Refugee Business Start-ups in the North East of England: An Impossible Dream?

Objectives and prior work - For many asylum seekers just getting to the UK is an achievement, let alone obtaining refugee status. When ‘equality’ is achieved with other immigrant workers then the settlement process begins. For some this includes starting a business but there are a number of well documented barriers to business start-up for refugees as well as black minority ethic entrepreneurs, which have been highlighted in the North East region (BRKN, 2007). Given this Northumbria University has sought to engage with these communities. This paper represents on-going research which began with a Northumbria University funded project that supported two main workshops aimed at refugees who wished to start a business. Approach - The University sought to engage with this particular part of the community through a project which aimed to contribute to the widening of business start-up for refugees at a time of increasing economic uncertainty. One practical means that had become available was the opportunity to establish a community based social enterprise. Given this an introductory workshop for refugees was organised on social enterprises. The workshop attracted over twenty-five community leader participants from ten different nations including the Cameroon, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iran, Pakistan, Somalia, the Sudan, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. Participants requested a second workshop which then took place on ‘planning a business venture.’ Results - Questionnaire data was obtained from these workshops on business and social enterprise start-up, previous business experience and the usefulness of the workshops. Following these some of the workshop participants attended Northumbria University’s Student Law Office for advice on setting up their own businesses. Informal contact is also continuing with leading figures in these communities and through engagement with local voluntary sector groups. Implications - This paper will discuss some of the barriers that refugees face when starting a business and how their migration status impacts on this. It will also consider the recent cuts to the voluntary sector, how this has impacted on many of the groups supporting refugees and the extent to which the University is able to support these communities with business start up. Value - This research aims to identify the barriers which stand in the way of refugees trying to start up businesses, and to suggest measures which might ameliorate the situation, and enable more refugees to become successful business persons, contributing to the UK economy. BRKN (2007) Enterprise for Black and Minority Ethnic Communities, Refugees and Migrants, report by BOW Community Projects, Richardson Howarth LLP, The Knap and Northumbria University for ONE North East

Studying Work in the Post Reform Era

This paper emerged from the first stage of what is to be a three-stage multi-disciplinary research project examining work in the 'post-reform era '. The key foci of that research project are the organisation of work, the determination of wages, and the well-being of workers at the workplace level. It will examine how the nature of work varies across workplaces of different sizes and in different competitive environments. The present paper draws on the first stage of the research to share some of the problems experienced while attempting to study workplaces in New Zealand today. It draws on research in 19 Auckland workplaces and reveals serious definitional, theoretical, and methodological problems that are likely to constrain any such research in the present environment. In our case, the problems raised, and the solutions offered, have led to a fundamental rethink of the larger project's research objectives, strategies, and ways to operationalise concepts into empirical measures

The Skeleton of a Data Breach: The Ethical and Legal Concerns

After over thirty data breaches spanning the third and fourth quarter of 2012, Forbes magazine labeled the summer of 2012 as “The Summer of the Data Breach.” Four years later, businesses across multiple industries have suffered brand-image damage and paid millions of dollars in remedial expenses; we are living in the era of the mega breach. In 2014, companies such as Target, Home Depot, JP Morgan Chase, Anthem, Sony, UPS, Jimmy John’s, Kmart, Neiman Marcus, Community Health Systems, and the White House suffered data breaches. The Home Depot breach alone resulted in the loss of “56 million credit card accounts,” “53 million email addresses,” and an estimated 63 million dollars in damage. In addition to the economic fallout associated with data breaches, the 2015 Ashley Madison data breach highlighted the personal toll faced by consumers when their “private” information becomes “public.” That data breach exposed the identities of millions of would-be philanderers, shaming not only the subscribers to Ashley Madison’s service, but also innocent bystanders such as their family members. The frequency of data breaches has shown no signs of abating in 2016—in the first quarter, multiple hospitals fell victim to “ransomware,” a data breach that allows hackers to literally hold patient data hostage.7 Several hospitals had to pay hackers to regain access to their patients’ data. “Decentralized technology” creates a different set of problems than the simple misuse of a single individual’s “technological profile” and information. Today, unauthorized access to electronic information, a result of what Burnham in 1983 referred to as “transactional information,” includes “hackers breaking into systems or networks, third parties accessing personal information on lost laptops or other mobile devices, or organizations failing to dispose of personal information securely.” Data breaches exemplify the first type of unauthorized access and despite their frequent occurrence, they are little examined from an ethical standpoint. Though Google Scholar lists over 82,000 entries under “ethics of a data breach,” very few combine both terms in the title. One article that does so notes a “dearth of prior organizational-level privacy research, which has largely overlooked ethical issues or the personal harms often caused by privacy violations.” Even within the field of technology, “there has not been a huge literature on ethics within the mainstream of information systems journals.” Part of the problem is the novelty of data breach cases. They are so new and different that they appear to be technologically, morally, and legally unlike other problems. We suggest that analogies and analyses exist which can help resolve some of these moral and legal puzzles

