Mexican Money Laundering in the United States: Analysis and Proposals for Reform

This article explains some of the mechanisms through which corruption by high-level Mexican politicians and other organized crime members is facilitated in the United States through money laundering operations. The analysis is based on information contained in court records related to key money laundering cases, as well as in news articles and reports from law enforcement agencies. These materials highlight the interrelationships among U.S. drug use, cartel activities in Mexico, human rights abuses, Mexican political corruption, and money laundering in the United States. This work demonstrates the pervasive use of legitimate businesses and fronts in the United States as a disguise for criminal activity. Finally, it provides recommendations for a reformation of policies and penalties directed toward U.S. institutions and persons that facilitate money laundering

1º Lugar: O perfil dos apostadores de loteria no Brasil: análise de Box-Cox Double Hurdle Model com microdados da POF 2017-2018

O Jogo Responsável abrange políticas e práticas para a proteção dos apostadores, especialmente pessoas vulneráveis, e a prevenção ao jogo compulsivo. Nesse sentido, é importante o conhecimento do tamanho, características e composição demográfica do mercado de apostadores. Com base em dados da Pesquisa de Orçamento Familiar 2017-2018, analisaram-se os gastos da população em nove modalidades lotéricas no Brasil: Mega-Sena, Dupla-Sena, Lotomania, Lotofácil, Quina, Loteca, Lotogol, Timemania e Loteria Federal. Os resultados mostraram que, em um ano, quase 6 milhões de pessoas apostaram na loteria (4% da população adulta). Em média, entre apostadores, há maior proporção de homens, brancos, pessoas de referência na família, entre 50 e 64 anos de idade, do meio urbano, da região Sudeste, com trabalho no setor privado e renda pessoal de até 2 salários mínimos. Cada apostador gastou em média 65 reais mensais na loteria, sendo os apostadores da Mega- Sena e da Loteria Federal aqueles com maiores gastos médios. Os apostadores mais velhos chegaram a gastar quase o dobro dos mais jovens. Na presença de variáveis de controle, a análise multivariada mostrou que quanto maior a renda maior a probabilidade de mais gastos com loteria. Os homens mais velhos de referência da família não só apresentaram maior probabilidade de participação no mercado de loterias como, em média, também apresentaram probabilidade de maiores gastos. Por fim, este estudo levanta possibilidades de políticas e práticas de Jogo Responsável como, por exemplo, a promoção da educação financeira dos apostadores e a avaliação do impacto das políticas de jogo responsável.71 páginasPolíticas PúblicasTema: A Regulação de Loterias no Brasil e Aspectos de Responsabilidade Social Corporativa das Loterias / Subtema: Envolvimento da comunidade, pesquisadores científicos, reguladores, fornecedores e demais stakeholders na efetivação das iniciativas de Jogo Responsáve

Development of a System of Systems Engineering Method

Systems engineers have been facing challenges with the design and analysis of multiple complex systems. System of Systems Engineering has emerged to assist in this challenge with the systemic analysis, design, and transformation of complex metasystems. This paper outlines a proposed method to overcome these challenges, which is grounded in System of Systems Engineering principles and methodology. An overview of System of Systems Engineering will be provided for understanding of its significance and the attempt to complement Systems Engineering efforts in dealing with the aforementioned challenges. Finally, discussion on the proposed method, with respect to complex system analysis, is provided

Fatigue Life Assessment of 5083 “O” Aluminum Alloy Joints Welding by The MIG Process

In order to analyse the fatigue resistance of joints welded by the MIG process in aluminium alloy 5083 “O”, the present study analyses the influence of the shielding gases used during welding in the final strength of the product when it is subjected to fatigue stresses. The welds were made using two gas configurations, the first configuration being with 100% argon and the second with 75% argon and 25% helium. The results indicate that with the use of 25% helium compared to 100% argon it is possible to reduce the porosity present in the melted area of the joints and increase fatigue life for the conditions with cyclical loads of 80 and 60% of the maximum tension of the materials

A New Normative Workflow for Integrated Life-Cycle Assessment

In order to curtail energy use by the building sector, consideration of how a sustainable building is constructed is paramount, in many respects, to how efficiently it operates over its lifetime. A typical building must be in use for decades before the energy expended in its daily operations surpasses the energy embodied within its initial construction, as a result of the materials used. More vitally: every building has specific vulnerabilities, particularly to hazards (e.g., earthquakes, wind, flooding) whose effects on sustainability are not explicitly considered alongside other aspects of sustainability in the design process – despite the significant environmental impact of damage and repairs after a disaster. Unfortunately, the joint consideration of resilience and sustainability in design is far from trivial, requiring various interdisciplinary perspectives involved in the delivery of building projects. These perspectives each contribute the models and data necessary for integrated evaluation, leading to the notorious challenges of BIM and data interoperability. In response, this paper presents a new end-to-end workflow for life-cycle assessment (LCA) of buildings that captures the dependencies between multi-hazard resilience and sustainability, across multiple dimensions of environmental impact. An illustrative example reveals how consideration of hazards during design and material selection influence embodied energy, ultimately revealing design choices that best achieve joint resiliency and sustainability

Integrable achiral D5-brane reflections and asymptotic Bethe equations

We study the reflection of magnons from a D5-brane in the framework of the AdS/CFT correspondence. We consider two possible orientations of the D5-brane with respect to the reference vacuum state, namely vacuum states aligned along "vertical" and "horizontal" directions. We show that the reflections are of the achiral type. We also show that the reflection matrices satisfy the boundary Yang-Baxter equations for both orientations. In the horizontal case the reflection matrix can be interpreted in terms of a bulk S-matrix, S(p, -p), and factorizability of boundary scattering therefore follows from that of bulk scattering. Finally, we solve the nested coordinate Bethe ansatz for the system in the vertical case to find the Bethe equations. In the horizontal case, the Bethe equations are of the same form as those for the closed string.Instituto de Física La Plat

