Professor Xandra Kramer has been appointed as general professor of Private International Law by Utrecht University. She will be occupying this position one day a week with effect from 1 November.
Professor Xandra Kramer is currently employed as endowed professor of European Civil Procedure at Erasmus School of Law. In addition to this, Professor Kramer will be taking up an appointment as general professor of Private International Law at Utrecht University with effect from 1 November 2016 where she will be engaged in research and education alike.
Professor Kramer's expertise lies in the field of international procedural and patrimonial law. Her research will mainly focus upon European codification of Private International Law, the regulatory aspects of the international law of obligations, and the interaction between substantive European law and private international law. With respect to her educational duties, Professor Kramer will lecture in Private International Law for the master programme and be involved in the Honours programme.
The Board of Erasmus School of Law congratulates prof. Xandra Kramer with her appointment.
Professor Xandra Kramer is an international expert in the field of private international law and European procedural law. She was awarded a prestigious Vidi subsidy by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) in 2010 for her research entitled 'Securing Quality in Cross-Border Enforcement', concerning European quality guarantees for civil case law.


Celebrate the 4th of July at WDW!
If you are headed to Disney next week, there are some fantastic ways to celebrate the July 4th holiday. And Dad's go the scoop on an attraction scheduled to reopen by June 29th has been delayed for an undetermined amount of time. Plus, more news from the most magical place on earth!
Want to make sure you get the chance to experience Happily Ever After on your next WDW trip? Get a little trip planning help from the pros!


text:
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Trump's Deadly Message to Iran's Terrorist Regime
by admin • 3 January, 2020
(Bloomberg Opinion) — For 40 years American presidents have pondered a fundamental question about Iran, best summed up by Henry Kissinger: Is it a country or a cause? On Thursday evening, Donald Trump gave his answer: Iran is a cause, a terrorist cause, and it will be treated as such.That could be the lasting implication of the drone strike Trump ordered that killed Iran's indispensable General Qassem Soleimani. Since Jimmy Carter, U.S. presidents have sanctioned Iran and its leaders for sponsoring terrorist groups responsible for mayhem and murder worldwide. Until Thursday, however, those leaders have been spared the grisly fate of Osama bin Laden or Abu-Bakr al-Baghdadi.Nation-states are generally expected to cooperate against terrorists, but with Soleimani's leadership Iran has been a major facilitator of terror. Starting in 2003, he built up a network of proxies throughout the Middle East that tipped the balance of power in Iran's favor. Under his command, Shiite militias in Iraq injured or killed thousands of U.S. troops with powerful roadside bombs. He orchestrated the arming and training of Yemen's Houthi rebellion. He planned the intervention in Syria that saved Bashar al Assad's brutal war machine. He helped plan the Iraqi government's crackdown against anti-Iranian protesters.And yet Soleimani saw himself as untouchable. He did not take the precautions of a marked man, cloaking his movements and hiding his location. In fact, he would often post selfies from various fronts in Iran's regional war, taunting his adversaries.In some ways, this drone strike is surprising. In June, Trump called off at the last minute a strike on Iranian positions after it shot down an unmanned U.S. drone over the Persian Gulf. Over the summer and into the fall, Trump escalated sanctions against Iran's regime, but also tried to restart negotiations with its political leaders. He has railed against the "endless wars" waged by his predecessors and sought to withdraw U.S. forces from Syria.Iran has responded to this economic pressure with military escalations. In September, the U.S. accused Iran of striking a major Saudi oil processing facility. This followed a series of Iranian attacks on oil tankers in the Persian Gulf. In October, Iranian-backed Shiite militias began hitting U.S. positions in Iraq. Those attacks have become bolder in recent months, culminating in an attack last week in Kirkuk that killed a U.S. contractor and wounded several U.S. servicemen.That crossed a red line for Trump. He has warned the Iranian regime since last spring that the U.S. would respond in kind to any attack that killed a U.S. citizen. The U.S. responded this week by bombing Kataib Hezbollah bases in western Iraq and Syria. Then Iranian-led militias stormed the U.S. embassy in Baghdad on Wednesday, setting fires and essentially holding diplomats hostage for 24 hours before retreating. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper issued a prescient warning after the siege. "If we get word of attacks," he said, "we will take preemptive action as well to protect American forces, to protect American lives."The consequence is that the man who orchestrated terror on behalf of Iran has met the same fate as the terrorists he oversaw. This counts as a significant escalation; Iran's supreme leader has already vowed revenge. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has urged Shiite militias in Iraq not to let Soleimani's death go to waste.And Iran has many options for retaliation. Its militias have enough rockets to turn the the U.S. embassy in Baghdad into rubble. Its proxies are capable of kidnappings, suicide bombs and other mayhem against softer American targets in Europe. Hezbollah, a Lebanese militia and political party created by Iran in the 1980s, controls some networks inside the U.S. That's not to say the U.S. attack was unjustified. Soleimani was "actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region," the Pentagon said in a statement Thursday. "This strike was aimed at deterring future Iranian attack plans."So it's misleading to say that the killing of Soleimani is the opening of a new U.S. war against Iran. It's more accurate to say that it opens a new chapter in an ongoing war. Until this week, that war has been waged through economic sanctions against Iran's regime and precision strikes against its proxies. Now Trump has erased the distinction between Iran and its proxies.That's a blow not just to Iran's network of militias and terrorists. It's also a blow to the regime's campaign to bully the world into treating it like a normal country. Iran is a country run by terrorists, and Trump is right to treat them as such.To contact the author of this story: Eli Lake at elake1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Newman at mnewman43@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Eudonia chlamydota is a moth in the family Crambidae. It was named by Edward Meyrick in 1884. It is endemic to New Zealand.

The wingspan is 13–14 mm. The forewings are ochreous-whitish, the basal half suffused with blackish. The hindwings are whitish, but the postmedian line and apical suffusion are faintly grey. Adults have been recorded on wing in January.

References

Moths described in 1884
Eudonia
Moths of New Zealand
Endemic fauna of New Zealand
Taxa named by Edward Meyrick
Endemic moths of New Zealand

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Yes that is not a typo. The Seattle Sounders have announced that less than 1,000 season tickets remain for the 2010 season. The 18-match season-ticket package includes 15 regular season matches and three international friendlies to be played on the Xbox Pitch at Qwest Field.
In their inaugural season, the Sounders FC capped season tickets at 22,000 and averaged 30,943 fans per match, establishing a new MLS record for highest fan average per match.
There is no word yet on how many individual tickets for games the Sounders will make available to the public. I expect we will hear more about that next month. Also, in their press release the Sounders mention three international friendlies at Quest Field. Last season both Barcelona and Chelsea played Seattle and I am expecting news from MLS in late February about what big European teams will touring in the U.S. this summer.


