The Ineffectiveness of the Reid Technique in Law Enforcement Interrogations and How a Non-Accusatory Model of Interview Can Be Applied in Law Enforcement Interviews in the United States

The research questions that this thesis explored were “Why the Reid Technique is Ineffective for Law Enforcement Interrogations?” and “How a Non-Accusatory Model of Interview Can Be Applied in Law Enforcement Interviews in the United States.” In recent years, the harmful effects of using a confrontational, adversarial interrogation method, such as the Reid technique, have emerged. These interrogation methods are based on pseudoscience. The effects of these types of interrogation methods can include psychological harm and false confessions. Professionals and officials in the law enforcement field are exploring new options for interviewing including non-accusatory methods such as the PEACE model. A non-accusatory method of interviewing can aid in obtaining more information while mitigating the risks of an accusatory method. To explore these questions, interviews were conducted with Dr. Brent Snook and Mr. David Thompson. Dr. Snook is an academic that researches how science can be applied to the criminal justice system including in interviews and interrogations. Mr. Thompson is the Vice President of Operations for Wicklander-Zulawski, an investigative and consulting company that focuses on utilizing non-accusatory methods of interviewing. From these interviews, Dr. Snook and Mr. Thompson confirmed what has been published about the Reid technique and how it is an ineffective technique to use in modern law enforcement interviews. The PEACE model of interviewing is a model based in science that can be applied to law enforcement agencies in the U.S. The adoption of non-accusatory methods in certain U.S. law enforcement agencies suggest that change is possible. This adoption can be accelerated if a federal mandate is created that requires U.S. law enforcement agencies to adopt a non-accusatory method of interviewing like the PEACE model and discontinue use of accusatory methods such as the Reid technique

Jack London BART Station Siting

The Link21 Program includes a new train crossing under the San Francisco Bay, which will improve connectivity between the Peninsula/Downtown San Francisco and the East Bay, as well as improve service frequency and mitigate congestion across the Bay Bridge. Six concepts have been developed for Link21, two of which involve a BART transfer station in the Jack London District. The scope of our project involves an existing conditions analysis and plans/policies review prior to conducting a BART station siting process for a potential Jack London BART station. Jack London is one of Oakland’s oldest business districts and is located south of Downtown Oakland, bisected from the city core by Interstate 980 and Interstate 880 overhead. Jack London’s position by the Oakland Estuary waterfront positions itself as a hub for port/industrial activities, commuter ferry passengers, intercity rail (Amtrak) passengers, and tourism

Understanding Effects of Algorithmic vs. Community Label on Perceived Accuracy of Hyper-partisan Misinformation

Hyper-partisan misinformation has become a major public concern. In order to examine what type of misinformation label can mitigate hyper-partisan misinformation sharing on social media, we conducted a 4 (label type: algorithm, community, third-party fact-checker, and no label) X 2 (post ideology: liberal vs. conservative) between-subjects online experiment (N = 1,677) in the context of COVID-19 health information. The results suggest that for liberal users, all labels reduced the perceived accuracy and believability of fake posts regardless of the posts' ideology. In contrast, for conservative users, the efficacy of the labels depended on whether the posts were ideologically consistent: algorithmic labels were more effective in reducing the perceived accuracy and believability of fake conservative posts compared to community labels, whereas all labels were effective in reducing their belief in liberal posts. Our results shed light on the differing effects of various misinformation labels dependent on people's political ideology

Multi-Tiered Intensive Supervision: A Culturally-Informed Method of Clinical Supervision

In this exploratory phenomenological study, the authors researched the experiences of doctoral level supervisors (N=5) who piloted a new supervision approach, Multi-Tiered Intensive Supervision (MTIS). MTIS is a 13-week supervision intervention that involves hierarchical supervisory experiences which includes clinical supervision with three different professionals. This approach applies an anti-racist framework and merges the components of traditional supervision models which allows concepts such as knowledge development of multicultural counseling theory, conceptualization of the intersectionality of cultural identities and enhanced personal self-awareness across each layer of supervision. Five themes were identified: (a) recognition of power, privilege, and oppression; (b) personal impact; (c) deficits in current supervision training and models; (d) supervisory skill development; and (e) impact of MTIS. Implications and recommendations for supervisors, counselor education programs, and researchers are provided

Virtualization of foods: applications and perspectives toward optimizing food systems

