A bigger piece of the pie? State corrections spending and the politics of social order

Author's manuscript made available in accordance with the publisher's policy.The dramatic increase in American state prison populations during the past three decades has sparked considerable research interest. Empirical research has most often examined changes in prison admissions or populations, but few studies have considered shifts in state corrections budgets. This study examines variation in annual, state-level corrections expenditures as a proportion of state expenditures from 1980 to 1998, drawing together existing theoretical arguments about criminal punishment under a common rubric that focuses on state responsibility for the maintenance of social order and the need for state officials to maintain office through popular election. From this view, partisan politics, economic and racial threats, citizen preferences, fiscal considerations, policy priorities, and crime are important explanations of corrections spending because they affect strategies for maintaining social order, garnering votes, and maintaining political office. Findings generally support this perspective. Partisan politics, racial threats, state economic prosperity, and budgetary priorities all play a role in determining state corrections expenditures

PARTISAN POLITICS, ELECTORAL COMPETITION, AND IMPRISONMENT: AN ANALYSIS OF STATES OVER TIME

Author's manuscript made available in accordance with the publisher's policy.The now well-documented explosion in prison populations over the last 30 years has spurred significant attention in the literature. Early research focused primarily on economic explanations. More recently it has focused on political explanations of prison growth. Here we extend research on political explanations of imprisonment by drawing on the literature on state politics and public policy. We argue that the effect of partisan politics on punishment is conditional on how much electoral competition legislators face. We test this hypothesis using annual state level data on imprisonment from 1978 to 1996. Our findings show that the effect of Republican state legislative strength on prison admissions depends on time and the level of competition in state legislative elections. We argue that these findings suggest the need for a more nuanced understanding of the link between partisan U.S. politics and imprisonment

The Retail FX Trader: Random Trading and the Negative Sum Game

With the internet boom of early 2000 making access to trading the Foreign Exchange (FX) market far simpler for members of the general public, the growth of 'retail' FX trading continues, with daily transaction volumes as high as $200 billion. Potential new entrants to the retail FX trading world may come from the recent UK pension deregulations, further increasing the volumes. The attraction of FX trading is that it offers high returns and whilst it has been understood that it is high-risk in nature, the rewards are seen as being commensurately high for the 'skilled and knowledgeable' trader who has an edge over other market participants. This paper analyses a number of independent sources of data and previous research, to examine the profitability of the Retail FX trader and compares the results with that of a simulated random trading models. This paper finds evidence to suggest that whilst approximately 20% of traders can expect to end up with a profitable account, around 40% might expect their account to be subject to a margin call. This paper finds a strong correlation between the overall profitability of traders and impact of the cost of the bid-ask spread, whilst finding little if any evidence that retail FX traders, when viewed as a group, are achieving results better than that from random trading

Effect of active immunization against growth hormone releasing factor on concentrations of somatotropin and insulin-like growth factor I in lactating beef cows

Two experiments were conducted to determine the effects of immunoneutralization of growth hormone-releasing factor [GRF(1–29)-NH2] on concentrations of somatotropin (ST) and insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) in lactating beef cows. In Experiment 1, multiparous Hereford cows were immunized against 2 mg GRF(1–29)-(Gly)4-Cys-NH2 conjugated to human serum albumin (GRFi, n=3) or 2 mg human serum albumin (HSAi, n=3) at 52 ± 1 d prior to parturition. Boosters (1 mg) were administered on days 12, 40 and 114 postpartum (pp). Serum samples were collected at 15-min intervals for 5 hr on days 18, 46 and 120 pp, followed by administration (IV) of an opioid agonist (FK33-824; 10 μg/kg) and an antagonist (naloxone; .5 mg/kg) at hours 5 and 7, respectively. A GRF-analog ([desamino-Tyr1, D-Ala2, Ala15] GRF (1–29)-NH2; 3.5 μg/kg) and arginine (.5 g/kg) were administered at hour 10 on days 47 and 121, respectively. Percentage binding of [125I]GRF (1:100 dilution of serum) 28 d after primary immunization was greater in GRFi (14.3 ± 4.9) than in HSAi (.7 ± .3) cows. Binding increased to 29.3 ± 6.5% after first booster in GRFi cows. Episodic release of ST was abolished by immunization against GRF; concentration and frequency of release of ST were lower (P125I]GRF, absence of pulsatile release of ST, low concentrations of ST and IGF-I and failure of ST to increase after IV opioid agonist or arginine

Evaluating the sensitivity of hybridization-based epigenotyping using a methyl binding domain protein

Hypermethylation of CpG islands in gene promoter regions has been shown to be a predictive biomarker for certain diseases. Most current methods for methylation profiling are not well-suited for clinical analysis. Here, we report the development of an inexpensive device and an epigenotyping assay with a format conducive to multiplexed analysis.David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT (First-year Graduate Fellowship)National Science Foundation (U.S.). Graduate Research FellowshipBurroughs Wellcome Fund (Career Award at the Scientific Interface)National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (Grant P30-ES002109)Massachusetts Institute of Technology. James H. Ferry Fund for Innovation in Research Educatio

