Victim Advocates\u27 Experiences of Challenges and Opportunities in Supporting Children of Homicide Victims

Homicide is a preventable public health issue that has detrimental effects for victims, witnesses, and the broader society. Although a number of studies have substantiated the adverse effects on children when a parent dies by homicide, few studies have addressed how critical the support of victim advocates is in minimizing the adverse effects. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine victim advocate professionals\u27 experiences of challenges and opportunities in delivering services to children of homicide victims. Policy feedback theory was the theoretical framework for the study. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 10 victim advocate professionals who were members of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Victim Advocate Association, which provides services to parentally bereaved children of homicide victims. The participants’ experiences of challenges varied, including experiencing vicarious trauma and burnout due to the indirect exposure to trauma, feeling prepared but not ready when first encountering a youth, and having to establish trust to effectively deliver services. Opportunities also varied among the participants, such as several training opportunities through the South Carolina Law Enforcement Victim Advocate Association and expressions of appreciation from victims. Knowledge of the challenges and opportunities experienced by victim advocate professionals may inform policy and service provisions toward those most in need of preventive interventions and resources. Such efforts are pivotal for positive social change given the potential for unaddressed grief and trauma to affect the developmental trajectory of youth

Tight-binding study of high-pressure phase transitions in titanium: alpha to omega and beyond

We use a tight-binding total energy method, with parameters determined from a fit to first-principles calculations, to examine the newly discovered gamma phase of titanium. Our parameters were adjusted to accurately describe the alpha Ti-omega Ti phase transition, which is misplaced by density functional calculations. We find a transition from omega Ti to gamma Ti at 102 GPa, in good agreement with the experimental value of 116 GPa. Our results suggest that current density functional calculations will not reproduce the omega Ti-gamma Ti phase transition, but will instead predict a transition from omega Ti to the bcc beta Ti phase.Comment: 3 encapsulated Postscript figures, submitted to Phyical Review Letter

Agency, qualia and life: connecting mind and body biologically

Many believe that a suitably programmed computer could act for its own goals and experience feelings. I challenge this view and argue that agency, mental causation and qualia are all founded in the unique, homeostatic nature of living matter. The theory was formulated for coherence with the concept of an agent, neuroscientific data and laws of physics. By this method, I infer that a successful action is homeostatic for its agent and can be caused by a feeling - which does not motivate as a force, but as a control signal. From brain research and the locality principle of physics, I surmise that qualia are a fundamental, biological form of energy generated in specialized neurons. Subjectivity is explained as thermodynamically necessary on the supposition that, by converting action potentials to feelings, the neural cells avert damage from the electrochemical pulses. In exchange for this entropic benefit, phenomenal energy is spent as and where it is produced - which precludes the objective observation of qualia

Detailed monitoring reveals the nature of submarine turbidity currents

Seafloor sediment flows, called turbidity currents, form the largest sediment accumulations, deepest canyons, and longest channels on Earth. It was once thought that turbidity currents were impractical to measure in action, especially due to their ability to damage sensors in their path, but direct monitoring since the mid 2010s has measured them in detail. In this Review, we summarise knowledge of turbidity currents gleaned from this direct monitoring. Monitoring identifies triggering mechanisms from dilute river-plumes, and shows how rapid sediment accumulation can precondition slope failure, but the final triggers can be delayed and subtle. Turbidity currents are consistently more frequent than predicted by past sequence stratigraphic models, including at sites >300 km from any coast. Faster (>~1.5 m s–1) flows are driven by a dense near-bed layer at their front, whereas slower flows are entirely dilute. This frontal layer sometimes erodes large (>2.5 km3) volumes of sediment, yet maintains a near-uniform speed, leading to a travelling wave model. Monitoring shows that flows sculpt canyons and channels through fast-moving knickpoints, and how deposits originate. Emerging technologies with reduced cost and risk can lead to widespread monitoring of turbidity currents, so their sediment and carbon fluxes can be compared with other major global transport processes

Key-Policy Attribute-Based Encryption for Boolean Circuits from Bilinear Maps

We propose the first Key-policy Attribute-based Encryption (KP-ABE) scheme for (monotone) Boolean circuits based on bilinear maps. The construction is based on secret sharing and just one bilinear map, and can be viewed as an extension of the KP-ABE scheme in [7]. Selective security of the proposed scheme in the standard model is proved, and comparisons with the scheme in [5] based on leveled multilinear maps, are provided. Thus, for Boolean circuits representing multilevel access structures, our KP-ABE scheme is more efficient than the one in [5]

Postcopulatory sexual selection

The female reproductive tract is where competition between the sperm of different males takes place, aided and abetted by the female herself. Intense postcopulatory sexual selection fosters inter-sexual conflict and drives rapid evolutionary change to generate a startling diversity of morphological, behavioural and physiological adaptations. We identify three main issues that should be resolved to advance our understanding of postcopulatory sexual selection. We need to determine the genetic basis of different male fertility traits and female traits that mediate sperm selection; identify the genes or genomic regions that control these traits; and establish the coevolutionary trajectory of sexes

Role played by the environment in the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) through the food chain

