Exploitation Patterns Research Articles

Bridging the gap in fishing effort mapping: a spatially-explicit fisheries dataset for Campanian MPAs, Italy

Recent technological advancements have facilitated the extensive collection of movement data from large-scale fishing vessels, yet a significant data gap remains for small-scale fisheries. This gap hinders the development of consistent exploitation patterns and meeting the information needs for marine spatial planning in fisheries management. This challenge is specifically addressed in the Campania region of Italy, where several Marine Protected Areas support biodiversity conservation and fisheries management. The authors have created a spatially-explicit dataset that encompasses both large-scale (vessels exceeding 12 meters in length) and small-scale (below 12 meters) fishing efforts. This dataset (available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.23592006) is derived from vessel tracking data and participatory mapping. It offers insights into potential conflicts between different fishing segments and their interactions with priority species and habitats. The data can assist researchers and coastal management stakeholders in formulating policies that reduce resource competition and promote ecosystem-based fisheries management. Furthermore, the provided mapping approach is adaptable for other regions and decision-making frameworks, as we are committed to sharing the tools and techniques we employed.

Population structure of exotic fish tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus P. 1852) in Vallabhsagar reservoir - a large aquatic ecosystem on western ghats of India

The present study was conducted to find out the population structure of the studied fish tilapia which provides the information on the exploitation pattern, existing growth and sustainability of the fish in the surrounding aquatic environment. The random fish scale samples (505 numbers) were collected at monthly basis during the month of November 2021 to April 2022 from different commercial fish collection center at Vallabhsagar reservoir, Gujarat for the proposed study of exotic fish tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus). The findings of the study shows that fishes varied from 1+ to 5+ age classes and in which 4+ (29%) age group was dominated which followed by 2+ (26%), 3+ (25%), 1+ (12%) and 5+ (9%) of the total population. Moreover, bell shaped age pyramid of tilapia was observed by the balanced population growth due to static aquatic environment in Vallabhsagar reservoir, Gujarat. The increasing length and weight indicated that aquatic environment was favorable for Oreochromis mossambicus in study area may be due to abundance of energy rich food. This rare study in this particular area have been found very useful to evaluate the status of populations, scientific management of fisheries and stock assessment.

Improving the size selectivity and exploitation pattern of cocktail shrimp (Trachypenaeus curvirostris) in shrimp trawl fishery of the South China Sea.

In order to improve the size selectivity and exploitation pattern for cocktail shrimp (Trachypenaeus curvirostris) in shrimp trawl fishery of the South China Sea (SCS), selective properties of four codends were tested and compared. These experimental codends involved two mesh sizes, 30 and 35 mm, and two mesh shapes, diamond-mesh (T0) and diamond-mesh turned by 90 degree (T90), respectively. Our results demonstrated that increasing the mesh sizes in T0 codends or/and applying T90 codends would improve the selective properties for cocktail shrimp in the SCS. By comparing selectivity parameters, delta selectivity and exploitation pattern indicators, the T90 codend with 35-mm mesh size (T90_35) presented the best selective properties for cocktail shrimp in the studied areas. It will be a potential choice to substitute the currently legal codend in fisheries management to mitigate the bycatch of undersized cocktail shrimp in shrimp trawl fisheries of the SCS.

Emotional and financial costs of online dating scam: A phenomenological narrative of the experiences of victims of Nigerian romance fraudsters

Qualitative research on the experiences of victims of online dating romance scams is limited. Following a phenomenological framework, this study explores victims’ accounts of interactions with offenders from first contact, development of romance, patterns of exploitation, eventual revelation, and financial and emotional costs of dating fraud. Ten participants from six countries who were victims of Nigerian romance fraudsters took part in one-to-one, semi-structured video interviews and an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was carried out. Four superordinate themes were identified from participants’ experiences: i) online romance, ii) exploitations, iii) revelations, and iv) reactions. These themes highlighted the uniqueness of the experiences of victims of online dating scams and the depth of emotional loss suffered after their victimization. Findings suggested that offenders target middle-aged women with troubled marriages or widows with inherited wealth, engage in lengthy pre-dating friendships with their targets, and deploy different forms of emotional blackmail to exploit their victims. These were found to have severe financial and long-term emotional consequences on victims. Participants reported they sought legal redress as a recovery strategy from their emotional sufferings. These findings have important practical and policy implications if online romance dating scams, and their financial and non-financial consequences are to be addressed.

