I panicked and hit him with a brick

CAPITAL Q 26 Nov 1993 Iss 64, p.5 A NSW Supreme Court jury has acquitted a 22-year-old man of brutally murdering a 46-year-old gay man, despite hearing evidence that he admitted he had rolled a fag to friends. Christopher Paul McKinnon, who pleaded not guilty, was acquitted at the Darlinghurst courts on Tuesday of assaulting and ramming Maurice McCarty\u27s head against the wall of his Newtown home on 7 April 1991. A postmortem examination revealed he had died of severe head injuries

Harmonic Analysis and Tidal Prediction by the Method of Least Squares: A User\u27s Manual

A common objective in the treatment of measured tides is the mathematical separation by harmonic analysis of certain periodic components which can be used to simulate the astronomical tide. Traditionally, astronomical or predicted tides have been represented by the sum of several such components, each one due to a particular aspect of the tide-producing forces. Once determined, the same set of parameters governing each periodic component may be used to predict the tide during any desired time period at a given location. These parameters are known as the tidal constants for that location. Although a number of different methods have been developed for determining tidal constants, both before and since the advent of electronic computing techniques, one rarely finds that any of these are intended for practical application by nonspecialists. This is particularly true in the case of the scientist or technician who has a collection of tidal records and would like to utilize them to accurately predict tides by some convenient means. This manual has th«~refore been written with the general user in mind. It is assumE~d that the reader has some familiarity with general reference works on the subject of tides

Holistic processing of gaze cues during interocular suppression

Direct eye contact is preferentially processed over averted gaze and has been shown to gain privileged access to conscious awareness during interocular suppression. This advantage might be driven by local features associated with direct gaze, such as the amount of visible sclera. Alternatively, a holistic representation of gaze direction, which depends on the integration of head and eye information, might drive the effects. Resolving this question is interesting because it speaks to whether the processing of higher-level social information in the visual system, such as facial characteristics that rely on holistic processing, is dependent on conscious awareness. The Wollaston Illusion is a visual illusion that allows researchers to manipulate perceived gaze direction while keeping local eye features constant. Here we used this illusion to elucidate the driving factor facilitating the direct gaze advantage during interocular suppression. Using continuous flash suppression, we rendered Wollaston faces with direct and averted gaze (initially) invisible. These faces conveyed different gaze directions but contained identical eye regions. Our results showed clear evidence for a direct gaze advantage with Wollaston faces, indicating that holistic representations of gaze direction may drive the direct gaze advantage during interocular suppression

Cuyahoga Greenways: A Community-Driven, Data-Enriched Initiative to Implement a Regional Greenway Vision

Cleveland and surrounding Cuyahoga County is undergoing a gradual transformation. A highly urbanized region in America’s rust belt, it has experienced decades of declining population and sprawling development. Presently however, the region has shown signs of economic and social improvement as it recovers from years of stagnation and disinvestment. Accompanying this rebound is an increased awareness to the region’s fluctuating socioeconomic conditions and residual challenges to improving mobility. Moreover, there is a desire to ensure that change is sustainable and leads to equitable outcomes for all segments of the community. Greenways, most notably the county-wide Emerald Necklace, have long been a staple and signature asset of Cuyahoga County. However, the needs of the population are diversifying, particularly regarding mobility and how people access jobs, parks, cultural resources, public services, and commercial centers. Being such, non-motorized travel -- a rising trend for a broad spectrum of the populace -- has become a key component in the region’s renewal as it grapples with constricted transit, geographic inequality, and an existing Greenway network whose benefits do not fully reach all sectors of the population. Cuyahoga Greenways is a county-wide initiative to envision, plan, and implement over 800-miles of greenways and urban trails throughout the region. Unlike conventional approaches to building nonmotorized facilities, like bike lanes, that may only serve a segment of the population, Cuyahoga Greenways seeks to build an interconnected, non-motorized transportation network that is safe and welcoming for people of all ages and all abilities. This initiative, which featured input from 29 regional agencies and 43 participating communities, developed a vision, framework plan, and implementation tools for making the new greenway framework a reality. The planning process was community-driven and data-enriched, empowering local leaders and stakeholders with the knowledge necessary to make informed decisions and craft a plan that benefits the community both economically and socially. A cornerstone of the process was a robust public engagement program with over 20 community-wide events. Leveraging both traditional and digital tools, a rigorous spatial analysis of over 300 corridor opportunities was completed. The resulting analysis, coupled with the community’s involvement, allowed stakeholders to identify and prioritize actionable greenway proposals that provide the biggest return to the community while dispensing more equitable outcomes. With the greenway framework plan in place, community leadership has shown a willingness to more effectively collaborate across jurisdictions, leveraging resources to implement projects. The Cuyahoga Greenways initiative exemplifies a regionally coordinated and evidence-based process to improve equity, mobility, and expand the benefits of greenways to all neighborhoods in Northeast Ohio

Out, Damned Spot: Can the “Macbeth Effect” Be Replicated?

