The association of criminal justice supervision setting with overdose mortality: a longitudinal cohort study.

Background and aimsDespite the high prevalence of substance use among people in the US criminal justice system, little is known about the incidence of overdose mortality by use patterns, drug convictions and supervision setting. We examined the associations between these characteristics and overdose mortality.DesignRetrospective cohort study.Setting and participantsIndividuals sentenced to prison, jail, probation or jail plus probation for a felony conviction in Michigan, USA from 2003 to 2006.MeasurementsUsing the National Death Index, we assessed overdose mortality to December 2012. We calculated overdose mortality rates by pre-sentence opioid use, drug convictions and supervision setting. Multivariable analyses were conducted using competing risks regression with time-varying covariates.FindingsAmong 140 266 individuals followed over a mean of 7.84 years [standard deviation (SD) = 1.52], 14.9% of the 1131 deaths were due to overdose (102.8 per 100 000 person-years). Over the follow-up, more than half of overdose deaths occurred in the community (57.7%), nearly a third (28.8%) on probation and 12.8% on parole. The adjusted risk of overdose death was lower on probation [hazard ratio (HR) = 0.71, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.60, 0.85] than in the community without probation or parole (HR = 1.00) but not significantly different on parole (HR = 1.13, 95% CI = 0.87, 1.47). Pre-sentence daily opioid use (HR = 3.54, 95% CI = 3.24, 3.87) was associated with an increased risk. Drug possession (HR = 1.11, 95% CI = 0.93, 1.31) and delivery convictions (HR = 0.92, 95% CI = 0.77, 1.09) were not significantly associated with overdose mortality.ConclusionsBased on the absolute or relative risk, parole, probation and community settings are appropriate settings for enhanced overdose prevention interventions. Ensuring that individuals with pre-sentence opioid use have access to harm reduction and drug treatment services may help to prevent overdose among people involved with the criminal justice system

The Dynamics of Viral Marketing

We present an analysis of a person-to-person recommendation network, consisting of 4 million people who made 16 million recommendations on half a million products. We observe the propagation of recommendations and the cascade sizes, which we explain by a simple stochastic model. We analyze how user behavior varies within user communities defined by a recommendation network. Product purchases follow a 'long tail' where a significant share of purchases belongs to rarely sold items. We establish how the recommendation network grows over time and how effective it is from the viewpoint of the sender and receiver of the recommendations. While on average recommendations are not very effective at inducing purchases and do not spread very far, we present a model that successfully identifies communities, product and pricing categories for which viral marketing seems to be very effective

Reproductive Success Across the Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) and Carolina Chickadee (P. carolinensis) Hybrid Zone in Ohio

Black-capped Chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) and Carolina Chickadees (P. carolinensis) hybridize in an east-west band from New Jersey to Kansas. Within the past century, the Ohio portion of this hybrid /one and the Carolina Chickadee range to the south have been moving northward, whereas the Black-capped Chickadee range has retracted. In Ohio, we characterized the genetic composition of the hybrid zone using five diagnostic molecular loci. Although there was no evidence of assortative mating in the center of the hybrid zone, we found a relative paucity of genetically intermediate breeding females as compared with breeding males. That suggests viability selection against female hybrids, in line with Haldane\u27s rule. On the basis of reproductive variables (number of nestlings, reproductive success), we found a decrease in productivity of breeding pairs in the hybrid zone that is significantly and positively related to their probability of producing homozygous offspring at each autosomal or sex-linked locus. We also found that the decrease in productivity was significantly and positively related to the genetic composition of the male of the pair {i.e. pure male chickadees more productive). These data strongly suggest that hybrids are at a selective disadvantage. Because the zone of reduced reproductive success was considerably narrower than the zone of introgression, our results demonstrate that genetic introgression is occurring in the face of substantial selection against hybrids

Factors associated with the decision to investigate child protective services referrals: a systematic review

