This is not a drill: police preparedness for climate emergency

The growing evidence of the dangers facing communities across the globe prompted the UK Parliament to declare a climate emergency in 2019, but is policing prepared for this crisis? A new study by Dr David Lydon, Dr Katja Hallenberg and Violeta Kapageorgiadou of Canterbury Christ Church University suggests much more planning and briefing needs to done in relation to the future operating environment for policing, ethical dilemmas of policing a climate emergency, and developing thought leadership

This is not a drill: Police and partnership preparedness for consequences of the climate crisis

This scoping study investigates the state of preparedness of the police and their partners for the potential consequences of the climate crisis in a UK context. The research engaged participants at strategic, tactical, and operational levels of planning and operations, and conducted a thematic analysis of qualitative data to identify key themes: climate change impacts; why the police should care; prioritisation and preparation, and enabling and impeding factors. The results suggest that the police and their partners may be ill-prepared for the gamut of possible consequences. Preparedness appears hampered by a narrow focus on legislated requirements, short-term planning, lack of funding and resources, and limited prescience. Recommendations are made for redefining planning parameters, strengthening central government engagement, amplifying awareness and understanding of trend analyses, prioritization of ‘futures’ thinking, ethical considerations, and collaborative preparedness. The study has implications for law, public policy, and professional practice in the UK, and other global jurisdictions seeking to develop risk assessment processes and preparedness for the consequences of climate change

Role of estrogen and progesterone receptors in neonatal uterine cell proliferation in the mouse

The major endocrine regulators of the female reproductive tract are 17β-estradiol (E2) and progesterone (P4). This review discusses our recent work related to the roles of E2 and P4 and their receptors, estrogen receptor 1 (ESR1) and progesterone receptor (PR), respectively, in the neonatal uterus. Neonatal uterine cells in mice are mitogenically responsive to estrogens, but neonatal ovariectomy does not inhibit pre-weaning uterine cell proliferation, indicating that this process does not require endogenous estrogens. Neonatal uterine cell proliferation could result from ligand-independent growth factor activation of ESR1, or be independent of ESR1 neonatally despite its obligatory role in adult uterine epithelial proliferation. To determine the role of ESR1 in uterine development, we analyzed cell proliferation and uterine gland development (adenogenesis) in wild-type (WT) and Esr1 knockout (Esr1KO) mice postnatally. Our results indicate that pre-weaning uterine cell proliferation and adenogenesis are independent of ESR1, but these processes become dependent on E2/ESR1 signaling for maintenance and further proliferation and uterine growth during puberty. How pre- weaning uterine cell proliferation and adenogenesis occur independently of E2/ESR1 signaling remains unknown, but ligand-independent activation of ESR1 is not involved in this process. The synthetic glucocorticoid dexamethasone (Dex) inhibits luminal epithelial (LE) proliferation in neonatal mouse uteri, but it has been unclear whether Dex effects were mediated by glucocorticoid receptor (GR) and/or PR. We have used PR knockout (PRKO) mice to test whether PR is required for Dex inhibition of LE proliferation. Our results indicate that maximal inhibitory Dex effects on uterine LE proliferation require PR, possibly reflecting Dex crosstalk with PR. Inhibitory effects of Dex and P4 on LE proliferation may also involve GR binding, as indicated by the small but significant inhibition of LE proliferation by both Dex and P4 in PRKO mice

Frequency bands of strongly nonlinear homogeneous granular systems

Recent numerical studies on an infinite number of identical spherical beads in Hertzian contact showed the presence of frequency bands [ Jayaprakash, Starosvetsky, Vakakis, Peeters and Kerschen Nonlinear Dyn. 63 359 (2011)]. These bands, denoted here as propagation and attenuation bands (PBs and ABs), are typically present in linear or weakly nonlinear periodic media; however, their counterparts are not intuitive in essentially nonlinear periodic media where there is a complete lack of classical linear acoustics, i.e., in “sonic vacua.” Here, we study the effects of PBs and ABs on the forced dynamics of ordered, uncompressed granular systems. Through numerical and experimental techniques, we find that the dynamics of these systems depends critically on the frequency and amplitude of the applied harmonic excitation. For fixed forcing amplitude, at lower frequencies, the oscillations are large in amplitude and governed by strongly nonlinear and nonsmooth dynamics, indicating PB behavior. At higher frequencies the dynamics is weakly nonlinear and smooth, in the form of compressed low-amplitude oscillations, indicating AB behavior. At the boundary between the PB and the AB large-amplitude oscillations due to resonance occur, giving rise to collisions between beads and chaotic dynamics; this renders the forced dynamics sensitive to initial and forcing conditions, and hence unpredictable. Finally, we study asymptotically the near field standing wave dynamics occurring for high frequencies, well inside the AB

