Offenders' Crime Narratives across Different Types of Crimes

The current study explores the roles offenders see themselves playing during an offence and their relationship to different crime types. One hundred and twenty incarcerated offenders indicated the narrative roles they acted out whilst committing a specific crime they remembered well. The data were subjected to Smallest Space Analysis (SSA) and four themes were identified: Hero, Professional, Revenger and Victim in line with the recent theoretical framework posited for Narrative Offence Roles (Youngs & Canter, 2012). Further analysis showed that different subsets of crimes were more like to be associated with different narrative offence roles. Hero and Professional were found to be associated with property offences (theft, burglary and shoplifting), drug offences and robbery and Revenger and Victim were found to be associated with violence, sexual offences and murder. The theoretical implications for understanding crime on the basis of offenders' narrative roles as well as practical implications are discussed

The Endowment Effect in Orangutans

The endowment effect is the tendency to, seemingly irrationally, immediately value a possessed item more than the opportunity to acquire the identical item when one does not already possess it. Although endowment effects are reported in chimpanzees (Brosnan, Jones, Lambeth, Mareno, Richardson, & Shapiro, 2007) and capuchin monkeys (Lakshminarayanan, Chen, & Santos, 2008), both species share social traits with humans that make convergence as likely an evolutionary mechanism as homology. Orangutans (Pongo spp.) provide a unique insight into the evolution of the endowment effect, along with other apparently irrational behaviors, because their less frequent social interactions and relatively more solitary social organization distinguishes them from the more gregarious apes, allowing a test of evolutionary homology. In the present study, we used pairs of both food and non-food objects, as in an earlier test on chimpanzees (Brosnan et al., 2007). We established the apes’ preferences in forced-choice tasks, then tested whether they showed an endowment effect in an exchange task, in which subjects were given one of the objects, followed by the option to exchange it for the other. Here, we report the first evidence of the endowment effect in a relatively less social primate, the orangutan. This indicates that this behavior may have evolved as a homology within the primates, rather than being due to convergent social pressures. These findings provide stronger evidence for the hypothesis that at least one bias, the endowment effect, may be common in primates and, potentially, other species

VALOR NUTRICIONAL DO GIRASSOL (Helianthus annuus L.) COMO FORRAGEIRA

No ano agrícola de 1998/1999, o experimento foi conduzido no município de São José do Pinhais (Pr), com o objetivo de avaliar a qualidade nutricional do girassol como forrageira. Dois genótipos comerciais (DK-180 e Rumbosol-91) foram caracterizados morfologicamente e avaliados quanto à sua composição bromatológica em três estádios de desenvolvimento. O delineamento experimental baseouse em arranjo fatorial 2x3 (2 genótipos e 3 estádios), com seis repetições (unidade experimental) para as características estudadas. O plantio de genótipos foi realizado em novembro de 1998 e a colheita realizada em 85, 97 e 111 dias após, para o genótipo DK-180, e 97, 105 e 112 dias, para o genótipo Rumbosol-91. Nas análises bromatológicas, o genótipo DK-180 foi considerado o de melhor qualidade (

In the Interests of clients or commerce? Legal aid, supply, demand, and 'ethical indeterminacy' in criminal defence work

As a professional, a lawyer's first duty is to serve the client's best interests, before simple monetary gain. In criminal defence work, this duty has been questioned in the debate about the causes of growth in legal aid spending: is it driven by lawyers (suppliers) inducing unnecessary demand for their services or are they merely responding to increased demand? Research reported here found clear evidence of a change in the handling of cases in response to new payment structures, though in ways unexpected by the policy's proponents. The paper develops the concept of 'ethical indeterminacy' as a way of understanding how defence lawyers seek to reconcile the interests of commerce and clients. Ethical indeterminacy suggests that where different courses of action could each be said to benefit the client, the lawyer will tend to advise the client to decide in the lawyer's own interests. Ethical indeterminacy is mediated by a range of competing conceptions of 'quality' and 'need'. The paper goes on to question the very distinction between 'supply' and 'demand' in the provision of legal services

History-sensitive versus future-sensitive approaches to security in distributed systems

We consider the use of aspect-oriented techniques as a flexible way to deal with security policies in distributed systems. Recent work suggests to use aspects for analysing the future behaviour of programs and to make access control decisions based on this; this gives the flavour of dealing with information flow rather than mere access control. We show in this paper that it is beneficial to augment this approach with history-based components as is the traditional approach in reference monitor-based approaches to mandatory access control. Our developments are performed in an aspect-oriented coordination language aiming to describe the Bell-LaPadula policy as elegantly as possible. Furthermore, the resulting language has the capability of combining both history- and future-sensitive policies, providing even more flexibility and power.Comment: In Proceedings ICE 2010, arXiv:1010.530