Nest Biology and Demography of the Fungus-Growing Ant Cyphomyrmex lectus Forel (Myrmicinae; Attini) at a Disturbed Area Located in Rio Claro, SP, Brazil

Cyphomyrmex ants are a basal group of small fungus-growers (Myrmicinae:Attini), which differ profoundly from their most studied relatives Atta and Acromyrmex. Our objective was to investigate the nest biology and demography of the fungus-growing ant Cyphomyrmex lectus in a transitional area (savanna-forest) disturbed by an annual fire regime, in Southeast Brazil. The colonies of C. lectus were located close to each other (mean distance between nests, 3.38 ± 2.75 m). Its external nest structure consisted of a single circular nest-entrance hole but without a conspicuous nest mound. Nests were relatively simple consisting of a single well-formed chamber and a single gallery connecting to the nest entrance. No relationships were found between ant number per colony and gallery length, as well as chamber volume. Nonetheless, we detected an effect of the ant number per colony on chamber depth. In this sense, a deeper chamber could warrant a better protection against fire, natural enemies and offer favorable micro-conditions to yeast culture. The colonies of C. lectus are small (a mean of 70 ± 49.4 individuals/colony). Alates, larvae and pupae were found only in one out of eight colonies. A single dealate queen per colony was observed strongly suggesting that this species is monogynous. Further studies could evaluate whether (1) nests density differ before and after fire periods, (2) fire occurrence affects the survival and establishment rate of new colonies, as well as (3) the nest microclimatic conditions necessary to yeast culture

Cognitive Impairment, Frailty, and Adverse Outcomes Among Prevalent Hemodialysis Recipients:Results From a Large Prospective Cohort Study in the United Kingdom

RATIONALE &amp; OBJECTIVE: Frailty and cognitive impairment are common in hemodialysis recipients and have been associated with high mortality. There is considerable heterogeneity in frailty reporting, with little comparison between commonly used frailty tools and little exploration of the interplay between cognition and frailty. The aims were to explore the relationship between frailty scores and cognition and their associations with hospitalization and mortality.STUDY DESIGN: Prospective cohort study.SETTING &amp; POPULATION: Prevalent hemodialysis recipients linked to national datasets for hospitalization and mortality.PREDICTORS: Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), Frailty Phenotype, Frailty Index (FI), Edmonton Frailty Scale, and Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) were performed at baseline. Cognitive impairment was defined as MoCA scores of &lt;26, or &lt;21 in dexterity impairment, &lt;18 in visual impairment.OUTCOMES: Mortality, hospitalization.ANALYTICAL APPROACH: Cox proportional hazards model for mortality, censored for end of follow-up. Negative binomial regression for admission rates, censored for death/end of follow-up.RESULTS: In total, 448 participants were recruited with valid MoCAs and followed up for a median of 685 days. There were 103 (23%) deaths and 1,120 admissions of at least one night. Cognitive impairment was identified in 346 (77.2%) participants. Increasing frailty by all definitions was associated with poorer cognition. Cognition was not associated with mortality (HR, 0.99; 95% CI, 0.95-1.03; P = 0.41) or hospitalization (IRR, 1.01; 95% CI, 0.99-1.04; P = 0.39) on multivariable analyses. There were interactions between MoCA scores and increasing frailty by FI (P = 0.002) and Clinical Frailty Scale (P = 0.005); admissions were highest when both MoCA and frailty scores were high, and when both scores were low.LIMITATIONS: As frailty is a dynamic state, a single cross-sectional assessment may not accurately reflect its year-to-year variability. In addition, these findings are in maintenance dialysis and may not be transferable to incident hemodialysis. There were small variations in application of frailty tool criteria from other studies, which may have influenced the results.CONCLUSIONS: Cognitive impairment is highly prevalent in this hemodialysis cohort. The interaction between cognition and frailty on rates of admission suggests the MoCA offers value in identifying higher risk hemodialysis populations with both high and low degrees of frailty.</p

Habitat Characterization, Distribution, and Areal Extent of Deep-sea Coral Ecosystems off Florida, Southeastern U.S.A.

The deep-sea (200-1000 m) seafloor off the southeastern U.S. has a variety of extensive deep-sea coral ecosystem (DSCE) habitats including: deep-water coral mounds; various hard-bottom habitats off Florida including the Miami Terrace, Pourtales Terrace, and deep-water canyons (Agassiz and Tortugas Valleys); and deep island slopes off western Bahamas and northern Cuba. The dominant structure-forming scleractinian corals are Lophelia pertusa and Enallopsammia profunda; other structure-forming taxa include stylasterid corals, gorgonians, black corals, and sponges. This biota is associated with hard-bottom seafloor of variable high-relief topography which can be remotely identified from bathymetric data. NOAA bathymetric contour maps and digital elevation models were used to identify and delineate the areal extent of potential DSCE habitat in the region from northeastern Florida through the Straits of Florida. These were ground-truthed with 241 dives with submersibles and remotely operated vehicles which confirmed deep-sea coral habitat. We estimate a total of 39,910 km2 of DSCE habitat in this region. By comparison, the estimated areal extent of shallow-water coral habitat for all U.S. waters is 36,813 km2. Bottom trawling remains the greatest threat to DSCEs worldwide, and as a result NOAA has established five deep-water Coral Habitat Areas of Particular Concern (CHAPCs), encompassing 62,714 km2 from North Carolina to south Florida, which will protect much of the known deep-sea coral habitat in this region. High-resolution surveys are not only critical to define DSCE habitats but also to define areas devoid of coral and sponge habitats that may allow for potential bottom fisheries and energy development