Building Trust and Breaking Down the Wall: The Use of Restorative Justice to Repair Police-Community Relationships

The town of Ferguson, Missouri, captured national attention when a grand jury failed to indict Darren Wilson, a white police officer who shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, three months prior. Similar citizen deaths involving police in both New York City and Cleveland have magnified the tensions felt across the country, and in many cities and communities, the community-police relationships are rapidly becoming untenable. Baltimore, Maryland, is a prime example; protests, riots, and an atmosphere of mistrust pervaded the city for months after the deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Tamir Rice. The situation was, simply put, a powder keg waiting to explode

Does Health Anxiety Moderate the Effects of Mortality Salience On Worldview Defense?

Research generated from Terror Management Theory has demonstrated that reminding participants of their eventual death increases self-esteem striving and worldview defense (Pyszczynski, Greenberg, Solomon, Arndt, & Schimel, 2004). The hypothesis in the present study was that health anxiety would moderate this effect, based on the premise that health-anxious individuals are chronically more aware of their own mortality. To test this hypothesis, the Illness _and Attitudes Scale (IAS) was administered to 65 undergraduates to determine level of health anxiety. Participants were then randomly assigned to a mortality salience or control condition. Level of worldview defense was measured by participants\u27 reactions to pro- vs. anti-American essays. The results were analyzed using a regression model, with IAS scores standardized and treated as a continuous measure. As predicted, there was a significant IAS x Condition interaction, !(64) = 2.09, p \u3c .05. However, the relation was in the opposite direction than hypothesized, with individuals higher in health anxiety engaging in more worldview defense after being reminded of their eventual death than did individuals lower in health anxiety. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed

Energetics of insect metamorphosis

During metamorphosis, Drosophila melanogaster pupae undergo a transformation which rearranges almost all larval tissues into an adult fly. During this time, it is surprising that pupae exhibit a U-shaped curve for metabolic rate, where metabolism decreases dramatically after pupariation and increases shortly before eclosion. Using temperature to offset the cost of development during metamorphosis, I demonstrate that the total energy cost for metamorphosis depends on temperature and associated differences in developmental time. Pupae tended to consume more triglycerides over the course of development at low and high temperatures. Changes in oxygen level did not affect the U-shaped curve of carbon dioxide production during metamorphosis. Also, pupae did not accumulate lactate under normoxic conditions, although they are capable of anaerobic metabolism. Thus, oxygen limitation is not the cause of the U-shaped metabolic pattern. I observed that citrate synthase activity changes in a similar U-shaped pattern as metabolic rate. This indicates that the U-shaped metabolic curve is the result of changes in metabolically active tissue during metamorphosis

Mortality Salience and Worldview Defense

Research generated from Terror Management Theory has demonstrated that reminding participants of their eventual death increases self-esteem striving and worldview defense (Pyszczynski, Greenberg, Solomon, Arndt, & Schimel, 2004). The hypothesis in the present study is that individuals higher in emotion dysregulation will engage in higher levels of worldview defense than those lower in emotion dysregulation. This hypothesis was based on the assumption that individuals high in emotion dysregulation will have a greater need to regulate their emotions by engaging in worldview defense after being asked to think about their own death than will non-emotionally dysregulated individuals. To test this hypothesis, 110 undergraduate participants were randomly assigned to a mortality salience or control condition. All participants completed the Differences in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS). Level of worldview defense was measured by participants’ reactions to pro- vs. anti-American essays. The results were analyzed using a regression model, with DERS scores standardized and treated as a continuous measure. The overall regression model was not significant. The regression model was non-significant when condition was entered alone in the first step of the regression equation and remained non-significant when DERS scores were entered into the second step. Exploratory analyses examined the moderating role of neuroticism and extraversion; neither significantly moderated the relation between mortality salience and worldview defense. Possible reasons for a failure to achieve a main effect for condition, such as possible experimenter or sample characteristics, are explored. Possible reasons why emotion dysregulation did not moderate the association between mortality salience and worldview defense included failure to achieve a main effect of condition, the possibility that people high in emotion dysregulation “checked-out” of the study when they began feeling emotional distress, or that emotion dysregulation is simply unrelated to worldview defense following mortality reminders. Future research could explore whether extraversion moderates the relation between mortality salience and worldview defense if and when a main effect of condition is present