Çocukluk Çağı Travmaları ile Romantik İlişkide İstismara Maruziyet Arasındaki İlişkide Borderline Kişilik Özellikleri ve Ayrılık Anksiyetesinin Aracı Rolü

The study aims to examine the mediating role of borderline personality pattern and separation anxiety in adults in the relationship between childhood traumas and exposure to abuse in romantic relationships, to emphasize some factors that may cause violence in relationships, and to support initiatives to prevent exposure to partner violence. For the research, 400 participants aged 18-55 residing in Istanbul were determined by a simple random sampling method. After that, a Socio-demographic Information Form, Childhood Traumas Questionnaire (CTQ-33), Romantic Relationship Assessment Inventory (RRAI), Borderline Personality Questionnaire (BPQ), and Adult Separation Anxiety Questionnaire (ASAQ) were given to them. The data obtained from the study were evaluated with the SPSS-25 statistical analysis program. Relationships between scales were evaluated with Pearson Correlation analysis, and mediating roles were evaluated with PROCESS 3.5 Macro. All analyses were based on a 95% confidence interval. When the research findings were examined, A positive correlation was found between the Childhood Traumas Questionnaire and all its subscales, the Borderline Personality Questionnaire and all its subscales, and the Adult Separation Anxiety Questionnaire and the Romantic Relationship Assessment Scale. Research results show that childhood traumas predict exposure to abuse in romantic relationships and that borderline personality traits and adult separation anxiety play a partial mediating role in this relationship. It has also been determined that adult separation anxiety predicts borderline personality traits. As a result of the study, it is shown that in the case of abuse and neglect experiences in childhood, whether individuals are exposed to abuse in romantic relationships or not is related to borderline personality traits and low tolerance for separation. Study results reveal that separation anxiety significantly predicts borderline personality traits (34%), indicating that separation anxiety can be targeted as a key point in the repetitive abuse pattern. Another result of the study is that the increase in separation anxiety in borderline personality traits is associated with low economic levels. The current result reveals the importance of economic independence in exploitation patterns.

Domestic service and Chilean literature: fictional experiments in narrating the household

This article shines light on the interconnectedness of reproductive labour and Latin American literature through two Chilean novels that explore the relationship between peripheral capitalism and domestic servitude: José Donoso's The Obscene Bird of Night and Diamela Eltit's Mano de Obra. The study of these texts allows for a periodisation of the reproductive sphere under different phases of capitalist accumulation, and exposes an association between the literary treatment of domestic service and the achievement of highly experimental narratives in Latin America. My reading of Obscene goes beyond viewing this novel as postmodernist fiction, by showing how its nightmarish poetics are a consequence of the transformation of the oligarchic household vis-a-vis the collapse of systems of bonded labour in the 1960s. Whereas the prose of Obscene provides a harrowing descent into the intimate connections between master and servant at the moment of their decline, Mano de Obra unveils a surgical prose capable of expressing the new impersonality of social reproduction in the subsequent neoliberal period. Of special interest to this analysis is how Eltit suggests that even the proletariat household can recreate exploitative patterns of domestic servitude to guard against complete immiseration. Three main conclusions result from this reading. First, Latin American fiction is an important literary archive from which capitalism's exploitation of the reproductive sphere can be excavated. Second, Latin American literature shows formal uniqueness when representing domestic service in the periphery. Lastly, fictional representations of domestic service help us understand the institution not as remnant of previous modes of production, but as capitalist strategy for the reproduction of social forces that underpay the cost of life-making processes.

