A Nation of Informants: Reining In Post-9/11 Coercion of Intelligence Informants

This article challenges the adequacy of the existing legal and regulatory framework governing informant recruitment and coercion practices to protect fundamental rights, informed by the Muslim-American experience. It looks at the growing law enforcement practice of recruiting informants among Muslim-American communities for intelligence gathering purposes. Although the coercion of law-abiding individuals to provide information to federal law enforcement agencies for intelligence gathering purposes implicates significant rights, it is left unregulated. Existing, albeit limited, restraints on the government agents’ ability to coerce individuals to provide information either assume a criminal context, or are driven by historical concerns over FBI corruption. As the U.S. government engages in widespread surveillance of Muslim-American communities, it relies heavily on recruiting members of those communities as informants. These individuals are targeted for their community ties, or their religious or linguistic knowledge—and not because of any nexus they might have to criminal activity. This has led FBI agents to search for coercive levers outside of the criminal process and that have far fewer procedural protections—namely, immigration and watch-listing authorities. Thus, existing protections that have evolved to prevent civil rights violations in the criminal informant context—limited as those protections may be—do not apply. In light of these expanding authorities and the significant rights at stake, this article makes several proposals that would regulate the recruitment of intelligence informants

Impact of Different Levels of Schooling on Development of Students’ Social Attitudes

AbstractOne of the expectations of society from schooling is to develop students’ prosocial behaviors having roots in their knowledge, beliefs and social attitudes.  But the assessment procedures related to students’ social thinking and attitudes are generally missing in the instructional system.  The study, therefore, to fill the gap diagnosed as whether schooling offered something that developed students’ social attitudes, a prerequisite of prosocial behaviors. Hence, the preset empirical investigation explored the impact of schooling on the development of students’ social attitudes.  A sample from 16 schools of 480 students was taken, for which a ‘social attitude scale’, having four subscales, i.e., a) concern for others’ welfare, b) respect for laws, c) respect for others’ property and d) sensitivity to social issues, was developed to collect data.  Results of data analysis revealed that the overall impact of different levels of schooling for upward positive increase in students’ social attitude was negligible, although elementary schooling contributed more, as compared to secondary level.  Similarly public sector schooling across three stages had more impact on students’ social attitudes as compared to private sector schools.Keywords: Schools, Social attitudes, Prosocial and antisocial behaviors, Public and                   Private schoolin

Optimization of coagulation to remove turbidity from surface water using novel nature-based plant coagulant and response surface methodology

Plant-based natural coagulants are considered potential alternatives to chemical coagulants. These are eco-friendly, non-toxic, and produce less sludge compared to chemical coagulants. This study aims to evaluate the coagulation potential of a novel plant-based coagulant Sorghum for canal water treatment. In addition, a coagulant aid, i.e., Aloe Vera, was also tested to examine any further increase in turbidity removal through a jar test apparatus. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to characterize the coagulants. The experiment was designed using response surface methodology (RSM). When used alone, Sorghum resulted in a maximum turbidity removal of 87.73% at pH 2 and a dose of 40 mg/L, while the combination of Sorghum and Aloe Vera resulted in a turbidity removal of 84.2% at pH 2.7, and the doses of Sorghum and Aloe Vera were 17.1 mg/L and 0.9% (v/v), respectively. Thus, the Sorghum dose was significantly reduced when Aloe Vera was used in combination. At a pH of 7, Sorghum achieved 54% turbidity removal at a dose of 55.7 mg/L. Analyses of variance revealed that pH plays a more vital role in the removal of turbidity than the coagulant dose. FTIR and SEM analyses revealed that adsorption is the dominant coagulation mechanism for plant-based coagulants. The Sorghum powder exhibited carboxylic, amine, and carbonyl groups that functioned as active adsorption sites for suspended solids. In a similar vein, the coagulant aid Aloe Vera gel facilitated the adsorption process by fostering intermolecular hydrogen bonding between suspended particles and amine groups present within the gel

Role of Leadership in Transforming the Profession of Quantity Surveying

The construction industry is facing a period of change. The roles ofthe professions involved in the industry in general, and of quantitysurveyors in particular, are also changing. There are opportunitiesfor surveyors to seize the initiative to broaden their involvement inprojects, and attain strategic positions within the industry. However,they will have to improve upon their skill sets and their knowledgebases. Senior quantity surveyors interviewed in Singapore sharedtheir views on the challenges facing the construction industry,and their profession. They suggested that the quantity surveyingprofession would only be able to address the pressing issues itfaces if it pays more attention to innovation and the development ofits people. It should be able to attract and retain talent. Knowledgemanagement will be of critical importance. This will be enabled andfacilitated by knowledge leadership

The Moderating Role of Staff Efficiency in the Relationship between Bank’s Specific Variables and Liquidity Risk in Islamic Banks of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Countries

