Designing awareness campaigns to counter human trafficking: An analytic approach

Human trafficking – the trade of persons for the gain of others – is a pervasive societal issue. Ongoing trafficking recruitment calls for targeted prevention strategies for individuals and communities at risk. Awareness campaigns, arguably the most common form of trafficking prevention, are intended to alert individuals to the tactics used by traffickers and provide them with practical strategies to avoid deception and exploitation. However there is a shortage of technical solutions regarding the analysis, impact assessment, and evaluation of alternatives related to implementing awareness campaigns. We present a resource allocation model that can be used to determine the allocation of funds that maximizes increases in trafficking awareness among at-risk populations. We apply this model to determine the allocation of a limited budget among different types of prevention programs in at-risk populations in Nepal. For each awareness campaign, we estimate a production function that relates the amount invested to the associated change in awareness. When allocating limited resources, decision makers must balance competing interests, and we illustrate the impact of three allocation policies on trafficking awareness. The model presented in this article is a first attempt to help decision makers evaluate how to allocate funds in the context of trafficking awareness.     

A robust optimization approach for decontamination planning of emergency planning zone: Facility location and assignment plan

Establishing a robust facility location and assignment plan to improve the efficiency of the decontamination process is critical to alleviating the physical impact of the radiation leakage that occurs in a nuclear accident. This study develops an approach for optimizing the locations of decontamination facilities and assignments of affected villages. The approach is a robust optimization model that optimizes the worst-case performance. The system dynamic model is integrated into the robust optimization model to simulate the decontamination process and compute the decontamination time. A case study is conducted of the Plume Emergency Planning Zone in China. The results indicate that (1) a decontamination site location plan can be obtained in which each site is located in a different direction, (2) no evacuee will be allowed to travel across the downwind area in an assignment plan, and (3) a larger financial investment does not imply an increased decontamination efficiency. An appropriate budget exists that can balance the decontamination time and cost. The proposed model can assist decision makers in (i) better understanding the effects of decontamination site location and village assignment and (ii) deciding which location and assignment plans should be applied to cope with disruptive nuclear accidents.