76 FR 5603 - Privacy Act of 1974; Department of Homeland Security Office of Operations Coordination and...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-02-01

... cartel leaders or other persons known to have been involved in major crimes or terror of Homeland... cartel leaders or other persons known to have been involved in major crimes or terror of Homeland...

Defense.gov - Special Report: Travels with Gates

Science.gov Websites

Mexico City to strengthen the U.S.-Mexico military partnership in the fight against drug cartels there the Mexican government fight drug-trafficking cartels and other security threats. Secretary of State

Strengths of OPEC

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Adelman, M.A.

The major distinction of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is obvious even to the casual observer: the nations composing it constitute the greatest monopoly in history; its tribute now is over $100 billion a year. For the immediate future, OPEC's elements of strength look more important than its elements of weakness. The cartel will not soon disappear. The forces acting against the cartel are subsumed in the fact of excess capacity. This is the traditional nemesis of cartels, since it puts in motion the sequence of small price reductions by some sellers to gain additional sales volume, then competitivemore » or matching reductions. To preserve the cartel, each member must avoid acting for his own independent good, and must do what is best for the group as a whole. The greater the temptation to act independently the greater the fear of others' independent action, and the higher the probability of severe erosion or breakdown. So the fate of the cartel depends essentially on the strength of exogenous factors, demand and uncontrolled supply, versus the strength of an endogenous factor, the cohesion of the group. All too often either one of these factors is treated in isolation as though the other were not there.« less

Mexico at the Precipice: Are Lessons from Plan Colombia Operationally Relevant to United States Northern Command?

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-05-04

The two brothers were at the top of the Tijuana Cartel and their fall created additional havoc. The power vacuum created caused rival cartels to enter...did see a significant upswing in harvestable acreage; the results indicate that the aerial fumigation did have an effect. Both potential production

Experiential Learning through Classroom Experiments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bowes, David; Johnson, Jay

2008-01-01

This paper describes classroom experiments in cooperative behavior as examples of experiential learning in economics classes. Several games are briefly discussed and a new game in cartel behavior is presented. In this game, Students make production decisions as a cartel and earn revenues based on their own output decision and the output decision…

THE NORTHERN BORDER A FORGOTTEN NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-04-06

to the RCMP, helps the cartels to launder money so it can be easily repatriated south into Mexico.78 Cartels are also buying and functioning...legitimate mining, oil, and production businesses79 likely to help launder and shelter the massive profits made by their illegal activities. This money ... laundering capability is lucrative to terrorist organizations looking to raise and hide money from the authorities.80 Here in lies the narco-terror

Merida and Integrated Strategic Solutions

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-10-28

combination of these activities has bolstered the cartels’ earnings and their economic firepower.xxi The Mexican cartels currently dominate the U.S. illicit...creation of fifteen Module Police Units ( MPUs ) in the Mexican States of Nuevo Leon, Chihuahua, and Tamaulipas.lvii These MPUs have approximately 422...state and federal resources and facilities.lix Ultimately these MPUs will be valuable state-level law enforcement assets enhancing overall police

Mexico: The Accidental Narco?

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-06-30

9 Gonzales, Maria de la Luz (2009-03-25). "Suman 10 mil 475 ejecuciones en esta administracion : PGR" (in Spanish). El Universal. http...the Sinaloa cartel, Ignacio Coronel was killed in 2010. The leader of La Familia, Nazario Moreno Gonzalez, could not escape the reach of Mexican...cartel, La Familia, had proposed truces with the government and promised a reduction in violence if the government focuses more on targeting its

Organizational Innovation and Redesign in the Information Age: The Drug War, Netwar, and Other Lower-End Conflict.

DTIC Science & Technology

1998-03-01

La Cosa Nostra when the families fought to claim territory from fallen family leaders.ൣ Additionally, leaders of the Cali cartel quickly...to the breakup of the Soviet Union, this theory is even more applicable in today’s internetted society. 2 Conflict in the new security environment...command) but they are even smaller and more flexible than past cartels. 36 According to a 10 December 1996 Santa Fe de Bogota Inravision Television

Private Military Firms as Instruments of U.S. Foreign Policy: The Case of Columbia

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-06-01

left a “power vacuum ” in many countries. Internal power struggles and ethnic conflicts broke out and led to a kind of warfare which is...the foundation for the increase of the private military sector.3 In many developing countries, private military firms (PMFs) have filled the vacuum ...efforts to dismantle the Medellín cartel in 1993 and the Cali cartel in 1995. With the drug organizations destroyed there was a vacuum in the drug

The Child Welfare Cartel

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stoesz, David

2016-01-01

The probity of the Children's Bureau's National Child Welfare Workforce Institute (NCWWI) is examined with respect to the status of child welfare as well as the performance of social work education. By requiring that funding go only to accredited schools of social work, which is not authorized by relevant provisions of the Social Security Act,…

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kaufman, B.I.

A power with inordinate wealth and influence, the oil industry has been seen as a sovereign entity, capable of dictating the terms and conditions under which oil is produced and sold throughout the world. The book examines the American government's attempt to curtail this international power in an antitrust suit which the Department of Justice brought in 1953 against the United States' five major oil corporations: Esso, Gulf, Mobil, Socal, and Texaco. While focusing on the cartel case, Burton Kaufman also tries to place it in the broader framework of foreign antitrust development in the Cold War era. His thesis:more » American concepts of national interest and national security, for the most part, destroyed the value of the cartel case as a curb on Mideastern oil monopolies. In support of his argument, Kaufman includes lengthy appendixes containing major documents relating to the cartel case, among them previously unpublished Justice Department records.« less

OPEC behavior

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Bo

This thesis aims to contribute to a further understanding of the real dynamics of OPEC production behavior and its impacts on the world oil market. A literature review in this area shows that the existing studies on OPEC still have some major deficiencies in theoretical interpretation and empirical estimation technique. After a brief background review in chapter 1, chapter 2 tests Griffin's market-sharing cartel model on the post-Griffin time horizon with a simultaneous system of equations, and an innovative hypothesis of OPEC's behavior (Saudi Arabia in particular) is then proposed based on the estimation results. Chapter 3 first provides a conceptual analysis of OPEC behavior under the framework of non-cooperative collusion with imperfect information. An empirical model is then constructed and estimated. The results of the empirical studies in this thesis strongly support the hypothesis that OPEC has operated as a market-sharing cartel since the early 1980s. In addition, the results also provide some support of the theory of non-cooperative collusion under imperfect information. OPEC members collude under normal circumstances and behave competitively at times in response to imperfect market signals of cartel compliance and some internal attributes. Periodic joint competition conduct plays an important role in sustaining the collusion in the long run. Saudi Arabia acts as the leader of the cartel, accommodating intermediate unfavorable market development and punishing others with a tit-for-tat strategy in extreme circumstances.

Curbing Cartel Influence in Mexico

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-10-28

government needs the ability to enforce those laws.51 The Financial Action Task Force ( FATF ) is a voluntary organization promoting worldwide adoption of...be reported by financial institutions and the other member countries periodically evaluate all members of FATF .53 In the summer of 2001, FATF ...Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering in South America, Mutual Evaluation Report: Mexico (Paris: FATF - GAFI, 2008), 8 52 FATF -GAFI, last

Mexican Cartels: Threat and Response

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-03-01

internal business displacement from the violent northern region to the quieter interior is also occurring51. The bloodshed is also impacting tourism and... rebuild its local and state police forces while simultaneously it develops a new Gendarmería Nacional so that all can effectively operate together...contingent, no matter how large, committed, or effective. It requires instead nothing short of rebuilding law enforcement institutions and

Cartel Car Bombings in Mexico

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-08-01

English and Spanish language media reports, Borderland Beat, available from www.borderlandbeat.com, Blog Del Naco, avail- able from...Departamento Administradora de Seguridad en Proceso de Supresión) DEA Drug Enforcement Administration DHS Department of Homeland...the official said in Spanish . ‘Car bombs have been employed in Nuevo Laredo, Monterrey, Victoria and the Tamaulipas coast city of Tampico, which

Defense.gov - Special Report: Travels with Gates

Science.gov Websites

learned in its crackdown against a leftist insurgency and drug-trafficking cartels, provides a model for Caribbean Basin Security Initiative aimed at curbing drug trafficking and other trans-border threats. Story

US Policy Approaches for Combating Violence in Northern Mexico

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-03-14

5 Aaron Terrazak, “Mexican Immigrants in the United States,” February 2010, linked from Migration Policy Institute Home Page at Migration ...Sentenced For Conspiracy That Supplied Weapons to Sinaloa Cartel, Ambassador Pascual Congratulates Mexico for Arrest of Edger Valdes Villarreal,” United

Pigouvian taxation of energy for flow and stock externalities and strategic, noncompetitive energy pricing

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wirl, F.

1994-01-01

The literature on energy and carbon taxes is by and large concerned about the derivation of (globally) efficient strategies. In contrast, this paper considers the dynamic interactions between cartelized energy suppliers and a consumers' government that collectively taxes energy carriers for Pigouvian motives. Two different kinds of external costs are associated with energy consumption: flow (e.g., acid rain) and stock externalities (e.g., global warming). The dynamic interactions between a consumers' government and a producers' cartel are modeled as a differential game with a subgame perfect Nash equilibrium in linear and nonlinear Markov strategies. The major implications are that the nonlinearmore » solutions are Pareto-inferior to the linear strategies and energy suppliers may preempt energy taxation and thereby may raise the price at front; however, this effect diminishes over time because the producers' price declines, while taxes increase. 22 refs., 5 figs., 1 tab.« less

Manifestations of the MOMM Phenomenon II: Relevant Data on Professional Darwinism and Membership Composition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Horan, John J.; And Others

Horan (1989) reported that graduates and employees of four institutions (Minnesota, Ohio State, Maryland, and Missouri - the "MOMM Cartel") heavily dominate every science and practice organ of the American Psychological Association's Division 17 governing body. Goldman (1990) provided additional data indicating that egregious exclusion…

Building a Planning Transition Capability into the New American Way of War

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-05-14

Noriega was linked to the Medellin drug cartel of Columbia. 61 Ibid., 7. 31 years, in multiple assignments, in Latin American.62 He was...the echelon of headquarters, is more of what modern, digitally equipped commands strive to achieve. Compartmentalization is not conducive to

U.S. Haiti Policy: An Evolving Comprehensive, Multilateral Approach

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-03-24

disaster; a cholera -stricken capital region; and an unresolved NOV 10 national election. Haiti can start anew, building on the current ravages. Former...have sustained limited military engagements to respond to threats emanating in Venezuela, Mexico , and throughout the Americas as drug cartels and

Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations: Matching Strategy to Threat

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-03-01

raids,16 family ties, and heritage. Issues ranging from national security to the environment and migration are complex issues that demand involvement...the perfect network for the Sinaloa Cartel to move heroin and methamphetamine26, and this is just one of the aforementioned 1000 cities where DTOs

Educating and Organizing Globally: Perspectives on the Internet and Higher Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Allport, Carolyn

2001-01-01

Explores benefits and dangers of electronic learning and the globalization of higher education, focusing on the strategic response of Australian institutions to international cartels in partnership arrangements that cross national boundaries and involve for-profit media or information technology companies in curriculum development and delivery.…

Microbial consortia at steady supply

PubMed Central

Taillefumier, Thibaud; Posfai, Anna; Meir, Yigal; Wingreen, Ned S

2017-01-01

Metagenomics has revealed hundreds of species in almost all microbiota. In a few well-studied cases, microbial communities have been observed to coordinate their metabolic fluxes. In principle, microbes can divide tasks to reap the benefits of specialization, as in human economies. However, the benefits and stability of an economy of microbial specialists are far from obvious. Here, we physically model the population dynamics of microbes that compete for steadily supplied resources. Importantly, we explicitly model the metabolic fluxes yielding cellular biomass production under the constraint of a limited enzyme budget. We find that population dynamics generally leads to the coexistence of different metabolic types. We establish that these microbial consortia act as cartels, whereby population dynamics pins down resource concentrations at values for which no other strategy can invade. Finally, we propose that at steady supply, cartels of competing strategies automatically yield maximum biomass, thereby achieving a collective optimum. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22644.001 PMID:28473032

Bringing a Global Perspective to Economics. Field Test Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Woyach, Robert B.; And Others

Eight lessons on integrated global economics provide detailed instructional materials on world food and energy systems, international cartels, and the nature and process of foreign investments. The materials are designed to help high school social studies teachers develop student understanding of key economic systems and activities and reinforce…

Geometry of Cournot-Nash Equilibrium with Application to Commons and Anticommons

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

D'Agata, Antonio

2010-01-01

The author develops a simple geometric analysis of Cournot-Nash equilibrium in the price-quantity space by exploiting the economic content of the first-order condition. The approach makes it clear that strategic interdependency in oligopoly originates from externalities among producers. This explains why cartels are unstable and casts oligopoly…

Spear Phishing Attack Detection

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-03-24

the insider amongst senior leaders of an organization [Mes08], the undercover detective within a drug cartel, or the classic secret agent planted in...to a mimicry attack that shapes the embedded malware to have a statistical distribution similar to "normal" or benign behavior. 2.3.1.3

Mexico’s ’Narco-Refugees’: The Looming Challenge for U.S. National Security

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-10-01

States.14 The location curse supports a common Mexican saying: “Pobre Mexico. Tan lejos de Dios; tan cerca de los Estados Unidos” (“Poor Mexico. So...in various cities in Guerrero and Morelos challenging the cartels; a rancher in Guerrero formed a group called the Army that Liberates the People

Institutional Struggles for Recognition in the Academic Field: The Case of University Departments in German Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Munch, Richard; Baier, Christian

2012-01-01

This paper demonstrates how the application of New Public Management (NPM) and the accompanying rise of academic capitalism in allocating research funds in the German academic field have interacted with a change from federal pluralism to a more stratified system of universities and departments. From this change, a tendency to build cartel-like…

Narcotics-Fueled Violence in Mexico: Crisis for the United States?

