Transnational organised crime in Europe and North America: towards a framework of prevention

Previous volumes of the HEUNI regional reports have paid little or no attention to transnational organized crime. Although the literature on transnational organized crime (hereafter TOC) is expanding rapidly, there remain fewstandardized measures of the problem. There is even less of a formal framework for thinking about how to prevent TOC in its various forms. The present chapter begins to address these issues, with an emphasis upon practical aspects of the latter. In the following section, TOC is defined and set in a global context, a broad overview of factors relating to recent changes is given, and international legislative responses are described. This is followed by the presentation of a framework that is frequently used in discussions of more general crime prevention efforts. It is proposed that its utilization in this context will help inform the analysis of efforts to prevent TOC

Mystical Queerings: Ecstasy And Transcendence In Latin American Texts

Although a mystic aesthetic abounds in contemporary and twentieth century Latin American texts, few scholars have published on this topic. This dissertation establishes that mystic themes are far more prevalent in Latin American texts than the scarce scholarship on the topic would suggest. The authors and filmmaker studied in this dissertation reappropriate the structuring metaphors of early modern mysticism: illumination/darkness, ascent/descent, boundaries, spiritual union and active/passive roles. We will note how the stages of the mystic path serve to explore theories on transcendence. A particularly queer way of knowing-mostly through the sense of touch-links itself to affective noetic understanding via ecstasy and transcendence. However, the authors of the primary texts analyzed in this dissertation no longer preserve the concepts of God, sin, or redemption in the traditional sense. While other projects on mysticism in Latin America attempt to exhibit the European influence on Latin American texts, this study endeavors to show that the Latin American texts speak back to the European ones. This investigation places George Bataille and Julia Kristeva's theories on non-religious mysticism into dialogue with novels and films by Carmen Boullosa, Jaime Saenz, Virgilio Piñera, and Carlos Bolado. The true revolution of the non-religious mystical genre that emerges from these Latin American texts comes about through breaking with the gender pairings/power dynamic in bridal mysticism and through not relegating the affective solely to the feminine

International overview: a cross-national comparison of rates of repeat victimization

Research on repeat victimization to date has been at the local or national level, leaving skeptics room to argue that is is an isolated phenomenon. In this chapter, the rate of repeat victimization - the proportion of crimes that were repeated against the same persons or household - is compared across country and crime type for the1989, 1992 and 1996 sweeps of the International Crime Victims Survey (ICVS)

The effects of endurance training on selected coronary risk factors in children

The effects of regular aerobic exercise on blood concentrations on high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and prostacyclin were studied in 18 healthy sedentary boys who exercised on a bicycle ergometer for 1 h, four times per week, for 2 months at 75% of their physical working capacity. The results were compared with those of 10 control boys who did not participate in any specific program. The exercise group revealed a significantly higher mean high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and 6-keto-PGF1a concentration at the end of the training program (p < 0.005 and p < 0.001, respectively). These results suggest that regular aerobic exercise has beneficial effects upon the high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and 6-keto-PGF1a in healthy young boys and may be beneficial in the long term, by preventing atherosclerosis of coronary artery disease in adulthood

Influence of life-history adaptations on the fidelity of laboratory bioassays for the impact of heavy metals (Co2+ and Cr6+) on tolerance and population dynamics of Tisbe holothuriae

To investigate the influence of life-history adaptations on the fidelity of laboratory bioassays, copepods Tisbe holothuriae were collected from two areas (polluted and non-polluted) and maintained in the laboratory under temperatures similar to their wild habitat. The sensitivity of Tisbe increased with increasing temperature. The wild animals from the polluted area were more tolerant to Co2+ and Cr6+ than those from the non-polluted area. Laboratory animals (40 generations after sampling) from the polluted area, were still more tolerant than those from the non-polluted area. These animals also exhibited a similar or increased tolerance, whereas those of the first generation showed a higher sensitivity, compared to the wild ones from the same area. Demography also varied in successive generations after sampling. Laboratory bioassays using T. holothuriae can predict most of its responses in the field, but attention should be paid to adaptations to temperature, pollution and the laboratory environment. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd

Optimal trajectory control of a series-resonant inverter with a non-linear resonant inductor

Series-Resonant (SR) converters have been used as building blocks for DC-AC and DC-DC power converters for at least half a century. Applications were first found in induction heating [1], where generating a substantial AC current at moderately high frequency was required by the application. Later, the inherent presence of current zero crossings was exploited (often in combination with thyristors as main switching devices), in a variety of applications, ranging from high voltage generation for space craft [2] to DC motor drives [3], multi-phase AC inverters [4] and X-ray high voltage generators [5]