Vulnerability and its implications: some comments in the light of the Strasbourg case law concerning asylum seekers

A decade has passed since the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR/Court) for the first time recognized asylum seekers as ‘a particularly underprivileged and vulnerable population group in need of special protection’ (M.S.S. v. Belgium and Greece, 2011). For many years this approach could be seen as forming a part of the Strasbourg paradigm with regard to the protection of rights and freedoms of foreigners seeking for international protection in States Parties to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Despite a noticeable shift within this paradigm (see especially Ilias and Ahmed v. Hungary, 2019), vulnerability – although now on more individualized, in contrast to its group form, when the applicant's vulnerability is determined by belonging to a specific category of persons ‒ still have a role to play in the ECtHR’s assessments of responsibility of the respondent States with regard to the violations of the applicant's rights. Recognizing vulnerability as a normative category in the Strasbourg case law, thus as a qualification that produces concrete, legal effects for States’ obligations under the ECHR (which must be seen as a primary, overriding justification for its application by the Court), the present article examines the ECtHR’s references to vulnerability of asylum seekers, explaining the structure of this argument (how and to what extent it is applied, on what grounds), with a special focus on the legal consequences associated to it in the light of the Strasbourg case law.A decade has passed since the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR/Court) for the first time recognized asylum seekers as ‘a particularly underprivileged and vulnerable population group in need of special protection’ (M.S.S. v. Belgium and Greece, 2011). For many years this approach could be seen as forming a part of the Strasbourg paradigm with regard to the protection of rights and freedoms of foreigners seeking for international protection in States Parties to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Despite a noticeable shift within this paradigm (see especially Ilias and Ahmed v. Hungary, 2019), vulnerability – although now on more individualized, in contrast to its group form, when the applicant's vulnerability is determined by belonging to a specific category of persons ‒ still have a role to play in the ECtHR’s assessments of responsibility of the respondent States with regard to the violations of the applicant's rights. Recognizing vulnerability as a normative category in the Strasbourg case law, thus as a qualification that produces concrete, legal effects for States’ obligations under the ECHR (which must be seen as a primary, overriding justification for its application by the Court), the present article examines the ECtHR’s references to vulnerability of asylum seekers, explaining the structure of this argument (how and to what extent it is applied, on what grounds), with a special focus on the legal consequences associated to it in the light of the Strasbourg case law

Borderless Market legislation practice in EU and USA: Competence of central authorities in the federal model

Both the EU and the USA have a federated structure with some competencies and responsibilities resting at the central level, some resting with the state governments. Both systems subscribe to a constitutional principle of enumerated powers under which, in order for powers to belong properly to the federal level, they need to have been enumerated as such. The United States Constitution centralized the government with all due respect to a relationship between central government and the state level (amendment X of the U.S. Constitution2). In this study, the current American federal model will be compared to the model of governance in Europe which might be considered to be developing towards a federal system. This system essentially implies the supremacy of the (respective) constitution and, indeed, all the hallmarks of American federalism are included in the European Constitution. The Single Market encompasses the respect for EU basic legal principles, subsidiarity and proportionality (Article 5 TEU). However, the European Constitution remains problematic in the European Union. The 2004 attempt to pass the Constitution turned out to be a failure and slowed down further political integration. Constitutional issues will also be discussed from the judiciary point of view which is to be confronted with political aspects. The important question to be addressed here is the role of judicial control in the process of creating a coherent doctrinal framework. The question whether the legislative acts are immune from legislative review provided that matter falls within the Treaty competences conferred on the EU by the Member States, or in the U.S. Constitution respectively, will be examined

Terraforming "Beautiful China": Island Building and Lunar Exploration in the Making of the Chinese State

Chinese terraforming projects in the South China Sea have been condemned as geopolitically and ecologically destabilising. Following years of escalating construction and tourism initiatives, China pivoted in January 2019 by announcing ecosystem restoration efforts on several terraformed islands. Days later, the Chinese National Space Agency made the first soft landing on the far side of the moon, carrying with it a micro-ecosystem of living seeds and insect eggs. The micro-ecosystem sprouted the first plant on the moon, whose brief lifespan was met with rapt attention by the Chinese public as it disseminated across the national mediascape. This article contends that terraforming efforts in the South China Sea and the Chang’e 4 lunar biosphere project are related material-symbolic instantiations of a uniquely Chinese sociotechnical imaginary. Prevailing interpretations of Chinese island-building, outer space ventures and ecological civilisation tend to construe Beijing’s intentions as primarily antagonistic. These accounts are useful yet insufficient for comprehending China’s terraforming projects on Earth and beyond. The authors instead refigure terraformation as an imaginative, material and bio-geophysical process enacted in the globalising pursuit of new Chinese horizons

Identification of abscisic acid-binding proteins using a bioactive photoaffinity probe

