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Profiling jury bias in rape trials: Examining the link between juror characteristics and trial decisions
No full textSince the onset of the Chicago jury project in the 1950’s, social scientists have utilised varied methodologies to better understand the fairness and functionality of jury trials. One common approach involves investigating the relationship between a juror’s psychosocial make-up (traits, attitudes, and experiences) and their judgements at trial. An established literature has since amassed, which indicates that juror attitudes, more so than isolated personality features or demographics, appear most important in influencing verdict decision-making. This attitudinal bias is particularly prominent within rape trials, where deep-rooted culturally embedded stereotypes (known as rape myths) exist. This chapter reports on the findings from two experimental studies conducted in an English trial context that scrutinised the influence of rape attitudes and juror’s sexual victimisation experiences and gender upon their subsequent verdict decisions. Both studies used the same rape allegation and case materials within a mock trial paradigm. However, the methodologies differed in their realism; study one adopted a videotaped mock trial, while study two utilised a highly realistic live trial re-enactment design. The findings from both studies are discussed considering the impact that pre-trial rape attitudes, victimisation experiences, and gender can have upon rape trial verdict outcomes and crucially, what solutions may be effective.</p
Resolvent estimates in Schatten spaces for Laplace-Beltrami operators on compact manifolds
No full textWe prove resolvent estimates in Schatten spaces for Laplace-Beltrami operators on compact manifolds at the critical exponent. Our proof only uses known bounds for the Hadamard parametrix.</p
Supplementary information files for "Driving superionic transport in high-entropy oxide/fluorite heterostructure electrolytes for boosting fuel cell performance"
No full textSupplementary files for article "Driving superionic transport in high-entropy oxide/fluorite heterostructure electrolytes for boosting fuel cell performance"Compared with conventional ionic electrolyte-based solid oxide fuel cells, mixed ionic-electronic conductor (MIEC) electrolytes enable high power at relatively low temperatures. Here, we design a hybrid ionic-electronic conductor electrolyte based on p-n heterojunctions: a layered perovskite-type high-entropy oxide (La0.2Pr0.2Nd0.2Sm0.2Sr0.2)2CuO4 (HEO) as the p-type semiconductor combined with the n-type fluorite Nd0.05Ce0.95O2−δ (NDC). This study marks their first application in fuel-cell electrolyte composites. The multielemental composition of the HEO tailors the electronic structure to stabilize the interfacial charge dynamics and enhance ionic conduction via lattice disorder, which reduces the migration barriers. Integration with NDC induces band bending at heterogeneous interfaces and synergistically improves the carrier dynamics. In this heterostructure, the built-in electric field generated by the Fermi-level alignment suppresses electron penetration while driving ion/proton transport; concurrently, interfacial charge compensation induces oxygen vacancy formation, synergistically enhancing superionic conduction. Consequently, systematic optimization of HEO-NDC mass ratios combined with multiscale characterization identifies the 3HEO:7NDC composite as optimal, achieving a peak power density of 995.3 mW cm−2 with an open-circuit voltage (OCV) of 1.067 V at 550 °C and approximately 50-h stability. This study demonstrates a new strategy for the development of HEO-based hybrid conductor electrolytes. © Elsevier B.V, CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0</p
Feeling the lesson: affect, attunement and trauma-informed physical education
No full textTrauma-informed education has gained attention across schooling, yet physical education (PE) remains under-developed in this area. This study examines how educators in a Scottish Educational Support Centre understood and enacted trauma-informed pedagogies in PE following the school-wide adoption of the neurosequential model in education (NME). Using conversational inquiry, semi-structured interviews were conducted with six educators trained in the NME, including PE teachers, classroom teachers and support staff. Analysis generated three findings: relationships were understood as the foundation of trauma-informed practice in PE, flexibility was central to responding to daily unpredictability and contextual constraints, and the NME functioned primarily as a reflective framework rather than a guide for lesson planning. Educators rarely planned lessons around the NME. Instead, they relied on knowing students well, adapting activities in the moment, and responding to shifts in the affective atmosphere of the gym. The study suggests that trauma-informed PE is enacted less through fidelity to models and more through context-responsive, relational practice that requires sustained structural support.</p
Supplementary information files for "Amorphous/crystalline interwoven multipods with high Co/Ni activity for wide-temperature-range sodium-sulfur batteries"
No full textSupplementary files for article "Amorphous/crystalline interwoven multipods with high Co/Ni activity for wide-temperature-range sodium-sulfur batteries"Sluggish kinetics caused by 16-electron transfer hinders development of wide-temperature-range sodium-sulfur batteries. Here we report Sn-doped CoNiS multipods with an amorphous-crystalline interwoven structure. Employed as a positive electrode catalyst, the resulting sodium–sulfur battery exhibits a discharge capacity of 1320.8 mAh g −1 at 3 A g −1 after 1200 cycles at room temperature, together with stable and high-capacity electrochemical performance ranged from −20 to 50 °C. It has been evidenced that the amorphous/crystalline interfaces generated by Sn doping can adjust the microelectronic environment of Co and Ni atoms, optimize their adsorption energy toward sodium polysulfide intermediates through Co–S and Ni–S bonding, and thus decrease the energy barrier of polysulfide conversion. This interfacial regulation efficiently lowers the energy barrier of the rate-determining step and facilitates the overall reaction kinetics over a wide temperature range. This work provides an efficient amorphous/crystalline interface engineering strategy to develop high-performance catalysts.© The Author(s), CC BY 4.0</p
King and queen, mummy and daddy: role play, gender categorisation and cis-heteronormativity in a UK preschool setting
