Catálogo de publicaciones - revistas

<jats:p>Racial inequality is a foundational feature of the criminal justice system in the United States. Here we offer a psychological account for how Americans have come to tolerate a system that is so at odds with their professed egalitarian values. We argue that beliefs about the nature of racism—as being solely due to prejudiced individuals rather than structural factors that disadvantage marginalized racial groups—work to uphold racial stratification in the criminal justice system. Although acknowledging structural racism facilitates the perception of and willingness to reduce racial inequality in criminal justice outcomes, many Americans appear willfully ignorant of structural racism in society. We reflect on the role of psychological science in shaping popular understandings of racism and discuss how to contribute more meaningfully to its reduction.</jats:p>

<jats:p>Over the past 35 years, public and private actors have turned US criminal justice institutions into a vast network of revenue-generating operations. Today, practices such as fines, fees, forfeitures, prison charges, and bail premiums transfer billions of dollars from oppressed communities to governments and corporations. Guided by scholarship on racial capitalism, we argue that to understand how and why criminal justice operates as it does today, one must attend to its predatory dimensions. Analytically and politically, the concept of predation connects diverse forms of criminal legal takings to one another, to the extractive regimes of earlier eras, and to contemporary businesses that financially exploit subjugated communities. Analyses that focus on predatory relations encourage a reconsideration of some dominant understandings in the study of criminal justice today.</jats:p>

<jats:p> Highlights from the <jats:italic>Science</jats:italic> family of journals </jats:p>

<jats:p>Editors’ selections from the current scientific literature</jats:p>

<jats:title>Which phosphines squeeze together?</jats:title> <jats:p> Phosphine ligands coordinated to palladium and nickel are essential tools for assembling the backbones of pharmaceutical compounds. For decades, descriptors that characterize spatial bulk have helped to guide phosphine optimization. However, these descriptors tend to apply to ideal geometries of a single ligand. Newman-Stonebraker <jats:italic>et al</jats:italic> . introduce a descriptor that considers how the ligand conformation might change in a crowded environment. Specifically, they found that the minimum percentage buried volume accurately predicts when one or two of a particular ligand will coordinate to a metal center, frequently a key determinant of successful catalysis. —JSY </jats:p>

<jats:title>Selectivity control in zeolite synthesis</jats:title> <jats:p> Zeolites are widely used in many industrial applications, but despite decades of research, their synthesis still relies on trial-and-error approaches. Complex nucleation mechanisms and topological diversity lead to strong phase competition, complicating the issue of rational design of zeolite synthesis. Using atomistic simulations, literature mining, human-computer interaction, synthesis, and characterization, Schwalbe-Koda <jats:italic>et al</jats:italic> . developed a computational strategy that enables a priori control of phase selectivity in zeolite synthesis (see the Perspective by Chaikittisilp and Okubo). This approach uses several metrics for designing organic structure–directing agents to crystallize target zeolites with controlled phase competition and intergrowth. These results may have profound implications for the materials science community if this method is shown to be successful in the synthesis of practically useful uncommon zeolites. —YS </jats:p>

<jats:title>Sensory signals to fine-tune hand movement</jats:title> <jats:p> Skilled hand movements are modulated not only by signals from the motor system but also by sensory feedback. However, little is known about the circuits that regulate these feedback signals and how such regulation might influence movement. Conner <jats:italic>et al</jats:italic> . combined molecular, electrophysiological, and behavioral approaches in the mouse to identify and characterize inhibitory circuits in the brainstem cuneate nucleus. These circuits can enhance or suppress the transmission of tactile information, thereby affecting behaviors that require dexterous movement of the hand. In addition, there are descending cortical inputs that can inhibit or excite the cuneate nucleus. These findings indicate a new anatomical and functional circuit architecture for the adjustment of tactile feedback. —PRS </jats:p>

<jats:title>Decisions about delivery</jats:title> <jats:p>Heuristics, or simplified decision rules, have been found to influence decision-making in several settings. Singh found that when patients experience a complication during birth either via vaginal or cesarean delivery, their doctors are more likely to switch to the opposite delivery mode for their next patient’s birth (see the Perspective by Li and Colby). There is also evidence that this heuristic may lead to worse patient outcomes. —TSR</jats:p>

<jats:title>Compositions of rocky exoplanets</jats:title> <jats:p> The interior compositions of small rocky exoplanets cannot be observed directly but are expected to relate to the composition of the host star. Adibekyan <jats:italic>et al</jats:italic> . analyzed a sample of rocky exoplanets, inferring the planets’ iron fractions by combining their masses and radii with an interior structure model. The iron fractions of the host stars were calculated from stellar elemental abundances. The two iron fractions, that of the planets and that of the stars, correlate with each other, but the slope is steeper than 1, indicating that planet formation processes modify the compositions of rocky planets. —KTS </jats:p>

<jats:title>The importance of disturbance</jats:title> <jats:p> Work in sea otters over the last few decades has transformed our understanding of the importance of specific species, or keystones, as drivers of community structure and stability. Foster <jats:italic>et al</jats:italic> . took the next step and tested whether otter foraging might influence genetic diversity in an eelgrass ecosystem (see the Perspective by Roman). The authors found that eelgrass genetic diversity was significantly higher where otters were present and that the impact was related to time: Longer otter presence was associated with higher genetic diversity. These results illustrate how the actions of a predator can affect the diversity of a producer in a tropic system. —SNV </jats:p>