Search results for " Trafficking"
showing 10 items of 89 documents
Between Local and Global: the ‘Ndrangheta’s Drug Trafficking Route
2017
AbstractAccording to the last United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report (2016), 247 million people aged between 15 and 64 years used drugs at least once in the past year, with cocaine being the best-selling of the goods from the ‘Ndrangheta. In this case, the drugs trade is 60% of the systemic gain due to illicit trafficking that allowed the spreading of the Calabrian criminal organization across five continents. Nevertheless, this sometimes little-known apparently harmless organization, which comes from the Aspromonte heartland in Calabria, was included by the United States in the blacklist of the 75 most dangerous drug-trafficking organizations only in 2008. Therefore, this investig…
Motherhood of Nigerian and Romanian Women in Sexual Exploitation
2020
Motherhood in human trafficking can cause a transition from an invisible individual, marginalised by their administrative and social status, into a ‘recognised citizen’ (Brouckaert and Longman 2018). This is to do with ‘the constitute maternal act’ (Ruddick 1995), in which the role of care is assumed regarding the child necessities, bringing with it help for the mother in order to fulfil necessary services (Brouckaert and Longman 2018). Therefore, motherhood can be perceived, especially by the trafficker as an added vulnerability factor, due to the responsibility that the victim feels in protecting the baby. However, on the other hand, the responsibility in protecting another life can also …
The EU and global imbalances
2015
The EU’s Role in Fighting Global Imbalances looks at the role of the European Union in addressing some of the greatest challenges of our time: poverty, protectionism, climate change, and human trafficking. Contributions from ten leading scholars in the fields of economics, law, and political science provide in-depth analyses of three key dimensions of EU foreign policy, namely: the internal challenges facing the EU, as its 28 member countries struggle to coordinate their actions; the external challenges facing the EU on the global arena, in areas where global imbalances are particularly pervasive, and where measures taken by the Union can have an important impact; and the EU´s performance o…
The analysis of the concept of vulnerability on the International legal framework on Human Trade
2018
The establishment of the Trafficking1 and the Smuggling Protocol2 has brought to the surface the importance of the concept of vulnerability. However, the Protocols have not given a precise definition to the concept of vulnerability, in order to perceive a practical application on legal grounds. In 2005, the Council of Europe tries to delimit the definition’s gap of such concept, through the Convention of Warsaw3, giving a more exact definition of the concept. The present article intends to analyse the evolution and the application of this concept on the international legal framework on Human trafficking and Smuggling of migrants.
Ion mobility spectrometry and high resolution mass-spectrometry as methodologies for rapid identification of the last generation of new psychoactive …
2018
A new drug trafficking trend has been observed in the last years by the introduction in the black market of new psychoactive substances (NPS) in order to difficult competent authority controls. In this study, ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) and high-resolution mass-spectrometry (HRMS) were proposed as vanguard and rearguard methodologies for the rapid identification of the last generation of NPS in seizures. The combined use of IMS and HRMS has been evaluated through the analysis of 24 NPS seized from 2016 to 2018 in Valencia (Spain) to demonstrate the utility of this approach. The characteristic reduced mobility (K0) values for seized NPS were determined and mass-mobility relationships wer…
Clathrin-independent entry of baculovirus triggers uptake of E. coli in non-phagocytic human cells
2008
The prototype baculovirus, Autographa californica multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus, an insect pathogen, holds great potential as a gene therapy vector. To develop transductional targeting and gene delivery by baculovirus, we focused on characterizing the nature and regulation of its uptake in human cancer cells. Baculovirus entered the cells along fluid-phase markers from the raft areas into smooth-surfaced vesicles devoid of clathrin. Notably, regulators associated with macropinocytosis, namely EIPA, Pak1, Rab34, and Rac1, had no significant effect on viral transduction, and the virus did not induce fluid-phase uptake. The internalization and nuclear uptake was, however, affected by mutants o…
The ER-Membrane Transport System Is Critical for Intercellular Trafficking of the NSm Movement Protein and Tomato Spotted Wilt Tospovirus.
2015
Plant viruses move through plasmodesmata to infect new cells. The plant endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is interconnected among cells via the ER desmotubule in the plasmodesma across the cell wall, forming a continuous ER network throughout the entire plant. This ER continuity is unique to plants and has been postulated to serve as a platform for the intercellular trafficking of macromolecules. In the present study, the contribution of the plant ER membrane transport system to the intercellular trafficking of the NSm movement protein and Tomato spotted wilt tospovirus (TSWV) is investigated. We showed that TSWV NSm is physically associated with the ER membrane in Nicotiana benthamiana plants. An…
Distribution and phenotype of rotavirus-specific B cells induced during the antigen-driven primary response to 2/6 virus-like particles administered …
2007
AbstractSelection of mucosal sites is an important step in mucosal vaccine development. The intrarectal (IR) route represents an alternative to the oral route of immunization; nevertheless, immune responses induced by this route are not well defined. Here, we studied the early primary B cell response (induction, homing, and phenotype) induced by IR immunization with rotavirus (RV)-2/6 virus-like particles (VLP). Using flow cytometry, we traced RV-specific B cells in different lymphoid tissues and analyzed the expression of α4β7 and CCR9, which are important receptors for homing to the gut, as well as CD5, a marker expressed by B1-a cells, which are a major source of natural antibodies. We o…
Central Serotonin2C Receptor: From Physiology to Pathology
2006
Since the 1950s, when serotonin (5-HT) was discovered in the mammalian central nervous system (CNS), an enormous amount of experimental evidence has revealed the pivotal role of this biogenic amine in a number of cognitive and behavioural functions. Although 5-HT is synthesized by a small group of neurons within the raphe nuclei of the brain stem, almost all parts of the CNS receive serotonergic projections. Furthermore, the importance of 5-HT modulation and the fine-tuning of its action is underlined by the large number of 5-HT binding sites found in the CNS. Hitherto, up to 15 different 5-HT receptors subtypes have been identified. This review was undertaken to summarize the work that has…