The White Man\u27s Crime: White-Collar Crime, Gender, Race, and Age

This paper investigates the population of white-collar crime offenders with special emphasis on race, gender, and age. Through extensive literature review, the ambiguities and evolving definitions of white-collar crime and its offenses are explored in depth. Further review of the body of research available on the topic was conducted to investigate the ‘typical’ white collar crime offender in relation to individual characteristics and explore possible explanations. Data analysis was conducted on various datasets available through the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Crime Data Explorer regarding the race, gender, and age of white-collar crime offenders in FY 2020. The analysis concluded that certain white collar crime offenses see varying trends regarding race, gender, and age, but the large majority remain somewhat consistent with today’s view of a typical offender

Menstrual Phase Symptoms and Perceived Musculoskeletal Strength and Flexibility Among NCAA Collegiate Athletes

Previous findings suggest that the associations among menstrual hormones, symptoms and human performance are inconsistent and lacking. Earlier research has measured hormonal fluctuations and symptoms from each of the four menstrual phases (menstrual, follicular, ovulation, and luteal), but their physiological effects on perceived musculoskeletal strength and perceived flexibility remain unclear, particularly among college athletes. PURPOSE: To measure the prevalence and associations among self-reported menstrual symptoms, perceived overall strength and perceived flexibility in NCAA female athletes during each of the four menstrual phases. METHODS: In the Fall of 2020, a survey consisting of demographic questions and questions of perceived strength, flexibility, and menstrual symptoms was emailed to 99 female athletes at a NCAA Division III University. RESULTS: Twenty-five participants (M age= 19.76 years, SD= 1.01 years) representing 6 NCAA sports (softball N=11, volleyball N=5, soccer N=4, basketball N=2, cross country/track & field N=2, and tennis N=1) voluntarily responded. Eighty-eight percent of participants reported suffering from premenstrual and/or menstrual symptoms that included cramps, headaches, bloating, mood swings, back pain, cravings, decrease in physical activity, and breast aches. Most participants (56%) reported feeling the weakest during the menstruation phase, and only 29% felt no difference in strength throughout the phases. Less than half of participants (44%) felt the least amount of flexibility in the menstruation phase, but most participants (52%) reported no difference for flexibility throughout the phases. Further, bivariate analyses suggested statistical significance between the presence of premenstrual and/or menstrual symptoms and self-reported strength (r=.478, p=.018). CONCLUSION: Results suggest that perceived strength and flexibility can vary among the four menstrual phases and that the presence of symptoms and self-reported strength are correlated. Clinicians, trainers and coaches could consider symptom treatments, injury prevention programs, timing of competitions and appropriate strength training techniques to address perceived strength fluctuations among their female athletes

Depletion potentials in highly size-asymmetric binary hard-sphere mixtures: Comparison of accurate simulation results with theory

We report a detailed study, using state-of-the-art simulation and theoretical methods, of the depletion potential between a pair of big hard spheres immersed in a reservoir of much smaller hard spheres, the size disparity being measured by the ratio of diameters q=\sigma_s/\sigma_b. Small particles are treated grand canonically, their influence being parameterized in terms of their packing fraction in the reservoir, \eta_s^r. Two specialized Monte Carlo simulation schemes --the geometrical cluster algorithm, and staged particle insertion-- are deployed to obtain accurate depletion potentials for a number of combinations of q\leq 0.1 and \eta_s^r. After applying corrections for simulation finite-size effects, the depletion potentials are compared with the prediction of new density functional theory (DFT) calculations based on the insertion trick using the Rosenfeld functional and several subsequent modifications. While agreement between the DFT and simulation is generally good, significant discrepancies are evident at the largest reservoir packing fraction accessible to our simulation methods, namely \eta_s^r=0.35. These discrepancies are, however, small compared to those between simulation and the much poorer predictions of the Derjaguin approximation at this \eta_s^r. The recently proposed morphometric approximation performs better than Derjaguin but is somewhat poorer than DFT for the size ratios and small sphere packing fractions that we consider. The effective potentials from simulation, DFT and the morphometric approximation were used to compute the second virial coefficient B_2 as a function of \eta_s^r. Comparison of the results enables an assessment of the extent to which DFT can be expected to correctly predict the propensity towards fluid fluid phase separation in additive binary hard sphere mixtures with q\leq 0.1.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures, revised treatment of morphometric approximation and reordered some materia

SYSTEMS-2: a randomised phase II study of radiotherapy dose escalation for pain control in malignant pleural mesothelioma

SYSTEMS-2 is a randomised study of radiotherapy dose escalation for pain control in 112 patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM). Standard palliative (20Gy/5#) or dose escalated treatment (36Gy/6#) will be delivered using advanced radiotherapy techniques and pain responses will be compared at week 5. Data will guide optimal palliative radiotherapy in MPM

Antibody responses to nasopharyngeal carriage of Streptococcus pneumoniae in adults: A longitudinal household study