1.Q. Workshop: Work, health, and migration: understanding the health impacts of precarious and exploitative work

Abstract The ILO estimates that of the 169 international migrant workers globally, the largest share resides in Europe, where increasing numbers are at substantial risk of precarious, exploitative, and hazardous work conditions. While the right to health and decent work of migrants is recognised by European member states, COVID-19 has exposed how some low-wage migrant workers are compelled to accept exploitative and precarious employment terms and conditions, with implications for their health. The vulnerability of migrants to labour exploitation is influenced by both personal factors (such as age and gender) as well as situational factors (such as risk environments across the migration journey and national legislation). Hazardous, precarious, and exploitative work is an entrenched driver of poor health. Data show that low-wage migrant workers have higher injury and mortality rates compared to host workers and face barriers to occupational and mainstream health and vaccination systems. In this workshop, we will discuss the patterns of precarious work and labour exploitation in migrants residing in Europe, physical and mental health effects of labour exploitation, research and policy gaps, and models of good practice to ensure that the health and rights of migrant workers are protected. Workshop plan The workshop will start with 10-minute presentations by each of the 4 speakers (including a short Q&A after each talk). This will then move into a 20-minute audience discussion centred around exploring how to foster intersectoral collaboration across the work, migration, and health research communities to begin addressing some of the evidence and policy gaps in the European region. Key messages • Migrant workers have worse health outcomes than native workers, including higher rates of occupational injury and deaths. • Labour exploitation is an important social determinant of health among migrants which requires greater recognition in research and practice.

Migration, Exploitation, and Human Trafficking Among High-Risk Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Individuals in Cape Town: A Case Study

ABSTRACT Transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC) individuals and migrants are at risk for human trafficking, yet patterns of migration and exploitation among TGNC individuals are not well documented. This case study examined the experiences of migration and exploitation in a subsample of 27 TGNC individuals from a larger study of 665 high-risk adults in Cape Town, South Africa. The main variables of analysis are derived from a version of the Trafficking Victim Identification Tool, which includes quantitative and qualitative responses. Twenty-six participants (96%) reported at least one potential indicator of exploitation in their lifetime. In the past 12 months, ten participants indicated that someone had withheld payments from them or taken the payment they should have been paid. Half (n=13) of the South African born participants discussed internal migration in their qualitative responses without migration specific prompting. Participants described difficult lives that included childhood abuse, unstable housing, economic marginalization, internal migration, and elements of labor and sexual exploitation – much of which was driven by transphobic and intersectional discrimination and stigma. Our findings shed light on the vulnerability of TGNC individuals and emphasize the need to include TGNC voices in all research and interventions addressing human trafficking.

The Palaeolithic in Transcarpathia (Ukraine) and the different use of various lithic raw material outcrops and sources

The present article proposes a new approach for the detailed analysis of lithic raw material sources and their use by various human groups during the period from the Lower Palaeolithic to the Early Upper Palaeolithic in Transcarpathia, western Ukraine. The approach is based upon the study of particular outcrops and sources of basic raw material types in Transcarpathia, examining their role in supplying various human groups across different Palaeolithic epochs and periods, both within and outside of the outcrop/source areas. Our analysis identified three localized volcanic-associated lithic raw material regions that demonstrate a ve ry limited ‘micro-region/source’ pattern of lithic exploitation. In contrast, more widely dispersed sedimentary regions with rock types that intermittently appear on the landscape show continuous use across most Transcarpathian areas and archaeological sites, including those located both at and far from outcrops/sources.

Decolonising the internet: an introduction to the #AoIR2022 special issue

ABSTRACT This paper introduces the ‘Decolonising the Internet’ themed special issue which includes research presented at the 23rd annual Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) conference (2022). The conference theme centred on decolonisation, highlighting the persistence of colonial practices but also the resistance they generate. Focusing on the internet as entailing colonial appropriations, reproducing inequalities, and foreclosing alternative ways of being, the conference theme asked participants to consider not only the ways in which the internet walks on the path forged by colonialism, but also how research practices are implicated in reinforcing the same exploitative patterns. This special issue includes seven papers that cover new and innovative approaches to studying decolonising the internet, including contexts related to LGBTQIA + digital spaces, neighbourhood and local surveillance, data colonialism, misinformation and conspiracies, and inclusion and access problems for Indigenous peoples. The papers in this issue also focus on various geographic locations in the Global South, including Africa, South America, and the Asia Pacific.