Ontogeny of synaptophysin and synaptoporin in the central nervous system

The expression of the synaptic vesicle antigens synaptophysin (SY) and synaptoporin (SO) was studied in the rat striatum, which contains a nearly homogeneous population of GABAergic neurons. In situ hybridization revealed high levels of SY transcripts in the striatal anlage from embryonic day (E) 14 until birth. In contrast. SO hybridization signals were low, and no immunoreactive cell bodies were detected at these stages of development. At E 14, SY-immunoreactivity was restricted to perikarya. In later prenatal stages of development SY-immunoreactivity appeared in puncta (identified as terminals containing immunostained synaptic vesicles), fibers, thick fiber bundles and ‘patches’. In postnatal and adult animals, perikarya of striatal neurons exhibited immunoreaction for SO; ultrastructurally SO antigen was found in the Golgi apparatus and in multivesicular bodies. SO-positive boutons were rare in the striatum. In the neuropil, numerous presynaptic terminals positive for SY were observed. Our data indicate that the expression of synaptic vesicle proteins in GABAergic neurons of the striatum is developmentally regulated. Whereas SY is prevalent during embryonic development, SO is the major synaptic vesicle antigen expressed postnatally by striatal neurons which project to the globus pallidus and the substantia nigra. In contrast synapses of striatal afferents (predominantly from cortex, thalamus and substantia nigra) contain SY

Clostridium difficile Infection in Outpatients, Maryland and Connecticut, USA, 2002–2007

Clostridium difficile, the most commonly recognized diarrheagenic pathogen among hospitalized persons, can cause outpatient diarrhea. Of 1,091 outpatients with diarrhea, we found 43 (3.9%) who were positive for C. difficile toxin. Only 7 had no recognized risk factors, and 3 had neither risk factors nor co-infection with another enteric pathogen

Imaging of alert patients after non-self-inflicted strangulation: MRI is superior to CT.

OBJECTIVE To assess the accuracy of CT and MRI reports of alert patients presenting after non-self-inflicted strangulation (NSIS) and evaluate the appropriateness of these imaging modalities in NSIS. MATERIAL AND METHODS The study was a retrospective analysis of patient characteristics and strangulation details, with a comparison of original radiology reports (ORR) to expert read-outs (EXR) of CT and MRI studies of all NSIS cases seen from 2008 to 2020 at a single centre. RESULTS The study included 116 patients (71% women, p < .001, χ2), with an average age of 33.8 years, mostly presenting after manual strangulation (97%). Most had experienced intimate partner violence (74% of women, p < .001, χ2) or assault by unknown offender (88% of men, p < 0.002 χ2). Overall, 132 imaging studies (67 CT, 51% and 65 MRI, 49%) were reviewed. Potentially dangerous injuries were present in 7%, minor injuries in 22%, and no injuries in 71% of patients. Sensitivity and specificity of ORR were 78% and 97% for MRI and 30% and 98% for CT. Discrepancies between ORR and EXR occurred in 18% of all patients, or 62% of injured patients, with a substantial number of unreported injuries on CT. CONCLUSIONS The results indicate that MRI is more appropriate than CT for alert patients presenting after non-self-inflicted strangulation and underline the need for radiologists with specialist knowledge to report these cases in order to add value to both patient care and potential future medico-legal investigations. CLINICAL RELEVANCE STATEMENT MRI should be preferred over CT for the investigation of strangulation related injuries in alert patients because MRI has a higher accuracy than CT and does not expose this usually young patient population to ionizing radiation. KEY POINTS • Patients presenting after strangulation are often young women with a history of intimate partner violence while men typically present after assault by an unknown offender. • Expert read-outs of CT and MRI revealed potentially dangerous injuries in one of 14 patients. • MRI has a significantly higher sensitivity than CT and appears to be more appropriate for the diagnostic workup of alert patients after strangulation

AMPA receptor GluA2 subunit defects are a cause of neurodevelopmental disorders

AMPA receptors (AMPARs) are tetrameric ligand-gated channels made up of combinations of GluA1-4 subunits encoded by GRIA1-4 genes. GluA2 has an especially important role because, following post-transcriptional editing at the Q607 site, it renders heteromultimeric AMPARs Ca2+-impermeable, with a linear relationship between current and trans-membrane voltage. Here, we report heterozygous de novo GRIA2 mutations in 28 unrelated patients with intellectual disability (ID) and neurodevelopmental abnormalities including autism spectrum disorder (ASD), Rett syndrome-like features, and seizures or developmental epileptic encephalopathy (DEE). In functional expression studies, mutations lead to a decrease in agonist-evoked current mediated by mutant subunits compared to wild-type channels. When GluA2 subunits are co-expressed with GluA1, most GRIA2 mutations cause a decreased current amplitude and some also affect voltage rectification. Our results show that de-novo variants in GRIA2 can cause neurodevelopmental disorders, complementing evidence that other genetic causes of ID, ASD and DEE also disrupt glutamatergic synaptic transmission