How the Ethnic-fragmentation and Class-division of Cities Contributes to Human Trafficking and Complex Criminal Activity in South East Asia

According to the U.S. state department there are approximately 20-30 million slaves in the world today; resulting from an annual human trafficking rate of over 600,000 people every year. That means over 480,000 people are trafficked for sexual exploitation and at least 120,000 people for labor exploitation. Although the transportation and forced usage of individuals is highly frowned upon, many countries still have yet to establish the necessary laws and regulations to be able to successfully combat human trafficking. This is especially true in the one of the world’s most dangerous regions for human trafficking- Southeast Asia. This presentation will correlate the Ethnic-fragmentation and Class-division of the countries the Southeast Asia (Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia) to the higher levels of Human Trafficking and Complex Criminal Activity than is seen in more communally-cohesive parts of the world

Lost in Transmission: Romantic Relationships Mediated by Wireless Technologies

Some estimate that short-messaging-service (SMS) text messaging will reach 9.4 trillion messages per year by 2016, not including billions of messages sent by other forms of texting, such as MMS and iPhone\u27s iMessage service. Research shows that habitually using methods of instant communication in romantic relationships has changed the way we communicate with our partners. Direct or inferred meanings sent electronically are often misconstrued by the “receiver” of the messages. Societal norms such as Texting and Instant Messaging (on social networking sites such as Facebook) have introduced new stressors to communication. This project will present research to analyze how the way society transmits messages in romantic relationships can lead to a change in their meanings and the quality of romantic relationships

Rancang Bangun Aplikasi Kasir Berbasis Web pada Toko Berkah Mebel Banyumas

Perkembangan teknologi masa kini sangat dibutuhkan untuk keperluan masyarakat. Banyak perusahaan, instansi, serta institusi yang telah menerapkan perkembangan teknologi dalam proses bisnisnya. Toko Berkah Mebel Banyumas merupakan salah satu toko yang masih menggunakan cara manual dalam proses bisnisnya. Hal tersebut menghambat proses bisnis toko. Proses bisnis yang terhambat yaitu seperti sulitnya mencari data transaksi yang diperlukan, beberapa stok barang ada yang hilang, perhitungan total biaya ada yang salah. Aplikasi Kasir Berbasis Web pada Toko Berkah Mebel Banyumas dibuat dengan tujuan untuk mempermudah proses jual-beli di Toko Berkah Mebel Banyumas. Aplikasi ini dibangun menggunakan framework laravel, dengan bahasa pemrograman PHP, dan JavaScript. Hasil pengujian black-box aplikasi ini terhadap setiap kasus uji terpenuhi yang berarti aplikasi sudah berjalan sesuai yang diharapkan

Expression, characterization, and in vitro glycosylation of ectodomains from the membrane protein syndecan-1

Membrane proteins are a key component of numerous biological processes such as signal transduction, transportation, and various cell-cell interactions. Nearly one-third of all genes encode for membrane proteins and around one-half of all drug targets are membrane proteins. Despite the significance of these proteins, a relatively small amount of membrane protein structures have been determined. Membrane proteins are difficult to express in high quantities and contain highly hydrophobic domains that generally require solubilization strategies using detergents or lipids. Post-translational modifications further diversify these proteins. Many membrane proteins are glycoproteins with one or more sugar attachment sites. Glycosylation, like other types of post-translational protein modifications, can have a profound effect on the structure and function of these proteins. Syndecan-1 (SDC-1), an integral membrane glycoprotein, is involved in the body’s innate immune response system. When cells are under stress due to infection or trauma, the ectodomains of SDC-1 are cleaved and released into the bloodstream as a way to induce formation of a chemokine gradient that subsequently recruits leukocytes to the affected area. This protein is normally highly glycosylated in nature with one N-linked glycosylation site and five O-linked glycosylation sites. While many important biological functions of SDC-1 have been identified, its structure and specific interactions have not been elucidated. The research efforts in this study have developed a method to reliably express and isolate the recombinant core ectodomain of human syndecan-1 from E. coli cells. We have also laid the foundation for future studies on the structure and dynamics of these ectodomains using 2D and 3D NMR spectroscopy. Using novel methods of in vitro glycosylation, we were successful in attaching a glycan to the syndecan-1 core protein. Solution NMR spectroscopy requires highly homogenous sample conditions that are impossible to attain from glycoproteins that have been isolated from mammalian cells. This work with in vitro glycosylation will provide the highly homogenous sample conditions required to study specific effects of glycosylation on proteins with intact glycans attached to the core protein

Subcritical Flow at Open Channel Structures Open Channel Expansions

Analyzing the hydraulics of open channel constrictions has been modified to allow the analysis of energy loss in open channel expansions. The modified technique has been compared with previous methods of analysis using data collected in the laboratory on open channel expansions with vertical walls, and triangular-shaped baffles. Also, a design procedure for such baffled outlet structures has been developed

Quinoline synthesis: scope and regiochemistry of photocyclisation of substituted benzylidenecyclopentanone O-alkyl and O-acetyloximes