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-03-24

cartels in Mexico which operate on a highly geographic basis. The DTOs responsible for the majority of violence in Mexico are the Tijuana, Gulf, Sinaloa ...infrastructure along the border region to deal with problems such as a mass migration . The Army maintains large facilities at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas and

Child Welfare Research and Training: A Response to David Stoesz

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Brenda D.; Vandiver, Vikki L.

2016-01-01

In this response to David Stoesz' critique, "The Child Welfare Cartel," the authors agree that child welfare research and training must be improved. The authors disagree, however, with Stoesz' critique of social work education, his assessment of the most-needed forms of child welfare research, and his depiction of the goals and…

77 FR 76346 - Opening of Boquillas Border Crossing and Update to the Class B Port of Entry Description

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-12-28

... southern border in recent years, drug cartels will view the crossing as a ``back-door'' to the United..., criminals, drugs, or other contraband out of the country. On the other hand, a few commenters noted that CBP... the village of Boquillas used the crossing to trade goods, buy food, and visit relatives. One...

Peddling Pablo: Escobar's Cultural Renaissance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pobutsky, Aldona Bialowas

2013-01-01

Nearly two decades after his death, Pablo Escobar has reemerged in a number of autobiographical publications that revisit the era of the Medellín cartel and its most infamous capo. Rather than providing strictly historical information, these texts adopt an anecdotal and intimate angle from the positions of Escobar's hitman, his lover, his…

Losing American Students, Mexican Universities Struggle against a Scary Image

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ambrus, Steven

2012-01-01

Like most Mexicans, Eugenio Yarce has been deeply affected by the violence between drug cartels and the Mexican army, which has filled news coverage with accounts of kidnappings, assassinations, and torture. But for Mr. Yarce, deputy rector for outreach here at the private Autonomous Popular University of the State of Puebla, or Upaep, the…

Exploiting Weaknesses: An Approach to Counter Cartel Strategy

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-12-01

AnimalPolitco, September 24, 2011, http://www.animalpolitico.com/2011/09/tranquilidad- en -frontera-de-tamaulipas-por- construccion -de-base-militar...activities. 140 “Informacion de Ubicaciones Casas de Seguridad , Halcones, Etc. Nuevo Laredo en Vivo,” Mapa nuevolaredoenvivo.es.tl, http...148 “Informacion de Ubicaciones Casas de Seguridad , Halcones, Etc. Nuevo Laredo en Vivo,” Mapa nuevolaredoenvivo.es.tl, http

Mexican Cartels: The Threat Along Our Southern Border

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-12-01

associates to set off explosives at a public restaurant in Washington, D.C., where Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the US, was to be...informed there could be as many as 150 casualties, including U.S. Senators known to frequent the establishment, as a result of the restaurant bombing... franchises to distribute drugs, launder money and arrange for the southward export of deadly firearms. Ranchers may not say much to the media for

Networks, Netwar, and Information-Age Terrorism

DTIC Science & Technology

1999-01-01

intermediate nodes. • The star, hub, or wheel network, as in a franchise or a cartel structure where a set of actors is tied to a central node or actor...Aviv and Jerusalem. On March 21, a Hamas satchel bomb exploded at a Tel Aviv cafe , killing three persons and injuring 48; on July 30, two Hamas

The U. S., Its Press, and the New World Information Order. Freedom of Information Center Report No. 488.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wete, Francis N.

Criticisms of the one-way flow of international information were first voiced in the 1940s, when, in the name of free flow of information and worldwide access to news, the United States launched an offensive to dismantle European news cartels. At a UNESCO conference in 1945, the United States was chiefly responsible for making the free flow of…

Expansion of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Criminal Alien Program in the War on Terror

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-12-01

public version), January 2007, 6. 42 Ibid., i. 43 Ibid., 7. 44 Ibid., 9. 45 Jennifer M. Chacon , “Unsecured Borders: Immigration Restrictions...completion of their sentence. 47 Jennifer M. Chacon , “Unsecured Borders: Immigration Restrictions, Crime...Teaming with Drug Cartels.” Washington Times, August 8, 2007. Chacon , Jennifer M. “Unsecured Borders: Immigration Restrictions, Crime Control and

Shift in the National Drug Strategy: Implications for the SOUTHCOM AOR

DTIC Science & Technology

1994-06-17

NT.F:C.,ThON ! .’.NUI SER -4. 70,... l lOU R, -, Cf CE OF IL l NI l .. ELEV•ENT NO. . NO ACCESS’ON NO. 11. TITLE (. ict .*e Security Cla.ficaeionj SHIFT IN...illegal drugs and cooperate in international efforts.22 In Colombia, the Gaviria government challenged the violence of the Medellin Cartel capturing key

JIATF-SWB: Building an Operational Bridge for the Southwest Border

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-04-12

mexican_cartels_integr.htm. (accessed 20 March 2011). 4 Office of the President. “Obtener la base de datos de Fallecimientos ocurridos por presunta rivalidad...Obtener la base de datos de Fallecimientos ocurridos por presunta rivalidad delincuencial en el periodo diciembre 2006 a diciembre 2010... basing , technical, intelligence, and training support to JIATF-SWB. 15. SUBJECT TERMS Mexico, Southwest Border, USNORTHCOM, Interagency, 16

Foundation of Dynamic Monopoly and the Coase Conjecture.

DTIC Science & Technology

1985-06-01

Report No. 468 * June 1985 j, 4 _T0 .? INTT T FOR MAT-S T-1. T_ ’A E SOCIAL SCIENCES * IAIITIJ fI~OR, NCINA tAL , - ~It~rriy~PNIVERSITY ’S, TANIFORD...Milton Harris and Arthur Raviv . 426. "On the Marginal Cost of Government Spending" by David Starrett. 427. "Self-Agreed Cartel Rules" by Kevin Roberts

Finding a National Approach to Combat the Terror-Crime Nexus: A Hezbollah & Transnational Organized Crime Case Study

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-03-24

native Ayman Joumaa of selling Colombian cocaine to the Mexican Zetas drug cartel and laundering money for the drug-trafficking organization and...significant impact upon their capabilities. A third program targeting illicit finances is Treasury’s Money ... Laundering program where Treasury targets the organizations and networks that launder money for illicit groups.13 Another program of note is the Terrorist

Making the Merida Initiative Work

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-03-14

crack down on Mexican drug cartels through enhanced border security. The plan calls for additional personnel, increased intelligence capability and...Pentagon official.35 William Wechsler , Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Counter-narcotics and Global Threats, testified to the Senate Armed...indirect support to units of the Mexican armed forces with counter-narco terrorism missions‖.36 Wechsler also stated, this is an emerging issue for DoD

Scientific Misconduct in India: Causes and Perpetuation.

PubMed

Patnaik, Pratap R

2016-08-01

Along with economic strength, space technology and software expertise, India is also a leading nation in fraudulent scientific research. The problem is worsened by vested interests working in concert for their own benefits. These self-promoting cartels, together with biased evaluation methods and weak penal systems, combine to perpetuate scientific misconduct. Some of these issues are discussed in this commentary, with supporting examples and possible solutions.

The Latin American Drug Trade: Scope, Dimensions, Impact, and Response

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-01-01

Preface Transnational crime remains a particularly serious problem in Latin America, affecting numerous states both in and beyond the region and...principal consequences that are associated with this particular manifestation of transnational crime . This monograph is based on research conducted during...the 1990s, was the country’s most- powerful narcotics crime group. The cartel has progressively dimin- ished in prominence, however, due to growing

Drug Trafficking within Mexico: A Law Enforcement Issue or Insurgency?

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-06-10

What Does this Mean for Mexico? ............................................................................... 88 What Does this Mean for the United...quickly mobilizes to combat this growing threat that has engulfed their country, the U.S. prepares for what is sure to be a tidal wave of similar drug...This research will show that the cartels are waging what is commonly referred to as narco-insurgency using a combination of political and social

The Diversification of Mexican Transnational Criminal Organizations and its Effects on Spillover Violence in the United States

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-06-14

would require the determination of “innocent.” This definition presumes that violence against illegal immigrants , often the victims of violence on...Canada, Chile , the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Luxembourg...illegal immigrants being smuggled into the U.S., Mexican or U.S. citizens working with the cartels or their innocent family members, and those that

The Brazilian Military: Its Role in Counter-Drug Activities

DTIC Science & Technology

1992-06-01

34Police Uncover ’New’ Medellin Cartel Drug Route," Brasilia Radio Nacional de Amazonia , in Portuguese, 29 November 1989, translated in FBIS, 30...42 "Destruction of Clandestine Airstrips to Begin," Brasi Radio Nacional de Amazonia Network, in Portuguese, 2 May 1990, translated in FBIS, 3 May... de Ciencia Politica e Relacoes Internacionais (REL) Universidade de Brasilia 70.910 Brasilia, D.F. BRAZIL 107

MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS AND TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS, A NEW ALLIANCE

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-02-16

two countries is basic market opportunism responding to supply and demand. Having originated from U.S. demand for marijuana and heroin after WWII and...billion a year.18 Accordingly, Mexico has grown to be a major producer of heroin, marijuana , and methamphetamine destined for the United States which...according to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), is the world’s largest consumer of cocaine, Colombian heroin, and Mexican heroin and marijuana .19

Drug Trafficking as a Lethal Regional Threat in Central America

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-12-16

and Bolivia. 28 Panama It produces marijuana and serves as a critical transit country for all drugs coming from South America to the United...Colombian drug cartels. Paraguay This is a marijuana producing country. Its production probably never leaves South America; it is believed to supply...broad diversification of their products. The Mexican DTOs went through great efforts to establish laboratories for the cheap synthetic drugs in Mexico

Counternetwork: Countering the Expansion of Transnational Criminal Networks

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-01-01

herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this...capture and control of relevant aspects of the public domain—sometimes result in de facto governance.35 Whether this means that a counterinsurgency...p. 178. 35 Clark, 2009. Critics of the criminal insurgency concept argue that the cartels engage in de facto governance not for the sake of

The Challenge of Drug Trafficking to Democratic Governance and Human Security in West Africa

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-05-01

Washing ton, DC, as the Director of the Office of Environmental Policy; as Economic Officer in the Bu- reau of Econom ic and Business Affairs... Colombian cartels established links with Mexican syndicates after the United States significantly choked off the old Ca- ribbean drug...transportation corridor and forced the Colombians to start moving their drug loads across the southwest border of the United States.48 Mexican DTOs, including

Violent Mexican Transnational Criminal Organizations in Texas: Political Discourse and an Argument for Reality

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-09-01

control as did their Colombian predecessors, the Cali and Medellin cartels.11 In fact, they operate in quite the opposite manner and are in constant...Ibid. 3 Recent U.S. legislation requested these groups be designated foreign terrorist organizations.13 This is a notable departure and for the first...opinion in general.”16 Legislation offered before Congress by Congressman Michael McCaul asserts they “operate in the

Merida Initiative and Effectiveness: An Analysis of Supply-Side Policy

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-06-01

with Colombian President Julio Cesar Turbay (1978–1982) to frame the drug war within a law enforcement structure.14 In Colombia, the strategy focused...cultivation into neighboring Colombia, resulted in a shift of coca production, which allowed Colombian cartels to increase their cocaine trade...their work, they postulate that reports of U.S.- Colombian success in eradication efforts in 2002–2003 failed to consider the “balloon effect

Northern Command: A Relevant and Necessary Partner to Increase Security in Mexico

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-10-27

month.19 Drug cartels leverage low pay and offer “ plato o plomo” or “silver or lead” which forces policemen to choose between taking a bribe or a...Scott Stewart, Hezbollah, Radical but Rational , Stratfor Security Weekly, (12 August 2010), http://www.stratfor.com/weekly...34Hezbollah, Radical but Rational ." Stratfor.com. August 12, 2010. http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20100811_hezbollah_radical_rational (accessed 28

