Investigating fatal police shootings using the human factors analysis and classification framework (HFACS)

Fatal police shootings are highly contentious and troublesome for normative standards of police legitimacy. Fatal police shooting investigations are often criticised because they lack impartiality, transparency and rigour. To assist policing practitioners and policymakers in the UK and beyond with managing these issues, we present a new analytical framework for investigating fatal policing shootings. We re-contextualise Shappell and Wiegmann’s (2000) ‘Human Factors Analysis and Classification System’ (HFACS) to test whether HFACS can be used during fatal police shootings investigations to identify contributory human factors. This study used HFACS to qualitatively analyse three high-profile fatal police shooting case-studies in the UK: (i) Jean Charles de Menezes in 2005; (ii) Azelle Rodney in 2005; and (iii) Mark Duggan in 2011. The results show that HFACS is a useful analytical framework. HFACS can be used to identify human factors and failures not discoverable by current methods for investigating fatal police shootings. We also offer the first empirical insights and contribute a more nuanced understanding of using HFACS to investigate fatal police shootings. We conclude by suggesting there are high-level and operational benefits in using HFACS and recommend avenues for further research to test HFACS in other policing contexts beyond the UK

Post-traumatic stress disorder: findings from the Australian National Survey of Mental Health and Well-being

Background. We report on the epidemiology of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the Australian community, including information on lifetime exposure to trauma, 12-month prevalence of PTSD, sociodemographic correlates and co-morbidity. Methods. Data were obtained from a stratified sample of 10641 participants as part of the Australian National Survey of Mental Health and Well-being. A modified version of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview was used to determine the presence of PTSD, as well as other DSM-IV anxiety, affective and substance use disorders. Results. The estimated 12-month prevalence of PTSD was 1.33%, which is considerably lower than that found in comparable North American studies. Although females were at greater risk than males within the subsample of those who had experienced trauma, the large gender differences noted in some recent epidemiological research were not replicated. Prevalence was elevated among the never married and previously married respondents, and was lower among those aged over 55. For both men and women, rape and sexual molestation were the traumatic events most likely to be associated with PTSD. A high level of Axis 1 co-morbidity was found among those persons with PTSD Conclusions. PTSD is a highly prevalent disorder in the Australian community and is routinely associated with high rates of anxiety, depression and substance disorders. Future research is needed to investigate rates among other populations outside the North American continent.M. Creamer, P. Burgess and A. C. Mcfarlan

Coulomb interactions in single, charged self-assembled quantum dots: radiative lifetime and recombination energy

We present results on the charge dependence of the radiative recombination lifetime, Tau, and the emission energy of excitons confined to single self-assembled InGaAs quantum dots. There are significant dot-to-dot fluctuations in the lifetimes for a particular emission energy. To reach general conclusions, we present the statistical behavior by analyzing data recorded on a large number of individual quantum dots. Exciton charge is controlled with extremely high fidelity through an n-type field effect structure, providing access to the neutral exciton (X0), the biexciton (2X0) and the positively (X1+) and negatively (X1-) charged excitons. We find significant differences in the recombination lifetime of each exciton such that, on average, Tau(X1-) / Tau(X0) = 1.25, Tau(X1+) / Tau(X0) = 1.58 and Tau(2X0) / Tau(X0) = 0.65. We attribute the change in lifetime to significant changes in the single particle hole wave function on charging the dot, an effect more pronounced on charging X0 with a single hole than with a single electron. We verify this interpretation by recasting the experimental data on exciton energies in terms of Coulomb energies. We show directly that the electron-hole Coulomb energy is charge dependent, reducing in value by 5-10% in the presence of an additional electron, and that the electron-electron and hole-hole Coulomb energies are almost equal.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Towards a higher plane of air transportation security: from hubris to knowledge

Security—in air transportation is an issue of global importance. Since September 11, 2001 there have been numerous events where terrorists have successfully exploited vulnerabilities and weakness in the security system. The authors, both security practitioners and academics—contribute to the discussion of what security in air transportation means—by proposing that the existing system still remains vulnerable to future exploitation by terrorists and other threat groups. The essay proffers a framing device. The meaning of security is considered in terms of our knowledge of the system. It considers air transportation security from the position that our knowledge and understanding is limited by hubris; and explains how this can be improved so that system vulnerabilities are revealed and mitigated against before they are exploited. The essay concerns itself with the notion that air transportation security has a multitude of meanings, and that the system is in a critical state because it is perpetually reliant upon sophisticated technologies to retrospectively plug gaps in the defences. The essay concludes that complexity and hubris create a malign condition—which is not visible to lawmakers, regulators and system designers. And, to improve our understanding of what effective security means we need to look behind the hubristic curtain and grapple with the complexities and vagaries, which are the ingredients to the creation and incubation of system vulnerability and weakness

