Preventing Delinquency Through Improved Child Protection Services

Research indicates that the prevalence of child abuse or neglect among delinquent offenders is substantially greater than it is among the general population. Moreover, maltreated children are significantly more likely to become involved in delinquent behavior than their nonmaltreated peers, and delinquent youth with a history of abuse or neglect are more likely to continue their offending behavior than delinquents who have not suffered child abuse or neglect. Given the links between child maltreatment and juvenile offending, designing and implementing programs to reduce the incidence of child maltreatment as a means of preventing delinquency are a promising -- though often overlooked -- strategy.After reviewing what is known about the links between childhood maltreatment and juvenile and adult offending, the authors review OJJDP's Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offenders and examine the role that child protective services' prevention efforts can play in delinquency prevention and intervention

Ownership of companies in Scotland

In the August 2004 Quarterly Economic Commentary Brian Ashcroft raised important questions about corporate structure in Scotland and how far it can be characterised as unduly dominated by a few very large firms. This claim, advanced in the Royal Bank of Scotland's (RBS) study Wealth Creation in Scotland (May 2004), rested on calculations that allocated to value added within Scotland all income from employment and profits generated by companies that were registered or headquartered in Scotland. In fact, as Ashcroft argues, Scotland's largest companies tend to have a majority of their workforce employed outside Scotland. Recalculating value added in Scotland to take account of this produces a significantly different picture. With the giant firms cut down to size – particularly the two big banks and the energy companies – Scotland's corporate profile falls more into line with that of other smaller European countries. This paper seeks to raise, in an explorative way, questions about another aspect of the Royal Bank argument: the assumption that all these firms can be treated as "Scottish" and their performance – compared with that of firms in Finland or Belgium - used as the key indicator of the health and competitiveness of an entity described as the "Scottish economy"

Solubility and structure studies of nickel (II) acetate

The effects of ammonium acetate on the solubility of anhydrous nickel (II) acetate in anhydrous acetic acid was investigated and was found to behave similar to the zinc (II), copper (II), and cobalt (II) systems. Problems with equilibrium, encountered by previous investigators, were overcome. The determination of the structure of nickel (II) acetate hemiacetate was atacked by infrared studies, preparation of adducts, cryoscopic studies, magnetic susceptibility measurements, and absorption spectra. It was found that nickel (II) acetate hemiacetate is octahedrally coordinated with two coordination sites vacant. It was shown that the binuclear cage structure common to copper (II), chromium (II), and rhodium (II) acetates is scarcely possible, in view of magnetic moment measurements. The data gathered in this work are not sufficiently interpretive to allow valid conclusions to be drawn concerning the structure of nickel (II) acetate hemiacetate --Abstract, page ii

Metabolic profiling of firefighter plasma using 1H NMR platform following curcumin, ketone supplementations and carbohydrate restricted diet benefits for oxidative stress suppression

Occupational health surveys reported that first responders such as firefighters (FF) have some of the highest levels of cardiovascular disease in the nation from poor eating habits and lack of exercise. Three studies were established with goals to identify oxidative stress (OS) biomarkers and improve cardiovascular health for FF including: 1) a 28-day-carbohydrate restricted diet (CRD), 2) a heat-house search and clear protocol in personal protection equipment (PPE) plus curcumin supplementation, and 3) a treadmill exercise protocol in PPE with ketone salt supplementation. During those studies, stored blood plasma subsamples were evaluated for targeted antioxidants or untargeted metabolite concentration fluctuations using 1H NMR. Results from the 28-day-CRD tracked 40 metabolites consistently pre- and post-diet using 1H NMR platform. Of these metabolites’ acetone, β-hydroxybutyrate, leucine, and valine significantly upregulated while isoleucine downregulated. The plasma from the curcumin supplementation study contained 34 metabolites that were consistently identified. Lactate significantly upregulated immediate after exercise but returned to pre-exercise levels at 30 min post exercise while all the other metabolites were similar. From the ketone salt study 38 metabolites that were consistently identified from the pre- and post-exercise samples. Mean concentrations of acetone and β-hydroxybutyrate were significantly upregulated as were leucine and valine pre- and post-exercise while isoleucine downregulated. Lactate increased with ketone salt ingestion post-exercise and up to 30 min post-exercise but returned to normal at 24 h post-exercise compared to pre-exercise levels. Six other metabolites significantly differed in concentrations when compared across sampling times with no discernable impacts to OS or other notable trends. Multivariate analyses using principal components analysis (PCA), partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) and orthogonal partial least squares-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) models were not supported using cross-validation for Q2 coefficients and permutations values at p ≤ 0.05. From these results no metabolites were shown to support transient OS suppression

