Critical Thinking in Law Enforcement Training Academies: A Phenomenological Study of Officer Experiences

Recently, law enforcement officer use of force incidents resulting in death has seemingly become more prevalent. Generally, the educational requirement for a law enforcement officer is a high school diploma or general education development degree. One must question if this requirement is sufficient for a law enforcement officer to be successful in a modern world as the law enforcement training academy may be the law enforcement officer’s only postsecondary education. Critical thinking is a needed skill identified by high-stress professions such as the military, nursing, and disaster management, yet there is limited study regarding critical thinking in law enforcement. The purpose of this research study was to assess the efficacy of law enforcement training academies to prepare cadets to pass a state licensing examination successfully and prepare cadets to think critically upon entering their careers as law enforcement officers. This qualitative research study employed a transcendental phenomenological approach interviewing law enforcement officers with at least five years’ experience assigned to the patrol division of their agency. Participants were recruited from law enforcement agencies in the western region of Texas. Once consent was obtained, participants were scheduled for interviews. Interviews were completed using predeveloped interview questions designed to address the two research questions for this study. Interviews were transcribed, and the resulting data were analyzed utilizing the modified van Kaam method of phenomenological data analysis. This research study learned law enforcement training academies attended by participants focused on cadets’ passage of the state licensing examination and imparted limited critical thinking skills to cadets. These academies delivered information through a lecture-based teaching methodology with little hands-on application, which may explain the deficit in critical thinking skills

What Can Mental Health Teach Us About Social Media Screen Time Misestimation?

Mobile platform providers have provided the ability to measure the time consumers spend on each app. This provides the opportunity to measure a consumer’s misestimation of their screen time which is a concept relevant to several mental health attributes such as depression, anxiety, and addiction. We provide additional evidence about the effect of objective screen time on mental health, but add a unique perspective on how screen time misestimation is determined by various mental health attributes. We collected data from a student sample (n=1005) who are from the demographic who most commonly use social media apps (18-29 yr olds). We measured our model across several of the most common platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube to maximize the practical implications. The results indicate that mental health attributes can indeed be reflected by misestimations of screen time. However, this effect varies by social media platform

STUDENT RETENTION IN INFORMATION SYSTEMS MAJORS: THE ROLE OF CREATIVE SELF-EFFICACY

At times the Information Systems (IS) major has suffered from declining enrollment. Also, STEM fields such as IS are known to suffer from a lack of gender diversity. This research focuses on why students drop out from IS programs and how to provide actionable feedback to improve student retention, particularly among female students. We use creative self-efficacy (CreaSE) as a theoretical lens to explain student retainment. In particular, as students have more confidence in their ability to solve business problems with IS solutions, they are more likely remain in IS courses. Students who sought help from their instructor and StackOverflow.com developed greater CreaSE. However, women were less likely to seek help in general, which creates unique opportunities for future research

Development and Validation of the Information Systems Creative-Self-Efficacy Scale

High-performing information systems (IS) professionals harness creativity as they build systems to solve new and unstructured business problems. Psychology has developed useful scales and techniques for measuring creativity. However, being creative is not sufficient. IS professionals must also have confidence in their creative ability to succeed. The belief in one’s ability to be creative is termed creative self-efficacy (CreaSE). CreaSE is defined in the general business context, but scales are not thoroughly developed or refined. CreaSE has also never been studied in the IS context. We detail steps to develop and validate a theoretically-based measure of CreaSE as related to IS. Our process includes six datasets collected during refinement. Participants include business and IS students, online respondents, university professors, IS executives, and IS professionals. The validated instrument is a second-order formative measure with reflective first-order sub-constructs based on belief in cognitive ability, affect, domain knowledge, skills, and understanding of people

Association Between High Perceived Stress Over Time and Incident Hypertension in Black Adults: Findings From the Jackson Heart Study.

Background Chronic psychological stress has been associated with hypertension, but few studies have examined this relationship in blacks. We examined the association between perceived stress levels assessed annually for up to 13 years and incident hypertension in the Jackson Heart Study, a community-based cohort of blacks. Methods and Results Analyses included 1829 participants without hypertension at baseline (Exam 1, 2000-2004). Incident hypertension was defined as blood pressure≥140/90 mm Hg or antihypertensive medication use at Exam 2 (2005-2008) or Exam 3 (2009-2012). Each follow-up interval at risk of hypertension was categorized as low, moderate, or high perceived stress based on the number of annual assessments between exams in which participants reported "a lot" or "extreme" stress over the previous year (low, 0 high stress ratings; moderate, 1 high stress rating; high, ≥2 high stress ratings). During follow-up (median, 7.0 years), hypertension incidence was 48.5%. Hypertension developed in 30.6% of intervals with low perceived stress, 34.6% of intervals with moderate perceived stress, and 38.2% of intervals with high perceived stress. Age-, sex-, and time-adjusted risk ratios (95% CI) associated with moderate and high perceived stress versus low perceived stress were 1.19 (1.04-1.37) and 1.37 (1.20-1.57), respectively (P trend<0.001). The association was present after adjustment for demographic, clinical, and behavioral factors and baseline stress (P trend=0.001). Conclusions In a community-based cohort of blacks, higher perceived stress over time was associated with an increased risk of developing hypertension. Evaluating stress levels over time and intervening when high perceived stress is persistent may reduce hypertension risk