Deterrence Theory in the Contemporary Operating Environment

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-06-12

violent non-state actors like terrorist organizations will be covered. Drug cartels, cyber criminals , arms dealers, money launderers , and others will...example, a money launderer may be willing to risk minor criminal prosecution for working with a low-level drug dealer due to the benefits associated...go-betweens, financiers, money launderers , etcetera, may have immediate needs that are much more important that the cause of the group. This means

Combat Policing: The Application of Selected Law Enforcement Techniques to Enhance Infantry Operations

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-05-09

time, moving closer to a point where they try to achieve peer status with the occupying force.5 The initial Iraqi insurgency was largely composed of...into the nearest shop he could observe which sold phones. After a moment of strangely tense conversation with the shopkeeper, he peered behind the...Cartels: Insurgents Defeated with a Counterinsurgency Strategy.” Marine Corps Gazette. Jan 2012. Combat Hunter Homepage. U.S. Marine Corps Mobile

The New Wild West: Military Support in Border Security Operations

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-06-08

military service members from being used to enforce the laws of the United States unless expressly authorized by the United States Constitution or the...cartels constitute a significant threat to United States national security that cannot be defeated or deterred by law enforcement methods alone in order...Arlington, VA 22202-4302. Respondents should be aware that notwithstanding any other provision of law , no person shall be subject to any penalty for

The Role of Religion in the Mexican Drug War

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-10-28

action based on their shared belief. The second condition is that this community of believers must see their belief as a liberating force that can... Estados Unidos Mexicanos, last modified 2011, http://en.presidencia.gob.mx/presidency/president/ 17 Mexico has decided since its independence...latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2011/07/20/patterned-after- knights-templar-drug-cartel-issues-code-conduct/ Presidencia de La Republica, Estados Unidos

Strange Deja Vu: Tackling Information Sharing Problems for Efforts Against Transnational Organized Crime

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-06-01

as the demand in the US for drugs produced in Latin America (e.g., cocaine, marijuana , methamphetamines) remains, Latin American drug cartels will...6,100 kilograms of cocaine, 10,284 pounds of methamphetamine, 1,619 pounds of heroin, 349,304 pounds of marijuana , and nearly $150 million in United...benefits from increased information sharing with the Intelligence Community and other federal agencies through a favorable relationship with BIFS

Counterinsurgency and the Mexican Drug War

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-04-26

organized crime and government quickly began to unravel in 2000 when Vicente Fox was elected the first non-PRI affiliated President of Mexico since 1924...due to fighting between the Gulf and Sinaloa cartels, President Fox ordered 700 soldiers and federal police into the city. 7 Despite their best...Drug Lords are Taken Down: Notorious Cruelty , accessed at: http://www.rd.com/your-america-inspiring-people-and-stories/mexican-drug-lords-are-taken

Colombia’s Conflicts: The Spillover Effects of a Wider War

DTIC Science & Technology

2002-10-01

a summary of the history and impact of civil violence on Colombian history, see Comision de estudios sobre la violencia, Colombia: Violencia y...Brasilia pie acapos del Cartel de brasil,” El Nuevo Herald, March 27, 2001; Mendel, p. 7. 87. Quoted in Gentleman, pp. 28-29. 88. “Tracion en el mercado ...guerrilla groups, the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional (ELN) and the rightist Auto Defensas

The War on Drugs -- Can an Operational Artist Help Win It?

DTIC Science & Technology

1989-05-06

surviving, employed. Cause of violence by Viewed as peacemakers for their failure to reform their alliance with their countries fast enough, guerillas...they are working for criminals and murders. Also these workers are unaware of the misery and destruction that is caused by the use and sale of drugs...in domestic drug violence and drug abuse is causing the common man to turn away from supporting drug cartels. In addition, improvements in aerial

What We’re Getting Wrong About Mexico

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-01-01

or other valuable assets on a permanent basis . . . .Violent entrepreneurship is a means of increasing the private income of the wielders of force...product.”22 Drug cartels are a type of violent entrepreneurship because they derive their income by force to succeed in private transactions that are...during the decades long “Troubles” in Northern Ireland (over 3,500) and exceeds the number of deaths inflicted by Turkey’s long-running Kurdistan

Lack of agreement over the use and ownership of the internationally shared resources (such as air space, outer space and the oceans) leading to international conflict

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1975-01-01

The lack of adequate institutional mechanisms to regulate, monitor and govern the use of commonly owned world resources appears to be politically destabilizing and subject to socioeconomic pressures of overpopulation, food shortages, cartelism, terrorism, and wealth distribution to developing countries. The capacity and propensity to wage war and its potential consequences are elaborated. It is shown that technology is one of the dominant factors affecting the exploration and management of commonly shared resources.

Rethinking Food: How United States Agriculture Production Affects Security Policy and Global Markets

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-06-13

moral duty to bring aid to the Indian people, but merely a small front of the newly designated “war on hunger.” It was argued India required assistance...increase in cost. Lastly, the participants of the cartel needed to align with US interests. Aside from these conditions, the author addresses the moral ...within government and institutions that enable individuals achieve freedom. Sen touches on human rights and indicates he is skeptical of cultural

The Closest Alligator to the Boat: Mexico’s Drug-Fueled Violence

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-01-28

outside stimulus. This plays into why cartels are able to so freely recruit new members into their ranks. Machismo , a learned response and a real...part of Hispanic culture, is one of the overriding forces driving the Latin American male psyche. Machismo , directly translated from Spanish...closest English word to machismo is macho which seems to be an out of vogue word in 2010 America. In America, it is acceptable to be in touch with

Merida Initiative: The Answer for Mexico?

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-03-15

will have problems realizing the full benefits of the two partnerships. The Los Angeles Times article “Why Mexico is not Colombia” does a very good...job laying out the differences. The article responded to Secretary of State Clinton’s comparison of Mexican drug cartels with the “Colombia-style...government was a lot more successful than attempts to fumigate the coca productions. Colombian Defense Ministry statistics document the success of the

Silicon to syringe: Cryptomarkets and disruptive innovation in opioid supply chains.

PubMed

Gilbert, Michael; Dasgupta, Nabarun

2017-08-01

Cryptomarkets offer insight into the evolving interplay between online black markets and cartel-based distribution. The types and forms of heroin, fentanyl, and prescription drugs show wide diversification. In this commentary we describe changes in the conceptualizations, technologies and structures of drug supply chains in the 21st Century, with special attention to the role of cryptomarkets as tools, contexts, and drivers of innovation in public health research. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia: The Emergence of the ’New Macedonian Question’ in the Remains of Second Yugoslavia. Survivability of the New Postcold War State in the Balkans

DTIC Science & Technology

2001-12-01

Recently, there has been a dramatic rise in the drug trade, as Skopje is on the heroin route from Turkey to the Adriatic coast and Italian mafia cartels...links. Most of them went along the old traditional route of Nis- Skopje - Thessaloniki. It is by now very obvious to observers that the geopolitics of...the New Post-Cold War State in the Balkans 6 . AUTHOR(S) Charalampos Lekkas 5. FUNDING NUMBERS 7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESS

CTC Sentinel. Volume 5, Issue 7

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-07-01

vital tourism industry has entirely collapsed while the region is concomitantly suffering a food crisis exacerbated by drought conditions.14 In... words of any entity because God is one without partners. All UNESCO’s calls are just polytheism. We are Muslims and we don’t revere any shrines or...still clung to wrists and faces, from mouths to noses.”15 The throats of the five men had also been slashed open after they Mexican Drug Cartel

Gangs in Honduras: A Threat to National Security

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-03-22

police, judiciary and political elites. In some parts of the country, “drug cartels act as de facto authority and there is evidence of a training camp...practical to politicians…to expect the military to solve the problem by force, nor is it practical for the military to plan and execute a purely military...Honduras: Tegucigalpa, National Defense College and El Salvador University, October 30, 2007), http://cdn.U.S.alnet.org/ tesis /files/osorio.pdf

Have the Mexican Drug Cartels Evolved into a Terrorist Insurgency?

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-06-14

Command and General Staff College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree MASTER OF MILITARY ART AND SCIENCE Homeland Security......Director, Graduate Degree Programs Robert F. Baumann, Ph.D. The opinions and conclusions expressed herein are those of the student author and do not

La Familia Drug Cartel: Implications for U.S.-Mexican Security

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-12-01

Mexico’s modern sector (and from abroad), including electronic items, Internet cafes, spas, and hotels and restaurants that belong to national or...diminished influence of the Roman Catholic Church. Figure 1. Michoacán’s Evolving Social Fabric. 6 *McDonald, Electronic mail to author, January 24...Michoacán, and Electronic mail, February 10, 2010; James H. McDonald, “A Fading Aztec Sun: The Mexican Opposi- tion and the Politics of Everyday Fear

Strict Slaves of Slogans: Response to ''The Social Work Cartel''

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Epstein, William M.

2016-01-01

The corruption of the social work enterprise is not simply episodic but systemic and long-standing including education, research, governance, and practice. Reform is unlikely since the constituency within the field and outside of it that wishes to change the situation is small and ineffective. The corruption of social work reflects the unfortunate…

Institutional arrangements for the reduction of proliferation risks formulation, evaluation, and implementation of institutional concepts. Appendices

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

The purpose of this supporting analysis is to provide a foundation for developing a model, an international or multinational institution capable of accomodating the back end of the fuel cycle, while meeting US nonproliferation goals. The analysis is based on a review of selected, defunct and extant institutions which, although not necessarily concerned with nonproliferation, have faced a trade-off between acceptability and effectiveness in meeting their objectives. Discussion of the various institutions is divided into three categories: international organizations, multinational consortia, and cartels or producer associations. Examples of international organizations include the International Seabed Authority, Intelsat, the United Nations andmore » the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The International Seabed Authority is discussed. Multinational consortia are organizations that have been developed primarily to meet common commercial objectives. Membership includes at least three member nations. Examples include the Scandinavian Airline System (SAS), URENCO, Unilever, Royal Dutch Shell, Eurochemic, Eurodif, Euratom, European Coal and Steel Community, and Serena. Cartels or producer associations are multinational agreements that restrict market forces; viz, production, market share, customers or prices. Examples include the Intergovernmental Council of Copper Exporting Countries (CIPEC), the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), and the Fifth International Tin Agreement (ITA), as well as agreements governing diamonds and uranium, bauxite and coffee. OPEC, CIPEC and ITA are discussed.« less

Initial Design and Concept of Operations for a Clandestine Data Relay UUV To Circumvent Jungle Canopy Effects on Satellite Communications

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-09-01

rainforests are the darkest areas, corresponding to on average of 7 m2 of leaves per m2 of ground. (From ) ......3 Figure 2. A picture of the Niger River...eastern India, or cartels and narco-terrorists of the Amazon river valley, they all share a number of things in common, number one among them being...synonymous with rainforest , and will be used interchangeably. By definition, the rainforest is one of the 2 Earth’s major biomes, and is further

Future US energy demands based upon traditional consumption patterns lead to requirements which significantly exceed domestic supply

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1975-01-01

Energy consumption in the United States has risen in response to both increasing population and to increasing levels of affluence. Depletion of domestic energy reserves requires consumption modulation, production of fossil fuels, more efficient conversion techniques, and large scale transitions to non-fossile fuel energy sources. Widening disparity between the wealthy and poor nations of the world contributes to trends that increase the likelihood of group action by the lesser developed countries to achieve political and economic goals. The formation of anticartel cartels is envisioned.

Getting out of the game: desistance from drug trafficking.

PubMed

Campbell, Howard; Hansen, Tobin

2012-11-01

This ethnographic study was conducted along the U.S.-Mexico border, the centre of the western hemispheric illicit drugs trade. It examines factors that encouraged or discouraged drug traffickers to "get out of the game" (a common slang reference to leaving the drug business). In-depth, life history interviews were conducted of thirty ex-traffickers in the El Paso/Ciudad Juárez area. Participants discussed their experiences exiting drug trafficking and their retrospective, often conflicted, feelings about the trade. Although leaving drug trafficking is a complex and multi-faceted process, the principle factors for study participants were (1) punishment (by authorities or other traffickers), (2) self-image and identity, (3) social ties, (4) life course changes and (5) drug use/abuse. Traffickers often want to quit, but their divided self-identities make it difficult to relinquish the power and exhilaration they derive from the illicit drugs business. Harm reduction policies are needed that address the embeddedness of trafficker identities in dense webs of family, community, street gangs and transnational cartels, and the larger society, as well as the seductive appeal of Hollywood and pro-cartel narco-media. Traffickers need pathways that allow them to exit the illicit drugs business without surrendering their identity. Prison sentences are not enough to encourage traffickers to stop-also needed are culturally sensitive policies that help traffickers get out of the game and stay out. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Greed and Grievance and Drug Cartels: Mexico’s Commercial Insurgency

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-05-25

impunity as signs the problem has grown beyond mere organized crime. 23 As Sullivan and Elkus summarize, The fragmented and post ideological quality...are likely to dominate the post -Cold War world. Spiritual insurgency is the descent of the Cold War-era revolutionary insurgency. It will be driven by...the legitimacy of the organization as, “the de facto authority… [guaranteeing] living conditions for its inhabitants.”61 In areas where the

Exclusive: OPEC's story - denies it is a cartel (in English and Spanish)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

1983-03-23

Coverage of OPEC news in the Western press exploded in 1973 during the Arab Oil Embargo and blossomed during the 1979 oil price hike. Since then, however, coverage wanes when OPEC's problems are its own and not widely impacting consuming nations. OPECNA, the OPEC News Agency, was established in 1980 to improve the quantity and quality of world press coverage of OPEC activities. Since then, OPECNA has also been OPEC's historian. It is felt that OPECNA has achieved its principal goal, that of providing reliable and frequent information about OPEC and the activities of its member countries; however, it appearsmore » to have little success in restructuring world opinion. Included here is an exclusive interview by Energy Detente with Mr. Gonzalo Plaza, Director of OPECNA. The Energy Detente fuel price/tax series and industrial fuel prices for March 1983 are presented for countries of the Western Hemisphere.« less

The Economic Effect of Competition in the Air Transportation Industry

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hubbard, H. B.

