883 research outputs found
Human Trafficking Victims and Their Children: Assessing Needs, Vulnerabilities, Strengths, and Survivorship
Given the increased awareness and attention to human trafficking, including the establishment of federal laws and policies, federally funded task forces that provide law enforcement responses, and specialized victim services, it is important to assess the impact of these procedures and services on survivors/victims of international human trafficking and their immigrant children. By federal definition, certified victims of international human trafficking are eligible for all services provided to refugees in this country, including reunification with their minor children. This research is based on a qualitative study conducted in Austin and Houston, Texas with human trafficking victims/survivors. The project’s goal was to gain an understanding of the needs of human trafficking survivors after their rescue, their overall integration into American life, and the subsequent needs of their immigrant children after reunification. The project objectives examined the factors that either promote or hinder self-sufficiency, the determination of social service needs, and policy and practice recommendations to strengthen survivors, their children and their families living both locally and abroad. For this project, nine (n = 9) in-depth interviews were conducted with adult foreign-born victims of human trafficking. Researchers gathered data using a semi-structured questionnaire that queried about factors that promote or hinder victims’ services and needs. Interviews were conducted in participants’ homes using bilingual research staff and/or trained interpreters, were digitally-recorded, and subsequently transcribed. Participation in this study was completely voluntary. Specific steps were taken to ensure that the participants’ identities were protected. Open coding of data was utilized and the data were subsequently organized or grouped into properties and later developed into contextual themes around the research questions. The findings are grounded with the use of direct quotes from participants. As a result of progressive U.S. policy, many victims of human trafficking are being reunited with their minor children. Immigrant children are one of the largest and fastest growing populations in the U.S. and for a variety of reasons are vulnerable to exploitation. Research also indicates that victims of trafficking are identified by traffickers because of their perceived “vulnerabilities” or lack of opportunities (Clark, 2003). Therefore, it is important that practices and policies are developed to address the unique needs of these families with an eye toward positive outcomes for parent and child safety and well-being. Social service providers are provided a toolkit that may be utilized before and during the reunification period
Space-time evolution induced by spinor fields with canonical and non-canonical kinetic terms
We study spinor field theories as an origin to induce space-time evolution.
Self-interacting spinor fields with canonical and non-canonical kinetic terms
are considered in a Friedman-Robertson-Walker universe. The deceleration
parameter is calculated by solving the equation of motion and the Friedman
equation, simultaneously. It is shown that the spinor fields can accelerate and
decelerate the universe expansion. To construct realistic models we discuss the
contributions from the dynamical symmetry breaking.Comment: 16 pages, 19 figure
Modified Chaplygin Gas and Solvable F-essence Cosmologies
The Modified Chaplygin Gas (MCG) model belongs to the class of a unified
models of dark energy and dark matter. In this paper, we have modeled MCG in
the framework of f-essence cosmology. By constructing an equation connecting
the MCG and the f-essence, we solve it to obtain explicitly the pressure and
energy density of MCG. As special cases, we obtain both positive and negative
pressure solutions for suitable choices of free parameters. We also calculate
the state parameter which describes the phantom crossing.Comment: 12 pages, (Invited Review), accepted for publication in "Astrophysics
and Space Science" DOI: 10.1007/s10509-011-0870-
Where does Cosmological Perturbation Theory Break Down?
