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Against a back-drop of changes which since the 1980s have been making the UK’s welfare support regime for migrants progressively more restrictive, the research programme critically analysed the impact of European Law, namely EU Law and the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (the ECHR), on the regime. The enquiry was undertaken in the research period 2003-2011. After considering historical and theoretical contexts, the factors informing reforms to the regime, and the impact of EU ‘soft measures’ at the start of the research period, the research examined the impact of Convention rights-based interventions following entry into operation of the UK’s Human Rights Act 1998 (from October 2000). It sought to establish whether this could be said to amount to a ‘safety-net’ for claimants without a substantive right to welfare support, in some cases as a result of restrictions linked to immigration status. Consideration was then given to EU Law aspects, including ‘free movement’ rights, and the rights under EU Law of new arrivals from other Member States. This analysed the impact of the UK’s restrictions on support from 1st May 2004 affecting nationals from the A8 and A2 countries coming to the UK: restrictions informed by expectations that claimants should ‘reciprocate’ for their support and ‘contribute’ by taking up employment opportunities and helping to meet the labour market’s needs. Comparisons were made with approaches taken by the two other countries admitting such nations in 2004, Sweden and Ireland. The enquiry then focused on the UK’s scheme of implementation of Directive 2004/38 on the right of citizens of the Union and their family members to move and reside freely in the Member States. Much of the enquiry focused on distinctive features of the scheme such as the operation of the ‘right to reside’, including requirements that claimants must normally be ‘economically active’ or self-sufficient, and the courts’ role in interpreting and applying the scheme, and dealing with challenges based on ‘proportionality’ and discrimination arguments. Collectively, the works informed by the research provide a critical analysis of the UK support regime’s development in the areas referred to. Conclusions are provided in the ‘Research Conclusions’ section of the analysis.

<p> Building Information Modeling (BIM), used by many for building design and construction, and Geographic Information GIS System (GIS), used for city planning, contain large spatial and attribute data which could be used for Lean and green city planning and development. However, there exist a systematic gap and interoperability challenge between BIM and GIS that creates a disjointed workflow between city planning data in GIS and building data in BIM. This hinders the seamless analysis of data between BIM and GIS for lean and green developments. This study targets the creation of a system which integrates BIM and GIS system data. The methods involve the establishment of a novel Environmental Information Modeling (EIM) framework to bridge the gap using Microsoft Visual C#. The application of this framework shows the potential of this concept. The research results provide an opportunity for more analysis for lean and green construction planning, development and management. </p>

Author: Nadzeya Laurentsyeva Title: Monetary Union of Belarus and Russia - Analysis of Possible Costs for the Belarusian Economy Abstract The thesis analyses alignment of the Belarusian and Russian economies with the aim to infer on costs of the possible monetary union for Belarus. Having estimated a structural vector autoregression model with long-run restrictions, we conclude that the economies have shared common supply and external demand shocks, but other temporary fluctuations have been, in large, asymmetric. Structural discrepancies (as proven by the qualitative analysis) and differences in the monetary policy foci and transmission (as illustrated by the estimation results of Taylor rules and a monetary vector autoregression model) could account for increasing misalignment since 2010. In terms of the welfare costs for Belarus (evaluated with a New Keynesian dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model), the monetary union can be considered preferable to the current monetary policy of the National bank of the Republic of Belarus, while being inferior to the hypothetical inflation targeting regime. The welfare gap between the two arrangements reduces, if stronger domestic price flexibility and higher synchronization of productivity shocks can be assumed.

This thesis is a memoir of the women in my family and their relationship to motherhood, both adoptive and biological. The primary source of this work is memory and is contextualized within the Caribbean culture. The process of interpreting these memories relies on narrative, cultural, and life history theory that disarticulate ideas of motherhood found in North America from those in the Caribbean. The beginning chapters are a personal memoir of motherhood while the end chapters are analyses of the theoretical foundations of what I have explored. In the last chapter, I reflect upon the personal process of writing memoir. There is no equivalent study of the perception of the adoptive mother versus the biological mother in the Caribbean. These stories of my family contribute to our understanding of motherhood in the lives of women of color in the Americas, many of which have been missing from history's larger narrative. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2018. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

In this PhD by Published Work the author is advocating a right to security broadly grounded in ‘communitarian’ ideals. The ‘absolutist’ state theory of, say, Thomas Hobbes, to protect society from collapse, pays too little attention to genuine fears that the state can actually pose a threat to security; in giving the state significant powers of security, it can undermine the very values one is seeking to secure; and is there actual evidence that substantial gains in state power over the last fifteen years or so, since ‘9/11’, for example, have actually made nations more safe? But liberalism, at least the form suggested by, say, Ronald Dworkin, in being unprepared to accept a balance between rights and security, seemingly overlooks threats that undermine the very freedoms liberals like Dworkin wish to protect. And the liberal philosophy, at least its John Locke traditions, of absolute freedoms is too individualistic and attaches too little weight to responsibilities. Plotting a course, therefore, through these criticisms of state absolutism and liberalism one therefore ‘finds’ communitarianism as a philosophy to support a right to security. The author’s ‘communitarian’, right to security is based on an expansive interpretation of ‘positive’ duties of the state, to protect, say, the rights to life of individuals from violations by non-state actors such as suspected terrorists. The author is therefore not proposing an autonomous right to security; he is developing an existing one. And as the author still sees his right to security as largely a justiciable one enforceable before the courts, his approach is a more moderate aspect of communitarianism embracing some liberal ideas of constitutionalism such as judicial review.