1972-01-01

The air transportation industry has been described as a highly-competitive, regulated oligopoly or as a price-regulated cartel with blocked entry, resulting in excessive service and low load factors. The current structure of the industry has been strongly influenced by the hypotheses that increased levels of competition are desirable per se, and that more competing carriers can be economically supported in larger markets, in longer haul markets, with lower unit costs, and with higher fare levels. An elementary application of competition/game theory casts doubt on the validity of these hypotheses, but rather emphasizes the critical importance of the short-term non-variable costs in determining economic levels of competition.

Application of Core Theory to the Airline Industry

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Raghavan, Sunder

2003-01-01

Competition in the airline industry has been fierce since the industry was deregulated in 1978. The proponents of deregulation believed that more competition would improve efficiency and reduce prices and bring overall benefits to the consumer. In this paper, a case is made based on core theory that under certain demand and cost conditions more competition can actually lead to harmful consequences for industries like the airline industry or cause an empty core problem. Practices like monopolies, cartels, price discrimination, which is considered inefficient allocation of resources in many other industries, can actually be beneficial in the case of the airline industry in bringing about an efficient equilibrium.

The COIN Approach to Mexican Drug Cartels: Square Peg in a Round Hole

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-10-28

33 Max Boot and Richard Bennet, “The Colombian Miracle: How Alvaro Uribe turned the tide against drug lords and...Bennet. “How Alvaro Uribe with Smart U.S. support turned the tide against drug lords and Marxist Guerillas.” The Weekly Standard, 14 December 2009

Labor Migration, Drug Trafficking Organizations, and Drug Use: Major Challenges for Transnational Communities in Mexico.

PubMed

García, Víctor; González, Laura

2009-06-01

In our article, we present the recent findings of our ethnographic field study on drug use and the emergence of a drug use culture in transnational communities in Mexico. Transnational communities are part of a larger migratory labor circuit that transcends political borders and are not restricted to a single locality. Transnational migrants and returning immigrants link the multiple localities through their social networks. In southern Guanajuato, Mexico, using a transnational migration paradigm, we examined the manner in which transnational migration and drug trafficking organizations are contributing to a growing drug problem in these communities. We found that transnational migrants and returning immigrants, including deported workers, introduce drugs and drug use practices, and contribute to the creation of a drug use culture within the communities. The social conditions in the community that foster and proliferate drug use are many: the erosion of the traditional family, truncated kinship bases, and new social formations. These conditions are all consequences of migration and emigration. Recent drug cartel activities are also contributing to this growing drug problem. The cartels have aggressively targeted these communities because of availability of money, existing drug use, a drug use culture, and the breakdown of traditional deterrents to substance abuse. Although a number of communities in three municipalities were part of our study, we focus on two: Lindavista, a rancho, Progreso, a municipal seat. Our field study in Mexico, one of four sequential ethnographic field studies conducted in Guanajuato and Pennsylvania, was completed over a six month period, from September, 2008, through February, 2009, using traditional ethnography. The four field studies are part of a larger, ongoing, three-year bi-national study on drug use among transnational migrants working in southeastern Pennsylvania. This larger study, near its third and final year, is funded by the

Labor Migration, Drug Trafficking Organizations, and Drug Use: Major Challenges for Transnational Communities in Mexico

PubMed Central

González, Laura

2009-01-01

In our article, we present the recent findings of our ethnographic field study on drug use and the emergence of a drug use culture in transnational communities in Mexico. Transnational communities are part of a larger migratory labor circuit that transcends political borders and are not restricted to a single locality. Transnational migrants and returning immigrants link the multiple localities through their social networks. In southern Guanajuato, Mexico, using a transnational migration paradigm, we examined the manner in which transnational migration and drug trafficking organizations are contributing to a growing drug problem in these communities. We found that transnational migrants and returning immigrants, including deported workers, introduce drugs and drug use practices, and contribute to the creation of a drug use culture within the communities. The social conditions in the community that foster and proliferate drug use are many: the erosion of the traditional family, truncated kinship bases, and new social formations. These conditions are all consequences of migration and emigration. Recent drug cartel activities are also contributing to this growing drug problem. The cartels have aggressively targeted these communities because of availability of money, existing drug use, a drug use culture, and the breakdown of traditional deterrents to substance abuse. Although a number of communities in three municipalities were part of our study, we focus on two: Lindavista, a rancho, Progreso, a municipal seat. Our field study in Mexico, one of four sequential ethnographic field studies conducted in Guanajuato and Pennsylvania, was completed over a six month period, from September, 2008, through February, 2009, using traditional ethnography. The four field studies are part of a larger, ongoing, three-year bi-national study on drug use among transnational migrants working in southeastern Pennsylvania. This larger study, near its third and final year, is funded by the

Life is getting scary in the oil markets

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Uttal, B.

1980-01-28

In the four years prior to 1978, crude was plentiful and often sold on the spot market for less than official OPEC prices. Then in late 1978, Iran quit exporting, and a severe winter in Europe drove stocks of heating oil far below their usual levels. Fear of shortages sent spot prices for heating oil up 112%, and crude prices followed. Many OPEC members realized that sticking to the cartel's official selling price was no longer in their interests. Some OPEC members are now pulling contracts out from under the majors and are selling directly to consuming nations. The movemore » away from the majors has increased the chances that an end user will have its supplies disrupted, causing it to buy and stockpile supplies beyond storage capacity. The producing states' new dominance has had its greatest impact not on the majors but on a special class of customers who rely on the majors for much of their crude. These are the third-party buyers, a category that includes independent refiners, governments, and any other customer not directly associated with the majors' captive distribution networks. DOE estimates that some independent refiners have lost 40% of their third-party supplies; Japan has been informed that, as of March 1980, it will lose all of the oil it receives under third-party contracts. It now seems that none of the majors has enough crude to run its own refineries and to keep up supplies to its established third-party customers. And, when supplies are loose, cartel members are likely to cut production. One analyst has said that OPEC could fulfill all of their revenue needs and still slash production by about 70%. (MCW)« less

Yamani

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Robinson, J.

1988-01-01

In 1962, when oil was $2/bbl (*12.50/m/sup 3/), King Faisal appointed a lawyer as minister of petroleum. According to the author, he wrestled control of Saudi Arabia's oil away from the U.S. during the next 11 years and turned the OPEC cartel into a major world force. In Oct. 1973, when war broke out in the Middle East, this man held the world to ransom. Yet in 1989, a one-sentence edict brought his political career to an end. This book traces these events in a biographical account of the former Saudi Arabian oil minister and leading force behind OPEC, Sheikmore » Ahmed Zaki Yamani.« less

Oil, Japan, and globalization

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bina, C.

Today, the globalization of the international economy is nowhere as evident and complete as in the oil industry. Indeed, the production, distribution, and pricing of oil have already been infused into a transnational network of interconnected, transparent, and competitive markets. This sort of market arrangement, unlike its previous cartelized counterpart, rests upon a highly globalized economic framework whose very existence discourages a need for Western military intervention for the sake of oil. Returning to the bygone era, and judging the oil business accordingly, would create an impression that nothing has changed. This article describes the conflict of hegemony between themore » U.S. and Japan in the context of the global oil market.« less

Modeling of geographical pricing: A game analysis of siberian fuel costs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sivushina, Anastasiya; Kombu, Anchy; Ryumkin, Valeriy

2017-11-01

In the present study, we propose a novel game-theoretic pricing model describing the interaction between producers and retailers of goods in conditions of poor transport infrastructure and sparse geographical distribution of the points of sale. The proposed model generalizes the Stackelberg leadership model for an arbitrary number of leaders and followers. We show that the model always has a Nash and Stackelberg equilibria. We also provide formulas for the equilibrium prices and volume of sales. As an example we model diesel pricing in south Siberia. Our model found no signs of a cartel. The results of this paper can be used by policymakers to inform market regulations aimed at promoting free competition and avoiding monopolies in production and retail of goods.

Competition and the Reference Pricing Scheme for pharmaceuticals.

PubMed

Ghislandi, Simone

2011-12-01

By introducing n (>1) firms with infinite cross-price elasticity (i.e. generic drugs), we explore the effects of competition on the optimal pricing strategies under a Reference Pricing Scheme (RPS). A two-stage model repeated infinite number of times is presented. When stage 1 is competitive, the equilibrium in pure strategies exists and is efficient only if the reference price (R) does not depend on the price of the branded product. When generics collude, the way R is designed is crucial for both the stability of the cartel among generics and the collusive prices in equilibrium. An optimally designed RPS must set R as a function only of the infinitely elastic side of the market and should provide the right incentives for competition. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Cartel Next: How Army Design Methodology Offers Holistic and Dissimilar Approaches to the Mexican Drug Problem

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-06-30

things. - Gerald M. Weinberg 1 Author‟ s Note: This paper is a theoretical exercise that attempts to deliver one possible Army...military and the overarching web of government agencies and international actors could approach Mexico‟ s current issues- however, this is a purely...interact.” 2 Raj Kumar, Why Mexico‟ s Violence is America‟ s Problem (CNN Opinion, April 11, 2011, http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/04/11

Drug Cartels and Gangs in Mexico and Central America: A View through the Lens of Counterinsurgency

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-06-04

counterinsurgency: Uribe’s Colombia (2002-2006) vs FARC.( Alvaro Uribe Velez, Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia),” Military Review, 87, no.2 (March 2007): 41...A model counterinsurgency: Uribe’s Colombia (2002-2006) vs FARC.( Alvaro Uribe Velez, Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia).” Military Review. 87...Mexico, corruption is widespread. In a January 2010 statement by Guatemalan President Alvaro Colon, he blamed drug traffickers for the incessant

Necropolitics, narcopolitics, and femicide: gendered violence on the Mexico-U.S. border.

PubMed

Wright, Melissa W

2011-01-01

In 1993, a group of women shocked Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, with the news that dozens of girls and women had been murdered and dumped, like garbage, around the city during the year. As the numbers of murders grew over the years, and as the police forces proved unwilling and unable to find the perpetrators, the protestors became activists. They called the violence and its surrounding impunity "femicide," and they demanded that the Mexican government, at the local, state, and federal levels, stop the violence and capture the perpetrators. Nearly two decades later, the city's infamy as a place of femicide is giving way to another terrible reputation as a place of unprecedented drug violence. Since 2006, more than six thousand people have died in the city, as have more than twenty-eight thousand across the country, in relation to the violence associated with the restructuring of the cartels that control the production and distribution of illegal drugs. In response to the public outcry against the violence, the Mexican government has deployed thousands of troops to Ciudad Juárez as part of a military strategy to secure the state against the cartels. In this essay, I argue that the politics over the meaning of the drug-related murders and femicide must be understood in relation to gendered violence and its use as a tool for securing the state. To that end, I examine the wars over the interpretation of death in northern Mexico through a feminist application of the concept of necropolitics as elaborated by the postcolonial scholar Achille Mbembe. I examine how the wars over the political meaning of death in relation both to femicide and to the events called "drug violence" unfold through a gendering of space, of violence, and of subjectivity. My objective is twofold: first, to demonstrate how the antifemicide movement illustrates the stakes for a democratic Mexican state and its citizens in a context where governing elites argue that the violence devastating Ciudad Ju

The H0 function, a new index for detecting structural/topological complexity information in undirected graphs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Buscema, Massimo; Asadi-Zeydabadi, Masoud; Lodwick, Weldon; Breda, Marco

2016-04-01

Significant applications such as the analysis of Alzheimer's disease differentiated from dementia, or in data mining of social media, or in extracting information of drug cartel structural composition, are often modeled as graphs. The structural or topological complexity or lack of it in a graph is quite often useful in understanding and more importantly, resolving the problem. We are proposing a new index we call the H0function to measure the structural/topological complexity of a graph. To do this, we introduce the concept of graph pruning and its associated algorithm that is used in the development of our measure. We illustrate the behavior of our measure, the H0 function, through different examples found in the appendix. These examples indicate that the H0 function contains information that is useful and important characteristics of a graph. Here, we restrict ourselves to undirected.

