Intimate Violence, Foreign Solutions: Domestic Violence Policy and Muslim-American Women

The overall goal of this thesis was to highlight different communicative aspects of participation in interpreter-mediated asylum hearings with unaccompanied Russianspeaking children who had applied for asylum in Sweden between 2001 and 2005. Participation in the asylum process is guaranteed to these children by the Swedish Administrative Law and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which are incorporated in the Swedish Aliens Act. The Migration authorities in their work with asylum seeking minors have integrated principles of the best interests of the child and the principle of respecting the children’s views on matters concerning them. In this thesis, we have studied the conditions of participation in a highly complex, hybrid activity type, where participants face contradictory demands. Hybridity can be traced in communicative dilemmas which are difficult to solve and handle for all the participants involved, including the caseworkers, interpreters and children. The caseworkers are expected to control an interview in which whole of the communicative exchange is rendered by interpreters who influence the progress of the encounter. Contradiction lies in the fact that the caseworkers are expected to treat all asylum seekers equally both as a group and individually, by relating to general legal regulations and at the same time, take into account the interests and individual needs of an individual child. It might be difficult for these caseworkers to stay neutral and meet underage clients whose life stories and experiences, conduct and needs differ considerably from what is usually ascribed to children. Asylum seeking children come to Sweden to stay. Our results have shown that they take an active role in their attempts to lead to a positive outcome in their cases. In this respect, children’s testimonies and the impression they make as informants play a salient role. The communicative tasks faced by the adolescents are, however, difficult to achieve. Previous life conditions, vulnerability, psychosomatic problems, and memory and concentration difficulties may affect their performance. Other factors which might further impede these children from achieving their task is the pragmatic and linguistic deficiency, which they experience in a context where they lack communicative means and are not fully aware of the norms and regulations relevant for the encounter. Despite hese limitations, it seems that these minors try hard to shoulder their role as asylum seekers and informants actively and strategically. One strategy chosen by the children was to disclose information selectively. They tried to avoid answering questions which could reveal their age, origin or the whereabouts of their caregivers and thereby enable authorities to establish their identity and send them back. To compensate for their uncooperativeness in this area, the adolescents tended to provide information which had not been asked for. Our studies have shown that children could have been prevented by both the caseworkers and interpreters from expressing their views and opinions in a free and self-chosen way. In this respect, interpreters’ contributions were salient for what information was forwarded to the caseworkers. In some cases, they changed both the language and the format of the responses provided by the children. Some of the communicative strategies which were initiated by the interpreters could be linked to both their professional skills and to the hybridity and the complexity of the situation. Interpreters had difficulties staying neutral in relation to the children and orient them in the encounters. Age differences between the participants could also have an impact on how the children were treated and the respect and importance attributed to their voices. We have identified sequences where interpreters initiated monolingual exchanges with one of the interlocutors where they actively tried to exclude and discredit the children’s voices, something which often happened with the tacit approval of the caseworkers. Thus, it can be seen that communicative premises which are inherent in the asylum hearings influence the participant statuses of the children and their possibilities to express their asylum claims

Fashion Enthusiasts

The focus of this study is to explore the fashion industry’s “fashion enthusiast” in comparison to the “average” fashion consumer, and to take that understanding of these fervent consumers as a tool to observe the underlying patterns and factors which comprise these consumers to be enthusiastic ones in this particular industry. The aim of this study is to benefit the fashion industry from a marketing standpoint, by developing a much better understanding of what comprises heavy fashion users, and what drives them more than other fashion not-so-heavy fashion users. The fashion industry is constantly changing and has several media outlets that can persuade and alter the consumer’s decisions; thus making it exceptionally hard for a marketer to target consumers than most other industries, because the consumer is constantly changing from trend to trend. By taking a deeper look at factors such as personality, values, and addiction we can understand what drives these particular consumers to purchase particular products; therefore creating a marketing technique that matches the personalities and values of these consumers within the ads themselves

Environmental Sustainability in New Zealand Museums: A Case Study of Te Manawa Museum, Gallery and Science Centre

