Understanding the role of technology in the commercial sexual exploitation of children: the perspective of law enforcement.

This exploratory study was conducted to better assess how technology can be used in criminal investigations; it is important to get a better understanding of how technology is currently employed in child sex trafficking as well as the approaches and needs of law enforcement. 144 investigators from Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Forces and affiliate agencies responded to an online semi‐structured survey, including 45 investigators with experience conducting investigations of the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) that involved technology. Participants included investigators working in local, county, and state law enforcement agencies in the United States. The discussion suggested a great deal of variation in perspectives and experiences surrounding the problem of CSEC and technology. Investigators were able to highlight both benefits and obstacles. Benefits included the availability of digital evidence instead of relying on personal accounts, the monitoring capabilities of police, and the ability to conduct extensive undercover operations. Obstacles tended to focus on financial concerns, the continual need for training and technical assistance, and the rapidly changing technological environment. Findings highlight the vast complexity and variability in these crimes. There is still quite a bit of the unknown when it comes to investigating CSEC – technology changes rapidly and avenues for marketing and communicating are vast. Continual education, training and technical assistance are central to investigators’ needs in this area

The Pest Status of Yellowjackets in Ohio (Hymenoptera: Vespidae)

Since 1975 in Ohio, there has been an escalation in the number of complaints and inquiries regarding yellowjackets (Vespula and Dolichovespula spp.) to the Ohio pest control operators, the Ohio Cooperative Extension Service (OCES) County Agents and the OCES Entomologists at the Ohio State University. A survey was distributed in May 1985 to both groups in order to determine the pest status of yellowjackets in Ohio. The results of this survey strongly suggest that yelIowjackets in Ohio are largely an economic pest , with most economic disturbances associated with homeowners, outdoor businesses, and outdoor recreational facilities

Journal of African Christian Biography: v. 1, no. 2

A publication of the Dictionary of African Christian Biography with U.S. offices located at the Center for Global Christianity and Mission at Boston University. This issue focuses on: 1. Bishop Josiah Kibira of Tanzania, Ecumenical Statesman. 2. Josiah Mutabuzi Isaya Kibira. 3. Josiah Kibira. 4. Recent Print and Digital Resources Related to Christianity in Africa

Rotating Accelerator-Mode Islands

The existence of rotating accelerator-mode islands (RAIs), performing quasiregular motion in rotational resonances of order $m>1$ of the standard map, is firmly established by an accurate numerical analysis of all the known data. It is found that many accelerator-mode islands for relatively small nonintegrability parameter $K$ are RAIs visiting resonances of different orders $m\leq 3$. For sufficiently large $K$, one finds also ``pure'' RAIs visiting only resonances of the {\em same} order, $m=2$ or $m=3$. RAIs, even quite small ones, are shown to exhibit sufficient stickiness to produce an anomalous chaotic transport. The RAIs are basically different in nature from accelerator-mode islands in resonances of the ``forced'' standard map which was extensively studied recently in the context of quantum accelerator modes.Comment: REVTEX, 31 pages (including 2 tables and 15 figures

Impartial avoidance games for generating finite groups

We study an impartial avoidance game introduced by Anderson and Harary. The game is played by two players who alternately select previously unselected elements of a finite group. The first player who cannot select an element without making the set of jointly-selected elements into a generating set for the group loses the game. We develop criteria on the maximal subgroups that determine the nim-numbers of these games and use our criteria to study our game for several families of groups, including nilpotent, sporadic, and symmetric groups.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures. Revised in response to comments from refere

Finance, Human Capital, Technical Assistance, and the Business Environment in Romania

Although the development of a new private sector is generally considered crucial to economic transition and development, there has been little empirical research on the determinants of startup firm growth. This paper uses panel data techniques to analyze a survey of 297 new small enterprises in Romania containing detailed information from the startup date through 2001. We find strong evidence that access to external finance (loans) increases the growth of both employment and sales. Taxes appear to constrain growth. There is some evidence that entrepreneurial skills increase growth, but only weak evidence for the effectiveness of technical assistance, and only when it is provided by foreign partners or international agencies. A wide variety of alternative measures of the business environment (contract enforcement, property rights, and corruption) are tested, but are found to have little or no association with firm growth.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/40025/3/wp639.pd

Psychometric Evaluation of an Instrument to Measure Hispanic Mothers’ Normative Beliefs, Intentions, Past Experience and Past Behavior Related to the Discussion of Sex-Related Topics with their Adolescent Daughters

Aim: The aim of this project was to describe the psychometric properties of a recently developed instrument that measures Hispanic mother normative beliefs, intentions, past experience, and past behavior regarding the Discussion of Sex-Related Topics (DSRTs) with their adolescent daughters. Background: The DSRTs between Hispanic mothers and their adolescent daughters is important because this interaction has been found to be a protective factor against the daughter’s risk for STDs and unintended pregnancy. Hispanic mother talk less with their daughters about sex-related topics (SRTs) than other ethnic groups. The Rodriguez Normative Belief Instrument (RNBI) has been established to measure normative beliefs, normative beliefs, past behavior, and past experience regarding Hispanic mothers’ DSRTs with their adolescent daughters. Method: The 44-item RNBI was developed based on the Theory of Planned Behavior and the Parent-Based Expansion Theory of Planned Behavior. A convenience sample of 119 Hispanic mothers of adolescent females grades 6 through 8 from two Midwestern Catholic Middle Schools was enrolled completed the instrument. Paper and pen instruments were administered in the language of the participant’s choice, English or Spanish. Results: The entire RNBI and each of the four subscales demonstrated acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = .70). The overall reliability of the RNBI was .82 with the normative beliefs subscale of .85, intentions .88, past behavior .89, and past experience .88. Confirmatory factor analysis validated the four subscales. Conclusion: Psychometric analyses indicated that the RNBI demonstrates acceptable validity and reliability for this sample