Implications for the selection and training of hostage negotiators, through an analysis of hostage negotiation data

This thesis relates the empirical research to a broad background of globalisation and national policy relevant to this topic. It centres on identifying the implications for the selection and training of hostage negotiators and it seeks to achieve this by analysing deployment data and by exploring the experiences and perceptions of senior police officers involved in this field.This thesis consists of seven chapters in all. The first chapter provides a brief introduction to the background of the research and places the subject into context. Furthermore, it signals the significance of this unique empirical study and its desired effect on current national policy. It raises the core questions with which this research will engage and finally describes the whole thesis.The literature review is divided into two chapters. Chapter Two examines the literature relevant to this study. It will argue that there are many features of globalisation and some of these may be closely linked to modern terrorism. Initially, it seeks to orientate the reader to the various genres of terrorism; then various strands of globalisation will be discussed.Chapter Three is also a literature review and tensions surrounding the various strands of globalisation are considered as potential catalysts for terrorism. This literature review will also consider the current policies that shape police educational provision and, in particular, the selection and training of police hostage negotiators.The fourth chapter examines research methodologies, using both the quantitative and qualitative paradigms, and seeks to justify the rationale for the choice of research methods employed within this study. Also it illuminates issues pertinent to this research; in particular the difficulties faced by the researcher investigating subjects within the police environment and hostage negotiation in particular. Moreover, the key issues of gaining access to the service, ethical issues surrounding this research, collecting data and referencing policy within a sensitive environment will be examined.Both the fifth and sixth chapters not only analyse but also present the research data - the fifth chapter presents the quantitative data and provides an analysis of this and the sixth chapter analyses qualitative data gathered nationally, exploring the experiences and views of senior police officers involved within this field.Chapter Seven provides a review of the research questions and the data analysed. It will then provide conclusions on the research questions. Thereafter,· it will present a series of recommendations for the, improvement of the selection and training of hostage and crisis negotiators. Furthermore, it will consider the limitations of the study and finally it will suggest avenues for further investigation within the field

Beyond Environmental Regulatory Fragmentation: Signs of Integration in the Case of the Great Lakes Basin

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72007/1/j.1468-0491.1995.tb00197.x.pd

Trace amine-associated receptor 1 (TAAR1) agonism for psychosis:a living systematic review and meta-analysis of human and non-human data

BACKGROUND: Trace amine-associated receptor 1 (TAAR1) agonism shows promise for treating psychosis, prompting us to synthesise data from human and non-human studies.METHODS: We co-produced a living systematic review of controlled studies examining TAAR1 agonists in individuals (with or without psychosis/schizophrenia) and relevant animal models. Two independent reviewers identified studies in multiple electronic databases (until 17.11.2023), extracted data, and assessed risk of bias. Primary outcomes were standardised mean differences (SMD) for overall symptoms in human studies and hyperlocomotion in animal models. We also examined adverse events and neurotransmitter signalling. We synthesised data with random-effects meta-analyses.RESULTS: Nine randomised trials provided data for two TAAR1 agonists (ulotaront and ralmitaront), and 15 animal studies for 10 TAAR1 agonists. Ulotaront and ralmitaront demonstrated few differences compared to placebo in improving overall symptoms in adults with acute schizophrenia (N=4 studies, n=1291 participants; SMD=0.15, 95%CI: -0.05, 0.34), and ralmitaront was less efficacious than risperidone (N=1, n=156, SMD=-0.53, 95%CI: -0.86, -0.20). Large placebo response was observed in ulotaront phase-III trials. Limited evidence suggested a relatively benign side-effect profile for TAAR1 agonists, although nausea and sedation were common after a single dose of ulotaront. In animal studies, TAAR1 agonists improved hyperlocomotion compared to control (N=13 studies, k=41 experiments, SMD=1.01, 95%CI: 0.74, 1.27), but seemed less efficacious compared to dopamine D 2 receptor antagonists (N=4, k=7, SMD=-0.62, 95%CI: -1.32, 0.08). Limited human and animal data indicated that TAAR1 agonists may regulate presynaptic dopaminergic signalling. CONCLUSIONS: TAAR1 agonists may be less efficacious than dopamine D 2 receptor antagonists already licensed for schizophrenia. The results are preliminary due to the limited number of drugs examined, lack of longer-term data, publication bias, and assay sensitivity concerns in trials associated with large placebo response. Considering their unique mechanism of action, relatively benign side-effect profile and ongoing drug development, further research is warranted. REGISTRATION: PROSPERO-ID: CRD42023451628.</p

