Tracking Trafficking

Similar analyses could be done for the movement of cocaine from Colombia to Europe, or the movement of heroin via the Balkan route, or any of a number of other trafficking patterns. The key limitation is the lack of standardised data. UNODC needs greater input from Member States to its individual seizures database, including detailed information on the nationalities of traffickers and the techniques employed. On this basis, important analysis of the world drug trafficking situation could be completed for the benefit of all. 

Indeed, such an analysis need not be limited to drugs. Similar databases can be developed for trafficked persons, or firearms, or any other smuggled commodity to produce a standardised and quantified barometer of transnational criminal activity as a supplement to existing intelligence-based assessments. Issues for which there are currently no accurate global figures, such as human trafficking, are difficult to discuss without this basic data. 

Determining the degree of organization is important in formulating policy. Despite the claim that there may be as many as 400 baby cartels operating in Colombia today, they are clearly not all of the same importance. If all were equal, each would be responsible for moving just 1.25 mt of cocaine every year, but individual seizures are made that are more than ten times that 

000 farm families distributed among 23 provinces is highly reliant on the organization skills and field presence of the insurgent and paramilitary groups. If this link in the supply chain were disrupted, it could also be devastating for the cocaine market. 

Belser, P, Forced labour and human trafficking Estimating the profits. Geneva ILO, 2005. 

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The large seizures of pseudoephedrine in Canada can be attributed to the enactment of necessary legislation in the country, which has enabled law enforcement authorities to take action against traffickers identified through tracking and backtracking... 

Similarly, different results have been found for the impact of brake wear particles. While unequivocally a strong enrichment of brake-related chemical trace elements (Sb, Ba, Cu) is found at trafficked sites [63], the quantification of overall PM contribution from brake wear is associated with uncertainties. An even wider range of emission factors was found for re-suspension of road dust (cf. Table 4). It should be noted that re-suspension may be a strong source of PM during wintertime when de-icing salt is spread out. For a traffic site in southern Germany exceedance of the daily PM limit value could be tracked back to road salting in 12 of 43 cases [66]. 

Visualizing Uptake and Intracellular Trafficking of Gene Carriers by Single-Particle Tracking... 

This is in contrast to viruses, where the virus particles also show active transport when present in the cytosol after fusion with the plasma membrane or endosomal membrane [60-62], This is due to the ability of specific proteins of the virus particle to bind motor proteins. Single-particle tracking reveals that the quantitative intracellular transport properties of internalized non-viral gene vectors (e.g., polyplexes) are similar to that of viral vectors (e.g., adenovirus) [63]. Suk et al. showed that over 80% of polyplexes and adenoviruses in neurons are subdiffusive and 11-13% are actively transported. However, their trafficking pathways are substantially different. Polyplexes colocalized with endosomal compartments whereas adenovirus particles quickly escaped endosomes after endocytosis. Nevertheless, both exploit the intracellular transport machinery to be actively transported. 

Brandenburg B, Zhuang X (2007) Virus trafficking - learning from single-virus tracking. Nat Rev Microbiol 5 197-208... 

Fluorescence microscopy uniquely allows for real time, three-dimensional tracking of drugs in live cells at low incubation concentrations. When employed in conjunction with tools such as pathway inhibitors, this technique can elucidate drug trafficking pathways and reveal the roles of intracellular components in the drug action. 

In 2004, a seizure of 18 tons of potassium permanganate in Colombia was tracked back to a company in Mexico. Mexican authorities launched extensive investigations in their country to identify those responsible and, while no arrests resulted from the investigations, the traffickers were no longer able to make use of the front company established to divert the substance. 

Cyanocohalamin tracking chaperone. Cyanocobalamin trafficking chaperone is a molecule which removes a cyanide molecule from cyanocobalamin mediated by a direct reduction by NADPH and fiavoprotein. 

Chemotaxins caused by the presence of bacteria in the lungs, together with specific chemoattractants produced by resident cells, elicit trafficking of immune cells to the threatened region. This movement of white cells can be tracked by imaging the localization of radiolabeled leukocytes, and this technique is routinely used in nuclear medicine departments as a clinical tool to determine the location of pulmonary inflammation. 

Sulaimanova, S. (2004) Migration Trends in Central Asia and the Case of Trafficking of Women. Pp. 377-400 in D. Burghart and T. Sabonis-Helf (eds.), In the Tracks of Tamerlane Central Asia s Path to the 21st Century. Washington, DC National Defense University Press. 

Extensive studies of track settlement after maintenance have enabled the production of lift/settlement models. Understanding lift/settlement relationships has opened the way for incorporating calculated overlifts into designs, which, when trafficked, take up... 

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