[EN]The role of food-producing environments in the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in EU plant-based food production, terrestrial animals (poultry, cattle and pigs) and aquaculture was assessed. Among the various sources and transmission routes identified, fertilisers of faecal origin, irrigation and surface water for plant-based food and water for aquaculture were considered of major importance. For terrestrial animal production, potential sources consist of feed, humans, water, air/dust, soil, wildlife, rodents, arthropods and equipment. Among those, evidence was found for introduction with feed and humans, for the other sources, the importance could not be assessed. Several ARB of highest priority for public health, such as carbapenem or extended-spectrum cephalosporin and/or fluoroquinolone-resistant Enterobacterales (including Salmonella enterica), fluoroquinolone-resistant Campylobacter spp., methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and glycopeptide-resistant Enterococcus faecium and E. faecalis were identified. Among highest priority ARGs blaCTX-M, blaVIM, blaNDM, blaOXA-48-like, blaOXA-23, mcr, armA, vanA, cfr and optrA were reported. These highest priority bacteria and genes were identified in different sources, at primary and post-harvest level, particularly faeces/manure, soil and water. For all sectors, reducing the occurrence of faecal microbial contamination of fertilisers, water, feed and the production environment and minimising persistence/recycling of ARB within animal production facilities is a priority. Proper implementation of good hygiene practices, biosecurity and food safety management systems is very important. Potential AMR-specific interventions are in the early stages of development. Many data gaps relating to sources and relevance of transmission routes, diversity of ARB and ARGs, effectiveness of mitigation measures were identified. Representative epidemiological and attribution studies on AMR and its effective control in food production environments at EU level, linked to One Health and environmental initiatives, are urgently required.S

Coding “What” and “When” in the Archer Fish Retina

Traditionally, the information content of the neural response is quantified using statistics of the responses relative to stimulus onset time with the assumption that the brain uses onset time to infer stimulus identity. However, stimulus onset time must also be estimated by the brain, making the utility of such an approach questionable. How can stimulus onset be estimated from the neural responses with sufficient accuracy to ensure reliable stimulus identification? We address this question using the framework of colour coding by the archer fish retinal ganglion cell. We found that stimulus identity, “what”, can be estimated from the responses of best single cells with an accuracy comparable to that of the animal's psychophysical estimation. However, to extract this information, an accurate estimation of stimulus onset is essential. We show that stimulus onset time, “when”, can be estimated using a linear-nonlinear readout mechanism that requires the response of a population of 100 cells. Thus, stimulus onset time can be estimated using a relatively simple readout. However, large nerve cell populations are required to achieve sufficient accuracy

Enhanced Nogo-P3 amplitudes of mothers compared with non-mother women during an emotional Go/Nogo task

Background: It is known that emotion regulatory responses of humans are changed by the experiences they have, but in particular, they are changed by becoming a mother. A recent study has found how a woman's emotion regulatory response to a child's crying changes after becoming a mother. However, mothers' emotion regulatory responses other than those to children and the association between emotion regulatory response and parental stress are still unknown. Methods: Eighteen healthy Japanese females (nine mothers and nine non-mothers) participated in the experiment. They performed an emotional Go/Nogo task, with facial expressions of others (angry, happy, and neutral faces) used as emotional stimuli. The percentage of correct responses, response time, and event-related potentials (ERPs) during the task was measured. Results: This comparison revealed that the mother group had a larger P3 (Nogo-P3) amplitude than the non-mother group when Nogo trials were held. This indicates that in mothers, there was greater activation of the behavioral inhibition-related brain areas than in non-mother women when they inhibited inappropriate behavior following recognition of facial expressions of others. In addition, in the mother group, there was a negative correlation between parental stress levels and Nogo-P3 amplitudes evoked by angry faces. This suggests that there is a relation between the level of parental stress of mothers and their emotion regulatory responses to angry faces. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that mothers' emotion regulatory processes may differ from those of non-mothers in response, not only to a child's crying but also to expressions of emotions by others, and also suggest that the inhibitory recognition activity of mothers can be affected by parental stres

Role played by the environment in the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) through the food chain

The role of food-producing environments in the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in EU plant-based food production, terrestrial animals (poultry, cattle and pigs) and aquaculture was assessed. Among the various sources and transmission routes identified, fertilisers of faecal origin, irrigation and surface water for plant-based food and water for aquaculture were considered of major importance. For terrestrial animal production, potential sources consist of feed, humans, water, air/dust, soil, wildlife, rodents, arthropods and equipment. Among those, evidence was found for introduction with feed and humans, for the other sources, the importance could not be assessed. Several ARB of highest priority for public health, such as carbapenem or extended-spectrum cephalosporin and/or fluoroquinolone-resistant Enterobacterales (including Salmonella enterica), fluoroquinolone-resistant Campylobacter spp., methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and glycopeptide-resistant Enterococcus faecium and E. faecalis were identified. Among highest priority ARGs blaCTX-M, blaVIM, blaNDM, blaOXA-48-like, blaOXA-23, mcr, armA, vanA, cfr and optrA were reported. These highest priority bacteria and genes were identified in different sources, at primary and post-harvest level, particularly faeces/manure, soil and water. For all sectors, reducing the occurrence of faecal microbial contamination of fertilisers, water, feed and the production environment and minimising persistence/recycling of ARB within animal production facilities is a priority. Proper implementation of good hygiene practices, biosecurity and food safety management systems is very important. Potential AMR-specific interventions are in the early stages of development. Many data gaps relating to sources and relevance of transmission routes, diversity of ARB and ARGs, effectiveness of mitigation measures were identified. Representative epidemiological and attribution studies on AMR and its effective control in food production environments at EU level, linked to One Health and environmental initiatives, are urgently required.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio