The Higher Education Champions programme for Looked after children: building capacity through collaboration for mutual benefit

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Concrete 3D Printed Marine Wind, Solar and Energy Storage Support Structures

3DCP (3D Concrete Printing) can help solve logistical and sup-ply chain challenges for fabricating anchors and platforms for floating offshore wind (FOW) and other marine renewable energy structures (solar and wave). Offshore structures allow the harnessing of stronger and more consistent resources in expansive offshore areas, providing energy security with predictable energy sources, and boost-ing local economies. Sperra (formally RCAM Technologies) is a US company devel-oping a portfolio of 3DCP marine renewable energy support structures (Fig. 1). Sper-ra's portfolio has potential to reduce CAPEX 30% to 80% compared to steel compo-nents, increases manufacturing throughput, and reduces manufacturing footprint in space-constrained ports. 3DCP offers greater design flexibility, utilizing local material, and faster construction times. 3DCP is well suited to fabricating large structures and can be performed quayside, semisubmersible barges, or in a dry dock where can be towed out and submerged in deeper water to launch large platforms. Fig. 1. Sperra’s product portfolio Sperra established R&D printing facilities on the US east and west coasts (Los Ange-les and New York City). The Los Angeles facility is the only known a portside R&D 3DCP lab facility (550 m2). It has 1200 m of linear dock space which is available for marine testing and transport of prototypes. Two key Sperra 3DCP case studies are presented for FOW. 1, a Cylindrical 3DCP suction anchor, 2, 3DCP energy storage spheres (Fig. 2). Case study one is a trial print, and compression testing assessment of the effects of 3DCP indoor and outdoor printing of 0.8 m internal diameter cylinders (representing 2 the structural basis of Sperra Suction anchors). The cylinders consisted of 2 x 50 mm side by side layers at 20 mm layer heights. A rebar ring was placed every 300 mm height interval. A 2 m cylinder was printed indoors as the initial trial, with a 3 m print-ed outdoors. The 3 m print was completed in one go in 2.5 hours of print time. No visible signs of shrinkage/drying cracking were noticed on the cylinder and is still in possession today. 50 mm x 100 mm cores were taken and tested in compression show-ing the effects of the interface bond, compared to cast concrete cylinders of the same mixture due to visible voids. Case study two saw 4 x 400 mm diameter spheres printed with a print integrated structural base support. A 30 mm print layer at 10 mm layer heights was used. A key challenge was printing the extreme overhang and under hangs of the spheres mitigated by the integrated supports. The spheres were connected to a valve and pump/turbine system, resembling a prototype subscale marine pumped hydroelectric storage vessel. The prototype was fitted with cast in lifting anchors and submerged in 10 m of water depth in the Sperra facility testing channel for an hour long operational test. The spheres withstood 10 m water depth pressure without any leakage

Spatial Decision Making of Terrorist Target Selection: Introducing the TRACK Framework

Guided by previous research and recent empirical analyses, this paper gives insight into elements that characterize the spatial decision making of terrorist target selection. Five key factors explain why targets are chosen by terrorists. The authors propose that, generally, targets will be selected when they are Tolerable, Relevant, Accessible, Close and/or Known. This is followed by a discussion of attacks witnessed between January 2013 and December 2018 in the United Kingdom, and implications

Psychological and Criminological Understanding of Terrorism: Theories and Models

Terrorism studies began as a niche area of enquiry in the early 1970s within history, political science and sociology. Terrorism studies, as a whole, is becoming increasingly more empirically and quantitatively oriented after years of questionable data and science. Multiple papers have attempted to use psychoanalytical theories to explain the cause of terrorist behaviour. A. Kaplan wrote that terrorism is a response to poor self-esteem, used by an individual to counter impulses of self-contempt. Few studies have empirically tested traditional criminological theories such as anomie, strain, disorganization, or control approaches in a terrorism context. Traditional criminology seeks to identify and explain why individuals engage in criminal activity, with a focus on sociological, psychological and developmental perspectives. The rational choice perspective has been useful in understanding political violence including terrorism and literature consistently supports the presumption that terrorists are rational actors

Lone Actor Terrorists: A Residence-to-Crime Approach

Although there has recently been a considerable increase in research into lone actor terrorism, one of the main areas that remains understudied is that of target selection. The lack of empirically driven studies that can guide prevention measures is a notable oversight. This paper applies methods from environmental criminology to examine the residence-to-attack journeys of 122 lone terrorist acts in the U.S and Europe. The distance decay effect was evident, and significant differences were found between subgroups. Individuals were more likely to travel further if a) they were in the U.S, b) they had links to a wider network, c) they had a single-issue ideology, d) they attacked an iconic target, e) they attacked a symbolic building, or f) they used a bomb as their main weapon. A few case studies are discussed which highlight a need to conduct further research that considers the whole nodal network of an individual. The findings suggest that distance can be put forward as a constraining factor on lone actor target selection and provide support for the notion that the spatial decision making of terrorists is similar to traditional criminals

