Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Migration movement'

Migration wird oft als soziales Problem dargestellt, das mit Benachteiligungen einhergeht. Allerdings hat die Migrationsforschung in den letzten Jahren gezeigt, dass Migration sich u.a. durch Klasse, Geschlecht und Ethnizität ausdifferenziert. Diese Studie fokussiert auf das Konzept der sozialen Klasse. Die Studie schlägt vor, Mobilität als Ressource zu betrachten, die in der Gesellschaft ungleichmäßig verteilt ist. Wie beeinflusst die soziale Klasse der Migrant_innen ihre räumliche Mobilität und die Art und Weise, wie sie mit Migrationsregimen interagieren? Wie beeinflusst ihre Mobilität die Prozesse von Klassenformation, in denen sie während der Migration involviert werden? Die Analyse erfolgt durch die Untersuchung der Migrationsgeschichten von jungen italienischen Migrant_innen, die seit 2008 nach Berlin zugewandert sind. Sie basiert auf einem Mix an Methoden, bzw. einer Online-Umfrage, 40 Interviews, drei Fokus-Gruppen und zahlreichen teilnehmenden Beobachtungen. Erstens untersucht der theoretische Teil die Entwicklung des Konzeptes der sozialen Klasse und deckt die Leerstellen der Klassenforschung auf. Zweitens wird im empirischen Teil den Zugang italienischer Migrant_innen zu Wohnen und Arbeit in Berlin untersucht. Schließlich beweist die Studie, dass das Regime der „freien“ EU-Binnenmigration wohl durch die Entstehung von Grenzen auf lokaler Ebene gekennzeichnet ist. Nach der Analyse scheint dieses Regime eher eine Lebensführung zu favorisieren, in der permanente Mobilisierung der eigenen Arbeitskraft notwendig ist. Die Studie bestätigt, dass Mobilität als Ressource zu betrachten ist, die zunehmend relevant für den Lebensunterhalt ist, und plädiert deshalb dafür, eine kritische Perspektive auf Migration zu entwickeln, die den Fokus auf die Frage nach der Kontrolle und Eigentum von Mobilität setzt.<br>Migration has been studied for long time as a social problem, both for migrants and for sending and destination countries. However, research shows that migration has become increasingly differentiated along social, economic, gender and cultural lines. The present study unravels the concept of migration by introducing social class as a crucial intervening variable. It suggests considering mobility as an income-generating resource unevenly distributed across the population. How does the social class of migrants affect their mobility and the ways how it is incorporated into a migration regime? How is mobility related to processes of class formation in contemporary capitalism? The study focusses on the case of young Italian migrants who moved to Berlin after the economic crisis of 2008. Firstly, it tackles the rise, decline and renaissance of the class concept, showing the blind spots of class analysis. Secondly, the empirical part, based on a web survey, 40 interviews, 3 focus groups and several participant observations, explains how Italian migrants access resources in Berlin developing a life conduct predicated on mobility. The imperative to move spills over from the domain of spatial mobility into the domain of work, with the refusal of doing the same job “forever”, and into that of reproduction, with the construction of flexible forms of emotional engagement. The research highlights how newcomers enter processes of social differentiation on the housing and labor market. Endless mobilization of young labour force appears as the main policy goal for the governance of intra-EU migration. The analysis finally suggests considering mobility as a class-related resource, whose ownership and control should become a crucial issue for the understanding of contemporary societies.

This thesis focuses on fiction and poetry written by women who have migrated from former British colonies in the Caribbean, Africa and South Asia, to Britain or North America; it explores how issues of race, gender, sexuality, belonging and power are raised through the writings‘ accounts of migration, displacement and changing identity. The thesis stresses the importance of these writings in addressing key issues in feminist politics and in women‘s lives, and in making significant contributions to these debates. It argues that women‘s migration, and literary accounts of migration, are important to feminism, as is feminism to understanding migration. Key texts include Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga; The Unbelonging, by Joan Riley; Lucy, by Jamaica Kincaid; and No Language is Neutral, by Dionne Brand. I also draw on a number of other novels, poems and anthologies of migrant women‘s writings. The diversity of the texts by migrant women that form the basis of the thesis has shaped my understanding of the issues they raise; the breadth and variety of the writing calls for a wide range of critical approaches in order that the writing is, as far as possible, illuminated rather than constrained by any one critical model. I am committed throughout the thesis to a feminist approach which incorporates an attention to women‘s activism along with 'the theoretical'; and which takes seriously the personal/emotional implications both of the kinds of imbalances of power which many migrant women explore and resist in their writings, and of feminist theorising and practice. The thesis consists of six chapters, the middle four of which are organised into two pairs. I begin the thesis with a chapter looking at accounts of women‘s decisions and journeys of migration, and the personal, political and historical contexts in which their migration takes place. Chapters Two and Three, which are paired under the title 'Women and Place', examine the impact of migrant women‘s changing relationships with place, before and after migration, on their sense of home, belonging and identity. In Chapters Four and Five, I move on to address the significance of these writings in terms of feminist politics and contemporary debates about identity, difference and racism. I have paired the chapters under the common title 'Literary Activism' in order to highlight connections between reading, writing and political activism. In conclusion, the thesis looks at representations of women‘s emotional and bodily experiences of the liberatory and/or oppressive aspects of their migrations. It addresses the possibilities –or impossibilities—of migrant women living with, coming to terms with, and resisting their oppressions, both personally and politically. This final chapter brings together, and takes further, various issues addressed throughout the thesis, in terms of writers‘ portrayals of both the effects of migration on women‘s sense of themselves, and of their explorations and responses to the impact of migration.

Immigration into Europe has always been at the center of EU’s agenda. With the candidacy of Turkey for entry into the EU, the issue of immigration is being discussed with a new intensity. That is why this paper aims to understand the dynamics that will govern Turkish migration into EU after membership and to provide a sound basis for its complicated nature. In order to do that, different theories of migration have been categorized at different levels of approaches and analyzed to understand the reasons for migration. To ground these theories in the reality of migration, the statistics on countries that joined the EU in 2004 and 2007 have been used. After identifying the reasons why citizens of these new member states migrate, prospective Turkish migration has been analyzed accordingly. It has been found out that the reasons for Turkish migration will be mostly the same as those for new member states’ citizens. As a result of this, it has been concluded that the prospective Turkish migration will be extremely diverse and complicated and that the directions of migration will not only be from Turkey to Europe but also from Europe to Turkey.

Immigration into Europe has always been at the center of agenda of the EU. With the candidacy of Turkey, the issue of immigration is being discussed at an accelerating rate. That is why this paper aims to understand the dynamics behind the prospective Turkish migration into EU after membership and to provide a sound basis for its complicated nature. In order to do that, different theories of migration have been categorized at different levels of approaches and analyzed to understand the reasons for migration. To set the relationship between theory and reality of migration, the statistics on countries that joined the EU in 2004 and 2007 have been used. After identifying the reasons why citizens of these new member states migrate, the prospective Turkish migration has been analyzed accordingly. It has been found out that the reasons for Turkish migration will be mostly the same as those for new member states’ citizens. As a result of this, it has been concluded that the prospective Turkish migration will be so diverse and complicated and that the direction of migration will not only be from Turkey to Europe but also from Europe to Turkey.

This is a study about how destination countries affect the community formation and development of Alevis—a particular group from Turkey. Although there is a great amount of research on the effects of immigration on receiving countries, less consideration has been given to how the approach towards immigrants adopted by receiving states impacts on migrants’ cultural and religious practices as well as their diasporic community formation. Moreover, existing research essentialises diasporas as homogenous groups merely on the basis of common attachment to their homelands. The literature has not only ignored internal differences related to ethnicity, religion or class, but has also conceptualised them as static entities. Diasporas, however—like any other social group—can change over time and continue their activities under different frameworks. This is also true of existing Alevi studies: most explore the question of ‘why the Alevi movement emerged’ but none adopts a dynamic perspective to investigate changes within the movement. By incorporating diaspora mobilisation literature with social movement theories, this thesis specifically explores the question: ‘How did the Alevi diaspora emerge and change over time in different contexts?’. It examines the cases of Germany and Australia, two countries with very different historical traditions towards migrants, from a multi-scalar perspective that considers the shifting transnational and national ‘political opportunity structures’. It focuses on the period between the 1960s (when Turkey signed its first bilateral migration agreements) and 2013. The fieldwork for this study was carried out in both countries between 2012 and 2013, and the data collection methods were policy analysis, archival research, participant observation and semistructured in-depth interviews with 70 Alevi participants. The results show that Alevis who were initially part of the labour movement in the 1960s and 1970s in both Germany and Australia started organising around a newly emerging secular cultural identity movement in the 1980s and 1990s, and around an institutionalised religious/faith-based movement in the 2000s. In Germany, activists ultimately managed to obtain public recognition of Alevism from the German state as a unique religion separate from Islam. In Australia, despite the fact that religious institutions were not promoted in the same way, a similar pattern evolved at the federation level. Activists in both places sought to manage the dispersed Alevi ix population under new and integrative models (such as national federations, supranational institutions and global initiatives) and positioned Alevism largely as a unique faith system in its own right. Overall, these findings suggest that even if national ‘political opportunity structures’ develop in various ways in different countries, a diaspora movement can follow a largely similar path over time due to overarching transnational forces (such as, in this case, the construction of Muslims as a threat to national security in both Germany and Australia and the rise of Islamist politics in Turkey). In Australia, however, the two major organisations disagreed about the definition of Alevism. While the main organisation in Melbourne claimed Alevism as a unique faith system, its counterpart in Sydney sustained the view that Alevism was the true essence of Islam. Hence the case study in Australia suggests that, despite working in the same national political opportunity structures, local-level movements may follow very different routes. Moreover, in both countries, ‘framing contests’ among activists and community members resulted from personal conflicts and differences in political and geographical background, which further illustrates the complexities inherent in a social movement.

