Post-9/11 Illegal Immigrant Detention and Deportation: Terrorism and the Criminalization of Immigration

This paper analyzes the changes in immigration policy since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in terms of how immigrants are viewed in the United States. The goal is to address the recent criminalization of immigration in that the perceptions of terrorists and immigrants have become relatively synonymous since 2001. Although deportations have decreased, immigrant detention has increased significantly. Detention centers pose threats to the basic human rights of the immigrants residing in them, as well as perpetuate the culture of fear enveloping recent immigrants, whether they are legally or illegally in the country, and native United States citizens alike. Being that globalization encourages the blurring of borders and the movement of people across them, it plays a crucial role in the discussion of immigration and the treatment of immigrants in the United States. Globalization has the power to spread and influence public opinion more quickly than ever before in history, which houses potential for both the circulation of the criminalization of immigration and the standardization of the promotion of diversity and human rights. These parallels will be analyzed as they relate to immigration in a post-9/11 globally integrated society

Diffusion pore imaging with generalized temporal gradient profiles

In porous material research, one main interest of nuclear magnetic resonance diffusion (NMR) experiments is the determination of the shape of pores. While it has been a longstanding question if this is in principle achievable, it has been shown recently that it is indeed possible to perform NMR-based diffusion pore imaging. In this work we present a generalization of these previous results. We show that the specific temporal gradient profiles that were used so far are not unique as more general temporal diffusion gradient profiles may be used. These temporal gradient profiles may consist of any number of 'short' gradient pulses, which fulfil the short-gradient approximation. Additionally, 'long' gradient pulses of small amplitude may be present, which can be used to fulfil the rephasing condition for the complete profile. Some exceptions exist. For example, classical q-space gradients consisting of two short gradient pulses of opposite sign cannot be used as the phase information is lost due to the temporal antisymmetry of this profile

Characterization of Dielectric Barrier Discharge Plasma Actuators: Logarithmic Thrust-Voltage Quadratic Relationship

Results of thrust measurements of dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuators are presented. The test setup, measurement, and data processing methodology that were developed in prior work were used. The tests were conducted with high-density polyethylene actuators of three thicknesses. The applied voltage driving the actuators was a pure sinusoidal waveform. The test setup was a suspended actuator with a decoupling liquid interface. The tests were conducted at low ambient humidity. The thrust was measured with an analytical balance and the results were corrected for antithrust to isolate the plasma-generated thrust. Applying this approach resulted in smooth and repeatable data. It also enabled precise curve fitting that yielded quadratic relations between the plasma thrust and voltage in loglog space at constant frequencies. The results contrast power law relationships developed in literature that now appear to be an approximation only over a limited voltage range

Optimal social insurance with endogenous health

This paper analyzes optimal insurance against unemployment and disability in a private information economy with endogenous health and search effort. Individuals can reduce the probability of becoming disabled by exerting, so-called, prevention effort, which is costly in terms of utility. A healthy, i.e., not disabled, individual either works or is unemployed. An unemployed individual can exert search effort in order to increase the probability of finding a new job. I show that the optimal sequence of consumption is increasing for a working individual and constant for a disabled individual. During unemployment, decreasing benefits are not necessarily optimal in this setting. The prevention constraint implies increasing benefits over time while the search constraint demands decreasing benefits while being unemployed. However, if individuals respond sufficiently much to search incentives, the latter effect dominates the former and the optimal consumption sequence is decreasing during unemployment

The effect of age-targeted tax credits on retirement behavior

This paper analyzes the effect of two age-targeted policy initiatives to delay retirement that were simultaneously implemented in Sweden in 2007: an earned income tax credit and a payroll tax credit. Both policies were targeted at workers aged 65 or above at the beginning of the tax year. The paper exploits that the special rules for elderly were governed by the year of birth while the social security system is governed by age at retirement, i.e., the day of birth, in analyzing the effect of the new policies. The results suggest that the age-targeted tax credits increased employment in the year following the 65th birthday by 1.5 percentage points among individuals with annual earnings above the 2007 tax liability threshold three to five years earlier. An analysis of fiscal implications indicates, however, that the increase in employment was not large enough to offset the implied decrease in tax revenues

A life cycle model of health and retirement: The case of Swedish pension reform

In this paper we develop a life cycle model of labor supply and retirement to study the interactions between health and the labor supply behavior of older workers, in particular disability insurance and pension claiming. In our framework, individuals choose when to stop working and, given eligibility criteria, when/if to apply for disability and pension benefits. Individuals care about their health and can partially insure against health shocks by investing in health. We use the model to study the labor supply implications of the recent Swedish pension reform. We find that the new pension system creates big incentives for the continued employment of older workers. In particular, the model predicts an increase in the average retirement age of more than two years