Using Social Media to Promote STEM Education: Matching College Students with Role Models

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields have become increasingly central to U.S. economic competitiveness and growth. The shortage in the STEM workforce has brought promoting STEM education upfront. The rapid growth of social media usage provides a unique opportunity to predict users' real-life identities and interests from online texts and photos. In this paper, we propose an innovative approach by leveraging social media to promote STEM education: matching Twitter college student users with diverse LinkedIn STEM professionals using a ranking algorithm based on the similarities of their demographics and interests. We share the belief that increasing STEM presence in the form of introducing career role models who share similar interests and demographics will inspire students to develop interests in STEM related fields and emulate their models. Our evaluation on 2,000 real college students demonstrated the accuracy of our ranking algorithm. We also design a novel implementation that recommends matched role models to the students.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures, accepted by ECML/PKDD 2016, Industrial Trac

Psychophysiological measures of stress in caregivers of individuals with autism spectrum disorder: a systematic review

Purpose: Parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often self-report heightened levels of stress and physical health problems. This paper reviewed studies assessing physiological measures of stress among parents of children with ASD. Methods: Systematic database searches identified 15 studies meeting inclusion criteria. Studies were reviewed to determine: (a) control group characteristics; (b) caregiver and care recipient characteristics; (c) setting; (d) physiological measures employed; (e) physiological outcomes; and (f) stressor type. A measure of methodological quality was also applied. Results: Salivary cortisol was the most common physiological measure employed. A pattern of blunted physiological activity emerged within the reviewed studies, though some studies reported normal or even higher physiological activity among this population. Conclusions: Findings suggested dysfunction of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal-axis and autonomic nervous system for some, but not all, parents of children with ASD. Further research is warranted

Patterns of triclosan resistance in Vibrionaceae

The antimicrobial additive triclosan has been used in personal care products widely across the globe for decades. Triclosan resistance has been noted among Vibrio spp., but reports have been anecdotal and the extent of phenotypic triclosan resistance across the Vibrionaceae family has not been established. Here, triclosan resistance was determined for Vibrionaceae strains across nine distinct clades. Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) were determined for 70 isolates from clinical (n = 6) and environmental sources (n = 64); only two were susceptible to triclosan. The mean MIC for all resistant Vibrionaceae was 53 µg mL−1 (range 3.1–550 µg mL−1), but was significantly different between clades (p < 0.001). The highest mean triclosan MIC was observed in the Splendidus clade (200 µg mL−1; n = 3). Triclosan mean MICs were 68.8 µg mL−1 in the Damselae clade and 45.3 µg mL−1 in the Harveyi clade. The lowest mean MIC was observed in the Cholerae clade with 14.4 µg mL−1, which was primarily represented by clinical strains. There were no significant differences in triclosan MIC among individual species or among environmental strains isolated from different locations. Overall, phenotypic triclosan resistance appears to be widespread across multiple clades of Vibrionaceae

The AzTEC mm-Wavelength Camera

AzTEC is a mm-wavelength bolometric camera utilizing 144 silicon nitride micromesh detectors. Herein we describe the AzTEC instrument architecture and its use as an astronomical instrument. We report on several performance metrics measured during a three month observing campaign at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, and conclude with our plans for AzTEC as a facility instrument on the Large Millimeter Telescope.Comment: 13 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in Monthly Notice

LLiST - a new star tracker camera for tip-tilt correction at IOTA

The tip-tilt correction system at the Infrared Optical Telescope Array (IOTA) has been upgraded with a new star tracker camera. The camera features a backside-illuminated CCD chip offering doubled overall quantum efficiency and a four times higher system gain compared to the previous system. Tests carried out to characterize the new system showed a higher system gain with a lower read-out noise electron level. Shorter read-out cycle times now allow to compensate tip-tilt fluctuations so that their error imposed on visibility measurements becomes comparable to, and even smaller than, that of higher-order aberrations.Comment: To be published in "New Frontiers in Stellar Interferometry", W. A. Traub, ed., SPIE Proceedings Series, Vol. 5491, paper [5491-126]; 10 pages, 6 figures, 1 table; Latex spie class, uses packages graphicx and url; bib style spiebib; keywords: interferometry, tip-tilt correctio