Using the UK general offender database as a means to measure and analyse Organised Crime.

Purpose Organised Crime is notoriously difficult to define and measure, resulting in limited empirical evidence to inform policy makers and practitioners. This study explores the feasibility of identifying a greater number of organized crime offenders, currently captured (but invisible), within an existing national general crime database. Methodology All 2.1 million recorded offenders, captured over a four year period on the UK Police National Computer (PNC), were filtered across three criteria associated with organized crime (co-offending, commission of specific offences, three years imprisonment or more). The 4109 ‘organized crime’ offenders, identified by the process, were compared with ‘general’ and ‘serious’ offender control groups across a variety of personal and demographic variables. Findings Organized crime prosecutions are not random but concentrate in specific geographic areas and constitute 0.2% of the offender population. Offenders can be differentiated from general crime offenders on such measures as: criminal onset age, offence type and criminal recidivism. Research implications Using an offence based methodology, rather than relying on offenders identified through police proactive investigations, can provide empirical information from existing data sets, across a diverse range of legislative areas and cultures. This allows academics to enhance their analysis of organized crime, generating richer evidence on which policy makers and practitioners can more effectively deliver preventative and disruptive tactics. Originality This is the first time an ‘offence based’ methodology has been used in differentiating organised crime from other offenders in a general crime database

Bringing female scientists into the elementary classroom: Confronting the strength of elementary students\u27 stereotypical images of scientists

This study explored the effectiveness of bringing female scientists into the elementary classrooms on promoting changes in the stereotypical images of scientists. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected and analyzed to illuminate changes in stereotypical images of scientists. Results indicate that despite the efforts of the scientists to encourage the students to question their image of a scientist, the students held on to stereotypical images. Instead, the students questioned the true identity of the scientists, categorizing them as teachers. The results led to questions of the strength of the image and the extent of efforts needed for students to question that image

Listening to Cathedral Visitors to….Space, the Universe and Everything

Oral presentation at the St Mary’s Centre and Postgraduate Learning Community, Liverpool Cathedral, Liverpool, Merseyside, 26 – 27 Jun 202

Space, the universe and everything : listening to visitors to the Luxmuralis son et lumiere installation at Liverpool Cathedral in 2022

High profile (and sometimes controversial) events and installations have drawn attention to innovation and public engagement within Anglican cathedrals. One strong category of such events and installations has promoted clear engagement with scientific themes. Taking the Luxmuralis son et lumiere installation, Space, the Universe and Everything, as an example of such engagement, the present study examined the demographic and religious profile of 283 visitors to this installation at Liverpool Cathedral and explored their views on the connection between science and religion. The data demonstrated that 94% of the participants agreed that a cathedral is an ideal place for this type of installation. Reflecting on their experience of the installation in Liverpool Cathedral, 73% agreed that we need both science and religion in our lives

Signature of an Ultrafast Photo-Induced Lifshitz Transition in the Nodal-Line Semimetal ZrSiTe

Here we report an ultrafast optical spectroscopic study of the nodal-line semimetal ZrSiTe. Our measurements reveal that, converse to other compounds of the family, the sudden injection of electronic excitations results in a strongly coherent response of an $A_{1g}$ phonon mode which dynamically modifies the distance between Zr and Te atoms and Si layers. "Frozen phonon" DFT calculations, in which band structures are calculated as a function of nuclear position along the phonon mode coordinate, show that large displacements along this mode alter the material's electronic structure significantly, forcing bands to approach and even cross the Fermi energy. The incoherent part of the time domain response reveals that a delayed electronic response at low fluence discontinuously evolves into an instantaneous one for excitation densities larger than $3.43 \times 10^{17}$ cm$^{-3}$. This sudden change of the dissipative channels for electronic excitations is indicative of an ultrafast Lifshitz transition which we tentatively associate to a change in topology of the Fermi surface driven by a symmetry preserving $A_{1g}$ phonon mode

Measurement of Organophosphate Pesticides, Organochlorine Pesticides, and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Household Dust from Two Rural Villages in Nepal

Although there are few published studies of residential exposures to environmental contaminants in Nepal, there may be substantial exposures to multiple contaminants in Nepali households. Pesticides, which can be harmful to human health, are often used by Nepali farmers, and many farmers lack an understanding of the appropriate procedures for the safe use, handling and storage of pesticides. In addition, many Nepali families use wood burning stoves, leading to the potential for exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from wood smoke. This study measured the levels of four organophosphate pesticides, 22 organochlorine pesticides, and over thirty polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in house dust from two rural Nepali villages. Floor dust samples were collected in early summer from a total of 18 households, including nine households in the village of Keraghari, in Kavrepalanchok District, and nine homes in the village of Kafaldanda, in Lalitpur District. These villages have similar environmental features and are located at an altitude of approximately 2,000 meters. In these two villages, many of the homes have improved cookstoves to reduce smoke levels in the homes. The dust samples were collected using pre-ashed glass fiber filter cloths saturated with isopropyl alcohol. In both villages, the organochlorine pesticide that was present in the highest concentrations was the DDT metabolite p,p’-dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (4,4’-DDE). Among the organophosphates, methyl parathion accounted for much of the organophosphate mass detected. Across both villages, the median total organochlorine pesticide value (287 ng/m2) was 5-fold higher than the median total organophosphate pesticide value (54.3 ng/m2). The median total polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon concentration in house dust from both villages was 14,700 ng/m2. Interventions are needed to improve safe handling and use of pesticides in Nepali villages. Additional studies are also needed to assess the extent to which improved cookstoves reduce polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon exposure, during both winter and summer

Implementing an Online Research Group about Classism in Counselor Education

In 2021, an online research group was created with counseling students from three different universities. This online research group consisted of masters counseling students and a lead research mentor and counselor educator. This research group was the first of its kind in its Program. This research team focused on intersectionality and classism. Topics of integrating the online world into counseling research, specifically, through this observed research group will be introduced in this documentation. This research team served as a catalyst to increase student morale during required remote learning. Implications driven from this student-centered, online research group will also be described. Discussion regarding ways to increasingly incorporate technology into counselor education pedagogy and research will also be included