Police Promotions and Assignments: Understanding Law Enforcement Officers’ Experiences with Particularism

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to have police officers describe how they experience, understand, and navigate within their agency as it relates to their decisions to assign and promote police personnel within the scope of particularism in New Jersey. The conceptual framework guiding this study was the debate between researchers, and industrial-organizational psychologists who have reached opposing viewpoints on whether particularism and similar practices are beneficial or detrimental in the organizational context. Three research questions guided this study: 1) How do police officers describe their experiences with their agency as it relates to their agencies\u27 decisions to promote police officers under the concept of particularism? 2) How do police officers describe their understanding of their agency as it relates to their agencies\u27 decisions to promote police officers under the concept of particularism? 3) How do police officers describe their navigation of their agency as it relates to their agencies\u27 decisions to promote police officers under the concept of particularism? Judgmental sampling was used to recruit 20 current and recently retired police officers in the State of New Jersey for this study. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and was coded through thematic analysis with assistance from NVivo. Primary (parent) themes of 1) Experience with Particularism 2) Understanding of Particularism 3) Navigation of Particularism were used to code data specific to recurring themes that addressed the research questions. The findings revealed that police officers experience particularism through a variety of unique circumstances and incidents, and that they understand it to be a pervasive and expected, but negative part of their organization. Different ways officers navigate the phenomenon were also discussed and explored. Implications of the study’s findings, limitations, and recommendations for future research are also discussed

Realization of an all-optical zero to π cross-phase modulation jump

We report on the experimental demonstration of an all-optical π cross-phase modulation jump. By performing a preselection, an optically induced unitary transformation, and then a postselection on the polarization degree of freedom, the phase of the output beam acquires either a zero or π phase shift (with no other possible values). The postselection results in optical loss in the output beam. An input state may be chosen near the resulting phase singularity, yielding a pi phase shift even for weak interaction strengths. The scheme is experimentally demonstrated using a coherently prepared dark state in a warm atomic cesium vapor

Basis of executive functions in fine-grained architecture of cortical and subcortical human brain networks

Theoretical models suggest that executive functions rely on both domain-general and domain-specific processes. Supporting this view, prior brain imaging studies have revealed that executive activations converge and diverge within broadly characterized brain networks. However, the lack of precise anatomical mappings has impeded our understanding of the interplay between domain-general and domain-specific processes. To address this challenge, we used the high-resolution multimodal magnetic resonance imaging approach of the Human Connectome Project to scan participants performing 3 canonical executive tasks: n-back, rule switching, and stop signal. The results reveal that, at the individual level, different executive activations converge within 9 domain-general territories distributed in frontal, parietal, and temporal cortices. Each task exhibits a unique topography characterized by finely detailed activation gradients within domain-general territory shifted toward adjacent resting-state networks; n-back activations shift toward the default mode, rule switching toward dorsal attention, and stop signal toward cingulo-opercular networks. Importantly, the strongest activations arise at multimodal neurobiological definitions of network borders. Matching results are seen in circumscribed regions of the caudate nucleus, thalamus, and cerebellum. The shifting peaks of local gradients at the intersection of task-specific networks provide a novel mechanistic insight into how partially-specialized networks interact with neighboring domain-general territories to generate distinct executive functions