New Approaches, Alternative Avenues and Means of Access to Asylum Procedures for Persons Seeking International Protection. CEPS Liberty and Security in Europe No. 77/ January 2015

This study examines the workings of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS), in order to assess the need and potential for new approaches to ensure access to protection for people seeking it in the EU, including joint processing and distribution of asylum seekers. Rather than advocating the addition of further complexity and coercion to the CEAS, the study proposes a focus on front-line reception and streamlined refugee status determination, in order to mitigate the asylum challenges facing Member States, and vindicate the rights of asylum seekers and refugees according to the EU acquis and international legal standards. Joint processing could contribute to front-line reception and processing capacity, but is no substitute for proper investment in national systems. The Dublin system as currently configured leads inexorably to increasing coercion and detention, and must thus be reconfigured to remove coercion as a principle and ensure consistency with human rights and other fundamental values of the EU.

A Comparative Analysis of Regulations on Involuntary Loss of Nationality in the European Union. CEPS Liberty and Security in Europe, 75/December 2014

This study examines the workings of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS), in order to assess the need and potential for new approaches to ensure access to protection for people seeking it in the EU, including joint processing and distribution of asylum seekers. Rather than advocating the addition of further complexity and coercion to the CEAS, the study proposes a focus on front-line reception and streamlined refugee status determination, in order to mitigate the asylum challenges facing Member States, and vindicate the rights of asylum seekers and refugees according to the EU acquis and international legal standards. Joint processing could contribute to front-line reception and processing capacity, but is no substitute for proper investment in national systems. The Dublin system as currently configured leads inexorably to increasing coercion and detention, and must thus be reconfigured to remove coercion as a principle and ensure consistency with human rights and other fundamental values of the EU.

Why do eastern curlews Numenius madagascariensis feed on prey that lowers intake rate before migration?

Eastern curlews Numenius madagascariensis spending the nonbreeding season in eastern Australia foraged on three intertidal decapods: soldier crab Mictyris longicarpus, sentinel crab Macrophthalmus crassipes and ghost-shrimp Trypaea australiensis. Due to their ecology, these crustaceans were spatially segregated (=distributed in 'patches') and the curlews intermittently consumed more than one prey type. It was predicted that if the curlews behaved as intake rate maximizers, the time spent foraging on a particular prey (patch) would reflect relative availabilities of the prey types and thus prey-specific intake rates would be equal. During the mid-nonbreeding period (November-December), Mictyris and Macrophthalmus were primarily consumed and prey-specific intake rates were statistically indistinguishable (8.8 versus 10.1 kJ x min(-1)). Prior to migration (February), Mictyris and Trypaea were hunted and the respective intake rates were significantly different (8.9 versus 2.3 kJ x min(-1)). Time allocation to Trypaea-hunting was independent of the availability of Mictyris. Thus, consumption of Trypaea depressed the overall intake rate. Six hypotheses for consuming Trypaea before migration were examined. Five hypotheses: the possible error by the predator, prey specialization, observer overestimation of time spent hunting Trypaea, supplementary prey and the choice of higher quality prey due to a digestive bottleneck, were deemed unsatisfactory. The explanation for consumption of a low intake-rate but high quality prey (Trypaea) deemed plausible was diet optimisation by the Curlews in response to the pre-migratory modulation (decrease in size/processing capacity) of their digestive system. With a seasonal decrease in the average intake rate, the estimated intake per low tide increased from 1233 to 1508 kJ between the mid-nonbreeding and pre-migratory periods by increasing the overall time spent on the sandflats and the proportion of time spent foraging.

How many variables can humans process?

The conceptual complexity of problems was manipulated to probe the limits of human information processing capacity. Participants were asked to interpret graphically displayed statistical interactions. In such problems, all independent variables need to be considered together, so that decomposition into smaller subtasks is constrained, and thus the order of the interaction. directly determines conceptual complexity. As the order of the interaction increases, the number of variables increases. Results showed a significant decline in accuracy and speed of solution from three-way to four-way interactions. Furthermore, performance on a five-way interaction was at chance level. These findings suggest that a structure defined on four variables is at the limit of human processing capacity.