The Hālawa dune site, Moloka‘i, Hawaiian Islands: New excavations, redating, and new interpretations

The Hālawa dune site on Moloka‘i Island has played a key role in understanding early Hawaiian history. Initially excavated in 1969–1970 and regarded then as dating to the early phase of Hawaiian settlement, the site yielded a diverse artifact assemblage and the first evidence for round-ended house foundations in Hawai‘i. Prior attempts to refine the site’s chronology yielded inconsistent results. Renewed excavations and re-analysis of previously excavated collections from the site have allowed for recovery of a stratigraphically controlled sample of faunal materials and charcoal. AMS dating of candlenut endocarp indicates initial use of Mound A cal AD 1366–1610, with occupation continuing into the post-contact period. Matched pairs of candlenut and marine mollusk shell dates allow for the derivation of a Hālawa-specific marine reservoir value (ΔR = −267), in turn permitting the calibration of 12 dates on marine mollusk shells excavated from Mound B in 1970. Faunal materials from the 2020 Mound A excavation add new information on patterns of marine exploitation, and on a trend of increased frequency of domestic pig and dog over time. Charcoal identified from Mound A indicates largely native forest taxa, but with several Polynesian-introduced plants as well, including candlenut, breadfruit, and mountain apple.

“When there is no money, that is when I vomit blood”: the domino effect and the unfettered lethal exploitation of Black labor on Dominican sugar plantations

BackgroundIn this article, I utilize the concept of the Plantationocene as an analytical framework to generate a holistic and historical understanding of the present-day struggles of a mostly Haitian migrant workforce on sugar plantations in the Dominican Republic.MethodsInspired by Paul Farmer’s methodology, I combine political economy, history, and ethnography approaches to interpret the experiences of sugarcane cutters across historical and contemporary iterations of colonial, post-colonial, and neo-colonial practices over the course of five centuries.ResultsMy findings elucidate the enduring power of capitalism, implicating corporate and state elites, as the structural scaffolding for acts of racialized violence that condition the life-and-death circumstances of Black laborers on Caribbean plantations to this day. Although today’s sugarcane cutters may suffer differently than their enslaved or wage labor ancestors on the plantation, I argue that an unfettered racialized pattern of lethal exploitation is sustained through the structural violence of neoliberalism that links present conditions with the colonial past.ConclusionsUltimately, this paper contributes understandings of the plantationocene’s enduring effects in the global south by demonstrating how imperialist arrangements of capitalism are not a distant memory from the colonial past but instead are present yet hidden and obscured while relocated and reanimated overseas to countries like the Dominican Republic, where American capitalists still exploit Black bodies for profit and power.

Playbor, gamble-play, and the financialization of digital games

This article examines non-fungible token (NFT) applications and their users through a qualitative textual analysis of NFT-based video game Axie Infinity’s Discord server. It considers NFT applications’ dual purposes as entertainment media and financial instruments and posits that the interests of capital inform users’ engagement. In an environment defined by distrust and uncertainty, predominantly Filipino digital laborers’ (“Scholars”) experiences and interactions with the game’s ownership class (“Managers”) reflect pre-existing patterns of exploitation made inexpensive by differences in currency valuations, accessible by access to digital devices, available by global financial uncertainty, possible by a lack of user protection and governance, and permissible by light government regulation. To navigate an interplay of designed systems and human behavior, users share gameplay and marketplace knowledge. The blurring of gaming, gambling, and finance discussed here risks fostering an increasingly gamified approach to work and finance and facilitates exploitation of global, stratified labor.

