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The role of prejudicial stereotypes in the formation of suspicion: an examination of operational procedures in stop and search practices
Get PDFOne of the current and visible controversies in the UK policing that challenges the heart and foundation of the principle of law is arguably the apparent disproportionate use of stop and search powers involving ethnic minority communities. Differential exposure to certain types of suspected offenders can lead to the development of cognitive scripts that operate as stereotypes which may play a role in informing suspicions concerning police stops and searches. Focussing on whether police officers use negative stereotypes to inform suspicions when conducting stops and searches, the present study examined more than 2,100 stop and search records held by a police force in England, as well as conducting 20 semi-structured interviews with frontline serving police officers from the same force. It was found that the use of stop and search powers is consistent with (i) the use of stereotypes with respect to age, appearance, and social class; and (ii) the disproportionate recorded use of stop and search powers involving Black, Asian and Mixed communities. The implications of these findings are discussed
When are plant-based diets healthy and balanced?
No full textThe Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) states that plant-based diets can be beneficial for all life stages and lifestyles when they are appropriately balanced (Vesanto et al., 2016). The AND recognises that plant-based diets can effectively help individuals prevent and manage different health conditions such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer, and obesity. This position was also endorsed by the British Dietetic Association (BDA) in a Memorandum of Understanding with the Vegan Society in which both associations affirmed that well-planned vegan-friendly lifestyles can promote healthy living in people of all ages and even during pregnancy or breastfeeding (Vegan Society, 2017)
Comprehensive analysis of transcriptomics and metabolomics to understand the flesh quality regulation of crucian carp (Carassius auratus) treated with short term micro-flowing water system
Get PDFThe short term micro-flowing purification system (STMFPS) has been shown to improve the flesh quality of freshwater fish. However, few studies have focused on the involved underlying mechanisms. This study explored the effect of STMFPS on the flesh quality of market-size freshwater fish based on the combination of metabolomics and transcriptomics methods. The UPLC-QTOF/MS based metabolomics method was utilized to screen metabolites and predict the possible major metabolic pathways during different STMFPS treatment periods (0 d, 1 d, 5 d and 9 d). Furthermore, the transcriptomic data demonstrated that the deferentially expressed genes detected in crucian carp muscle were 2915,7852 and 7183 after 1 d, 5 d and 9 d STMFPS treatment. Results showed that the TCA cycle, ornithine cycle, purine metabolism and amino acid catabolism play important roles in improving the flesh quality of crucian carp. This study may help to understand the mechanism of improving the flesh quality of aquatic products using STMFPS
Scale-balanced loss for object detection
Get PDFObject detection is an important field in computer vision. Nevertheless, a research area that has so far not received much attention is the study into the effectiveness of anchor matching strategy and imbalance in anchor-based object detection, in particular small object detection. It is clear that the objects with larger sizes tend to match more anchors than smaller ones. This matching imbalance may result in poor performance in detecting small objects. It can be alleviated by paying more attention to the objects that match with fewer anchors. We propose an innovative flexible loss function for object detection, which is compatible with popular anchor-based detection methods. The proposed method, called the scale-balanced loss, does not add any extra computational cost to the original pipelines. By re-weighting strategy, the proposed method significantly improves the accuracy of multi-scale object detection, especially for small objects. Comprehensive experiments indicate that the scale-balanced loss achieved excellent generalization performance when separately applied to some popular detection methods. The scale-balanced loss attained up to 15% improvements on recall rates of small and medium objects in both the PASCAL VOC and MS COCO dataset. It is also beneficial to the AP result on MS COCO with an improvement of more than 1.5%
Nonconsensual sharing of private sexually explicit media among university students
Get PDFThis research was the first in the U.K. to examine the prevalence and nature of non-consensual sharing of sexually explicit messages, pictures, and videos and to examine if this varies according to gender and by role (i.e. perpetrator, victim or as dual role of perpetrator/victim). In a sample of 391 young adults (aged 18-25 years) questionnaire data on subjective norms, consensual and non-consensual sharing, and their motivations for these behaviors were collected. Perpetration of and victimization through non-consensual sharing was experienced by a substantial number of individuals. There was an association between reporting perpetration of non-consensual sharing and experiencing victimization. An association was also found between reporting being pressured (i.e., coerced) to send sexually explicit material and experiencing victimization of non-consensual sharing, which suggests that these behaviours may form part of a continuum of violence and abuse, potentially within intimate relationships. No association was found between gender and (i) perpetration or (ii) victimization. However, from a gendered perspective, females perceived there was greater social pressure to post messages, pictures and videos, compared with males. Motivations for non-consensual sharing were commonly explained as for fun/a joke, and generally not thought of as problematic, although some victims perceived motivations to be more negative and/or related to revenge/causing distress. Given that this research examined non-consensual sharing across messages, pictures and videos for both victimization and perpetration and found it was both perpetrated and experienced by females and males, this does not support the common perception that this is a male perpetrated behaviour against women. This has implications for education, policy, intervention and prevention, with approaches needing to be inclusive of both males and females when addressing perpetration and victimization
Mechanical properties and air permeability of concrete containing waste tires extracts