[Earth Science Technology Office's Computational Technologies Project]

This grant supported the effort to characterize the problem domain of the Earth Science Technology Office's Computational Technologies Project, to engage the Beowulf Cluster Computing Community as well as the High Performance Computing Research Community so that we can predict the applicability of said technologies to the scientific community represented by the CT project and formulate long term strategies to provide the computational resources necessary to attain the anticipated scientific objectives of the CT project. Specifically, the goal of the evaluation effort is to use the information gathered over the course of the Round-3 investigations to quantify the trends in scientific expectations, the algorithmic requirements and capabilities of high-performance computers to satisfy this anticipated need

Sandra Merkey and Carole Ann Cook in a Joint Senior Composition Recital

This is the program of the joint senior composition recital of Sandra Merkey and Carole Ann Cook. Several assisted in the performance, including the OBU Handbell Choir directed by Russell Hodges, pianist Shaun Walvoord, mezzo-soprano Beth Spencer and accompanist Faron Wilson, trumpet player Jim Lloyd and pianist Russell Hodges, alto Carol Thompson and accompanist Philip Ingalls, the OBU Band directed by Craig Hamilton. This recital took place on April 19, 1988, in the Mabee Fine Arts Center Recital Hall

Science-based restoration monitoring of coastal habitats, Volume Two: Tools for monitoring coastal habitats

Healthy coastal habitats are not only important ecologically; they also support healthy coastal communities and improve the quality of people’s lives. Despite their many benefits and values, coastal habitats have been systematically modified, degraded, and destroyed throughout the United States and its protectorates beginning with European colonization in the 1600’s (Dahl 1990). As a result, many coastal habitats around the United States are in desperate need of restoration. The monitoring of restoration projects, the focus of this document, is necessary to ensure that restoration efforts are successful, to further the science, and to increase the efficiency of future restoration efforts

Science-based restoration monitoring of coastal habitats, Volume One: A framework for monitoring plans under the Estuaries and Clean Waters Act of 2000 (Public Law 160-457)

Executive Summary: The Estuary Restoration Act of 2000 (ERA), Title I of the Estuaries and Clean Waters Act of 2000, was created to promote the restoration of habitats along the coast of the United States (including the US protectorates and the Great Lakes). The NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science was charged with the development of a guidance manual for monitoring plans under this Act. This guidance manual, titled Science-Based Restoration Monitoring of Coastal Habitats, is written in two volumes. It provides technical assistance, outlines necessary steps, and provides useful tools for the development and implementation of sound scientific monitoring of coastal restoration efforts. In addition, this manual offers a means to detect early warnings that the restoration is on track or not, to gauge how well a restoration site is functioning, to coordinate projects and efforts for consistent and successful restoration, and to evaluate the ecological health of specific coastal habitats both before and after project completion (Galatowitsch et al. 1998). The following habitats have been selected for discussion in this manual: water column, rock bottom, coral reefs, oyster reefs, soft bottom, kelp and other macroalgae, rocky shoreline, soft shoreline, submerged aquatic vegetation, marshes, mangrove swamps, deepwater swamps, and riverine forests. The classification of habitats used in this document is generally based on that of Cowardin et al. (1979) in their Classification of Wetlands and Deepwater Habitats of the United States, as called for in the ERA Estuary Habitat Restoration Strategy. This manual is not intended to be a restoration monitoring “cookbook” that provides templates of monitoring plans for specific habitats. The interdependence of a large number of site-specific factors causes habitat types to vary in physical and biological structure within and between regions and geographic locations (Kusler and Kentula 1990). Monitoring approaches used should be tailored to these differences. However, even with the diversity of habitats that may need to be restored and the extreme geographic range across which these habitats occur, there are consistent principles and approaches that form a common basis for effective monitoring. Volume One, titled A Framework for Monitoring Plans under the Estuaries and Clean Waters Act of 2000, begins with definitions and background information. Topics such as restoration, restoration monitoring, estuaries, and the role of socioeconomics in restoration are discussed. In addition, the habitats selected for discussion in this manual are briefly described. (PDF contains 116 pages