The Internationalisation of Far-Right Terror? History and Examples of International Far-Right Networks

On November 24, Dr. Daniel Koehler presented The Internationalisation of Far-Right Terror? History and Examples of International Far-Right Networks at the 2021 CASIS West Coast Security Conference. The overarching discussion of Dr. Koehler’s presentation centered on ways that right-wing terrorism is developing, as well as the transnational aspects of far-right extremism. The presentation was followed by a question and answer period directed at a panel of presenters allowing an opportunity for audience members and CASIS Vancouver executives to engage with the content of each speaker’s presentation

Chicago Studies 2013 (Volume 6) Preface

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When Healing Turns to Activism: Formers and Family Members’ Motivation to Engage in P/CVE.

The involvement of former extremists or family members of terrorists in measures aimed at preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE) has recently gained more attention in research and practice. However, little is yet known about the motivations of these individuals as to why they chose to engage in P/CVE activities. Understanding what drives such engagement could provide a better appreciation of the potential impact of such deployment, whether beneficial or detrimental to both the individuals involved and their respective P/CVE-target audience – and contribute to the evolving discourse regarding the effectiveness and potential risks of such P/CVE interventions. This article draws on eight biographical-narrative interviews with four former right-wing extremists and with four relatives of jihadist foreign fighters, all of whom are currently engaged in P/CVE work. Through qualitative reconstructive methods, a combination of narrative and thematic approaches was used to reconstruct the action-relevant orientations for the interviewees' activism. Results indicate that family members are motivated by coping mechanisms for traumatic stress, by social relatedness derived from a ‘positive marginality’, and in response to situational demands. Motivations of former extremists include finding their way back into society, having their new identity mirrored back to them, or maintaining a sense of self-continuity through ‘role residuals’. The results show that, in the case of family members, motivation is affected by exposure to traumatic stress. They also suggest that a locus of control among former extremists can signify different stages of deradicalisation in some forms of exit pathways and thus help to identify different risks depending on a former’s P/CVE role. Acknowledgement: This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 725349. This publication reflects only the views of the author(s); the European Commission and Research Executive Agency are not responsible for any information it contains. Since the second author of this article (Daniel Koehler) is also the Editor in Chief of the Journal for Deradicalization, a guest editor (Prof. Hilary Pilkington, Manchester University) facilitated the peer review process to prevent any conflict of interests and protect the integrity of the peer review process

The Effect of the Antibacterial Handsoap Matrix on the Kinetics of Triclosan Dissolution from Sand

Triclosan (5-Chloro-2-(2,4-dichlorophenoxy)phenol) is present in many common household products. Most notably, triclosan, is an active ingredient in disinfecting hand soaps, cosmetics, and dental products because of its anti-microbial properties. In addition to triclosan’s anti-bacterial benefits, it is also a suspected endocrine disrupting compound. For this reason, it is the subject of numerous studies related to environmental fate. Due to its prolific use and subsequent detection in wastewater treatment plant effluent, riverine systems, sediments, and estuaries, the mobility and recalcitrance of triclosan within the environment is of great concern and therefore a subject of this research. This study examines the dissolution kinetics of triclosan from amended F-65 Ottawa sand. F-65 Ottawa sand is used for this work as a model river sand. Two sources of triclosan were analyzed, one a high-purity triclosan compound, Irgasan, and the other a triclosan-containing antimicrobial hand soap (Bac-Down). Triclosan kinetic dissolution rates for both systems were quantified using a continuously stirred tank reactor coupled with fiber optic UV absorbance spectroscopy. Finally, concentration dependence of dissolution rates was also determined for the Bac-Down amended sand. The comparison of Irgasan and Bac-Down amended F-65 dissolution experiments found that surfactant additives in Bac-Down increase triclosan’s aqueous solubility and increase dissolution kinetics. Comparison of the varying concentrations of Bac-Down-amended sand indicated a strong correlation of increased aqueous solubility and dissolution kinetic rates with increased mass loading of Bac-Down. This research adds to the current body of research on the adsorption-desorption potential of triclosan in riverine systems and provides data that can be utilized to predict and model triclosan fate and transport

A generalized approach to model the spectra and radiation dose rate of solar particle events on the surface of Mars

