Sex Work and City Planning: Winnipeg’s Red Light District Committee and the Regulation of Prostitution

In November of 1999, a Manitoba Provincial Court decision called into question the City of Winnipeg’s ability to regulate off-street prostitution through its municipal licencing by-law for escort services. The result was a lengthy process that saw the city establish a volunteer committee to investigate the regulation of the sex trade in Winnipeg and make recommendations about what could be done in the future. This paper examines the process by which the volunteer committee arrived at its recommendations, and the resulting response from city bureaucrats and officials within the provincial Department of Justice. In the end, most of the committee’s recommendations did not result in any concrete action by the city or province, and perhaps the most significant one – the creation of a new city by-law to regulate the industry – is, nearly two years later, still in the planning phase. In the meantime, the province has put into place a tough new law to deal with the sex and drug trade. At present, the city has yet to address the key concern of the court decision that began the process over three years ago: the development of a clear set of regulations for an industry badly in need of closer monitoring and supervision

Examining the Associations Between Sustainable Development Population Policies and Human Trafficking

Article published in the Michigan State International Law Review

Examining the Associations Between Sustainable Development Population Policies and Human Trafficking

Article published in the Michigan State International Law Review

Giving up the Single Life: Leadership Motivations for Interorganizational Restructuring in Nonprofit Organizations

This paper addresses a gap in our understanding of why leaders of nonprofit organizations pursue interorganizational restructuring (defined as mergers and similar arrangements). It draws on several theories that explain interorganizational relations as adaptive responses to environmental conditions. The study analyzes four examples of interorganizational restructuring involving 11 nonprofit human service organizations. The research finds that theories emphasizing single-factor motivations (such as the need for resources, power, legitimacy, or greater efficiency) are incomplete; a multiple-factors approach suggested by Oliver\u27s (1991) integrated theory of interorganizational relations provides a more satisfactory basis for theory development. Researchers can use this work to develop a more complete understanding of interorganizational restructuring as a phenomenon; practitioners can use it to inform strategy development

Evaluation of the potential index model to predict habitat suitability of forest species: the potential distribution of mountain pine (Pinus uncinata) in the Iberian peninsula

Characterization of the suitability or potentiality of a territory for forest tree species is an important source of information for forest planning and managing. In this study, we compared a relatively simple methodology to generate potential habitat distribution areas that has been traditionally used in Spain (the potential index model) with a statistical modelling approach (generalized linear model). We modelled the potential distribution of mountain pine (Pinus uncinata) in the Iberian peninsula as a working example. The potential index model generated a map of habitat suitability according to the values of an index of potentiality, whose distribution has usually divided into four categories based on quartiles (from optimum to low suitability). Considering all values of the index of potentiality as presences of mountain pine resulted in a low to moderate degree of agreement between the potential index model and the generalized linear model according to the kappa coefficient. Using the cut-off value of the index of potentiality that maximized the degree of agreement between both modelling approaches resulted in a substantial similarity between the maps of the predicted distribution of mountain pine. This cut-off value did lie in the upper-third quartile of the potential index distribution (high suitability category), and roughly coincided with the upper 30th percentile. The use of statistical techniques, which have proved to be powerful and versatile for species distribution modelling, is recommended. However, the potential index model, together with the adjustments proposed here, could be a reasonably simple methodology to predict the potential distribution of forest tree species that forest managers should take into account when evaluating forestation and afforestation projects

Glucocorticoid-induced TNF receptor-triggered T cells are key modulators for survival/death of neural stem/progenitor cells induced by ischemic stroke

Increasing evidences show that immune response affects the reparative mechanisms in injured brain. Recently, we have demonstrated that CD4+T cells serve as negative modulators in neurogenesis after stroke, but the mechanistic detail remains unclear. Glucocorticoid-induced tumor necrosis factor (TNF) receptor (GITR), a multifaceted regulator of immunity belonging to the TNF receptor superfamily, is expressed on activated CD4+T cells. Herein, we show, by using a murine model of cortical infarction, that GITR triggering on CD4+T cells increases poststroke inflammation and decreases the number of neural stem/progenitor cells induced by ischemia (iNSPCs). CD4+GITR+T cells were preferentially accumulated at the postischemic cortex, and mice treated with GITR-stimulating antibody augmented poststroke inflammatory responses with enhanced apoptosis of iNSPCs. In contrast, blocking the GITR–GITR ligand (GITRL) interaction by GITR–Fc fusion protein abrogated inflammation and suppressed apoptosis of iNSPCs. Moreover, GITR-stimulated T cells caused apoptosis of the iNSPCs, and administration of GITR-stimulated T cells to poststroke severe combined immunodeficient mice significantly reduced iNSPC number compared with that of non-stimulated T cells. These observations indicate that among the CD4+T cells, GITR+CD4+T cells are major deteriorating modulators of poststroke neurogenesis. This suggests that blockade of the GITR–GITRL interaction may be a novel immune-based therapy in stroke

IL-1-induced Bhlhe40 identifies pathogenic T helper cells in a model of autoimmune neuroinflammation

The features that define autoreactive T helper (Th) cell pathogenicity remain obscure. We have previously shown that Th cells require the transcription factor Bhlhe40 to mediate experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), a mouse model of multiple sclerosis. Here, using Bhlhe40 reporter mice and analyzing both polyclonal and TCR transgenic Th cells, we found that Bhlhe40 expression was heterogeneous after EAE induction, with Bhlhe40-expressing cells displaying marked production of IFN-γ, IL-17A, and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor. In adoptive transfer EAE models, Bhlhe40-deficient Th1 and Th17 cells were both nonencephalitogenic. Pertussis toxin (PTX), a classical co-adjuvant for actively induced EAE, promoted IL-1β production by myeloid cells in the draining lymph node and served as a strong stimulus for Bhlhe40 expression in Th cells. Furthermore, PTX co-adjuvanticity was Bhlhe40 dependent. IL-1β induced Bhlhe40 expression in polarized Th17 cells, and Bhlhe40-expressing cells exhibited an encephalitogenic transcriptional signature. In vivo, IL-1R signaling was required for full Bhlhe40 expression by Th cells after immunization. Overall, we demonstrate that Bhlhe40 expression identifies encephalitogenic Th cells and defines a PTX–IL-1–Bhlhe40 pathway active in EAE

Novel Serial Positive Enrichment Technology Enables Clinical Multiparameter Cell Sorting

A general obstacle for clinical cell preparations is limited purity, which causes variability in the quality and potency of cell products and might be responsible for negative side effects due to unwanted contaminants. Highly pure populations can be obtained best using positive selection techniques. However, in many cases target cell populations need to be segregated from other cells by combinations of multiple markers, which is still difficult to achieve – especially for clinical cell products. Therefore, we have generated low-affinity antibody-derived Fab-fragments, which stain like parental antibodies when multimerized via Strep-tag and Strep-Tactin, but can subsequently be removed entirely from the target cell population. Such reagents can be generated for virtually any antigen and can be used for sequential positive enrichment steps via paramagnetic beads. First protocols for multiparameter enrichment of two clinically relevant cell populations, CD4high/CD25high/CD45RAhigh ‘regulatory T cells’ and CD8high/CD62Lhigh/CD45RAneg ‘central memory T cells’, have been established to determine quality and efficacy parameters of this novel technology, which should have broad applicability for clinical cell sorting as well as basic research