Olga Believa was born in Yaroslavl, Russia. Although she is a graduate with a degree in mathematics, painting has always existed in her life to varying degrees. A few years ago, the artist who lived in her heart finally won - she left her previous job and entered a new world - a world of free artists.


Organic, Extra Virgin Flax Seed Oil Original 250ml - pure, unflavoured oil.
Subtle nutty flavour and aroma, cold pressed with no artificial flavours, no additives, no sweetners, no preservatives and no colours.
NZ grown and produced from sustainable resource.


Recently, a corrections officer at Riker's Island was injured after two inmates attacked him and threw scalding liquid in his face. The liquid was comprised of corrosive cleaning chemicals that caused him to suffer second and third degree burns. Just a week prior to this attack, another corrections officer required 26 stitches across his face following an attack by two inmates. The assault ensued when the inmates held the officer down in a chokehold and slashed his face with a knife.
Correction officers have dangerous jobs, and one of the highest rates of nonfatal work related injuries of any occupation, nationwide. Across the country, in 2011, there were 254 work related injuries per 10,000 full time employees that were caused by assaults and other violent acts by inmates. Most of the assaults also involved dangerous objects. One-third of the injuries occurred as a result of restraining or interacting with an inmate during an altercation.
In New York City jails alone, there were 108 stabbings and slashings of corrections officers by inmates that occurred in fiscal year 2015. This is twenty more than occurred in fiscal year 2014, and 67 more than had occurred in 2011. However, the number of injuries classified as "serious" dropped from 53 to 43 from 2014 to 2015.
If you are a corrections officer and have suffered injury related to your employment which now limits your ability to work, you may be entitled to a disability pension or Workers' Compensation. Contact an experienced Workers' Compensation attorney who can best advise you of your legal rights and remedies. The attorneys at McIntyre, Donohue, Accardi, Salmonson & Riordan, LLP have experience representing clients before Workers' Compensation boards throughout New York City and Long Island, including Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Nassau County, and Suffolk County. For a consultation, call (866)557-7500.


text:
Atalaia e Alto Estanqueiro-Jardia (llamada oficialmente União das Freguesias de Atalaia e Alto Estanqueiro-Jardia) es una freguesia portuguesa del municipio de Montijo, distrito de Setúbal.

Historia

Fue creada el 28 de enero de 2013 en aplicación de una resolución de la Asamblea de la República de Portugal promulgada el 16 de enero de 2013 con la unión de las freguesias de Atalaia y Alto Estanqueiro-Jardia, pasando su sede a estar situada en la antigua freguesia de Atalaia.

Demografía

Referencias

Enlaces externos

Freguesias de Montijo


Thank you for bringing this up, Andy. This happens in grooming salons often! I will give you a few things to consider and we may be able to help other salon owners and managers preemptively manage this issue. If you are an employee reading this, you can reverse many of these strategies.
As soon as you know you are heading into a period of absence, choose one of your employees to promote to Temporary Assistant Manager. This gives them some power to make decisions in your absence—but only temporarily. Also by paying them an additional amount for this period, you show a clear time frame for the temporary position.
If these events have already taken place, try giving the employee who has been taking the additional responsibility a bonus and letting them know that they can now relax and let you worry about the business. If you can do this publicly, say in a staff meeting, it can really help relieve them of their managerial responsibilities to the rest of the staff, too. In fact, throw a party to celebrate your return and celebrate her generous contribution to your business during these hard times. This is meant to mark the end of a period.
It is very important that you make a clean switch. There might be situations that come up in the salon that you do not feel comfortable handling because you may not know the back story due to your absence. It is better to ask the client or the affected employee to bring you up to speed than to ask the employee whom you left in charge.
Remember that if you are going to relieve them of their managerial duties, you must handle all matters on your own now. You might also discover new information that could be helpful. The same goes for the other side, the employee might jump into situations to help out because they know the back story and frankly they are just used to doing it. In these situations you must thank them for their help and remind them that you got this.
It is really easy in the course of a busy day to let the employee do things to assist you, but remember that you would be perpetuating the very behavior that you are trying to stop. You said that you don't want her to feel like she is being "pushed out", but in fact you do want her to be pushed out of her managerial position. It is ok to reassure her that she is still a very valuable groomer in your salon but that you no longer need her assistance in the matters of running the salon.
As far as the policies that were changed in your absence, it might be worth asking at your next monthly staff meeting how your staff feels about the changes. Maybe they all have a good argument as to why those policies were changed. Maybe bossy manager girl is the only one who thinks they needed changing. Maybe the clients were the reason for the change. In the end, if your policies are the best policies then it is time they be enforced.
Just a note on the importance of staff meetings; they are important! You can have them quarterly, monthly, yearly or even weekly if you have a huge staff. This is an opportunity to celebrate business victories, individual victories, discuss policies, bring up new issues that need new policies, and ask your employees if they have everything they need to do their jobs easily and well. Thirty minutes is usually enough for a staff under 10 people. Over 10 people might need forty-five minutes to an hour.


text:
\section{Introduction}\label{sec:introduction}

During the last 10--15 years, there has been an explosion of enabling technologies for the realization of the \ac{IoT}, including sensors, actuators, embedded devices with computation capabilities, software platforms, and communication protocols~\cite{7123563,7879243}.
This phenomenon was driven initially by the huge potential foreseen in the automation and digitization of industrial applications~\cite{6714496} and personal health systems~\cite{7113786}, but it benefited many other segments through spillover effects.
One of the most important outlets of the growing \ac{IoT} ecosystem has been the smart city market~\cite{6740844}, which was ready to incorporate new technologies to supply citizens, as well as city councils, with new services or more efficient realizations of existing ones.

\begin{figure*}[t!]
    \centering
    \includegraphics{figures/marv-t2.2-v2-high-level}
    \caption{Transition of smart city data management and distribution systems from vertical silos to horizontal (cloud-based) platforms and positioning of the \href{https://www.marvel-project.eu/}{H2020 MARVEL project}'s proposition for multi-layer \ac{E2F2C} environments.}
    \label{fig:high-level}
\end{figure*}

In the early developments of smart cities, each service relied on its own devices that could operate only with a dedicated proprietary platform in a vertical manner.
Typically, the platforms offered \acp{API} for the consolidation of data across multiple services in the cloud, e.g., for integrated user dashboards or big data analysis of historical data.
Indeed, many studies have focused on supporting semantic interoperability of data only \textit{after} they have been safely stored in a common repository (currently referred to as ``data lake'')~\cite{6605518,7226706}.
However, such a compartmentalized structure had limitations, especially in terms of redundant deployed resources and inefficient management.
Therefore, the community has moved towards a horizontal approach, where a common platform is able to communicate with all kinds of devices; most often sensors in smart city applications \cite{9039732}.