In most academic writing on state sovereignty, it is considered as a special, abstract form of independent power. This thesis considers sovereignty from a historical and anthropological perspective, arguing that it is a certain form of social and political organisation through which the state's power is performed and maintained as natural. This organisation and maintenance rests on particular, powerful ideas, for example on the assumed unity of territory, government and population, and on certain values about what constitutes politics and a fulfilled human life. By analysing the management of Iraqi migrants in Damascus through state and humanitarian institutions, this thesis shows the daily-life bureaucratic and violent practices through which state sovereignty became a reality in this context. The analysis emphasises that state sovereignty exists as an imagined 'ideal', as reflected in international law or world maps, and as a much more complex, context-dependant, lived reality. The differences between the way that humanitarian agencies considered Iraqi migrants from the perspective of the 'ideal', and the way Syrian state institutions governed Iraqi migrants according to very different standards, highlighted this distinction. Methodologically, this thesis calls for, and attempts to provide, a hermeneutic approach to social inquiry, in which empirical evidence underpins arguments about theory. Ethnography and interviews in Syria were used to collect in-depth information about the lives of Iraqi migrants, and the interventions and programmes through which Iraqi migration was being managed, in 2009 and 2010.

Existing moral reflection on immigration law and policy is caught in an impasse between (1) proponents of an individual right to free international migration and (2) proponents of a state’s right to control its borders. In Chapter 1, I examine arguments supporting an individual right to free international migration. I show that the case for this putative right cannot be settled solely by considering the strength of individuals’ interest in being able to cross international borders according to their choice. Rather, at a crucial point, the argument for an individual right to free migration turns on the truth of a particular conception of global justice. In Chapter 2, I examine arguments supporting a state’s right to control its borders. I contend that these arguments do not seek to defend the substantive justice of restrictive immigration policies, but rather the legitimacy of processes of political decision-making by which states unilaterally determine their own immigration policies. Abandoning this right-versus-right paradigm, I recast the debate by focusing on two distinct questions: (1) the question of justice in immigration, which substantively evaluates immigrant admission policy; and (2) the question of the legitimacy of immigration law enacted by procedures responsive only to states’ internal political decisions. I further propose that in articulating principles of justice in immigration, we should first develop a conception of global justice which will provide the background for our evaluation of immigration policy. In Chapter 3, I develop and defend a conception of global justice I call cooperation-based internationalism. I argue that co-citizens are joint participants in a scheme of cooperation which provides them with the social goods they need to lead autonomous lives. They therefore owe each other special duties of social justice. In addition, I argue for a duty of assistance which applies among all human persons globally. This duty requires developed states to assist developing states in establishing minimally just institutions. In Chapter 4, I develop a conception of justice in immigration against the background of cooperation-based internationalism. I argue that there is no requirement for states to allow open immigration. Nevertheless, I argue that co-citizens owe each other duties which impose significant moral constraints on immigration policy: states must (1) allow for family unification; (2) eschew policies that select immigrants based on criteria that unjustly call into question the fitness for citizenship of certain current members; (3) regulate labour immigration so that all current citizens benefit equally unless unequal gains benefit worse-off citizens. The duty of assistance is also imposes constraints on immigration policy. Developed states should (4) avoid immigration policies which cause brain drain harmful to international development and (5) admit and resettle refugees. In Chapter 5, I turn to the distinct question of the legitimacy of unilaterally-enacted immigration law. I argue that the application and enforcement of immigration law counts as a coercive exercise of political power which stands in need of justification. I examine the consent and natural duty of justice theories of political legitimacy, concluding that these influential theories cannot establish the legitimacy of immigration law. I conclude by considering the implications of the illegitimacy of immigration law for the evaluation of irregular migration.

This dissertation is about the movement of people and the system of order underpinning the movement. In undertaking a comparative study of Canada and France between 1989 and 2005, the study explores a widespread phenomenon that security studies and migration scholars would have considered an anomaly only two decades ago: understanding the movement of people as an existential security threat. How is it that nation-states around the globe are cracking down on migration for security reasons? How do we know if migration has been securitized - and which criteria should we employed to guide our analysis? What are the social mechanisms at play in the interaction between movement and order? Does a variation in levels of securitized migration exist - and if so, what are the key determinants of the variation? These questions are at the heart of the present study. My argument is twofold. First, I contend that a constructivist perspective is useful in gaining a better understanding of the social mechanisms involved in the securitization of migration as it highlights discursive power, ideational factors, and cultural/contextual elements. Second, I argue that securitization theory - the current benchmark in securitization research - remains silent on the issue of variation in levels of securitized migration. As such, securitization theory, as currently applied and organized, cannot explain empirical findings of my study - a weak securitization in Canada versus a strong securitization in France. Underscoring the necessity to amend securitization theory, I investigate the impact of cultural factors - and especially the role of domestic audience - to account for the variation.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Tennessee Health Science Center, 2006.<br>Title from title page screen (viewed on June 20, 2008 ). Research advisor: Seema Khurana, Ph.D. Document formatted into pages (xi, 154 p. : ill.). Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 127-139).

Cell migration involves complex mechanical interactions between cells or between cells and the underlying substrate. Using a newly developed technique, "traction force microscopy", I have been able to visualize the dynamic characteristics of mechanical forces exerted by migrating fibroblasts such as magnitude, direction, and shear. For NIH 3T3 fibroblasts, I found that the lamellipodium provides nearly all of the force necessary for cell migration. A high shear zone separates the lamellipodium from the remainder of the cell body, suggesting that they are mechanically distinct entities. The timing of the tractions at the leading edge, as well as the spatial distribution, bears no apparent relationship to concurrent local protrusive activities, yet changes in traction force patterns often precede changes in migration direction. In H-ras transformed cells I found isolated regions of weak, transient traction forces in pseudopods all along the cell that appeared to act against one another. The resulting shear pattern suggested that there were multiple disorganized mechanical domains. These results support a frontal towing model for cell migration where the dynamic traction forces at the leading edge served to actively pull the cell body forward. In H-ras transformed cells, the weak poorly coordinated traction forces coupled with weak cell substrate-adhesions were likely responsible for the abnormal motile behavior of these cells. To probe the mechanical interactions beneath various regions of migrating fibroblasts, a cell substrate inhibitor (GRGDTP peptide) was locally applied while imaging stress distribution on the substrate utilizing traction force microscopy. I found that both spontaneous and GRGDTP induced detachment of the trailing edge resulted in extensive cell shortening with no change in overall traction force magnitude or cell migration. Conversely, leading edge disruption resulted in a dramatic global loss of traction forces pnor to any significant cell shortening. These results suggested that fibroblasts transmit their contractile forces to the substrate through two distinct types of adhesions. Leading edge adhesions were unique in their ability to transmit active propulsive forces whereas trailing end adhesions created passive resistance during cell migration and readily redistributed their loads upon detachment. I have also investigated how fibroblasts regulate traction forces based on mechanical input. My results showed that stretching forces applied through the flexible substrate induced increases in both intracellular calcium concentration and traction forces in fibroblasts. Treatment with gadolinium, a well known stretch-activated ion channel inhibitor, was found to inhibit both traction forces and cell migration without inhibiting cellular spread morphology or protrusive activities. Gadolinium treatment also caused a pronounced decrease in vinculin and phosphotyrosine concentrations from focal adhesions. Local application of gadolinium to the trailing region had no detectable effect on overall traction forces or cell migration, whereas local application to the leading edge caused a global inhibition of traction forces and an inhibition of migration. These observations suggest that stretch activated entry of calcium ions in the frontal region serves to regulate the organization of focal adhesions and the output of mechanical forces. Together my experiments elucidate how fibroblasts exert mechanical forces to propel their movements, and how fibroblasts utilize mechanical input to regulate their movements.