Environmental sustainability is becoming an increasingly essential component of modern life. The contemporary museums’ role as public educators, and as guardians of tangible and intangible culture, places them in a unique position to address the various issues surrounding environmental sustainability, from climate change, to bio-diversity loss, to conservation. There is increasing momentum behind the idea that museums should not only engage with environmental sustainability, but that they indeed have a responsibility to. Although museums throughout New Zealand are addressing environmental sustainability, there is currently no thorough examination of how they are doing this. Therefore, the aim of this dissertation was so find out the current state of environmental sustainability in New Zealand museums, and specifically how staff are approaching it. Through engaging in a case study of Te Manawa Museum, Gallery and Science Centre, Palmerston North, and specifically the environmentally themed exhibition Te Awa/The River: Heart of the Manawatu, this dissertation analyses and discusses the realities of addressing institutional environmental sustainability. While the previous literature surrounding this topic has addressed the many reasons why museums should engage with environmental sustainability, this dissertation has expanded on this by analysing and discussing the realities of addressing environmental sustainability from a staff perspective. Through interviews with five Te Manawa staff members, this dissertation has revealed that while museum professionals agree that engagement with environmental sustainability should become part of bottom line holistic sustainable development, the status of museums as trusted democratic institutions can place them in a conflicted space ‘in-between’ when dealing with polarising issues such as the environment. This is particularly relevant to the discussion around new-museological theory, and the importance of local context and reflexive community engagement, where the community essentially help drive museological direction and content

Spatiotemporal Indexing With the M-Tree

Modern GIS applications for transportation and defense often require the ability to store the evolving positions of a large number of objects as they are observed in motion, and to support queries on this spatiotemporal data in real time. Because the M-Tree has been proven as an index for spatial network databases, we have selected it to be enhanced as a spatiotemporal index. We present modifications to the tree which allow trajectory reconstruction with fast insert performance and modifications which allow the tree to be built with awareness of the spatial locality of reference in spatiotemporal data

A Longitudinal Study on the Drivers of Forestation

This paper studies the effects of population growth, income levels, and governance on forestation using longitudinal data covering 161 countries from 1996-2015. The study begins with a review of the empirical literature on deforestation and preservation of environmental quality. Then, we conduct our own empirical analysis through log differencing and analysis of annual percentage changes in forest area. We find evidence that these factors matter, but that the relationships are weak. The estimated effects do differ between our groupings of countries with regard to income levels as well as forest area sizes. Population growth generally leads to a reduction in forest area. Conversely, rising incomes slow deforestation and increase the chances of reforestation and afforestation. We witness the disappearance of a Kuznets curve relationship across all groups after individual country effects are included. A bettering of perceived rule of law, political stability, and reduction in corruption is also correlated with more positive forestation rates

Skin-to-skin contact : multicultural perspectives on birth fluids and birth ‘dirt’

Aim: To explore the experiences of women from three population groups of immediate skin-to-skin contact with their newborn baby. Method: A mixed methods approach was adopted in a phenomenological study to elicit the experiences of English, Pakistani and Bangladeshi women. Audio-taped diaries, semi-structured interviews, photographs and video recordings were employed. Concept-mapping was central to data analysis. Results: This paper is focussed on the novel finding that the women contextualised secretions and bodily fluids from birth, finding them to be acceptable. This contradicts the beliefs of many midwives that all Asian women find blood and bodily secretions abhorrent and culturally unacceptable. All of those in the study reported positive experiences of skin-to- skin contact despite varying degrees of soiling from birth fluids. Limitations: The study was conducted in a single setting, with no attempt to ensure that participants were in all ways representative of others in their cultural groups nationally. Third party translation during interviews with Asian women may have added an unsought layer of interpretation to the study. The imposition of cultural expectations in the recruitment process by peer group members probably excluded some potential participants. Conclusion: Stereotypical assumptions about cultural background rather than recognition of women’s individual beliefs and needs often characterise professional responses. When this stereotyping was put aside, women of all three cultures whether breast-feeding or bottle-feeding, were able to enjoy skin-to-skin contact with their newborn babies. Implications for nursing and health policy: The findings from this study suggest that changes will be needed in professional practice to be more open to women’s expressed preferences, in local policy to ensure that choices are made clear and are available, and in national strategic direction to ensure widespread adoption of positive practices if opportunities to increase breastfeeding, to promote parent-child bonding, and to support patient choice are to be realised

We Need Sex Ed, Too! : Addressing the Sexual Risk Behaviors of System Involved Youth

System involved youth (e.g., youth in child welfare or juvenile services) are a vulnerable population with increased risk for unintended pregnancy, HIV, and STIs. This workshop is designed to (1) identify their sexual reproductive health risk behaviors; (2) describe the related determinants; and, (3) improve awareness of how educators can promote the development of positive sexual risk behaviors among them