Successes, challenges and lessons learned: Community-engaged research with South Carolina's Gullah population

Engaging communities is highly recommended in the conduct of health research among vulnerable populations. The strength of community-engaged research is well documented and is recognised as a useful approach for eliminating health disparities and improving health equity. In this article, five interdisciplinary teams from the Medical University of South Carolina present their involvement with community-engaged research with a unique population of Gullah African Americans residing in rural South Carolina. Their work has been integrated with the nine established principles of community-engaged research: establishing clear goals, becoming knowledgeable about the community, establishing relationships, developing community self-determination, partnering with the community, maintaining respect, mobilising community assets, releasing control, and maintaining community collaboration. In partnership with a Citizen Advisory Committee, developed at the inception of the first community-engaged research project, the academic researchers have been able to build on relationships and trust with this population to sustain partnerships and to meet major research objectives over a 20-year period. Challenges observed include structural inequality, organisational and cultural issues, and lack of resources for building sustainable research infrastructure. Lessons learned during this process include the necessity for clearly articulated and shared goals, knowledge about the community culture, and embedding the cultural context within research approaches. Keywords: Engaged health research, vulnerable populations, longterm collaboration, South Carolina 'Gullah' communitie

Calcium/calmodulin-dependent phosphorylation of vimentin in rat sertoli cells.

Ca2+-dependent protein phosphorylation and the role of calmodulin in this process was investigated in subcellular fractions of primary cultures of rat Sertoli cells. Significant Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein phosphorylation in Sertoli cells was restricted to the cytosol fraction. The calmodulin dependence of these effects was confirmed by using the calmodulin inhibitor trifluoperazine. One of the Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent phosphoproteins was identified as the intermediate filament protein vimentin, based on the following criteria: (i) migration pattern in two-dimensional polyacrylamide gels, (ii) Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent phosphorylation of a 58-kilodalton protein present in detergent-insoluble intermediate filament protein extract of Sertoli cells, and (iii) peptide mapping of the phosphoprotein. These data support a role for Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein phosphorylation in the modulation of Sertoli cell cytoskeletal components

Quantifying an aquifer nitrate budget and future nitrate discharge using field data from streambeds and well nests

Novel groundwater sampling (age, flux, and nitrate) carried out beneath a streambed and in wells was used to estimate (1) the current rate of change of nitrate storage, dSNO3 /dt, in a contaminated unconfined aquifer, and (2) future [NO3–]FWM (the flow-weighted mean nitrate concentration in groundwater discharge) and fNO3 (the nitrate flux from aquifer to stream). Estimates of dSNO3 /dt suggested that at the time of sampling (2013) the nitrate storage in the aquifer was decreasing at an annual rate (mean = –9 mmol/m2yr) equal to about one-tenth the rate of nitrate input by recharge. This is consistent with data showing a slow decrease in the [NO3–] of groundwater recharge in recent years. Regarding future [NO3–]FWM and fNO3 , predictions based on well data show an immediate decrease that becomes more rapid after ~5 years before leveling out in the early 2040s. Predictions based on streambed data generally show an increase in future [NO3–]FWM and fNO3 until the late 2020s, followed by a decrease before leveling out in the 2040s. Differences show the potential value of using information directly from the groundwater—surface water interface to quantify the future impact of groundwater nitrate on surface water quality. The choice of denitrification kinetics was similarly important; compared to zero-order kinetics, a first-order rate law levels out estimates of future [NO3–]FWM and fNO3 (lower peak, higher minimum) as legacy nitrate is flushed from the aquifer. Major fundamental questions about nonpoint-source aquifer contamination can be answered without a complex numerical model or long-term monitoring program

Genome-Wide Linkage Scan in Gullah-Speaking African American Families With Type 2 Diabetes: The Sea Islands Genetic African American Registry (Project SuGAR)

OBJECTIVE—The Gullah-speaking African American population from the Sea Islands of South Carolina is characterized by a low degree of European admixture and high rates of type 2 diabetes and diabetic complications. Affected relative pairs with type 2 diabetes were recruited through the Sea Islands Genetic African American Registry (Project SuGAR)