In Determining the Criminal Liability of a Parent, Neither the Maturity of an Unemancipated Minor nor the Minor\u27s Right to Privacy Are Affirmative Defenses to Discharge Parental Duties to Their Minor Children in Life Threatening Situations: \u3cem\u3eCommonwealth v. Nixon\u3c/em\u3e

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that the mature minor doctrine will not be employed in the Commonwealth as an affirmative criminal defense discharging parents from the duty to provide care to a minor in their custody. Commonwealth v. Nixon, 761 A.2d 1151 (Pa. 2000

The Emerging Nature of Participation in Multispecies Interaction Design

Interactive technology has become integral part of daily life for both humans and animals, with animals often interacting with technologized environments on behalf of humans. For some, animals' participation in the design process is essential to design technology that can adequately support their activities. For others, animals' inability to understand and control design activities inevitably stands in the way of multispecies participatory practices. Here, we consider the essential elements of participation within interspecies interactions and illustrate its emergence, in spite of contextual constraints and asymmetries. To move beyond anthropomorphic notions of participation, and consequent anthropocentric practices, we propose a broader participatory model based on indexical semiosis, volition and choice; and we highlight dimensions that could define inclusive participatory practices more resilient to the diversity of understandings and goals among part-taking agents, and better able to account for the contribution of diverse, multispecies agents in interaction design and beyond

Transaction-Based Cause-Related Marketing: The Role of Consumer Trust and Self-congruity on Purchase Intention

The link between corporations, their socially responsible activities, and business performance has become irrefutable (Marconi, 2002). Companies grapple with how to successfully implement their socially responsible marketing activities (Marconi, 2002). Corporate social responsibility has various initiatives including corporate philanthropy, corporate statesmanship, through-the-firm giving, and profit motivated giving (Varadarajan & Menon, 1988). Cause-related marketing includes a profit motive (Varadarajan & Menon, 1988). Several studies find cause-related marketing efforts have the potential to affect consumers’ purchase intentions (Webb & Mohr, 1998)

Remorse, Psychopathology, and Psychopathy among Adolescent Offenders

Remorse has long been important to the juvenile justice system. However, the nature of this construct has not yet been clearly articulated, and little research has examined its relationships with other theoretically and legally relevant variables. The present study was intended to address these issues by examining relationships among remorse, psychopathology, and psychopathy in a sample of adolescent offenders (N = 97) using the theoretically and empirically established framework of guilt and shame (Tangney & Dearing, 2002). Findings indicated that shame was positively related to behavioural features of psychopathy, whereas guilt was negatively related to psychopathic characteristics more broadly. In addition, shame was positively associated with numerous mental health problems whereas guilt was negatively associated with anger, depression, and anxiety. These results provide empirical support for theory that psychopathy is characterized by lack of remorse (e.g., Hare, 1991), and also underscore shame and guilt as potentially important treatment targets for adolescent offenders

Ultrasound-mediated transdermal drug delivery: Mechanisms, scope, and emerging trends

The use of ultrasound for the delivery of drugs to, or through, the skin is commonly known as sonophoresis or phonophoresis. The use of therapeutic and high frequencies of ultrasound (≥ 0.7 MHz) for sonophoresis (HFS) dates back to as early as the 1950s, while low-frequency sonophoresis (LFS, 20–100 kHz) has only been investigated significantly during the past two decades. Although HFS and LFS are similar because they both utilize ultrasound to increase the skin penetration of permeants, the mechanisms associated with each physical enhancer are different. Specifically, the location of cavitation and the extent to which each process can increase skin permeability are quite dissimilar. Although the applications of both technologies are different, they each have strengths that could allow them to improve current methods of local, regional, and systemic drug delivery. In this review, we will discuss the mechanisms associated with both HFS and LFS, specifically concentrating on the key mechanistic differences between these two skin treatment methods. Background on the relevant physics associated with ultrasound transmitted through aqueous media will also be discussed, along with implications of these phenomena on sonophoresis. Finally, a thorough review of the literature is included, dating back to the first published reports of sonophoresis, including a discussion of emerging trends in the field.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant EB-00351)Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (Grant DAAD-19-02-D-002

The Role of Visual and Semantic Properties in the Emergence of Category-Specific Patterns of Neural Response in the Human Brain

