Ethnic Fragmentation, Conflict, Displaced Persons and Human Trafficking: An Empirical Analysis

Ethnic conflicts and their links to international human trafficking have recently received a surge in international attention. It appears that ethnic conflicts exacerbate the internal displacement of individuals from networks of family and community, and their access to economic and social safety nets. These same individuals are then vulnerable to being trafficked by the hopes of better economic prospects elsewhere. In this paper, we empirically examine this link between ethnic fragmentation, conflicts, internally displaced persons (IDPs), refugees and international trafficking, making use of a novel dataset of international trafficking. We conduct a direct estimation, which highlights the ultimate impact of ethnic fragmentation and conflict on international trafficking through internal and international displacements.ethnic fragmentation, conflict, displaced persons, human trafficking

Experimental evidence that predator range expansion modifies alpine stream community structure

Climate change is projected to facilitate altitudinal range expansions of ‘lowland’ taxa, creating novel species interactions. However, how range shifts will alter biotic interactions and community structure in alpine streams is not well understood. In the Pyrénées, climate-induced physicochemical habitat change is hypothesized to facilitate the colonization of high-altitude streams by Perla grandis, a carnivorous stonefly. A field-based experiment was conducted in mesocosm channels beside a hillslope spring (2000 m asl) in the Taillon-Gabiétous catchment, French Pyrénées. The influence of P. grandis predation on community structure, feeding trait composition, body-size spectrum, and algal chlorophyll a concentration was examined. Gut contents were analyzed and used to identify consumed prey. Total invertebrate density was not significantly reduced by P. grandis, but Baetis spp. densities were depressed in the treatment channels through a combination of direct consumption and predator avoidance (emigration/drift). However, despite fewer grazers in the predator treatment channels, the magnitude of the trophic cascade effect on basal resources (measured as chlorophyll a density) was comparable between treatment and control channels. The results of this experiment suggest that size/species-specific predation, intraguild predation, and interference competition are the likely mechanisms that altered the body-size spectrum in treatment channels. In synergy with climate-driven physicochemical habitat change, the extinction risk of some range-restricted taxa (prey and other predators) could be increased where P. grandis colonization occurs. Hence, conservation efforts are required to ensure that additional anthropogenic stressors (e.g., nutrient enrichment, cattle trampling, hydropower development, ski runs, and tourism) are limited to minimize further pressures on these unique and sensitive habitats

The Kumaraswamy Skew-t Distribution and Its Related Properties

Skew normal distribution has been introduced by Azzalini (1985) as an alternative to the normal distribution to accommodate asymmetry. Since then extensive studies have been done on applying Azzalini’s skewness mechanism to other well-known distributions, such as skew-t distribution which is more flexible and can better accommodate long tailed data than the skew normal one. Cordeiro and de Castro (2011) proposed a new class of distribution called the Kumaraswamy generalized distribution (Kw − F) which is capable of fitting skewed data that cannot be fitted well by existing distributions. Since then, the Kw −F distribution has been widely studied and various versions of generalization of this distribution family have been introduced. In this paper we introduce a new generalization of the skew-t distribution based on the Kumaraswamy generalized distribution. The new class of distribution which we call the Kumaraswamy skew-t (KwST) has the ability of fitting skewed, long and heavy tailed data and is more flexible than the skew-t distribution as it contains the skew-t distribution as a special case. Related properties of this distribution family such as mathematical properties, moments, and order statistics are discussed. The proposed distribution is applied to a real data set to illustrate the estimation procedure

On Stochastic Comparisons of Concomitants of Generalized Order Statistics

In this article, the problem of comparing concomitants of generalized order statistics (GOSs) in terms of different types of stochastic orders is considered. Some stochastic ordering results for compound random variables in the one-sample problems are recalled and extended. Analogous results are obtained in the two-sample setup. The derived results are used to compare concomitants of GOSs in both one-sample problems and two-sample problems. We also introduce some new joint stochastic orders (namely, the joint reversed hazard order and the joint convex order) and compare concomitants in terms of these orders

Electrocatalytic Properties of Lanthanum-based Perovskites for Water Splitting and Energy Storage Applications

Recent changes in global weather patterns have punctuated the need for mollification through a cleaner energy option. As part of the plan, hydrogen production for fuel cells offers substantial power without carbon emissions. Overall water splitting, with the aid of a low cost electrocatalyst could prove to be an abundant green fuel source. Utilizing readily available transition metals, three perovskite nanostructures were studied as a multifunctional material for hydrogen production as well as energy storage. LaCoO₃ (LCO), LaFeO₃ (LFO), and LaMnO₃ (LMO) were synthesized and characterized by X-ray diffraction and then dip coated onto nickel foam as electrodes in a standard three electrode system. The electrochemical properties were analyzed with electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), line scan voltammetry (LSV), and cyclic voltammetry (CV) for its electro-catalytic activity towards both the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) as well as its effectiveness as a supercapacitor. It was shown that electrocatalytic activity toward OER was highly dependent on the material composition. Accordingly, LFO had the lowest overpotential voltage of 316 mV at 10 mA/cm2 compared with 376 mV (LCO) and 419 mV (LMO). Toward HER, LMO showed overpotential voltage of 176 mV at 10 mA/cm2, while LCO and LFO showed 221 mV and 230 mV, respectively. Measured at a common current density of 0.5 A/g, the specific capacitance of LMO was 105 F/g over LCO (45 F/g) and LFO (35 F/g). Further investigation for fabrication of devices for energy storage and water splitting electrolyzer application has been considered

