The Elimination of Export Subsidies and the Future of Net-Food Importing Developing Countries in the WTO

Before providing an overview of the current situation, Section I of this Essay examines past trends in the world agricultural trade in order to demonstrate how the share of the world\u27s agricultural trade from developing and least-developed countries has stagnated compared to those of the industrialized countries. Section II discusses the factors which have led to this stagnation, including one of the most significant factors — the use of export subsidies, as exemplified by CAP. Section III analyzes the implications of eliminating such protectionism for NFIDCs, which form the main focus of this Essay. Section IV briefly addresses the implementation of the Uruguay Round mandate for removal of export subsidies in industrialized countries. Finally, this Essay concludes by recapitulating the main arguments and analysis within this Essay and offers policy recommendations based on these conclusions

Understanding the Relationship Between Sex Trafficking and Opioid Use in Central Ohio: An Application of Sociological Deviance Theories

Central Ohio is, unfortunately, a hub for both sex trafficking and the opioid epidemic. The purpose of this study is to better understand how the opioid epidemic has affected the prevalence of sex trafficking in Central Ohio. The objectives are to explore the experiences of anti-trafficking service providers in handling sex trafficking and opioid use cases in Central Ohio, to understand the relationship between sex trafficking and opioid use in Central Ohio, and to compile next steps in tackling both issues based on perceived barriers according to service providers. Phone interviews were conducted with eight anti-trafficking service providers from Central Ohio and overarching themes were identified. Findings suggest that opioids are used by traffickers to exploit vulnerabilities and lead women into trafficking and then used to maintain control over the victims once they are trafficked. Then, victims may start using opioids in order to cope with traumas they face. Some people also end up getting caught in the cycle of trafficking after selling their bodies to receive money for drugs to fuel a previously existing addiction. Additionally, it appears that personal drug use has increased among individual victims who are trafficked and that the drug of choice has shifted from crack cocaine to heroin, an opioid. Lastly, victims of sex trafficking and people who abuse opioids face similar barriers that prevent them from seeking out or obtaining professional help, like such as shame, stigma, lack of education, and lack of availability of resources. By applying sociological theory, furthermore, Howard Becker's Labeling Theory is deduced to have more support in the context of trafficking and opioid use over Emile Durkheim's Anomie Theory. In addition, providing more resources and education about addiction and mental health care, and approaching trafficking from an intersectional and sociological lens may be a critical way to help prevent trafficking from occurring in the future.No embargoAcademic Major: Neuroscienc

Gauge Theory of Gravity and Supergravity

We present a formulation of gravity in terms of a theory based on complex SU(2) gauge fields with a general coordinate invariant action functional quadratic in the field strength. Self-duality or anti-self-duality of the field strength emerges as a constraint from the equations of motion of this theory. This in turn leads to Einstein gravity equations for a dilaton and an axion conformally coupled to gravity for the self-dual constraint. The analysis has also been extended to N=1 and 2 super Yang-Mills theory of complex SU(2) gauge fields. This leads, besides other equations of motion, to self-duality/anti-self-duality of generalized supercovariant field-strengths. The self-dual case is then shown to yield as its solutions $N = 1, 2$ supergravity equations respectively.Comment: 27 page

Spin nematics, valence-bond solids and spin liquids in SO(NN) quantum spin models on the triangular lattice

We introduce a simple model of SO($N$) spins with two-site interactions which is amenable to quantum Monte-Carlo studies without a sign problem on non-bipartite lattices. We present numerical results for this model on the two-dimensional triangular lattice where we find evidence for a spin nematic at small $N$, a valence-bond solid (VBS) at large $N$ and a quantum spin liquid at intermediate $N$. By the introduction of a sign-free four-site interaction we uncover a rich phase diagram with evidence for both first-order and exotic continuous phase transitions

Marshall-positive SU(NN) quantum spin systems and classical loop models: A practical strategy to design sign-problem-free spin Hamiltonians

We consider bipartite SU($N$) spin Hamiltonians with a fundamental representation on one sublattice and a conjugate to fundamental on the other sublattice. By mapping these antiferromagnets to certain classical loop models in one higher dimension, we provide a practical strategy to write down a large family of SU($N$) symmetric spin Hamiltonians that satisfy Marshall's sign condition. This family includes all previously known sign-free SU($N$) spin models in this representation and in addition provides a large set of new models that are Marshall positive and can hence be studied efficiently with quantum Monte Carlo methods. As an application of our idea to the square lattice, we show that in addition to Sandvik's $Q$-term, there is an independent non-trivial four-spin $R$-term that is sign-free. Using numerical simulations, we show how the $R$-term provides a new route to the study of quantum criticality of N\'eel order

Entropy of Quantum Black Holes

In the Loop Quantum Gravity, black holes (or even more general Isolated Horizons) are described by a SU(2) Chern-Simons theory. There is an equivalent formulation of the horizon degrees of freedom in terms of a U(1) gauge theory which is just a gauged fixed version of the SU(2) theory. These developments will be surveyed here. Quantum theory based on either formulation can be used to count the horizon micro-states associated with quantum geometry fluctuations and from this the micro-canonical entropy can be obtained. We shall review the computation in SU(2) formulation. Leading term in the entropy is proportional to horizon area with a coefficient depending on the Barbero-Immirzi parameter which is fixed by matching this result with the Bekenstein-Hawking formula. Remarkably there are corrections beyond the area term, the leading one is logarithm of the horizon area with a definite coefficient -3/2, a result which is more than a decade old now. How the same results are obtained in the equivalent U(1) framework will also be indicated. Over years, this entropy formula has also been arrived at from a variety of other perspectives. In particular, entropy of BTZ black holes in three dimensional gravity exhibits the same logarithmic correction. Even in the String Theory, many black hole models are known to possess such properties. This suggests a possible universal nature of this logarithmic correction

Chern-Simons Theory, Colored-Oriented Braids and Link invariants

A method to obtain explicit and complete topological solution of SU(2) Chern-Simons theory on $S^3$ is developed. To this effect the necessary aspects of the theory of coloured-oriented braids and duality properties of conformal blocks for the correlators of $SU(2)_k$ Wess-Zumino conformal field theory are presented. A large class of representations of the generators of the groupoid of coloured-oriented braids are obtained. These provide a whole lot of new link invariants of which Jones polynomials are the simplest examples. These new invariants are explicitly calculated as illustrations for knots upto eight crossings and two-component multicoloured links upto seven crossings.Comment: 48 pages + 20 diagram