479 research outputs found
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The âGolden Threadâ: Coercive Control and Risk Assessment for Domestic Violence
Research on risk assessment for domestic violence has to date focused primarily on the predictive power of individual risk factors and the statistical validity of risk assessment tools in predicting future physical assault in sub-sets of cases dealt with by the police. This study uses data from risk assessment forms from a random sample of cases of domestic violence reported to the police. An innovative latent trait model is used to test whether a cluster of risk factors associated with coercive control is most representative of the type of abuse that comes to the attention of the police. Factors associated with a course of coercive and controlling conduct, including perpetratorsâ threats, controlling behavior and sexual coercion, and victimsâ isolation and fear, had highest item loadings and were thus the most representative of the overall construct. Sub-lethal physical violenceâchoking and use of weaponsâwas also consistent with a course of controlling conduct. Whether a physical injury was sustained during the current incident, however, was not associated consistently either with the typical pattern of abuse or with other context-specific risk factors such as separation from the perpetrator. Implications for police practice and the design of risk assessment tools are discussed. We conclude that coercive control is the âgolden threadâ running through risk identification and assessment for domestic violence and that risk assessment tools structured around coercive control can help police officers move beyond an âincident-by-incidentâ response and toward identifying the dangerous patterns of behavior that precede domestic homicide
Going meta: dialogic talk in the writing classroom
This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from EBSCO via the URL in this record.The rich body of research on dialogic, exploratory talk points to its significance in developing and
securing student learning (Alexander 2018; OâConnor and Michaels 2007; Reznitskaya et al 2009; Gillies
2016). More recently, this body of research has begun to consider dialogic talk specifically in the
context of literacy education (for example, Juzwik et al 2013; Boyd and Markarian 2015; Wilkinson et
al 2015; Edwards-Groves and Davidson 2017). However, there remains a dearth of research which
considers the role of dialogic talk in the teaching and learning of writing, and particularly its role in
supporting developing writersâ metalinguistic understanding of how linguistic choices shape meaning
in written texts. This article will report on qualitative data draw from a national study, involving a
randomized controlled trial and an accompanying process evaluation. The study involved an
intervention which was informed by a Hallidayan theoretical framing of metalinguistic understanding
which sees grammar as a meaning-making resource, and which promoted explicit teaching which made
purposeful connections between grammatical choices and their meaning-making effects in writing,
and which promoted the role of dialogic talk. Specifically, this article will consider how teachers
manage this metalinguistic dialogic talk about language choices in the writing classroom
Initiating solar system formation through stellar shock waves
Isotopic anomalies in presolar grains and other meteoritical components require nucleosynthesis in stellar interiors, condensation into dust grains in stellar envelopes, transport of the grains through the interstellar medium by stellar outflows, and finally injection of the grains into the presolar nebula. The proximity of the presolar cloud to these energetic stellar events suggests that a shock wave from a stellar outflow might have initiated the collapse of an otherwise stable presolar cloud. We have begun to study the interactions of stellar shock waves with thermally supported, dense molecular cloud cores, using a three spatial dimension (3D) radiative hydrodynamics code. Supernova shock waves have been shown by others to destroy quiescent clouds, so we are trying to determine if the much smaller shock speeds found in, e.g., asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star winds, are strong enough to initiate collapse in an otherwise stable, rotating, solar-mass cloud core, without leading to destruction of the cloud
Syntactic Complexity of R- and J-Trivial Regular Languages
The syntactic complexity of a regular language is the cardinality of its
syntactic semigroup. The syntactic complexity of a subclass of the class of
regular languages is the maximal syntactic complexity of languages in that
class, taken as a function of the state complexity n of these languages. We
study the syntactic complexity of R- and J-trivial regular languages, and prove
that n! and floor of [e(n-1)!] are tight upper bounds for these languages,
respectively. We also prove that 2^{n-1} is the tight upper bound on the state
complexity of reversal of J-trivial regular languages.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures, 1 tabl
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The police response to domestic violence: Risk, discretion, and the context of coercive control
This thesis examines the issue of police response to domestic violence. It advances theory on this topic by applying the concept of coercive control to better understand the risk profile of domestic violence that comes to the attention of the police, and police officersâ use of discretion when identifying, recording and responding to domestic violence incidents.