A Tunguska Sized Airburst Destroyed Tall el‑Hammam a Middle Bronze Age City in the Jordan Valley Near the Dead Sea

We present evidence that in ~ 1650 BCE (~ 3600 years ago), a cosmic airburst destroyed Tall el-Hammam, a Middle-Bronze-Age city in the southern Jordan Valley northeast of the Dead Sea. The proposed airburst was larger than the 1908 explosion over Tunguska, Russia, where a ~ 50-m-wide bolide detonated with ~ 1000× more energy than the Hiroshima atomic bomb. A city-wide ~ 1.5-m-thick carbon-and-ash-rich destruction layer contains peak concentrations of shocked quartz (~ 5–10 GPa); melted pottery and mudbricks; diamond-like carbon; soot; Fe- and Si-rich spherules; CaCO(3) spherules from melted plaster; and melted platinum, iridium, nickel, gold, silver, zircon, chromite, and quartz. Heating experiments indicate temperatures exceeded 2000 °C. Amid city-side devastation, the airburst demolished 12+ m of the 4-to-5-story palace complex and the massive 4-m-thick mudbrick rampart, while causing extreme disarticulation and skeletal fragmentation in nearby humans. An airburst-related influx of salt (~ 4 wt.%) produced hypersalinity, inhibited agriculture, and caused a ~ 300–600-year-long abandonment of ~ 120 regional settlements within a > 25-km radius. Tall el-Hammam may be the second oldest city/town destroyed by a cosmic airburst/impact, after Abu Hureyra, Syria, and possibly the earliest site with an oral tradition that was written down (Genesis). Tunguska-scale airbursts can devastate entire cities/regions and thus, pose a severe modern-day hazard

Global change at the Paleocene-Eocene boundary: climatic and evolutionary consequences of tectonic events

Events of the Paleocene-Eocene boundary provide the clearest example to date of how a tectonic event may have global climatic consequences. Recent advances permit well-constrained stratigraphic determination of several events that occurred at that boundary, in chron C24R: a many-fold increase in sea-floor hydrothermal activity, a global warming, a reduction in the intensity of atmospheric circulation, a conversion to salinity-driven deep ocean circulation, a marked lightening of oceanic [delta]13C values, extinction and evolution of both benthic foraminifera and land mammals, and important place-boundary reorganizations including the outpouring of the east Greenland volcanics and the initiation of the oceanic rift between Norway and Greenland.We hypothesize that enhanced sea-floor hydrothermal activity occasioned by global tectonism resulted in a flooding of the atmosphere with CO2, causing a reduced pole-to-equator temperature gradient and increased evaporation at low latitudes. Increased formation of warm, salty, probably low-nutrient waters coupled with the warm temperatures at high latitudes occasioned a salinity-driven, rather than temperature-driven, deep-water circulation. This newly-evolved ocean circulation pattern changed the apportionment of global heat transport from the atmosphere to the ocean, with concomitant changes in the circulation intensity of both. Reduced intensity of atmospheric circulation resulted in lower oceanic biological productivity and enhanced seasonality of climate on the continents. A major extinction event among benthic foraminifera was probably a response to the new low-nutrient and chemically changed bottom waters, and endemism following rapid evolution and dispersal of mammalian orders may have been in response to the new continental climate regime.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/28490/1/0000285.pd