We apply the effective field theory approach to the coupled metric-inflaton
system, in order to investigate the impact of higher dimension operators on the
spectrum of scalar and tensor perturbations in the short-wavelength regime. In
both cases, effective corrections at tree-level become important when the
Hubble parameter is of the order of the Planck mass, or when the physical wave
number of a cosmological perturbation mode approaches the square of the Planck
mass divided by the Hubble constant. Thus, the cut-off length below which
conventional cosmological perturbation theory does not apply is likely to be
much smaller than the Planck length. This has implications for the
observability of "trans-Planckian" effects in the spectrum of primordial
perturbations.Comment: 25 pages, uses FeynM
Spinors, Inflation, and Non-Singular Cyclic Cosmologies
We consider toy cosmological models in which a classical, homogeneous, spinor
field provides a dominant or sub-dominant contribution to the energy-momentum
tensor of a flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe. We find that, if such a
field were to exist, appropriate choices of the spinor self-interaction would
generate a rich variety of behaviors, quite different from their widely studied
scalar field counterparts. We first discuss solutions that incorporate a stage
of cosmic inflation and estimate the primordial spectrum of density
perturbations seeded during such a stage. Inflation driven by a spinor field
turns out to be unappealing as it leads to a blue spectrum of perturbations and
requires considerable fine-tuning of parameters. We next find that, for simple,
quartic spinor self-interactions, non-singular cyclic cosmologies exist with
reasonable parameter choices. These solutions might eventually be incorporated
into a successful past- and future-eternal cosmological model free of
singularities. In an Appendix, we discuss the classical treatment of spinors
and argue that certain quantum systems might be approximated in terms of such
fields.Comment: 12 two-column pages, 3 figures; uses RevTeX
THE COST STRUCTURE OF MICROFINANCE INSTITUTIONS IN EASTERN EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA
Microfinance institutions are important, particularly in developing countries, because they expand the frontier of financial intermediation by providing loans to those traditionally excluded from formal financial markets. This paper presents the first systematic statistical examination of the performance of MFIs operating in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. A cost function is estimated for MFIs in the region from 1999-2004. First, the presence of subsidies is found to be associated with higher MFI costs. When output is measured as the number of loans made, we find that MFIs become more efficient over time and that MFIs involved in the provision of group loans and loans to women have lower costs. However, when output is measured as volume of loans rather than their number, this last finding is reversed. This may be due to the fact that such loans are smaller in size; thus for a given volume more loans must be made.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/40195/3/wp809.pd
Tensor ghosts in the inflationary cosmology
Theories with curvature squared terms in the action are known to contain
ghost modes in general. However, if we regard curvature squared terms as
quantum corrections to the original theory, the emergence of ghosts may be
simply due to the perturbative truncation of a full non-perturbative theory. If
this is the case, there should be a way to live with ghosts. In this paper, we
take the Euclidean path integral approach, in which ghost degrees of freedom
can be, and are integrated out in the Euclideanized spacetime. We apply this
procedure to Einstein gravity with a Weyl curvature squared correction in the
inflationary background. We find that the amplitude of tensor perturbations is
modified by a term of O(alpha^2 H^2) where alpha^2 is a coupling constant in
front of the Weyl squared term and H is the Hubble parameter during inflation.Comment: 16 pages, no figure
Creating Statistically Anisotropic and Inhomogeneous Perturbations
In almost all structure formation models, primordial perturbations are
created within a homogeneous and isotropic universe, like the one we observe.
Because their ensemble averages inherit the symmetries of the spacetime in
which they are seeded, cosmological perturbations then happen to be
statistically isotropic and homogeneous. Certain anomalies in the cosmic
microwave background on the other hand suggest that perturbations do not
satisfy these statistical properties, thereby challenging perhaps our
understanding of structure formation. In this article we relax this tension. We
show that if the universe contains an appropriate triad of scalar fields with
spatially constant but non-zero gradients, it is possible to generate
statistically anisotropic and inhomogeneous primordial perturbations, even
though the energy momentum tensor of the triad itself is invariant under
translations and rotations.Comment: 20 pages, 1 figure. Uses RevTeX
A Dynamical Solution to the Problem of a Small Cosmological Constant and Late-time Cosmic Acceleration
Increasing evidence suggests that most of the energy density of the universe
consists of a dark energy component with negative pressure, a ``cosmological
constant" that causes the cosmic expansion to accelerate. In this paper, we
address the puzzle of why this component comes to dominate the universe only
recently rather than at some much earlier epoch. We present a class of theories
based on an evolving scalar field where the explanation is based entirely on
internal dynamical properties of the solutions. In the theories we consider,
the dynamics causes the scalar field to lock automatically into a negative
pressure state at the onset of matter-domination such that the present epoch is
the earliest possible time, consistent with nucleosynthesis restrictions, when
it can start to dominate.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Bioavailability of Ruminally or Abomasally Infused L-carnitine in Holstein Heifers
This study evaluated the relative bioavailability of carnitine delivered by different methods in dairy cattle. Four Holstein heifers were used in a split-plot design to compare ruminally or abomasally infused L-carnitine. The study included 2 main-plot periods, with infusion routes allocated in a crossover design. Within main-plot periods, each of 3 subplot periods consisted of 4-d infusions separated with 4-d rest periods. Subplot treatments were infusion of 1, 3, and 6 g L-carnitine daily. Doses were increased within a period to minimize carryover. Treatments were delivered in two 10-h infusions daily. Blood was collected before the start of infusions and on day 4 of each infusion to obtain baseline and treatment carnitine concentrations. There was a dose Ă— route interaction (P \u3c 0.05) and route effect (P \u3c 0.01) for increases in plasma carnitine above baseline, with increases above baseline being greater across all dose levels when infused abomasally compared to ruminally. Results demonstrated superior bioavailability of carnitine when ruminal exposure was physically bypassed
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