This evolution is illustrated in \cref{fig:high-level}, which also shows the high-level architecture of the \ac{DMP} defined  the \href{https://www.marvel-project.eu/}{H2020 MARVEL project}, which aspires to define a comprehensive solution for multi-modal real-time analytics applications.
Such applications derive from the analysis of the requirements and expectations in several use cases of practical interest and high impact of the quality of life of citizens, and they will be validated in three small-scale field trials across Europe, i.e., in Malta, Serbia, and Italy~\cite{9593258}.
In the project, we exploit the recent trend of breaking down the computation elements of the system into three layers in a hierarchy~\cite{Ahmed2017,Porambage2018}: the \textit{edge} layer is closest to the sensing and embedded computation devices, but it consists of devices with modest capabilities in terms of computation, connectivity, and storage; the \textit{fog} layer has more powerful capabilities and we treat it like a small private cloud, which is however under the control of the end user; and, finally, the \textit{cloud} layer is hosted on public remote data centers, which have virtually infinite capacity but incur a high latency and usage costs.

The \href{https://www.marvel-project.eu/}{H2020 MARVEL project}\ covers all aspects, from the development of new sensors, e.g., directional microphone arrays, to the efficient training of \ac{AI}/\ac{ML} models on devices with limited capabilities, to the ethics of data collection and analysis.
However, in this paper we focus only on the \ac{DMP}, which is the core of the project's software architecture and consists of the following components:

\begin{itemize}[parsep=0em,leftmargin=*,label={--}]%
    \item \textbf{DatAna}, for the processing and transmission of structured data produced by AI components to all the layers in the inference pipeline;
    \item \textbf{DFB}, which is in charge of managing heterogeneous data across multiple components in the cloud;
    \item \textbf{StreamHandler}, which processes, stores and delivers real-time AV data at the fog layer toward the processing servers and the Data corpus;
    \item \textbf{HDD}, which can optimize the data management based on the available resources and current workload;
\end{itemize}

Those core components work in close connection to the \textbf{Data corpus}, which is the repository of the data collected from the sensors, mainly consisting of microphones and cameras, for visualization and augmentation, and the \textbf{SmartViz}, which provides the \ac{HMI} for visualization and analysis.

The rest of the paper is structured as follows.
First, we introduce the background and foundations of the \href{https://www.marvel-project.eu/}{H2020 MARVEL project}, which are needed to understand the concepts and terminology used in the rest of the paper, in \cref{sec:background}.
This section also includes an overview of the essential state of the art on data/resource management in edge/fog systems.
In \cref{sec:dmp} we then illustrate all the main components of the \href{https://www.marvel-project.eu/}{H2020 MARVEL project}'s \ac{DMP}.
Handling \ac{AV} data was found to be challenging in particular, hence it is discussed separately in \cref{sec:avdata}.
Preliminary results obtained during the mid-project integration tests are reported in \cref{sec:eval}, while \cref{sec::guidelines} presents some useful design guidelines which directly reflect our experience.

\section{Background}\label{sec:background}

In this section we provide an overview of the aspects of the \href{https://www.marvel-project.eu/}{H2020 MARVEL project}\ that are relevant to the design and implementation of the \ac{DMP}, which is the main subject of this work.

\begin{figure}[t!]
    \centering
    \includegraphics[width=\columnwidth]{figures/layered-view}
    \caption{\ac{E2F2C} view of the \href{https://www.marvel-project.eu/}{H2020 MARVEL project}'s pilots.}
    \label{fig:layered-view}
\end{figure}

A layered view of the physical deployment of the project's pilots is illustrated in \cref{fig:layered-view}.
The lowest layer is the \textit{edge}, which contains the sensors and embedded devices to perform on-site operations.
We have two types of sensors: microphone arrays, producing audio streams, and cameras, producing AV streams.
All the sensors are expected to operate continuously during the service lifetime.
The embedded devices, i.e., Raspberry Pis and NVIDIA Jetson boards, perform operations directly at the edge, which include anonymization of the AV streams and basic inference operations.
The intermediate layer is called the \textit{fog}\footnote{We not that in the scientific literature and in the market press the terms ``edge'' and ``fog'' do not have universally accepted meanings. Sometimes they are even used interchangeably.}, which includes more powerful computation resources that are shared by multiple edge sites, e.g., workstations and rack-mountable servers with \acp{GPU}, which are are suitable for not only managing the different data streams but also performing more advanced inference tasks, as well as training of \ac{AI} models.
Finally, the \textit{cloud} is hosted in an infrastructure provided by a project partner and it is common for all the pilots.
The cloud provides long-term storage of data and all the services for \ac{HMI}, i.e., visualization and real-time (on-demand) analysis.

In \cref{fig:layered-view} we distinguish between raw data vs.\ structured data:

\begin{itemize}[parsep=0em,leftmargin=*,label={--}]%
    \item The \textbf{raw data} are the AV streams generated by the sensors, irrespective of whether they have been anonymized or not.
    %
    Their formats and characteristics are heterogeneous because they depend on the physical devices installed (e.g., may use different codec or sample AV at different rates).
    %
    In any case, the throughput is generally high, especially for video, which requires carefully provisioned bandwidth, long-term storage, and configuration of the data distribution services.
    \item The \textbf{structured data}, instead, are data generated by the analytics applications, i.e., the inference components.
    %
    In the project, have different data models for each AI component, but all of them have been based on the fully  Smart-Data-Models (SDM)-compliant\footnote{ https://smartdatamodels.org/} data models that DatAna is producing.
    %
    Furthermore, their throughput is generally much lower than than of raw data.
\end{itemize}

\begin{figure*}[t!]
    \centering
    \includegraphics{figures/example-app}
    \caption{Schematic of a typical multi-modal, i.e., audio + video, real-time analytics application in \href{https://www.marvel-project.eu/}{H2020 MARVEL project}. The mapping of components to the edge/fog/cloud layers is only indicative: in real applications this may depends on physical, environmental, and administrative constraints.}
    \label{fig:example-app}
\end{figure*}

A schematic of a typical multi-modal application in the \href{https://www.marvel-project.eu/}{H2020 MARVEL project}\ is illustrated in \cref{fig:example-app}.
We have used ``thick'' arrows to represent the raw data flows, while ``thin'' arrows refer to structured data flows, to reflect in a pictorial manner their different bandwidth requirements.
The diagram is intended to provide the reader with a sketch of the components that are involved in the deployment of a service, which can differ in practice depending on the specific use case and pilot.
The services we support in the project include surveillance applications (e.g., detecting anomalies in public spaces), emotion recognition (with aerial images taken by drones), road safety (e.g., monitoring junctions with mixed cars and bike traffic).