This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in Basic and Applied Social Psychology Volume 36, Issue 1, 2014, 91-98, © 2014 Taylor & Francis, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/01973533.2013.856792.Zhong and Liljenquist (2006) reported evidence of a “Macbeth Effect” in social psychology: a threat to people's moral purity leads them to seek, literally, to cleanse themselves. In an attempt to build upon these findings, we conducted a series of direct replications of Study 2 from Z&L's seminal report. We used Z&L's original materials and methods, investigated samples that were more representative of the general population, investigated samples from different countries and cultures, and substantially increased the power of our statistical tests. Despite multiple good-faith efforts, however, we were unable to detect a “Macbeth Effect” in any of our experiments. We discuss these findings in the context of recent concerns about replicability in the field of experimental social psychology

In situ measurements of HCN and CH3CN over the Pacific Ocean: Sources, sinks, and budgets

We report the first in situ measurements of hydrogen cyanide (HCN) and methyl cyanide (CH3CN, acetonitrile) from the Pacific troposphere (0-12 km) obtained during the NASA Transport and Chemical Evolution over the Pacific (TRACE-P) airborne mission (February-April 2001). Mean HCN and CH3CN mixing ratios of 243 ± 118 (median 218) ppt and 149 ± 56 (median 138) ppt, respectively, were measured. These in situ observations correspond to a mean tropospheric HCN column of 4.2 × 1015 molecules cm-2 and a CH3CN column of 2.5 × 1015 molecules cm-2. This is in good agreement with the 0-12 km HCN column of 4.4 (±0.6) × 1015 molecules cm-2 derived from infrared solar spectroscopic observations over Japan. Mixing ratios of HCN and CH3CN were greatly enhanced in pollution outflow from Asia and were well correlated with each other as well as with known tracers of biomass combustion (e.g., CH3Cl, CO). Volumetric enhancement (or emission) ratios (ERs) relative to CO in free tropospheric plumes, likely originating from fires, were 0.34% for HCN and 0.17% for CH3CN. ERs with respect to CH3Cl and CO in selected biomass burning (BB) plumes in the free troposphere and in boundary layer pollution episodes are used to estimate a global BB source of 0.8 ± 0.4 Tg (N) yr-1 for HCN and 0.4 ± 0.1 Tg (N) yr-1 for CH3CN. In comparison, emissions from industry and fossil fuel combustion are quite small (<0.05 Tg (N) yr-1). The vertical structure of HCN and CH3CN indicated reduced mixing ratios in the marine boundary layer (MBL). Using a simple box model, the observed gradients across the top of the MBL are used to derive an oceanic loss rate of 8.8 × 10-15 g (N) cm-2 s-1 for HCN and 3.4 × 10-15 g (N) cm-2 s-1 for CH3CN. An air-sea exchange model is used to conclude that this flux can be maintained if the oceans are undersaturated in HCN and CH3CN by 27% and 6%, respectively. These observations also correspond to an open ocean mean deposition velocity (vd) of 0.12 cm s-1 for HCN and 0.06 cm s-1 for CH3CN. It is inferred that oceanic loss is a dominant sink for these cyanides and that they deposit some 1.4 Tg (N) of nitrogen annually to the oceans. Assuming loss to the oceans and reaction with OH radicals as the major removal processes, a mean atmospheric residence time of 5.0 months for HCN and 6.6 months for CH3CN is calculated. A global budget analysis shows that the sources and sinks of HCN and CH3CN are roughly in balance but large uncertainties remain in part due to a lack of observational data from the atmosphere and the oceans. Pathways leading to the oceanic (and soil) degradation of these cyanides are poorly known but are expected to be biological in nature

Effects of leas and mecury on the blood proteome of children

Heavy metal exposure in children has been associated with a variety of physiological and neurological problems. The goal of this study was to utilize proteomics to enhance the understanding of biochemical interactions responsible for the health problems related to lead and mercury exposure at concentrations well below CDC guidelines. Blood plasma and serum samples from 34 children were depleted of their most abundant proteins using antibody-based affinity columns and analyzed using two different methods, LC-MS/MS and 2-D electrophoresis coupled with MALDI-TOF/MS and tandem mass spectrometry. Apolipoprotein E demonstrated an inverse significant association with lead concentrations (average being one microgram/deciliter) as deduced from LC-MS/MS and 2-D electrophoresis and confirmed by Western blot analysis. This coincides with prior findings that Apolipoprotein E genotype moderates neurobehavioral effects in individuals exposed to lead. Fifteen other proteins were identified by LC-MS/MS as proteins of interest exhibiting expressional differences in the presence of environmental lead and mercury. Brooks Gump is currently at Syracuse University