Local governments—of large cities especially—enact policies that crucially affect the daily life of immigrants. Migration policy-making has proliferated across cities of the Global North—and so did its own contestation. The urban environment is, in fact, a fertile breed-ing ground for the flourishing of activist networks by and in solidarity with immigrants. Yet, research on social movement outcomes in the field of migration has been lagging behind. This thesis is aimed to theorize how and under what conditions pro-immigrant activists can affect policy-making at the city-level and beyond. By adopting a strategic-interaction and mechanisms-based approach to the study of contentious politics, the research con-tends and demonstrates that movements can rely on strategic leverages within three arenas of interaction. First, brokerage mechanisms are essential to the emergence of a social movement in the civil society arena. The peculiar qualities of urban spaces—notably, the availability of dense relational networks extended over an array of geographical scales—allow immigrants to create bonds of solidarity, craft alliances, and ultimately turn into vo-cal political subjects. Second, alliance-building mechanisms in the city politics arena have to be activated. Within a propitious political environment (e.g., ideologically sympathetic po-litical elites) activists are able to build potent pro-immigrant coalitions. Once crafted, these alliances can activate upscaling mechanisms to shape policy-making in the multi-level govern-ance arena. Such mechanisms reinforce and concatenate with one another in recurrent fash-ions, producing policy outcomes far beyond the immediate local contexts in which mobi-lization occurs. Yet, a plethora of dilemmas and contradictions are likely to arise, too. The study compares three contentious policy realms—exclusionary policies, policies in support of undocumented immigrants, and asylum policies—so as to assess similarities and dis-similarities across social movement outcomes. Empirically, it focuses on policies enacted in two large South European cities, Milan and Barcelona. Results are drawn from fieldwork carried out in 2017-19 and entailing 57 interviews. In addition, policy documents, media outlets, and the secondary literature have been extensively analyzed.

Thesis (M.S. )--University of Tennessee Health Science Center, 2007.<br>Title from title page screen (viewed on July 17, 2008). Research advisor: Xin Zhang, Ph.D. Document formatted into pages (xv, 197 p. : ill.). Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 159-197).

Directed cell migration is essential in both physiological and pathological situations. Many guidance cues have been extensively investigated in the past decades, to be able to regulate directional cell migration, including chemical, physiological and haptotactic cues. In the past years, we have focused on the roles of physiological electric field in the guidance of directed cell migration. It is well accepted that physiological electric fields exist both extracellularly and intracellularly with different functions, and interestingly, endogenous EFs exist in not only physiological but also pathological events. For instance, the existence of a small current in developing embryos which is also known as the endogenous electric field has been tested, such as the blastopore in Xenopus, chicken embryos, and etc. It has been also demonstrated that endogenous electric fields exist at the wound edges of injured cornea and skin. Physiological electric field is among many other guidance cues controlling an important cellular response – directed cell migration in response to stimuli, a phenomenon named electrotaxis or galvanotaxis. We and others have extensively demonstrated that physiological EFs could control directional cell migration, and that several signalling pathways are required for the regulation of such event. In the current study, we used Dictyostelium model to further explore the molecular and genetic mechanisms of how electrotaxis is controlled, by extensively investigating candidate molecules and genes in such regulation. We found that PI3K, PTEN and Ras signalling pathways are largely involved in the regulation of electrotaxis, Ras plays more dominant roles in this event in comparison with PI3K and PTEN, which only partially contributed towards the electrotactic response of the Dictyostelium cells. Asymmetric redistribution of signalling molecules are shown to play an essential role in the initiation and maintenance of the electrotactic response of the cells.

All eukaryotic cells rely on endocytic events to satisfy a constant need for nutrient and fluid uptake from their surroundings. Endocytosis-dependent turnover of cell surface constituents also serves to control signal transduction and establish morphological changes in response to extracellular stimuli. During endocytosis, distinct protein machineries re-sculpt the plasma membrane into vesicular carriers that enclose molecules that are to be taken up into the cell. Besides those produced from the canonical clathrin-mediated endocytic machinery, it is becoming increasingly clear that other membrane carriers exist. The indisputable connection between the function of these uptake systems and various disease states, highlights why it is so important to increase our knowledge about the underlying molecular machineries. The aim of this thesis was therefore to characterise the function of GRAF1, a protein suggested to be a tumour suppressor due to that the gene has been found to be mutated in certain cancer patients. My work focused on understanding how this protein operates during formation of clathrin-independent carriers, with possible implications for disease development. Previous in vitro studies showed that GRAF1 harbours a GTPase activating domain to inactivate Rho GTPase Cdc42, a major actin cytoskeleton regulator. Herein, microscopy based approaches used to analyse HeLa cells demonstrated the importance of a transient interaction between GRAF1 and Cdc42 for proper processing of GRAF1-decorated carriers. Although GRAF1-mediated inactivation of Cdc42 was not vital for the budding of carriers from the plasma membrane, it was important for carrier maturation. In addition, studies of purified GRAF1 and its association with lipid bilayers identified a membrane scaffolding-dependent oligomerisation mechanism, with the ability to sculpt membranes. This was consistent with the assumption that GRAF1 possesses an inherent banana shaped membrane binding domain. Remarkably, this function was autoinhibited and in direct competition with the Cdc42 interaction domain. Finally, other novel GRAF1 interaction partners were identified in this study. Interestingly, many of these partners are known to be associated with protein complexes involved in cell adherence, spreading and migration. Although never actually seen localising to mature focal adhesions that anchor cells to their growth surface, dynamic GRAF1 carriers were captured travelling to and from such locations. Moreover, GRAF1 was recruited specifically to smaller podosome-like structures. Consistent with this, the tracking of GRAF1 in live cells uncovered a clear pattern of dynamic carrier formation at sites of active membrane turnover – notably protrusions at the cell periphery. Furthermore, the silencing of GRAF1 gave rise to cells defective in spreading and migration, indicating a targeting of GRAF1-mediated endocytosis to aid in rapid plasma membrane turnover needed for morphological changes that are a prerequisite for cell movement. Since these cells exhibited an increase in active Rab8, a GTPase responsible for polarised vesicle transport, the phenotype could also be explained by a defect in Rab8 trafficking that results in hyperpolarisation. Taken together, the spatial and temporal regulation of GRAF1 membrane sculpting function is likely to be accomplished via its membrane binding propensity, in concert with various protein interactions. The importance of GRAF1 in aiding membrane turnover during cell movement spans different functional levels – from its local coordination of membrane and actin dynamics by interacting with Cdc42, to its global role in membrane lipid trafficking.

Since the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, Atlanta has had a reputation in the African-American community as a place of endless opportunity. This reputation, along with "boosterism" has attracted large numbers of African-American migrants into the Atlanta area. While economic factors no doubt play a role in the decision to migrant to Atlanta for most African-Americans, there are other social factors that "push" and "pull" African-Americans to Atlanta. This thesis looks at the "push" and "pull" factors of African-American migration into Atlanta, and within the Atlanta region. Most of the data in this thesis came from information obtained from two survey questionnaires administered to African-Americans in Metropolitan Atlanta in late 2004. The results of the thesis suggest that economics factors play a larger role in inter-metropolitan migration than intra-metropolitan migration.

When approaching old age, women's bodies face functional, esthetical, and reproductive changes that can represent a source of discontinuity in their lives. Moreover, women are constantly exposed to the social pressure of compelling stereotypes regarding their body image and functionality: from media to medical pamphlets, the feminine body is subjected to deep social observation and regulation. Given that the relationship between ageing and the body is socially mediated, how does the encounter with a different culture have an impact on it? In this research, migration has been employed to analyse the cultural aspects of bodily practices. Migration can be described as an embodied experience, in which a body is first displaced and then emplaced in two social locations - the community of origin and the culture of destination - a circumstance known as transnationalism. Interviews were carried out with women aged between 59 and 74, divided in three groups: RESIDENTS: women who were born in an Italian village and had lived all their lives there; MIGRANTS: women who moved from the same village to London and are still living in England; RETURNED: migrants who moved back to the village permanently after living in London. Four dynamics were identified to regulate the interplay of ageing, bodily practices, and migration: (i) Assimilation: encountering and integrating with the new community; (ii) Acculturation: observing, learning, and sometimes adopting norms and values of the culture of destination; (iii) Acceptance: the binding agent between body and self during the recognition of ageing; (iv) Adjustment: the set of changes in their habits that women put in place in order to accommodate transformations in their bodies and maintain social inclusion. Moreover, a new conceptualization of transnationalism is proposed, which helps to frame how, after many years of negotiation between the culture of origin and the one of settlement, migrants disengage from social normativity, gaining an augmented sense of agency.

Species’ ranges arise from the interplay between environmental preferences, biotic and abiotic environmental conditions, and accessibility. Understanding of – and predictive models on – species distributions often build from the assumption that these factors apply homogenously within each species, but there is growing evidence for individual variation. Here, I use movement data to investigate individual-level decisions and compromises regarding the different costs and benefits influencing individuals’ geographic locations, and the species-level spatial patterns that emerge from these. I first developed a new method that uses tracking data to quantify individual specialisation in geographic space (site fidelity) or in environmental space (environmental specialisation). Applying it to two species of albatrosses, I found evidence of site fidelity but weak environmental specialisation. My results have implications for how limited research efforts are best-targeted: if animals are generalists, effort are best spent by understanding in depth individual patterns, i.e., better to track fewer individuals for long periods of time; whereas if animals tend to be specialists, efforts should be dedicated to tracking as many individuals as possible, even if for shorter periods. I then investigated individual migratory strategies and their drivers in nine North American bird species, using ringing/recovery data. I found latitudinal redistribution of individuals within the breeding and non-breeding ranges that generally did not follow textbook patterns (‘chain migration’ or ‘leapfrog migration’). Migratory individuals tend to trade off the benefits of migration (better tracking of climatic niche; better access to resources) and its costs (increasing with migratory distance). I found that birds are more likely to remain as residents in areas with warmer winter temperatures, higher summer resource surpluses and higher human population densities (presumably because of a buffering effect of urban areas). Overall, my results highlight the importance of considering individual variation to understanding the ecological processes underpinning species’ spatial patterns.