No full textChildren are socialised to understand themselves and others through gender categories. However, there are few observational studies of how this happens in social interaction. Based on video-recorded interactions at a UK preschool nursery setting, this study uses ethnomethodology and conversation analysis to examine the extent and ways cis-heteronormativity is reproduced through gendered descriptions in interactions involving children and adults in preschool role-play activities. The everyday play activities of 26 children (3–4 years old) were video-recorded over a period of 6 months, totalling 7 hours of recordings. Four episodes of role play were identified in which children used gendered descriptions to organise and allocate roles to themselves and other children. One adult used gendered descriptions to validate or correct the children's role allocations. The children's and the adult's actions in many ways reproduced cis-heteronormative assumptions of identities and relationships. These assumptions were integral to the ways in which they made sense of one another's actions and organised their participation within emerging role-play scenes. The children's role allocations nevertheless sometimes departed from cis-normative expectations, thus leading to a composite picture. This study contributes to a growing body of research that highlights the ways in which gender normativities can shape interaction.</p
A classification of mode-1 internal solitary waves in a three-layer fluid
No full textWe explore the bifurcation structure of mode-1 solitary waves in a three-layer fluid confined between two rigid boundaries. A recent study Lamb (2023 J. Fluid Mech., vol. 962, A17) proposed a method to predict the coexistence of solitary waves with opposite polarity in a continuously stratified fluid with a double pycnocline by examining the conjugate states for the Euler equations. We extend this line of inquiry to a piecewiseconstant three-layer stratification, taking advantage of the fact that the conjugate states for the Euler equations are exactly preserved by the strongly nonlinear model that we will refer to as the three-layer Miyata-Maltseva-Choi-Camassa (MMCC3) equations. In this reduced setting, solitary waves are governed by a Hamiltonian system with two degrees of freedom, whose critical points are used to explain the bifurcation structure. Through this analysis, we also discover families of solutions that have not been previously reported for a three-fluid system. Using the shared conjugate state structure between the MMCC3 model and the full Euler equations, we propose criteria for distinguishing the full range of solution behaviours. This alignment between the reduced and full models provides strong evidence that partitioning the parameter space into regions associated with distinct solution types is valid within both theories. This classification is further substantiated by numerical solutions to both models, which show excellent agreement.</p
Supplementary information files for "A systematic review investigating the characteristics and effectiveness of multi-level mental health interventions in sport"
No full textSupplementary files for "A systematic review investigating the characteristics and effectiveness of multi-level mental health interventions in sport"Consensus has begun to emerge around the potential effectiveness of multi-level, mental health interventions within sport. The aim of this review was to evaluate the effectiveness of existing multi-level interventions aimed at enhancing mental health and wellbeing and/or reducing mental ill-health (depression, anxiety, eating disorders, gambling and alcohol use) within sport and identify key characteristics of effective multi-level interventions. The protocol was pre-registered with PROSPERO (CRD42023385320). We systematically searched PsycARTICLES, PsycINFO, Scopus, SPORTDiscus, and PubMed up to August 2025. This search yielded 1922 studies evaluating 12 different multi-level interventions. We examined methodological quality through the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool and used a narrative synthesis. We provide evidence for the effectiveness of multi-level interventions in enhancing individuals’ mental health and/or reducing mental ill-health within amateur and collegiate level sport. Key characteristics of effective multi-level interventions included: engagement with key stakeholders and/or significant others, involvement of multiple sessions/points of contact and inclusion of multiple, targeted components. Methodological quality across the studies was mixed with evaluations lacking long term follow-up data and process evaluations and a paucity of interventions targeting the elite sport context, female participants, and/or gambling outcomes.© Taylor & Francis (Routledge), All rights reserved.</p
Developing empirical benchmarking methodologies to inform the cost and operational sustainability of wastewater systems
No full textWater and sewerage utilities provide essential life-sustaining services to the wider public; clean water supply and sanitation services are evidently some of the primary criteria that enable societies to flourish. Reliable operation allows a safeguarding of public health, and the development and growth of industries and cities. The requirement for government regulation of the private delivery of water supply and sewerage service provision stems from the natural monopoly characteristics of the industries. The water industry in England and Wales is subject to the empirical analyses carried out in this PhD thesis; revenues in this industry are regulated by the Water Services Regulation Authority (Ofwat). Economic cost benchmarking is therefore not a trivial exercise, but rather it directly impacts a company's expenditure allowance. Given the importance of these services, this PhD thesis focuses on identifying key cost drivers and proposing some amendments to the analytical and methodological frameworks which are typically applied in the analysis of the cost structures of these industries. The primary aim of the thesis is to develop benchmarking methodologies which consider the operational characteristics and challenges in these industries; therefore by first identifying some limitations in the academic literature, three themes are subsequently explored: exogenous demand and treatment plant scale, disaggregated capital network (system) complexity, and treatment technologies for contaminant removal and environmental compliance.</p
From ‘Representation’ to ‘Management’: analysis of commercial representation by agents in the football industry
No full textThis article examines the role of football agents in commercial representation of athletes and presents the conceptualization of this role as a construct with three dimensions: the development of athlete brand, the utilization of athlete brand, and the commercial partnerships and relationships. This conceptual framework is developed through empirical data generated through a qualitative research methodology involving semi- structured interviews with agents (N = 15). The findings underline that agents undertake a broad brand management role when performing commercial representation of athletes, taking managerial responsibility of the athlete brand and its commercialization. Hence, the agent’s role in commercial representation extends beyond pure representation of talents involving acting and decision-making on their behalf. A brand management-oriented role needs to be understood as an integral component of the modern-day football agent in the world of football.</p