Rescuing Victims of Human Trafficking: Strategies and Solutions

The purpose of this thesis is to research and investigate how victims of human trafficking are removed from exploitative situations. There are three main methods of removal, which are raids, purchases, and escapes. Each method has its own unique characteristics, advantages and disadvantages. The research was conducted in the form of a literature review. The findings of this research indicate that there is no one “right” way to rescue a victim of human trafficking. Each rescue must be carefully researched and planned before being executed, or the consequences can be severe

Rescuing Age-related Proteolysis Deficits with Methylene Blue

The average lifespan is constantly increasing with the advent of new medical techniques, and age-related cognitive decline is becoming a prevalent societal issue. Even during healthy aging, humans and rats exhibit progressive deficits in episodic/declarative memory. In laboratory rats, age-related memory impairment can be assessed with trace fear conditioning (TFC). Recent research implicates ubiquitin proteasome system-mediated protein degradation in the synaptic plasticity supporting memory formation and retrieval. In rats, aging leads to decreased basal proteolytic activity in brain structures known to support the acquisition and retrieval of trace fear memories, and our preliminary data suggests activity-dependent proteasome activity declines in a similar fashion. The proposed experiments sought to rescue age-related decreases in plasticity-related protein degradation during memory consolidation via proteasome stimulation with the compound methylthioninium chloride (methylene blue [MB]). Intraperitoneal post-training MB administration at 1, 4, or 16mg/kg did not improve memory performance, chymotrypsin-like, or trypsin-like proteasome activity in young or aged rats in any of the four brain structures examined. Additionally, dietary treatment with MB for four months did not enhance memory, chymotrypsin-like, or trypsin-like proteasome activity in young or aged animals. These results suggest that MB may not be well suited to augment fear learning or to upregulate general proteasome activity. Future work should investigate other means of proteasome stimulation and subsequent rescue of cognitive decline during aging

Technostress:negative effect on performance and possible mitigations

We investigate the effect of conditions that create technostress, on technology-enabled innovation, technology-enabled performance and overall performance. We further look at the role of technology self-efficacy, organizational mechanisms that inhibit technostress and technology competence as possible mitigations to the effects of technostress creators. Our findings show a negative association between technostress creators and performance. We find that, while traditional effort-based mechanisms such as building technology competence reduce the impact of technostress creators on technology-enabled innovation and performance, more empowering mechanisms such as developing technology self-efficacy and information systems (IS) literacy enhancement and involvement in IS initiatives are required to counter the decrease in overall performance because of technostress creators. Noting that the professional sales context offers increasingly high expectations for technology-enabled performance in an inherently interpersonal-oriented and relationship-oriented environment with regard to overall performance, and high failure rates for IS acceptance/use, the study uses survey data collected from 237 institutional sales professionals

T>0 properties of the infinitely repulsive Hubbard model for arbitrary number of holes

Based on representations of the symmetric group $S_N$, explicit and exact Schr\"odinger equation is derived for $U=\infty$ Hubbard model in any dimensions with arbitrary number of holes, which clearly shows that during the movement of holes the spin background of electrons plays an important role. Starting from it, at T=0 we have analyzed the behaviour of the system depending on the dimensionality and number of holes. Based on the presented formalism thermodynamic quantities have also been expressed using a loop summation technique in which the partition function is given in terms of characters of $S_N$. In case of the studied finite systems, the loop summation have been taken into account exactly up to the 14-th order in reciprocal temperature and the results were corrected in higher order based on Monte Carlo simulations. The obtained results suggest that the presented formalism increase the efficiency of the Monte Carlo simulations as well, because the spin part contribution of the background is automatically taken into account by the characters of $S_N$.Comment: 26 pages, 1 embedded ps figure; Phil. Mag. B (in press

