Illegal Shipments Research Articles

Port-of-Entry Inspection: Sensor Deployment Policy Optimization

This paper considers the problem of container inspection at a port-of-entry. Containers are inspected through a specific sequence to detect the presence of nuclear materials, biological and chemical agents, and other illegal shipments. The threshold levels of sensors at inspection stations of the port-of-entry affect the probabilities of incorrectly accepting or rejecting a container. In this paper, we present several optimization approaches for determining the optimum sensor threshold levels, while considering misclassification errors, total cost of inspection, and budget constraints. In contrast to previous work which determines threshold levels and sequence separately, we consider an integrated system and determine them simultaneously. Examples applying the approaches in different sensor arrangements are demonstrated.

Illegal transnational shipment of waste in the EU: culprits and collaborators in Germany and the Czech Republic

In autumn 2005 and winter 2006, the United Authorities began DISCOVERING Significant Amounts of Municipal Solid Waste Imported from Germany illegally and improperly deposited in so-Called 'Black dumps'. The Endangered waste the environment and public health by threatening to pollute the soil, water, and air. While detection of Illegal waste transports to the Czech Republic declined in 2007, the regulation of cross-border waste Shipment is a Continuing public policy question for European Countries. This article describes European Union, United and German waste policies, and explains the history of Illegal Waste Shipment from Germany. The article concludes That Illegal waste shipments from Germany to the Czech Republic and predictable Were result of Economic Incentives Driven by strict waste treatment flawed Rules and Law Enforcement. Such transnational Illegal waste shipments are not a New Phenomenon in the European Union.

Using natural beta emission for detecting concealed tobacco in parcels

It is suspected that postal systems are used for the illegal shipment of tobacco products to circumvent taxation and excise payments. This paper demonstrates that beta-particle emission from the potassium-40 contained in tobacco can be used to passively detect its presence in paperboard postal parcels. The same concept can be utilized for the detection of marijuana, whose leaves are also rich in 40K. The combination of high beta activity and a low weight is a good indicator of the presence of these two contraband materials.

Electrical and electronic waste management in China: progress and the barriers to overcome

Serious adverse impacts on the environment and human health from e-waste recycling have occurred in the past and continue to occur in China today, due to a lack of national management strategies. China has made great efforts to face the challenges of the approaching peak increase in the domestic generation of e-waste and the illegal shipment of e-waste from other countries. This study examined recent progress and analysed the main problems associated with this issue in China. It was found that the material and the financial flows of e-waste in China had their own specific characteristics. Nearly 60% of the generated e-wastes were sold to private individual collectors and passed into informal recycling processes. More than 90% of Chinese citizens are reluctant to pay for the recycling of their e-waste. This is due to their traditional understanding that there remained value in these end-of-life products. Regulations concerning e-waste in China have been drafted but their deficiencies are obvious. The extended producer responsibilities (EPR) have been introduced but are not well defined. Eight formal facilities have been planned and are under construction or are in operation along the eastern coast of China but it will be difficult for them to compete with the informal processes for the reasons identified during the study.

Medical Rehabilitation and Quarantine of Illegally Traded Macqueen's Bustard (Chlamydotis macqueenii) in the United Arab Emirates

The Macqueen's bustard (Chlamydotis macqueenii), previously known as the Houbara bustard, is an increasingly threatened species. A potentially significant cause of its decline is illegal trade. When illegal shipments of these birds are confiscated by authorities in the United Arab Emirates, they are placed with the National Avian Research Center's (NARC) Macqueen's bustard rehabilitation program. In this report, we describe the threats to the Macqueen's bustard in the wild and provide a detailed description of the quarantine program at NARC and of how this program is designed to minimize the effects of diseases that are commonly seen in these illegally traded birds. Issues surrounding decisions for euthanasia, for incorporating birds into a breeding program, and for releasing birds back into the wild are also discussed.

Analysis of tetrodotoxin

Law enforcement personnel interdicted an illegal shipment of a chemical suspected to be an illicit drug. However, literature within the package indicated that the substance was actually tetrodotoxin, a potent marine neurotoxin. Analyses of the questioned samples by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry revealed no evidence for the presence of illicit drugs, but this technique was ineffectual for the identification of tetrodotoxin. Direct-inlet-probe mass spectrometry was likewise unable to characterize the chemical identity of the subject material. Electrospray-ionization mass spectrometry was implemented to successfully identify the interdicted substance as tetrodotoxin.

Good faith and truthful ignorance: a case of transatlantic bigamy

Good Faith and Truthful Ignorance uncovers from history the fascinating and strange story of Spanish explorer Francisco Noguerol de Ulloa. in 1556, accompanied by his second wife, Francisco returned to his home in Spain after a profitable twenty-year sojourn in the new world of Peru. However, unlike most other rich conquistadores who returned to the land of their birth, Francisco was not allowed to settle into a life of leisure. Instead, he was charged with bigamy and illegal shipment of silver, was arrested and imprisoned. Francisco’s first wife (thought long dead) had filed suit in Spain against her renegade husband. So begins the labyrinthine legal tale and engrossing drama of an explorer and his two wives, skillfully reconstructed through the expert and original archival research of Alexandra Parma Cook and Noble David Cook. Drawing on the remarkable records from the trial, the narrative of Francisco’s adventures provides a window into daily life in sixteenth-century Spain, as well as the mentalite and experience of conquest and settlement of the New World. Told from the point of view of the conquerors, Francisco’s story reveals not only the lives of the middle class and minor nobility but also much about those at the lower rungs of the social order and relations between the sexes. In the tradition of Carlo Ginzberg’s The Cheese and the Worms and Natalie Zemon Davis’ The Return of Martin Guerre, Good Faith and Truthful Ignorance illuminates an historical period—the world of sixteenth-century Spain and Peru—through the wonderful and unusual story of one man and his two wives.

Illegal shipment of ivory

Illegal shipment of ivory

Late Autumn Food of the Sharp-Tailed Grouse in Western Nebraska

This article treats of the food of the Sharp-tailed Grouse in western Nebraska during late autumn, following a season of severe drought. Early in November, 1934, an illegal shipment of 56 game birds was seized by authorities at Truckee, California. It is believed that these birds had been shot late in October, probably in the vicinity of Broadwater, Morrill County, Nebraska. On December 22, 1934, these birds were delivered to the Department of Entomology of the College of Agriculture, University of Nebraska, by Frank B. O'Connell, Chief Conservation Officer and Secretary of the Game, Forestation, and Parks Commission of Nebraska, for purposes of dissection and analysis of their food. The shipment included 29 Sharp-tailed Grouse (Pedioecetes phasianellus jamesi), many of them birds of the year, analyses of which are here reported upon. All of these birds were frozen solidly when delivered. They were allowed to thaw and relax, when the crops and gizzards were dissected out by Watson E. Beed, who preserved their contents in separately numbered vials of 70 per cent alcohol. In analyzing the contents of the crops and gizzards, the procedure was as follows: All plant leaves were separated from the saturated mixture in the 70 per cent alcohol, identified in that state if possible, and then set aside to dry. The alcohol was poured off from the remainder of the mixture, and this residue also dried. The dry contents of each crop and gizzard were then separated into their constituent elements or foods, the weights of each of which were taken separately, to 0.001 gram. Broadwater, Morrill County, where,