"The Migrant Crisis and Philosophy of Migration: Reality, Realism, Ethics" is a PhD thesis by Dario Mazzola in the field of Moral and Political Philosophy, Ethics of Migration. The thesis is divided into an introduction, three main sections, two appendixes and general conclusions. The introduction presents the extent, the tradition, and the relevance of philosophy of migration and refuge, on both analytic and historical standpoints. The main body of the thesis is devoted to characterizing and criticizing the migrant crisis, to elaborate a suitable theory to deal with it normatively, and then to defend the right to free movement or open borders in the face of realistic and nationalistic objections. The two appendixes reinforce the argument, while the conclusions resume it and broadly show its implications on methodology and substantial political issues. Chapter one, which constitutes section I, is devoted to the migrant crisis and reconstructs the main problems and dynamics which constitute the phenomenon, mainly by drawing on critical and empirical literature. Chapter II and III, which compose the second section on realism, deal with the tradition of realism and the attempt at elaborating a realistic theory from within migration ethics respectively. Chapter IV and V, the most purely normative component of the thesis, defend the open-borders ideal in the light of the previous presentation of the subject-matter and of the main methodological problems. This is done by reconstructing the critiques to freedom of movement advanced by realists, proponents of freedom of association, and liberal nationalist most relevantly. In conclusion, a threefold ethical arguments defend the right to migration: the presumptive favor for liberty over restrictions, an extended version of the classic open-borders overlapping consesus between main ethical standpoints, and an argument for the integration of the right to free movement with human rights in general. The import and implications of the thesis are read and constrained in the realist(ic) way descrived in section II. Appendix I changes the perspective on the migrant crisis from the abstract to the personal and individual, and does so by showing the relevance of refugee stories to restore empathy and, by doing this, to strengthen social solidarity. Appendix II deepens the thesis that natural law theory would be comprehended within the pro open-borders consensus. In conclusion, with the same qualifications which hold for any other right, and while recognizing its subordination to more fundamental ones such as rights to life or to personal liberty and security, the right to free movement is analyzed, vindicated, and defended, even in the face of the migrant crisis.

Freedom of movement is a matter of individual freedom rather than only a tool for addressing global distributive injustice. Freedom of movement has normative value whether or not it concerns interstate borders. Migration, in the sense of interstate relocation, is a subcategory of movement, which can involve travel, temporary relocation or permanent relocation--a brief walk, or a move halfway around the world. My argument about freedom of movement has two essential elements: first, that freedom of movement has noninstrumental value, not only instrumental value, and that it deserves more weight and attention than liberals usually give it; and second, I justify this and its implications by emphasizing the cross-scalar connections between local and global movement and showing that the difference between internal and interstate movement is not as significant as is usually assumed to be. Freedom of movement is proposed as a unit of concern and a matter of degree, with principles and restrictions functioning in parallel at both levels. The cohesive account of liberal freedom of movement offers the chance to think about people moving and staying as one overarching category. This challenges the characterization of migration as anomalous and captures the chance to treat like cases alike. Chapter Two makes an argument for freedom of movement as a noninstrumental liberal value to which the normative weight of the instrumental value of freedom of movement is added. Chapter Three explores small-scale movement in the countryside and the city and proposes a stronger valuation of freedom of movement particularly vis-à-vis private property rights. Chapter Four considers theoretical and legal arguments involving intrafederal movement in the United States and Germany and compares intrafederal exit to exit from the state. Chapter Five considers several free movement regimes in Europe to draw out the similarities between interstate, intrafederal, and local movement. Throughout these chapters I show that there are many legitimate ways in which freedom of movement can and should be restricted at the internal level, but this is not sufficient to conclude that interstate movement can be arbitrarily restricted.<br>Government

This thesis seeks to understand how the ‘free movement of CARICOM nationals’ (FMCN) and intra-regional migration have become securitised in Barbados. The key aim of the thesis is to understand the social facts constitutive of the FMCN in Barbados. The thesis presents data on key securitising actors and audiences in Barbados. It analyses how Caribbean Community (CARICOM) migrants are understood to be posing threats and dangers to the Barbadian society and/or state. The processes, interactions, and discursive practices that lead to these conditions of security/insecurity are then examined in more detail. The thesis, on the basis of an instrumental case study of Barbados, advances social constructivism and the Copenhagen School’s concept of securitisation as the most appropriate theoretical framework for gaining an understanding on the FMCN and intra-CARICOM migration dynamics. Primary data are drawn from a selection of methods incorporating elite interviews with key state/institutional leaders and the media. This method is complimented with documentary research in the format of parliamentary debates; government speeches and reports; books and journals; communiqués; and newspaper articles. The thesis engages with critical discourse analysis in order to gain analytical purchase on agency within domestic and international structures. It argues that market forces, material conditions, cultural constraints, and technological forces are crucial indicators for any reading of the securitisations taking place in the transnational and national spaces of CARICOM. The key findings and analyses show significant challenges for Barbados regarding perceptions of national versus regional identities. With the functioning of the FMCN, the social construction of fear and mistrust leads to grave misunderstandings among multiple actors. The thesis’ original contribution stems from analysing the securitisation dynamics underpinning FMCN and intra-CARICOM migration in Barbados and CARICOM.

Migration has become a topical theme both in academia and in public discourses across the media which have contributed to create a highly political and visual 'migrant subject'. However, the highly mediatized figure of the migrant has left crucial aspects of migration underrepresented and unrecognised. What is normally concealed and left to the margins of public debate is the individual experience of the protagonists, their imaginative lifeworlds and the complexity of their stories. This practice-based research has centred its inquiry on the relationship between the lived experiences and the imagination of past, present and future existential possibilities, by engaging three Egyptian migrants through the creative processes of theatre improvisations, storytelling practices, participatory photography, collaborative filmmaking and animation. It recognizes the fundamental role that imagination and future existential possibilities play in people’s perceptions of reality, in their decisions and actions, and finally in the way they narrate their experiences. In order to better understand how individuals make their choices, interact with each other, understand themselves and the world around them, I have argued that we need to take into account their biographies and imaginative inner lives as the ways people retell their stories allow space for contradiction, feelings of ambivalence and uncertainty, unlaced and unfinished thoughts and existential dilemmas. Imaginative realms of existence are ever-changing and ungraspable, posing a challenge to conventional methodologies in the social sciences which rely heavily on observation, interviews and text. The thesis is divided into two parts. By using the ethnographic material that emerged during fieldwork and from the creative processes, in the first part I look at the role imagination and the future play in Ali’s, Mohamed’s and Mahmoud’s relationships to their origins, and to their decisions and experiences of illegally crossing the Mediterranean Sea in order to reach Milan (Italy). The second part describes and reflects upon the performative and audio-visual collaborative practices that involved my participants in producing their own narrations and theoretical reflections on their experiences, aspirations and memories. It is thanks to the ‘subjunctive possibilities’ enabled by performative improvisations, creative storytelling and the animation that my participants and I could explore their mnemonic and imaginative processes. Finally, the thesis concludes by arguing for social research to engage participants in more collaborative and creative practices in the study of migration, as a necessary way of involving the protagonists in producing the questions and counter-narratives that reclaim their acts of struggle and their creative imaginative abilities to contrast objectifying political discourses and exclusionary legal and bureaucratic procedures.

Досліджено процеси міграції робочої сили в Україні. Визначено заходи щодо її регулювання.<br>The processes of migration of labor force in Ukraine are investigated. Measures to regulate it have been determined.

This qualitative study illustrates the Romanian Roma migration within the framework of the principle free movement in connection to Hannah Arendt’s concept political action. Political action is the main ability of human beings, namely to act, which takes place among people in the public realm to create power. This will be studied in conjunction with the migration as an enactment of rights. The study presents the increasing migration towards Sweden and Western Europe within the free movement, areas of discrimination in Romania concerning the minority group as well as articles with portraits of Romanian Roma migrants. With inspiration from both discourse analysis and content analysis the aim was to study the chosen texts and understand the migration in light of Arendt’s concept. The conclusion is that the migration of the minority group can be claimed to be a political action since the group can be argued to act together as a collective in the public realm to be recognised. Romanian Roma migrants also need political action to regain their ability to act which has been lost, and to act for improvement as an enactment of rights.

