Attitudes, stress and use of force in selected areas of Texas law enforcement

This research aimed to explore the extent to which police use of force was related to attitudes towards violence, agency type, and racism. Previous studies have found a culture of honor in the psychology of violence in the Southern United States. Were similar attitudes measurable among Texas professional line officers? Are there predictors of use of force?^ A self reported anonymous survey was administered to Texas patrol officers in the cities of Austin and Houston, and the Counties of Harris and Travis. A total of seventy-four questionnaires were used in the statistical analyses. Scales were developed measuring use of force, attitudes towards violence, and feelings on racism. Their relationship was examined.^ A regression model shows a strong and significant relationship between the officers' attitudes towards violence and the self-reported use of force. Further, agency type, municipal versus sheriff, also predicts use of force. Attitudes regarding race or racism, as measured by this study, were not predictive of use of force. ^

The UNESCO Convention on Cultural Diversity: An Appraisal Five Years after Its Entry into Force

The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) adopted in 2005 the first legally binding international instrument on culture. The Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions was agreed upon with an overwhelming majority and after the swiftest ratification process in the history of the UNESCO entered into force on 18 March 2007. Now, five years later and with some 125 Members committed to implementing the Convention, not only observers with a particular interest in the topic but also the broader public may be eager to know what has happened and in how far has the implementation progress advanced. This is the question that animates this paper and which it seeks to answer by giving a brief background to the UNESCO Convention, clarifying its legal and political status and impact, as well as by looking at the current implementation activities in the domestic and international contexts.

The UNESCO Convention on Cultural Diversity : An Appraisal Five Years after its Entry into Force

The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) adopted in 2005 the first legally binding international instrument on culture. The Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions was agreed upon with an overwhelming majority and after the swiftest ratification process in the history of the UNESCO entered into force on 18 March 2007. Now, five years later and with some 125 Members committed to implementing the Convention, not only observers with a particular interest in the topic but also the broader public may be eager to know what has happened and in how far has the implementation progress advanced. This is the question that animates this paper and which it seeks to answer by giving a brief background to the UNESCO Convention, clarifying its legal and political status and impact, as well as by looking at the current implementation activities in the domestic and international contexts.

Correction to Variations of Ice Bed Coupling Beneath and Beyond Ice Streams: The Force Balance

A geometrical force balance that links stresses to ice bed coupling along a flow band of an ice sheet was developed in 1988 for longitudinal tension in ice streams and published 4 years later. It remains a work in progress. Now gravitational forces balanced by forces producing tensile, compressive, basal shear, and side shear stresses are all linked to ice bed coupling by the floating fraction phi of ice that produces the concave surface of ice streams. These lead inexorably to a simple formula showing how phi varies along these flow bands where surface and bed topography are known: phi = h(O)/h(I) with h(O) being ice thickness h(I) at x = 0 for x horizontal and positive upslope from grounded ice margins. This captures the basic fact in glaciology: the height of ice depends on how strongly ice couples to the bed. It shows how far a high convex ice sheet (phi = 0) has gone in collapsing into a low flat ice shelf (phi = 1). Here phi captures ice bed coupling under an ice stream and h(O) captures ice bed coupling beyond ice streams.