Semi‐supervised classification to determine the provenance of archaeological obsidian samples

AbstractIn archaeometry, the correct assignment of archaeological artefacts with their original geological sources continues to be an indispensable tool for determining exploitation patterns, trade routes, tool production and the movement of goods in ancient times. Statistically, Mahalanobis distance has been an integral part of the artefact provenance methodology. However, this method presents disadvantages when some of the theoretical assumptions are not fulfilled. In this way and with a focus on the veracity of the correct assignment of archaeological samples to their geological sources, we present a technique that employs a semi‐supervised classification based on finite mixture models. This procedure uses labelled and unlabelled data to assign samples to groups with the advantage that it does not depend on the sample size of the groups as required by Mahalanobis distance. This procedure was first applied in a controlled experiment where the exact origin of the samples is known in order to verify the accuracy of the method; afterwards, it was applied to artefacts recovered from the archaeological site of Xalasco, Tlaxcala (Mexico), from both surface and excavation collections and analysed with a portable X‐ray fluorescence spectrometer. The resulting groups defined that the ancient dwellers of Xalasco exploited six supply sources located in Central Mexico.

Classification of Low- and High-Entropy File Fragments Using Randomness Measures and Discrete Fourier Transform Coefficients

This paper presents an approach to improve the file fragment classification by proposing new features for classification and evaluating them on a dataset that includes both low- and high-entropy file fragments. High-entropy fragments, belonging to compressed and encrypted files, are particularly challenging to classify because they lack exploitable patterns. To address this challenge, the proposed feature vectors are constructed based on the byte frequency distribution (BFD) of file fragments, along with discrete Fourier transform coefficients and several randomness measures. These feature vectors are tested using three machine learning models: Support vector machines (SVMs), artificial neural networks (ANNs), and random forests (RFs). The proposed approach is evaluated on the govdocs1 dataset, which is freely available and widely used in this field, to enable reproducibility and fair comparison with other published research. The results show that the proposed approach outperforms existing methods and achieves better classification accuracy for both low- and high-entropy file fragments.

The Joint Evolution of Animal Movement and Competition Strategies.

AbstractCompetition typically takes place in a spatial context, but eco-evolutionary models rarely address the joint evolution of movement and competition strategies. Here we investigate a spatially explicit forager-kleptoparasite model where consumers can either forage on a heterogeneous resource landscape or steal resource items from conspecifics (kleptoparasitism). We consider three scenarios: (1) foragers without kleptoparasites, (2) consumers specializing as foragers or as kleptoparasites, and (3) consumers that can switch between foraging and kleptoparasitism depending on local conditions. We model movement strategies as individual-specific combinations of preferences for environmental cues, similar to step-selection coefficients. Using mechanistic, individual-based simulations, we study the joint evolution of movement and competition strategies, and we investigate the implications for the distribution of consumers over this landscape. Movement and competition strategies evolve rapidly and consistently across scenarios, with marked differences among scenarios, leading to differences in resource exploitation patterns. In scenario 1, foragers evolve considerable individual variation in movement strategies, while in scenario 2, movement strategies show a swift divergence between foragers and kleptoparasites. In scenario 3, where individuals' competition strategies are conditional on local cues, movement strategies facilitate kleptoparasitism, and individual consistency in competition strategy also emerges. Even in the absence of kleptoparasitism (scenario 1), the distribution of consumers deviates considerably from predictions of ideal free distribution models because of the intrinsic difficulty of moving effectively on a depleted resource landscape with few reliable cues. Our study emphasizes the advantages of a mechanistic approach when studying competition in a spatial context and suggests how evolutionary modeling can be integrated with current work in animal movement ecology.