Comparative Transduction Mechanisms of Vestibular Otolith Hair Cells

Hair cells in the bullfrog vestibular otolith organs regenerate following aminoglycoside ototoxicity. Hair cells in these organs are differentially sensitive to gentamicin, with saccular hair cells and hair cells in the utricular striola being damaged at lower gentamicin concentrations than hair cells in the utricular extrastriola. Regenerating hair cells in these organs have short hair bundles and can be classified into a number of phenotypes using the same morphological criteria used to identify their mature counterparts. Our studies suggest that some supporting cells can convert, or transdifferentiate,into hair cells without an intervening cell division. By stimulating these processes in humans, clinicians may be able to alleviate human deafness and peripheral vestibular disorders by regenerating and replacing lost hair cells. In vivo and in vitro studies were done on cell proliferation and hair cell regeneration

Visual perception in twins - A pilot study

INTRODUCTION Tests of visual perception are commonly used for diagnosis and guiding effective treatment. However, few studies have attempted to ascertain the contributions of genetics or environment to visual-perceptual ability. Results of these studies have been equivocal. Based on casual observation, a hypothesis was developed that monozygotic (MZ) twins would have more similar visual-perceptual skills than dizygotic (DZ) twins. The purpose of this study is to compare visual-perceptual test results of monozygotic versus dizygotic twins to see if a genetic link could be demonstrated. Versions of Gardner\u27s Test of Visual-Perceptual Skills were chosen due to its ease of administration, common utilization, and because it, is a non-language test and is not biased according to race, culture, gender or education. \u27 METHODS The Test of Visual-Perceptual Skills (non-motor) Revised (TVPS-R) or Test of Visual- Perceptual Skills (non-motor) Upper Level-Revised (TVPS-(UL)-R) was administered to seven sets of MZ twins, 12 sets of DZ twins, and 32 family members of these twins. (The 17 years, 11 months-norms were used for all adults2) Identification of twins as MZ or DZ was based on information from reports the twins themselves or their parents. All subjects wore their habitual correction while taking the test. RESULTS Overall Sum of Standard Scores, and scores for each subtest were analyzed using both Fixed Effects Regression Analysis and Difference of Means Test with Student T-Test. In addition to comparisons between MZ and DZ twins, results from dizygotic-different gender twins (DZDG) and dizygotic-same gender twins (DZSG) were also analyzed. For all twin pairs, scores of one twin closely matched the other (p\u3c0.05) for Visual Memory, Visual Form Constancy, Visual Sequential Memory, Visual Closure subtests and Sum of Standard Scores. Same-Gender twins\u27 scores were even more similar than non-twin scores (p\u3c0.01 or less) for all subtests except Visual Discrimination and Visual Sequential Memory. Spatial Relationships scores and Sum of Sandard Scores were more similar for MZ than DZ twins (p\u3c0.01 and pC0.05). With same-gender twins, other than Spatial Relationships, no difference existed between MZ and DZ (p\u3c0.05). Spatial Relationships, Form Constancy, and Sum of Standard Scores (all p\u3c0.001) were more similar with MZ twins than DZDG twins. Same-gender DZ twins were also more similar than different-gender DZ twins for the above three areas (pc0.02; 0.01 and 0.001 respectively). DISCUSSION The hypothesis that MZ twins would score with more similarity on a visual-perceptual test than DZ twins was partially supported by these results; notably for Spatial Relationships and Sum of the Standard Scores. Of interest is that the overall Sum of Standard Scores differentiation was no longer seen when different gender twins were removed from the sample. In other words, the Sum of Standard Scores was more dissimilar for different gender twins. Although the sample size is too small for generalization, this discovery implies that gender may be a dominant factor in the visual-perceptual differences that were found. Since the TVPS is thought to be gender-blind, this should be addressed in future investigations