Designing a methodology for an office communication and information system:for executives in the Malaysian public sector : the Prime Minister's office

Modern managers are under tremendous pressure in attempting to fulfil a profoundly complex managerial task, that of handling information resources. Information management, an intricate process requiring a high measure of human cognition and discernment, involves matching a manager's lack of information processing capacity against his information needs, with voluminous information at his disposal. The nature of the task will undoubtedly become more complex in the case of a large organisation. Management of large-scale organisations is therefore an exceedingly challenging prospect for any manager to be faced with. A system that supports executive information needs will help reduce managerial and informational mismatches. In the context of the Malaysian public sector, the task of overall management lies with the Prime Minister and the Cabinet. The Prime Minister's Office is presently supporting the Prime Minister's information and managerial needs, although not without various shortcomings. The rigid formalised structure predominant of the Malaysian public sector, so opposed to dynamic treatment of problematic issues as faced by that sector, further escalates the managerial and organisational problem of coping with a state of complexity. The principal features of the research are twofold: the development of a methodology for diagnosing the problem organisation' and the design of an office system. The methodological development is done in the context of the Malaysian public sector, and aims at understanding the complexity of its communication and control situation. The outcome is a viable model of the public sector. `Design', on the other hand, is developing a syntax or language for office systems which provides an alternative to current views on office systems. The design is done with reference to, rather than for, the Prime Minister's Office. The desirable outcome will be an office model called Office Communication and Information System (OCIS).

Laterality differences in memory and attention

A critical review of the auditory selective attention literature is presented, particular reference is made to methodological issues arising from the asymmetrical hemispheric representation of language in the context of the dominant research technique dichotic shadowing. Subsequently the concept of cerebral localization is introduced, and the experimental literature with reference to models of laterality effects in speech and audition discussed. The review indicated the importance of hemispheric asymmetries insofar as they might influence the results of dichotic shadowing tasks. It is suggested that there is a potential overlap between models of selective attention and hemispheric differences. In Experiment I, ~ a key experiment in auditory selective attention is replicated and by exercising control over possible laterality effects some of the conflicting results of earlier studies were reconciled. The three subsequent experiments, II, III and IV, are concerned with the recall of verbally shadowed inputs. A highly significant and consistent effect of ear of arrival upon the serial position of items recalled is reported. Experiment V is directed towards an analysis of the effect that the processing of unattended inputs has upon the serial position of attended items that are recalled. A significant effect of the type of unattended material upon the recall of attended items was found to be influenced by the ear of arrival of inputs. In Experiment VI, differences between the two ears as attended and unattended input channels were clarified. Two main conclusions were drawn from this work. First, that the dichotic shadowing technique cannot control attention. Instead the task aprocessing both channels of dichotic inputs is unevenly shared bet\'reen the hemispheres as a function of the ear shadowed. Consequently, evidence for the processing of unattended information is considered in terms of constraints imposed by asymmetries in the functional organization of language, not in terms of a limited processing capacity model. The second conclusion to be drawn is that laterality differences can be effectively examined using the dichotic shadowing technique, a new model of laterality differences is proposed and discussed.

Reactor design and its impact on performance and products

This chapter discusses engineering design and performance of various types of biomass transformation reactors. These reactors vary in their operating principle depending on the processing capacity and the nature of the desired end product, that is, gas, chemicals or liquid bio-oil. Mass balance around a thermal conversion reactor is usually carried out to identify the degree of conversion and obtain the amount of the various components in the product. The energy balance around the reactors is essential for determining the optimum reactor temperature and the amount of heat required to complete the overall reactions. Experimental and pilot-plant testing is essential for proper reactor design. However, it is common practice to use correlation and valid parameter values in determining the realistic reactor dimensions and configurations. Despite the recent progress in thermochemical conversion technology, reactor performance and scale up potential are the subjects of continuing research.

Tributos indiretos na cadeia produtiva do camarão

The state of Rio Grande do Norte counts with a relevant potential in the shrimp farming supply chain. In the larviculture step the state responds for more than half of the national production. In the farming step it is the second largest producer. In the industrial step, its industries have almost 40% of the shrimp processing capacity of the northeast of Brazil. However, this country has the highest tax rate comparing with the main shrimp producer countries. Considering the influence of taxes in the competition among companies, the main goal of this research is to analyze the impact of indirect taxes in the above steps of the supply chain. To achieve it, it will be used the data of the 2011 Census of the Shrimp Farming and it will be applied the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index to identify the market form of those steps. In order to contribute with the characterization of the supply chain, CEO´s of farms and industries will be interviewed. The price-elasticity of the shrimp larvae, the in natura shrimp and the processed shrimp will be analyzed in order to verify the possibility that each one of those three steps has to pass-through the onus of the end of benefit over the ICMS. The data analysis shows that the larviculture step functions as a duopoly and, facing the end of that benefit, it will be able to pass-through most its onus to the farming step. On the other hand, this step functions similar to a perfect competing market, which diminishes its capacity to pass-through that onus to the processing step. This step operates as oligopoly with a lower concentration than the larviculture step but, due to the fact that it faces an oligopsony, it will end up assuming most of that onus, which will cause a decrease in the amount of processed shrimp. It is concluded that the end of that benefit would impact negatively, in this state, the supply chain at all, but mainly the farming and the industrial steps

