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What if Ariel Castro?s past record of alleged domestic violence had resulted in legal action against him?
Could it have led authorities to discover sooner that the Cleveland man was holding three kidnapped women in his house? Could it have even prevented the kidnappings from occurring?
Those questions are emerging after details have surfaced that the Ohio kidnapping suspect had several run-ins with the law regarding alleged domestic violence.
The incidents involved the woman, Grimilda Figueroa, with whom Mr. Castro fathered four children.
Now Castro has been arrested and stands accused of kidnapping and abusing three other women and keeping them locked in his house since 2002, 2003, and 2004 respectively.
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The Reuters news agency reported Saturday that Ms. Figueroa?s accusations against Castro began as early as 1989 and spanned through 2005. The most recent case involved a request by her for a court order of protection.
The effort by Figueroa raises that ?what if? question.
?If he had violated the order he could have been investigated by police and possibly arrested,? the Reuters report said. ?That could have been an opportunity to find the women he allegedly held captive, or it could have made things worse if they had been abandoned without him and unable to leave the house.?
But the story of the tension-filled relationship between Figueroa and Castro is also a reminder of how difficult it can be to make charges of domestic violence stick, or to win such court orders of protection against potential abuse.
More than once, Figueroa backed off in her legal efforts. That?s a common challenge when it comes to holding batterers accountable, experts in domestic violence say.
Michael Dvorak, the prosecuting attorney for St. Joseph, County, Ind., is one of many who have publicized the problem.
?Financial dependencies, pressure from the abuser and fear of retribution to themselves or their children are some of the obstacles that victims face? in making charges, he wrote in 2011.
Such factors frequently cause people to recant allegations, never file charges, or refrain from seeking a court order.
And even if Figueroa had won a court order, it?s only possible ? far from certain ? that it would have ultimately led police to discover Castro?s connection to three unsolved abductions.
Castro is being charged with kidnapping Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight as teens or young women. Additional charges included rape and possibly murder (in connection with allegedly abusing Ms. Knight and depriving her of food during pregnancies that led to miscarriages).
Here?s the timeline for the Figueroa-Castro relationship, as recounted by Reuters:
In 1989, Castro pleaded no contest and was given a year of probation after Figueroa made a domestic violence complaint against him.
On Dec. 26, 1993, Castro was arrested after he came home drunk and began beating Figueroa, police said. Police gathered a detailed report, but when a grand jury considered the incident, Figueroa said she could not remember the abuse.
By 1997, Figueroa had been granted full custody of her and Castro's four children. And by then, she was in a new relationship with another man.
In 2005, Figueroa sought an order of protection against Castro, saying he had threatened to kill her and her children during the previous year and had "abducted" the children.
But that happened about the same time that two of her daughters accused her new partner of sexual abuse. The charges may have come about at the prompting of Castro, some sources say, but they resulted in a sentence of supervision for her partner.
Figueroa decided not to proceed with the request for a protection order, and decided to move to Indiana with her children.
She died last year, with a coroner saying the death was caused by an accidental overdose of painkiller.
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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cleveland-kidnappings-ariel-castro-record-abuse-red-flag-203640530.html
Amphibian populations living close to agricultural fields have become more resistant to a common insecticide and are actually resistant to multiple common insecticides, according to two recent studies conducted at the University of Pittsburgh.
In a study published today in Evolutionary Applications, the Pitt researchers demonstrate, for the first time, that tadpoles from populations close to farm fields are more resistant to chlorpyrifos?one of the most commonly applied insecticides in the world, often sold as "Dursban" or "Lorsban." In addition, a related study published in February shows that tadpoles resistant to chlorpyrifos are also resistant to other insecticides.
"While we've made a lot of progress in understanding the ecological consequences to animals that are unintentionally exposed to insecticides, the evolutionary consequences are poorly understood," said study principal investigator Rick Relyea, Pitt professor of biological sciences and director of the University's Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology. "Our study is the first to explore how amphibian populations might evolve to be resistant to insecticides when they live in places that have been sprayed for many years."
The Pitt researchers used newly hatched tadpoles collected from nine populations of wood frogs living at different distances from agricultural fields. They tested the frogs' resistance when exposed to chlorpyrifos, which is used against insects, and Roundup Original MAX?, which is a common herbicide used against weeds.
Relyea and his Pitt collaborators exposed the tadpoles from each of the nine populations to environments containing either no pesticides, chlorpyrifos, or Roundup?. After 48 hours, they measured how well the populations survived.
"Wood frogs living close to agricultural land were more likely to have been exposed to pesticides for many generations compared to those living far from agriculture; the latter frog populations likely experienced little or no exposure to pesticides," said Rickey Cothran, the lead author of the study and a postdoctoral researcher in Relyea's lab. "Although populations differed in their resistance to Roundup?, populations closer to fields were not more resistant to the herbicide."
"Because chlorpyrifos kills in a way that is similar to many other insecticides, higher resistance may have been favored each time any insecticide was sprayed," said Pitt alumnus Jenise Brown (A&S '09), a coauthor of the study and a former undergraduate researcher in Relyea's lab. "In contrast, herbicides have a variety of ways that they kill organisms, which may make it harder for animals to be resistant when exposed to different herbicides over many years."