\subsection{Related work}

The topic of efficient allocation of resources in \ac{E2F2C} has been extensively studied in the scientific literature (e.g., \cite{Wang2019a}).
The vast majority of the works propose highly simplified mathematical models, which are then solved to maximize a given objective function, but they do not linger on the practical implementation of their solution using industry-grade tools.
On the other hand, in the \href{https://www.marvel-project.eu/}{H2020 MARVEL project}\ our goal was to realize a solution based on widely-used, reliable, and open source software.
Furthermore, some works have focused on the specific aspect of efficient data distribution.
In~\cite{Becker2021}, the authors have proposed \ac{P2P} as a means to distribute data in a robust and decentralized manner among agents at the edge.
Such an approach only partially covers the needs of the \href{https://www.marvel-project.eu/}{H2020 MARVEL project}, since AV real-time streams cannot be stored efficiently in a \ac{P2P} overlay.
An in-network storage management is put forward in~\cite{Nicolaescu2021}, to place both raw and structured data on distributed resources using the Google File System, which is however proprietary.
Another perspective is taken in~\cite{Gupta2018}, which builds on top of the distributed database \href{https://cassandra.apache.org/}{Apache Cassandra} by adding geolocalization tags that help distributing the load across edge/fog nodes; we have not considered this feature since, at least in the project pilots, the edge/fog nodes are all deployed in close proximity.
Finally, in~\cite{9193994}, the authors distribute the execution of functions following a \ac{FaaS} approach, which is adopted in production only in cloud systems, but has shown some potential also for edge computing~\cite{Aslanpour2021}, even though further research may be needed.
The solutions mentioned can be gradually incorporated in the \ac{DMP} at a later stage of the project, which is still ongoing with expected completion date at the end of 2023.

More specifically, Apache Kafka has also been widely used in the streaming applications domain. In \cite{10.14778/2824032.2824063}, the authors replicate Apache Kafka logs for various distributed data-driven systems at LinkedIn, including source-of-truth data storage and stream processing. In \cite{9016008}, the authors design a distributed cluster processing model based on Apache Kafka data queues, to optimize the inbound efficiency of seismic waveform data. In \cite{9378217}, the authors extend Apache Kafka by building an in-memory distributed complex event recognition engine built on top of Apache Kafka streams. In \cite{10.1007/978-3-030-84811-8_2}, the authors design a simulation platform enabling evaluations of future mobility scenarios, based on an Apache Kafka architecture. In \cite{10.1145/3148055.3148068}, the authors break the streaming pipeline into two distinct phases and evaluate percentile latencies for two different networks, namely 40GbE and InfiniBand EDR (100Gbps), to determine if a typical streaming application is network intensive enough to benefit from a faster interconnect. Moreover, they explore whether the volume of input data stream has any effect on the latency characteristics of the streaming pipeline, and if so, how does it compare for different stages in the streaming pipeline and different network interconnections.
In \cite{10.1145/3445945.3445949}, the authors propose a distributed framework for the application of stream processing on heterogeneous environmental data, which addresses the challenges of data heterogeneity from heterogeneous systems and offers real-time processing of huge environmental datasets through a publish/subscribe method via a unified data pipeline with the application of Apache Kafka for real-time analytics. In \cite{10.14778/3137765.3137771}, the authors find that filtering on large datasets is best done in a common upstream point instead of being pushed to, and repeated, in downstream components. To demonstrate the advantages of such an approach, they modify Apache Kafka to perform limited native data transformation and filtering, relieving the downstream Spark application from doing this. Their approach outperforms four prevalent analytics pipeline architectures with negligible overhead compared to standard Kafka.
In the next sections, we illustrate the high-level design and current status of development of \href{https://www.marvel-project.eu/}{H2020 MARVEL project}'s \ac{DMP}.

\section{DMP Software Architecture Design}\label{sec:dmp}

The main components of the \ac{DMP} are introduced briefly in \cref{sec:introduction} (see also \cref{fig:high-level}).
Below we provided an overview, followed by component details in dedicated sub-sections.

\textbf{DatAna} is responsible for collecting the inference results from all AI components from all layers through its instances residing at each layer, transforming them into SDM-compliant counterparts and then transferring them to higher layers in the E2F2C continuum.
The DatAna cloud layer thus aggregates all transformed inference results and relays them to the DFB, which also resides at the cloud.
\textbf{DFB} persistently stores all SDM-compliant inference results it receives, but also makes them available in real time to SmartViz and Data Corpus.
DFB also exposes a REST API to SmartViz to allow it to access all archived inference results in its \href{https://www.elastic.co/}{ElasticSearch} database.
In addition, the DFB receives user-generated inference result verification messages from SmartViz and use this information to update the corresponding inference results stored in its database.
\textbf{HDD} interacts exclusively with the DFB to receive information on current Kafka topic partitioning and associated performance metrics and to send updated, optimised Kafka topic partitioning recommendations.
In parallel, \textbf{StreamHandler} receives information on active AV sources after requesting it from a component called \textit{AV Registry} via a REST call, and it uses that information to connect to all active AV sources and receive their AV data streams to segment them and store them persistently.
StreamHandler also exposes a REST API that is accessed by SmartViz to request archived AV data from specific sources and points in time. %
The Data Corpus resides at the cloud and is subscribed to all DFB Kafka topics where DatAna publishes SDM-compliant inference results to receive them in real time and archive them internally to make them available for further AI training purposes along with the associated AV data it collects from StreamHandler. The Data Corpus is also subscribed to the DFB Kafka topic that is used by SmartViz to publish user-generated inference result verifications to receive them in real time and update the corresponding archived inference results accordingly. The Data Corpus is also connected to StreamHandler, from which it receives AV data as binary files that are a result of AV stream segmentation.

\subsection{DatAna}

DatAna is a component distributed across all three E2F2C layers, with a separate instance deployed at each infrastructure node.
DatAna is complemented by an MQTT message broker, which is also deployed at each infrastructure node, alongside DatAna.
Each instance of the \href{https://mqtt.org/}{MQTT} message broker is responsible for collecting structured data, i.e., inference results, from the AI components residing on the same layer as the respective MQTT instance.
Specifically, AI components publish their raw inference results to dedicated MQTT topics in real time as they are being produced through the analysis of the AV data streams they receive.
The input inference results of each AI component are formatted as JSON documents according to a dedicated distinct data model that fits the requirements of each AI component. The following are the most notable fields in these data models:

 \begin{itemize}[parsep=0em,leftmargin=*,label={--}]
     \item AV source id. The id of the AV source that produced the stream that was analysed to produce the inference result.
     \item Inference result id. A unique identifier for the inference result.
     \item Timestamps. In case the inference result refers to an instant in time a single timestamp is provided. In case the inference result refers to a period in time, two timestamps are provided, corresponding to the start and end of the time period of the result. All time information is absolute and following the ISO 8601 UTC format.
 \end{itemize}

 Besides the above, the raw inference results contain other fields that are specific to the needs of each AI component.