Village Water Ozonation System

Safe drinking water is something that all humans need. People around the globe face issues like limited access to water, water scarcity, and contamination of their water supply. Alleviating global water-related illnesses and deaths remains a prevailing challenge to overcome. With this in mind, the Village Water Ozonation System (VWOS) team works with communities to increase their access to safe drinking water. In the past few years, VWOS has had the privilege of walking alongside our partner communities in Mexico, Pakistan, and Nicaragua to develop sustainable drinking water solutions. Through collaborations with several Christian organizations such as Forward Edge International in Mexico, Full Gospel Assemblies Bible College of Pakistan and, Friends in Action International in Nicaragua, the team has acquired an increased awareness of drinking water needs and issues across the world. Over this past academic year, the team has focused on completing a design for a church in Oaxaca, Mexico where water will be drawn from a polluted well. The VWOS design includes accessing the well, purifying the water to a drinkable standard, and providing the option of utility water from the same well. The team has also been designing and testing for a client in Pakistan who has arsenic in their water source. The team has tested and designed in order to remove the arsenic from the source. Implementation for these two projects will be in the near future. Lastly, the team has begun investigation on removal of salt in a water source for a client in Nicaragua.https://mosaic.messiah.edu/engr2020/1013/thumbnail.jp

Prodrugs of Acyclovir - A Computational Approach

Density functional theory calculation results demonstrated that the efficiency of the acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of Kirby’s acid amides 1–15 is strongly dependent on the substitution on the C–C double bond and the nature of the amide N-alkyl group. Further, the results established that while in the gas phase the hydrolysis rate-limiting step is the tetrahedral intermediate formation in polar solvents such as water, the rate-limiting step could be either the formation or the collapse of the tetrahedral intermediate depending on the substitution on the C–C double bond and on the amide nitrogen substituent. Based on a linear correlation between the calculated and experimental effective molarities, the study on the systems reported herein could provide a good basis for designing prodrug systems that are less hydrophilic than their parental drugs and can be used, in different dosage forms, to release the parent drug in a controlled manner. For example, based on the calculated log effective molarities values, the predicted t1/2 (a time needed for 50% of the reactant to be hydrolyzed to products) for acyclovir prodrugs, ProD 1–4, was 29.2 h, 6097 days, 4.6 min, and 8.34 h, respectively. Hence, the rate by which acyclovir prodrug releases acyclovir can be determined according to the structural features of the linker (Kirby’s acid amide moiety).The Karaman Co. is thanked for support of our computational facilities. Special thanks are also given to Angi Karaman, Donia Karaman, Rowan Karaman, and Nardene Karaman for technical assistance

Osteosarcoma of the femur in early adult: a case report

Osteosarcomas are primary malignant tumors of bone that are characterized by the production of osteoid or immature bone by the malignant cells. Osteosarcomas are uncommon tumors. Most articles reveal difficulty in diagnosing osteosarcoma in early stage due to its resemblance to benign lesion. That’s why we prefer to do case report for documentation. Diagnosis of the tumor is important especially in early stages for improving prognosis. This case report is of a 21 years old female who presented at Primary Health Care Centre with swelling above right knee post trauma a month ago. Previously she was diagnosed as Non ossifying fibroma (which is a benign lesion and uncommon to change to malignant lesion) at the same site in 2017.

An analysis of life expectancy and economic production using expectile frontier zones

The wealth of a country is assumed to have a strong non-linear influence on the life expectancy of its inhabitants. We follow up on research by Preston and study the relationship with gross domestic product. Smooth curves for the average but also for upper frontiers are constructed by a combination of least asymmetrically weighted squares and P-splines. Guidelines are given for optimizing the amount of smoothing and the definition of frontiers. The model is applied to a large set of countries in different years. It is also used to estimate life expectancy performance for individual countries and to show how it changed over time

Almond Based Electrocatalyst for Fuel Cell Applications

Hydrogen is considered one of the cleanest energy sources. Water spitting is one of the efficient ways to produce hydrogen as a fuel at the industrial level. Water splitting via electrolysis requires an efficient electrocatalyst to reduce the voltage required for water splitting. Currently, precious metals such as platinum are considered as one of the most efficient electrocatalysts for hydrogen production via electrolysis of water. The current challenge is to find a cost-effective alternative for this process. Molybdenum and carbon are low cost and abundant mate­rials which could be used for the synthesis of cost-effective electrocatalysts for hydrogen production. In this work, we used almond as a source for carbon for the synthesis of molybdenum carbide for sustainable and affordable hydrogen production. X-ray diffraction confirmed the phase purity of the synthesized molybdenum carbide. Electrocatalytic activities of molybdenum carbide were investigated in detail. It was observed that molybdenum carbide needs a small voltage to generate hydrogen via electrolysis process. Molybdenum carbide showed an overpotential of 117 mV and 180 mV in alkaline and acidic media, respectively to achieve a current density of 10 mA/cm2, which are among the best-reported results. Our study suggests that earth-abundant materials could be used for the synthesis of highly efficient electrocatalysts for electrochemical water splitting to generate hydrogen as a clean fuel