Cyber foraging for green computing, improving performance and prolonging battery life of mobile devices

The increasing dependency of everyday life on mobile devices also increases the number and complexity of computing tasks to be supported by these devices. However, the inherent requirement of mobility restricts them from being resources rich both in terms of energy (battery capacity) and other computing resources such as processing capacity, memory and other resources. This thesis looks into cyber foraging technique of offloading computing tasks. Various experiments on android mobile devices are carried out to evaluate offloading benefits in terms of sustainability advantage, prolonging battery life and augmenting the performance of mobile devices. This thesis considers two scenarios of cyber foraging namely opportunistic offloading and competitive offloading. These results show that the offloading scenarios are important for both green computing and resource augmentation of mobile devices. A significant advantage in battery life gain and performance enhancement is obtained. Moreover, cyber foraging is proved to be efficient in minimizing energy consumption per computing tasks. The work is based on scavenger cyber foraging system. In addition, the work can be used as a basis for studying cyber foraging and other similar approaches such as mobile cloud/edge computing for internet of things devices and improving the user experiences of applications by minimizing latencies through the use of potential nearby surrogates.

Tributos indiretos na cadeia produtiva do camarão

The state of Rio Grande do Norte counts with a relevant potential in the shrimp farming supply chain. In the larviculture step the state responds for more than half of the national production. In the farming step it is the second largest producer. In the industrial step, its industries have almost 40% of the shrimp processing capacity of the northeast of Brazil. However, this country has the highest tax rate comparing with the main shrimp producer countries. Considering the influence of taxes in the competition among companies, the main goal of this research is to analyze the impact of indirect taxes in the above steps of the supply chain. To achieve it, it will be used the data of the 2011 Census of the Shrimp Farming and it will be applied the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index to identify the market form of those steps. In order to contribute with the characterization of the supply chain, CEO´s of farms and industries will be interviewed. The price-elasticity of the shrimp larvae, the in natura shrimp and the processed shrimp will be analyzed in order to verify the possibility that each one of those three steps has to pass-through the onus of the end of benefit over the ICMS. The data analysis shows that the larviculture step functions as a duopoly and, facing the end of that benefit, it will be able to pass-through most its onus to the farming step. On the other hand, this step functions similar to a perfect competing market, which diminishes its capacity to pass-through that onus to the processing step. This step operates as oligopoly with a lower concentration than the larviculture step but, due to the fact that it faces an oligopsony, it will end up assuming most of that onus, which will cause a decrease in the amount of processed shrimp. It is concluded that the end of that benefit would impact negatively, in this state, the supply chain at all, but mainly the farming and the industrial steps

Phenolic content and antioxidant capacity in organically and conventionally grown eggplant (Solanum melongena) fruits following thermal processing

AbstractThermal processing and production practices used in vegetables can cause changes in their phytochemical contents. Eggplant is characterized by its high antioxidant content. The objective of this work was to determine levels of anthocyanins, polyphenols, and flavonoids and antioxidant capacity in organically and conventionally grown eggplant prepared fresh or subjected to one of three thermal preparation methods: boiling, baking or steaming. The soluble and hydrolyzable polyphenols and flavonoids content were quantified by Folin-Ciocalteu and Aluminum chloride methods, respectively. Anthocyanins were quantified according to the pH differential method. Antioxidant capacity was determined by DPPH and ORAC methods. The results showed differences between organic and conventional eggplant for some variables although cultivation method did not have a consistent effect. Hydrolysable polyphenol content was greater, and soluble and hydrolysable antioxidant capacities were higher in organically grown eggplant, while anthocyanin content was greater in conventionally grown eggplant. Fresh eggplant produced under conventional cultivation had a much greater content of anthocyanins compared to that of other cultivation method-thermal treatment combination. In general, steamed eggplant contained higher total polyphenol and flavonoid levels as well as greater antioxidant capacity. Steamed eggplant from both conventional and organic systems also had high amounts of anthocyanins compared to other thermal treatments.