Food production cannot be decoupled from human and planetary wellbeing. Meeting safety, nutritional, sensorial, and even price requirements entails applying an integral view of food products and their manufacturing and distribution processes. Virtualization of food commodities and products, i.e., their digital representation, offers opportunities to study, simulate, and predict the contributions of internal (e.g., composition and structure) and external factors (e.g., processing conditions) to food quality, safety, stability, and sustainability. Building virtual versions of foods requires a holistic supporting framework composed of instrumental and computational techniques. The development of virtual foods has been bolstered by advanced tools for collecting data, informing and validating modelling, e.g., micro-computed tomography, to accurately assess native food structures, multi-omics approaches, to acquire vast information on composition and biochemical processes, and nondestructive and real-time sensing, to facilitate mapping and tracking changes in food quality and safety in real-world situations. Comprehensive modeling techniques (including heat and mass transfer, thermodynamics, kinetics) built upon physic laws provide the base for realistic simulations and predictions of food processes that a virtual food might undergo. Despite the potential gaps in knowledge, increasing the adoption of food virtualization (data-based, physics-based or hybrid) in manufacturing and food systems evaluation can facilitate the optimal use of resources, the rational design of functional characteristics, and even inform the customization of composition and structural components for better product development. This mini-review focuses on critical steps for developing and applying virtual foods, their future trends, and needs

Effectiveness, safety and acceptability of Sino-implant (II) during the first year of use: Results from Kenya and Pakistan

Background: Sino-implant (II) is a two-rod subcutaneous contraceptive implant used up to 4 years, containing 150 mg of levonorgestrel. We conducted two observational studies of Sino-implant (II) to evaluate its performance in routine service delivery settings.Methods: We enrolled 1326 women age 18-44 who had Sino-implant (II) inserted at clinics in Pakistan and Kenya. Women were followed-up using either an active or passive follow-up scheme in each study. Study outcomes were: one-year cumulative pregnancy and discontinuation rates; rates of insertion and removal complications; adverse event and side effect rates; reasons for discontinuation; and implant acceptability and satisfaction with clinic services.Results: A total of 754 women returned for at least one follow-up visit. The overall Pearl pregnancy rate was 0.4 per 100 woman-years [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.1, 0.9] resulting from 1 confirmed post-insertion pregnancy in Kenya and 4 in Pakistan. Country-specific Pearl rates were 0.2 (95% CI 0.0, 0.9) in Kenya and 0.6 (95% CI 0.2, 1.6) in Pakistan. The total cumulative 12-month probability of removal was 7.6% (95% CI 6.1, 9.1), with country-specific removal probabilities of 3.7% in Kenya (95% CI 2.1, 5.3) and 10.8% in Pakistan (95% CI 8.5, 13.2). Four serious adverse events occurred in Kenya and none occurred in Pakistan; one SAE (an ectopic pregnancy) was possibly related to Sino-implant (II). Most women in both countries said they would recommend the implant to others.Conclusion: The results from these studies reveal high effectiveness and favorable safety and acceptability during the first year of use of Sino-implant.Implication: The favorable Sino-implant (II) findings from Kenya and Pakistan provide further evidence from disparate regions that Sino-implant (II) is safe, effective and acceptable during routine service delivery

Formation of Super-Earths

Super-Earths are the most abundant planets known to date and are characterized by having sizes between that of Earth and Neptune, typical orbital periods of less than 100 days and gaseous envelopes that are often massive enough to significantly contribute to the planet's overall radius. Furthermore, super-Earths regularly appear in tightly-packed multiple-planet systems, but resonant configurations in such systems are rare. This chapters summarizes current super-Earth formation theories. It starts from the formation of rocky cores and subsequent accretion of gaseous envelopes. We follow the thermal evolution of newly formed super-Earths and discuss their atmospheric mass loss due to disk dispersal, photoevaporation, core-cooling and collisions. We conclude with a comparison of observations and theoretical predictions, highlighting that even super-Earths that appear as barren rocky cores today likely formed with primordial hydrogen and helium envelopes and discuss some paths forward for the future.Comment: Invited review accepted for publication in the 'Handbook of Exoplanets,' Planet Formation section, Springer Reference Works, Juan Antonio Belmonte and Hans Deeg, Ed

Efficient Chemoenzymatic Synthesis of an N-glycan Isomer Library

Quantification, characterization and biofunctional studies of N-glycans on proteins remain challenging tasks due to the complexity, diversity and low abundance of these glycans. The availability of structurally defined N-glycan (especially isomer) libraries is essential to help solve these tasks. We report herein an efficient chemoenzymatic strategy, namely Core Synthesis/Enzymatic Extension (CSEE), for rapid production of diverse N-glycans. Starting with 5 chemically prepared building blocks, 8 N-glycan core structures containing one or two terminal N-acetyl-D-glucosamine (GlcNAc) residue(s) were chemically synthesized via consistent use of oligosaccharyl thioethers as glycosylation donors in a convergent fragment coupling strategy. Each of these core structures was then extended to 5 to 15 N-glycan sequences by enzymatic reactions catalyzed by 4 robust glycosyltransferases. Success in synthesizing N-glycans with Neu5Gc and core-fucosylation further expanded the ability of the enzymatic extension. Meanwhile, high performance liquid chromatography with an amide column enabled rapid and efficient purification (\u3e98% purity) of N-glycans in milligram scales. A total of 73 N-glycans (63 isomers) were successfully prepared and characterized by MS2 and NMR. In summary, the CSEE strategy provides a practical approach for “mass production” of structurally defined N-glycans, which are important standards and probes for glycoscience