Strengthening Section 14141: Using Pattern or Practice Investigations to End Violence Between Police and Communities

(Excerpt) Imagine you are on your way home from work and driving your usual route. You hear police sirens getting louder and louder. You realize you are the subject of their chase, but you cannot imagine why. You slow down and pull over, not wanting to cause confrontation. The officer beats on your car door. You roll down your window and ask why you have been pulled over. The officer informs you that your tail light is broken. Next, the officer orders you out of the car. Your heart races as the officer pats you down. You wonder if the officer knows you are in arrears for child support, a punishable offense in South Carolina. You hope for a chance to explain your situation. You ask the officer why you needed to leave the vehicle. Rather than offer a verbal explanation, the officer draws a weapon. Gripping his weapon, the officer tries to pin you down and handcuff you. You know you haven’t done anything worth going to jail over, so you resist! You feel like you have fought him off, but suddenly you feel a sharp burn of a taser shot. Unsure of what the officer will do next, you grab the device that injured you and throw it to the ground. Now is your chance to break away! You run, unarmed. Dashing for your life, you get about fifteen feet away. Suddenly, you feel indescribably painful blows to your spine. The officer fires repeated gun shots when you were seventeen feet ahead, unarmed and back turned away. You swiftly fall to the ground, only this time never to wake up again. The officer places the taser near your lifeless body, and walks away

Letter to Sophia Chase

L.H. Sigourney writes to Mrs. Chase to send her condolences regarding the fire and report back on Bishop Chase\u27s visit to Hartford, as well as inquiring about the Chase children.https://digital.kenyon.edu/chase_letters/2047/thumbnail.jp

Letter to Philander Chase

Mr. Sigourney invites Philander Chase to visit him and his friends in Hartford. He has also sent a letter to Albany incase Chase missed this one. He also predicts that Chase will be successful in Great Britain and urges him to expand his business there too. Mr. Sigourney would like Bishop Chase to stay at his home while in Hartford and give a service at the church.https://digital.kenyon.edu/chase_letters/1131/thumbnail.jp

Letter to Philander Chase

Poem inspired by Lady Rosse\u27s generosity to the creation of Chase\u27s church in Ohio. References the death of Philander Jr.https://digital.kenyon.edu/chase_letters/1497/thumbnail.jp

Sondra Perry: On the Limits and Possibilities of Access, Visibility, and Freedom

Sondra Perry: On the Limits and Possibilities of Access, Visibility, and Freedom connects the intellectual history of cyberfeminism and Afrofuturism with the future of post-Black studies by exploring themes such as the abstraction of blackness and the materiality of new media

Klipsun Magazine, 2015, Volume 45, Issue 05 - Spring

I flip through the yellow pages of a navy blue hardcover book titled Klipsun; with each page turn, a musty smell fills my nose. My eyes land on a black and white photo of a tall, dark-haired man in a blazer and I read his name — Dingeman Bajema — my great grandfather. Here, I knew I had found something timeless. From a yearbook that displayed the life of my great grandfather in 1924, to a features magazine that depicts the lives of people in 2015, Klipsun has maintained a storytelling tradition that captures life in the way it is at that moment in time. In an effort to improve your reading experience, Klipsun has received an extensive makeover. The previously 20 page biquarterly magazine will now be printed once each quarter and will feature 40 pages of the faces and stories of our time. Stand-alone photos are used in this edition to capture life as it was in the 1960’s and 1970’s. This edition of Klipsun is a time capsule, gathering the stories of today. By turning this page, you can delve into the life of a traveling vintage shop owner, experience past life regression therapy, witness the art of drag, celebrate merging cultures and be at different phases in the circle of life. The human experience is ever-changing. Through Timeless, we’re aiming to celebrate the past while aligning Klipsun with the modern world.https://cedar.wwu.edu/klipsun_magazine/1184/thumbnail.jp

Extending density surface models to include multiple and double-observer survey data