Studying Work in the Post Reform Era

This paper emerged from the first stage of what is to be a three-stage multi-disciplinary research project examining work in the 'post-reform era '. The key foci of that research project are the organisation of work, the determination of wages, and the well-being of workers at the workplace level. It will examine how the nature of work varies across workplaces of different sizes and in different competitive environments. The present paper draws on the first stage of the research to share some of the problems experienced while attempting to study workplaces in New Zealand today. It draws on research in 19 Auckland workplaces and reveals serious definitional, theoretical, and methodological problems that are likely to constrain any such research in the present environment. In our case, the problems raised, and the solutions offered, have led to a fundamental rethink of the larger project's research objectives, strategies, and ways to operationalise concepts into empirical measures

Uneven and combined development and unequal exchange: the second wind of neoliberal ‘free trade’?

With capitalist social relations emerging in a prior system of absolutist states in Europe, the outward expansion of capitalism through conditions of uneven and combined development became dependent on the existence of multiple political entities. States in turn are brought into relations of unequal exchange within the global economy. This article analyses the way in which current neoliberal ‘free trade’ policies are related to these fundamental capitalist dynamics, deepening further processes of uneven and combined development as well as unequal exchange

3D optical sectioning with a new hyperspectral confocal fluorescence imaging system.

A novel hyperspectral fluorescence microscope for high-resolution 3D optical sectioning of cells and other structures has been designed, constructed, and used to investigate a number of different problems. We have significantly extended new multivariate curve resolution (MCR) data analysis methods to deconvolve the hyperspectral image data and to rapidly extract quantitative 3D concentration distribution maps of all emitting species. The imaging system has many advantages over current confocal imaging systems including simultaneous monitoring of numerous highly overlapped fluorophores, immunity to autofluorescence or impurity fluorescence, enhanced sensitivity, and dramatically improved accuracy, reliability, and dynamic range. Efficient data compression in the spectral dimension has allowed personal computers to perform quantitative analysis of hyperspectral images of large size without loss of image quality. We have also developed and tested software to perform analysis of time resolved hyperspectral images using trilinear multivariate analysis methods. The new imaging system is an enabling technology for numerous applications including (1) 3D composition mapping analysis of multicomponent processes occurring during host-pathogen interactions, (2) monitoring microfluidic processes, (3) imaging of molecular motors and (4) understanding photosynthetic processes in wild type and mutant Synechocystis cyanobacteria

A novel survival model of cardioplegic arrest and cardiopulmonary bypass in rats: a methodology paper

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Given the growing population of cardiac surgery patients with impaired preoperative cardiac function and rapidly expanding surgical techniques, continued efforts to improve myocardial protection strategies are warranted. Prior research is mostly limited to either large animal models or <it>ex vivo </it>preparations. We developed a new <it>in vivo </it>survival model that combines administration of antegrade cardioplegia with endoaortic crossclamping during cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) in the rat.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Sprague-Dawley rats were cannulated for CPB (n = 10). With ultrasound guidance, a 3.5 mm balloon angioplasty catheter was positioned via the right common carotid artery with its tip proximal to the aortic valve. To initiate cardioplegic arrest, the balloon was inflated and cardioplegia solution injected. After 30 min of cardioplegic arrest, the balloon was deflated, ventilation resumed, and rats were weaned from CPB and recovered. To rule out any evidence of cerebral ischemia due to right carotid artery ligation, animals were neurologically tested on postoperative day 14, and their brains histologically assessed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Thirty minutes of cardioplegic arrest was successfully established in all animals. Functional assessment revealed no neurologic deficits, and histology demonstrated no gross neuronal damage.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This novel small animal CPB model with cardioplegic arrest allows for both the study of myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury as well as new cardioprotective strategies. Major advantages of this model include its overall feasibility and cost effectiveness. In future experiments long-term echocardiographic outcomes as well as enzymatic, genetic, and histologic characterization of myocardial injury can be assessed. In the field of myocardial protection, rodent models will be an important avenue of research.</p