Spatial decision making of terrorist target selection

Research consistently supports the notion that terrorists are rational actors. However, there has been a tendency to focus on distal factors associated with involvement in terrorism, and there is a distinct lack of empirical research on aspects of attack commission at the individual level. Little has been done to identify proximal factors associated with attacks. This thesis uses multiple paradigms from environmental criminology, including journey-to-crime analyses, various spatial and temporal statistics, risk terrain modelling and discrete choice modelling, to examine the target selection for two of the current national security threats to the UK: lone-actor terrorism and Northern Ireland related terrorism. Collectively, the findings indicate that target selection is guided by an inherent logic, and that terrorists are rational in their spatial decision making. The first piece of analysis demonstrates that lone-actor terrorists behave in a similar way to group terrorists and urban criminals. Their residence-to-attack journeys display a classic distance decay pattern. The second empirical chapter shows how attacks by violent dissident Republicans in the period studied were spatially and temporally clustered. The following chapter identifies differences between risk factors for bombings and bomb hoaxes, and suggests that dissident Republicans may select less ideological targets for bombings relative to bomb hoaxes. The final empirical chapter demonstrates that the locations of attacks by the Provisional Irish Republican Army were influenced by characteristics of the target areas as well as the properties of their likely journey to the target. In the concluding chapter, a new framework for target selection is presented and assessed using illustrative examples of recent attacks in the U.K. Important insights are provided that could guide and improve the efficacy of preventative and disruptive measures

A Directory of Threat Assessment Models

Threat assessment is a process of identifying, assessing, and managing threats of targeted violence prompted by warning behaviors. Threat assessment is an evolving field with no singular guidebook that can cover the range of settings to which it is applied. Therefore, there are many different practical models of threat assessment implementation. This directory reviews how threat assessment is practically implemented in various settings, by systematically reviewing case study literature that describes the structure and operations of existing threat assessment teams and models. The directory compiles information on 27 threat assessment models which cover a range of harms within educational settings and workplaces as well as more specific crime types such as fixated threats to public figures, violent extremism, and stalking. For each of the 27 models, the directory outlines details about their background, team details and composition, the nature and structure of their referral system, their threat assessment operations, their case management structure, and their quality assurance processes. This directory serves as the foundation for a comparative analysis of threat assessment models with a focus on learning from partner countries outside of the United States

A multi-level analysis of risky streets and neighbourhoods for dissident republican violence in belfast

This paper uses graph theoretical measures to analyse the relationship between street network usage, as well as other street-and area-level factors, and dissident Republican violence in Belfast. A multi-level statistical model is used. Specifically, we employ an observation-level random-effects (OLRE) Poisson regression and use variables at the street and area levels. Streetand area-level characteristics simultaneously influence where violent incidents occur. For every 10% change in the betweenness value of a street segment, the segment is expected to experience 1.32 times as many incidents. Police stations (IRR: 22.05), protestant churches (IRR: 6.19) and commercial premises (IRR: 1.44) on each street segment were also all found to significantly increase the expected number of attacks. At the small-area level, for every 10% change in the number of Catholic residents, the number of incidents is expected to be 4.45 times as many. The results indicate that along with other factors, the street network plays a role in shaping terrorist target selection. Streets that are more connected and more likely to be traversed will experience more incidents than those that are not. This has important practical implications for the policing of political violence in Northern Ireland generally and for shaping specific targeted interventions

The Impact of Public Holidays on Insurgent Attacks: The Case of Thailand

This paper analyzes Malay-Muslim insurgents’ attacks in the three southern provinces of Thailand between the years of 2010–2021 and identifies the role of public holidays on the level of violence. The existing literature suggests terrorists consider holidays during attack planning. However, there is a lack of agreement on the effect direction. Some studies have found that holidays are a force for peace while others have found they can act as trigger for more violence. Applying environmental criminology to the timing of terrorist attacks, we argue that the type of the holiday matters. Therefore, we analyze public (secular), Islamic, and Buddhist holidays separately. We show that Islamic holidays witness increased violence while Buddhist and public holidays see reductions. We discuss that Islamic holidays increase the Malay-Muslim insurgents’ motivation to attack by assigning to those dates a higher symbolic value. On the other hand, on Buddhist and public holidays, insurgents may hesitate to attack to avoid the adverse effects of losing public support and triggering a backlash. The results demonstrate the necessity to analyze the temporal dynamics of terrorist attacks

Perceptions of conformity during the student teaching placement

The purpose of this study was to examine the issue of conformity and the relationship between student teachers and associate teachers during the pre-service practicum. The three questions that guided this research included: (a) Did associate teachers expect pre-service teachers to mirror their practices during the practicum? (b) Did student teachers describe and expectation of conformity within their field experience?; and (c) What circumstances during the practicum increased the likelihood of conformity? This study was conducted with a sample of student teachers and associate teachers during the 1999 - 2000 school term at one Ontario university, and it consisted of two phases of data collection. The first stage involved preliminary interviews with one student teacher on two separate occasions. The data from these interviews guided the surveys that were distributed to student teachers and associate teachers in the second phase of data collection. This study found that associate teachers indicated that conformity occurred, and a fraction of these participants clearly expressed a desire for this behaviour. Other associate teachers may have implied this expectation through communication, feedback, and their actions. The student teachers suggested that conformity occurred in smaller numbers. Some participants expressed that it was a requirement of the practicum, while others felt that conformity occurred out of respect for the associate teacher. With reference to the factors that contributed to conformity, a perceived expectation of conformity and an associate teacher with more than 20 years of experience all increased the rate of conformity with this group of participants. If student teachers observed for one week at the start of their practicum and then proceeded to teach 3 - 4 lessons per day, they reduced their risk o f conformity. Additional variables aside from the ones presently stated were also examined within this research