Background. Natural immunity to Streptococcus pneumoniae is thought to be induced by exposure to S. pneumoniae or cross-reactive antigens. No longitudinal studies of carriage of and immune responses to S. pneumoniae have been conducted using sophisticated immunological laboratory techniques.Methods. We enrolled 121 families with young children into this study. Nasopharyngeal (NP) swabs were collected monthly for 10 months from all family members and were cultured in a standard fashion. Cultured S. pneumoniae isolates were serotyped. At the beginning (month 0) and end (month 10) of the study, venous blood was collected from family members 118 years old. Serotype-specific antipolysaccharide immunoglobulin G (IgG) and functional antibody and antibodies to pneumolysin, pneumococcal surface protein A (PspA), and pneumococcal surface antigen A (PsaA) were measured in paired serum samples.Results. Levels of anticapsular IgG increased significantly after carriage of serotypes 9V, 14, 18C, 19F, and 23F by an individual or family member. For serotype 14, a higher level of anticapsular IgG at the beginning of the study was associated with reduced odds of carriage (P = .0006). There was a small (similar to 20%) but significant increase in titers of antibodies to PsaA and pneumolysin but no change in titers of antibody to PspA.Conclusions. Adults respond to NP carriage by mounting anticapsular and weak antiprotein antibody responses, and naturally induced anticapsular IgG can prevent carriage

Scientometric analysis of BIM-based research in construction engineering and management

The purpose of this paper is to summarize the latest research of BIM adoption in construction engineering and management (CEM) and propose research directions for future scholarly work. During the recent decade, building information modeling (BIM) has gained increasing applications and research interest in the construction industry. Although there have been review-based studies that summarized BIM-based research in the overall architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) area, there is limited review that evaluates the current stage of BIM-based research specifically in the CEM sub-area. Design/methodology/approach CEM falls into the scope of AEC. It involves construction-related tasks, activities and processes (e.g. scheduling and cost estimates), issues (e.g. constructability), as well as human factors (e.g. collaboration). This study adopted a holistic literature review approach that incorporates bibliometric search and scientometric analysis. A total of 276 articles related to BIM applied in CEM were selected from Scopus as the literature sample for the scientometric analysis. Findings Some key CEM research areas (e.g. CEM pedagogy, integrated project delivery, lean and off-site construction) were identified and evaluated. Research trends in these areas were identified, and analyses were carried out with regard to how they could be integrated with BIM. For example, BIM, as a data repository for ACE facilities, has substantial potential to be integrated with a variety of other digital technologies, project delivery methods and innovative construction techniques throughout the whole process of CEM. Practical implications As BIM is one of the key technologies and digital platforms to improve the construction productivity and collaboration, it is important for industry practitioners to be updated of the latest movement and progress of the academic research. The industry, academics and governmental authorities should work with joint effort to fill the gap by first recognizing the current needs, limitations and trends of applying BIM in the construction industry. For example, it needs more understanding about how to address technical interoperability issues and how to introduce the integrated design and construction delivery approach for BIM implementation under the UK BIM Level 2/3 framework. This study contributed to the body of knowledge in BIM by proposing a framework leading to research directions including the differences of BIM effects between design-bid-build and other fast-track project delivery methods; the integration of BIM with off-site construction; and BIM pedagogy in CEM. It also addressed the need to investigate the similarities and differences between academia and industry toward perceiving the movement of BIM in construction field work

The Early Middle Palaeolithic of Britain and Jersey: reconnecting the Saalian occupations of the Channel Region

The Early Middle Palaeolithic of southern Britain is best represented by the record recovered from within the terraces of the Thames, within which some attempt has been made to correlate particular sites to substage level within MIS 7. It has been suggested that there are particular features of the British record which suggest both shared features – and differences – to the record in Northern France: firstly, an under-representation of sites in Britain dated to late MIS7/early MIS 6 (unlike Northern France), and secondly, an apparent geographical split in the manufacture of handaxes versus Levallois debitage between the east and west. We here present the key features of the British record, but suggest that taking a “compare and contrast” approach to Britain could artificially create an impression of difference. We need to understand how our records are formed before assuming human behaviour to be the primary driver. It is necessary to work towards a seamless characterisation of northwest European landscapes, taking account the regional filters created by, for instance, local conditions of preservation and release, and research tradition, before addressing such apparent differences. British research has tended to focus on La Manche as a barrier, and the timing and impact of the creation of the channel upon human access to Britain. We here suggest ways in which we can start looking at this area, not as a barrier, but an inhabited landscape, concentrating on what we can learn from sites located around the margins of this now inaccessible, submerged place. The site of La Cotte de St. Brelade, Jersey provides us with an important window into the landscapes of La Manche. This site preserves the longest Middle Palaeolithic archaeological sequence in north-west Europe, spanning from at least 240,000 BP through to MIS3. The Saalian sequence is some 5m thick, and divided into 10 major units, all rich in artefacts. New work enables changing Neanderthal behaviour throughout the sequence to be explored in relation to changes in regional climate and environment, as well as starting to repopulate the space between Britain and the continent. Building on these observations, we can begin to reflect of how space was used by Neanderthals between Great Britain and the rest of the European continent