A l'approche de l'élargissement de l'UE de 2004, les Etats membres de l'Union européenne ont adopté des dispositions transitoires à la libre circulation des travailleurs, à savoir une période dérogatoire de sept ans durant laquelle ils pouvaient continuer à appliquer leur législation relative aux permis de travail. Initialement isolée, l'Allemagne est parvenue en quelques années à imposer sa préférence à ce sujet à l'ensemble de l'Union européenne. Cette thèse fait trois constats. Le premier est que si la libre circulation des travailleurs se situe à l'intersection des politiques d'élargissement, de marché du travail et de politique migratoire, c'est la composante migratoire qui a dominé la prise de décision. Plus précisément, les dispositions transitoires étaient perçues comme un outil de migration sélective afin de choisir les profils jugés comme étant les plus désirables - et ce même si les désirs politiques ne correspondaient pas à la réalité du marché. La seconde est qu'il n'y a eu que très peu d'Européanisation et d'harmonisation dans ce processus de décision, les Etats membres dominant les négociations. Enfin, le troisième constat est que les acteurs politiques ont principalement pris en compte des considérations électorales, et non des considérations économiques, dans l'adoption de ces dispositions transitoires.<br>Doctorat en Sciences politiques et sociales<br>info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Movement is a fundamental component of behaviour and thus both are inextricably linked. Variation in movement patterns usually reflects different behaviours, including those most glaring, such as foraging, dispersal, migration, social interaction, mate search or escaping from predators. The way individuals allocate their time budget to different behaviours within circadian rhythm and over the annual life cycle will ultimately provide knowledge about evolutionary processes and adaptive capacity, also important to proper conservation actions of endangered species. Among highly mobile marine megafauna, seabirds represent suitable model species to address key questions about movement and behaviour. The study of year-round movements of seabirds has been addressed over the last 20 years with the wide deployment of light-level geolocators equipped with saltwater immersion sensors. However, wet-dry data provided by such loggers seem underused so far despite their usefulness to provide important insights on a variety of dimensions of seabird ecology. The main aim of this thesis was to provide new insights into the factors shaping seabird behaviour. The thesis encompasses several aspects of seabird at-sea ecology of 4 different species spread over the Atlantic Ocean: Boyd’s shearwater (Puffinus boydi), Common tern (Sterna hirundo), Atlantic petrel (Pterodroma incerta) and Cory’s shearwater (Calonectris borealis). In Chapter 1 we reveal the timing of major events over the annual life cycle, migratory routes and place on the map the non-breeding areas of a little-known tropical seabird endemic to Cape Verde Islands, the Boyd’s Shearwater. We show that Boyd's shearwaters perform longitudinal migrations to the oligotrophic central North Atlantic Ocean for the non-breeding season, in contrast with closely-related taxa that rely on most productive waters. In Chapter 2, we show that Common terns breeding in continental Europe spread over the West African coast for wintering, but females winter further north and use offshore waters whereas males winter further south and remain nearby the coastline. Behavioural budgets of Common terns were shaped within circadian and circa-annual rhythms. In Chapter 3 we describe in detail the phenology of the Atlantic petrel, showing that breeding success likely shapes the timing of major life-history events and behavioural patterns year round. We did find evidence of carry-over effects, since failed breeders advanced their post-breeding migration, remained longer in the wintering area, and advanced pre-breeding migration comparing to successful breeders. Breeding success did not affect the selection of wintering areas, as all birds relied on the South American shelf slope during different stages of the annual cycle. In Chapter 4, we demonstrate how geolocator-immersion loggers constitute a powerful and irreplaceable source of information to study seabird behaviour. We present a novel approach to infer a diverse array of behaviours based uniquely on wet-dry data, built upon a set of state-of-the-art unsupervised machine learning algorithms that reduce multidimensional data to a bidimensional behavioural space, from which different behaviours can be drawn. We applied the protocol on wet-dry data from Cory’s shearwater. Through these means, we can inspect in great detail and from manifold perspectives the behavioural patterns at individual and population level, highlighting how seasonal constraints shape behavioural budgets and behavioural strategies. We use data visualization tools such as actograms and behavioural landscapes to get new insights, highlighting that such tools constitute an effective method to visualize behaviour of seabirds inferred from wet-dry data from manifold perspectives. Geolocator-immersion sensors currently remain as the most cost-effective balanced tracking devices to track seabird species over the entire annual cycle while ensuring the welfare of tagged individuals. Thus, results compiled in this thesis should encourage researchers to incorporate the use wet-dry data within hypothesis-driven frameworks, which surely would contribute to increase our knowledge of seabird ecology at sea.<br>El movimiento es un componente fundamental del comportamiento animal, estando ambos íntimamente entrelazados. Variaciones en los patrones de movimiento normalmente reflejan cambios de comportamiento, incluyendo aquellos más conspicuos como la búsqueda de alimento, la dispersión, la migración, las interacciones sociales, la búsqueda de pareja o la huida ante depredadores. La forma en la que los patrones comportamentales se ajustan en el tiempo de acuerdo a los ritmos circadianos y a lo largo del ciclo anual puede ayudarnos a entender, en última instancia, los procesos evolutivos y la capacidad de adaptación de las poblaciones animales, algo también importante de cara al desarrollo de medidas de conservación de especies amenazadas. Las aves marinas representan un modelo especialmente adecuado para el estudio de la ecología comportamental y del movimiento. Estudiar los movimientos de las aves marinas en mar abierto ha sido posible en las dos últimas décadas gracias a la normalización en el uso de geolocalizadores por niveles de luz. Aunque buena parte de los modelos de geolocalizador es capaz de registrar datos de conductividad en agua salada (seco/húmedo), esta información parece infrautilizada a la luz de la literatura publicada. Sin embargo, los datos de conductividad son enormemente útiles para el estudio de multitud de aspectos sobre la ecología de las aves marinas. Esta tesis aborda diferentes aspectos de la ecología en mar abierto de 4 especies de aves marinas del océano Atlántico: la pardela chica de Cabo Verde (Puffinus boydi), el charrán común (Sterna hirundo), el petrel atlántico (Pterodroma incerta) y la pardela cenicienta (Calonectris borealis). En el Capítulo 1 revelamos la fenología, rutas migratorias y área de invernada de una especie tropical de pequeño tamaño, la pardela de Cabo Verde, endémica de dicho archipiélago. A diferencia de especies cercanas, los individuos de esta especie realizan una migración longitudinal hasta las aguas oligotróficas del centro del Atlántico Norte. En el Capítulo 2, mostramos que los charranes comunes que crían en Europa migran hasta la costa oeste de África para invernar, aunque las hembras se quedan más al norte y en ambientes más marinos, y los machos más al sur y en ambientes costeros. El comportamiento en ambos sexos parece regulado por ritmos circadianos y anuales. En el Capítulo 3, desgranamos la fenología del petrel Atlántico, una especie endémica del archipiélago de Tristán da Cunha, mostrando que el éxito reproductor probablemente moldea la sucesión de eventos fenológicos y los patrones de comportamiento. Incluso encontramos evidencias de efectos arrastrados, puesto que los animales que fracasaron en la cría adelantaron la migración, permanecieron más tiempo en la zona de invernada, y retornaron antes a las colonias de cría. Tanto los animales que tuvieron éxito como los que fracasaron en la cría invernaron en aguas de la plataforma continental de América del Sur y Patagonia. En el Capítulo 4, presentamos un nuevo protocolo analítico basado en algoritmos de aprendizaje automático que utiliza únicamente datos de conductividad. Mediante su aplicación sobre datos de pardelas cenicientas, demostramos que los datos de conductividad constituyen una poderosa herramienta para el estudio de las aves marinas, permitiendo desglosar a un nivel sin precedentes su comportamiento a diversas escalas: espacial (de viajes cortos a migraciones anuales), temporal (de días a años) y poblacional (de individuos a poblaciones). El análisis también nos permite resaltar los diferentes elementos que moldean el comportamiento animal a diferentes escalas temporales, utilizando para ellos potentes herramientas de visualización de datos como los actogramas. El conjunto de resultados expuestos en esta tesis debe alentar a los investigadores a utilizar más frecuentemente los datos de conductividad, lo cual contribuiría a aumentar nuestro conocimiento sobre la ecología de las aves marinas.

This study explores the roles of religious organizations in the refugee movement “Lampedusa in Hamburg”, in Hamburg, Germany during 2013 and 2014. “Lampedusa in Hamburg” consisted of approximately 300 refugees who had come from Libya, and decided to fight for their right to stay in Germany. Early on, religious organizations became important supporters to the movement, by providing the members food and shelter. By analyzing archival material and interviews with two religious representatives, this thesis investigates the involvement of religious organizations, their collaborations, and the outcomes produced by their work during the protests, using theories connected to secularization and religion and migration. The analysis shows that the involvement of religious organizations in the “Lampedusa in Hamburg”- movement is an example of how faith-based actors in the West are standing up against authorities and objecting migration policies. Their work, collaborations and impact were clearly shaped by national ties with the German state and their position in society.  Further, local dynamics formed the roles of the religious organizations, especially in the case of the St. Pauli church – one of the most central religious actors – located in St. Pauli, a block with a long history of protests. During the Lampedusa in Hamburg-movement, processes operating at global, national, and local scales met, exposing the complexities of the roles that religious organizations take on, as they become involved in migrant processes in Western Europe today.