World oil outlook. Hearings before the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, United States Senate, One Hundredth Congress, First Session, January 22 and March 11, 1987

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

1987-01-01

Dr. James E. Akins, Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, James R. Schlesinger of the Georgetown Center for Strategic and International Studies, Dr. Daniel Dreyfus of the Gas Research Institute, Dr. Scott Jones of Chase Econometrics, Inc., and Dr. John H. Lichtblau of the Petroleum Industry Research Foundation were the principal witnesses at a hearing held to review the potential for another oil crisis due to reduced domestic production and exploration and a diminished capability in both areas. Statements made by several senators reviewed the dangers of depending upon Middle East oil imports and the threat of an energy problem more seriousmore » than those of 1973 and 1979. Of primary concern was the need to retain a healthy domestic petroleum industry in the wake of fluctuating prices and restrengthening of OPEC as a cartel. Additional material submitted by Americans for Energy Independence follows the two-day testimony of the 16 witnesses.« less

Mexican journalists: an investigation of their emotional health.

PubMed

Feinstein, Anthony

2012-08-01

Mexican journalists are frequently the victims of violence, often drug related. The purpose of the study was to assess their mental well-being. Of 104 journalists recruited from 3 news organizations, those who had stopped working on drug-related stories because of intimidation from the criminal drug cartels (n = 26) had significantly greater social dysfunction (p = .024); and more depressive (p = .001) and higher intrusive (p = .027), avoidance (p = .005), and arousal (p = .033) symptoms than journalists living and working under threat in regions of drug violence (n = 61). They also had more arousal (p = .05) and depressive (p = .027) symptoms than journalists (n = 17) never threatened before and living in regions without a drug problem. These findings provide preliminary data on the deleterious effects of drug-related violence on the Mexican media, amplifying the concerns expressed by journalist watchdog organizations monitoring the state of the press in the country. Copyright © 2012 International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies.

Solar thermal technology development: Estimated market size and energy cost savings. Volume 1: Executive summary

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gates, W. R.

1983-02-01

Estimated future energy cost savings associated with the development of cost-competitive solar thermal technologies (STT) are discussed. Analysis is restricted to STT in electric applications for 16 high-insolation/high-energy-price states. The fuel price scenarios and three 1990 STT system costs are considered, reflecting uncertainty over future fuel prices and STT cost projections. STT R&D is found to be unacceptably risky for private industry in the absence of federal support. Energy cost savings were projected to range from $0 to $10 billion (1990 values in 1981 dollars), dependng on the system cost and fuel price scenario. Normal R&D investment risks are accentuated because the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) cartel can artificially manipulate oil prices and undercut growth of alternative energy sources. Federal participation in STT R&D to help capture the potential benefits of developing cost-competitive STT was found to be in the national interest.

Solar thermal technology development: Estimated market size and energy cost savings. Volume 1: Executive summary

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gates, W. R.

1983-01-01

Estimated future energy cost savings associated with the development of cost-competitive solar thermal technologies (STT) are discussed. Analysis is restricted to STT in electric applications for 16 high-insolation/high-energy-price states. The fuel price scenarios and three 1990 STT system costs are considered, reflecting uncertainty over future fuel prices and STT cost projections. STT R&D is found to be unacceptably risky for private industry in the absence of federal support. Energy cost savings were projected to range from $0 to $10 billion (1990 values in 1981 dollars), dependng on the system cost and fuel price scenario. Normal R&D investment risks are accentuated because the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) cartel can artificially manipulate oil prices and undercut growth of alternative energy sources. Federal participation in STT R&D to help capture the potential benefits of developing cost-competitive STT was found to be in the national interest.

From War on Drugs to War against Terrorism: modeling the evolution of Colombia's counter-insurgency.

PubMed

Banks, Catherine M; Sokolowski, John A

2009-03-01

Strategic and tactical planning for military intervention needs revision as the causes, methods, and means of conflict have evolved. Counter-insurgent engagement is one such intervention that governments, militaries, and non-governmental organizations seek to better understand. Modeling insurgencies is an acceptable means to gain insight into the various characteristics of asymmetric warfare to proffer prescriptive resolutions for mitigating their effects. Colombia's insurgency poses the challenge of assessing population behavior in a non-traditional revolutionary climate. Factors prevalent in traditional insurgency are not applicable in Colombia, specifically between the years 1993 and 2001 with the democratization of the drug cartels. The catastrophic events of September 11th reverberated in Colombia resulting in a new policy and strategy to the waging the counter-insurgency there. This research introduces a structured methodology to modeling the Colombian counter-insurgency incorporating qualitative assessment, mathematical representation, and a System Dynamics approach to represent the effects of the policy change.

Alkali-Metal-Mediated Magnesiations of an N-Heterocyclic Carbene: Normal, Abnormal, and "Paranormal" Reactivity in a Single Tritopic Molecule.

PubMed

Martínez-Martínez, Antonio J; Fuentes, M Ángeles; Hernán-Gómez, Alberto; Hevia, Eva; Kennedy, Alan R; Mulvey, Robert E; O'Hara, Charles T

2015-11-16

Herein the sodium alkylmagnesium amide [Na4Mg2(TMP)6(nBu)2] (TMP=2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidide), a template base as its deprotonating action is dictated primarily by its 12 atom ring structure, is studied with the common N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) IPr [1,3-bis(2,6-diisopropylphenyl)imidazol-2-ylidene]. Remarkably, magnesiation of IPr occurs at the para-position of an aryl substituent, sodiation occurs at the abnormal C4 position, and a dative bond occurs between normal C2 and sodium, all within a 20 atom ring structure accommodating two IPr(2-). Studies with different K/Mg and Na/Mg bimetallic bases led to two other magnesiated NHC structures containing two or three IPr(-) monoanions bound to Mg through abnormal C4 sites. Synergistic in that magnesiation can only work through alkali-metal mediation, these reactions add magnesium to the small cartel of metals capable of directly metalating a NHC. © 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Historical Review: Problematic Malaria Prophylaxis with Quinine

PubMed Central

Shanks, G. Dennis

2016-01-01

Quinine, a bitter-tasting, short-acting alkaloid drug extracted from cinchona bark, was the first drug used widely for malaria chemoprophylaxis from the 19th century. Compliance was difficult to enforce even in organized groups such as the military, and its prophylaxis potential was often questioned. Severe adverse events such as blackwater fever occurred rarely, but its relationship to quinine remains uncertain. Quinine prophylaxis was often counterproductive from a public health viewpoint as it left large numbers of persons with suppressed infections producing gametocytes infective for mosquitoes. Quinine was supplied by the first global pharmaceutical cartel which discouraged competition resulting in a near monopoly of cinchona plantations on the island of Java which were closed to Allied use when the Japanese Imperial Army captured Indonesia in 1942. The problems with quinine as a chemoprophylactic drug illustrate the difficulties with medications used for prevention and the acute need for improved compounds. PMID:27185766

[Free choice of doctor: patient's right or doctor's power?].

PubMed

Bertens, R M; Huisman, F G

2016-01-01

This article outlines the historical development of the principle of patients' free choice of doctor in the Netherlands. Far from being the result of debates on patients' rights, this principle was used instead as an instrument by the medical profession to gain a foothold in the power relations between doctors and sickness funds back in the early 20th-century. This development created a medical power bloc that lasted for most of that century and forced sickness funds and private insurers to start organizing in this fashion too. Therefore, when the new market ideology of introducing competition in health care was introduced in 1987, the fields of health provision and insurance were already defined by a high degree of cartelization. These relations lingered even after the introduction of regulated competition in 2006. Knowledge of this history therefore leads to a better understanding of current debates and problems in the organization of Dutch health care.

The Evolution of Los Zetas in Mexico and Central America: Sadism as an Instrument of Cartel Warfare

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-04-01

investment, tourism , natural resources, migration, energy, and se- curity. In recent years, narco-violence has afflicted our neighbor to the south...Italy, the Yakuza mob in Japan, and the Brothers’ Circle of Eastern Europe.20 The author was cautioned not to even utter the word “Zeta” aloud when...then returned to Cobán, grabbed the son of local official Allan Stowlinsky Vidaurre, and cut him into small pieces. The word was unambiguous: “We 15

Multi-period natural gas market modeling Applications, stochastic extensions and solution approaches

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Egging, Rudolf Gerardus

This dissertation develops deterministic and stochastic multi-period mixed complementarity problems (MCP) for the global natural gas market, as well as solution approaches for large-scale stochastic MCP. The deterministic model is unique in the combination of the level of detail of the actors in the natural gas markets and the transport options, the detailed regional and global coverage, the multi-period approach with endogenous capacity expansions for transportation and storage infrastructure, the seasonal variation in demand and the representation of market power according to Nash-Cournot theory. The model is applied to several scenarios for the natural gas market that cover the formation of a cartel by the members of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum, a low availability of unconventional gas in the United States, and cost reductions in long-distance gas transportation. 1 The results provide insights in how different regions are affected by various developments, in terms of production, consumption, traded volumes, prices and profits of market participants. The stochastic MCP is developed and applied to a global natural gas market problem with four scenarios for a time horizon until 2050 with nineteen regions and containing 78,768 variables. The scenarios vary in the possibility of a gas market cartel formation and varying depletion rates of gas reserves in the major gas importing regions. Outcomes for hedging decisions of market participants show some significant shifts in the timing and location of infrastructure investments, thereby affecting local market situations. A first application of Benders decomposition (BD) is presented to solve a large-scale stochastic MCP for the global gas market with many hundreds of first-stage capacity expansion variables and market players exerting various levels of market power. The largest problem solved successfully using BD contained 47,373 variables of which 763 first-stage variables, however using BD did not result in

Solar thermal technologies benefits assessment: Objectives, methodologies and results for 1981

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gates, W. R.

1982-01-01

The economic and social benefits of developing cost competitive solar thermal technologies (STT) were assessed. The analysis was restricted to STT in electric applications for 16 high insolation/high energy price states. Three fuel price scenarios and three 1990 STT system costs were considered, reflecting uncertainty over fuel prices and STT cost projections. After considering the numerous benefits of introducing STT into the energy market, three primary benefits were identified and evaluated: (1) direct energy cost savings were estimated to range from zero to $50 billion; (2) oil imports may be reduced by up to 9 percent, improving national security; and (3) significant environmental benefits can be realized in air basins where electric power plant emissions create substantial air pollution problems. STT research and development was found to be unacceptably risky for private industry in the absence of federal support. The normal risks associated with investments in research and development are accentuated because the OPEC cartel can artificially manipulate oil prices and undercut the growth of alternative energy sources.

Backstories on the US Opioid Epidemic. Good Intentions Gone Bad, an Industry Gone Rogue, and Watch Dogs Gone to Sleep.

PubMed

deShazo, Richard D; Johnson, McKenzie; Eriator, Ike; Rodenmeyer, Kathryn

2018-06-01

Epidemics of opioid use are old news in the United States, but an epidemic that kills over 200,000 Americans is not. A multiplicity of intertwined factors have brought us to this place. From 30,000 feet, it is the story of good intentions gone bad, a drug industry gone rogue, and government watch dog agencies gone to sleep. At ground level, it is the story of physicians unfamiliar with addictive drugs and drug addiction, new long-acting opioids deceptively marketed, cheap black tar heroin, encouragement to use opioids for chronic noncancer pain by professional organizations with conflicts of interest and without science, a culture intolerant to pain and tolerant to drug use, and the greedy response of the pharmaceutical industry and drug cartels to an expanding market opportunity. These factors are among those that have joined to form a tsunami of addiction and deaths that keeps on coming. A better understanding of them could speed the end of the present cycle of opioid abuse, perhaps prevent others, and inform future decisions about pain management. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Solar thermal technologies benefits assessment: Objectives, methodologies and results for 1981

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gates, W. R.

1982-07-01

The economic and social benefits of developing cost competitive solar thermal technologies (STT) were assessed. The analysis was restricted to STT in electric applications for 16 high insolation/high energy price states. Three fuel price scenarios and three 1990 STT system costs were considered, reflecting uncertainty over fuel prices and STT cost projections. After considering the numerous benefits of introducing STT into the energy market, three primary benefits were identified and evaluated: (1) direct energy cost savings were estimated to range from zero to $50 billion; (2) oil imports may be reduced by up to 9 percent, improving national security; and (3) significant environmental benefits can be realized in air basins where electric power plant emissions create substantial air pollution problems. STT research and development was found to be unacceptably risky for private industry in the absence of federal support. The normal risks associated with investments in research and development are accentuated because the OPEC cartel can artificially manipulate oil prices and undercut the growth of alternative energy sources.

