Journals at Carleton University
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The Gendered Nature of Police Academy Basic Law Enforcement Training Completion
No full textBased on data from the third periodic census of law enforcement training academies in the United States (CLETA, 2011-2013), the source article found significant gender-based differences in completion rates of academy-based basic law enforcement training (BLET).
Academy administrators and trainers should critically evaluate the utility of traditional performance measures such as physical fitness standards and their usefulness for contemporary street-level police activities and performance.
Academy administrators may find it beneficial to use successful women officers as trainers in areas where women are traditionally disadvantaged (e.g., firearms training) compared to men
Euphemistic Rebranding at the Governmental and Institutional Level: A Comparative Historical Analysis
No full textEffective computation of the Heegaard genus of 3-manifolds
No full textThe Heegaard genus is a fundamental invariant of 3-manifolds. However, computing the Heegaard genus of a triangulated 3-manifold is NP-hard, and while algorithms exist, little work has been done in making such an algorithm efficient and practical for implementation. Current algorithms use almost normal surfaces, which are an extension of the algorithm-friendly normal surface theory but which add considerable complexity for both running time and implementation.
Here we take a different approach: instead of working with almost normal surfaces, we give a general method of modifying the input triangulation that allows us to avoid almost normal surfaces entirely, similar to existing techniques used for a subset of almost normal surfaces. The cost is just four new tetrahedra, and the benefit is that important surfaces that were once almost normal can be moved to the simpler setting of normal surfaces in the new triangulation. We apply this technique to the computation of Heegaard genus, where we develop algorithms and heuristics that prove successful in practice when applied to a data set of 11,031 closed hyperbolic 3-manifolds: we precisely determine the genus for at least 8,854 of these. In the remaining 2,177 triangulations, our methods provide tight upper bounds on the Heegaard genus
Striving for Perfection or Excellence? Implications for Academic Self-Talk and Goal Progress
No full textPerfectionism is categorized by self-criticism and unrealistic standards, which harm academic achievement, while excellencism is characterized by ambitious and healthy goals, striving, and is related to higher academic achievement. This difference may occur due to how these dispositions influence self-talk styles. Positive self-talk is associated with a higher GPA compared to negative self-talk, which may explain links between excellencism/perfectionism and academic goal progress, but this hypothesis has not been explicitly tested. This study investigated how perfectionism and excellencism influenced students’ self-talk and its impact on goal progress. Carleton students (N = 196) completed measures of excellencism/perfectionism and reported on their daily goal-directed self-talk and academic goal progress for one week. We predict that higher excellencism will be associated with greater positive self-talk (H1a), which will predict greater goal progress (H2a). Similarly, we also predict that perfectionism will be associated with greater negative self-talk (H1b), which will in turn predict less goal progress (H2b). Results will help clarify mechanisms by which dispositions regarding excellencism and perfectionism impact academic goals
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Recidivism in Justice-Impacted Youth: Considering Gender Differences and the Mediating Effects of Mental Health
No full textYoung persons who have experienced trauma in their childhood are disproportionately represented in the legal system (Malvaso et al., 2022) and are more likely to recidivate compared to their peers without trauma histories (Yannon et al., 2024). This study assessed whether the predictive relationship between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and recidivism in justice-impacted youth was mediated by the presence of mental health diagnoses. The narrative clinical notes of clinicians, used to inform the forensic assessments of youth (N = 321) referred for a court-ordered mental health assessment, were retrospectively coded for mental health diagnoses and trauma histories. Higher ACEs scores did not predict recidivism; however, they did predict a higher number of mental health diagnoses in both girls and boys. This research affirms the need to implement trauma-responsive care which specifically targets the mental health needs of justice-impacted youth
A 3.5 x 9-Inch Door Hanger Placed on Houses Reduced Certain Property Crimes
No full textThis pilot study randomly assigned six neighbourhoods within a municipal police region to either an intervention or control condition. Following a burglary in an intervention neighbourhood, the community response team distributed door hangers with crime prevention tips, an overview of research on repeat victimization risk, and related information to the affected home and surrounding homes within a football field’s distance of the affected house.
While there were non-significant decreases in the targeted crime type (burglaries), total Part 1 property crimes and thefts significantly decreased in “intervention” neighbourhoods relative to “control” neighbourhoods. This “super-cocooning” strategy informed the community about crime activity in the area and may have empowered affected residents to protect their property, lock-down valuables, and provide guardianship to the neighbourhood.
Leveraging community-oriented specialized units instead of patrol officers to distribute information to the community may reduce patrol officer workload, support agencies in combatting property crime, and affect criminal opportunity structures
Fine-grained complexity of Earth Mover\u27s distance under translation
No full textThe Earth Mover\u27s Distance is a popular similarity measure in several branches of computer science. It measures the minimum total edge length of a perfect matching between two point sets. The Earth Mover\u27s Distance under Translation () is a translation-invariant version thereof. It minimizes the Earth Mover\u27s Distance over all translations of one point set.
For in , we present an -time algorithm. We also show that this algorithm is nearly optimal by presenting a matching conditional lower bound based on the Orthogonal Vectors Hypothesis. For in , we present an -time algorithm for the and metric. We show that this dependence on is asymptotically tight, as an -time algorithm for or would contradict the Exponential Time Hypothesis (ETH). Prior to our work, only approximation algorithms were known for these problems
Enhancing a First-Year Seminar for Optimized Learning
No full textIn this project, we added to and improved the course content for the Thinking and Knowing (FYSM 1607C), a cognitive science course. This course is a two-term course that started in the fall and we used available information on the students’ current performance and reception to the course to strategically re-design assessments for the course’s second term. Our three main goals were to increase student engagement in the course, facilitate connections between course topics and incorporate more supplementary materials and external resources. We accomplished this by creating an innovative group assignment to serve as the course’s final and by adding additional course-related material and general first-year resources to the course Brightspace page. As a bonus, we expanded on the Metacognition unit in the course and mobilized Brendan Conway-Smith’s extensive background on the topic to create a framework for the development of a new course
Curriculum Mapping & Enrolment Trends in Biology Courses
No full textThe goal of this project is to develop a curriculum map for the biology program at Carleton. Program learning objectives and student enrolment are keys to building curriculum maps. In this project, we examined historical student enrolment and processed this information as a heat map. We also surveyed students about their experiences in biology courses. Specifically, we examined the extent to which students are aware of program learning objectives and if they recognize alignment of learning experiences in biology courses with the program learning objectives
Stuck in a Loop: Rumination as a Mediator in the Relationship Between High School Bullying Victimization and Depression
No full textVictims of bullying are more likely to engage in persistent negative thoughts about their experiences, which can include intrusive and deliberate rumination. Rumination is problematic since it can exacerbate adverse mental health outcomes over time, including depression. The current study investigated whether either of these types of rumination would mediate the association between high school victimization and depression in early adulthood. Intrusive and deliberate rumination were separately analyzed to contribute to limited research analyzing intrusive thoughts in rumination, and mixed findings implicating deliberate rumination with improved mental health outcomes. Undergraduate students from a large Canadian university (N = 485, Mage = 19.08) completed an online questionnaire assessing high school bullying victimization, event-related rumination, and depression. The results revealed that both intrusive and deliberate rumination partially mediated the relationship between high school bullying victimization and depression. These findings suggest that rumination, whether intrusive or deliberate, is a risk factor for mental health problems following victimization, which can persist in the long term. Therefore, interventions aimed at enhancing mindfulness and reducing rumination should be provided to victims of bullying to mitigate the risk of negative psychological outcomes