Police Community Partnerships: A Review of the Literature

To better understand community/police collaborations, this study researched several different types of successful partnerships. Our objective was to learn why the partnerships were formed and who was involved. Our research also sought to determine the goals of the partnerships, and the methods used to achieve those goals. The study also highlights several practices used by police agencies successfully to solve community problems

Domestic Terrorism: A Review of the Literature

We begin our review with original definitions of domestic terrorism. The prevalence of domestic terrorism is discussed and includes a description of prevalence was measured. Characteristics of and factors associated with being a victim of domestic terrorism are then reviewed, followed by the characteristics of offenders associated with carrying out the crimes. We describe the modus operandi used by different groups of offenders, including information about the geographic distribution, temporal patterns, and other details of domestic terrorism. As a conclusion to the report, we also discuss prevention strategies, policy implications, and other ways to improve outcomes at the individual, community, and societal levels identified by the authors of the articles

Prevention of Cyberstalking: A Review of the Literature

With technological advances and increases in the number of people who can access and use technology, cyberstalking is a crime increasing in prevalence across the United States. The goal of this report is to provide a more clear understanding of the definition of cyberstalking, its prevalence, characteristics of both the victims and offenders of this crime, and the modus operandi of the crime. In addition, potential strategies to prevent cyberstalking will be discussed, including but not limited to changing internet behavior and educating the public about cyberstalking

Prevention of Violent Crime: A Review of the Literature

During the course of the term, our group was tasked with researching the prevention of violent crime. Our research consisted of examining scholarly articles containing original information regarding the definition and prevalence of violent crime, victims, offenders, modus operandi, prevention strategies and implications for policy and training. Our findings are closely linked to data found in the United States. We began our research with original definitions of the prevention of violent crime contained in the articles. The prevalence of violent crime is discussed, including how measurements were determined. The characteristics of, and factors associated with being a victim of violent crime were then reviewed, followed by the characteristics of offenders associated with carrying out these violent crimes. We described the modus operandi used by different offenders, including information about income levels, proactive and reactive aggression and other details of violent crime. As a conclusion to the report, we also discussed prevention strategies, policy implications, and other training tactics, in order to improve outcomes at the individual, community, and societal levels identified by the authors

A Comparison of Soil and Site Conditions in Coffee-Based Agroforestry Systems in Three Regions of Central Haiti

Zanmi Kafe (Haitian Kreyol for Partners in Coffee) is a collaboration between Sewanee the University of the South and the Hattian NGO Zanmi Agrikol (Partners in Agriculture) based in Haiti’s Central Plateau that works with rural farmers to implement agroforestry practices through a payment for ecosystem services (PES) structure. The structure of PES payments reward landholders for land stewardship practices in an effort to improve rural poverty not just economically, but also environmentally (Midler et al 2010). Farm productivity in Haiti’s Central Plateau region suffers from deforestation and resultant soil erosion as well as a lack of arable land on steep rocky slopes. Shade grown coffee, a crop requested by the Haitian farmers in Zanmi Kafe, offers an important agroforestry strategy because it incentivizes the planting of a variety of over-story shade trees with the potential to increase households livelihoods and environmental resilience in these remote mountain areas. Since the establishment of the shade coffee-based agroforests in 2013, comprehensive soil studies have been conducted to characterize the conditions in which the trees are growing, and provide information that will help farmers more effectively manage these systems. We have been working with our farmer-collaborators in three regions to analyze soil chemistry, organic horizon mass, nutrient content, soil depth and percent slope of home garden and open fields. We also assessed site factors such as elevation, and percent canopy openness, as well as coffee seedling survival. Our results demonstrate that the calcium-carbonate-derived soils in these highland areas are neutral to slightly alkaline, low in organic matter, with highly variable amounts of phosphorus. In Baptiste, the oldest, most elevated, mesic and productive coffee growing region, the soils are slightly acidic but higher in organic matter. A better understanding of the region’s soil characteristics aims to help farmers increase their crop yield by adopting plants and strategies more conducive to the Central Plateau. Contour alley cropping and grass terracing may help reduce soil erosion and increase productivity on farms where shallow dry soils inhibit coffee production

