Interpreting university sport policy in England: seeking a purpose in turbulent times?

Given the fundamental change in political landscape of current higher education in England, it is timely to (re)consider the purpose of university sport and its fit with national sports policy. This research investigates the purpose of university sport; how university sport fits with national sport strategies, if at all; and whether universities and sport policy are capitalising on Higher Education (HE) sport. An interpretivistic public policy analysis was carried out using eight semi-structured interviews with senior leaders of sport within universities in one region of the north of England. In addition, documentary analysis was examined. Outcomes illustrate the changed landscape for university sport in England with the key purpose of sport focusing on wider student experience; to engage students in sport and contribute to enhancing student recruitment, retention, satisfaction, mental health and graduate employability. However, there were mixed views as to whether senior university leaders were fully aware of the extent of the role of sport. Strategic drivers were more internal than external although universities recognised the value of working in a symbiotic relationship with internal and external stakeholders. Recommendations are offered for university leaders and sport policy makers on how to better capitalise on sport in England and beyond

Reassessing the Relationship between Procedural Justice and Police Legitimacy

Objective: A large body of cross-sectional research has identified a positive relationship between perceptions of police procedural justice and legitimacy. Following Tyler’s theoretical framework, studies have often interpreted the observed relationship as evidence of an unequivocal causal connection from procedural justice to legitimacy. Here we reexamined the validity of this conclusion by considering the temporal order of that association and the potential biasing effect of time-invariant third common causes. Hypotheses: (a) Past perceptions of police procedural justice would predict future perceptions of legitimacy; (b) Past perceptions of police legitimacy would predict future perceptions of procedural justice; and (c) Perceptions of police procedural justice and legitimacy would be associated as a result of 3rd common causes. Method: We fitted random intercepts cross-lagged panel models to 7 waves of a longitudinal sample of 1,354 young offenders (M = 16 years) from the “Pathways to Desistance” study. This allowed us to explore the directional paths between perceptions of police procedural justice and legitimacy, while controlling for time-invariant participant heterogeneity. Results: We did not find evidence of the assumed temporal association; lagged within-participant perceptions of procedural justice rarely predicted within-participant perceptions of legitimacy. We did not find evidence of a reciprocal relationship either. Instead, we detected substantial time-invariant participant heterogeneity, and evidence of legitimacy perceptions being self-reproduced. Conclusions: Our findings challenge the internal validity of the commonly reported positive associations between procedural justice and legitimacy reported in studies using cross-sectional data. Most of such association is explained away after considering time-invariant participant heterogeneity and previous perceptions of legitimacy. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved

Police visibility, trust in police fairness, and collective efficacy: A multilevel Structural Equation Model

Areas high in collective efficacy—where residents know and trust one another, and are willing to intervene to solve neighbourhood problems—tend to experience less crime. Policing is thought to be one antecedent to collective efficacy, but little empirical research has explored this question. Using three waves of survey data collected from London residents over three consecutive years, and multilevel Structural Equation Modelling, this study tested the impact of police visibility and police-community engagement on collective efficacy. We explored direct effects as well as indirect effects through trust in police. The findings showed levels of police visibility predicted trust in police. Trust in police fairness, in turn, predicted collective efficacy. There was a small indirect relationship between police visibility and collective efficacy, through trust in police fairness. In other words, police presence in neighbourhoods was associated with more positive views about officer behaviour, which in turn was associated with collective efficacy. The findings have important implications for policies designed to build stronger, more resilient communities

Effect of ultrasound pre-treatment on the physical, microbiological, and antioxidant properties of calçots