For future human missions to Mars, it is important to study the surface radiation environment during extreme and elevated conditions. In the long term, it is mainly Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCRs) modulated by solar activity that contributes to the radiation on the surface of Mars, but intense solar energetic particle (SEP) events may induce acute health effects. Such events may enhance the radiation level significantly and should be detected as immediately as possible to prevent severe damage to humans and equipment. However, the energetic particle environment on the Martian surface is significantly different from that in deep space due to the influence of the Martian atmosphere. Depending on the intensity and shape of the original solar particle spectra as well as particle types, the surface spectra may induce entirely different radiation effects. In order to give immediate and accurate alerts while avoiding unnecessary ones, it is important to model and well understand the atmospheric effect on the incoming SEPs including both protons and helium ions. In this paper, we have developed a generalized approach to quickly model the surface response of any given incoming proton/helium ion spectra and have applied it to a set of historical large solar events thus providing insights into the possible variety of surface radiation environments that may be induced during SEP events. Based on the statistical study of more than 30 significant solar events, we have obtained an empirical model for estimating the surface dose rate directly from the intensities of a power-law SEP spectra

Utilizing zebrafish and okadaic acid to study Alzheimer’s disease

Despite the many years of extensive research using rodent models to study Alzheimer’s disease (AD), no cure or disease halting drug exists. An increasing number of people are suffering from the disease and a therapeutic intervention is needed. Therefore, it is necessary to have complementary models to aid in the drug discovery. The zebrafish animal model is emerging as a valuable model for the investigation of AD and neurodegenerative drug discovery. The main genes involved in human AD have homologous counterparts in zebrafish and have conserved function. The basic brain structure of the zebrafish is also conserved when compared to the mammalian brain. Recently an AD model was established by administering okadaic acid to zebrafish. It was used to test the efficacy of a novel drug, lanthionine ketimine-5-ethyl ester, and to elucidate its mechanism of action. This demonstrated the ability of the okadaic acid-induced AD zebrafish model to be implemented in the drug discovery process for therapeutics against AD

Self-supervised motion descriptor for cardiac phase detection in 4D CMR based on discrete vector field estimations

Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) sequences visualise the cardiac function voxel-wise over time. Simultaneously, deep learning-based deformable image registration is able to estimate discrete vector fields which warp one time step of a CMR sequence to the following in a self-supervised manner. However, despite the rich source of information included in these 3D+t vector fields, a standardised interpretation is challenging and the clinical applications remain limited so far. In this work, we show how to efficiently use a deformable vector field to describe the underlying dynamic process of a cardiac cycle in form of a derived 1D motion descriptor. Additionally, based on the expected cardiovascular physiological properties of a contracting or relaxing ventricle, we define a set of rules that enables the identification of five cardiovascular phases including the end-systole (ES) and end-diastole (ED) without the usage of labels. We evaluate the plausibility of the motion descriptor on two challenging multi-disease, -center, -scanner short-axis CMR datasets. First, by reporting quantitative measures such as the periodic frame difference for the extracted phases. Second, by comparing qualitatively the general pattern when we temporally resample and align the motion descriptors of all instances across both datasets. The average periodic frame difference for the ED, ES key phases of our approach is $0.80\pm{0.85}$, $0.69\pm{0.79}$ which is slightly better than the inter-observer variability ($1.07\pm{0.86}$, $0.91\pm{1.6}$) and the supervised baseline method ($1.18\pm{1.91}$, $1.21\pm{1.78}$). Code and labels will be made available on our GitHub repository. https://github.com/Cardio-AI/cmr-phase-detectionComment: accepted for the STACOM2022 workshop @ MICCAI202

Design features for computer-supported complex systems learning and teaching in high school science classrooms

While research on teaching and learning about complex systems has achieved solid grounding in the learning sciences, few educational studies have focused on articulating design features for classroom implementation that can serve a modular purpose for building curricular and instructional experiences. Furthermore, despite the fact that several studies describe important roles for teachers in constructing successful classroom learning experiences, only a few of them examine how teachers’ instructional practices, knowledge, and beliefs influence student learning outcomes and the extent to which teachers are interested and willing to teach through complex systems approaches. Furthermore, we do not know what supports teachers themselves say that they need to teach about complex systems in their classrooms. In this study, we present a curriculum and instruction framework that outlines how teaching and learning about complex systems in high school science classroom contexts can be done. We articulate the features of the framework and provide examples of how the framework is translated into practice. We follow with evidence from an exploratory study conducted with 10 teachers and over 300 students aimed at understanding change in teachers’ instructional practices; the extent to which students learned from the activities; what teachers’ perceptions were in terms of utility and usability; and what other supports teachers needed