESULTS: Among 144539 patient discharges at 21 randomized hospitals, there were 559 443 patient-days and 144539 patients (100%) completed the trial. All-cause hospital mortality was 1.93 per 1000 patient discharges at hospitals with BedsidePEWS and 1.56 per 1000 patient discharges at hospitals with usual care (adjusted between-group rate difference, 0.01 [95% CI, -0.80 to 0.81 per 1000 patient discharges]; adjusted odds ratio, 1.01 [95% CI, 0.61 to 1.69]; P =.96). Significant clinical deterioration events occurred during 0.50 per 1000 patient-days at hospitals with BedsidePEWS vs 0.84 per 1000 patient-days at hospitals with usual care (adjusted between-group rate difference, -0.34 [95% CI, -0.73 to 0.05 per 1000 patient-days]; adjusted rate ratio, 0.77 [95% CI, 0.61 to 0.97]; P =.03). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Implementation of the Bedside Paediatric Early Warning System compared with usual care did not significantly decrease all-cause mortality among hospitalized pediatric patients. These findings do not support the use of this system to reduce mortality
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