Discussing Racial Justice in Light of 2016: Black Lives Matter,a Trump Presidency,and the Continued Struggle for Justice

The broad fields of ethical reflection on racialization, racial justice, black liberation theology, and queer theology of color must come to terms with the year 2016, which can be framed on one side with the Black Lives Matter movement, and on the other side with a presidential election cycle in which racism and racial justice played particularly salient roles. Against this backdrop, this book discussion looks at recent literature on racial justice asking three questions. How does historical consciousness shape contemporary ethical thought on racial justice? In what ways do the intersectionalities of gender and sexuality, immigration and transnationality, class, and contemporary culture present particular challenges and new possibilities? And how do the ethical frameworks of religious traditions contribute to the development of public theology for racial justice? The conclusion considers how religious ethics concerned with racial justice does harm or contributes to religiously grounded responses to racial injustice. Reflection on these questions points to the need for ongoing engagement with the black experience—broadly construed and within the context of multiple intersections—in the United States and globally in ethical analysis. However, this in turn makes particular and critical demands on how it is that we are to both teach and read religious ethics and political theology at our institutions, as well as in the churches.     

Erratum to: Automatic change detection in vision: Adaptation,memory mismatch,or both? II: Oddball and adaptation effects on event-related potentials

Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics -     

Characteristics of a French African Caribbean Epidemiological Psychiatric Sample with a History of Suicide Attempt

Research on vulnerability factors among ethnic groups, independent of primary psychiatric diagnosis, may help to identify groups at risk of suicidal behavior. French African Caribbean general psychiatric patients (N = 362) were recruited consecutively and independently of the primary psychiatric diagnosis. Demographic and clinical characteristics and lifetime history of suicide attempts were recorded. Sixty‐five patients (18%) had a history of at least one suicide attempt. Presence of professional qualifications, children, poor social contacts, treatment with benzodiazepine at inclusion, and poor treatment compliance were all associated with a lifetime history of suicide attempts.     

Combining genetic algorithms and the finite element method to improve steel industrial processes

Most of the times the optimal control of steel industrial processes is a very complicated task because of the elevated number of parameters to adjust. For that reason, in steel plants, engineers must estimate the best values of the operational parameters of processes, and sometimes, it is also necessary to obtain the appropriate model for steel material behaviour. This article deals with three successful experiences gained from genetic algorithms and the finite element method in order to solve engineering optimisation problems. On one hand, a fully automated method for determining the best material behaviour laws is described, and on the other hand we present a common methodology to find the most appropriate settings for two cases of improvement in steel industrial processes. The study of the three reported cases allowed us to show the reliability and effectiveness of combining both techniques.