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The present study aims to examine the scope and contribution of behavioural investigative advice (BIA) reports from the National Crime Agency (NCA).

The 77 BIA reports reviewed were written between 2016 and 2021. They were evaluated using Toulmin’s (1958) strategy for structuring pertinent arguments, current compliance with professional standards, the grounds and backing provided for the claims made and the potential utility of the recommendations provided.

Consistent with previous research, most of the reports involved murder and sexual offences. The BIA reports met professional standards with extremely high frequency. The 77 reports contained a total of 1,308 claims of which 99% were based on stated grounds. A warrant and/or backing was provided for 73% of the claims. Most of the claims in the BIA reports involved a behavioural evaluation of the crime scene and offender characteristics. The potential utility of the reports was judged to be 95% for informative behavioural crime scene analysis and 40% for potential new lines of enquiry.

The reports should serve as a model for the work of behavioural investigative advisers internationally.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to systematically evaluate BIA reports commissioned by the NCA; it adds to previous similar studies by evaluating the largest number of BIA reports ever reviewed, and uniquely provides judgement of overall utility.

Critical theory has rarely articulated an agenda for social change linking theory to practice. This paper provides several examples of “critical theory in practice” and focuses specifically on Fay’s Critical Social Science (CSS) model. The methods of conflict transformation are then applied to CSS in order to accomplish two goals. First, political conflicts resulting from decision making can be used to transform both individuals and systems. Second, CSS more adequately accounts for some of the non-rational aspects of human nature, such as our resistance to change, thus improving its catalytic validity as a critical social theory. Together, the processes of CSS and conflict transformation provide a framework for enhancing the potential for citizen governance.

There is a paucity of recent literature on the influence of project strategic, site related and design related variables on the cost of construction. This paper seeks to redress this omission by presenting the results of an investigation into the influence of 41 independent variables on both construction cost and client cost. Data were collected from 286 construction projects in the United Kingdom and correlation and test for differences were used to determine the relationships that exist between the dependent and independent variables. The analysis both confirms the strong relationship between construction cost and client cost and between those two measures of cost and GIFA, and establishes other relationships which exist within the data, confirming many of the relationships that had been anticipated from the literature. It also established the ordinal sequence of several nominal variables. These data, therefore, can be confidently used to develop models of the total cost of construction.

This paper seeks to redress the omission in recent literature on the influence of project strategic, site related and design related variables on the cost of construction. It presents, in part, the results of an investigation into the influence of 41 independent variables on both construction cost and client cost, concentrating on design related variables. Data were collected from 286 construction projects in the United Kingdom and correlation and test for differences were used to determine the relationships that exist between the dependent and independent variables. The analysis ascertains the cost ranking of many design related variables and establishes other relationships which exist within the data, confirming many of the relationships that had been anticipated from the literature. It also established the ordinal sequence of several nominal variables. These data, therefore, can be confidently used to develop models of the total cost of construction as verified by the development of both regression analysis and neural network cost models

The purpose of this paper is to explore and evoke an old educational concept called “study”. This is learning which leads to love and love which leads to learning. It is a dynamic experience which engenders transformation whose telos is simultaneously endlessly knowable and unknowable. The paper argues that it unites humans with the world, the material world with the transcendent, speed with slowness and alignment with resistance, in a series of antinomic relationships which come together in the heart. Study, it is argued, should form the basis of true education and a truly sustainable relationship with the world.

The paper’s approach is informed by the Eastern Orthodox Christian theology of ecology, particularly its complex and holistic concept of the heart and perceiving with the heart. It revels in the antinomies fostered by this tradition.

The paper’s findings are inevitably provisional. They stress the need for beauty in educational practice and indicate that the form of study described may foster an individual sense of vocation, which can transform self and the world.

The paper hopes to contribute to a re-orientation in education, sustainability and ecology.

Thomas Reid (1710–1796) was the originator of the Scottish philosophy of common sense, an approach that claims reality is objective and knowable, made up of material objects, and understandable by ordinary men. Common sense philosophy developed in opposition to the pervasive skepticism of the period, best exemplified by David Hume. A professor of philosophy at King’s College, Aberdeen, Reid was chosen to be the successor to Adam Smith as the chair of Moral Philosophy at the University of Glasgow. From that position, Reid played an important role in the Scottish Enlightenment as professor, scholar, and correspondent. While Reid was not an economist, he did write on important theoretical and philosophical issues in moral philosophy, the natural sciences and mathematics. Reid may prove additionally interesting to economists for his insightful critique of Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments.

The widely accepted view that global warming is man‐made and largely due to carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has been disputed in a powerful and closely argued “critique” reviewed here, including some retraction by James Lovelock. Attention is drawn to a new online video on the life and contributions of the economist Adam Smith, and to development of the smallest‐ever diamond transistor. The death of the experimental psychologist Richard Gregory is reported.

The aim is to review developments on the internet, especially those of general cybernetic interest.

The main finding is that currently accepted views of anthropomorphic global warming are subject to serious doubt.

It seems likely that the “greenhouse” effect of carbon dioxide can be discounted, allowing major revisions of energy policy and increased exploitation of fossil fuel resources, though with attention also to renewable sources that will be needed when the fossil fuels run out. The diamond transistor will eventually allow increase in speed in digital devices.

It is hoped this is a valuable periodic review.

The purpose of this study isto synthesize recent empirical research investigating memory of stressful critical incidents (both simulated and occurring in the field) among law enforcement officers.

The study used the approach of systematic state-of-the-art review.

In total, 20 studies of police and military officers show reduced detail and accuracy of high- versus low-stress incidents, especially for peripheral versus target information. Decrements in memory performance were mediated by the extent of physiological stress responses. Delayed recall accuracy was improved among officers that engaged in immediate post-incident rehearsal, including independent debriefing or reviewing body-worn camera footage.

Most studies were not found through systematic database searches, highlighting a need for broader indexing and/or open access publishing to make research more accessible.

By understanding how stress physiology enhances or interferes with memory encoding, consolidation and recall, evidence-based practices surrounding post-incident evidence gathering are recommended.

The current review addresses common public misconceptions of enhanced cognitive performance among police relative to the average citizen.

The current work draws from scientific knowledge about the pervasive influence of stress physiology on memory to inform existing practices surrounding post-incident evidence gathering among police.

This aim of this work is to investigate different modelling approaches for air-cooled data centres. The study employs three computational methods, which are based on finite element, finite volume and lattice Boltzmann methods and which are respectively implemented via commercial Multiphysics software, open-source computational fluid dynamics code and graphical processing unit-based code developed by the authors. The results focus on comparison of the three methods, all of which include models for turbulence, when applied to two rows of datacom racks with cool air supplied via an underfloor plenum.

This paper studies thermal airflows in a data centre by applying different numerical simulation techniques that are able to analyse the thermal airflow distribution for a simplified layout of datacom racks in the presence of a computer room air conditioner.

Good quantitative agreement between the three methods is seen in terms of the inlet temperatures to the datacom equipment. The computational methods are contrasted in terms of application to thermal management of data centres.

The work demonstrates how the different simulation techniques applied to thermal management of airflow in a data centre can provide valuable design and operational understanding. Basing the analysis on three very different computational approaches is new and would offer an informed understanding of their potential for a class of problems.