Customs delays drive researchers to smuggling

From cigarette smuggling to illicit tobacco trade.

BACKGROUND Tax policy is considered the most effective strategy to reduce tobacco consumption and prevalence. Tax avoidance and tax evasion therefore undermine the effectiveness of tax policies and result in less revenue for governments, cheaper prices for smokers and increased tobacco use. Tobacco smuggling and illicit tobacco trade have probably always existed, since tobacco's introduction as...

Tobacco Smuggling

Using Sensors to Interdict Nuclear Material Smuggling

We describe a stochastic network interdiction model for locating sensors that detect nuclear material. A nuclear material smuggler selects a path through a transportation network that maximizes the probability of avoiding detection. An interdictor installs sensors to minimize that maximum probability. We formulate this problem as a bi-level stochastic mixed-integer program, and then focus on a ...

Yoruba customs and beliefs pertaining to twins.

The Yoruba are an important ethnic group mainly occupying Southwestern Nigeria. Mainly for genetic reasons, this very large tribe happens to present the highest dizygotic twinning rate in the world (4.4 % of all maternities). The high perinatal mortality rate associated with such pregnancies has contributed to the integration of a special twin belief system within the African traditional religi...

Work by Alberta researchers may free MDs from awkward fitness-to-drive decisions.

An Alberta researcher has developed tests that determine whether a senior citizen with cognitive impairment is fit to drive. The issue is important to the medical profession because these drivers sometimes cause accidents and physicians often have to decide whether they should still be allowed to get behind the wheel.