Metabolite profiling of non-sterile rhizosphere soil

Rhizosphere chemistry is the sum of root exudation chemicals, their breakdown products and the microbial products of soil-derived chemicals. To date, most studies about root exudation chemistry are based on sterile cultivation systems, which limits the discovery of microbial breakdown products that act as semiochemicals and shape microbial rhizosphere communities. Here, we present a method for untargeted metabolic profiling of non-sterile rhizosphere soil. We have developed an experimental growth system that enables the collection and analysis of rhizosphere chemicals from different plant species. High-throughput sequencing of 16SrRNA genes demonstrated that plants in the growth system support a microbial rhizosphere effect. To collect a range of (a)polar chemicals from the system, we developed extraction methods that do not cause detectable damage to root cells or soil-inhabiting microbes, thus preventing contamination with cellular metabolites. Untargeted metabolite profiling by UPLC-Q-TOF mass spectrometry, followed by uni- and multivariate statistical analyses, identified a wide range of secondary metabolites that are enriched in plant-containing soil, compared with control soil without roots. We show that the method is suitable for profiling the rhizosphere chemistry of Zea mays (maize) in agricultural soil, thereby demonstrating the applicability to different plant-soil combinations. Our study provides a robust method for the comprehensive metabolite profiling of non-sterile rhizosphere soil, which represents a technical advance towards the establishment of causal relationships between the chemistry and microbial composition of the rhizosphere

Design and fabrication of a long-life Stirling cycle cooler for space application. Phase 3: Prototype model

A second-generation, Stirling-cycle cryocooler (cryogenic refrigerator) for space applications, with a cooling capacity of 5 watts at 65 K, was recently completed. The refrigerator, called the Prototype Model, was designed with a goal of 5 year life with no degradation in cooling performance. The free displacer and free piston of the refrigerator are driven directly by moving-magnet linear motors with the moving elements supported by active magnetic bearings. The use of clearance seals and the absence of outgassing material in the working volume of the refrigerator enable long-life operation with no deterioration in performance. Fiber-optic sensors detect the radial position of the shafts and provide a control signal for the magnetic bearings. The frequency, phase, stroke, and offset of the compressor and expander are controlled by signals from precision linear position sensors (LVDTs). The vibration generated by the compressor and expander is cancelled by an active counter balance which also uses a moving-magnet linear motor and magnetic bearings. The driving signal for the counter balance is derived from the compressor and expander position sensors which have wide bandwidth for suppression of harmonic vibrations. The efficiency of the three active members, which operate in a resonant mode, is enhanced by a magnetic spring in the expander and by gas springs in the compressor and counterbalance. The cooling was achieved with a total motor input power of 139 watts. The magnetic-bearing stiffness was significantly increased from the first-generation cooler to accommodate shuttle launch vibrations

q-Analogue of Am−1⊕An−1⊂Amn−1A_{m-1}\oplus A_{n-1}\subset A_{mn-1}

A natural embedding $A_{m-1}\oplus A_{n-1}\subset A_{mn-1}$ for the corresponding quantum algebras is constructed through the appropriate comultiplication on the generators of each of the $A_{m-1}$ and $A_{n-1}$ algebras. The above embedding is proved in their $q$-boson realization by means of the isomorphism between the $\mathcal{A}_q^{-}$ (mn)$\sim {\otimes} ^n \mathcal{A}_q^{-}$(m)$\sim {\otimes}^m\mathcal{A}_q^{-}$(n) algebras.Comment: 11 pages, no figures. In memory of professor R. P. Rousse

A framework for detecting unnecessary industrial data in ETL processes

Extract transform and load (ETL) is a critical process used by industrial organisations to shift data from one database to another, such as from an operational system to a data warehouse. With the increasing amount of data stored by industrial organisations, some ETL processes can take in excess of 12 hours to complete; this can leave decision makers stranded while they wait for the data needed to support their decisions. After designing the ETL processes, inevitably data requirements can change, and much of the data that goes through the ETL process may not ever be used or needed. This paper therefore proposes a framework for dynamically detecting and predicting unnecessary data and preventing it from slowing down ETL processes - either by removing it entirely or deprioritizing it. Other advantages of the framework include being able to prioritise data cleansing tasks and determining what data should be processed first and placed into fast access memory. We show existing example algorithms that can be used for each component of the framework, and present some initial testing results as part of our research to determine whether the framework can help to reduce ETL time.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from IEEE via http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/INDIN.2014.694555