Contextual factors among indiscriminate or larger attacks on food or water supplies, 1946-2015

This research updates previous inventories of malicious attacks on food and water to include data from 1946 through mid-2015. A systematic search of news reports, databases and previous inventories of poisoning events was undertaken. Incidents that threatened or were intended to achieve direct harm to humans, and that were either relatively large (number of victims > 4 or indiscriminate in intent or realisation were included. Agents could be chemical, biological or radio-nuclear. Reports of candidate incidents were subjected to systematic inclusion and exclusion criteria as well as validity analysis (not always clearly undertaken in previous inventories of such attacks). We summarise contextual aspects of the attacks that may be important for scenario prioritisation, modelling and defensive preparedness. Opportunity is key to most realised attacks, particularly access to dangerous agents. The most common motives and relative success rate in causing harm were very different between food and water attacks. The likelihood that people were made ill or died also varied by food/water mode, and according to motive and opportunity for delivery of the hazardous agent. Deaths and illness associated with attacks during food manufacture and prior to sale have been fewer than those in some other contexts. Valuable opportunities for food defence improvements are identified in other contexts, especially food prepared in private or community settings

The structural properties of sexual fantasies for sexual offenders : a preliminary model

While the phenomenon of sexual fantasy has been researched extensively, little contemporary inquiry has investigated the structural properties of sexual fantasy within the context of sexual offending. In this study, a qualitative analysis was used to develop a descriptive model of the phenomena of sexual fantasy during the offence process. Twenty-four adult males convicted of sexual offences provided detailed retrospective descriptions of their thoughts, emotions and behaviours—before, during and after their offences. A data-driven approach to model development, known as Grounded Theory, was undertaken to analyse the interview transcripts. A model was developed to elucidate the structural properties of sexual fantasy in the process of sexual offending, as well as the physiological and psychological variables associated with it. The Sexual Fantasy Structural Properties Model (SFSPM) comprises eight categories that describe various properties of sexual fantasy across the offence process. These categories are: origin, context, trigger, perceptual modality, clarity, motion, intensity and emotion. The strengths of the SFSPM are discussed and its clinical implications are reviewed. Finally, the limitations of the study are presented and future research directions discussed

Improving communication between postgraduate researchers and the university library: a case study at De Montfort University Library and Learning Services

A well-established postgraduate researcher development program has existed at De Montfort University for many years. Library and Learning Services include modules on literature searching skills and critical appraisal. However, we recognized that researchers seemed to be disengaged with the services on offer. This concern informed a research project that considered the ways we could communicate better with researchers based on their needs. This paper explores the essential components of successful communication, such as context, timeliness and communication channels. An action-research approach was taken including focus groups and online surveys. The outcomes highlighted three significant crisis points, emphasizing the key times when researchers might need some intervention. The findings of this research identified the distinct needs of Postgraduate Researchers (PGRs) and how relevant and timely communication from the library can meet these needs. It also considers the impact of how communication has improved with researchers as a result of some of our interventions

Observations of red-giant variable stars by Aboriginal Australians

Aboriginal Australians carefully observe the properties and positions of stars, including both overt and subtle changes in their brightness, for subsistence and social application. These observations are encoded in oral tradition. I examine two Aboriginal oral traditions from South Australia that describe the periodic changing brightness in three pulsating, red-giant variable stars: Betelgeuse (Alpha Orionis), Aldebaran (Alpha Tauri), and Antares (Alpha Scorpii). The Australian Aboriginal accounts stand as the only known descriptions of pulsating variable stars in any Indigenous oral tradition in the world. Researchers examining these oral traditions over the last century, including anthropologists and astronomers, missed the description of these stars as being variable in nature as the ethnographic record contained several misidentifications of stars and celestial objects. Arguably, ethnographers working on Indigenous Knowledge Systems should have academic training in both the natural and social sciences.Comment: The Australian Journal of Anthropology (2018

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Summary This model, which is an improved version of the model presented at the First International Symposium on Veterinary Epidemiology and Economics, at Reading in 1976, will attempt to demonstrate the potential benefits of linear programming. The model chose the most economically optimal solution for the control of brucellosis in beef cattle in the state of California. In addition to providing this optimal solution, the model also allows for sensitivity analyses to be performed on the various control components chosen by the model. It also permits a rapid benefit-cost analysis to be performed on other, less than economical, scenarios which may be chosen over the optimal solution. While not professed to be the ultimate solution, this model will provide a contrast to the many simulation models being used today in disease control program evaluation. The use of mathematical models and computers in epidemiology has been of importance for several years. In his examination of the development of the field of epidemiology, Dunn (1952) noted that, 'The accumulation of knowledge of epidemiological theory and the increasing use of statistical methods led progressively to a turn of epidemiology from a descriptive and comparative procedure to an analytic discipline. ' Further stressing the importance of mathematical development in epidemiology, Lilienfield (1973) stated: 'The mathematisation of biological or natural phenomena has considerable appeal to man in his effort to understand and control nature . . . it has led to increased precision in the thinking and defining of some ideas and concepts and frequently has been of assistance in the teaching of concepts . . For those who have had the opportunity to use or develop a model in an attempt to simulate the progression of a disease, the benefits of helping to understand the basic principles and impact of that disease are quite clear. To this individual, it is not a question of whether or not to use a computer model in his work, rather the question should be of the many models available, which is more suitable for my needs? In this paper we shall concern ourselves with the presentation of a particular type of model involving the mathematical technique of linear programming. As Piot (1966) stated: 'Mathematical programming and, under this general term, linear programming in particular, have been devised as techniques to find the optimal relationship between a number of interdependent variables, and as a means of determining the best course of action where such course may exist. It is in fact nothing more than putting explicitly what commonly goes on implicitly in the mind of decision makers

The transformation of the business angel market: empirical evidence and research implications

Business angel investing – a key source of finance for entrepreneurial businesses – is rapidly evolving from a fragmented and largely anonymous activity dominated by individuals investing on their own to one that is increasingly characterised by groups of investors investing together through managed angel groups. The implications of this change have been largely ignored by scholars. The paper examines the investment activity and operation of angel groups in Scotland to highlight the implications of this change for the nature of angel investing. It goes on to argue that this transformation challenges both the ongoing relevance of prior research on business angels and current methodological practices, and raises a set of new research questions