Comparing European Union and Dutch asylum law procedures: Balancing efficiency and substantive examination in asylum applications

<p>Under international law refugee status is granted to those who fall within the definition of a refugee under the Refugee Convention 1951.¹ The Convention, however, does not implement any mechanisms which directly implement its principles. It is therefore up to the State to ensure that refugee rights are implemented directly. James Hathaway suggests two mechanisms to implement the Convention, namely solution-oriented temporary protection and shared responsibility among states, in order to safeguard practical access to meaningful asylum, but acknowledging that any system must take into account the self-interests of states and so must establish effective control systems and to minimize risks.² Although discussion on such proposals is beyond the ambit of this work, it is important as it shows that in the absence of any implementing or remedial mechanisms under the Convention, it is important to have a system which effectively balances the access to asylum with the interests of the State in keeping the risks and numbers of asylum seekers low.</p>

Comparing European Union and Dutch asylum law procedures: Balancing efficiency and substantive examination in asylum applications

<p>Under international law refugee status is granted to those who fall within the definition of a refugee under the Refugee Convention 1951.¹ The Convention, however, does not implement any mechanisms which directly implement its principles. It is therefore up to the State to ensure that refugee rights are implemented directly. James Hathaway suggests two mechanisms to implement the Convention, namely solution-oriented temporary protection and shared responsibility among states, in order to safeguard practical access to meaningful asylum, but acknowledging that any system must take into account the self-interests of states and so must establish effective control systems and to minimize risks.² Although discussion on such proposals is beyond the ambit of this work, it is important as it shows that in the absence of any implementing or remedial mechanisms under the Convention, it is important to have a system which effectively balances the access to asylum with the interests of the State in keeping the risks and numbers of asylum seekers low.</p>

An Active Balancing Method Based on SOC and Capacitance for Lithium-Ion Batteries in Electric Vehicles

An active balancing method based on the state of charge (SOC) and capacitance is presented in this article to solve the inconsistency problem of lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles. The terminal voltage of each battery is collected first. Then, each battery SOC is accurately estimated by an extended Kalman filter (EKF) algorithm. In the experiment, the maximum absolute error of SOC evaluation is only 0.0061, and the mean absolute error is 0.0013 when the initial battery SOC is clear. Meanwhile, the maximum absolute error of SOC evaluation is 0.5 and the average absolute error of SOC is 0.0015 when the initial battery SOC is not clear. Afterward, an active balancing circuit based on the estimated battery SOC and capacitance is designed. The energy of capacitance is charged by the battery whose SOC is higher than the other batteries through the circuit to avoid the battery being overcharged. Then, the SOC of batteries gradually turn consistent. In the simulation experiment, the SOC difference of batteries is 7% before the balancing. Meanwhile, the SOC difference of batteries reduces to 0.02% after the balancing and the consuming time is merely 272s, which manifests that the proposed balancing method has a fast balancing speed and better balancing efficiency.

Balancing Efficiency and Access: Discouraging Emergency Department Boarding in a Global Budget System

Reducing cost without sacrificing quality of patient care is an important yet challenging goal for healthcare professionals and policymakers alike. This challenge is at the forefront in the United States, where per capita healthcare costs are much higher than in similar countries around the world. The state of Maryland is unique in the hospital financing landscape due to its “capitation” payment system (also known as “global budget”), in which revenue for hospital-based services is set at the beginning of the year. Although Maryland’s system has yielded many benefits, including reduced Medicare spending, it also has had unintentional adverse consequences. These consequences, such as increased emergency department boarding and ambulance diversion, constrain Maryland hospitals’ ability to fulfill their role as emergency care providers and act as a safety net for vulnerable patient populations. In this article, we suggest policy remedies to mitigate the unintended consequences of Maryland’s model that should also prove instructive for a variety of emerging alternative payment mechanisms.

