Examining the Association of Crime Laboratory Practices, Internal and External Determinants, and DNA Case Completion Time and Backlog

ABSTRACT EXAMINING THE ASSOCIATION OF CRIME LABORATORY PRACTICES, INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL DETERMINANTS, AND DNA CASE COMPLETION TIME AND BACKLOG by Eva Marie Lewis King The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2015 Under the Supervision of Dr. Ron Cisler Crime laboratories across the country have reported caselog information that supports the fact that case submissions have resulted in very large DNA backlogs. The onset of these DNA backlogs developed a public safety and population health crisis. Literature suggests crime laboratories faced submission of DNA cases in a manner similar to the onset of an epidemic. Literature also suggests the use of novel approaches to tackling crime and public safety issues which influenced the approach to this study. Using a population health framework, the purpose of this study is to examine the association of determinants, the Crime Lab policies and programs, and the outcomes of case completion time, backlog status and the percent of cases completed annually. The specific aim of this study is to examine the association of Crime Lab practices, internal and external determinants, and outcomes on the Wisconsin State Crime Laboratory-Milwaukee DNA caselog for: 1) Case completion time; 2) Backlog status; and 3) Percent of backlogged cases remaining at the start of each year examined. This study follows an epidemiological retrospective study design and applies a population health framework to examine Crime Lab data for caselog status. Electronic case file data from December 2007 through December 2013 stored in the Laboratory Information Management System BEAST was retrieved using Crystal Reports®. Descriptive statistics using averages and counts with descriptive graphs were used to examine the data. The case completion time is derived by determining the difference in days to completion since the time of submission. The backlog definition of use here is a case in the Crime Lab greater than 30 days from case submission to case completion. A set of possible determinants including Crime Lab access, internal personnel behaviors and external suspect behaviors are indicated by case submissions, case completions and case offense type respectively. These determinants, the Crime Lab policies and programs, and the outcome of average case completion time, backlog status, and percent cases completed were examined. The associations of the examined determinants, Crime Lab policies and programs, case completion time and backlog status revealed a reduced case completion time, a reduced backlog, and an increase in case completion percentages. The implications of this study that meaningful examination of a DNA backlog using a population health framework are discussed with recommendation to explore the suspect geographical determinant and suspect biological determinants of age, sex and race for future study

Centre for the Economics of Mental and Physical Health: 20 years of applying health economics in complex context

Last week, the Centre for the Economics of Mental and Physical Health (CEMPH; @CEMPH_KCL) at King’s College London celebrated 20 years of research in mental and physical health economics with a one-day conference at the Mary Ward House in London

Mindfulness online: a preliminary evaluation of the feasibility of a web-based mindfulness course and the impact on stress

OBJECTIVES: Stress has been shown to have a number of negative effects on health over time. Mindfulness interventions have been shown to decrease perceived stress but access to interventions is limited. Therefore, the effectiveness of an online mindfulness course for perceived stress was investigated. DESIGN: A preliminary evaluation of an online mindfulness course. PARTICIPANTS: This sample consisted of 100 self-referrals to the online course. The average age of participants was 48 years and 74% were women. INTERVENTIONS: The online programme consisted of modules taken from Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy and lasted for approximately 6 weeks. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Participants completed the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) before the course, after the course and at 1-month follow-up. Completion of formal (eg, body scan, mindful movement) and informal (eg, mindful meal, noticing) mindfulness activities was self-reported each week. RESULTS: Participation in the online mindfulness course significantly reduced perceived stress upon completion and remained stable at follow-up. The pre-post effect size was equivalent to levels found in other class-based mindfulness programmes. Furthermore, people who had higher PSS scores before the course reported engaging in significantly more mindfulness practice, which was in turn associated with greater decreases in PSS. CONCLUSIONS: Because perceived stress significantly decreased with such limited exposure to mindfulness, there are implications for the accessibility of mindfulness therapies online. Future research needs to evaluate other health outcomes for which face-to-face mindfulness therapies have been shown to help, such as anxiety and depressive symptoms

The influence of genetic variation in gene expression

Variations in gene expression have long been hypothesised to be the major cause of individual differences. An initial focus of this research thesis is to elucidate the genetic regulatory architecture of gene expression. Expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) mapping analyses have been performed on expression levels of over 22,000 mRNAs from three tissues of a panel of recombinant inbred mice. These analyses are "single-locus" where "linkage" (i.e. significant correlation) between an expression trait and a putative eQTL is considered independently of other loci. Major conclusions from these analyses are: 1. Gene expression is mainly influenced by genetic (sequence) variations that act in trans rather than in cis; 2. Subsets of genes are controlled by master regulators that influence multiple genes; 3. Gene expression is a polygenic trait with multiple regulators. Single-locus mapping analyses are not designed for detecting multiple regulators of gene expression, and so observation of multiple-linkages (i.e. one expression trait mapped to multiple eQTLs) formed the basis of the second objective of this research project: to investigate the relationship between multiple-linkages and genotype pattern-association. A locus-pair is said to have associated genotype patterns if they have similar inheritance pattern across a panel of individuals, and these are attributed to one of fours sources: 1. linkage disequilibrium between loci located on the same chromosome; 2. non-syntenic association; 3. random association; 4. un-associated. To understand the validity of multiple-linkages observed in single-locus mapping studies, a newly developed method, bqtl.twolocus, is applied to confirm two-locus effects for a total of 898 out of 1,233 multiple-linkages identified from the three studies mentioned above as well as from seven publicly available eQTL-mapping studies. Combining these results with information of genotype pattern-association, a subset of 478 multiple-linkages has been deduced for which there is high confidence to be real