Alternative crops in double-crop systems for Missouri

"Harry Minor is a State Agronomy Extension Specialist. Robert Myers, a former faculty member, and Emily Pullins, a former student, participated in the development of this guide and the research on which it is based."--Page 1."Double cropping increases the amount of time land is used for crop production and can increase potential profit. There are ecological as well as economic advantages to increasing the amount of time the land is used for production. A winter grain crop, traditionally wheat, can act as a cover crop to prevent erosion. A warm-season double crop, often soybean, may yield smaller returns than a full-season crop but often averages a positive net return. This high-intensity cropping system may reduce disease and pest incidence by breaking pest cycles."--Page 1.Emily E. Pullins, Robert L. Myers and Harry C. Minor (Department of Agronomy)New 9/97/7M.Includes bibliographical reference

Composition and Diversity of Avian Communities Using a New Urban Habitat: Green Roofs

Green roofs on buildings are becoming popular and represent a new component of the urban landscape. Public benefits of green roof projects include reduced stormwater runoff, improved air quality, reduced urban heat island effects, and aesthetic values. As part of a city-wide plan, several green roofs have been constructed at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport (ORD). Like some other landscaping features, green roofs on or near an airport might attract wildlife and thus increase the risk of bird–aircraft collisions. During 2007–2011, we conducted a series of studies to evaluate wildlife use of newly constructed green roofs and traditional (gravel) roofs on buildings at ORD. These green roofs were 0.04–1.62 ha in area and consisted of primarily stone crop species for vegetation. A total of 188 birds were observed using roofs during this research. Of the birds using green roofs, 66, 23, and 4 % were Killdeer, European Starlings, and Mourning Doves, respectively. Killdeer nested on green roofs, whereas the other species perched, foraged, or loafed. Birds used green roofs almost exclusively between May and October. Overall, avian use of the green roofs was minimal and similar to that of buildings with traditional roofs. Although green roofs with other vegetation types might offer forage or cover to birds and thus attract potentially hazardous wildlife, the stonecrop-vegetated green roofs in this study did not increase the risk of bird–aircraft collisions

The Cyclical Relationship Between Generational Poverty and Poor Education: Breaking the Barrier in Haiti

Research demonstrates that generational poverty and poor education are cyclical in nature. In Haiti, poverty diminishes the quality of education due to the fact it hampers access to education, lacks parental involvement, and has inadequate health care. Conversely, poor education traps Haitians in the cycle of generational poverty by inhibiting them from developing life skills and adequate literacy; in turn, this disables them from participating in higher paying jobs. Based on the repetitive correspondence between the two, our goals are: to educate individuals on the cyclical relationship between poor education and generational poverty, expose and examine the barriers to receiving an education, as well as suggest ways to overcome the barriers against education federally and individually

Composition and Diversity of Avian Communities Using a New Urban Habitat: Green Roofs

Green roofs on buildings are becoming popular and represent a new component of the urban landscape. Public benefits of green roof projects include reduced stormwater runoff, improved air quality, reduced urban heat island effects, and aesthetic values. As part of a city-wide plan, several green roofs have been constructed at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport (ORD). Like some other landscaping features, green roofs on or near an airport might attract wildlife and thus increase the risk of bird–aircraft collisions. During 2007–2011, we conducted a series of studies to evaluate wildlife use of newly constructed green roofs and traditional (gravel) roofs on buildings at ORD. These green roofs were 0.04–1.62 ha in area and consisted of primarily stone crop species for vegetation. A total of 188 birds were observed using roofs during this research. Of the birds using green roofs, 66, 23, and 4 % were Killdeer, European Starlings, and Mourning Doves, respectively. Killdeer nested on green roofs, whereas the other species perched, foraged, or loafed. Birds used green roofs almost exclusively between May and October. Overall, avian use of the green roofs was minimal and similar to that of buildings with traditional roofs. Although green roofs with other vegetation types might offer forage or cover to birds and thus attract potentially hazardous wildlife, the stonecrop-vegetated green roofs in this study did not increase the risk of bird–aircraft collisions