Mending the Protection and Prosecution Divide: Looking at Saudi Arabia Human Trafficking Flaws and Possibilities

Despite its storied existence, public concern for human trafficking is only a recent phenomenon. Growing demand for the protection of victims of both sex and labor trafficking has meant the relatively recent promulgation of anti-trafficking legislation, on a national and international scale. At the global level, the United Nation’s Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons promotes a three prong approach: prevention, protection, and prosecution. Unfortunately, prosecution and protection are concepts at odds, forcing policymakers to strike a balance, which typically encourages the former to the detriment of the latter. At the crux of this tension is the concept of revictimization, also known as retraumatization or secondary victimization, which is “victimization occurring at different points in time” or trauma caused by reliving an event. The unfortunate reality is that successful prosecution of traffickers requires the victims to testify during trial. Counterproductively, victims’ embedded distrust of the judicial system, their fear of retaliation against themselves or their families, and the potential for retraumatization that can occur by reliving their experiences through testimony makes victim participation a problem. However, successfully combatting this crime requires both victim protection and prosecution of offenders. The key is determining how these pieces fit together. The author posits that with adequate protection, victims will be properly incentivized to participate in the prosecution of their traffickers because the law will offer provisions to quell their fears above while encouraging such involvement. To better understand this dilemma in a real world setting, this Note examines the state of the human trafficking problem in Saudi Arabia in Part II. It reviews the human trafficking decree and other related legislation of Saudi Arabia, focusing on its lack of victim protection and prosecution provisions

Fourth Annual Rebel Trail Challenge Set for November

Runners of all ages invited to face obstacles on 5-mile cours

COVID-19 the Family, State and Federal Policy Lessons Learned in New England

This report captures insights, lessons, and recommendations for family-centered policy and practice and how to support families in this new COVID-19 context, drawn from frontline participants' input across states

New Constraints on the Timing and Pattern of Deglaciation in the Húnaflói Bay Region of Northwest Iceland Using Cosmogenic 36CA Dating and Geomorphic Mapping

Understanding the evolution and timing of changes in ice sheet geometry and extent in Iceland during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and subsequent deglaciation continues to stimulate much active research. Though many previous studies have advanced our knowledge of Icelandic ice sheet history preserved in marine and terrestrial settings (e.g., Andrews et al., 2000; Norðdahl et al., 2008), the timing of ice margin retreat remains largely unknown in several key regions. Recently published 36Cl surface exposure ages of bedrock surfaces and moraines in the West Fjords (Brynjólfsson et al., 2015) contribute important progress in establishing more precise age control of ice recession in northwest Iceland. In another recent study, the spatial pattern and style of deglaciation in northern Iceland have been revealed through geomorphic mapping and GIS analyses of glacial landforms (Principato et al., 2016). Additional insight comes from updated numerical modeling reconstructions, which now provide a series of glaciologically plausible Icelandic ice sheet configurations from the LGM through the last deglaciation (Patton et al., 2017). However, the optimization of ice sheet model simulations relies on critical comparisons with the available empirical record of glacial-geologic evidence and chronological control, which remains relatively limited and sparsely distributed throughout Iceland. Our investigation is motivated by the need for more accurate constraints on the deglacial history in northern Iceland, where dated terrestrial records of ice margin retreat are particularly scarce. (excerpt

Correlations Between Department and Training Program Online Presence and Women in Orthopedic Surgery Training