Exploitation pattern assessment of the Japanese mantis shrimp (Oratosquilla oratoria) resource in the coastal waters of the Shandong Peninsula

The exploitation pattern of the invertebrate resource (Oratosquilla oratoria) was investigated in the coastal waters of the Shandong Peninsula, along with the seasonal variation in body length structure, spatial distribution in abundance, and interannual stock status. Results showed that the model with only catch data suggested both stocks in the north and south were suffering from extreme fishing pressure without explicit recovery (North: B2019/BMSY = 0.468 and F2019/FMSY = 1.88 in CMSY. South: B2019/BMSY = 0.349 and F2019/FMSY = 2.59 in CMSY). However, the other two assessment models indicated that the northern stock began to gradually recover as the fishing pressure dropped to an appropriate level after the original overfished status (North: B2019/BMSY = 0.738 and F2019/FMSY = 0.882 in AMSY, B2019/BMSY = 0.831 and F2019/FMSY = 0.774 in BSM. South: B2019/BMSY = 0.164 and F2019/FMSY = 1.44 in AMSY, B2019/BMSY = 0.384 and F2019/FMSY = 1.76 in BSM). Overall, the stock status in the north was better than that in the south. This study suggested that spatial exploitation pattern and quarterly differences should be considered in fishery management process.

Formation of a territory: the production process of the urban space of São Bernardo do Campo/SP

This article presents some aspects that guided the dynamics of the process of urban occupation of the protection spaces in the springs of the Billings Dam. In this region, the connection between the accelerated process of industrialization, disorderly urbanization, and the increase in population concentration over the years, devoid of adequate actions of planning and territorial ordering, contributed to the intensification of socio-spatial inequalities sustained by a pattern of exploitation and dilapidation of uses and degradation of ecosystems. From this framework, it analysed the occupation of the urban territory of São Bernardo do Campo, especially about the influence of industrialization, disorderly urbanization, and occupation of environmentally fragile areas, as well as sought to contextualize the need for new mechanisms of territorial planning and management to mitigate and reverse the high levels of biophysical vulnerability existing in the fragile spaces of protection of water sources. The approach adopted involved the analysis of data and information from various sources, such as previous studies, technical reports, municipal plans, and other relevant publications. It is hoped that the results found can subsidize the development of new studies, as well as contribute to the formulation of urban and environmental public policies.

Do Working-Class Women in the Arab Region Benefit from Trade Liberalisation?

Abstract Over the last decades, trade liberalisation has been extensively promoted by international agencies and actors around the world, including the Arab region, based on the assumption that it would contribute to promoting growth, jobs, development, democracy and even gender equality. The aim of this article is to rebalance such over-optimistic narratives about trade, taking as a starting point its concrete effects on the working conditions and lives of women workers in the export-oriented garment industry in Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia. Drawing on feminist political economy research and labour studies, the first part of the paper sets out the context in which to understand the impact of trade liberalisation on working-class women by problematising the dominant narrative and presenting the analytical framework that will be used. The second section reviews the empirical evidence documenting how the expansion of garment exports in the three countries has relied entirely on the recruitment of the most powerless women, under precarious and indecent working conditions. The third section examines the trajectories through which trade liberalisation has led to the observed pattern of female exploitation. Using the analytical framework discussed in the first section, it will look at the interplay between the specific structure of the Global Supply Chain in which the three countries are integrated, state policies and existing gendered social relations.

The third shift: Addressing emotion work in couple therapy.

Research on the gendered division of household work in western political economies often neglects its emotional dimensions. This conceptual paper draws on concepts of emotion work and feminist care ethics to explore gendered and intersecting divisions of emotions and emotional work in couple relationships and their implications for couple therapy. Although emotion work has been studied in workplace settings, less attention has been paid to inequalities in the privatized realm of interpersonal relationships, including romantic and filial ones. Women and feminine partners' culturally presumed expertise in emotions typically positions them as carrying primary responsibility for managing emotions in intimate relationships. Couple therapy is an important site of interaction that can both support and, potentially, disrupt the invisibility and gendering of emotion work in intimate relationships, thus shedding light on recurring patterns of women's subordination and exploitation. We conclude by advancing suggestions for addressing gendered and intersectional dimensions of emotion work in therapy practice.