Black and Asian police officers and support staff: prejudice, identity, agency and social cohesion

This primary research paper presents a review of research that finds that the British Government’s new social cohesion agenda does hold promise for racial and ethnic prejudice reduction – but that social cohesion policies and practice must include at their core policies to reduce institutional racism in British police services. Analysis of the literature reveals that considerably more research is required to examine the precise nature and dynamics of institutional racism within the police services. There is a need to understand how racism against Black and minority ethnic (BME) police employees, and police racism against BME communities, influences social cohesion. That this is important, given the British government’s current social cohesion policy agenda, is patently clear. Considerably more research is about to be undertaken in this area by the authors of this paper and the results will be published in the academic press, disseminated at conferences and presented in training programmes

Multiple Timescales of Joint Remembering in the Crafting of aMemory-Scaffolding Tool during Collaborative Design

Joint remembering relies on the successful interweaving of multiple cognitive, linguistic, bodily, social and material resources, anchored in specific cultural ecosystems. Such systems for joint remembering in social interactions are composed of processes unfolding over multiple but complementary timescales which we distinguish for analytic purposes with the terms ‘coordination’, ‘collaboration’, ‘cooperation’, and ‘culture’, so as better to study their interanimation in practice. As an illustrative example of the complementary timescales involved in joint remembering in a real-world activity, we present a micro-qualitative analysis of an interactional sequence in which two members of a fourperson team of video designers crafted a memory- scaffolding tool. In order to find the temporal structure of the crafting of the memory-scaffolding tool, we used software for pattern recognition. The analysis suggests that coordination, collaboration, cooperation, and culture reveal complementary aspects of interacting to remember, which should be considered as complex phenomenon unfolding at multiple interanimating timescales

Deep-Sea Fishes of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge: Results of the 2009 Henry Bigelow Expedition

As part of an ongoing study of the northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge biodiversity and ecology (CoML field project MAR-ECO), a detailed survey of the pelagic and demersal fishes in the region of the Charlie-Gibbs Fracture Zone (~ 600 n.m. south of Greenland) was conducted. A total of 17181 pelagic fishes (92 spp., 35 families) were sampled from 0-3000+ m, with the Myctophidae the most species-rich. The bristlemouth Cyclothone microdon was by far the dominant species in numbers (82% of total), while the sawtooth eel Serrivomer beani dominated biomass (27%). A total of 441 deep-demersal fishes (28 spp., 13 families) were sampled from 1872-3527 m, with the Macrouridae and Alepocephalidae comprising half of species numbers. The abyssal halosaur Halosauropsis macrochir was most abundant, while the abyssal grenadier Coryphaenoides armatus contributed the most biomass. Remarkable among the pelagic fish data were routine shallow catches of bathypelagic fishes (see A.B. Cook et al., this volume), and among the demersal fishes were the large size of the individuals, above or near the maximum known for many species. The high species number relative to sample number portends the enhanced deep-sea biodiversity about abrupt topographic features, while the lack of asymptote of species number versus sampling effort underscores our incomplete inventory of this biodiversity

Vertical Distribution of Deep-Pelagic (0-3000 M) Fishes Over the Charlie-Gibbs Fracture Zone Region of the Northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge

Only a tiny fraction of the world’s largest volume of living space, the ocean’s midwater biome, has ever been sampled. As part of the International Census of Marine Life field project, MAR-ECO, a discrete-depth trawling survey was conducted in 2009 aboard the NOAA ship Henry B. Bigelow to examine pelagic assemblage structure and distribution over the Charlie-Gibbs Fracture Zone of the northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The bottom topography in this region ranges from 4500 m in the channel to 700-800 m on top of adjacent seamounts. Sampling was conducted at 11 stations from 0-3000 m using a Norwegian “Krill” trawl with five codends that opened and closed by a pre-programmed timer. Seventy-five species of fishes were collected, with a maximum species diversity and biomass being observed between 700-1900 m. Other key features observed were a strong diel migrating component and frequent captures of putative bathypelagic fishes, shrimps, and cephalopods in the epipelagic zone (0-200 m). The results of MAR-ECO sampling show patterns unlike those previously reported for open ocean ecosystems

Equal-path time-of-flight neutron diffraction

Measurements of the neutron diffraction patterns of liquids and non-crystalline solids with crystal spectrometer facilities and time-of-flight diffraction techniques are discussed. It is shown that measurements with an equal-path time-of flight diffractometer generally provide the most accurate representation of a total diffraction pattern. The results of neutron diffraction measurements of vitreous silica with a crystal spectrometer and an equal-path time-of-flight diffractometer are contrasted.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/34135/1/0000419.pd