The efficiency of bank’s staff plays a crucial role in managing and mitigating the financial risks like liquidity risk.The aim of this paper is to propose a conceptual model/framework for investigating the moderating role of staff efficiency on the relationship between bank’s specific variables and liquidity risk in Islamic banks in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).GCC economies depend heavily on oil revenues which makes it subject to oil prices fluctuations. Therefore, liquidity in GCC banks, especially Islamic banks almost always suffers liquidity pressure.Thus, the issue of liquidity in this region has grown in importance in light of recent oil decline.Several attempts have been made to investigate the determinants of liquidity risk, yet the findings lack consistency. Most of the previous studies have ignored GCC region and have focused on other environments like credit risk but gave less attention to the moderating role of staff efficiency function in the Islamic banks with respect to liquidity risk. This paper offers a framework by adding a moderator of staff efficiency to the existing models of the bank’s specific determinants of liquidity risk with a particular attention to the GCC countries which are heavily dependent on oil revenues and always are subject to the impact of oil prices instabilities. Many stakeholders should benefit from the outcomes of this study.It should pave the way for bankers, regulators, investors and researchers to have a better understanding and insight about the factors that affect liquidity risk in the aforesaid banks

Are plant traits a practical indicator for monitoring ecological restoration projects?

In order to restore ecosystems, we must have reliable monitoring indicators to identify the success of ecological restoration, and make effective management decisions. Indicators must be simple and inexpensive to measure to allow for practical industry use, account for ecological and environmental change, and provide direction to ecosystem managers. Trait-based monitoring approaches have been proposed as an alternative measure to traditional vegetation monitoring indicators (e.g. measures of species diversity), as they provide more information about the function of an ecosystem and their abiotic-biotic interactions. The literature indicates that plant functional traits, which explain how an organism acquires, processes and invests in resources, may be an ideal monitoring indicator. I examined the practical application of plant traits to assess restoration success in a phragmites managed Great Lakes Coastal Wetland, in the face of significant management and ecological variability. Two traits often cited in the literature, specific leaf area and leaf dry matter content, were measured in open marsh and three created ponds of different ages, and in plots treated with glyphosate and plots left un-treated. Non-parametric Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis tests were used to compare the community weighted mean trait values of ponds and open marsh, and between herbicide treatment groups. Notable results included an increase in specific leaf area after herbicide treatment, and a decrease in leaf dry matter content, suggesting that traits promoting biomass production may be favoured after herbicide treatment. This is consistent with previous studies comparing weighted means after management action, as well as in successional trait studies. However, it will be important to consistently monitor invasive species presence and management actions, in order to confirm that trait changes are due to herbicide treatment. No statistically significant differences were found between ponds and open marsh for specific leaf area, and leaf dry matter content only differing significantly in one pond. Possible explanations for this lack of change and the variable changes between ponds include intraspecific variation, environmental factors like water level fluctuations, and management variation between ponds. To conclude, the use of leaf traits, and plant traits in general, are possible as a restoration monitoring measure, but their use is highly site specific. They are best suited in situations where variability is low; where they can be compared against a measureable environmental gradient or a well identified management regime, two factors that do not always exist in a practical resource management context. Time also plays a role in the application of traits to restoration projects; the more traits that can be measured, and more resources allocated to the understanding and application of additional functional diversity indices, the more valuable their use. Future research and management opportunities include the integration of trait-based monitoring measures into diversity monitoring regimes, the exploration of traits as a restoration design measure to combat exotic species invasions, and testing ecological indicator criteria on other key traits (e.g. belowground traits, regenerative traits) to asses their potential as monitoring measures for future restoration project monitoring

Exploring the feasibility of biological hydrogen production using seed sludge pretreated with agro-industrial wastes

The effect of applying agro-industrial waste (AIW), such as potash extract (PE), cassava-steep wastewater (CSWW), and corn-steep liquor (CSTL), as an alternative material to pretreat digested cattle slurry (DCS) for biological hydrogen production was examined. In this study, the pretreated (PT) DCS was employed for H2 fermentation in batch cultures utilising glucose and sucrose as substrates. The result showed that, at 55 °C and pH 5.5, the pretreated DCS's daily volumetric hydrogen production (VHP) was higher than the untreated DCS. Although heat-shocked DCS produced a higher daily VHP of 135 NmL H2 g−1 VS on the second day using glucose as substrates, it is followed by PE-PT DCS, which gave a peak daily VHP of 115 NmL H2 g−1 VS but at a shorter time. When sucrose was the carbon source, the highest peaks were recorded in all the laboratory reactors on day two, with the highest daily VHP of 211 NmL H2 g−1 VS achieved in PE-PT DCS digesters. After the different DCS PT studies, the dominant phylum Firmicutes, represented by the Clostridium and Ruminococcus, were the most abundant bacteria compared to the untreated DCS, which was more diverse. Further research is required to optimise the conditions for AIW DCS pretreatment

Lebanese Subjectivities and Media Use: Post/Global Contexts

Media use is neither socially determined nor socially determinative outside of subjectivity, the process by which the self makes meaning of its place in the world. To further our understandings of media and social change, this dissertation examines the relationship between Lebanese media use and subjectivities in different times and geographic locations, including within the Lebanese diaspora. It incorporates three case studies, including textual analyses of 1) representations of Syro-Lebanese Oklahoman immigrants in The Oklahoman from 1901 to 1958; 2) discourses on media and communication in the contemporary Lebanese civil war novel; and 3) constructions of journalistic authority within the Lebanese blogosphere during the 2006 Summer Israeli-Hizballah war. Through these case studies, this dissertation investigates how global power is constructed/perpetuated/resisted via existing communication channels and patterns of relating that have been created throughout history