A grant from the One-University Open Access Fund at the University of Kansas was used to defray the author's publication fees in this Open Access journal. The Open Access Fund, administered by librarians from the KU, KU Law, and KUMC libraries, is made possible by contributions from the offices of KU Provost, KU Vice Chancellor for Research & Graduate Studies, and KUMC Vice Chancellor for Research. For more information about the Open Access Fund, please see http://library.kumc.edu/authors-fund.xml.Background: Orthopedic residency programs increasingly use websites and social media to reach students. This accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially as away rotations became limited. Women remain a minority of orthopedic residents, and there are no data that indicate the correlation between department/program website content or social media presence on the gender diversity of residency classes. Methods: Orthopedic department websites were assessed between June 2021 and January 2022 to identify program director's gender, as well as the gender composition of the faculty and residents. Instagram presence for the department and/or program was also identified. Results: There was no correlation found between the residency program director's gender and the gender diversity of residents in a given program. The percentage of women faculty identified on a department website was significantly correlated with the percentage of women residents in the program, regardless of the program director's gender. While there was an increase in the percentage of women residents among programs with Instagram accounts for the class that started in 2021, this was negated when the percentage of women faculty was taken into account. Conclusion: Efforts on multiple fronts will be needed to increase the number and percentage of women applying for and training in orthopedic surgery. Given the increasing use of digital media, we need a better understanding of what information, including faculty gender diversity, can be conveyed through this format that is useful for women medical students interested in orthopedic surgery to address their concerns about the field

Neighborhoods, Social Support, and African American Adolescents' Mental Health Outcomes: A Multilevel Path Analysis

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/98244/1/cdev12018.pd

Non-canonical functions of EZH2 in cancer

Mutations in chromatin modifying genes frequently occur in many kinds of cancer. Most mechanistic studies focus on their canonical functions, while therapeutic approaches target their enzymatic activity. Recent studies, however, demonstrate that non-canonical functions of chromatin modifiers may be equally important and therapeutically actionable in different types of cancer. One epigenetic regulator that demonstrates such a dual role in cancer is the histone methyltransferase EZH2. EZH2 is a core component of the polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2), which plays a crucial role in cell identity, differentiation, proliferation, stemness and plasticity. While much of the regulatory functions and oncogenic activity of EZH2 have been attributed to its canonical, enzymatic activity of methylating lysine 27 on histone 3 (H3K27me3), a repressive chromatin mark, recent studies suggest that non-canonical functions that are independent of H3K27me3 also contribute towards the oncogenic activity of EZH2. Contrary to PRC2\u27s canonical repressive activity, mediated by H3K27me3, outside of the complex EZH2 can directly interact with transcription factors and oncogenes to activate gene expression. A more focused investigation into these non-canonical interactions of EZH2 and other epigenetic/chromatin regulators may uncover new and more effective therapeutic strategies. Here, we summarize major findings on the non-canonical functions of EZH2 and how they are related to different aspects of carcinogenesis

Adjustment for Suspected Misclassified Smoking Data in an Historical Cohort Study of Workers Exposed to Acrylonitrile

Objectives: To examine the association between exposure to acrylonitrile (AN) and lung cancer mortality after properly addressing misclassification and possible positive confounding of smoking history. Methods: Subjects were 992 white males who were employed for three or more months between 1960 and 1996 at an AN chemical plant in Lima, OH. There were 15 identified cases of lung cancer deaths. Smoking histories were obtained for 90.3% of the cohort and 54.2% of the cohort were identified as having “ever smoked”. Though there were few “unknown” smoking histories, the smoking variable was determined to be misclassified as the RR for having ever smoked related to lung cancer was only 1.08 (95% CI=0.26, 6.18). We addressed potential confounding by smoking in the presence of suspected misclassified smoking data by determining if a reasonable adjustment of the available smoking data would change the risk levels of lung cancer in the original Lima cohort and the relationship between AN exposure and lung cancer using Monte Carlo simulation and bias adjustment. Conclusions: After running Monte Carlo simulation, we found that the mean RR of lung cancer mortality given differing levels of AN exposure decreased after adjusting for the simulated smoking data. However, the results from the bias adjustment must be interpreted with caution as the analysis was limited by the number of lung cancer cases. In this cohort, we concluded that smoking positively confounded the relationship between AN exposure and lung cancer mortality. Public Health Relevance: Properly adjusting for smoking history in studies of lung cancer is critical of the validity of the study results. As seen in this study, smoking habits impact the risk of certain health outcomes. Researchers must attempt to address the potential confounding by smoking whenever possible