Modelling the hepatitis B vaccination programme in prisons

A vaccination programme offering hepatitis B (HBV) vaccine at reception into prison has been introduced into selected prisons in England and Wales. Over the coming years it is anticipated this vaccination programme will be extended. A model has been developed to assess the potential impact of the programme on the vaccination coverage of prisoners, ex-prisoners, and injecting drug users (IDUs). Under a range of coverage scenarios, the model predicts the change over time in the vaccination status of new entrants to prison, current prisoners and IDUs in the community. The model predicts that at baseline in 2012 57% of the IDU population will be vaccinated with up to 72% being vaccinated depending on the vaccination scenario implemented. These results are sensitive to the size of the IDU population in England and Wales and the average time served by an IDU during each prison visit. IDUs that do not receive HBV vaccine in the community are at increased risk from HBV infection. The HBV vaccination programme in prisons is an effective way of vaccinating this hard-to-reach population although vaccination coverage on prison reception must be increased to achieve this

Estimating the cost-effectiveness of detecting cases of chronic hepatitis C infection on reception into prison

Background In England and Wales where less than 1% of the population are Injecting drug users (IDUs), 97% of HCV reports are attributed to injecting drug use. As over 60% of the IDU population will have been imprisoned by the age of 30 years, prison may provide a good location in which to offer HCV screening and treatment. The aim of this work is to examine the cost effectiveness of a number of alternative HCV case-finding strategies on prison reception Methods A decision analysis model embedded in a model of the flow of IDUs through prison was used to estimate the cost effectiveness of a number of alternative case-finding strategies. The model estimates the average cost of identifying a new case of HCV from the perspective of the health care provider and how these estimates may evolve over time. Results The results suggest that administering verbal screening for a past positive HCV test and for ever having engaged in illicit drug use prior to the administering of ELISA and PCR tests can have a significant impact on the cost effectiveness of HCV case-finding strategies on prison reception; the discounted cost in 2017 being £2,102 per new HCV case detected compared to £3,107 when no verbal screening is employed. Conclusion The work here demonstrates the importance of targeting those individuals that have ever engaged in illicit drug use for HCV testing in prisons, these individuals can then be targeted for future intervention measures such as treatment or monitored to prevent future transmission

Quantification of diastolic dysfunction via the age dependence of diastolic function — Impact of insulin resistance with and without type 2 diabetes

AbstractBackgroundThe alarming prevalence of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction requires quantification of diastolic dysfunction (DDF). Myocardial diastolic velocity E′ implies that age is the most important determinant. We tested the hypothesis that age allows for quantification of DDF and assessment of the structural and metabolic determinants in patients with and without type 2 diabetes (D).MethodsThis prospective, cross-sectional study assessed cardiovascular, metabolic and ultrasound data in 409 consecutive patients (Diabetes Center, Bogenhausen-Munich) between 20 and 90years without known cardiac disease and either with (n=204) or without D but with common prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors, including a subgroup of healthy individuals (H, n=94).ResultsIn H, E′ related to age as: E′norm=−0.163∗years+19.69 (R2=0.77, p<0.0001). According to this 1% reduction by annual physiologic aging, DDF was quantitated as E′−E′ norm. Compared to nondiabetics, D patients were older, had greater BMI, lower E′, more cardiovascular risk and greater DDF. In nondiabetics, grading of DDF by E−E′norm correlated with grading by filling pressure E/E′. Determinants of DDF by multivariate analysis included pulse wave velocity, diastolic blood pressure and the triglyceride/HDL ratio (a marker of insulin resistance) in nondiabetics and in D the same risk factors in reverse sequence and heart rate. Neither left atrial size nor left ventricular mass had significant impact.ConclusionsThe physiological impact of age on myocardial function consists of a 1% annual reduction in E′ and enables precise quantification of diastolic dysfunction thereby unmasking the importance of metabolic risk for DDF

Replication and exploratory analysis of 24 candidate risk polymorphisms for neural tube defects.

BackgroundNeural tube defects (NTDs), which are among the most common congenital malformations, are influenced by environmental and genetic factors. Low maternal folate is the strongest known contributing factor, making variants in genes in the folate metabolic pathway attractive candidates for NTD risk. Multiple studies have identified nominally significant allelic associations with NTDs. We tested whether associations detected in a large Irish cohort could be replicated in an independent population.MethodsReplication tests of 24 nominally significant NTD associations were performed in racially/ethnically matched populations. Family-based tests of fifteen nominally significant single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were repeated in a cohort of NTD trios (530 cases and their parents) from the United Kingdom, and case-control tests of nine nominally significant SNPs were repeated in a cohort (190 cases, 941 controls) from New York State (NYS). Secondary hypotheses involved evaluating the latter set of nine SNPs for NTD association using alternate case-control models and NTD groupings in white, African American and Hispanic cohorts from NYS.ResultsOf the 24 SNPs tested for replication, ADA rs452159 and MTR rs10925260 were significantly associated with isolated NTDs. Of the secondary tests performed, ARID1A rs11247593 was associated with NTDs in whites, and ALDH1A2 rs7169289 was associated with isolated NTDs in African Americans.ConclusionsWe report a number of associations between SNP genotypes and neural tube defects. These associations were nominally significant before correction for multiple hypothesis testing. These corrections are highly conservative for association studies of untested hypotheses, and may be too conservative for replication studies. We therefore believe the true effect of these four nominally significant SNPs on NTD risk will be more definitively determined by further study in other populations, and eventual meta-analysis