Each DatAna instance residing on the same infrastructure node as an MQTT broker subscribes to the broker's topics to receive all incoming input AI inference results.
Subsequently, DatAna transforms the input inference results into SDM-compliant counterparts.
Three data models that belong in the collection of smart data models of the SDM standard have been identified to be relevant to MARVEL, which have been modified by adding additional fields to account for the project's needs:

\begin{itemize}[parsep=0em,leftmargin=*,label={--}]%
    \item \textbf{MediaEvent}: to describe general AI inference results.
    \item \textbf{Alert}: to describe AI inference results that should be perceived as alerts.
    \item \textbf{Anomaly}: to describe AI inference results that should be perceived as detected anomalies.
\end{itemize}

DatAna selects autonomously the most appropriate data model to perform the transformation, whose output is then relayed to higher-level layers

Specifically, the SDM-compliant inference results produced by DatAna at the edge layer are relayed to DatAna at the fog layer and the SDM-compliant inference results produced by DatAna at the fog layer are relayed to DatAna at the cloud layer. The DatAna instance at the cloud layer is responsible for relaying the SDM-compliant inference results it collects from all layers to the DFB by publishing them to the appropriate DFB Kafka topics.

\subsection{DFB}

The DFB resides at the cloud and receives all SDM-compliant inference results published by the DatAna cloud instance and stores them persistently in its ElasticSearch database. The DFB also exposes a REST API to SmartViz to allow it to access all archived inference results in its ElasticSearch database. The DFB receives user-gerenated verifications of inference results from SmartViz when they are published to a dedicated DFB Kafka topic and uses them to update the respective archived inference result entries accordingly. The DFB also accesses a REST API at the HDD for dispatching the currently applied Kafka topic partition information along with associated performance measurements to it. Using the same REST API, the DFB can also receive updated Kafka topic partition allocation that is recommended by the HDD.
SmartViz is subscribed to all DFB Kafka topics where DatAna publishes SDM-compliant inference results to receive them in real time and present them to the user. SmartViz also allows users to verify the inference results they are presented with. SmartViz transmits these user-generated verifications to the DFB by publishing them to a dedicated Kafka topic available at the DFB.

\subsection{StreamHandler}

StreamHandler resides at the fog and receives AV data streams from all active AV sources (CCTV cameras, network-enabled microphones, AudioAnony and VideoAnony instances) via RTSP. During initialisation, StreamHandler accesses the REST API of the AVRegistry to discover the active AV sources and their details. During operation, StreamHandler consumes the AV RTSP streams and segments them according to a pre-specified time intervals to generate binary documents, suitable for persistent storage. StreamHandler archives the generated AV data files and also exposes a REST API to accept requests from SmartViz about the transmission of AV data from specific AV sources (reference to AV Source id) and from specific points in time. Upon such requests, StreamHandler retrieves the necessary binary files, compiles a unified/edited version of the stream that corresponds to the timeframe requested and generates a link to the said binary file which is to be consumed by SmartViz.

\subsection{HDD}

The HDD exposes a REST API to allow the reception of the currently applied DFB Kafka topic partition information along with associated performance measurements from the DFB. The HDD uses this information as input to calculate an optimised Kafka topic partition allocation and subsequently makes it available to the DFB via its REST API. The exact optimisation method that is implemented by the HDD can be found in \cite{arxiv.2205.09415}.

The DMP has been applied in 5 use cases defined for the needs of the initial version of the MARVEL Integrated framework.

\section{AV Data}\label{sec:avdata}

In the context of the MARVEL framework design activities, certain similarities and overlaps were identified between the functionalities of StreamHandler and those of DFB and DatAna with regards to big data management. However, following an in-depth analysis of the MARVEL framework requirements that the DMP should satisfy, a gap was identified that could not be covered by the DFB and DatAna solutions. This gap was related to the management of audio-visual data. More specifically, the following requirements were established:

\begin{itemize}[parsep=0em,leftmargin=*,label={--}]%
    \item Receive and efficiently archive live streams of audiovisual binary data from all relevant MARVEL sensors, devices and components during system operation.
    \item The persistent storage of archived AV data should comply with high data security standards and data privacy requirements.
    \item Provide access to archived audiovisual binary data to the MARVEL UI (SmartViz) by streaming requested archived audiovisual data upon demand in order to present them to the end-user and in association with relevant inference results produced by MARVEL AI components.
    \item Support the expansion of the data set of the Data Corpus by relaying selected archived audiovisual data to it.
\end{itemize}

StreamHandler was found to be in a position to be able to satisfy these requirements and fill the gap by extending its supported data source types, its connectors and data storage capabilities. This course of action was aligned with INTRA's strategic plan to expand the StreamHandler platform in the direction of audiovisual data management for increased interoperability in order to address additional business cases and reinforce its position in the big data management and smart cities domains.

\section{Evaluation of the setup}\label{sec:eval}

In this section we summarize the results obtained during the first system integration tests of \href{https://www.marvel-project.eu/}{H2020 MARVEL project}.

\subsection{DatAna}

During the tests performed during the MVP, the performance metrics of a single NiFi instance was measured. Table \ref{tab::datana} summarises the collected measurements for the specified metrics.

\begin{center}
\begin{table}[tbh]
\centering
\caption{Results of the measurements for DatAna component}
\vspace{-0.5em}
\label{tab::datana}
\begin{tabular}{|l|l|}
 \textbf{Metric} & \textbf{Value}  \\ \hline\hline
 Data loss rate & 0  \\  \hline
 Service availability-failed request & 100\% availability\\\hline
 Data access restriction & None\\\hline
 Data throughput & 1.1 MB/s \\\hline
 Response time & 47.1 ms \\\hline
 Number of cluster nodes & 1\\
\end{tabular}
\vspace{-0.5em}
\end{table}
\end{center}

For a more in-depth analysis of performance metrics, there is this Cloudera study \cite{2020cloudera}, which reports how NiFi behaves in terms of scalability and performance (data rates) using very demanding workloads.

