Child trafficking: a case study of the perceptions of child welfare professionals in Colorado

2013 Spring.Includes bibliographical references.Human trafficking, or trafficking in persons, is a form of modern-day slavery and millions of people around the world, including children are victims of this crime (DeStefano, 2007). Data concerning human trafficking, particularly child trafficking, is severely limited. In child welfare, research suggests a lack of awareness, understanding, and training about child trafficking. This deficit of a knowledge base all too frequently results in misidentification, mislabeling, and improper care of child trafficking victims. Due to the lack of awareness and misconceptions, cases of child sex trafficking are often reported under more standard classifications of child maltreatment, such as sexual abuse. This mislabeling of victims directly affects the proper identification and handling of child sex trafficking cases, potentially further endangering the welfare of the child (Smith, Vardaman, & Snow, 2009). Using a qualitative, descriptive case study approach with semi-structured face-to-face interviews, the experiences of ten child welfare professionals in the identified geographic region of Colorado were explored. Data were collected primarily from an interview guide while demographic variables were gathered using a survey form. The study focused on determining the level of awareness of child trafficking; describing the meaning of child trafficking; and discovering the challenges associated with the identification of child trafficking victims from the perspective of child welfare professionals. In order to accomplish these objectives, the constant comparative analysis was selected as the most appropriate method to analyze the data. Originally described by Glaser and Strauss (1967), the constant comparative approach was utilized in this study to analyze the qualitative data and to determine significant themes through open, axial, and selective coding. Data collected from the interviews were analyzed for categories, emerging themes, and areas of agreement or disagreement to reflect the overarching research questions. Using a purposeful approach to the constant comparative method, Boeije (2002), comparison was conducted within one interview; across all interviews; and among demographic variables of the participants. Findings from the study reveal a connection between the lack of awareness, understanding, identification, and training, among the ten participants. From the three research questions, the following conclusions were identified: 1) there is a lack of awareness concerning child trafficking, the laws and statistics, the meaning and what it exactly entails, and how it is significantly different from child abuse/sexual abuse, exploitation, and prostitution; 2) the lack of understanding about child trafficking and the definition directly impacts the level of awareness, meaning, and the ability to properly identify victims; and 3) the major challenges in victim identification are due to the lack of awareness, ambiguous meaning, and absence of training regarding child trafficking. All of the findings relate to the three research questions, intertwined, and correspond to the main themes identified within the data. Analysis of the conclusions elicited implications for policy and practice for child welfare and child trafficking as well as recommendations for policy and practice and future research

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

The use of positive and negative reinforcement in the treatment of escape-maintained destructive behavior.

We identified 3 clients whose destructive behavior was sensitive to negative reinforcement (break from tasks) and positive reinforcement (access to tangible items, attention, or both). In an instructional context, we then evaluated the effects of reinforcing compliance with one, two, or all of these consequences (a break, tangible items, attention) when destructive behavior produced a break and when it did not (escape extinction). For 2 clients, destructive behavior decreased and compliance increased when compliance produced access to tangible items, even though destructive behavior resulted in a break. For 1 client, extinction was necessary to reduce destructive behavior and to increase compliance. Subsequently, when the schedule of reinforcement for compliance was faded for all clients, destructive behavior was lower and fading proceeded more rapidly when compliance produced multiple functional reinforcers (i.e., a break plus tangible items or attention) and destructive behavior was on extinction. The results are discussed in terms of the effects of relative reinforcement value and extinction on concurrent operants

TRAF2 Must Bind to Cellular Inhibitors of Apoptosis for Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF) to Efficiently Activate NF-κB and to Prevent TNF-induced Apoptosis

Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) receptor-associated factor-2 (TRAF2) binds to cIAP1 and cIAP2 (cIAP1/2) and recruits them to the cytoplasmic domain of several members of the TNF receptor (TNFR) superfamily, including the TNF-TNFR1 ligand-receptor complex. Here, we define a cIAP1/2-interacting motif (CIM) within the TRAF-N domain of TRAF2, and we use TRAF2 CIM mutants to determine the role of TRAF2 and cIAP1/2 individually, and the TRAF2-cIAP1/2 interaction, in TNFR1-dependent signaling. We show that both the TRAF2 RING domain and the TRAF2 CIM are required to regulate NF-κB-inducing kinase stability and suppress constitutive noncanonical NF-κB activation. Conversely, following TNFR1 stimulation, cells bearing a CIM-mutated TRAF2 showed reduced canonical NF-κB activation and TNF-induced RIPK1 ubiquitylation. Remarkably, the RING domain of TRAF2 was dispensable for these functions. However, like the TRAF2 CIM, the RING domain of TRAF2 was required for protection against TNF-induced apoptosis. These results show that TRAF2 has anti-apoptotic signaling roles in addition to promoting NF-κB signaling and that efficient activation of NF-κB by TNFR1 requires the recruitment of cIAP1/2 by TRAF2