Get PDFThe safe disposal of waste tires has been seen as having a negative impact on the environment. To mitigate this impact, the components of waste tires can be used in the production of green concrete. This study explores the effects of the curing and drying regime on the mechanical properties and permeation characteristics of concrete containing both crumbed rubber and steel fibers that are removed from waste tires. Five concrete mixes were designed, and concrete cubes, cylinders, and prisms were cast using waste tires extracts. Crumb rubber was treated by submersion in sodium hydroxide and then used to partially replace 10% and 30% of fine aggregates in the concrete mix. Extracted steel fibers were added at the rate of 1% and 2% per volume of each mix. Compressive and indirect splitting tensile as well as flexural strengths were conducted after normal curing while observing several drying conditions. Additionally, air permeability was assessed using a portable apparatus that was developed to assess permeability easily. For the concrete test specimens containing 10% partial replacement of fine aggregate by crumb rubber and 1% steel fibers, it was discovered that the splitting tensile strength and flexural strength were higher than that of the control mix by 21% and 22.6%, respectively. For specimens that included the 10% crumb rubber and 1% steel fibers, when exposed to oven drying at 105°C for 12 h, the compressive strength results increased by 17% compared with the control specimens exposed to the same conditions. Unlike the compressive strength results, the splitting tensile and flexural strength results decreased after exposing the specimens to elevated temperature. The addition of crumb rubber and steel fibers as a partial fine-aggregate replacement resulted in increasing the air permeability of the concrete to different degrees depending on the percentages used. The oven-drying curing regime improved the permeability by reducing it in specimens containing the 10% crumb rubber and 1% steel fibers as indicated by increasing their permeability time index by 15% when compared with air-dried specimens. Using waste tire extracts as a partial replacement of concrete fine aggregate can be recommended for both indoor and outdoor applications. This study showed that this was a viable, economic, and environmentally friendly method for reducing carbon footprint
Strengthening of reinforced concrete beams: RC versus UHPFRC layers
Get PDFStrengthening of Reinforced Concrete (RC) beams is of high importance for the structural upgrade of existing buildings. The majority of the existing RC structures need to be upgraded either because they are designed with old or without seismic code provisions or because of existing damages. In this study the effectiveness of the use of traditional RC layers is compared with the use of Ultra High Performance Fibre Reinforced Concrete (UHPFRC) layers. Experimental investigation has been conducted on beams strengthened with these two techniques and the effectiveness of the examined methods has been evaluated via comparisons of the load-deflection and the interface slip results
Microorganisms and food safety risks associated with indigenous fermented foods from Africa
Get PDFIndigenous fermented foods (IFFs) have a long history in Africa and are embedded in cultural norms and practices. Typically, these foods are produced at small or household scale using indigenous processing technologies. In addition, limited knowledge of good manufacturing and handling practices can lead to production under unhygienic conditions. This results in variations in the quality and safety attributes of IFFs, as spoilage and pathogenic bacteria can be introduced at any stage of the value chain. These foods have an important role in the African diet and can contribute to food security by increasing the availability of cheap, nutritious food and supporting livelihoods. However, the presence of foodborne pathogens and antibiotic-resistant bacteria in IFFs may constitute a health risk to consumers. Therefore, this review presents an overview of the microorganisms associated with IFFs from Africa, focusing on microbial food safety hazards. African indigenous fermented foods offer a vast genetic potential of undiscovered strains that possess valuable technical characteristics. However, IFFs may also serve as vehicles of pathogenic and antibiotic-resistant bacteria and genetic determinants. Significant research and data gaps exist regarding the microbiological safety of these food products, which warrant urgent attention. We propose practical solutions for improving the safety of African IFFs requiring action and collaboration from all stakeholders, including researchers, producers, governmental regulatory bodies, and consumers
An overview of diabetic retinopathy and other ocular complications of diabetes mellitus
No full textDiabetic retinopathy is a major cause of preventable sight loss in the working-age population and a major global health issue. It is caused by chronic hyperglycaemia, which also predisposes patients with diabetes mellitus to a range of other ocular complications including diabetic macular oedema, eye infections, diabetic cataract, and dry eye and corneal complications. Ocular complications of diabetes can significantly affect people’s quality of life, so regular eye screening from the point of diabetes diagnosis, as well as a multidisciplinary team approach, are required to identify these complications early, manage them effectively, and support patients to achieve glycaemic control. This article provides an overview of diabetic retinopathy and other ocular complications of diabetes, and explains the role of the nurse in providing health promotion, patient education and support
The complexity and instability of policy conditionality and transfer: IMF interventions in the political economy of South America
Get PDFInternational Monetary Fund (IMF) interventions have evolved in the last sixty years based on the predominant orthodoxy in world political economy with a focus in recent decades on encouraging liberal market conditions to secure inward investment and capital flows. This has resulted in a dominant model of policy conditions and transfer, but with a debate about the contextual relevance. This paper uses an innovative approach to longitudinal research, called Dynamic Pattern Synthesis, to compare the economic performance of South American nations between 2000-2015. The results from using this method illustrates multifinality in the IMF outcome of encouraging foreign direct investment. A complex configuration of influences on this outcome are evidenced. Complexity theory is used to explain the results, with the continent defined as a complex system that does not respond to simple causal policy mechanisms, but rather displays different patterns of political and economic influence in the context of global market instability. Different foreign direct investment configurations result, and these illustrate that international monetary and policy interventions need to be contextual and cannot make simplistic and universal assumptions about policy problems and their mechanistic solutions