\subsection{DFB}

For DFB the following high-level performance indicators were considered:

\begin{itemize}[parsep=0em,leftmargin=*,label={--}]%
    \item \textbf{Data Integrity}: to confirm that advanced encryption mechanisms over end-to-end data transfer will guarantee data integrity. Metric: Data loss rate.
    \item \textbf{Scalability}: to increase the number of modality data streams and verify that performance metrics improve or at least stay the same. Metric: HW speed up.
    \item \textbf{Availability}: to verify that DFB resources are available and discoverable. Metrics: Service availability-failed request, data access restriction.
    \item \textbf{Performance} (for high volume, heterogeneous data streams): to measure different performance metrics under different execution conditions. Metrics: Data transfer latency, data throughput, response time, number of cluster nodes.
\end{itemize}

Table \ref{tab::dfb} summarises the collected measurements for the specified metrics.

\begin{center}
\begin{table}[tbh]
\centering
\caption{Results of the measurements for DFB component}
\vspace{-0.5em}
\label{tab::dfb}
\begin{tabular}{|l|l|}
 \textbf{Metric} & \textbf{Value}  \\ \hline\hline
Data loss rate & 0 \\ \hline
HW speed up & - \\ \hline
Service availability-failed request & 100\% availability \\ \hline
Data access restriction & None \\ \hline
Data transfer latency & 5 ms (200 MB/s load) \\ \hline
Data throughput & 605 MB/s \\ \hline
Response time & 5 ms (200 MB/s load) \\ \hline
Number of cluster nodes & 3 \\
\end{tabular}
\vspace{-0.5em}
\end{table}
\end{center}

\subsection{StreamHandler}

Preliminary testing has indicated that StreamHandler is capable of processing at least 3 Full HD AV data streams in parallel with no performance lag when deployed on an infrastructure with 2 CPU cores allocated.
\subsection{HDD}

For the purposes of evaluating the efficiency of  HDD, we took into account the industrial best practices in the related application sectors. We identified Kafka setup guidelines used by credible industrial service providers. For example, Microsoft, recommends that it would be better to constrain the existing partitions per broker (including replicas) to a number not more than $1000$. In another example, Confluent recommends to set the number of partitions per broker to at least $100 \cdot B$. Consequently, combining the essence of these configuration recommendations, we arrive at the following benchmark method, called MS-CNFL: $ P = \min \left( P \in_R [1 ... \frac{1.000 \cdot B}{r} ], P \in_R [1...100 \cdot B] \right)$ and $b \in_R [1 ... B]$, where $\in_R$ denotes uniformly random selection.
We measure the system throughput, captured by the ultimate number of partitions selected by each algorithm (our algorithms being BroMin and BroMax of \cite{arxiv.2205.09415}), the replication latency, captured the amount of time that is needed to process each message, in the sense of time required for data to be stored or retrieved, the numbers or costs of the application's infrastructure, captured by the number of brokers used in the Apache Kafka cluster, the OS load metric via the open file handles and the unavailability metric via the unavailability time. We perform the measurements for variable number of consumers. Indicatively, we display the performance in terms of throughput (number of partitions) and replication latency, in Fig.~\ref{fig:hdd-performance}. We can see that HDD maintains equivalent numbers of partitions (and therefore throughput), but, at the same time, does not violate the latency constraint (like the benchmark is doing).

\section{Design guidelines} \label{sec::guidelines}

In this Section, we report some useful guidelines which reflect the experiences that we had when building our platform.
\begin{itemize}
\item Distil the data exchange requirements of the involved components to consolidate the necessary I/O interfaces as much as possible and consequently reduce integration complexity.
\item Decouple as much as possible the direct data exchange between pairs of individual component instances to reduce integration complexity, i.e., avoid the use of REST APIs wherever possible and promote the use of pub/sub distributed messaging systems.
\item Implement open, industry-standard approaches for increased interoperability, scalability and expandability.
\item Align the data models used for handling and storing the inference results with the SDM standard in order to improve the visibility and acceptance of the envisioned results.
\item Achieve a versatile, yet consistent  and coherent solution that can support a multitude of different use cases and scenarios and operate on different infrastructure configurations. In our case, this is achieved through the design of the DMP and the specification of an adaptive reference ``AI Inference Pipeline'' architecture. The DMP is fully scalable and interoperable as it can be adapted to incorporate virtually any number of edge and fog nodes, while it can handle data emerging from any MARVEL component (e.g., anonymisation components, AI components) at any layer of the E2F2C continuum.
\item Handle multimodal raw (AV) and structured (inference results) data by collecting from and distriburing among multiple endpoints both in real time and asynchronusly via persistent storage mechanisms.
\item Maintain an up-to-date comprehensive documentation of the specifications for all implemented I/O interfaces and data models using version control. In our case, a GitLab repository was used for this purpose.
\end{itemize}

\begin{figure}[t!]
    \centering
    \begin{subfigure}[b]{0.49\columnwidth}
        \centering
        \includegraphics[width=\columnwidth]{figures/hdd-partitions}
        \caption{Throughput.}
        \label{fig::hdd-performance}
    \end{subfigure}
    \begin{subfigure}[b]{0.49\columnwidth}
        \centering
        \includegraphics[width=\columnwidth]{figures/hdd-latency}
        \caption{Rep. latency.}
        \label{fig::hdd-latency}
    \end{subfigure}
    \caption{Results of the simulated measurements for HDD component.}
    \label{fig:hdd-performance}
\end{figure}

\balance

\bibliographystyle{IEEEtran}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


Summer summer time. Time to sit back and unwind. We are all looking forward to spending more time outside, seeing more friends, and having a good time. Some of us might have plans to make this the best summer yet. Actually, we all should. Regardless if you are on a full vacation or will only take a few weekends off, you should be intentional in how you use your summer. Here are some tips to do that.
This can be short-term and/or long-term. Have you been longing to re-design your living room? Expand your garden? Upgrade your business? Change your hair? Now is the time to do it. When I am planning a project, I write my ideas down, then elaborate with a google doc and pinterest board…any possibly some YouTube videos. Planning can be as fun as implementing your idea.
Beyond getting "snatched" for the summer, pay attention to your mind, body, and soul. What are you doing to stimulate your curiosity and imagination? Every summer I collect a few books to add to my library and entertain my mood. I also tend to get new-found inspiration for my blog or creative projects during the summer. Take advantage of the weather and shift some of your exercise routine outside. Check in with your health. I don't believe in diets. Eating should always be enjoyable. Being deprived never feels pleasant. Looking healthy comes in a variety of sizes. Stick to what works for you and what foods help you be your version of healthy. Check in with your emotions. Are you stressed? Disappointed? Unpack those feelings, talk to friends and family, seek guidance from your higher beliefs. In the summer, the sun should not only shine outside, but also in your heart.
Whether it is planned or spontaneous, take time to travel. It can be a stay-cation at a local hotel, a road trip to a festival, a cruise to the Islands, or an international flight. I am planning a few road trips and look forward to sharing photos and stories with you about them. Sometimes I do get cold feet with the uncertainty of what might happen on trips to new places, but that is the beauty of exploring. Expand your horizons. Enjoy new sounds, smells, and textures. Live in the moment, regardless of how short or long it is. Most importantly, make memories to cherish.
This is not a "no new friends" zone. Spend time with family and friends this summer, but also step out of your comfort zone to vibe with new people. You never know what possibilities can come out of a new friendly encounter. I love hearing others stories just for laughs and to learn. It's inspiring to learn how someone thinks, where they have been, and where they want to go. It is not only about what you can get or gain from someone. It is also about what you can give and simple companionship.
What are your plans for this summer? Let me know in the comments below.
Special thanks to my brother Dantes for contributing his swag to these photos and my sister Damali for taking the photos.