An alternative model for OPEC stability: The carrot and stick approach

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Akacem, M.; Fleisher, A.A. III

1994-12-31

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has gone through turbulent times since its inception in 1960. The decade of the 1970s represented the peak of its power; however, the 1980s and 1990s are characterized by the erosion of OPECs position. After a brief exposition of the principles of resource economics and their relevance to OPEC, we review oligopoly theory and its specific application to OPEC. A model of cartel behavior will then be presented and its relevance to OPEC will be emphasized. Our theory is that OPEC can use a trigger price strategy (a punishment phase when overproductionmore » occurs, followed by a resumption phase of full compliance of the quota agreement) to stabilize output. An insurance policy scheme will be presented in combination with the trigger price strategy, the goal of which may improve the stability of OPEC. Finally, we shall show how the present organization may evolve over time into a much smaller entity by the late 1990s composed of the Gulf producers.« less

Solar thermal technology development: Estimated market size and energy cost savings. Volume 2: Assumptions, methodology and results

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gates, W. R.

1983-02-01

Estimated future energy cost savings associated with the development of cost-competitive solar thermal technologies (STT) are discussed. Analysis is restricted to STT in electric applications for 16 high-insolation/high-energy-price states. Three fuel price scenarios and three 1990 STT system costs are considered, reflecting uncertainty over future fuel prices and STT cost projections. Solar thermal technology research and development (R&D) is found to be unacceptably risky for private industry in the absence of federal support. Energy cost savings were projected to range from $0 to $10 billion (1990 values in 1981 dollars), depending on the system cost and fuel price scenario. Normal R&D investment risks are accentuated because the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) cartel can artificially manipulate oil prices and undercut growth of alternative energy sources. Federal participation in STT R&D to help capture the potential benefits of developing cost-competitive STT was found to be in the national interest. Analysis is also provided regarding two federal incentives currently in use: The Federal Business Energy Tax Credit and direct R&D funding.

Solar thermal technology development: Estimated market size and energy cost savings. Volume 2: Assumptions, methodology and results

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gates, W. R.

1983-01-01

Estimated future energy cost savings associated with the development of cost-competitive solar thermal technologies (STT) are discussed. Analysis is restricted to STT in electric applications for 16 high-insolation/high-energy-price states. Three fuel price scenarios and three 1990 STT system costs are considered, reflecting uncertainty over future fuel prices and STT cost projections. Solar thermal technology research and development (R&D) is found to be unacceptably risky for private industry in the absence of federal support. Energy cost savings were projected to range from $0 to $10 billion (1990 values in 1981 dollars), depending on the system cost and fuel price scenario. Normal R&D investment risks are accentuated because the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) cartel can artificially manipulate oil prices and undercut growth of alternative energy sources. Federal participation in STT R&D to help capture the potential benefits of developing cost-competitive STT was found to be in the national interest. Analysis is also provided regarding two federal incentives currently in use: The Federal Business Energy Tax Credit and direct R&D funding.

Sustainable fuel, food, fertilizer and ecosystems through a global artificial photosynthetic system: overcoming anticompetitive barriers.

PubMed

Bruce, Alex; Faunce, Thomas

2015-06-06

This article discusses challenges that artificial photosynthetic (AP) systems will face when entering and competing in a global market characterized by established fossil fuel technology. It provides a perspective on the neoliberal principles underpinning much policy entrenching such environmentally destructive technology and outlines how competition law could aid overcoming these hurdles for AP development. In particular, it critiques the potential for competition law to promote a global AP initiative with greater emphasis on atmospheric carbon dioxide and nitrogen fixation (as well as solar-driven water splitting) to produce an equitable, globally distributed source of human food, fertilizer and biosphere sustainability, as well as hydrogen-based fuel. Some relevant strategies of competition law evaluated in this context include greater citizen-consumer involvement in shaping market values, legal requirements to factor services from the natural environment (i.e. provision of clean air, water, soil pollution degradation) into corporate costs, reform of corporate taxation and requirements to balance maximization of shareholder profit with contribution to a nominated public good, a global financial transactions tax, as well as prohibiting horizontal cartels, vertical agreements and unilateral misuse of market power.

Sustainable fuel, food, fertilizer and ecosystems through a global artificial photosynthetic system: overcoming anticompetitive barriers

PubMed Central

Bruce, Alex; Faunce, Thomas

2015-01-01

This article discusses challenges that artificial photosynthetic (AP) systems will face when entering and competing in a global market characterized by established fossil fuel technology. It provides a perspective on the neoliberal principles underpinning much policy entrenching such environmentally destructive technology and outlines how competition law could aid overcoming these hurdles for AP development. In particular, it critiques the potential for competition law to promote a global AP initiative with greater emphasis on atmospheric carbon dioxide and nitrogen fixation (as well as solar-driven water splitting) to produce an equitable, globally distributed source of human food, fertilizer and biosphere sustainability, as well as hydrogen-based fuel. Some relevant strategies of competition law evaluated in this context include greater citizen–consumer involvement in shaping market values, legal requirements to factor services from the natural environment (i.e. provision of clean air, water, soil pollution degradation) into corporate costs, reform of corporate taxation and requirements to balance maximization of shareholder profit with contribution to a nominated public good, a global financial transactions tax, as well as prohibiting horizontal cartels, vertical agreements and unilateral misuse of market power. PMID:26052427

A political economic theory of the dental care market.

PubMed Central

Lipscomb, J; Douglass, C W

1982-01-01

A theory of the dental care market is introduced which proposes that the vertically integrated (local/state/national) structure of the profession services as an organizational vehicle both for intra-professional debate and for developing provider-oriented dental care policy. We suggest that a special relationship exists between professionalism and professional regulation. Such regulation has functioned simultaneously to limit competition and to foster a prized consumption commodity for providers: professionalism and professional esteem. The organized pursuit of this commodity inherently dampens competition. Professionalism itself plays a crucial role in: 1) securing for organized dentistry a form of state regulation in which the providers themselves are the principal decision-makers; and 2) influencing provider and consumer market behavior in several significant respects, the net result being the formation of maintenance of a type of "leadership cartel" in the local market. Thus, a political-economic theory of the dental care market formally acknowledges professionalism as valued by established dentists and recent graduates as a central determining influence. Traditional models of pure competition and monopoly emerge as special, extreme cases of the general theory. Hypotheses are offered regarding consumer and provider behavior, market dynamics, and health policy and regulation. PMID:7091455

GIS application on modern Mexico

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Prakash, Bharath

This is a GIS based tool for showcasing the history of modern Mexico starting from the post-colonial era to the elections of 2012. The tool is developed using simple language and is flexible so as to allow for future enhancements. The application consists of numerous images and textual information, and also some links which can be used by primary and high school students to understand the history of modern Mexico, and also by tourists to look for all the international airports and United States of America consulates. This software depicts the aftermaths of the Colonial Era or the Spanish rule of Mexico. It covers various topics like the wars, politics, important personalities, drug cartels and violence. All these events are shown on GIS (Geographic information Science) maps. The software can be customized according to the user requirements and is developed using JAVA and GIS technology. The user interface is created using JAVA and MOJO which contributes to effective learning and understanding of the concepts with ease. Some of the user interface features provided in this tool includes zoom-in, zoom-out, legend editing, location identifier, print command, adding a layer and numerous menu items.

Competing with the Cartels: How Mexico’s Government Can Reduce Organized Crime’s Economic Grip on its People

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-10-28

any other provision of law , no person shall be subject to any penalty for failing to comply with a collection of information if it does not display a...police and military units to regain control. Unfortunately, the security forces’ efforts to reestablish law and order have largely failed, and the...situation in anticipation of possible future taskings to assist Mexican military and law enforcement agencies. Regardless of what is decided

Fifty Feet Above The Wall: Cartel Drones in the U.S.-Mexico Border Zone Airspace, and What to do About Them

DTIC Science & Technology

2018-03-01

bombs in flight over targets. ISIS has demonstrated their drones can deliver what are essentially airborne improvised explosive devices (IEDs) with...Waters, “Types of Islamic State Drone Bombs and Where to Find Them,” Bellingcat, May 24, 2017, https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/2017/05/24/types...islamic-state-drone- bombs -find/. 116 Rowan Scarborough, “ISIS Drone Dropping Precision Bombs Alarms U.S. Military,” Washington Times, January 24, 2017

Honorary authorship epidemic in scholarly publications? How the current use of citation-based evaluative metrics make (pseudo)honorary authors from honest contributors of every multi-author article.

PubMed

Kovacs, Jozsef

2013-08-01

The current use of citation-based metrics to evaluate the research output of individual researchers is highly discriminatory because they are uniformly applied to authors of single-author articles as well as contributors of multi-author papers. In the latter case, these quantitative measures are counted, as if each contributor were the single author of the full article. In this way, each and every contributor is assigned the full impact-factor score and all the citations that the article has received. This has a multiplication effect on each contributor's citation-based evaluative metrics of multi-author articles, because the more contributors an article has, the more undeserved credit is assigned to each of them. In this paper, I argue that this unfair system could be made fairer by requesting the contributors of multi-author articles to describe the nature of their contribution, and to assign a numerical value to their degree of relative contribution. In this way, we could create a contribution-specific index of each contributor for each citation metric. This would be a strong disincentive against honorary authorship and publication cartels, because it would transform the current win-win strategy of accepting honorary authors in the byline into a zero-sum game for each contributor.

Analysis of México’s Narco-War Network (2007–2011)

PubMed Central

Espinal-Enríquez, Jesús; Larralde, Hernán

2015-01-01

Since December 2006, more than a thousand cities in México have suffered the effects of the war between several drug cartels, amongst themselves, as well as with Mexican armed forces. Sources are not in agreement about the number of casualties of this war, with reports varying from 30 to 100 thousand dead; the economic and social ravages are impossible to quantify. In this work we analyze the official report of casualties in terms of the location and the date of occurrence of the homicides. We show how the violence, as reflected by the number of casualties, has increased over time and spread across the country. Next, based on the correlations between cities in the changes of the monthly number of casualties attributed to organized crime, we construct a narco-war network where nodes are the affected cities and links represent correlations between them. We find that close geographical distance between violent cities does not imply a strong correlation amongst them. We observe that the dynamics of the conflict has evolved in short-term periods where a small core of violent cities determines the main theatre of the war at each stage. This kind of analysis may also help to describe the emergence and propagation of gang-related violence waves. PMID:25993657

A system dynamics approach to the study of Colombian coca cultivation and the counter-intuitive consequence of law enforcement.

PubMed

Jaén, Sebastian; Dyner, Isaac

2014-03-01

A large-scale expansion of the Colombian coca cultivation is one of the most revealing signs of a structural change in the illegal cocaine market in the Andean region. From being a modest and domestic production, in the space of five years Colombian coca cultivation supplied a competitive market, capable of substituting almost completely the foreign sources of supply. The purpose of this work is to explore the role and potential of system dynamics (SD) as a modeling methodology to better understand the consequences of drug policy. As a case study, this work tests the hypothesis that the outbreak of Colombian coca cultivations is a consequence of the take down of large cartels, leading to the surge of small drug-trafficking firms called "cartelitos." Using an SD model, and elements from the economic theory of the criminal firm, our work shows how the formation of these small firms might significantly contribute to the configuring of a more competitive domestic coca industry (and hence to a more efficient crime industry). We conclude that SD seems an appropriate dynamic modeling-based approach to address policy issues regarding drug markets. The methodology takes into account the dynamic nature of drug markets and their multi-dimensional responses to policy interventions. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Pattern of state coal taxation. [Review

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gulley, D.A.

1981-01-01

This paper reviews the recent history of state coal taxation and reports an empirically-based effort at defining the key determinants of state and local coal taxation. A pattern emerges but the analysis is complicated by the empirical and conceptual difficulties typical of such studies. Perhaps as important a result as the detection of a pattern is the recognition that many seemingly important variables do not appear to have consistently influenced tax levels. For policy makers and for industry, it appears that the present concern over a coal-states cartel is excessive. One can speculate that draconian tax adjustments on the basismore » of a crude-indicator-like reserve base will ultimately transfer less wealth than would skillful preemption of rent. It is also noteworthy that the sign of the tax effort variable is positive, indicating that coal tax rates are consistent with other tax efforts, not a substitute for them. Accepting impacts and general tax effort variables as the best explanations of interstate variations in tax effort is a somewhat different matter than determining what any given state's tax rate ought to be; such a question lies beyond the scope of this paper. This tax-determinant study can not define the right level of coal taxation, but it can suggest that no trend is yet evident toward entrepreneurial tax rates. 20 references, 4 figures.« less

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Clark, T.H.