Tuberculosis diagnosis after bleach processing for early stage tuberculosis laboratory capacity building

The diagnosis of tuberculosis is seriously hampered in the absence of standard biosafety laboratory facilities for specimen concentration and Mycobacterium tuberculosis culture. Within a laboratory twinning arrangement, heat-fixed direct smear and sediment from 74 bleach-processed and 20 non-processed specimens from Cumura Hospital, Guinea-Bissau, were sent to Lisbon for molecular evaluation of rifampicin resistance. Sequence analysis of a 369 base-pair ppoB locus detected 3.2% (3/94) resistant specimens. To our knowledge, this represents the first report on the molecular analysis of M. tuberculosis from bleach-processed sputum, an alternative to current diagnostic practice in low-resource settings.

Stability of Carotenoids, Total Phenolics and In Vitro Antioxidant Capacity in the Thermal Processing of Orange-Fleshed Sweet Potato (Ipomoea batatas Lam.) Cultivars Grown in Brazil

Intervention strategies regarding the biofortification of orange-fleshed sweet potato, which is a rich source of carotenoids for combating vitamin A deficiency, are being developed in Brazil. This study was conducted to evaluate the concentrations of individual carotenoids, total phenolic compounds and antioxidant capacity in the roots of four biofortified sweet potato cultivars that were raw or processed by four common heat treatments. HPLC, Folin-Ciocalteu, DPPH and ABTS assays were used. All cultivars showed high levels of carotenoids in raw roots, predominantly all-trans-beta-carotene (79.1-128.5 mg.100 g(-1) DW), suggesting a high estimated vitamin A activity. The CNPH 1194 cultivar reported carotenoids values highest than those of other cultivars (p < 0.05). The total phenolic compounds varied among cultivars and heat treatments (0.96-2.05 mg.g(-1) DW). In most cases, the heat treatments resulted in a significant decrease in the carotenoids and phenolic compounds contents as well as antioxidant capacity. Processing of flour presented the greatest losses of major carotenoids and phenolics. The phenolic compounds showed more stability than carotenoids after processing. There were significant correlations between the carotenoids and phenolic compounds and the antioxidant capacity.

Reduced attentional capacity, but normal processing speed and shifting of attention in developmental dyslexia: evidence from a serial task

We report the performance of a group of adult dyslexics and matched controls in an array-matching task where two strings of either consonants or symbols are presented side by side and have to be judged to be the same or different. The arrays may differ either in the order or identity of two adjacent characters. This task does not require naming – which has been argued to be the cause of dyslexics’ difficulty in processing visual arrays – but, instead, has a strong serial component as demonstrated by the fact that, in both groups, Reaction times (RTs) increase monotonically with position of a mismatch. The dyslexics are clearly impaired in all conditions and performance in the identity conditions predicts performance across orthographic tasks even after age, performance IQ and phonology are partialled out. Moreover, the shapes of serial position curves are revealing of the underlying impairment. In the dyslexics, RTs increase with position at the same rate as in the controls (lines are parallel) ruling out reduced processing speed or difficulties in shifting attention. Instead, error rates show a catastrophic increase for positions which are either searched later or more subject to interference. These results are consistent with a reduction in the attentional capacity needed in a serial task to bind together identity and positional information. This capacity is best seen as a reduction in the number of spotlights into which attention can be split to process information at different locations rather than as a more generic reduction of resources which would also affect processing the details of single objects.

Optical information capacity processing

The never-stopping increase in demand for information transmission capacity has been met with technological advances in telecommunication systems, such as the implementation of coherent optical systems, advanced multilevel multidimensional modulation formats, fast signal processing, and research into new physical media for signal transmission (e.g. a variety of new types of optical fibers). Since the increase in the signal-to-noise ratio makes fiber communication channels essentially nonlinear (due to the Kerr effect for example), the problem of estimating the Shannon capacity for nonlinear communication channels is not only conceptually interesting, but also practically important. Here we discuss various nonlinear communication channels and review the potential of different optical signal coding, transmission and processing techniques to improve fiber-optic Shannon capacity and to increase the system reach.