text:
17 Luglio 2009 In evidenza, Politica figlio unico
I Cinesi contestano la politica governativa del figlio unico
Mentre Cheng Enfu, decano dell'Istituto di Studi Marxisti presso l'Accademia delle Scienze Sociali Cinese, chiede un rafforzamento della politica del figlio unico, un sondaggio recente, pubblicato dal giornale "South Weekend", mostra che 67,5% dei cinesi è contrario al rinforzamento di tale pratica.Ricordiamo anche, che, secondo un'indagine della Commissione Nazionale per la Pianificazione Familiare, "il 70,7% delle donne cinesi desidera avere due o più figli". Jiang Fan, vice segretario della stessa commissione, ha anche spiegato che " l'83% delle donne desidera avere almeno un maschio e una femmina". Tale risultato è piuttosto sgradito alle autorità, che hanno sempre cercato di presentare la politica del figlio unico come una pratica del governo che riscuoteva il consenso della stragrande parte della popolazione. Nonostante l'opinione della maggioranza delle donne cinesi, il regime persiste nella sua politica. Una politica che, oltre alla crudeltà delle sterilizzazioni e degli aborti forzati causa altre violazioni dei diritti umani e gravi problemi sociali : eccidio di bambine, traffico delle donne e schiavitù seesuale, suicidio delle donne, furti di bambini, adolescenti senza esistenza legale, problemi di salute per le donne, bambini abbandonati, rivolte popolari e violenze, discriminazione delle minoranze e l'invecchiamento della popolazione.
Pubblichiamo il testo integrale in inglese di Antoaneta Bezlova di Human Rights Without Frontier.
Chinese question government's one-child policy
By Antoaneta Bezlova
When China's population control was imposed in 1980, it was meant to be a temporary measure which the government promised to phase out in three decades. It was intended to halt the baby boom of the 1950s and 1960s. But as China is preparing to mark the 30th anniversary of its "one-child" policy next year, indications are that the policy would remain in place despite mounting opposition from the general public and experts who question its success.
During the annual session of the National Parliament in March, a senior legislator tabled a proposal for further tightening of the family planning rules, arguing that many of China's current problems stemmed from lapses in implementing the policy. The world's most populous country is plagued by the depletion of resources amid an oversupply of labour, all of which threaten a serious unemployment crisis, he alleged.
"Without solving China's population problem, we will never be able to measure our country power against that of European countries and the United States," Cheng Enfu, dean of the Marxist Studies Institute with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said during the plenary discussions of the parliament. "Our gross domestic product and our living standards will always lag behind those countries".
Cheng called for a halt to the relaxation of the "one child" policy, predicting that China will not be able to progress if it wavers on population control.
While experts and legislators have been debating the pros and cons of the policy in recent years, Cheng's analysis directly equated China's population control to the country's economic success.
Previous debates have tended to focus on the quality of the nation, highlighting the difficulties of feeding and educating China's 1.3 billion people.
"Less is better" has long been a widely used slogan by population control officials during their campaigns to raise awareness across the country.
Cheng's arguments touched a nerve with an increasingly assertive Chinese public because it suggested that Beijing was preparing to hold onto its policy even after its originally planned expiration date in 2010.
According to an internet poll conducted among 130,000 people, and published by the Southern Weekend newspaper, 67.5 percent opposed further measures to tighten family planning laws.
"China is not the country with the most serious population problems in the world but its population control is the most draconian," said one commentator. "Even if we only consider Asia, there are at least three counters with bigger population density than China – Japan, South Korea and Israel. In Europe, one third of the countries are more densely populated than China. Are more strict measures really needed?"
In recent years, the success of China's family planning measures has become a matter of much debate. Government officials credit the "one-child" policy with preventing some 350 million births over 30 years and reducing the Chinese birthrate to 1.7 children per woman from more than six in the 1960s.
Defenders of the policy evoke images of the early 1970s when the economy was struggling to feed a rapidly expanding population.
Arguably, the "one-child" policy is the policy with the biggest public impact ever rolled out by the communist Chinese leaders. But when it was imposed in 1980 it was not even submitted for endorsement by the national parliament.
Instead, the decision for its launch was announced in a public letter issued by the Central Committee of the Communist party in September 1980, which clearly stated that the measures would be in place for 30 years, by which time it said "population pressure would have been alleviated".
From the moment of its inception, the policy has met with fierce and often violent opposition from peasants. In 1984, the rules were amended to permit two children if the first was a girl or handicapped. Ethnic minorities were also allowed two children. But in the big cities, families were restricted to just one child and subjected to fines if the rule was violated.
In the countryside, protests against forced abortions and excessively high fines routinely flared up. One of the biggest recent protests happened last year in Guangxi province where hundreds of farmers rioted, accusing officials of charging five times the officially mandated amount for breaching the policy.
Since China entered the new millennium, population experts have become bolder in questioning the wisdom of implementing stringent population controls. They point out an array of social problems that have accompanied its implementation.
China, which last year replaced Germany as the world's third largest economy, is aging so rapidly that by 2050, there could be two working people for every elderly, compared with 13 to one now. The problem of shrinking workforce is compounded by the lack of a full-fledged social safety net, which places the responsibility of the ageing population on a dwindling number of children.
Draconian restrictions on childbirth are being blamed also for a gender imbalance that China might have to endure for decades. In Chinese society, where Confucian tradition places a strong emphasis on male heirs, there are now millions of more boys than girls.
In most countries, males slightly outnumber females – between 103 and 107 male births for every 100 female births. But in China there are now 120 male to 100 female births.
Population controls have also spurred a grim trade in stolen children, which the government is struggling to eliminate by carrying out periodic crackdowns.
The Sichuan earthquake was a stark reminder of the price paid by parents who lose their only child. Thousands of children perished in the tremor, leaving behind grieving parents.
"Numbers are not really the biggest problem with the existing population control policy," Ji Baocheng, a population expert. "Family planning laws are supposed to be conducive to family harmony but if we continue doing things as we did in the 1980s, achieving harmony would be very difficult".
Clicca qui per l'articolo
Frode fiscale milionaria con regia cinese
Vietnam accusa di nuovo Cina per provocazioni marittime
Censura cinese internet: Google si censura da solo
Cina, la riforma dei Laogai