The proliferation of surface-to-surface missiles (SSMs) and weapons of mass destruction has become one of the more serious security threats to post-Cold War peace. This dissertation examines the history of proliferation within the Middle East by focusing primarily on three trend-setting countries: Israel, Syria and Iran. Building on the theoretical framework established by Lewis A. Dunn and Herman Kahn, this dissertation examines why and how Israel, Syria and Iran have procured SSMs and weapons of mass destruction. The author also includes an analysis of tactical missile defenses and their impact on proliferation trends. The final section investigates the numerous armsmore » control treaties and supplier cartels designed to halt or slow the pace of unconventional weapons proliferation. In many instances, Iraq serves as the primary example of how well-intentioned nonproliferation efforts have fallen short. This dissertation reveals some of the major flaws in these regimes while proposing necessary improvements if nonproliferation efforts are to succeed. In conclusion, this dissertation returns to the expanded Dunn-Kahn nuclear proliferation model. By categorizing the various reasons as to why countries choose to procure unconventional weapons, a more successful nonproliferation policy can be constructed. However, this dissertation warns that without political solutions to long-term disputes in the region, western-imposed nonproliferation regimes will fail. Thus, nonproliferation policies must be accompanied or preceded by a vigorous diplomatic and political effort to solve seemingly intractable differences.« less

Global leaf companies control the tobacco market in Malawi.

PubMed

Otañez, Marty G; Mamudu, Hadii; Glantz, Stanton A

2007-08-01

To examine the influence of US-based tobacco leaf-buying companies, Universal Corporation and Alliance One International, on Malawi's economy and trade policy in 2000-6. Analyses of ethnographic data and tobacco industry documents. Universal Corporation and Alliance One International, through their subsidiary companies Limbe Leaf and Alliance One, respectively, in Malawi, control policy-making advisory groups and operate a tobacco cartel to influence Malawi's economic and trade sectors. Limbe Leaf's corporate secretary and lawyer is a member of several policy-making committees that advise the Malawi government on tobacco-related trade policy. The corporate representative's presence prevents other committee members from taking positions against the tobacco industry and ensures government policy that advances industry interests to obtain low-cost tobacco. The World Bank and Malawi's Anti-corruption Bureau report allegations of collusion between Limbe Leaf and Alliance One over prices at tobacco markets. Allegations of collusion between Limbe Leaf and Alliance One prompted Malawi President Bingu Mutharika in 2006 to warn the companies to end non-competitive practices or leave the country, but there was no meaningful follow-up action. Findings from interviews with small-scale tobacco traders in Malawi suggest that Universal and Alliance One International purchase smuggled raw tobacco from the neighbouring countries, Zambia and Mozambique, undermining growers' efforts to benefit from tobacco farming in Malawi. These actions restrict competition, depress tobacco prices for Malawi's farmers and contribute to poverty in Malawi, while keeping the country dependent on tobacco growing.

Oil market power and United States national security

PubMed Central

Stern, Roger

2006-01-01

It is widely believed that an oil weapon could impose scarcity upon the United States. Impending resource exhaustion is thought to exacerbate this threat. However, threat seems implausible when we consider strategic deficits of prospective weapon users and the improbability of impending resource exhaustion. Here, we explore a hypothesis relating oil to national security under a different assumption, abundance. We suggest that an oil cartel exerts market power to keep abundance at bay, commanding monopoly rents [or wealth transfers (wt)] that underwrite security threats. We then compare security threats attributed to the oil weapon to those that may arise from market power. We first reexamine whether oil is abundant or scarce by reviewing current development data, then we estimate a competitive price for oil. From this, we derive wt2004 collections by Persian Gulf states ≈ $132-178 × 109. We find that wt and the behavior of states collecting it interact to actuate security threats. Threats underwritten by wt are (i) the potential for emergence of a Persian Gulf superpower and (ii) terrorism. It is therefore oil market power, not oil per se, that actuates threats. We also describe a paradox in the relation of market power to the United States' defense doctrine of force projection to preempt a Gulf superpower. Because the superpower threat derives from wt, force alone cannot preempt it. A further paradox is that because foreign policy is premised on oil weapon fear, market power is appeased. Threats thereby grow unimpeded. PMID:16428291

Energy and globalization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Birjandi, Hossein Saremi

Before the Industrial Revolution, nations required no energy fuel. People relied on human, animal, and wind and waterpower for energy need. Energy (oil) has resettled populations, elected officials in the free world, or changed the governments of the energy rich countries by force. Energy fueled wars, played the major factor in the might of those who have it or more importantly the abilities to acquire it by force. This dissertation researches the primacy of oil as an energy source from the time of oil's discovery to the present times. Between 1945 and 1960, the use of oil and gas doubled as power was generated for industries as steel, cement, metalworking and more important of all filling station hoses into automobiles gas tanks, thus energy swept people and societies quite literally off their feet. One in every six jobs in the industrial world hired by the giant automotive industries. The big five American oil companies spurred on by special tax benefit, these companies grew to gigantic sizes by taking out the best part of the nation's oil. Then, for greater growth, they leaped overseas and built up an immensely profitable system, in alliance with Anglo-Dutch Shell and British Petroleum, known as seven sisters. On the other side of the world, the energy producing nations form an alliance mainly to protect themselves from downward price fluctuations of oil. The struggle for survival in the global energy market forced those countries to get together and form OPEC, which is referred as an "oil cartel".

Global leaf companies control the tobacco market in Malawi

PubMed Central

Otañez, Marty G; Mamudu, Hadii; Glantz, Stanton A

2007-01-01

Objective To examine the influence of US‐based tobacco leaf‐buying companies, Universal Corporation and Alliance One International, on Malawi's economy and trade policy in 2000–6. Design Analyses of ethnographic data and tobacco industry documents. Results Universal Corporation and Alliance One International, through their subsidiary companies Limbe Leaf and Alliance One, respectively, in Malawi, control policy‐making advisory groups and operate a tobacco cartel to influence Malawi's economic and trade sectors. Limbe Leaf's corporate secretary and lawyer is a member of several policy‐making committees that advise the Malawi government on tobacco‐related trade policy. The corporate representative's presence prevents other committee members from taking positions against the tobacco industry and ensures government policy that advances industry interests to obtain low‐cost tobacco. The World Bank and Malawi's Anti‐corruption Bureau report allegations of collusion between Limbe Leaf and Alliance One over prices at tobacco markets. Allegations of collusion between Limbe Leaf and Alliance One prompted Malawi President Bingu Mutharika in 2006 to warn the companies to end non‐competitive practices or leave the country, but there was no meaningful follow‐up action. Findings from interviews with small‐scale tobacco traders in Malawi suggest that Universal and Alliance One International purchase smuggled raw tobacco from the neighbouring countries, Zambia and Mozambique, undermining growers' efforts to benefit from tobacco farming in Malawi. Conclusion These actions restrict competition, depress tobacco prices for Malawi's farmers and contribute to poverty in Malawi, while keeping the country dependent on tobacco growing. PMID:17652242

Generation expansion planning in a competitive electric power industry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chuang, Angela Shu-Woan

This work investigates the application of non-cooperative game theory to generation expansion planning (GEP) in a competitive electricity industry. We identify fundamental ways competition changes the nature of GEP, review different models of oligopoly behavior, and argue that assumptions of the Cournot model are compatible with GEP. Applying Cournot theory of oligopoly behavior, we formulate a GEP model that may characterize expansion in the new competitive regime, particularly in pool-dominated generation supply industries. Our formulation incorporates multiple markets and is patterned after the basic design of the California ISO/PX system. Applying the model, we conduct numerical experiments on a test system, and analyze generation investment and market participation decisions of different candidate expansion units that vary in costs and forced outage rates. Simulations are performed under different scenarios of competition. In particular, we observe higher probabilistic measures of reliability from Cournot expansion compared to the expansion plan of a monopoly with an equivalent minimum reserve margin requirement. We prove several results for a subclass of problems encompassed by our formulation. In particular, we prove that under certain conditions Cournot competition leads to greater total capacity expansion than a situation in which generators collude in a cartel. We also show that industry output after introduction of new technology is no less than monopoly output. So a monopoly may lack sufficient incentive to introduce new technologies. Finally, we discuss the association between capacity payments and the issue of pricing reliability. And we derive a formula for computing ideal capacity payment rates by extending the Value of Service Reliability technique.

Associating Human-Centered Concepts with Social Networks Using Fuzzy Sets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yager, Ronald R.

The rapidly growing global interconnectivity, brought about to a large extent by the Internet, has dramatically increased the importance and diversity of social networks. Modern social networks cut across a spectrum from benign recreational focused websites such as Facebook to occupationally oriented websites such as LinkedIn to criminally focused groups such as drug cartels to devastation and terror focused groups such as Al-Qaeda. Many organizations are interested in analyzing and extracting information related to these social networks. Among these are governmental police and security agencies as well marketing and sales organizations. To aid these organizations there is a need for technologies to model social networks and intelligently extract information from these models. While established technologies exist for the modeling of relational networks [1-7] few technologies exist to extract information from these, compatible with human perception and understanding. Data bases is an example of a technology in which we have tools for representing our information as well as tools for querying and extracting the information contained. Our goal is in some sense analogous. We want to use the relational network model to represent information, in this case about relationships and interconnections, and then be able to query the social network using intelligent human-centered concepts. To extend our capabilities to interact with social relational networks we need to associate with these network human concepts and ideas. Since human beings predominantly use linguistic terms in which to reason and understand we need to build bridges between human conceptualization and the formal mathematical representation of the social network. Consider for example a concept such as "leader". An analyst may be able to express, in linguistic terms, using a network relevant vocabulary, properties of a leader. Our task is to translate this linguistic description into a mathematical formalism

Private credentialing of health care personnel: an antitrust perspective. Part Two.

PubMed

Havighurst, C C; King, N M

1983-01-01

Having argued in Part One against extensive judicial or regulatory interference with private personnel credentialing in the health care field, this Article now shifts its focus to emphasize the anticompetitive hazards inherent in credentialing as practiced by professional interests. Competitor-sponsored credentialing is shown to be a vital part of a larger cartel strategy to curb competition by standardizing personnel and services and controlling the flow of information to health care consumers. Instead of altering the conclusions reached in Part One, however, Part Two sets forth a new and hitherto unexplored agenda for antitrust enforcement, one that the authors believe will increase the quantity and quality of information available to consumers and offer a fairer competitive environment to individuals and groups disadvantaged by the denial of desirable credentials. The specific targets singled out for antitrust scrutiny are (1) the practice of "grandfathering," by which new candidates for credentials are required to meet tougher requirements than were met by existing credential holders; (2) agreements to standardize educational programs if they go beyond setting and applying accrediting standards and impair the freedom of institutions to decide independently whether to offer unaccredited training; (3) agreements by which independent certifying or accrediting bodies limit the nature or scope of competition among themselves; and (4) mergers and joint ventures in credentialing and accrediting. The legal theory supporting antitrust attacks in the latter two categories is strengthened by the apparently original insight that commercial information and opinion are themselves articles of commerce such that agreements and combinations restricting their nature and output can be characterized as restraints of trade. Among the many self-regulatory institutions in the health care field whose operation or sponsorship is called into question by the analysis herein are the

Tracking illegal small arms traffic across U.S. borders through the implementation of firearm microstamping to small arms and small arms exports

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lizotte, Todd E.; Ohar, Orest P.

2009-05-01

At a border security conference in August 2008, Michael Sullivan, acting director of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives stated that, "Nearly all illegal firearms (90% to 95%) seized in Mexico come from the United States"[1]. When firearms are recovered at a crime scene, the firearms can be traced providing specific details on illegal firearm dealers or straw purchasers within the United States. Criminals or narco terrorist groups target US dealers to source firearms for drug cartels in Mexico and South America. Joint law enforcement programs between the US and Mexico law enforcement have been effective, however, in most cases the firearms that are seized are only a small fraction of the firearms trafficked across the United States border. A technology called Microstamping, when applied to newly manufactured firearms will provide further opportunities for tracing illegal firearms for law enforcement in the United States and across the globe. Microstamping is a patented technology and trace solution where intentional tooling marks are formed or micromachined onto firearms interior surfaces that come into contact or impact the surfaces of cartridge casings. The intentional tooling marks can take the form of alphanumeric codes or encoded geometric codes, such as a barcode. As the firearm is discharged the intentional tooling marks transfer a code to the cartridge casing before it is ejected out of the firearm. When recovered at the scene of an incident, the Microstamped cartridge can indentify a specific firearm, without the need to recover that firearm. Microstamping provides critical intelligence for use in border security operations and cross border violent drug related crime investigations. This paper will explain the key attributes of microstamping technology; including its potential benefits in border security operations and how data gathered from the technique can be used in geospatial information systems to identify illicit firearm sources

Dentistry in the future--on the role and goal of basic research in oral biology.

