The Psychology of Investigative Interviewing with Suspects of Serious Offences: An Examination of Empathy

This thesis focuses on the psychology of investigative interviewing with regard to how empathy is defined, understood, displayed and effective within the context of investigative interviewing. Investigative empathy has here been examined through four new, empirical studies. The first study examines police interviewers’ definitions of and employment of empathy in seven European countries. The second study builds on this by examining types of empathy in actual digitally recorded police interviews with suspects and the relationship between empathy displayed by interviewers with information provided by suspects. In the third study the effect on suspects of appropriate versus inappropriate question types when combined with empathy is examined. In Study 4, police interviewers’ responses to questions about one of four vignettes, in which the interviewer’s style are varied, are examined to determine whether officers in Germany (where there is as yet no nationally agreed upon interviewing protocol) produce data in line with other countries that have an interviewing protocol (in line with the evolving literature). In this final study, the possible effect of participants’ own levels of empathy on their responses is also examined. Overall, the findings underline the importance of appropriate types of empathy and how training in this area should be carefully and purposefully conducted. Although the present thesis builds on the theoretical knowledge of investigative interviewing, it may also be beneficial to those working in clinical/therapeutic settings in establishing and maintaining a strong therapeutic relationship between client and the professional

In vitro plant regeneration and Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation of Datura stramonium (Solanaceae).

Premise of the Study:Datura stramonium is a pharmacologically and evolutionarily important plant species in the family Solanaceae. Stable transformation methodology of this species would be advantageous for future genetic studies. Methods:In vitro plant regeneration and Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation techniques were developed for D. stramonium based on methods reported for tomato. A binary vector containing pAtUBQ10::erGFP was used for transformation. Results:We recovered primary transformants harboring the green fluorescent protein (GFP) transgene that resulted in expression of fluorescence in all tissues analyzed. Transformants were allowed to self-pollinate, and two of five progeny contained the GFP transgene and displayed fluorescence identical to the primary transformants. Discussion:We have demonstrated the first stable transformation in the genus Datura. This is a key first step to study the genetic basis of traits in this evolutionarily interesting species

Tomography of the red supergiant star {\mu} Cep

A tomographic method, aiming at probing velocity fields at depth in stellar atmospheres, is applied to the red supergiant star {\mu} Cep and to snapshots of 3D radiative-hydrodynamics simulation in order to constrain atmospheric motions and relate them to photometric variability.Comment: 2 pages, 2 figures, accepted as Proceedings of IAU Symposium No. 343, 201

On the Nature of the Response of the General Purpose Heat Source to the Impact of Large Solid Rocket Motor Casing Fragments

After the Challenger (STS-51L)accident new tests were performed to assess the response of the GPHS module to large fragment impacts. The subject of this paper is the analytical process used to perform macro calibrations of the analytical methods and their application to predict the GPHS modules' response to serially increasing levels of test environment complexity. Sensitivity studies were performed to generate a fueled-clad-distortion-response statistical database for use in a Monte Carlo based fuel release analysis. The analyses showed that the iridium fueled clads in the GPHS-RTG have high resistance to distortion induced by the impact of large, high velocity (>200 m/s), SRM casing fragments. It was concluded that the impact of large SRM fragments will cause little clad disruption at early Mission Elapsed Time (MET), and that the effects of these impacts will be less severe than had initially been believe. There are three copies in the file

Effects of Empathy and Question Types on Suspects’ Provision of Information in Investigative Interviews

The present study examines the relationship between the extent of, and various types of, empathy and of questions on suspects’ provision of information in 16 real-life police interviews. Multiple linear regressions were conducted to (i) predict suspects’ information provision in relation to (i) open questions and (ii) the extent of displayed empathy and (iii) each of the empathy types. Verbatim transcriptions of police interviews with suspects of sexual offences were coded for (i) the extent and types of interviewer empathy, (ii) the proportionality of interviewer open versus closed questions, and (iii) suspects’ information provision. It was found that the proportion of open (versus closed) questions and the amount of empathy demonstrated by interviewers had a positive relationship with suspects’ information provision. The latter supports a recent finding by the current authors involving a different sample of police interviews. Whereas in a growing number of countries the training of police interviewers has been emphasizing use of open questions, the present study aids weight to the small amount of research literature on the importance of interviewer empathy. Indeed, the effectiveness of open questions might be influenced by the amount of interviewer empathy in an interview

Limits to the critical current in Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3Ox tape conductors: The parallel path model

An extensive overview of a model that describes current flow and dissipation in high-quality Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3Ox superconducting tapes is provided. The parallel path model is based on a superconducting current running in two distinct parallel paths. One of the current paths is formed by grains that are connected at angles below 4°. Dissipation in this strongly linked backbone occurs within the grains and is well described by classical flux-creep theory. The other current path, the weakly linked network, is formed by superconducting grains that are connected at intermediate angles (4°–8°) where dissipation occurs at the grain boundaries. However, grain boundary dissipation in this weakly linked current path does not occur through Josephson weak links, but just as in the strongly linked backbone, is well described by classical flux creep. The results of several experiments on Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3Ox tapes and single-grained powders that strongly support the parallel path model are presented. The critical current density of Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3Ox tapes can be scaled as a function of magnetic field angle over the temperature range from 15 K to 77 K. Expressions based on classical flux creep are introduced to describe the dependence of the critical current density of Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3Ox tapes on the magnetic field and temperature