High-Migration Events and Future Labour Force in Europe. Brief No. 39.

Migration is complex, highly uncertain, and marked by unexpected changes. Political crises, economic downturns, and human-made or natural disasters can set large numbers of people on the move, just as we saw in 2015 – 2016 for migration from Syria and in 2022 from Ukraine. However, some political crises, such as the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan in 2021 did not bring unprecedentedly large numbers of refugees into Europe, despite concerns among policymakers at the beginning of the crisis. Migration events are impossible to predict in terms of their onset, scale, duration and in terms of how many people will return or settle in what destinations

New perspectives for migration foresight and preparedness: Insights from the QuantMig Project

This paper summarizes new perspectives for studying migration futures, drawing on the results of the European Union-funded project QuantMig: Quantifying Migration Scenarios for Better Policy. The paper presents advances in conceptualizing, explaining, estimating and forecasting international migration, considering various forms of uncertainty, and acknowledging the complexity of migration processes and the agency of various actors involved. The authors propose and evaluate a range of tools aimed at improving the estimates of current and predictions of future migration levels, and enhancing operational preparedness across various time horizons. A brief overview of these tools is provided, followed by a discussion of key implications and recommendations for migration and migration-related policies. The goal is to underscore the opportunities for making these policies more robust, future-proof and better aligned with the needs of both host societies and migrants themselves

An experimental study of the large deformation of plastic hinges

Recent applications of structural plasticity to areas such as vehicle crashworthiness has led to interest in the large deformation plastic collapse of general frames. Even when displacements are comparable to the original structural dimensions, the plasticity is confined to localized regions or "hinges". This paper reports an experimental study of the behavior of such hinges in thin walled structural members. Due to local deformation the load carrying capacity of the hinge significantly decreases at large rotations. In a companion paper [4] a structural constitutive theory is proposed to account for this behavior. Numerical data for this theory is obtained in the present paper. Finally test results are given for a large deformation combined loading test designed to validate the theory of [4]. The experimental results are in good agreement with the theoretical predictions.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/23017/1/0000586.pd

MiniVStimA: A miniaturized easy to use implantable electrical stimulator for small laboratory animals

According to PubMed, roughly 10% of the annually added publications are describing findings from the small animal model (mice and rats), including investigations in the field of muscle physiology and training. A subset of this research requires neural stimulation with flexible adjustments of stimulation parameters, highlighting the need for reliable implantable electrical stimulators, small enough (~1 cm3), that even mice can tolerate them without impairing their movement. The MiniVStimA is a battery-powered implant for nerve stimulation with an outer diameter of 15 mm and an encapsulated volume of 1.2 cm3 in its smallest variation. It can be pre-programmed according to the experimental protocol and controlled after implantation with a magnet. It delivers constant current charge-balanced monophasic rectangular pulses up to 2 mA and 1 ms phase width (1 kΩ load). The circuitry is optimized for small volume and energy efficiency. Due to the variation of the internal oscillator (31 kHz ± 10%), calibration measures must be implemented during the manufacturing process, which can reduce the deviation of the frequency related parameters down to ± 1%. The expected lifetime of the smaller (larger) version is 100 (480) days for stimulation with 7 Hz all day and 10 (48) days for stimulation with 100 Hz. Devices with complex stimulation patterns for nerve stimulation have been successfully used in two in-vivo studies, lasting up to nine weeks. The implant worked fully self-contained while the animal stayed in its familiar environment. External components are not required during the entire time

SpillOver stimulation: A novel hypertrophy model using co-contraction of the plantar-flexors to load the tibial anterior muscle in rats