Usulan Perbaikan untuk Mengurangi Pemborosan dengan Pendekatan Lean Six Sigma

PT. PKM is a company engaged in the germant industry. In the production process there are problems related to waste that related to waste that causes the production target not being achieved in Oktober-November 2018 as many as 109, 414 pcs and only able to produce as much as 84,111 pcs. There fore solution with Lean Six Sigma was used consists of: 1). The define phase obtained three wastes including a defect of 13,121 pcs, an idle time of 794 seconds, and a total reworking of 577 seconds for 60 pcs of product rework. 2). Measure Phase in addition, there is also a line balancer efficiency value of 43.96% and a balance delay of 56%. 3). The analysis phase is carried out an analysis of the causal factors towards the type of stich jump and the type of idle bottleneck. The improvement phase is done by designing a new production line using the Line Balancing method and arena simulation that requires improvement with the number of stations reduced from 36 to 20 work stations balancing line efficiency to 79.12%, delaying the balance up to 21%, the number of outputs increasing from 137 pcs to 216 pcs, and bottlenecks decreased from 36% to 2.7%.In the control carried out to help smooth the design of new lines, namely by regulating the cycle time, arrival time and the number of entities, and the number of worker. Keywords: Waste, Lean Six Sigma, Line Balancing, Balance Delay AbstrakPT. PKM merupakan perusahaan yang bergerak dalam industri garmen. Dalam sistem produksinya terdapat permasalahan terkait pemborosan yang menyebabkan tidak tercapainya target produksi pada bulan Oktober-November 2018 sebanyak 109.414 pcs, dan hanya mampu memproduksi sebanyak 84.111 pcs. Maka dicari solusi dengan pendekatan Lean Six Sigma, yang terdiri: 1). Tahap define diperoleh tiga pemborosan antara lain defect sebanyak 13.121 pcs, idle time sebesar 794 detik, dan total rework sebesar 577 detik untuk 60 pcs produk rework. 2) Tahap measure didapatkan jenis cacat dominan yaitu jump of stich dan jenis idle dominan yaitu bottleneck. Selain itu juga diketahui nilai line balancing eficiency sebesar 43,96% dan balance delay 56%. 3) Tahap analyze dilakukan analisis faktor penyebab terhadap jenis cacat jump of stich dan jenis idle bottleneck. 4). Tahap improve dilakukan perancangan lini produksi baru dengan metode Line Balancing dan simulasi arena didapatkan kondisi perbaikan dengan jumlah stasiun turun dari 36 menjadi 20 stasiun kerja line balancing efficiency menjadi 79,12%, balance delay turun menjadi 21%, jumlah output meningkat dari 137 pcs menjadi 216 pcs, dan bottleneck menurun dari 36% menjadi 2,7%. Pada tahap control dilakukan untuk membantu kelancaran perancangan line baru, yaitu dengan mengontrol waktu siklus, waktu kedatangan dan jumlah entitas, serta jumlah tenaga kerja. Kata kunci: Pemborosan, Lean Six Sigma, Line Balancing, Balance DelayReferensi[1] Darsono. (2013). Analisis Pengendalian Kualitas Produksi dalam Upaya Mengendalikan tingkat Kerusakan Produk. Jurnal Ekonomi Manajemen Akuntansi.[2] Nasution, M., N. (2005). Manajemen Mutu Terpadu. Jakarta: Ghalia Indonesia.[3] Goetsch D. L., S. B. Davis. (1994). Pengertian Kualitas. Jakarta: PT. Prenhalindo.[4] Purponi P. & D. Andesta. (2009). Integrasi Model Lean Six Sigma untuk Peningkatan Kualitas Produksi. Jurnal Teknik industri, 10 (2), 91-97.[5] Ahyari, Agus. (1992). Pengertian Pengendalian Kualitas. Yogyakarta: BPFE Yogyakarta.[6] Hartini. (2011). Teknik Mencapai Produksi Optimal. Bandung: CV Lubuk Agung.[7] Gaspersz, V. (2007). Lean Six Sigma for Manufacturing and Service Industries. Jakarta: PT. Gramedia Pustaka Utama.

Recruiting Research Participants through Facebook: Assessing Facebook Advertisement Tools

The use of paid advertisements on social media, in particular Facebook, to create samples for online survey research is becoming increasingly common. Facebook's promise of unmediated, quick, and cheap access to a large pool of survey takers across the world is especially appealing to comparative political scientists and early career researchers. Yet the design of Facebook's algorithm, geared towards business owners, complicates the use of Facebook for research purposes. In this paper, we rely on online surveys conducted in the United Kingdom, Turkey, Spain and the Czech Republic to reveal how two tools offered by Facebook, the choice of campaign objectives and the use of demographic targeting, affect the recruitment process, response quality, and sample characteristics. First, we demonstrate that the choice of campaign objectives can help researchers to distinguish survey-takers from link-clickers and scrollers on Facebook. Second, our analysis reveals how the use of targeting tools can produce balanced samples with small increases in the cost. Overall, we argue that balanced, inexpensive, and relatively high-quality samples can be created through Facebook only if researchers choose the right combination of Facebook tools, balancing efficiency gains with attention to the sample characteristics.

Efficiency-fairness trade-offs in evacuation management of urban floods: The effects of the shelter capacity and zone prioritization

With increasing flood risk, evacuation has become an important research topic in urban flood management. Urban flood evacuation is a complex problem due to i) the complex interactions among several components within a city and ii) the need to consider multiple, often competing, dimensions/objectives in evacuation analysis. In this study, we focused on the interplay between two such objectives: efficiency and fairness. We captured the evacuation process in a conceptual agent-based model (ABM), which was analyzed under different hard infrastructure and institutional arrangement conditions, namely, various shelter capacity distributions as a hard infrastructure property and simultaneous/staged evacuation as an institutional arrangement. Efficiency was measured as the time it takes for a person to evacuate to safety. Fairness was defined by how equally residents suffered from floods, and the level of suffering depended on the perceived risk and evacuation time. Our findings suggested that efficiency is more sensitive to the shelter capacity distribution, while fairness changes more notably according to the evacuation priority assigned to the divided zones in staged evacuation. Simultaneous evacuation generally tended to be more efficient but unfairer than staged evacuation. The efficiency-fairness trade-off was captured by Pareto-optimal strategies, among which uniform capacity cases led to a higher efficiency while prioritizing high-risk residents increases fairness. Strategies balancing efficiency and fairness featured a uniform capacity and prioritized high-risk residents at an intermediate time delay. These findings more clearly exposed the interactions between different factors and could be adopted as benchmarks to inform more complicated evacuation ABMs.

Representational exchange in human social learning: Balancing efficiency and flexibility

What makes human social learning so powerful? While past accounts have sometimes prioritized finding the single capacity that makes the largest difference, our social learning abilities span a wide spectrum of capacities from the high-fidelity imitation of behaviors to inferring and learning from hidden mental states. Here, we propose that the power of human social learning lies not within a single capacity, but in our ability to flexibly arbitrate between different computations and to integrate their outputs. In particular, learners can directly copy the demonstrator’s actions in the absence of causal insight (policy imitation), infer their instrumental values (value inference), or infer their model of the world and intrinsic rewards (belief inference and reward inference). Each of these strategies trades off the cost of computation against the flexibility and compositionality of its outputs. Crucially, we have the capacity to arbitrate and exchange information between these representational formats. Human social learning, we suggest, is powerful not just because of the way it moves information between minds, but also because of the way it flexibly moves information within them.