The effect of ultrasound (US) treatment (40 kHz, 250 W) for 0, 10,25 and 45 min on the physical and microbiological quality, total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and total phenolic content (TPC) of calçots (Allium cepaL.) was evaluated. Moreover, the effect of roasting (270 °C, 8 min) and in vitro simulated digestion on the antioxidant properties was studied. Overall, US treatment had no effect of the physical quality and antioxidant properties of calçots regardless the treatment time, while thermal processing produced an increase on the TAC and maintenance in TPC. Furthermore, the digestion process caused a remarkable decrease on the TAC and TPC, but that decrease was higher in roasted than in fresh samples. The microbial load of all US-treated fresh samples was below 6 log (cfu g−1) and a decrease of 1-log reduction was observed after treating for 45 min. Those results indicated that US pre-treatment had no negative effects on the quality of calçot while produced a decrease on the microbial load at high processing times.This work was supported by ACCIÓ (Generalitat of Catalonia, RD14-1-004), Sociedad Agrícola i Secció de Crèdit de Valls S.C.C.L., Cooperativa of Cambrils, and PGI ‘Calçot de Valls’. This work was also supported by the ‘Secretaria d’Universitats i Recerca del Departament d’Economia i Coneixement’ (FI-2017-B2-00164, L. Zudaire) and CERCA Programme of Generalitat de Catalunya. T. Lafarga is in receipt of a ‘Juan de la Cierva’ contract awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Competitiveness (FJCI-2016-29541). I. Aguiló-Aguayo thanks the National Programme for the promotion of talent and its employability of the ‘Ministerio de Economía,Industria y Competitividad’ of the Spanish Government and to the European Social Fund for the Postdoctoral Senior Grant ‘Ramon y Cajal’ (RYC-2016-19949)

Exploring the Origin of Sentencing Disparities in the Crown Court: Using Text Mining Techniques to Differentiate between Court and Judge Disparities

Research on sentence consistency in England and Wales has focused on disparities between courts, with differences between judges generally ignored. This is largely due to the limitations in official data. Using text mining techniques from Crown Court sentence records available online we generate a sample of 7,212 violent and sexual offences where both court and judge are captured. Multilevel time-to-event analyses of sentence length demonstrate that most disparities originate at the judge, not the court-level. Two important implications follow: i) the extent of sentencing consistency in England and Wales has been underestimated; and ii) the importance attributed to the location in which sentences are passed – in England and Wales and elsewhere - needs to be revisited. Further analysis of the judge level disparities identifies judicial rotation across courts as a practice conducive of sentence consistency, which suggests that sentencing guidelines could be complemented with other, less intrusive, changes in judicial practice to promote consistency

A mutational analysis of the globotriaosylceramide-binding sites of verotoxin VT1.

Escherichia coli verotoxin, also known as Shiga-like toxin, binds to eukaryotic cell membranes via the glycolipid Gb(3) receptors which present the P(k) trisaccharide Galalpha(1-4)Galbeta(1-4)Glcbeta. Crystallographic studies have identified three P(k) trisaccharide (P(k)-glycoside) binding sites per verotoxin 1B subunit (VT1B) monomer while NMR studies have identified binding of P(k)-glycoside only at site 2. To understand the basis for this difference, we studied binding of wild type VT1B and VT1B mutants, defective at one or more of the three sites, to P(k)-glycoside and pentavalent P(k) trisaccharide (pentaSTARFISH) in solution and Gb(3) presented on liposomal membranes using surface plasmon resonance. Site 2 was the key site in terms of free trisaccharide binding since mutants altered at sites 1 and 3 bound this ligand with wild type affinity. However, effective binding of the pentaSTARFISH molecule also required a functional site 3, suggesting that site 3 promotes pentavalent binding of linked trisaccharides at site 1 and site 2. Optimal binding to membrane-associated Gb(3) involved all three sites. Binding of all single site mutants to liposomal Gb(3) was weaker than wild type VT1B binding. Site 3 mutants behaved as if they had reduced ability to enter into high avidity interactions with Gb(3) in the membrane context. Double mutants at site 1/site 3 and site 2/site 3 were completely inactive in terms of binding to liposomal Gb(3,) even though the site 1/site 3 mutant bound trisaccharide with almost wild type affinity. Thus site 2 alone is not sufficient to confer high avidity binding to membrane-localized Gb(3). Cytotoxic activity paralleled membrane glycolipid binding. Our data show that the interaction of verotoxin with the Gb(3) trisaccharide is highly context dependent and that a membrane environment is required for biologically relevant studies of the interaction

