Black and Blue: Exploring Racial Bias and Law Enforcement in the Killings of Unarmed Black Male Civilians

In late 2014, a series of highly publicized police killings of unarmed Black male civilians in the United States prompted large-scale social turmoil. In the current review, we dissect the psychological antecedents of the se killings and explain how the nature of police work may attract officers with distinct characteristics that may make them especially well-primed for negative interactions with Black male civilians. We use media reports to contextualize the precipitating events of the social unrest as we ground our explanations in theory and empirical research from social psychology and industrial and organizational (I/O) psychology. To isolate some of the key mechanisms at play, we disentangle racial bias (e.g., stereotyping processes) from common characteristics of law enforcement agents (e.g., social dominance orientation), while also addressing the interaction between racial bias and policing. By separating the moving parts of the phenomenon, we provide a more fine-grained analysis of the factors that may have contributed to the killings. In doing so, we endeavor to more effectively identify and develop solutions to eradicate excessive use of force during interactions between "Black" (unarmed Black male civilians) and "Blue" (law enforcement)

Topic Maps and Entity Authority Records: an Effective Cyber Infrastructure for Digital Humanities

The implicit connections and cross-references between and within texts, which occur in all print collections, can be made explicit in a collection of electronic texts. Correctly encoded and exposed they create a framework to support resource discovery and navigation by following links between topics. This framework provides opportunities to visualise dense points of interconnection and, deployed across otherwise separate collections, can reveal unforeseen networks and associations. Thus approached, the creation and online delivery of digital texts moves from a digital library model with its goal as the provision of access, to a digital humanities model directed towards the innovative use of information technologies to derive new knowledge from our cultural inheritance. Using this approach the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre (NZETC) has developed a delivery system for its collection of over 2500 New Zealand and Pacifc Island texts using TEI XML, the ISO Topic Map technology and innovative entity authority management

Feedback for future learning: delivering enhancements and evidencing impacts on the student learning experience

Enhancing the student learning experience through the provision of improved student feedback is both challenging and complex. ‘Feedback for Future Learning’ was a Glasgow Caledonian University(GCU)-wide project intended to enhance feedback practices from both the student and staff perspectives; to ensure greater awareness of, and reflection upon, feedback by students; and to encourage greater use of feedback to inform future student learning. The design, implementation and evaluation of approaches to ‘Feedback for Future Learning’ are described with an emphasis on STEM disciplines. The conceptualisation, design and implementation of a range of student feedback tools and approaches aimed to develop understanding of learning processes, reinforce learning and improve performance. This was achieved through collaboration with the GCU Students’ Association and the establishment of the University Feedback Enhancement Group. A series of generic and bespoke seminars, workshops, individual programme interventions and competitions were used to enhance comprehension of the perception, experience and use of formative and summative assessment feedback by students.   Providing opportunities for reflection and evaluation together with qualitative and quantitative metrics have demonstrated 93% satisfaction with student feedback enhancement workshops, a trebling of engagement with memorable feedback survey initiatives and a 9% increase in National Student Survey assessment and feedback satisfaction. A 16% rise in student satisfaction with the promptness of feedback, a 14% improvement in satisfaction with the detailed comments received and an 8% increase in satisfaction with the helpfulness of comments received were achieved. The lessons learned inform the continuing and sustainable enhancement of the student learning experience for STEM students and the wider University community. Keywords: Feedback, future learning, dialogue, engagement, reflection, enhancemen

Association between urinary sodium, creatinine, albumin, and long term survival in chronic kidney disease

Dietary sodium intake is associated with hypertension and cardiovascular risk in the general population. In patients with chronic kidney disease, sodium intake has been associated with progressive renal disease, but not independently of proteinuria. We studied the relationship between urinary sodium excretion and urinary sodium:creatinine ratio and mortality or requirement for renal replacement therapy in chronic kidney disease. Adults attending a renal clinic who had at least one 24-hour urinary sodium measurement were identified. 24-hour urinary sodium measures were collected and urinary sodium:creatinine ratio calculated. Time to renal replacement therapy or death was recorded. 423 patients were identified with mean estimated glomerular filtration rate of 48ml/min/1.73m<sup>2</sup>. 90 patients required renal replacement therapy and 102 patients died. Mean slope decline in estimated glomerular filtration rate was -2.8ml/min/1.73m<sup>2</sup>/year. Median follow-up was 8.5 years. Patients who died or required renal replacement therapy had significantly higher urinary sodium excretion and urinary sodium:creatinine but the association with these parameters and poor outcome was not independent of renal function, age and albuminuria. When stratified by albuminuria, urinary sodium:creatinine was a significant cumulative additional risk for mortality, even in patients with low level albuminuria. There was no association between low urinary sodium and risk, as observed in some studies. This study demonstrates an association between urinary sodium excretion and mortality in chronic kidney disease, with a cumulative relationship between sodium excretion, albuminuria and reduced survival. These data support reducing dietary sodium intake in chronic kidney disease but further study is required to determine the target sodium intake

The interfacial structure of polymeric surfactant stabilised air-in-water foams

Small-angle neutron scattering was used to probe the interfacial structure of nitrogen-in-water foams created using a series of tri-block polymeric surfactants of the poly(ethylene oxide)–poly(propylene oxide)–poly(ethylene oxide) (EOx–POy–EOx) range, from which the nature of the polymeric interface could be characterised. The data follow a pronounced Q−4 decay, along with a number of inflexions and weak but well-defined peaks. These characteristics were well-described by a model embodying paracrystalline stacks of adsorbed polymer layers, whose formation is induced by the presence of the air–water interface, adsorbed at the flat air–water (film lamellae) interface. A minimum of approximately five paracrystalline polymer layers of thickness of the order of 85–160 Å, interspersed with somewhat thicker (400 Å) films of continuous aqueous phase were found to best fit the data. The thickness of the layer (L) was shown to follow a relationship predicted by anchor block dominated polymer adsorption theories from non-selective solvents, L EO1PO1/3. The insight gained from these studies should permit a more rational design of polymeric stabilisers for hydrophilic polyurethane foams

An Indicator of the Impact of Climate Change on North American Bird Populations

The value of biodiversity for human welfare is becoming clearer, and for this reason there is increasing interest in monitoring the state of biodiversity and the pressures upon it. A recent study produced a biodiversity indicator showing that the pressure of climate change on bird populations in Europe has increased over the last 20 years (Gregory et al., 2009). In North America, climate change effects on distributions and phenology have been documented for various taxa, especially the Aves. However, evidence of population declines resulting from climate change is comparatively limited. Here, I produce species distribution models based on climate for 380 bird species, all with information available on their population trends across the USA. Following Gregory et al., I make predictions using these models based on past and future climate in the same region. From these I produce two metrics indicating how I expect these species to be affected by climate change. By comparing population indices for those species expected to be positively vs. those expected to be negatively affected by climate change, I derive Climatic Impact Indicators (CIIs) for North American birds. These summarize how the population level impacts of climate change, both positive and negative, have varied over the past 40 years. Much like the indicator for European birds, these indicators show an overall increase in climatic impacts on populations during a period of climatic warming. Furthermore, when indicators are downscaled to the state level around 80% of states exhibit an upwards trend in climatic impacts. I highlight that further work is needed to optimize the method used to produce a CII, and to determine what influences the slope of a CII. Nevertheless, the results presented here are strikingly similar to those seen across Europe, indicating that climatic impacts on populations may have increased across the Northern Hemisphere