Comparative transduction mechanisms of hair cells in the bullfrog utriculus. 1: Responses to intracellular current

Hair cells in the bullfrog sacculus are specifically adapted to sense small-amplitude, high-frequency linear accelerations. These hair cells display many properties that are undesirable or inappropriate for hair cells that must provide static gravity sensitivity. This study resulted in part due to an interest in seeing how the transduction mechanisms of hair cells in a gravity-sensing otolith endorgan would differ from those in the bullfrog sacculus. The bullfrog utriculus is an appropriate model for these studies, because its structure is representative of higher vertebrates in general and its function as a sensor of static gravity and dynamic linear acceleration is well known. Hair cells in the bullfrog utriculus, classifiable as Type 2 by cell body and synapse morphology, differ markedly in hair bundle morphology from those in the bullfrog sacculus. Moreover, the hair bundle morphologies of utricular hair cells, unlike those in the sacculus, differ in different membrane regions

Genetic heterogeneity in breast cancer: the road to personalized medicine?

This is the final published version. It was originally published here: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7015/11/151. DOI: 10.1186/1741-7015-11-151.More women die from breast cancer across the world today than from any other type of malignancy. The clinical course of breast cancer varies tremendously between patients. While some of this variability is explained by traditional clinico-pathological factors (including patient age, tumor stage, histological grade and estrogen receptor status), molecular profiling studies have defined breast cancer subtypes with distinct clinical outcomes. This mini-review considers recent studies which have used genomics technologies in an attempt to identify new biomarkers of prognosis and treatment response. These studies highlight the genetic heterogeneity that exists within breast cancers in space and time

Building research capacity in Education: evidence from recent initiatives in England, Scotland and Wales.

There is a pressing need to build research capacity in Education across the UK to combat the effects of the ageing research population and the increasing polarisation between research-intensive institutions and the remainder of the field. This paper draws data from three evaluations of recent initiatives across the UK to explore the necessary conditions for effectively building research capacity. Technicist and situated learning models are explored in relation to the immediate and longer term professional development of the research workforce, and we identify that central to the effectiveness of this professional learning is: (1) interpersonal support from more experienced colleagues; and (2) institutional support for research engagement, primarily in the provision of time and an infrastructure which can support research activity. We conclude that the development of, and engagement with, inter-institutional, inter-project communities is imperative to this process

The Cool-2/α-Pix Protein Mediates a Cdc42-Rac Signaling Cascade

AbstractBackground:Cloned-out of library-2 (Cool-2)/PAK-interactive exchange factor (α-Pix) was identified through its ability to bind the Cdc42/Rac target p21-activated kinase (PAK) and has been implicated in certain forms of X-linked mental retardation as well as in growth factor- and chemoattractant-coupled signaling pathways. We recently found that the dimeric form of Cool-2 is a specific guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) for Rac, whereas monomeric Cool-2 is a GEF for Cdc42 as well as Rac. However, unlike many GEFs, Cool-2 binds to activated forms of Cdc42 and Rac. Thus, we have investigated the functional consequences of these interactions.Results: We show that the binding of activated Cdc42 to the Cool-2 dimer markedly enhances its ability to associate with GDP bound Rac1, resulting in a significant activation of Rac-GEF activity. While the Rac-specific GEF activity of Cool-2 is mediated through the Dbl homology (DH) domain from one monomer and the Pleckstrin homology domain from the other, activated Cdc42 interacts with the DH domain, most likely opposite the DH domain binding site for GDP bound Rac. Activated Rac also binds to Cool-2; however, it strongly inhibits the GEF activity of dimeric Cool-2.Conclusions: We provide evidence for novel mechanisms of allosteric regulation of the Rac-GEF activity of the Cool-2 dimer, involving stimulatory effects by Cdc42 and feedback inhibition by Rac. These findings demonstrate that by serving as a target for GTP bound Cdc42 and a GEF for Rac, Cool-2 mediates a GTPase cascade where the activation of Cdc42 is translated into the activation of Rac