The influence of loading on muscular hypertrophy has previously been studied in rodents by removal of synergistic muscles or various weight-lifting regimes. We present a novel model, evoking hypertrophy in the ratʹs tibialis anterior (TA) muscle by means of an implanted single channel electrical nerve stimulator. The amount of load experienced by the TA was measured in acute experiments in anaesthetized rats with contractions over a range of stimulation frequency and amplitude. A novel electrode configuration allowed us to elicit concentric, isometric and eccentric contractions within the same setup. This was achieved by ‘SpillOver’ stimulation in which we adjusted the amount of co-activation of the stronger antagonistic plantarflexors by increasing the stimulus above the level that caused full recruitment of the dorsiflexor muscles. The effect of loading on hypertrophy of the TA was tested in 3–4 week stimulation experiments in two groups of freely-moving rats, with a protocol that resembles typical resistance-training in humans. One group performed concentric contractions with no antagonistic co-contraction (unloaded, UNL, n = 5). In the other group the TA was loaded by simultaneous co-contraction of the antagonistically acting plantarflexors (SpillOver, n = 5). The wet mass of the stimulated TA increased in both groups; by 5.4 ± 5.5% for the UNL-group and 13.9 ± 2.9% for the SpillOver-group, with significantly greater increase in the SpillOver-group (p<0.05). Our results correlate well with values reported in literature, demonstrating that SpillOver-stimulation is a suitable model in which to study muscular hypertrophy. Even higher gains in muscle-mass may be possible by optimizing and adjusting the stimulation parameters according to the principles of progressive resistance training

Inpatient hospice admissions. Who is admitted and why: a mixed-method prospective study

From SAGE Publishing via Jisc Publications RouterHistory: received 2022-11-02, accepted 2023-06-01, epub 2023-07-10Peer reviewed: TruePublication status: PublishedErna Haraldsdottir - ORCID: 0000-0003-4891-0743 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4891-0743Background:: Over the next two decades, the numbers of people who will need palliative care in the United Kingdom and Ireland is projected to increase. Hospices play a vital role supporting people who require specialist palliative care input through community-based and inpatient palliative care services. Evidence is needed to understand the role of these different services to inform future service development. Objectives:: To describe the reasons for admission, and outcomes at the end of the stay, for patients admitted to two hospice inpatient units (IPUs). Design:: This was a mixed-methods study using a convergent, parallel mixed-methods design. Methods:: We reviewed the case notes of all patients admitted to two hospice inpatient units from July to November 2019; conducted semi-structured interviews with patients and families; as well as brief structured interviews with inpatient unit staff. Results:: Two hundred fifty-nine patients were admitted to a hospice IPU, accounting for 276 admissions in total. Overall, 53% were female; median age was 71 years (range: 26–95 years). Most patients (95%) were White British or Scottish, and 95% had a cancer diagnosis. Most patients were admitted from the community, under one-third were admitted from hospital. Most (85%) had previous palliative care involvement. Nearly, half had district nurse support (48%). Worry and anxiety was frequently reported as a reason for admission, alongside physical concerns. Median length of stay was 12 days, and 68% died during their stay. Hospice was recorded as the preferred place of care for 56% of those who died there. Conclusions:: Sustained efforts to promote the hospice as place of care for people with conditions other than cancer are needed alongside greater clarity regarding of the role of the hospice IPU, and who would benefit most from IPU support.pubpu

Adaptation of the transcriptional response to resistance exercise over 4 weeks of daily training

We present the time course of change in the muscle transcriptome 1 h after the last exercise bout of a daily resistance training program lasting 2, 10, 20, or 30 days. Daily exercise in rat tibialis anterior muscles (5 sets of 10 repetitions over 20 min) induced progressive muscle growth that approached a new stable state after 30 days. The acute transcriptional response changed along with progressive adaptation of the muscle phenotype. For example, expression of type 2B myosin was silenced. Time courses recently synthesized from human exercise studies do not demonstrate so clearly the interplay between the acute exercise response and the longer-term consequences of repeated exercise. We highlight classes of transcripts and transcription factors whose expression increases during the growth phase and declines again as the muscle adapts to a new daily pattern of activity and reduces its rate of growth. Myc appears to play a central role