Learning experiences for the transition to professional work

A better educated workforce contributes to a more informed and tolerant society with higher economic output, and this is also associated with higher levels of personal health, interpersonal trust and civic and social engagement. Against this backdrop, the role of universities has expanded, as university learning has moved beyond providing an education to preparing students for leadership positions within society. This article examines the effectiveness of final-year learning experiences from the perception of recent graduates. The aim is to improve undergraduate curriculum to facilitate the transition to professional employment. An online quantitative and qualitative survey instrument was developed to investigate graduates’ perceptions of their different learning experiences and assessment types in their senior year. Four hundred and twelve alumni from five universities completed the survey. Our results indicate that graduates value case studies, group work and oral presentations, and that graduates rate lectures and guest lectures from practitioners as the least important in their transition to work. The results validate the use of graduate capability frameworks and mapping the development of the skills over the curriculum. These results are useful for curriculum designers to assist with designing programmes on the transition to professional work

Private sector investment in conservation and coastal resilience in the Caribbean

Solutions to coastal ecosystem-based challenges must shift from managing individual sectors to an integrated perspective of interconnected ecological and socio-political systems. The Caribbean region and the Dominican Republic (DR) in particular are vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change. The DR’s extended coastlines, conservation, and adaptation efforts experience a large funding gap, providing an opportunity for private sector players to step in. This report aims to inform the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) on major climate change impacts, which continue to endanger the DR’s natural resources, infrastructure, and coastal communities. These impacts affect livelihoods and economic development in the country. The report examines the potential for private sector investment projects in conservation and building coastal resilience in the DR. The report focuses on identifying possible entry points that DFC can leverage to advance its portfolio by exploring existing or potential private sector opportunities to conserve, protect, and advance resilience, biodiversity, habitats, and coastal communities in the country. Key climate-sensitive sectors identified are tourism, energy, biodiversity/marine ecosystem, and fisheries

Partnership Between Islam and Palliative Care at Swedish Health Services

The spiritual practice of Islam is considered one of the three major monotheistic religions. Islam is the second largest religion in the world with 1.6 billion followers; about 3.5 million of those live in the U.S.1 The number of Muslims in the U.S. is projected to double by 2030.1 Additionally, the number of adults age 65 and older in the U.S. is projected to double from 46 million today to over 98 million by 2060.2 As the U.S. population ages, many healthcare workers are often too overwhelmed to handle the varying and intricate social, economic, familial, spiritual, and cultural needs of older adults with complex chronic disease or life-limiting illness. A palliative care team that respects and values one’s cultural and spiritual needs is vital to not only support providers in day-to-day activities, but also to give patients and families the support of a person with specialized knowledge to help with chronic illnesses as well as the end-of-life transition. Providing culturally sensitive resources such as a palliative care team that understands the needs of their Muslim population is vital to Swedish Medical Center’s core beliefs and values which include, compassion, dignity and excellence.8 More specifically, nurturing each patient\u27s spiritual essence is a goal within the Swedish mission of compassion, which aligns with this project\u27s goal.8 Thus, this Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) project aims to complete a needs assessment and a gap analysis of the use of palliative care services for patients adhering to Islam at Swedish Medical Center’s First Hill (FH) and Cherry Hill (CH) locations

MosAIC : an annotated collection of mosquito-associated bacteria with high-quality genome assemblies

Mosquitoes transmit medically important human pathogens, including viruses like dengue virus and parasites such as Plasmodium spp., the causative agent of malaria. Mosquito microbiomes are critically important for the ability of mosquitoes to transmit disease-causing agents. However, while large collections of bacterial isolates and genomic data exist for vertebrate microbiomes, the vast majority of work in mosquitoes to date is based on 16S rRNA gene amplicon data that provides limited taxonomic resolution and no functional information. To address this gap and facilitate future studies using experimental microbiome manipulations, we generated a bacterial Mosquito-Associated Isolate Collection (MosAIC) consisting of 392 bacterial isolates with extensive metadata and high-quality draft genome assemblies that are publicly available, both isolates and sequence data, for use by the scientific community. MosAIC encompasses 142 species spanning 29 bacterial families, with members of the Enterobacteriaceae comprising 40% of the collection. Phylogenomic analysis of 3 genera, Enterobacter, Serratia, and Elizabethkingia, reveal lineages of mosquito-associated bacteria isolated from different mosquito species in multiple laboratories. Investigation into species' pangenomes further reveals clusters of genes specific to these lineages, which are of interest for future work to test for functions connected to mosquito host association. Altogether, we describe the generation of a physical collection of mosquito-associated bacterial isolates, their genomic data, and analyses of selected groups in context of genome data from closely related isolates, providing a unique, highly valuable resource for research on bacterial colonisation and adaptation within mosquito hosts. Future efforts will expand the collection to include broader geographic and host species representation, especially from individuals collected from field populations, as well as other mosquito-associated microbes, including fungi, archaea, and protozoa. [Abstract copyright: Copyright: © 2024 Foo et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.