Does ERASMUS Student Mobility promote a EuropeanIdentity?

The potential of European student mobility to promote a European identity and,consequently, European integration has long been stressed by transactionalistssuch as Karl Deutsch but was never tested empirically. The EU-funded exchangeprogramme ERASMUS moves more than 150,000 university students annually,and it is still widely assumed it plays a pivotal role in the promotion of a Europeanidentity. Based on the results of a longitudinal survey among ERASMUS and nonmobilestudents I show that reality meets only partly these expectations. WhilstERASMUS enables students to improve their foreign language skills and learnmore about other European countries, it does not foster a European self-identity ora sense of European pride. However, the ERASMUS experience does help Britishstudents to feel more attached to Europe and to acknowledge they have things incommon with continental Europeans.European identity

Austria’s presidential election is set to be another vote dominated by the issue of immigration

Austria will hold a presidential election on 24 April, with a run off scheduled for 22 May if no candidate manages to win an absolute majority in the first vote. Emmanuel Sigalas states that while the post itself is largely ceremonial, the election will be a key test of the relative standing of each of the main parties. He writes that the contest is likely to be dominated by the issue of the migration crisis and the creeping influence of the Freedom Party of Austria’s (FPÖ) anti-immigration platform over the Austrian government

Gendered Violence: An Analysis of State Legal Accountability for Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Amongst Refugee Women

Sexual and gender-based violence is a rampant issue affecting women internationally. Its incidence is exacerbated by conflict and the disruption of social patterns caused by displacement. Refugee women are often at greater risk of violence, due to their transient status in their countries of refuge. There exist many challenges in the protection of refugee women. The erosion of the refugee regime through the securitization of displacement has led to the depiction of displaced populations as threats rather than populations in need of humanitarian assistance. Additionally, there remain systemic social and cultural barriers at both international and local levels based on patriarchal values and unequal treatment of women within society. States as the primary actors tasked with upholding international human rights and humanitarian standards, especially in regards to the rights of refugee populations, have continued to evade their protectionist obligations. The charge of protection has been taken up by non-state actors, such as UNHCR, who have taken a principal role in both ensuring rights are upheld through programs on the ground and by serving as promoters of protectionist norms in international fora. This study analyzes existing law and norms regarding sexual and gender-based violence as they apply to refugee women. It seeks to understand if there has been spillover of laws protecting all women from violence to the safeguarding of protections for refugee women. The study does so through an analysis of treaty law, norms, and the actions of non-state actors in promulgating protections. Ten case studies are analyzed in-depth, to determine the applicability of law and norms in monitoring states’ preservation of rights. The study’s purpose is to increase understanding of existing legal resources supporting the prevention and punishment of violence, while discussing the gaps in protection that continue to leave women vulnerable to abuse. Further, this paper delves into the evolution of sexual and gender-based violence norms and potential areas of improvement in increasing protections for refugee women

Control of Wheat Tillering by Nitrogen Availability: The Case of Strigolactones

Primary plant responses to nutrient-deficient conditions include changes in root and shoot architecture. Above-ground plant architecture is shaped by modulating tillering patterns. Tillering is known to be regulated by the interaction between three classes of phytohormones: auxin, cytokinins (CKs) and strigolactones (SLs). Gene expression analysis showed that nitrogen (N) limitation systematically induced the SL biosynthetic genes in the root and the basal nodes of wheat, whereas N resupply quickly reversed the induction of SL biosynthetic genes. This observation raised questions about the functionality of SLs under N-limiting conditions. Although many studies have focused on the transcriptional and hormonal changes that govern N limitation response in roots, fewer studies have focused on the molecular pathways involved in tillering modulation by N limitation during vegetative plant growth in wheat. RNA-sequencing and phytohormonal analysis in basal nodes of N-limited wheat plants showed that N limitation strongly induced bud dormancy and affected many metabolic and hormonal pathways, including changes in the expression of many N-response master regulators, strong suppression of CK biosynthesis and changes in sugar partitioning and utilization. In addition, the SL metabolic pathway was among the top enriched pathways under N limitation, implying that SLs may be involved in coordinating morphological, physiological, and transcriptional changes in response to N status. To test this hypothesis, a Tad17 SL-deficient mutant was generated using lines from the hexaploid wheat TILLING population. The phenotypic response of Tad17 mutants and transcriptomic analysis in the basal nodes showed that SLs are required but are not necessary for tiller inhibition by N limitation. SLs affected CK metabolic genes and CK levels in the basal nodes, however, the lack of SLs was not sufficient to suppress the N limitation mediated decline in CK levels, which contributed to tiller suppression under N limitation. However, lack of SL biosynthesis and imbalance in tillering regulation affected plant adaptation to N-limiting conditions. Tad17 mutant showed changes in resource allocation between root and shoot, N remobilization and the regulation of master regulators of N-response, suggesting that SLs are required for the fine-tune regulation of the N limitation transcriptional network. The genetic information and the results presented regarding the role of SLs in wheat growth and development set the foundation for and highlighted the potential of manipulation of SL metabolism in order to improve wheat architecture or nutrient use efficiency for increasing wheat crop productivity

Absorption losses in periodic arrays of thin metallic wires

We analyze the transmission and reflection of the electromagnetic wave calculated from transfer matrix simulations of periodic arrangements of thin metallic wires. The effective permittivity and the absorption is determined. Their dependence on the wire thickness and the conductance of the metallic wires is studied. The cutoff frequency or effective plasma frequency is obtained and is compared with analytical predictions. It is shown that the periodic arrangement of wires exhibits a frequency region in which the real part of the permittivity is negative while its imaginary part is very small. This behavior is seen for wires with thickness as small as 17 $\mu$m with a lattice constant of 3.33 mm