The research questions for the thesis are:(1) Can cases of coercive control be identified in national population surveys, and, if so, to what extent is coercive control gendered and more harmful than other forms of domestic violence?, (2) Is coercive control the most common form of domestic violence reported to the police?, (3) What degree of discretion do officers exercise when responding to cases of domestic violence?, and (4) What factors influence police officersâ responses at the scene of incidents of domestic violence?
The thesis is structured around four published journal papers. Paper 1 uses national population survey data to show that coercive control is experienced primarily by women, and is more harmful than other forms of domestic violence. Paper 2 uses data from risk assessments to show that coercive control is the most common form of domestic violence that comes to the attention of the police. Using data from force systems, Paper 3 suggests frontline officers retain considerable discretion in relation to identifying and recording cases of domestic violence. Paper 4 uses in-depth interviews with officers alongside case-files to suggest that while officers are now more aware of policies such as presumptive arrest they are prepared to ignore such policies when they believe an incident is not serious; officersâ conceptions of what is serious were primarily incidents that involved physical violence and injury.
I conclude that legislation to criminalise coercive control presents an opportunity to change officersâ conceptions of domestic violence and what constitutes threat and risk. I call for a reconceptualisation of the research agenda on domestic violence to focus initially on observational study in order to understand better the factors that influence police response
The finite tiling problem is undecidable in the hyperbolic plane
In this paper, we consider the finite tiling problem which was proved
undecidable in the Euclidean plane by Jarkko Kari in 1994. Here, we prove that
the same problem for the hyperbolic plane is also undecidable
Simultaneous Triggered Collapse of the Presolar Dense Cloud Core and Injection of Short-Lived Radioisotopes by a Supernova Shock Wave
Cosmochemical evidence for the existence of short-lived radioisotopes (SLRI)
such as Al and Fe at the time of the formation of primitive
meteorites requires that these isotopes were synthesized in a massive star and
then incorporated into chondrites within yr. A supernova shock wave
has long been hypothesized to have transported the SLRI to the presolar dense
cloud core, triggered cloud collapse, and injected the isotopes. Previous
numerical calculations have shown that this scenario is plausible when the
shock wave and dense cloud core are assumed to be isothermal at K,
but not when compressional heating to K is assumed. We show here
for the first time that when calculated with the FLASH2.5 adaptive mesh
refinement (AMR) hydrodynamics code, a 20 km/sec shock wave can indeed trigger
the collapse of a 1 cloud while simultaneously injecting shock wave
isotopes into the collapsing cloud, provided that cooling by molecular species
such as HO, CO, and H is included. These calculations imply that
the supernova trigger hypothesis is the most likely mechanism for delivering
the SLRI present during the formation of the solar system.Comment: 12 pages, 4 color figures. Astrophysical Journal Letters (in press
Thinking differently about grammar and metalinguistic understanding in writing
This is the final version. Available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.In the light of ongoing international debate about the
purpose of explicit teaching of grammar, this paper
considers the relationship between metalinguistic
understanding and development as a writer. Drawing
on a cumulative series of studies over a period of ten
years, adopting a functionally-oriented approach to
grammar, the paper argues that purposeful grammar
teaching occurs within the teaching of writing, not
divorced from it; and that this teaching develops
studentsâ metalinguistic understanding of how
written texts are crafted and shaped. In this way,
grammar is positioned as a resource for learning
about writing and one which can support students in
becoming increasingly autonomous and agentic
decision-makers in writing. We show through
practical examples how the pedagogy works in
practice, and through classroom interaction data we
highlight how metalinguistic talk (metatalk), which
enables and encourages the verbalisation of choice.
The data also shows, however, that teachersâ skill in
managing metatalk about metalinguistic choices in
writing is critical in framing studentsâ capacity to
think metalinguistically about their writing and to be
autonomous writerly decision-makers
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