Fact or Fiction: What Do We Really Know About Human Trafficking?

Statistics form the core of many policies, funding decisions and program designs around human trafficking into forced labor and debt bondage. But are the statistics accurate? How can people decide whether statements such as the following ones are supported by evidence?This Issue Paper looks at several instances in which unreliable claims such as these have driven actions and policies. It evaluates some research, statements and statistics presented by the media, government officials, the UN and other international institutions, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and experts. It goes behind the headlines and raises questions about the actual scope and nature of the problem of human trafficking, as well as the need for reliable evidence. While it may seem irrelevant to spend time "bean counting" when so many people are facing human rights abuses, it is necessary to know the nature and extent of the problem before designing effective laws and programs

Slavery, Forced Labor, Debt Bondage, and Human Trafficking: From Conceptual Confusion to Targeted Solutions

Human trafficking has grabbed the headlines around the world but what is human trafficking and what is its relationship to forced labor, debt bondage and slavery? Has the focus on human trafficking and particularly trafficking into forced prostitution, undermined or marginalized efforts to address forced labor, debt bondage and slavery? The answer to the first question is that, although they are interconnected, they are not the same in international law or in practice, which has led to much confusion and misinformation. The answer to the second question is yes, global mobilization to counter 'trafficking' has diverted attention away from the great number of persons who are in forced labor, debt bondage and slavery but who were not trafficked into these situations. So, the purpose of this paper is to provide some conceptual clarity to the current confused state and to issue a call for governments and civil society to address the human rights abuses suffered by victims of all of these crimes

The Importance of Business Anthropology: Its Unique Contributions

When I entered the field of business anthropology in the 1980s, it was an exciting and new development in anthropology, although anthropologists had been in business since the 1930s. What we experienced in the 1980s was actually a revival of a field that had been for the most part inactive for decades. Since the 1980s, the importance of business anthropology has exploded both inside the discipline and outside of it in the world of public life. The reasons for this explosion are complex but at the heart of them is the importance of what anthropologists bring to business. We bring a special way of looking and of thinking and consequently we come to conclusions not reached by others

An Evaluation of Educator Perceptions Regarding the Level of Family Engagement in Appalachian Kentucky Schools with Middle Grade Students

The purpose of this research was to evaluate the perceptions of educators about the level of family engagement occurring in rural Appalachian Kentucky schools with middle grade students. The research contributes to the field of rural family engagement studies by providing baseline metrics of educator perceptions on the current level of family engagement. The sample consisted of 95 educators working in Appalachian Kentucky public school districts with middle grade students. The educators were asked to respond to questions on four dimensions of family engagement. The dimensions of family engagement surveyed were: Communication, Family Support, School Decision-making and Advocacy, and Partnerships. The possible responses were 1=strongly disagree, 2=disagree, 3=agree, and 4=strongly agree. Findings indicated that educators working in Appalachian Kentucky schools perceive a moderate level of family engagement. The communication subscale had the highest mean score (3.42), and family support had the lowest mean score (3.05). There were no significant differences in the level of family engagement between educators with more than five years of experience as compared to educators with less than five years of experience. There were no significant differences in the reported level of family engagement between K-8 schools and schools with 6th to 8th grade students only. The most significant finding of the study is the inverse relationship between higher levels of perceived family engagement and the school’s free and reduced lunch percentage to the school’s accountability score

Optical tweezers for signal detection and micromanipulation

The work presented in this thesis explores new multi-disciplinary applications of optical tweezers in the physical and biological sciences. Firstly, the three dimensional trapping of partially silvered sphere in a standard TEM00 optical trap was characterised. These spheres were then coated with an azo dye such that surface-enhanced resonance Raman (SERRS) measurements could be made on a single bead whilst it was simultaneously trapped in 532 nm optical tweezers. The length of time over which the SERRS signal could be recorded was increased, from milli-seconds to minutes, by using 1064 nm optical tweezers and introducing second harmonic light, generated via a frequency doubling crystal, for the excitation of the SERRS signal. In addition to trapping single particles, a spatial light modulator (SLM) was introduced into the optical tweezers to produce holographic optical tweezers. The SLM allowed the creation and manipulation of several optical beams both simultaneously and independently of each other. Three dimensional trapping and manipulation of multiple micron-sized spheres were achieved using the SLM in the Fourier plane of the traps. This ability to trap and manipulate objects, such as fluorescent spheres and E. coli, in 3D was extended to create permanent 3D structures that were set within a polymer matrix. These objects could be created, permanently set and imaged ex-situ. A summary of conclusions and ideas for future work are included

BP\u27s Use of Twitter as a Crisis Communication Tool During the Gulf Oil Spill Crisis Response Phase

On April 20, 2010, British Petroleum\u27s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig located in the Gulf of Mexico exploded, creating the largest oil spill in U.S. history. BP launched a major public relations response that targeted its online audience through strategic use of its corporate website, Twitter feed, Facebook page, YouTube channel, and Flickr photostream. This content analysis examines BP\u27s use of Twitter during the crisis response phase of the oil spill. BP tweeted on 1,161 occasions from the time of the explosion to the capping of the well. All tweets during this 13-week period were coded by two separate coders to ensure intercoder reliability. Tweets from @BP_America reflected reputation repair strategies, responsibility attributions, and public risk perceptions during different emergency management phases. Reputation repair strategies were reflected in 331 tweets, with the strategies of “compensation” and “reminder” appearing most often. An overwhelming majority of tweets indicated an accident crisis (1,129) with a strong/high crisis responsibility (1,044). Public risk perceptions were implied in 831 tweets, and the perception most implied was that the oil spill response had strong political attributes tied to it

Complementarity and the practice of psychotherapy : an alternative to eclecticism

Bibliography: pages 135-149.The problem of competing theories in psychology presents major difficulties for the practicing psychotherapist. These difficulties have traditionally been addressed in mono-theoretical, eclectic and integrative approaches. This work critically examines the problems associated with these traditional methods. It draws on the philosophy of complementarity as postulated by Niels Bohr in order to develop an alternative approach. This philosophy stresses the indeterminate nature of the object of study in psychology, and therefore holds that it is necessary to entertain multiple perspectives. It also holds that in order to counteract the problem of indeterminism there is a need for clarity of theoretical descriptions. For psychotherapy practice this implies, in contradistinction to eclecticism, the separate rather than mixed use of diverse approaches. The practical options suggested by therapeutic complementarity are outlined and their benefits are discussed