David L. Miller was funded by OPNAV N45 and the SURTASS LFA Settlement Agreement, being managed by the U.S. Navy’s Living Marine Resources program under Contract No. N39430-17-C-1982, collaboration between Douglas B. Sigourney and David L. Miller was also facilitated by the DenMod working group (https://synergy.st-andrews.ac.uk/denmod/) funded under the same agreement. The survey that the fin whale data originate from was funded through two inter-agency agreements with the National Marine Fisheries Service: inter-agency agreement number M14PG00005 with the US Department of the Interior, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Environmental Studies Program, Washington, DC and inter-agency agreement number NEC-16-011-01-FY18 with the US Navy. The survey that the fulmar data originate from was funded by the UK Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC) grant NE/M017990/1.Spatial models of density and abundance are widely used in both ecological research (e.g., to study habitat use) and wildlife management (e.g., for population monitoring and environmental impact assessment). Increasingly, modellers are tasked with integrating data from multiple sources, collected via different observation processes. Distance sampling is an efficient and widely used survey and analysis technique. Within this framework, observation processes are modelled via detection functions. We seek to take multiple data sources and fit them in a single spatial model. Density surface models (DSMs) are a two-stage approach: first accounting for detectability via distance sampling methods, then modelling distribution via a generalized additive model. However, current software and theory does not address the issue of multiple data sources. We extend the DSM approach to accommodate data from multiple surveys, collected via conventional distance sampling, double-observer distance sampling (used to account for incomplete detection at zero distance) and strip transects. Variance propagation ensures that uncertainty is correctly accounted for in final estimates of abundance. Methods described here are implemented in the dsm R package. We briefly analyse two datasets to illustrate these new developments. Our new methodology enables data from multiple distance sampling surveys of different types to be treated in a single spatial model, enabling more robust abundance estimation, potentially over wider geographical or temporal domains.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

The use of visual and automatized behavioral markers to assess methodologies: a study case on PIT-tagging in the Alpine newt

peer reviewedBiomarkers are now widely used as tools in various research fields to assess individual integrity. The recent advances in quantification methods of behavioral patterns, such as computerized video-tracking procedures, make them valuable biomarkers. However, the corollary of these novelties is that they remain relatively unknown and unused. In this study, we show that such tools can assess the validity of research methods, such as individual recognition. To demonstrate this we employed as a model a marking method (Passive Integrate Transponders: PIT-tagging) widely used in amphibians. Both detailed visual observations and video-tracking methods were complementary in highlighting components at different behavioral scales: locomotion, feeding, and breeding. We illustrate the scientific and ethical adequacy of the targeted marking method but also suggest that more studies should integrate behavioral analyses. Such biomarkers are a powerful tool to assess conservation concerns when other techniques cannot detect detrimental effects

Growth of Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar) in Freshwater

Growth plays a key role in regulating ecological and population dynamics. Life history characteristics such as age at maturity, fecundity and age and size at migration are tightly linked to growth rate. In addition, size can often determine survival and individual breeding success. To fully understand the process of growth it is important to understand the mechanisms that drive growth rates. In Atlantic salmon, growth is critical in determining life history pathways. Models to estimate growth could be useful in the broader context of predicting population dynamics. In this dissertation I investigate the growth process in juvenile Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar). I first used basic modeling approaches and data on individually tagged salmon to investigate the assumptions of different growth metrics. I demonstrate the size-dependency in certain growth metrics when assumptions are violated. Next, I assessed the efficacy of linear mixed effects models in modeling length-weight relationships from longitudinal data. I show that combining a random effects approach with third order polynomials can be an effective way to model length-weight relationships with mark-recapture data. I extend this hierarchical modeling approach to develop a Bayesian growth model. With limited assumptions, I derive a relatively simple discrete time model from von Bertalanffy growth that includes a nonparametric seasonal growth function. The linear dynamics of this model allow for efficient estimation of parameters in a Bayesian framework. Finally, I investigated the role of life history in driving compensatory growth patterns in immature Atlantic salmon. This analysis demonstrates the importance of considering life history as a mechanism in compensatory growth. Information provided in this dissertation will help provide ecologists with statistical tools to estimate growth rates, estimate length-weight relationships, and forecast growth from mark-recapture data. In addition, comparisons of seasonal growth within and among life history groups and within and among tributaries should make a valuable contribution to the important literature on growth in Atlantic salmon