This paper develops a spatial theoretical growth model in order to study the impact of physical and human capital relocations on the growth of open economies. Analytical and simulation results show how the respective neighbours determine an economy's development, why convergence and divergence may alternate in the medium-run, and that interregional migration as a consequence of wage inequalities causes disparities to prevail in the long-run. The empirical part applies spatial econometric specifications for European regions on the NUTS2 level for the observation period 2000-2010. The estimations underline the importance of human capital endowments and its relation with spatial location. (author's abstract)<br>Series: Working Papers in Regional Science

2011/2012<br>ABSTRACT - The ability to control the cellular microenvironment, such as cell-substrate and cell-cell interactions at the micro- and nanoscale, is important for advances in several fields such as medicine and immunology, biochemistry, biomaterials, and tissue engineering. In order to undergo fundamental biological processes, most mammalian cells must adhere to the underlying extracellular matrix (ECM), eliciting cell adhesion and migration processes that are critical to embryogenesis, angiogenesis, wound healing, tissue repair, and immunity response, to cite few. For instance, upon receiving and responding to complex molecular signals, cells migrate from the epithelial layers to target locations, where they differentiate to form specialised cells that make up various organs and tissues. However, improper cell adhesion and migration have been implicated in disease states such as tumour invasion and cancer cell metastasis. In the past few years, several tailored surfaces that aim to mimic cell-ECM interactions have been developed, including biodevices based on proteins and shorter peptide chains, DNA, RNA, and lipids. Among the different nanomaterials employed in such studies, those resulting from self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of alkanethiols on gold (Au) probably represent the most useful and flexible model systems of surface engineering for cell biology evaluations. These platforms are promising for tuning surface properties or to introduce novel biofunctionalities via coupling reactions with various alkanethiols tail groups that can be exposed to the solution phase. Deeply involved in this research field, the aim of this doctoral work was to gain a basic understanding and develop chemical strategies towards the controlled multidirectional (i. e. bidirectional) cellular migration on tailored Au surfaces. As already described, several artificial substrates were prepared in the last years to better understand the cellular responses to different mechanical and biochemical surface properties. To date, however, no reports concerning the bidirectional movement of the cells along a defined substrate have been published. The controlled multidirectional migration offers several advantages respect to the monodirectional approach, since the cellular functions can be obtained and, in principle, recycled with spatio-temporal control. In fact, once the cells reach the target position along the surface and perform specific biochemical or physiological cellular functions (repair, growth, movement, immunity, communication, and phago/endocytosis), the reversible movement could allow to recall them back to the starting position. By this way, also studies of dynamic cell-cell interactions can also be exploited allowing for a deeper knowledge about the fundamentals of the cell biology and biochemistry. The multidirectional migration can be determined through the production of dynamic haptotactic chemical gradients along Au surfaces. Specifically, the long-term idea of this project is to use SAMs of thiolated DNA chains (DNA-SH) adsorbed onto Au surfaces as a template for the hybridisation with complementary peptidic nucleic acid (PNA) strands functionalised with peptidic motifs able to stimulate cellular motility. By this way, supramolecular chemical gradients of motogenic motifs can be bound in a directional manner onto Au surfaces and dictate a dynamic bidirectional cell migration. Framed in such research project, this doctoral thesis focused on the production of a static, monodirectional and motogenic gradient along Au surfaces, to prove the efficacy of a specific peptidic motif, and generate modified PNA strands necessary for the production of the corresponding dynamic gradients. Chapter 1 deals with a careful description of the biochemical mechanisms involved in the cellular migration process, focusing on the chemotaxis and haptotaxis phenomena. Through a comprehensive overview on the state of the art concerning the biomimetic approaches for studying the cellular migration, the main strategies towards the engineering of different surfaces, have been thoroughly reviewed by means of key examples reported in the literature. Chapter 2 is centred on the results obtained by producing and using the thiolated peptide isoleucine-glycine-aspartic acid-glutammine-lysine-1-thiol decanoic acid (IGDQK-SH) as a motogenic motif for both cells found in physiologic environment (fibroblasts) and phatological conditions (MDA-MB-231 cancer cells). Upon synthesising IGDQK-SH (1), a systematic approach for the generation of the motogenic chemical gradient along Au surfaces has been developed. Evidences of the success of the preparation of such static chemical gradient were obtaining by engaging specific characterisation methodologies, such as water contact angle (WCA), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis, along with computational analysis of peptide’s conformations once bound to the different Au surfaces. This allowed determining the biophysical properties, morphology, chemical composition and possible structure of the resulting Au surfaces, respectively. IGDQK-SH chemical gradient was able to induce and control the cellular migration of the two different cell lines showing interesting differences related to the surface properties and peptide’s conformations after the formation of SAMs in the presence of filler molecules with different hydrophobicity. In particular, the experimental findings suggested a pronounced migration attitude of the cancer cells upon their exposition to the IGDQK-SH-bearing surfaces, compared to the fibroblasts. This result might suggest a role of the IGD motif in the stimulation of the cancer cells towards their enhanced motility and metastatic progression in vivo, and is currently under investigation. Once proved the efficiency of the motogenic peptide, we moved towards the final goal of the project synthesising two functionalised single-stranded PNA dodecamers (ssPNA 12-mers) 30 and 31 bearing the Rhodamine B and the tetrapeptide IGDQ for characterising the chemical gradient through microscopy-based investigations and stimulate cell motility, respectively. Chapter 3 indeed provides a general overview on the different methodologies available for the solid phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) describing the synthetic attempts to produce the desired PNAs. Attention will be focused on the Fmoc/Cbz protecting group strategy, which allowed us to isolate the target PNA oligomers.<br>RIASSUNTO - Lo studio e il controllo dei microambienti cellulari, quali interazioni cellula-superficie e cellula-cellula, assumono particolare rilevanza in diversi campi scientifici come medicina e immunologia, biochimica, ingegneria dei tessuti e dei biomateriali. Al fine di svolgere le funzioni biologiche fondamentali, le cellule dei mammiferi devono poter aderire alla matrice extra-cellulare (ECM) sottostante, provocando adesione e migrazione cellulare che risultano essenziali, ad esempio, nei processi di embriogenesi, angiogenesi e riparazione dei tessuti. Infatti, stimolate da complessi segnali molecolari, le cellule migrano dagli strati epiteliali verso il loro target, raggiunto il quale si differenziano e specializzano formando organi e tessuti. Al contrario, anomalie nell’adesione e migrazione cellulare possono dar luogo al sorgere di diverse malattie, quali tumori e metastasi cancerose. Negli ultimi anni sono state progettate e sviluppate diverse superfici, compresi biodispositivi basati su proteine, DNA, RNA e lipidi, con lo scopo di mimare le interazioni cellula-ECM. Tra i nanomateriali impiegati in questi studi, quelli derivanti dalla formazione di self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) di tioli alchilici su oro (Au) rappresentano probabilmente il modello più adatto e flessibile di superfici ingegnerizzate al fine di valutare i fenomeni biologici. Questi sistemi permettono di modulare le proprietà delle superfici o di introdurre nuovi gruppi funzionali attraverso reazioni di coupling, sfruttando la presenza dei gruppi terminali dei tioli che risultano esposti al solvente. Lo scopo di questo lavoro di dottorato è quello di acquisire le conoscenze di base e di sviluppare metodologie chimiche al fine di indurre e controllare la migrazione cellulare multidirezionale (i.e. bidirezionale) su superfici di Au funzionalizzate. Come già descritto, negli anni sono stati impiegati diversi substrati artificiali con lo scopo di meglio comprendere le reazioni cellulari alle differenti proprietà meccaniche e biochimiche di tali superfici. Tuttavia, ad oggi, non sono stati ancora pubblicati studi riguardanti il movimento bidirezionale di cellule lungo un substrato. Rispetto all’approccio monodirezionale, la migrazione multidirezionale controllata offre diversi vantaggi, poiché in questo modo le funzioni cellulari possono essere indotte e, in principio, replicate attraverso un controllo spazio-temporale. Infatti, una volta raggiunto l’obiettivo sulla superficie e svolte le funzioni cellulari specifiche (riparazione, crescita, movimento, immunità, comunicazione, fagocitosi), il movimento reversibile permette di richiamare le cellule alla posizione iniziale. Pertanto, anche lo studio delle interazioni dinamiche cellula-cellula potrà fornire una più approfondita conoscenza della biologia e della biochimica cellulare. La migrazione multidirezionale può essere determinata attraverso la produzione di gradienti chimici dinamici aptotattici su superfici di Au. Nel dettaglio, l’idea alla base di questo progetto è quella di utilizzare SAMs di catene di DNA aventi un tiolo terminale (ssDNA-SH) per la funzionalizzazione di superfici di Au, e usarle come template nell’ibridizzazione con catene complementari di acido nucleico peptidico (PNA) aventi un peptide in grado di stimolare la migrazione cellulare. In questo modo