GPS studies of active deformation in the Pyrenees

The Pyrenees mountain belt, which separates the Iberian Peninsula from the rest of the European continent, is part of the AlpineHimalayan orogenic belt, formed as a result of a collision between the African and Eurasian Plates. Although the instrumental seismicity in the Pyrenees is moderate, in the past centuries a number of destructive earthquakes have occurred, which could indicate continuing tectonic activity of the area. We analyse GPS observations spanning 3.5 yr from 35 continuous stations in the Pyrenees region and find significant on-going extension perpendicular to the range at 2.5 ± 0.5 nstrain yr1, with the possibility of higher strain rates concentrated in the westernmost part of the range. This finding is in agreement with the predominantly normal faulting focal mechanisms of earthquakes that occur in the area and suggests a recurrence time for magnitude 6.5 earthquakes of 22002500 yr

Privatization and the postsocialist fertility decline

In this article, we analyze the privatization of companies as a potential but so far neglected factor behind the postsocialist fertility decline. We test this hypothesis using a novel database comprising information on the demographic and enterprise trajectories of 52 Hungarian towns between 1989-2006 and a cross-country dataset of 28 countries in Eastern Europe. We fit fixed and random-effects models adjusting for potential confounding factors and control for time-variant factors and common trends. We find that privatization is significantly associated with fertility decline, explaining approximately half of the overall fertility decline across the 52 towns and the 28 countries

Privatization and the Postsocialist Fertility Decline

In this article, we analyze the privatization of companies as a potential but so far neglected factor behind the postsocialist fertility decline. We test this hypothesis using a novel database comprising information on the demographic and enterprise trajectories of 52 Hungarian towns between 1989-2006 and a cross-country dataset of 28 countries in Eastern Europe. We fit fixed and random-effects models adjusting for potential confounding factors and control for time-variant factors and common trends. We find that privatization is significantly associated with fertility decline, explaining approximately half of the overall fertility decline across the 52 towns and the 28 countries

Rumen microbial degradation of bromoform from red seaweed (Asparagopsis taxiformis) and the impact on rumen fermentation and methanogenic archaea

Background The red macroalgae Asparagopsis is an effective methanogenesis inhibitor due to the presence of halogenated methane (CH4) analogues, primarily bromoform (CHBr3). This study aimed to investigate the degradation process of CHBr3 from A. taxiformis in the rumen and whether this process is diet-dependent. An in vitro batch culture system was used according to a 2 × 2 factorial design, assessing two A. taxiformis inclusion rates [0 (CTL) and 2% DM diet (AT)] and two diets [high-concentrate (HC) and high-forage diet (HF)]. Incubations lasted for 72 h and samples of headspace and fermentation liquid were taken at 0, 0.5, 1, 3, 6, 8, 12, 16, 24, 48 and 72 h to assess the pattern of degradation of CHBr3 into dibromomethane (CH2Br2) and fermentation parameters. Additionally, an in vitro experiment with pure cultures of seven methanogens strains (Methanobrevibacter smithii, Methanobrevibacter ruminantium, Methanosphaera stadtmanae, Methanosarcina barkeri, Methanobrevibacter millerae, Methanothermobacter wolfei and Methanobacterium mobile) was conducted to test the effects of increasing concentrations of CHBr3 (0.4, 2, 10 and 50 µmol/L). Results The addition of AT significantly decreased CH4 production (P = 0.002) and the acetate:propionate ratio (P = 0.003) during a 72-h incubation. The concentrations of CHBr3 showed a rapid decrease with nearly 90% degraded within the first 3 h of incubation. On the contrary, CH2Br2 concentration quickly increased during the first 6 h and then gradually decreased towards the end of the incubation. Neither CHBr3 degradation nor CH2Br2 synthesis were affected by the type of diet used as substrate, suggesting that the fermentation rate is not a driving factor involved in CHBr3 degradation. The in vitro culture of methanogens showed a dose-response effect of CHBr3 by inhibiting the growth of M. smithii, M. ruminantium, M. stadtmanae, M. barkeri, M. millerae, M. wolfei, and M. mobile. Conclusions The present work demonstrated that CHBr3 from A. taxiformis is quickly degraded to CH2Br2 in the rumen and that the fermentation rate promoted by different diets is not a driving factor involved in CHBr3 degradation