PubMed

Mäkinen, K K

1993-01-01

Examination of the state of affairs of oral biology cannot be endeavoured without considering the mutual interactions and interdependencies of sciences, and without considering the impact human acts will exert on these developments. Oral biology deals with the biochemical, chemical, molecular biologic, general biologic and physical aspects of all processes that take place in the oral cavity, in the masticatory organ, and in tissues and body fluids that are associated with the above processes. Oral biology also reaps the harvest sown by (other) basic sciences. From the methodological point of view, oral biology is indistinguishable from basic sciences; it is the anatomical object that makes it specific. Oral biology cannot be regarded as "big science" (i.e. compared with the human genome project, space research, AIDS research etc.). This fact may preserve the attractiveness of oral biology. Important science--this concerns oral biology as well--still emerges in smaller settings, although there are omens that large research cartels will swallow larger and larger portions of research appropriations. A key to staying competitive is to use new science sources and--in some cases--to join bigger groups. Once upon a time oral biologists--or scientists in general--assumed that a record of solid accomplishments was sufficient to maintain research support. Today, in several countries, politics and public visibility unfortunately determine the funding privileges. Provided that human operations on earth will render future development of sciences possible, the future of oral biology will depend 1) on concomitant development in the above basic fields, and 2) on innovations in the individual psyches. This combination will unravel the structure of genes involved in the development and metabolism of oral processes, clone important salivary and connective tissue proteins, and control most important oral diseases. To achieve these goals, oral biology must attract young talent and

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Santini, Danilo J.; Poyer, David A.

Vector error correction (VEC) was used to test the importance of a theoretical causal chain from transportation fuel cost to vehicle sales to macroeconomic activity. Real transportation fuel cost was broken into two cost components: real gasoline price (rpgas) and real personal consumption of gasoline and other goods (gas). Real personal consumption expenditure on vehicles (RMVE) represented vehicle sales. Real gross domestic product (rGDP) was used as the measure of macroeconomic activity. The VEC estimates used quarterly data from the third quarter of 1952 to the first quarter of 2014. Controlling for the financial causes of the recent Great Recession,more » real homeowners’ equity (equity) and real credit market instruments liability (real consumer debt, rcmdebt) were included. Results supported the primary hypothesis of the research, but also introduced evidence that another financial path through equity is important, and that use of the existing fleet of vehicles (not just sales of vehicles) is an important transport-related contributor to macroeconomic activity. Consumer debt reduction is estimated to be a powerful short-run force reducing vehicle sales. Findings are interpreted in the context of the recent Greene, Lee, and Hopson (2012) (hereafter GLH) estimation of the magnitude of three distinct macroeconomic damage effects that result from dependence on imported oil, the price of which is manipulated by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). The three negative macroeconomic impacts are due to (1) dislocation (positive oil price shock), (2) high oil price levels, and (3) a high value of the quantity of oil imports times an oil price delta (cartel price less competitive price). The third of these is the wealth effect. The VEC model addresses the first two, but the software output from the model (impulse response plots) does not isolate them. Nearly all prior statistical tests in the literature have used vector autoregression (VAR) and

Risk of violence in drug rehabilitation centers: perceptions of people who inject drugs in Tijuana, Mexico.

PubMed

Harvey-Vera, Alicia Yolanda; González-Zúñiga, Patricia; Vargas-Ojeda, Adriana Carolina; Medina-Mora, Maria Elena; Magis-Rodríguez, Carlos Leonardo; Wagner, Karla; Strathdee, Steffanie Anne; Werb, Daniel

2016-01-26

In 2009, Mexico reformed its health law to partially decriminalize drug possession considered for personal use and to increase mandatory referrals to certified drug rehabilitation centers in lieu of incarceration. Concurrently, news media reported violent attacks perpetrated by drug cartels against Mexican drug rehabilitation centers and instances of human rights violations by staff against people who inject drugs (PWID) in treatment. In many cases, these violent situations took place at "Peer Support" (Ayuda Mutua) drug rehabilitation centers that house a large number of drug-dependent PWID. In an effort to understand barriers to treatment uptake, we examined prevalence and correlates of perceived risk of violence at drug rehabilitation centers among PWID in Tijuana, Mexico. Secondary analysis of baseline data collected between March 2011 and May 2013 of PWID recruited into a prospective cohort study in Tijuana. Interviewer-administered surveys measured perceived risk of violence at drug rehabilitation centers by asking participants to indicate their level of agreement with the statement "going to rehabilitation puts me at risk of violence". Logistic regression was used to examine factors associated with perceived risk of violence. Of 733 PWID, 34.5 % perceived risk of violence at drug rehabilitation centers. In multivariate analysis, reporting ever having used crystal methamphetamine and cocaine (separately), having a great or urgent need to get help for drug use, and ever receiving professional help for drug/alcohol use were negatively associated with perceived risk of violence at drug rehabilitation centers, while having been told by law enforcement that drug rehabilitation attendance is mandatory was positively associated with perceived risk of violence. All associations were significant at a 0.05 alpha level. The perception of violence at drug rehabilitation centers among PWID does not represent the lived experience of those PWID who attended

The use of ion mobility spectrometry and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry for the detection of illicit drugs on clandestine records

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Donnelly, Brian; Jourdan, Thomas; Fetterolf, Dean D.; Beasley, James O., II

1995-01-01

Illicit drug distribution has over the past decade grown tremendously from simple 'drug pushing' where drugs were distributed from poorly organized individuals to today's well organized and well financed drug cartels. This change to a more 'corporate-like' atmosphere has resulted in a greater use of record keeping to monitor the profits generated. The use of record keeping by drug distributors is not restricted to high level drug smugglers but is used at all levels within the distribution network. Dealers at all levels including street dealers are generally 'fronted', given on consignment quantities of drugs that they in turn sell to customers, thereby requiring the need for records to keep track of drug sales versus liabilities. These records because of their illicit nature are often encrypted to hide the fact that they are indeed records of drug transactions. The creation of a handwritten notation concerning a drug transaction is normally brought on because of a purchase or sale. In a sale, this is commonly accomplished through a consignment, or the designation of a quantity to a customer to whom that amount has been 'fronted'. Because this activity generates a debt, it follows that an accounting for payments made, as well as new transactions completed, is only logical. One of the most common means of representing these is through an 'accounting flow', in which payments are subtracted from a running balance while new sales are added to it. The examination of illicit drug records has been the key to the prosecution of numerous federal, state, and local drug cases for a number of years. The Document Section of the FBI Laboratory, through its Racketeering Records Analysis Unit (RRAU), has been involved in such analytical efforts since 1983. Detailed analytical research brought about an evolution in the systematic approach utilized in the RRAU since that time. The close proximity of the drugs to the records often results in trace drug evidence being transferred to

Phenol oxidase activity in secondary transformed peat-moorsh soils

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Styła, K.; Szajdak, L.

2009-04-01

The chemical composition of peat depends on the geobotanical conditions of its formation and on the depth of sampling. The evolution of hydrogenic peat soils is closely related to the genesis of peat and to the changes in water conditions. Due to a number of factors including oscillation of ground water level, different redox potential, changes of aerobic conditions, different plant communities, and root exudes, and products of the degradation of plant remains, peat-moorsh soils may undergo a process of secondary transformation conditions (Sokolowska et al. 2005; Szajdak et al. 2007). Phenol oxidase is one of the few enzymes able to degrade recalcitrant phenolic materials as lignin (Freeman et al. 2004). Phenol oxidase enzymes catalyze polyphenol oxidation in the presence of oxygen (O2) by removing phenolic hydrogen or hydrogenes to from radicals or quinines. These products undergo nucleophilic addition reactions in the presence or absence of free - NH2 group with the eventual production of humic acid-like polymers. The presence of phenol oxidase in soil environments is important in the formation of humic substances a desirable process because the carbon is stored in a stable form (Matocha et al. 2004). The investigations were carried out on the transect of peatland 4.5 km long, located in the Agroecological Landscape Park host D. Chlapowski in Turew (40 km South-West of Poznań, West Polish Lowland). The sites of investigation were located along Wyskoć ditch. The following material was taken from four chosen sites marked as Zbechy, Bridge, Shelterbelt and Hirudo in two layers: cartel (0-50cm) and cattle (50-100cm). The object of this study was to characterize the biochemical properties by the determination of the phenol oxidize activity in two layers of the four different peat-moors soils used as meadow. The phenol oxidase activity was determined spectrophotometrically by measuring quinone formation at λmax=525 nm with catechol as substrate by method of Perucci

Economics of lifecycle analysis and greenhouse gas regulations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rajagopal, Deepak

2009-11-01

the market power of OPEC (Oil Producing and Exporting Countries), a cartel of nations which is the single largest oil exporting entity in the world, and is an entity considered unreliable. On the other hand, it reduces the demand for domestic farm subsidies. At the same crops comprise a small share of the retail price of food. As a result, the expected negative impact of biofuel was at worst a small increase in the retail price of food. However, the food price inflation in the year 2008 suggests that the negative impact on food consumers was significantly higher than expected and also outweighed the impact fuel consumers. I estimate the effect on biofuels on food and oil prices and compare them to other estimates in the literature and also relate these to prices observed in the real world. The third topic is the economics of greenhouse gas regulations of transportation fuels. Climate change policies such as United Nations' Kyoto protocol, European Union Emission Trading Scheme, and the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative in the US north-east mandate an aggregate emission target, called a cap and allow regulated entities to trade responsibilities for abatement. Furthermore, these policies have generally and sometimes exclusively targeted the electricity and industrial sector for emission reduction. However, the Low carbon fuel standard and Renewable fuel standard are two policies about to be implemented by the State of California and the US federal government, which exclusively target the transportation sector for emission reduction. Furthermore, these regulations mandate emission intensity target for fuels rather than aggregate emission reduction. I compare the cost-effectiveness of these two types of regulations, namely, aggregate emission caps versus emission intensity standards and discuss how prices, output and emissions vary between these two types of policies.

The Astronomy Club of Araranguá: Educating Science Teachers as Science Communicators. (Breton Title: Clube de Astronomia de AraranguÁ: a Formação de Professores de Ciências Como Divulgadores Científicos. ) Club de Astronomía de Araranguá: la Formación del Profesorado Como Comunicadores de la Ciencia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Damasio, Felipe; Allain, Olivier; Antunes Rodrigues, Adriano

2013-07-01

-se na Teoria da Aprendizagem Significativa, sempre procurando alcançar a pré-disposição em aprender e produzir material potencialmente significativo, as duas condições necessárias para que a aprendizagem significativa ocorra. El estudio relatado en este trabajo se lleva a cabo desde 2009 en el Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnología de Santa Catarina, campus Araranguá. En él se busca formar a comunicadores de la ciencia durante la formación inicial de los docentes Licenciatura en Ciencias Naturales con especialidad en Física, y también promover acciones de divulgación científica para el público en general en la región de Araranguá a través de un club de astronomía llamado CA2 (Clube de Astronomia Araranguá). Entres las acciones de los estudiantes que se promueven están: producción de videos, programas de radio, conferencias, observaciones nocturnas, la preparación y exposición de carteles, la educación en física para los niños, actividades de formación permanente del profesorado y enseñanza de la física de con el tema generador Astronomía. El trabajo de la formación del profesorado y la difusión de club científico se basa en la teoría del aprendizaje significativo, buscando siempre la predisposición para aprender y producir material potencialmente significativo, las dos condiciones necesarias para que ocurra el aprendizaje significativo.

Replacing the Rare Earth Intellectual Capital

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gschneidner, Jr., Karl

2011-04-01

The rare earth crisis slowly evolved during a 10 to 15 year period beginning in the mid-1980s, when the Chinese began to export mixed rare earth concentrates. In the early 1990s, they started to move up the supply chain and began to export the individual rare earth oxides and metals. By the late 1990s the Chinese exported higher value products, such as magnets, phosphors, polishing compounds, catalysts; and in the 21st century they supplied finished products including electric motors, computers, batteries, liquid-crystal displays (LCDs), TVs and monitors, mobile phones, iPods and compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) light bulbs. As they movedmore » to higher value products, the Chinese slowly drove the various industrial producers and commercial enterprises in the US, Europe and Japan out of business by manipulating the rare earth commodity prices. Because of this, the technically trained rare earth engineers and scientists who worked in areas from mining to separations, to processing to production, to manufacturing of semifinished and final products, were laid-off and moved to other fields or they retired. However, in the past year the Chinese have changed their philosophy of the 1970s and 1980s of forming a rare earth cartel to control the rare earth markets to one in which they will no longer supply the rest of the world (ROW) with their precious rare earths, but instead will use them internally to meet the growing demand as the Chinese standard of living increases. To this end, they have implemented and occasionally increased export restrictions and added an export tariff on many of the high demand rare earth elements. Now the ROW is quickly trying to start up rare earth mines, e.g. Molycorp Minerals in the US and Lynas Corp. in Australia, to cover this shortfall in the worldwide market, but it will take about five years for the supply to meet the demand, even as other mines in the ROW become productive. Unfortunately, today there is a serious lack of technically