An assessment of the application of ultrasound in the processing of ready-to-eat whole brown crab (Cancer pagurus)

This study assesses the potential of incorporating ultrasound as a processing aid in the production of whole cooked brown crab (Cancer pagurus). The FDA recommended heat treatment to reduce Listeria monocytogenes by 6 log10 cycles in this product is a F70 7.5 of 2 min. An equivalent F value was applied at 75 °C in presence and absence of ultrasound in water alone or in water with 5% w/v NaCl added. Heat penetration, turbidity and conductivity of the cook water and also salt and moisture content of the crab meat (white and brown) were determined. Ultrasound assisted cooking allowed a reduction of the cooking time by up to 15% while still maintaining an F70 7.5 of 2 min. Ultrasound also enhanced the rate and total amount of compounds released from the crab, which suggests that crabs cooked in the presence of ultrasound would be expected to be cleaner. Ultrasound also proved to be effective in reducing the salt content but hardly affected the final moisture content of the crab meat

Addressing the carbon-crime blind spot : a carbon footprint approach

Governments estimate the social and economic impacts of crime, but its environmental impact is largely unacknowledged. Our study addresses this by estimating the carbon footprint of crime in England and Wales and identifies the largest sources of emissions. By applying environmentally extended input-output analysis–derived carbon emission factors to the monetized costs of crime, we estimate that crime committed in 2011 in England and Wales gave rise to over 4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents. Burglary resulted in the largest proportion of the total footprint (30%), because of the carbon associated with replacing stolen/damaged goods. Emissions arising from criminal justice system services also accounted for a large proportion (21% of all offenses; 49% of police recorded offenses). Focus on these offenses and the carbon efficiency of these services may help reduce the overall emissions that result from crime. However, cutting crime does not automatically result in a net reduction in carbon, given that we need to take account of potential rebound effects. As an example, we consider the impact of reducing domestic burglary by 5%. Calculating this is inherently uncertain given that it depends on assumptions concerning how money would be spent in the absence of crime. We find the most likely rebound effect (our medium estimate) is an increase in emissions of 2%. Despite this uncertainty concerning carbon savings, our study goes some way toward informing policy makers of the scale of the environmental consequences of crime and thus enables it to be taken into account in policy appraisals

Frontal plane pelvic motion during gait captures hip osteoarthritis related disability

Gait analysis has widely been accepted as an objective measure of function and clinical outcome. Ambulatory accelerometer-based gait analysis has emerged as a clinically more feasible alternative to optical motion capture systems but does not provide kinematic characterisation to identify disease dependent mechanisms causing walking disability. This study investigated the potential of a single inertial sensor to derive frontal plane motion of the pelvis (i.e. pelvic obliquity) and help identify hip osteoarthritis (OA) related gait alterations. Patients with advanced unilateral hip OA (n = 20) were compared to patients with advanced unilateral knee OA (n = 20) and to a healthy control group (n = 20). Kinematic characterisation of frontal plane pelvic motion during gait demonstrated decreased range of motion and increased asymmetry for hip OA patients specifically. </jats:p

Mind the step: A more insightful and robust analysis of the sentencing process in England and Wales under the new sentencing guidelines

The ‘England and Wales Sentencing Guidelines’ aim to promote consistency by organizing the sentencing process as a sequence of steps, with initial judicial assessments subsequently adjusted to reflect relevant case characteristics. Yet, existing evaluations of the guidelines have failed to incorporate this structure adequately, instead concentrating solely on sentence outcomes. We use multivariate multilevel models to offer new insights into the decisions made throughout the sentencing process. Focusing on cases of assault sentenced at the Crown Court we show that the level of compliance with the guidelines is high. However, we also show that some case characteristics are being unduly considered at more than one stage of the sentencing process, meaning existing studies may be underestimating their true influence