text:
Local NewsVegas Stronger
Security guard saves choking baby near Las Vegas Strip
Security guard saves choking baby near Las Vegas Strip, recognized as Vegas Stronger Champion.
By: Jackie Kostek , Jordan Gartner
Posted at 9:06 PM, Feb 01, 2019
LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — A local security guard jumped into action to save a choking baby while he was on duty at Topgolf.
"All of a sudden we get a call on the radio, 'hey call 911,'" said Buck Smith, security guard at Topgolf in Las Vegas.
It was a hot summer night and Smith was making his usual rounds as a security guard.
"It was a confusing, puzzling situation. What do you mean call 911? What's the situation, what's going on?" he said.
The situation was serious - an infant choking - as Smith sprang into action, running to the bay and calling 911.
It was a hectic scene, but Smith knew what to do.
"I walked over and asked the mother if I could have her baby. I'm first aid, and CPR certified. I grabbed the baby, flipped her over and patted her on the back until she started screaming," Smith said.
Screaming - a welcome sign of a clear airway. Smith then handed the baby back to mom and asked if there was anything else he could do.
"She was so shocked - I'm sure she was thankful because I know as a parent I would be in gratitude like anybody else, but it was one of those situations where they were like, 'what just happened,'" Smith said.
In an instant - a young life saved, a crisis averted. And for Smith, it was time for his break.
"It was a surreal moment, so I don't think I ate lunch that day. I just kind of went outside, called the wife and let her know the situation and after lunch, returned to work," he said.
At home, Smith had a baby around the same age. His training in both first aid and CPR helped. But he also had experience.
"I know there have been times when my wife has been like, 'he's choking.' I'm like, 'he's fine, just give it a second - he'll either cough it up or swallow it.' But one time he was coughing, and I did the same thing. And then instantly he was breathing again too," Smith said.
It's training Smith believes all parents should have, so they too can remain calm in a life-threatening situation.
He believes what he did last summer was unremarkable, that he was doing his job.
But 13 Action News thinks otherwise as we believe he embodies what it means to be Vegas Strong.
That's why he is recognized as the station's first Vegas Stronger Champion!


Two newly completed paintings are shown here. These are juvenile asian carp, the color of which is described as "silvery." I've always found it a challenge to paint a subject with a metallic luster because the way it looks is so dependent on what surrounds it. In these watercolor & gouache paintings, I try to represent the luster with a bright white highlight along the length of the fish contrasting with a dark back and belly.


text:
USCIS Introduces Pilot Program to Limit NAFTA L-1 Adjudication at Border
Dallas immigration lawyers - Rabinowitz & Rabinowitz, P.C.
Dallas, TX (Law Firm Newswire) June 13, 2018 – The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a memo on April 17, 2018 announcing the implementation of a pilot program "to facilitate the adjudication and admission process of Canadians traveling to the U.S. as L-1 nonimmigrants" under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
The joint six-month pilot program between U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the USCIS California Service Center (CSC) favors advance planning over on-the-spot NAFTA L-1 border adjudications. The program began on April 30, 2018 and is currently in effect only at the Blaine CBP port of entry (POE) in Washington. Prior to the pilot's implementation, L-1 petitions would undergo same-day processing and be reviewed in real-time at the border. Immediate admission into the country would be granted at the POE.
"The Pilot Program recently announced by USCIS and U.S. Customs and Border Protection will require pre-adjudication of L-1 petitions by USCIS before a Canadian L-1 can apply for and be admitted in L-1 status," said Stewart Rabinowitz of the Dallas and Frisco law firm of Rabinowitz & Rabinowitz, P.C. "Why one asks is this limitation necessary? Have there been documented instances of fraud in the NAFTA L-1 border adjudication process? If not, what is the point of frustrating business admissions of multinational workers needed in the United States. If so, where is any USCIS discussion, or evidence justifying this restriction? Or is this part of a 'there is fraud under every rock' reason to restrict employment based nonimmigrant immigration at the expense of U.S. and Canadian businesses."
The program directs a petitioning U.S. Employer to submit its petition and supporting evidence for Canadian citizens seeking entry into the United States as L-1 nonimmigrants via the Blaine POE. USCIS will process NAFTA L-1 petitions for Blaine through October 31, 2018. CBP will proceed with making final decisions on whether an L-1 applicant can enter the United States once USCIS issues an approval notice. Current USCIS processing reports show the CSC taking about 3 months to adjudicate an L-1 petition, which adds a significant delay for a Canadian L-1 applicant.
USCIS noted in its announcement that petitioners who do not wish to participate in the program may continue to file L-1 petitions at the Blaine POE. CBP will accept applications that are not pre-filed with USCIS, but they will be adjudicated at the closest Class A POE for the pilot's duration. Upon its completion, USCIS will evaluate the program and decide whether to implement it across other POEs.
Rabinowitz & Rabinowitz, P.C.
2591 Dallas Parkway, Suite 300
Three Galleria Tower
13155 Noel Road, Suite 900
http://www.rabinowitzrabinowitz.com
CRS Issues Report on Repurposing Funds to Build a Border Wall
The Congressional Research Service (CRS) published a report that examines the federal statutes that the Trump Administration has cited to repurpose funds from existing appropriations to construct a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. CRS also discussed multiple lawsuits that have been filed challenging the Administration's actions. Congress appropriated $1.375 billion to the Department of Homeland ...
USCIS to Limit Some Nonimmigrant Change or Extension of Status Applicants Based on New Public Charge Rule
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on August 14, 2019, announced its final rule on inadmissibility on public charge grounds that imposes a new public benefit condition on individuals who apply for a change or extension of nonimmigrant status. The new rule was originally scheduled to take effect on October 15, 2019. But on October ...
USCIS Issues Proposed New H-1B Registration Rules
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has proposed a rule change that requires each H-1B petitioning employer to pay a $10 filing fee for every electronic registration submitted to the agency for each H-1B worker who is to be counted in the H-1B cap selection. H-1B petitioning employers whose foreign national beneficiary qualifies for the ...