In a related study, published online Feb. 21 in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, Relyea's Pitt research team examined whether wood frog populations that were resistant to chlorpyrifos might also be resistant to other insecticides. This phenomenon, said Relyea, happens commonly in pest species when farmers switch pesticides from year to year, but little is known about how this switching of pesticides affects amphibians.
Using three commonly applied pesticides that have similar chemical properties? chlorpyrifos, carbaryl, and malathion?the Pitt researchers exposed 15 populations of wood frog tadpoles to high concentrations of each insecticide. They found that wood frog populations with resistance to one insecticide also had resistance to the other insecticides.
"This has a beneficial outcome," said Jessica Hua, the lead author of the second study and a graduate student in Relyea's lab. "While it doesn't mean that pesticides are beneficial to amphibians, our work does suggest that amphibians can evolve to resist a variety of pesticides and therefore improve their survival."
As they hypothesized in the study published today, the researchers suspect that the reason for this cross-resistance is that chlorpyrifos kills in a way that is similar to many other insecticides. Thus, evolving higher resistance to one insecticide may provide higher resistance to others.
"This finding may buffer an amphibian population from suffering the consequences of exposures to new, but similar-acting chemicals," said Aaron Stoler, a coauthor of the second paper and a graduate student in Relyea's lab.
In the future, Relyea and his team plan to study the genetic mechanisms that underlie increased resistance in amphibians and determine whether increased resistance occurs in additional animal species that are not the targets of pesticides.
The article published today in Evolutionary Applications is titled "Proximity to agriculture is correlated with pesticide tolerance: Evidence for the evolution of amphibian resistance to modern pesticides." The article published Feb. 21 in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry is titled "Cross-tolerance in amphibians: Wood frog mortality when exposed to three insecticides with a common mode of action."
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University of Pittsburgh: http://www.pitt.edu
Thanks to University of Pittsburgh for this article.
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How fitting that the globe?s largest online store is named after the enormous South American river. With over $48 billion in revenues throughout 2012 alone, Amazon is a dynamic powerhouse that every brand should admire.
Now, you?d have to be nuttier than a fruitcake to think that Amazon achieved this mammoth success with ease. It required blood, sweat and tears ? or at least two of the three ? for Amazon to become the center of online retail that it is today.
Fortunately, Amazon?s strategy to attain 250,000,000 monthly visitors isn?t exactly a secret. They?re known for ?going all in? and aggressively defending their turf while expanding it.?Brands hoping for similar Amazon-sized success should study the way the ecommerce site stays ahead of the curve, expands their territory, optimizes content and gives power to the consumer.
Before e-readers and tablets were mainstream, Amazon took a leap of faith and invested itself in this market. The risk clearly succeeded, as tablets are recognized as one of the fastest-growing new technologies. Instead of simply focusing on selling tablets and e-readers, Amazon developed the Kindle, which placed their own stamp in the growing marketplace. Amazon also created a niche for itself by promoting new, unknown authors.
Did you know that Amazon?s top 100 selling Kindle books were mostly self-published authors? E-readers continue to consume a wider range of content ? and Amazon delivers. By staying ahead of the curve like they did with the Kindle, Amazon ensures its relevance and staying power as today?s new technologies become the standard.
Part of staying ahead of the curve means that Amazon will also travel into new territory. While an online retail site seems completely unrelated to Hollywood, news has broken that Amazon is investing in at least 30 original movies or television programs.
Instead of simply streaming video content, Amazon is experimenting in creating its own content. Amazon is using data from their sales and consumer base to predict what type of content will be a hit. Likewise, brands should continue to take calculated risks. Just as Amazon is investing in creating video content because they understand how it fits their platform, brands should consider their potential avenues as well.
Just like any online presence, Amazon focuses on content optimization to ensure that all of their listings appear nicely in SERPs (search engine result pages). They?ve refined their search system to only bring up the content that you?re looking for.
Furthermore, Amazon?s content is powerful because it doesn?t just appear on SERPs, it?s actually sent to you via email and relevant advertising throughout the Internet. Because Amazon tries to recommend products to consumers, they?ve included a ?Fix this Recommendation? button in case one of their suggestions is off base. By doing this, Amazon continues to harness personal preferences to fine-tune their marketing efforts. Is your site optimized to use and gather relevant data?
For the most part, Amazon doesn?t really sell that much. Most of their content and items come from ?sellers.? Thus, the strength in Amazon?s brand is that it is based on user-generated content that can quickly adapt to user needs.
While not every brand can rely on user-generated content like Amazon, every business can afford to give more power to the consumer. For instance, consider adding product review options or testimonials.
Amie Marse is the founder of Content Equals Money, a small content generation firm based in Lexington, KY. She?s been a passionate freelance writer turned business owner for over 7 years. Her philosophy is that the essentials of content marketing do not change from the small business to the Fortune 500 level, and that creativity trumps budget every time. ?
Source: http://smallbiztrends.com/2013/04/case-study-amazon-strategy.html
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