Deconstructing the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender victim of sex trafficking: Harm, exceptionality and religion–sexuality tensions

Contrary to widespread belief, sex trafficking also targets lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) communities. Contemporary social and political constructions of victimhood lie at the heart of regulatory policies on sex trafficking. Led by the US Department of State, knowledge about LGBT victims of trafficking constitutes the newest frontier in the expansion of criminalization measures. These measures represent a crucial shift. From a burgeoning range of preemptive measures enacted to protect an amorphous class of ‘all potential victims’, now policies are heavily premised on the risk posed by traffickers to ‘victims of special interest’. These constructed identities, however, are at odds with established structures. Drawing on a range of literatures, the core task of this article is to confront some of the complexities and tensions surrounding constructions of LGBT trafficking victims. Specifically, the article argues that discourses of ‘exceptional vulnerability’ and the polarized notions of ‘innocence’ and ‘guilt’ inform hierarchies of victimhood. Based on these insights, the article argues for the need to move beyond monolithic understandings of victims, by reframing the politics of harm accordingly

Inclusive Electron Scattering from Nuclei at x≃1x \simeq 1

The inclusive A(e,e') cross section for $x \simeq 1$ was measured on $^2$H, C, Fe, and Au for momentum transfers $Q^2$ from 1-7 (GeV/c)$^2$. The scaling behavior of the data was examined in the region of transition from y-scaling to x-scaling. Throughout this transitional region, the data exhibit $\xi$-scaling, reminiscent of the Bloom-Gilman duality seen in free nucleon scattering.Comment: 4 pages, RevTeX; 4 figures (postscript in .tar.Z file

Electro-Magnetic Nucleon Form Factors and their Spectral Functions in Soliton Models

It is demonstrated that in simple soliton models essential features of the electro-magnetic nucleon form factors observed over three orders of magnitude in momentum transfer $t$ are naturally reproduced. The analysis shows that three basic ingredients are required: an extended object, partial coupling to vector mesons, and relativistic recoil corrections. We use for the extended object the standard skyrmion, one vector meson propagator for both isospin channels, and the relativistic boost to the Breit frame. Continuation to timelike $t$ leads to quite stable results for the spectral functions in the regime from the 2- or 3-pion threshold to about two rho masses. Especially the onset of the continuous part of the spectral functions at threshold can be reliably determined and there are strong analogies to the results imposed on dispersion theoretic approaches by the unitarity constraint.Comment: 24 pages, (RevTeX), 5 PS-figures; Data points in fig.2 and corresponding references added. Final version, to be published in Z.Physik

Transverse momentum dependence of semi-inclusive pion production

Cross sections for semi-inclusive electroproduction of charged pions ($\pi^{\pm}$) from both proton and deuteron targets were measured for $0.2<x<0.5$, $2<Q^2<4$ GeV$^2$, $0.3<z<1$, and $P_t^2<0.2$ GeV$^2$. For $P_t<0.1$ GeV, we find the azimuthal dependence to be small, as expected theoretically. For both $\pi^+$ and $\pi^-$, the $P_t$ dependence from the deuteron is found to be slightly weaker than from the proton. In the context of a simple model, this implies that the initial transverse momenta width of $d$ quarks is larger than for $u$ quarks and, contrary to expectations, the transverse momentum width of the favored fragmentation function is larger than the unfavored one.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures. Fit form changed to include Cahn effect Minor revisions. Added one new figur

Ciliary Abnormalities Due to Defects in the Retrograde Transport Protein DYNC2H1 in Short-Rib Polydactyly Syndrome

The short-rib polydactyly (SRP) syndromes are a heterogenous group of perinatal lethal skeletal disorders with polydactyly and multisystem organ abnormalities. Homozygosity by descent mapping in a consanguineous SRP family identified a genomic region that contained DYNC2H1, a cytoplasmic dynein involved in retrograde transport in the cilium. Affected individuals in the family were homozygous for an exon 12 missense mutation that predicted the amino acid substitution R587C. Compound heterozygosity for one missense and one null mutation was identified in two additional nonconsanguineous SRP families. Cultured chondrocytes from affected individuals showed morphologically abnormal, shortened cilia. In addition, the chondrocytes showed abnormal cytoskeletal microtubule architecture, implicating an altered microtubule network as part of the disease process. These findings establish SRP as a cilia disorder and demonstrate that DYNC2H1 is essential for skeletogenesis and growth

Relativistic Structure of the Deuteron: 1.Electro-disintegration and y-scaling

Realistic solutions of the spinor-spinor Bethe-Salpeter equation for the deuteron with realistic interaction kernel including the exchange of pi, sigma, omega, rho, eta and delta mesons, are used to systematically investigate relativistic effects in inclusive quasi-elastic electron-deuteron scattering within the relativistic impulse approximation. Relativistic y-scaling is considered by generalising the non relativistic scaling function to the relativistic case, and it is shown that y-scaling does occur in the usual relativistic scaling variable resulting from the energy conservation in the instant form of dynamics. The present approach of y-scaling is fully covariant, with the deuteron being described by eight components, viz. the 3S_1^{++}, 3S_1^{--}, 3D_1^{++}, 3D_1^{--}, 3P_1^{+-}, 3P_1^{-+}, 1P_1^{+-}, 1P_1^{-+} waves. It is demonstrated that if the negative relative energy states 1P_1, 3P_1 are disregarded, the concept of covariant momentum distributions N(p_0,p), with p_0=M_D/2-\sqrt{p^2+m^2}, can be introduced, and that calculations of lectro-disintegration cross section in terms of these distributions agree within few percents with the exact calculations which include the 1P_1, 3P_1 states, provided the nucleon three momentum |p|\<= 1 GeV/c; in this momentum range, the asymptotic relativistic scaling function is shown to coincide with the longitudinal covariant momentum distribution.Comment: 32 LaTeX pages, 18 eps-figures. Final version to appear in Phys. Rev.