Focused Deterrence and the Prevention of Violent Gun Injuries: Practice, Theoretical Principles, and Scientific Evidence

Focused deterrence strategies are a relatively new addition to a growing portfolio of evidence-based violent gun injury prevention practices available to policy makers and practitioners. These strategies seek to change offender behavior by understanding the underlying violence-producing dynamics and conditions that sustain recurring violent gun injury problems and by implementing a blended strategy of law enforcement, community mobilization, and social service actions. Consistent with documented public health practice, the focused deterrence approach identifies underlying risk factors and causes of recurring violent gun injury problems, develops tailored responses to these underlying conditions, and measures the impact of implemented interventions. This article reviews the practice, theoretical principles, and evaluation evidence on focused deterrence strategies. Although more rigorous randomized studies are needed, the available empirical evidence suggests that these strategies generate noteworthy gun violence reduction impacts and should be part of a broader portfolio of violence prevention strategies available to policy makers and practitioners

Searching for Exoplanets Using a Microresonator Astrocomb

Detection of weak radial velocity shifts of host stars induced by orbiting planets is an important technique for discovering and characterizing planets beyond our solar system. Optical frequency combs enable calibration of stellar radial velocity shifts at levels required for detection of Earth analogs. A new chip-based device, the Kerr soliton microcomb, has properties ideal for ubiquitous application outside the lab and even in future space-borne instruments. Moreover, microcomb spectra are ideally suited for astronomical spectrograph calibration and eliminate filtering steps required by conventional mode-locked-laser frequency combs. Here, for the calibration of astronomical spectrographs, we demonstrate an atomic/molecular line-referenced, near-infrared soliton microcomb. Efforts to search for the known exoplanet HD 187123b were conducted at the Keck-II telescope as a first in-the-field demonstration of microcombs

FORMS OF HAND IN SIGN LANGUAGE IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Sign in sign language, equivalent to the word, phrase or a sentence in the oral-language, can be divided in linguistic units of lower levels: shape of the hand, place of articulation, type of movement and orientation of the palm. The first description of these units, which today is present and applicable in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H), was given by Zimmerman in 1986, who found 27 shapes of hand, while other types were not systematically developed or described. The target of this study was to determine the possible existence of other forms of hand movements present in sign language in B&H. By the method of content analysis, the 425 analyzed signs in sign launguage in B&H, confirmed their existence, but we also discovered and presented 14 new shapes of the hand. This way, we confirmed the need of implementing a detailed research, standardization and publishing of sign language in B&H, which would provide adequate conditions for its study and application, as for the deaf, and all the others who come into direct contact with them

ASSESSMENT OF THE GENERAL PSYCHOLOGICAL AND FUNCTIONAL CHARACTERISTICS CAUSED BY VIBRATIONS AT DRIVERS OF HEAVY MOTOR VEHICLES

In this paper we presented a research that estimates general psychological and functional characteristics of motor vehicle drivers, with the goal of determining the adverse effects of noise and vibration on the drivers. The study was conducted on a sample of 56 participants, professional drivers of motor vehicles, randomly chosen from companies of various types operating in transport of passengers and goods. For the evaluation of the results,we used descriptive and correlational analysis. The results showed that there were significant negative side effects caused by the nature of work of drivers, especially those under the influence of noise and vibration, which are even more significant in older participants and those with more years of service and those who spend more time driving during the interval of 24 hours , as well as those who drive heavier vehicles

Antimalarial Activity of Extracts of Abutilon grandiflorum G. Don - A Traditional Tanzanian Medicinal Plant

The Tanzanian medicinal plant Abutilon grandiflorum G. Don was studied for its in vivo and in vitro antiplasmodial effects. The ethyl acetate extract showed prominent in vivo activity against P. vinckei vinckei in mice and in vitro against P. falciparum strains HB3 and FCB. The extract was only moderately cytotoxic if tested in vitro against the colon cell line HT29. In the in vivo study, the results were significantly influenced by the treatment schedule used, i.e. early treatment with higher doses was more successful than applying the same overall amount over a longer period. Phytochemical analysis of the extract provided no conclusive evidence for the observed parasitological effects

Semiclassical description of transfer reactions at near-barrier energies for the systems <SUP>32</SUP>S+<SUP>102,104</SUP>Ru

Transfer reactions at four near-barrier energies for the systems <SUP>32</SUP>S+<SUP>102,104</SUP>Ru were studied. The differential cross sections of the strong transfer channels were measured with an experimental set-up yielding good mass number, nuclear charge and energy resolution. With a semiclassical coupled channel model the measured transfer cross sections were analyzed and transfer form factors were extracted. At energies even slightly above the Coulomb barrier, "slope anomalies" were observed. If the reasons for slope anomalies are not taken into account, the determination of transfer form factors out of such measurements can be incorrect. It is shown in this paper how such a wrong determination of form factors can be avoided even when slope anomalies occur. With the help of the extracted transfer form factors fusion excitation functions and barrier distributions of the systems 32S <SUP>32</SUP>S+<SUP>102,104</SUP>Ru were calculated. This proves that transfer channels play an important role in sub-barrier fusion processes for the studied systems

Brucellosis Transmission between Wildlife and Livestock in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem: Inferences from DNA Genotyping

The wildlife of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem carries brucellosis, which was first introduced to the area by cattle in the 19th century. Brucellosis transmission between wildlife and livestock has been difficult to study due to challenges in culturing the causative agent, Brucella abortus. We examined B. abortus transmission between American bison (Bison bison), Rocky Mountain elk (Cervus elaphus nelsoni), and cattle (Bos taurus) using variable number tandem repeat (VNTR) markers on DNA from 98 B. abortus isolates recovered from populations in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming, US. Our analyses reveal interspecies transmission. Two outbreaks (2007, 2008) in Montana cattle had B. abortus genotypes similar to isolates from both bison and elk. Nevertheless, similarity in elk and cattle isolates from the 2008 outbreak suggest that elk are the likely source of brucellosis transmission to cattle in Montana and Wyoming. Brucella abortus isolates from sampling in Montana appear to be divided in two clusters: one found in local Montana elk, cattle, and bison; and another found mainly in elk and a bison from Wyoming, which is consistent with brucellosis having entered Montana via migration of infected elk from Wyoming. Our findings illustrate complex patterns of brucellosis transmission among elk, bison, and cattle as well as the utility of VNTRs to infer the wildlife species of origin for disease outbreaks in livestock