BALTIMORE, MD, May 24, 2025 – Most anti-human trafficking efforts focus on breaking up sex sales; however, new research in the INFORMS journal Manufacturing & Service Operations Management is turning its attention to where trafficking truly begins – recruitment. Using machine learning to analyze millions of online ads, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have uncovered patterns that link deceptive job offers to sex trafficking networks. By mapping the connections between recruitment and sales locations, the study reveals a hidden supply chain – one that can now be exposed and interrupted earlier in the trafficking process.
Drugs being explicitly developed to treat rare diseases are getting more expensive.
Old technology is behind the recent ongoing delays and cancellations at Newark Liberty International Airport, but newer technology will be an important part of the solution.
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The minimum wage is getting lip service on the campaign trail. Well-intentioned plans can backfire, Christopher Tang writes in a guest commentary.
Election Day is about 20 days away, and polls suggest that it will be close in several key states. Yet it did not have to be that way. Indeed, the Republicans missed an opportunity to decisively win the White House when Donald Trump won the right to be their nominee.
Jon Tester, the incumbent Democratic senator from Montana, is in a dogfight to retain his Senate seat. Larry Hogan, the former Republican governor of Maryland, is in a similar battle, to win a Senate seat by reengaging the very same voters who elected him governor for two terms.
Source Water Protection Week reminds everyone how critical water is for our health and well-being. We take for granted that anytime we need to quench our thirst, bathe or wash our clothes, clean potable water will be available. Yet is this a safe assumption to make?
The supply chain for many small parcel shipping companies is typically long. Products are often made in distant lands, travel on oceans and waterways, arrive at ports, are then transported to warehouses, from where a third-party logistics provider delivers the product to its intended destination. In a stable world, shippers and customers alike can expect a product to be delivered within the promised time window. However, in a world facing high levels of uncertainty caused by war, pandemic, political instability, raw material shortages, freak accidents (recall the regional and national impact of the bridge collapse in the Port of Baltimore caused by a container ship), and weather, the shipper must work overtime to ensure customer expectations are met at no additional cost, despite these uncertainties.
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