This project was expected to contribute to the understanding of abscisic acid (ABA) perception in plants through identification of new ABA-binding proteins. The novel, biotinylated ABA derivative PBI686 (of biological activity comparable to natural ABA) has served as an affinity probe for isolation of ABA-binding proteins. Photoaffinity labeling in conjunction with affinity chromatography (streptavidin-biotin based) was used for specific identification of target proteins from complex mixtures of cytosolic and membrane-bound proteins. Proteins of interest were identified by Mass Spectrometry through peptide mass fingerprinting and MS/MS ion search. Ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) was identified as an ABA binding partner, and its interaction with ABA was initially confirmed by its ability to block the photoaffinity labeling reaction with PBI686. In addition, Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) experiments with ABA and Rubisco were performed, which provided further evidence for selective interaction between the two binding partners, with a very small preference towards (+)-ABA over (-)-ABA. SPR has also yielded the value of equilibrium dissociation constant (KD) being 5 nM for (+)-ABA and 7 nM for (-)-ABA. This was further confirmed by [3H] (±)-ABA binding assays, which have also shown that non-radiolabeled (+)-ABA and (-)-ABA (at concentration 1000 fold higher) were able to displace [3H] (±)-ABA from binding to Rubisco. Compounds other than ABA such as PA (phaseic acid) or trans-(+)-ABA were not able to displace [3H] (±)-ABA, which has suggested the selectivity of binding. Further, Rubisco enzymatic activity in the absence of ABA was compared to that in the presence of ABA at various concentrations. The results have clearly indicated the effect of ABA on Rubisco’s enzymatic activity. This was reflected on the enzyme’s Km values being increased by seven fold in the presence of 10 mM ABA and 1 mM substrate (RuBP). The interpretation of changes in enzyme kinetics upon inhibition by ABA most resembles allosteric inhibition. The biological function of this newly discovered interaction is interpreted as ABA’s ability to regulate plant growth during abiotic stress by its direct action on the photosynthetic machinery - hypothesis often suggested in the literature

Constrained expectation maximisation algorithm for estimating ARMA models in state space representation

This paper discusses the fitting of linear state space models to given multivariate time series in the presence of constraints imposed on the four main parameter matrices of these models. Constraints arise partly from the assumption that the models have a block-diagonal structure, with each block corresponding to an ARMA process, that allows the reconstruction of independent source components from linear mixtures, and partly from the need to keep models identifiable. The first stage of parameter fitting is performed by the expectation maximisation (EM) algorithm. Due to the identifiability constraint, a subset of the diagonal elements of the dynamical noise covariance matrix needs to be constrained to fixed values (usually unity). For this kind of constraints, so far, no closed-form update rules were available. We present new update rules for this situation, both for updating the dynamical noise covariance matrix directly and for updating a matrix square-root of this matrix. The practical applicability of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated by a low-dimensional simulation example. The behaviour of the EM algorithm, as observed in this example, illustrates the well-known fact that in practical applications, the EM algorithm should be combined with a different algorithm for numerical optimisation, such as a quasi-Newton algorithm

Digital Twins for Internal Transport Systems: Use Cases, Functions, and System Architecture

Internal transport systems are an essential part of intralogistics in production and distribution facilities. These are characterized by a variety of technologies as well as a multitude of interactions with other processes, such as warehouse, picking, and production processes. Therefore, resource planning and control of these systems is complex, especially for discontinuous conveyors. In this task, users can be supported by Digital Twins for decision-making, as they are suitable for investigating both future system states and possible actions. However, relevant use cases that are generally applicable across sectors as well as a generic system architecture for Digital Twins for resource planning and process control of in-plant transport systems have not yet been sufficiently investigated. In this paper, use cases are presented, relevant functions defined, and, finally, a generic functional and a logical reference architecture described. This is conducted with the design science in information systems research method together with a Systems Engineering approach. The use cases are determined at industrial partners of the research project TwInTraSys, which explores Digital Twins for the planning and control of internal transport systems. They are generalized and, thus, also applicable to other production and distribution facilities in different sectors. Further, the reference architecture can provide a basis for the successful implementation of the Digital Twin

Analysis of Parameters Influencing in-plant Milk Run Design for Production Supply

In-plant milk-run systems are a transport concept for in-plant material delivery which is becoming more and more applicable especially in the automotive industry. This is due to the system characteristic of providing materials in small lot sizes and with high frequency. As there is a number of different milk run concepts applied and there are several parameters influencing the efficiency and stability of these systems, this paper aims at presenting an overview of common concepts and their properties together with key figures based on an empirical study. The concepts are further analyzed and evaluated with respect to resulting lead times and stability

Developing a Decision Support System for Integrated Decision-Making in Purchasing and Scheduling under Lead Time Uncertainty

Decision-making in supply chain management is complex because of the relations between planning tasks from different stages and planning levels. Uncertainties such as unpredictable supplier lead times and supply chain disruptions further complicate decision-making. Considering the case study of a company in printed circuit board assembly, a three-level concept is proposed that includes a decision support system. The global single-source supply network is characterized by highly variable lead times. Hence, the company maintains high inventory levels to prevent running out of stock. The decision support system considers the purchasing and scheduling decision problems in an integrated way. The prototypical implementation of the purchasing algorithm uses a genetic algorithm that recommends reorder days and order quantities using a simulation model. In addition, it evaluates the risks of the recommended solution by calculating the probability of stockouts for each order cycle