Brain-imaging studies have found distinct spatial and temporal patterns of response to different object categories across the brain. However, the extent to which these categorical patterns of response reflect higher-level semantic or lower-level visual properties of the stimulus remains unclear. To address this question, we measured patterns of EEG response to intact and scrambled images in the human brain. Our rationale for using scrambled images is that they have many of the visual properties found in intact images, but do not convey any semantic information. Images from different object categories (bottle, face, house) were briefly presented (400 ms) in an event-related design. A multivariate pattern analysis revealed categorical patterns of response to intact images emerged ∼80–100 ms after stimulus onset and were still evident when the stimulus was no longer present (∼800 ms). Next, we measured the patterns of response to scrambled images. Categorical patterns of response to scrambled images also emerged ∼80–100 ms after stimulus onset. However, in contrast to the intact images, distinct patterns of response to scrambled images were mostly evident while the stimulus was present (∼400 ms). Moreover, scrambled images were able to account only for all the variance in the intact images at early stages of processing. This direct manipulation of visual and semantic content provides new insights into the temporal dynamics of object perception and the extent to which different stages of processing are dependent on lower-level or higher-level properties of the image

Selectivity for mid‐level properties of faces and places in the fusiform face area and parahippocampal place area

Regions in the ventral visual pathway, such as the fusiform face area (FFA) and parahippocampal place area (PPA), are selective for images from specific object categories. Yet images from different object categories differ in their image properties. To investigate how these image properties are represented in the FFA and PPA, we compared neural responses to locally-scrambled images (in which mid-level, spatial properties are preserved) and globally-scrambled images (in which mid-level, spatial properties are not preserved). There was a greater response in the FFA and PPA to images from the preferred category relative to their non-preferred category for the scrambled conditions. However, there was a greater selectivity for locally-scrambled compared to globally-scrambled images. Next, we compared the magnitude of fMR adaptation to intact and scrambled images. fMR-adaptation was evident to locally-scrambled images from the preferred category. However, there was no adaptation to globally-scrambled images from the preferred category. These results show that the selectivity to faces and places in the FFA and PPA is dependent on mid-level properties of the image that are preserved by local scrambling

Workplace secondhand smoke exposure in the U.S. trucking industry.

BackgroundAlthough the smoking rate in the United States is declining because of an increase of smoke-free laws, among blue-collar workers it remains higher than that among many other occupational groups.ObjectivesWe evaluated the factors influencing workplace secondhand smoke (SHS) exposures in the U.S. unionized trucking industry.MethodsFrom 2003 through 2005, we measured workplace SHS exposure among 203 nonsmoking and 61 smoking workers in 25 trucking terminals. Workers in several job groups wore personal vapor-phase nicotine samplers on their lapels for two consecutive work shifts and completed a workplace SHS exposure questionnaire at the end of the personal sampling.ResultsMedian nicotine level was 0.87 microg/m3 for nonsmokers and 5.96 microg/m3 for smokers. As expected, smokers experienced higher SHS exposure duration and intensity than did nonsmokers. For nonsmokers, multiple regression analyses indicated that self-reported exposure duration combined with intensity, lack of a smoking policy as reported by workers, having a nondriver job, and lower educational level were independently associated with elevated personal nicotine levels (model R2 = 0.52). Nondriver job and amount of active smoking were associated with elevated personal nicotine level in smokers, but self-reported exposure, lack of a smoking policy, and lower educational level were not.ConclusionsDespite movements toward smoke-free laws, this population of blue-collar workers was still exposed to workplace SHS as recently as 2005. The perceived (reported by the workers), rather than the official (reported by the terminal managers), smoking policy was associated with measured SHS exposure levels among the nonsmokers. Job duties and educational level might also be important predictors of workplace SHS exposure

Short-term stability of psychopathic traits in adolescent offenders

There is considerable debate about the assessment of psychopathic traits in adolescence due in part to questions regarding the stability of traits. We investigated the 6-month stability of psychopathic traits in a sample of 83 male adolescent offenders using an augmented protocol for the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version and the self-report Antisocial Process Screening Device. Findings suggested moderate to high stability of psychopathic traits, as indexed by total scores, and low to moderate stability of psychopathic traits at the factor level. The interpersonal and behavioral traits demonstrated greater stability relative to the affective traits, and stability varied by developmental stage, with lower stability in early adolescence. Implications for understanding the developmental expression of psychopathic traits in adolescence, as well as for clinical-forensic practice, are discussed