Irradiation of substituted 2-benzylidenecyclopentanone O-alkyl and O-acetyloximes in methanol provides a convenient synthesis of alkyl, alkoxy, hydroxy, acetoxy, amino, dimethylamino and benzo substituted annulated quinolines. para-Substituents yield 6-substituted-2,3-dihydro-1H-cyclopenta[b]quinolines with 8-substituted products being obtained from ortho-substituted starting materials. Reactions of meta-substituted precursors are highly regioselective, with alkyl substituents leading to 5-substituted 2,3-dihydro-1H-cyclopenta[b]quinolines and more strongly electron-donating substituents generally resulting in 7-substituted products. 2-Furylmethylene and 2-thienylmethylene analogues yield annulated furo- and thieno-[2,3e]pyridines respectively. Sequential E- to Z-benzylidene group isomerisation and six [pi]-electron cyclisation steps result in formation of a short-lived dihydroquinoline intermediate which spontaneously aromatises by elimination of an alcohol or acetic acid. For 2-benzylidenecyclopentanone O-allyloxime, singlet excited states are involved in both steps

Dynamics, Laplace transform and Spectral geometry

We consider a vector field $X$ on a closed manifold which admits a Lyapunov one form. We assume $X$ has Morse type zeros, satisfies the Morse--Smale transversality condition and has non-degenerate closed trajectories only. For a closed one form $\eta$, considered as flat connection on the trivial line bundle, the differential of the Morse complex formally associated to $X$ and $\eta$ is given by infinite series. We introduce the exponential growth condition and show that it guarantees that these series converge absolutely for a non-trivial set of $\eta$. Moreover the exponential growth condition guarantees that we have an integration homomorphism from the deRham complex to the Morse complex. We show that the integration induces an isomorphism in cohomology for generic $\eta$. Moreover, we define a complex valued Ray--Singer kind of torsion of the integration homomorphism, and compute it in terms of zeta functions of closed trajectories of $X$. Finally, we show that the set of vector fields satisfying the exponential growth condition is $C^0$--dense.Comment: 35pag

Time series analysis of phenometrics and long-term vegetation trends for the Flint Hills ecoregion using moderate resolution satellite imagery

Master of ArtsDepartment of GeographyJ. M. Shawn HutchinsonGrasslands of the Flint Hills are often burned as a land management practice. Remote sensing can be used to help better manage prairie landscapes by providing useful information about the long-term trends in grassland vegetation greenness and helping to quantify regional differences in vegetation development. Using MODIS 16-day NDVI composite imagery between the years 2001-10 for the entire Flint Hills ecoregion, BFAST was used to determine trend, seasonal, and noise components of the image time series. To explain the trend, 4 factors were considered including hydrologic soil group, burn frequency, and precipitation deviation from the 30 year normal. In addition, the time series data was processed using TIMESAT to extract eight different phenometrics: Growing season length, start of season, end of season, middle of season, maximum value, small integral, left derivative, and right derivative. Phenometrics were produced for each year of the study and an ANOVA was performed on the means of all eight phenometrics to assess if significant differences existed across the study area. A K-means cluster analysis was also performed by aggregating pixel-level phenometrics at the county level to identify administrative divisions exhibiting similar vegetation development. For the study period, the area of negatively and positively trending grassland were similar (41-43%). Logistic regression showed that the log odds of a pixel experiencing a negative trend were higher in sites with clay soils and higher burning frequencies and lower for pixels having higher than normal precipitation and loam soils. Significant differences existed for all phenometrics when considering the ecoregion as a whole. On a phenometric-by-phenometric basis, unexpected groupings of counties often showed statistically similar values. Similarly, when considering all phenometrics at the same time, counties clustered in surprising patterns. Results suggest that long-term trends in grassland conditions warrant further attention and may rival other sources of grassland change (e.g., conversion, transition to savannah) in importance. Analyses of phenometrics indicates that factors other than natural gradients in temperature and precipitation play a significant role in the annual cycle of grassland vegetation development. Unanticipated, and sometimes geographically disparate, groups of counties were shown to be similar in the context of specific phenology metrics and this may prove useful in future implementations of smoke management plans within the Flint Hills

Human dimensions in cyber operations research and development priorities.

Within cyber security, the human element represents one of the greatest untapped opportunities for increasing the effectiveness of network defenses. However, there has been little research to understand the human dimension in cyber operations. To better understand the needs and priorities for research and development to address these issues, a workshop was conducted August 28-29, 2012 in Washington DC. A synthesis was developed that captured the key issues and associated research questions. Research and development needs were identified that fell into three parallel paths: (1) human factors analysis and scientific studies to establish foundational knowledge concerning factors underlying the performance of cyber defenders; (2) development of models that capture key processes that mediate interactions between defenders, users, adversaries and the public; and (3) development of a multi-purpose test environment for conducting controlled experiments that enables systems and human performance measurement. These research and development investments would transform cyber operations from an art to a science, enabling systems solutions to be engineered to address a range of situations. Organizations would be able to move beyond the current state where key decisions (e.g. personnel assignment) are made on a largely ad hoc basis to a state in which there exist institutionalized processes for assuring the right people are doing the right jobs in the right way. These developments lay the groundwork for emergence of a professional class of cyber defenders with defined roles and career progressions, with higher levels of personnel commitment and retention. Finally, the operational impact would be evident in improved performance, accompanied by a shift to a more proactive response in which defenders have the capacity to exert greater control over the cyber battlespace