Building trust in policing through arts collaboration

Can arts and culture play a role in addressing the current crisis in police legitimacy? Drawing on over 100 interviews and focus groups, this project evaluates the innovative partnership between West Midlands Police and Coventry City of Culture Trust to ask: Can police engagement through creative partnerships help to rebuild public trust and confidence? It considers how the police can use arts and culture to build positive relationships with vulnerable, at-risk, and seldom heard communities through collaborative working with arts practitioners and 3rd sector organisations. It also notes the suspicion still felt by some members of the public and community organisations, highlighting the ongoing need for a shift in police culture, long-term relationship-building with existing community organisations, and transparency of police objectives

The Challenges of Multimorbidity from the Patient Perspective

BACKGROUND Although multiple co-occurring chronic illnesses within the same individual are increasingly common, few studies have examined the challenges of multimorbidity from the patient perspective. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to examine the self-management learning needs and willingness to see non-physician providers of patients with multimorbidity compared to patients with single chronic illnesses. DESIGN. This research is designed as a cross-sectional survey. PARTICIPANTS Based upon ICD-9 codes, patients from a single VHA healthcare system were stratified into multimorbidity clusters or groups with a single chronic illness from the corresponding cluster. Nonproportional sampling was used to randomly select 720 patients. MEASUREMENTS Demographic characteristics, functional status, number of contacts with healthcare providers, components of primary care, self-management learning needs, and willingness to see nonphysician providers. RESULTS Four hundred twenty-two patients returned surveys. A higher percentage of multimorbidity patients compared to single morbidity patients were "definitely" willing to learn all 22 self-management skills, of these only 2 were not significant. Compared to patients with single morbidity, a significantly higher percentage of patients with multimorbidity also reported that they were "definitely" willing to see 6 of 11 non-physician healthcare providers. CONCLUSIONS Self-management learning needs of multimorbidity patients are extensive, and their preferences are consistent with team-based primary care. Alternative methods of providing support and chronic illness care may be needed to meet the needs of these complex patients.US Department of Veterans Affairs (01-110, 02-197); Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (K08 HS013008-02

Would firm generators facilitate or deter variable renewable energy in a carbon-free electricity system?

To reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide emissions and mitigate impacts of climate change, countries across the world have mandated quotas for renewable electricity. But a question has remained largely unexplored: would low-cost, firm, zero-carbon electricity generation technologies enhance—or would they displace—deployment of variable renewable electricity generation technologies, i.e., wind and solar photovoltaics, in a least-cost, fully reliable, and deeply decarbonized electricity system? To address this question, we modeled idealized electricity systems based on historical weather data and considered only technoeconomic factors. We did not apply a predetermined use model. We found that cost reductions in firm generation technologies (starting at current costs, ramping down to nearly zero) uniformly resulted in increased penetration of the firm technologies and decreased penetration of variable renewable electricity generation, in electricity systems where technology deployment is primarily driven by relative costs, and across a wide array of future technology cost assumptions. Similarly, reduced costs of variable renewable electricity (starting at current costs, ramping down to nearly zero) drove out firm generation technologies. Yet relative to deployment of “must-run” firm generation technologies, and when the studied firm technologies have high fixed costs relative to variable costs, the addition of flexibility to firm generation technologies had only limited impacts on the system cost, less than a 9% system cost reduction in our idealized model. These results reveal that policies and funding that support particular technologies for low- or zero-carbon electricity generation can inhibit the development of other low- or zero-carbon alternatives

What Would I Know About Mercy? Faith and Optimistic Expectancies Among African Americans

A small body of research has begun to explore the association between faith and optimism among African Americans. However, missing from the extant work is an examination of the extent to which traditional indices of religious commitment work together with beliefs about God to shape optimism. The present study examines the utility of indices of social location, religious commitment (i.e., early and current religious service attendance, subjective religiosity), belief about the quality of one’s relationship with God (i.e., a belief that one is connected to a loving God), and beliefs about being the recipient of divine forgiveness for predicting dispositional optimism among a sample of community residing African American adults (N = 241). Age, subjective religiosity, and organizational religiosity were positively related to optimism in bivariate analyses. Hierarchical regression analyses demonstrated a significant association between age, subjective religiosity, and optimism; however, those associations were eliminated once relationship with God and belief in one’s forgiveness by God were entered into the model. Only belief in God’s love predicted optimism in multivariate analyses. Serial mediation analyses revealed that beliefs about the quality of one’s relationship with God and belief in divine forgiveness fully mediated the relationship between subjective religiosity and optimism, but that the relationship is driven largely by relationship with God. Implications of these findings are discussed

Lightly Fluorinated Graphene as a Protective Layer for n-Type Si(111) Photoanodes in Aqueous Electrolytes

The behavior of n-Si(111) photoanodes covered by monolayer sheets of fluorinated graphene (F–Gr) was investigated under a range of chemical and electrochemical conditions. The electrochemical behavior of n-Si/F–Gr and np^+-Si/F–Gr photoanodes was compared to hydride-terminated n-Si (n-Si−H) and np+-Si−H electrodes in contact with aqueous Fe(CN)_6^(3-/4-) and Br_2/HBr electrolytes as well as in contact with a series of outer-sphere, one-electron redox couples in nonaqueous electrolytes. Illuminated n-Si/F–Gr and np^+-Si/F–Gr electrodes in contact with an aqueous K_3(Fe(CN)_6/K4(Fe(CN)_6 solutions exhibited stable short-circuit photocurrent densities of ∼10 mA cm^(–2) for 100,000 s (>24 h), in comparison to bare Si electrodes, which yielded nearly a complete photocurrent decay over ∼100 s. X-ray photoelectron spectra collected before and after exposure to aqueous anodic conditions showed that oxide formation at the Si surface was significantly inhibited for Si electrodes coated with F–Gr relative to bare Si electrodes exposed to the same conditions. The variation of the open-circuit potential for n-Si/F–Gr in contact with a series of nonaqueous electrolytes of varying reduction potential indicated that the n-Si/F–Gr did not form a buried junction with respect to the solution contact. Further, illuminated n-Si/F−Gr electrodes in contact with Br_2/HBr(aq) were significantly more electrochemically stable than n-Si−H electrodes, and n-Si/F−Gr electrodes coupled to a Pt catalyst exhibited ideal regenerative cell efficiencies of up to 5% for the oxidation of Br^– to Br_2

SAGES: A Suite of Freely-Available Software Tools for Electronic Disease Surveillance in Resource-Limited Settings

Public health surveillance is undergoing a revolution driven by advances in the field of information technology. Many countries have experienced vast improvements in the collection, ingestion, analysis, visualization, and dissemination of public health data. Resource-limited countries have lagged behind due to challenges in information technology infrastructure, public health resources, and the costs of proprietary software. The Suite for Automated Global Electronic bioSurveillance (SAGES) is a collection of modular, flexible, freely-available software tools for electronic disease surveillance in resource-limited settings. One or more SAGES tools may be used in concert with existing surveillance applications or the SAGES tools may be used en masse for an end-to-end biosurveillance capability. This flexibility allows for the development of an inexpensive, customized, and sustainable disease surveillance system. The ability to rapidly assess anomalous disease activity may lead to more efficient use of limited resources and better compliance with World Health Organization International Health Regulations