è possibile generare un gradiente chimico supramolecolare direzionale lungo le superfici di Au al fine di ottenere al migrazione cellulare bidirezionale. Questa tesi di dottarato è focalizzata sulla produzione di un gradiente statico, monodirezionale e motogenico su superfici di Au, per provare l’efficacia di un motivo peptidico specifico, e generare filamenti di PNA modificati, necessari per la produzione di corrispondenti gradienti dinamici. Il Capitolo 1 riporta un’accurata descrizione dei meccanismi biochimici coinvolti nei processi di migrazione cellulare, concentrandosi sui fenomeni di chemiotassi e aptotassi. Dopo un’esauriente studio dello stato dell’arte, le principali strategie di funzionalizzazione di diverse superfici sono state dettagliatamente riviste attraverso gli esempi chiave riportati in letteratura. Il Capitolo 2 è centrato sui risultati ottenuti producendo e utilizzando il pentapeptide composto da isoleucina-glicina-acido aspartico-glutammina-lisina-acido decanoico-1-tiolo (IGDQK-SH) come motivo motogenico per le cellule presenti in ambienti fisiologici (fibroblasti) e in condizioni patologiche (MDA-MB-231 cellule cangerogene). Una volta sintetizzato l’IGDQK-SH(1) è stato sviluppato un approccio sistematico per la produzione del gradiente motogenico sulle superfici di Au. Al fine di verificare l’effettiva presenza di tale gradiente sono state utilizzate differenti tecniche di caratterizzazione, quali water contact angle (WCA), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) e X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis, oltre all’analisi computazionale per stabilire la conformazione del peptide una volta legato alla superficie di Au. Questo ha permesso di determinare le proprietà biofisiche, la morfologia, la composizione chimica e la possibile struttura delle superfici finali di Au funzionalizzate. Il gradiente chimico di IGDQK-SH ha permesso di indurre e controllare la migrazione di due differenti linee cellulari, mostrando interessanti differenze relative alle proprietà della superficie e alla conformazione del peptide dopo la formazione del SAMs in presenza di molecole filler aventi diversa idrofobicità. In particolare, i risultati sperimentali suggeriscono una maggiore attitudine alla migrazione da parte delle cellule cancerogene su superfici di Au funzionalizzate con il peptide IGDQK-SH rispetto ai fibroblasti. Questo risultato potrebbe suggerire un ruolo del motivo IGD nella stimolazione della mobilità e della progressione metastatica in vivo delle cellule cancerogene, ed è attualmente oggetto di ricerca. Una volta provata l’efficienza del peptide motogenico, obiettivo finale di questo lavoro è stata la sintesi di due singoli filamenti di dodecamero di PNA 30 e 31 funzionalizzati rispettivamente con la Rodammina B e il tetrapeptide IGDKQ al fine di caratterizzare il gradiente chimico utilizzando tecniche microscopiche e stimolare la migrazione cellulare. Il Capitolo 3 offre una visione generale sulle differenti metodologie impiegate nella sintesi peptidica in fase solida (SPPS), descrivendo le strategie sintetiche utilizzate per produrre gli oligomeri di PNA necessari, con particolare attenzione per la strategia dei gruppi protettivi Fmoc/Cbz.<br>RéSUMé - La possibilité de contrôler le microenvironnement cellulaire, telles que les interactions cellule-substrat et cellule-cellule à l’échelle micro et nano, est importante pour les avancées dans certains domaines tels que la médecine et l’immunologie, la biochimie, les biomatériaux, et l’ingénierie tissulaire. Afin d’être soumis aux processus biologiques fondamentaux, la plupart des cellules mammifères doivent adhérer à la matrice extracellulaire sous-jacente (ECM), en induisant des procédés d’adhésion et de migration cellulaires qui sont critiques à l’embryogenèse, l’angiogenèse, la cicatrisation des blessures, la réparation des tissus, et la réponse immunitaire, pour n’en citer que quelques-uns. Par exemple, lorsque les cellules reçoivent et répondent à des signaux moléculaires complexes, elles migrent des couches épithéliales aux emplacements cibles, où elles se différencient afin de former des cellules spécialisées qui constituent divers organes et tissus. Cependant, une adhésion et une migration cellulaire incorrecte ont été impliquées dans des états de maladie tels que l’invasion de tumeur et les métastases de cellules cancéreuses. Au cours des dernières années, plusieurs surfaces confectionnées dans le but d’imiter les interactions cellule-ECM ont été développées, incluant des bio dispositifs basés sur des protéines et des chaines peptidiques courtes, sur l’ADN, l’ARN, et sur des lipides. Parmi les différents nanomatériaux employés dans de telles études, ceux résultants de monocouches auto-assemblées (SAMs) d’alcanethiols sur l’or (Au) représentent probablement les systèmes modèles les plus utiles et flexibles d’ingénierie de surface pour des évaluations biologiques cellulaires. Ces plateformes sont prometteuses pour moduler des propriétés de surface ou pour introduire de nouvelles biofonctionnalités via des réactions de couplage avec divers groupements alcanethiols qui peuvent être exposés à la phase liquide. Fortement impliqué dans ce domaine de recherche, l’objectif de ce travail de doctorat était d’acquérir une compréhension basique et de développer des stratégies chimiques à l’égard de la migration cellulaire multidirectionnelle contrôlée (i.e. bidirectionnelle) sur des surfaces d’Au fonctionnalisées. Comme cela a déjà été décrit, plusieurs substrats artificiels ont été préparés au cours des dernières années afin de mieux comprendre les réponses cellulaires à différentes propriétés mécaniques et biochimiques de surface. Cependant, jusqu’à présent, aucun rapport sur le mouvement bidirectionnel de cellules le long d’un substrat défini n’a été publié. La migration multidirectionnelle contrôlée offre plusieurs avantages par rapport à l’approche monodirectionnelle, puisque les fonctions cellulaires peuvent être obtenues et, en principe, recyclées avec un contrôle spatio-temporel. En fait, une fois que les cellules atteignent la position cible le long de la surface et réalisent des fonctions cellulaires biochimiques ou physiologiques spécifiques (réparation, croissance, mouvement, immunité, communication, et phago/endocytose), le mouvement réversible pourrait permettre de les rappeler à la position de départ. De cette façon, des études d’interactions cellule-cellule dynamiques peuvent également être exploitées, menant à une connaissance plus approfondie des fondamentaux de la biologie et biochimie des cellules. La migration multidirectionnelle peut être établie par la production de gradients dynamiques chimiques haptotactiques le long de surfaces d’Au. Plus précisément, l’idée à long terme de ce projet est d’utiliser des SAMs de chaînes d’ADN thiolées (ADN-SH) adsorbées sur des surfaces d’Au comme modèles pour l’hybridation avec des brins d’acides nucléiques peptidiques (ANP) complémentaires, fonctionnalisés avec des motifs peptidiques capables de stimuler la motilité cellulaire. De cette façon, les gradients chimiques supramoléculaires de motifs motogéniques peuvent être liés d’une manière directionnelle sur des surfaces d’Au et peuvent dicter une migration cellulaire bidirectionnelle dynamique. Cette thèse de doctorat, incluse dans un tel projet de recherche, s’est concentrée sur la production d’un gradient statique, directionnel et motogénique le long de surfaces d’Au, afin de prouver l’efficacité d’un motif peptidique spécifique, et de générer des brins d’ANP modifiés nécessaires à la production des gradients dynamiques correspondant. Le Chapitre 1 donne une description minutieuse des mécanismes biochimiques impliqués dans le procédé de migration cellulaire, se concentrant sur les phénomènes de chimitaxie et haptotaxie. A travers une vue d’ensemble complète sur l’état de l’art des approches biomimétiques pour l’étude de la migration cellulaire, les stratégies principales menant à l’ingénierie de différentes surfaces, ont été revues en détails à l’aide d’exemples clés reportés dans la littérature. Le Chapitre 2 est centré sur les résultats obtenus par la formation et l’utilisation du peptide thiolé isoleucine-glycine-aspartic acid-glutammine-lysine-1-thiol decanoic acid (IGDQK-SH) en tant que motif motogénique pour les cellules à la fois trouvées dans un environnement physiologique (fibroblastes) et dans des conditions pathologiques (cellules cancéreuses MDA-MB-231). Après avoir synthétisé IGDQK-SH (1), une approche systématique pour la génération du gradient chimique motogénique le long de surfaces d’Au a été développée. Des preuves du succès de la préparation de tels gradients chimiques statiques ont été obtenus par des méthodologies de caractérisation spécifiques, telles que des analyses d’angle de contact (WCA), par microscopie à force atomique (AFM) et par spectrométrie photoélectronique X (XPS), accompagné d’analyses informatiques des conformations du peptide une fois lié aux différentes surfaces d’Au. Ceci a permis de déterminer les propriétés biophysiques, la morphologie, la composition chimique et la structure possible des surfaces d’Au résultantes, respectivement. Le gradient chimique de IGDQK-SH a pu induire et contrôler la migration cellulaire de deux différentes lignes cellulaires montrant des différences intéressantes liées aux propriétés de surface et aux conformations du peptide après la formation des SAMs en présence de molécules de remplissage présentant différentes hydrophobicités. En particulier, les résultats expérimentaux ont suggéré une attitude de migration prononcée des cellules cancéreuses, après leur exposition aux surfaces portant l’IGDQK-SH, comparé aux fibroblastes. Ce résultat peut suggérer un rôle du motif IGD dans la stimulation des cellules cancéreuses à l’égard de leur mobilité accrue et progression métastatique in vivo, et est actuellement analysé. Une fois que l’efficacité du peptide motogénique fut prouvée, nous nous sommes penchés sur l’objectif final du projet, en synthétisant deux dodécamères d’ANPs simples brins fonctionnalisés 30 et 31, portant la Rhodamine B et le tétrapeptide IGDQ pour caractériser le gradient chimique par des analyses de microscopie et pour stimuler la motilité de la cellule, respectivement. En effet, le Chapitre 3 donne une vue d’ensemble sur les différentes méthodologies disponibles pour la SPPS décrivant les essais synthétiques afin de synthétiser les ANPs désirés. L’attention sera concentrée sur la stratégie impliquant les groupements protecteurs Fmoc/Cbz, qui nous a permis d’isoler les oligomères d’ANP cibles.<br>XXV Ciclo<br>1984

ABSTRACT THE QUEST TO RETAIN TEACHERS: ONE URBAN-SUBURBAN SCHOOL SYSTEM’S STORY OF TEACHER MOVEMENT by Karen Smits Recent data on teacher attrition indicate that approximately 15 percent of teachers either leave the profession or move from one school to another each year. The attrition rate is highest for teachers new to the profession with 30-50 percent leaving within five years. High rates of attrition are a contributing cause of various educational problems including reduced student achievement, teacher shortages, declining teacher morale, and organizational discontinuity. The purpose of this study was to examine the reasons why teachers choose to leave the profession or move to another school from one year to the next. A qualitative case study was conducted to explore the reasons teachers from one urban-suburban school system voluntarily resigned at the end of one school year and what changes could have been made to keep them from leaving. The study answers three questions: Why do teachers leave? Why do some move to other schools while other teachers leave the profession? What could keep teachers from leaving? Data were collected using exit questionnaires, exit interviews, and semi-structured interviews of teachers leaving after the 2006-2007 school year. Data were analyzed using both deductive and inductive methods. Teachers who participated in this study made the decisions to move or leave for two primary reasons: administrative support and new opportunities. Administrative support took many forms and was described in a variety of ways including the following: administrative visibility, communication, use of time, support with student behavior, workload, implementation of new initiatives, and school climate. Teachers who left for new prospects were seeking different teaching opportunities or a better chance of moving into administration. The greatest difference between the teachers who moved and those who left the profession was hope. Teachers who moved to another school system believed the situation would be better elsewhere. Teachers who left the profession saw the struggles they endured as likely to occur in any teaching situation. Teachers indicated that they may have considered staying if they had received more administrative support, experienced better working conditions, had more supportive mentors, or had a teacher advocate who could have intervened on their behalf.

Thesis (Ph.D. in Immunology) -- University of Colorado Denver, 2007.<br>Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 146-169). Free to UCD affiliates. Online version available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations;

The Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus) is an imperiled shorebird that inhabits sandy beaches along the North American Atlantic Coast. The species' decline has been attributed to habitat loss, disturbance, and predation throughout its range, although most conservation efforts have focused on increasing reproductive output during the breeding season. On the coast of North Carolina, Piping Plovers breed in areas with large amounts of recreational and tourism use. Beach recreation is known to reduce nest success, chick survival, and potentially fitness in other parts of the species' range. To reduce potential negative effects from human activities on breeding Piping Plovers, managers close areas to pedestrian and vehicle access using exclusion buffers delineated by symbolic fencing. However, the reproductive success and population size of Piping Plovers in parts of North Carolina has not appeared to increase as a result of these management strategies, despite the importance of the park and its protections to these birds on their southward migration in the fall. To understand how disturbance and attempts to mitigate it affected plover demography, we examined Piping Plover population dynamics, brood movement, and migration in North Carolina from 2015–2017. We monitored 46 nests and 19 broods, and we used a logistic exposure nest survival model and Cormack-Jolly-Seber model to estimate reproductive success. We uniquely banded 77 adults and 49 chicks to understand annual survival and fidelity rates using a live encounter mark-recapture model. During the pre-fledge period, we observed movements of Piping Plover broods, and we gathered information on their environment that may affect their behavior. We recorded 191 brood locations, collected 132 focal chick behavior samples, and 113 potential disturbance environmental samples. We used multiple linear regression to evaluate several hypotheses regarding daily and hourly brood movement rates. We also conducted 22 migratory surveys after the breeding season in 2016 at an area in Cape Hatteras National Seashore thought to be used by large numbers of south-bound migrating Piping Plovers. We used integrated Jolly-Seber and binomial count models on resighting and count data to estimate stopover superpopulation and stopover duration of migrating birds based on their breeding region of origin. Annual survival of adults from North Carolina (x ̅ = 0.69, SE = 0.07) was not different from another population on Fire Island, New York (x ̅ = 0.73, SE = 0.04), but the North Carolina population annually had low reproductive success, primarily due to low rates of chick survival. As a result, the North Carolina population was predicted to decline during the study period (λ<1 each year). Historically this population has not met the estimated rate of reproductive output needed for a stationary population (1.07 chicks per pair, SE = 0.69); therefore, it is likely the population is sustained by immigration from an unknown source. Daily (x ̅ = 71.5m/24hr) and hourly (x ̅ = 183.3m/hr) brood movements each had considerable variation (Daily: SD = 70.6, range = 0.0–327.2m; Hourly: SD = 262.3, range = 0.2–1450.9m). Chicks did not appear to move in response to the environmental factors we examined. The rate of brood movement suggests regular daylight monitoring is necessary to adequately protect unfledged broods from anthropogenic disturbance under current management methods. We found that 569 Piping Plovers (95% CI: 502–651), nearly 15% of the estimated Atlantic Coast population, stopped at a single area in Cape Hatteras National Seashore, North Carolina during fall migration. Birds stayed an average 4–7 weeks, depending on the breeding region from which they migrated, and they primarily used a relatively new protected area. These findings suggest that North Carolina is an important area for Piping Plover ecology during multiple stages of their annual cycle.<br>Master of Science<br>A federally threatened species, the Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus) lives on sandy beaches along the North American Atlantic Coast. On the coast of North Carolina, Piping Plovers breed in areas with large amounts of recreational and tourism use. To reduce potential negative effects on breeding Piping Plovers from human activities, land managers close areas to pedestrian and vehicle access. However, the plover population there has not appeared to grow as a result of these management strategies, but large numbers of migrant Piping Plovers have capitalized on this management. Recent work that hypothesized population dynamics in North Carolina may function differently than other Piping Plover populations, and this study was designed to test that hypothesis. To understand how disturbance, and attempts to mitigate it, affected plover demography, we studied Piping Plover population dynamics, chick movement, and migration in North Carolina from 2015–2017. We monitored breeding efforts of Piping Plovers and used banding techniques to understand survival of chicks and adults. We observed behavior and movements of Piping Plover chicks before they fledged and gathered information on habitat they selected and potential risks that may alter their behavior. We also conducted migratory surveys after the breeding season at an area thought to be used by large numbers of Piping Plovers. Survival of adult plovers from North Carolina was not substantially different from that of plovers from other areas, but the North Carolina population had low reproductive success caused by low chick survival, and we estimated the population was declining. However, historically this population has not had enough breeding success to maintain itself; therefore, it is likely the population relies on plovers that immigrate to North Carolina from elsewhere. Plover brood movement was variable, and did not move in response to several environmental factors. The rate of brood movements we observed suggest regular daylight monitoring is necessary to adequately protect unfledged broods from anthropogenic disturbance and mortality using current management methods. We found that nearly 15% of Atlantic Coast plovers stopped at a single area in Cape Hatteras National Seashore, North Carolina, during fall migration, staying an average 4–7 weeks. These findings suggest that North Carolina is a unique area to Piping Plover ecology during multiple stages of their annual cycle.

This thesis performs an analysis of poetry and migration in contemporary Italy. It explores poetic works produced in Italian by three authors born in non-Italophone countries: Hasan Atiya Al Nassar (Iraq), Barbara Pumhösel (Austria) and Gëzim Hajdari (Albania). Although their birthplaces are diverse and their migratory circumstances are heterogeneous, these authors share the period of their arrival in Italy (from the 1980s to the early 1990s), their exophonic practice and the ability to develop a significant poetic experience in their second language. My dissertation constitutes an unprecedented investigation of the stylistic features of these works, highlighting both the common traits and the distinctive elements that characterise their individual voices, and thereby delineating a preliminary phenomenology of the qualities of exophonic poetics in the Italian context. The dissertation is organised into four chapters. The first chapter discusses the theoretical and critical grounding of the research, illustrates the position of exophonic voices in contemporary Italy (1990-2010), builds the corpus of works, introduces the authors’ profiles and defines the methodology and criteria for analysis. The ensuing three chapters are each dedicated to one author, and contain a full metrical-stylistic analysis of the selected works, focusing on the occurrence of poetic forms, the use of metre and the incidence and value of rhythmical patterns. The conclusion, expanding upon the material collected in the textual analysis, aims to trace a preliminary phenomenology of exophonic versification in contemporary Italy. Firstly it elaborates upon the hybridisation of poetic forms, identifying movement as a foundational element in exophonic versification. Secondly it discusses the texts’ formal connections to conventional metres in the Italian tradition (such as endecasillabo) and cases of innovation or reinterpretation of these patterns. Thirdly it reflects on the use of language in exophonic productions and identifies the reflection on language as a trope in these works. More generally, my thesis aims to investigate the aesthetic impact of exophonic poetics on the contemporary Italian literary scene, and then to immerse the Italian example in a broader transnational context. It also endeavours to discover and develop instruments and strategies for the future stylistic analysis of exophonic poetic productions.