Background: Limited resources for child protection create challenging decision situations for child protective services (CPS) workers at the point of intake. A body of research has examined the factors associated with worker decisions and processes using a variety of methodological approaches to gain knowledge on decision-making. However, few attempts have been made to systematically review this literature. Objective: As part of a larger project on decision-making at intake, this systematic review addressed the question of the factors associated with worker decisions to investigate alleged maltreatment referrals. Methods: Quantitative studies that examined factors associated with screening decisions in CPS practice settings were included in the review. Database and other search methods were used to identify research published in English over a 35-year period (1980-2015). Findings: Of 1,147 identified sources, 18 studies were selected for full data extraction. The studies were conducted in the U.S., Canada, and Sweden and varied in methodological quality. Most studies examined case factors with few studies examining other domains. Conclusions: To inform CPS policy and practice, additional research is needed to examine the relationships between decision-making factors and case outcomes. Greater attention needs to be given to the organizational and external factors that influence decision-making

Vertebrate Community Response to Wild Pig Control in an Agroecosystem

Biological invasions often have negative effects on native wildlife and in the case of feral swine, also can cause extensive agricultural damage. As a result, the rapidly increasing swine populations and associated damages have led to wide-spread control efforts focused in agricultural areas. In a previous study, via camera trapping, we determined feral swine reduced observed vertebrate species richness by 26% when they invaded remnant forest patches in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley. To determine the effectiveness of removal efforts in recovering the lost vertebrate richness, in January 2018, we initiated a before-after control-impact designed experiment in 5 forest patches to monitor species richness before and after swine removals with camera traps. Also, we calculated swine activity patterns before and after aerial gunning to determine the degree to which feral swine alter behavior to avoid detection in future efforts. Preliminary data suggests a minimal species recovery following swine removal which may result from a lag in response to decreasing swine abundance or continued suppression from remaining swine populations. Preliminary data also indicate that swine immediately shifted their activity to avoid times of day when aerial gunning occurred. Thus, shifting swine behavior is likely to exacerbate the diminishing returns in removal effectiveness in a patch over a short time period. However, swine activity returned to normal within a year. These results are preliminary to a long-term experiment where we intend to increase patch sample size and continue to monitor species richness recovery as removals decrease swine populations

A Finite Difference Representation of Neutrino Radiation Hydrodynamics in Spherically Symmetric General Relativistic Space-Time

We present an implicit finite difference representation for general relativistic radiation hydrodynamics in spherical symmetry. Our code, Agile-Boltztran, solves the Boltzmann transport equation for the angular and spectral neutrino distribution functions in self-consistent simulations of stellar core collapse and postbounce evolution. It implements a dynamically adaptive grid in comoving coordinates. Most macroscopically interesting physical quantities are defined by expectation values of the distribution function. We optimize the finite differencing of the microscopic transport equation for a consistent evolution of important expectation values. We test our code in simulations launched from progenitor stars with 13 solar masses and 40 solar masses. ~0.5 s after core collapse and bounce, the protoneutron star in the latter case reaches its maximum mass and collapses further to form a black hole. When the hydrostatic gravitational contraction sets in, we find a transient increase in electron flavor neutrino luminosities due to a change in the accretion rate. The muon- and tauon-neutrino luminosities and rms energies, however, continue to rise because previously shock-heated material with a non-degenerate electron gas starts to replace the cool degenerate material at their production site. We demonstrate this by supplementing the concept of neutrinospheres with a more detailed statistical description of the origin of escaping neutrinos. We compare the evolution of the 13 solar mass progenitor star to simulations with the MGFLD approximation, based on a recently developed flux limiter. We find similar results in the postbounce phase and validate this MGFLD approach for the spherically symmetric case with standard input physics.Comment: reformatted to 63 pages, 24 figures, to be published in ApJ

Технология сухого производства фосфоритовой муки

Описана технологія виробництва сухого фосфоритового борошна, яка включає просівання, дрібне дроблення, термічну сушіння, кульове подрібнення в замкнутому циклі з контрольним сепарацією, пневмотранспорт фосфоритового борошна в силосу. Продуктив-ність технологічної лінії – 150 тис. т у рік. Крупность помолу становить 70% кл. 0,16 мм при вологості 1%.Описана технология сухого производства фосфоритовой муки, которая включает грохочение, мелкое дробление, термическую сушку, шаровое измельчение в замкнутом цикле с контрольным грохочением, пневмотранспорт фосфоритовой муки в силоса. Производительность технологической линии – 150 тыс. т в год. Крупность помола составляет 70% кл. 0,16 мм при влажности 1%