Human Cattle: Prison Overpopulation and the Political Economy of Mass Incarceration

This paper examines the costs and impacts of prison overpopulation and mass incarceration on individuals, families, communities, and society as a whole. We start with an overview of the American prison system and the costs of maintaining it today, and move on to an account of the historical background of the prison system to provide context for the discussions later in this paper. This paper proceeds to go into more detail about the financial and social costs of mass incarceration, concluding that the costs of the prison system outweigh its benefits. This paper will then discuss the stigma and stereotypes associated with prison inmates that are formed and spread through mass media. The stigma and stereotypes propagated by the media result in a negative social construction of prison inmates, contributing to a culture of incarceration that makes it difficult to end America’s dependence on prisons. The final section of the paper discusses the challenges that come with changing the culture of incarceration, which include the deep entrenchment of said culture and the self-perpetuating nature of many of the problems associated with prison, and offers possible alternatives and solutions to incarceration and the problems associated with it

Anesthetizing the Fibrillating Heart.

See Article Lee et al

Moderate deviations for the eigenvalue counting function of Wigner matrices

We establish a moderate deviation principle (MDP) for the number of eigenvalues of a Wigner matrix in an interval. The proof relies on fine asymptotics of the variance of the eigenvalue counting function of GUE matrices due to Gustavsson. The extension to large families of Wigner matrices is based on the Tao and Vu Four Moment Theorem and applies localization results by Erd\"os, Yau and Yin. Moreover we investigate families of covariance matrices as well.Comment: 20 page

Nachhaltigkeit als Politische Ökologie : Eine Kontroverse über Natur, Technik und Umweltpolitik.

Mixed Reality (MR) is a technique to blend together the real life with virtual reality. Using this technique it is, for instance, possible for experts to assist persons several miles away to perform tasks by talking and  visually aid them. In this thesis the main issue is to see how the delay in such a system for remote assistance eects the users. A controlled test was carried out with 20 test persons of dierent backgrounds. The study shows that it is very likely to be able to use an MR system for remote assistance even if there is a delay between the user and the expert. As long as they both are aware of the problem and are able to take it easy and do not have to move around too much it is still possible to work with delays to up to 4000 ms. Furthermore, the average time of completion for a task did not increase with the added delay. It was linear, i.e. the task is not more difficult toperform when the instructions are delayed

Towards understanding the child’s experience in the process of parentification: young adults’ reflections on growing up with a depressed parent

This article reports on a qualitative study with 21 young adults who grew up with a depressed parent. We examined how young adults make sense of their childhood experiences of parental depression and how their retrospective reflections help us to understand the experiences of children and the processes of parentification. Participants recounted that their childhood consisted mainly of actions in the service of family well-being. At that time, they reflected on their own experiences only rarely. In adolescence, there was an evolution toward a greater consideration for oneself and a repositioning within the family. In the discussion, we explore the therapeutic implications of this studyand in particularthe meaningfulness of silence in the family process of parentification

Breach of Contact: An Intercultural Reading of China Miéville's 'The City and The City'

China Miéville’s 2009 'Weird' detective novel The City and The City is a tale of two city states, culturally distinct, between which unpoliced contact is forbidden. While residents of each city can learn about the other’s history, geography, politics, see photographs and watch news footage of the other city, relations between the two are tightly monitored and any direct contact requires a series of protocols, some of which might seem reasonable, or at least familiar: entry permits, international mail, international dialing codes, intercultural training courses. What complicates these apparently banal measures is the relative positioning of the two cities, each one around, within, amongst the other. The two populations live side by side, under a regime which requires ostentatious and systematic disregard or 'unnoticing' of the other in any context but a tightly regulated set of encounters. For all that interculturality is endemic to everyday life in the 21st century, what is striking is that critical and popular uptake of this novel so frequently decries the undesirability, the immorality even, of the cultural separation between the two populations, framing it as an allegory of unjust division within a single culture, and thus by implication endorsing the erasure of intercultural difference. We propose an alternative reading which sees this novel as exploring the management of intercultural encounters, and staging the irreducibility of intercultural difference. We examine how the intercultural is established in the novel, and ask how it compares to its representations in prevalent theoretical models, specifically that of the Third Place

Disinfection of dental unit water lines at the University of Iceland

Efst á síðunni er hægt að nálgast greinina í heild sinni með því að smella á hlekkinnMarkmið rannsóknarinnar var að komast að því hvort að tannlæknatæki tannlæknadeildar H.Í. uppfylli þær kröfur um hreinleika vatns innan á vatnsleiðslum og í framhaldi að innleiða sótthreinsun á vatnsleiðslum. Aðferðin var að safna sýnum í upphafi áður en nokkur meðferð væri hafin. Vatni (20 mL.) var safnað úr túrbínum, þrenndar vatnssprautum (3-way) og drykkjarvatni stólsins. Einnig var tekið sýni úr kranavatni til handþvottaar. Vatnssýni (0,5 mL.) var blandað við tryptic soy-yeast extract æti. Eftir 24 tíma ræktun voru bakteríur taldar. Niðurstöður voru þær að í fyrstu sýnatöku voru bakteríur > 105 cfu/mL úr vatnsleiðslum tannlæknatækja. Úr kranavatni voru 50-300 cfu/mL. Þar var meðal annars E.coli. Þá var byrjað að sótthreinsa vatnsleiðslur tannlæknatækja tvisvar í viku með sótthreinsiefnum sem framleiðendur tækjana mæla með. Annars vegar Calbenium®, hins vegar Citrisil®. Ákveðið var að láta vatn renna í gegnum leiðslur á þeim tækjum sem ekki voru útbúin sótthreinsiútbúnaði. Þetta var gert tvisvar í viku 30 sek. í senn. Drykkjarvatn var látið renna daglega en ekki er hægt að sótthreinsa drykkjarvatn. Eftir tvær vikur var sýnatakan endurtekin. Veruleg fækkun örvera varð þó mismunandi eftir aldri tækja. (sjá töflu 1). Ályktun: niðurstöður sýndu verulega fækkun á bakteríum. Ekki var síður fækkun á bakteríufjölda frá þeim stólum sem ekki er hægt að láta sótthreinsiefni renna í gegnum. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Dental unit water lines (DUWL) can be a potential contamination risk for patients and staff. Microbes from the biofilm that collects inside the waterlines pass into the water when the equipment is used. The dental clinic in the University of Iceland has 3 generations of dental chairs of which the oldest one has a water supply system that cannot be accessed for disinfection purposes. Objectives: Before implementing a new DUWL disinfection policy the problem of bacterial contamination was investigated. Methods: Water samples (20mL) were collected from the water lines for high-speed handpieces, 3-way syringes and drinking water for dental chairs of each type. Samples of tap water were also collected. Water samples (0,5 mL.) were mixed with tryptic soy-yeast extract medium, incubated and viable counts of colonies made after 24h incubation. Results: Initially all samples yielded bacterial counts >105 cfu/mL whereas bacterial counts from tap water were 50-300 colony forming units/millilitre (cfu/mL) E. coli was isolated from the DUWL in one dental chair. Disinfection regimes using either Calbenium® or Citrisil® were adopted following the manufacturers instructions. Disinfection of DUWL in the oldest units was not possible. Disinfectants were used twice per week and a policy was established of running water from all dental unit waterlines twice per week and drinking water daily. Conclusions: Water lines of dental units become contaminated, especially in units left unused for long periods. Disinfection policies were successful in reducing bacterial counts to the recommended levels but even regular running of water through lines that could not be disinfected had a beneficial effect on reducing the bacterial coun