RAÇÃO FARELADA COM DIFERENTES GRANULOMETRIAS EM FRANGOS DE CORTE

Em geral, o diâmetro geométrico médio (DGM) das partículas das rações não tem afetado o desempenho de frangos de corte, em situações experimentais. Por meio deste, objetivou-se verificar se o mesmo ocorre em criações comerciais e, também, avaliar possíveis benefícios econômicos do uso da ração com maior DGM. Para isso, o presente trabalho buscou avaliar o desempenho zootécnico em frangos de corte da linhagem ROSS, do 1º ao 42º dia de idade, arraçoados com diferentes granulometrias. O experimento foi conduzido nos meses de agosto e setembro de 1998, no aviário experimental da Cooperativa Agrícola Consolata Ltda. Em delineamento em blocos casualizados, foram testados os DGMs: 0,833, 0,703 e 1,058 mm, na fase pré-inicial; 0,829, 0,703 e 1,086 mm, na fase inicial, e; 0,818, 0,649 e 0,912 mm, na fase de crescimento. O DGM dos tratamentos apresentou influência (P < 0,05) sobre o consumo de ração de pintainhos na fase pré-inicial, sendo observadas poucas modificações (P > 0,05) no desempenho das outras fases de criação e na mortalidade das aves. Entretanto, a lucratividade inerente aos tratamentos, pode ser aumentada em até 2,78%, em função da diminuição da moagem e/ou aumento do DGM. Use of mashed rations with different particle sizes for broilers Abstract In general, the average geometric diameter (AGD) of ration has not affected broilers performance in experimental situations. The objective of this experiment was to investigate if such statement is true also for commercial farms and to evaluate the possible economic benefits of using larger ration particle sizes. For that, in the present work, ROSS broilers had theis performance estimated, from the 1st up to the 42nd day of age, fed with rations of different particle sizes. The experiment was developed during August and September of 1998, in the experimental aviary from Cooperativa Agrícola Consolata Ltda. Statistical design was of random blocks and treatment were (AGD's): 0.833, 0.703 and 1.058 mm, in the pre-initial phase; 0.829, 0.703 and 1.086 mm, in the initial phase, and; 0.818, 0.649 and 0.912 mm, in the growth phase. Treatments AGDs treatment showed influence (P < 0.05) on the consumption of chick ration in the pre-initial phase. Few modifications were observed (P > 0.05) in the acting of the other feeding phases and in the mortality of the birds. However, the gross margin related to treatments can be increased up to 2.78%, as a result of the decrease of the grinding and/or AGDs increase

Results of international standardised beekeeper surveys of colony losses for winter 2012-2013 : analysis of winter loss rates and mixed effects modelling of risk factors for winter loss.

This article presents results of an analysis of winter losses of honey bee colonies from 19 mainly European countries, most of which implemented the standardised 2013 COLOSS questionnaire. Generalised linear mixed effects models (GLMMs) were used to investigate the effects of several factors on the risk of colony loss, including different treatments for Varroa destructor, allowing for random effects of beekeeper and region. Both winter and summer treatments were considered, and the most common combinations of treatment and timing were used to define treatment factor levels. Overall and within country colony loss rates are presented. Significant factors in the model were found to be: percentage of young queens in the colonies before winter, extent of queen problems in summer, treatment of the varroa mite, and access by foraging honey bees to oilseed rape and maize. Spatial variation at the beekeeper level is shown across geographical regions using random effects from the fitted models, both before and after allowing for the effect of the significant terms in the model. This spatial variation is considerable

Two Years Later: Journals Are Not Yet Enforcing the ARRIVE Guidelines on Reporting Standards for Pre-Clinical Animal Studies

There is growing concern that poor experimental design and lack of transparent reporting contribute to the frequent failure of pre-clinical animal studies to translate into treatments for human disease. In 2010, the Animal Research: Reporting of In Vivo Experiments (ARRIVE) guidelines were introduced to help improve reporting standards. They were published in PLOS Biology and endorsed by funding agencies and publishers and their journals, including PLOS, Nature research journals, and other top-tier journals. Yet our analysis of papers published in PLOS and Nature journals indicates that there has been very little improvement in reporting standards since then. This suggests that authors, referees, and editors generally are ignoring guidelines, and the editorial endorsement is yet to be effectively implemented

Safe storage of pesticides in Sri Lanka – Identifying important design features influencing community acceptance and use of safe storage devices

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Self-poisoning with pesticides is the cause of an estimated 300,000 deaths annually in rural Asia. The great majority of these deaths are from impulsive acts of self-harm using pesticides that are readily available in the home. The secure storage of pesticides under lock has been emphasized as a possible answer to the problem. This aspect, however, has been poorly researched. In this paper, we report on the design and use, in rural Sri Lanka, of a variety of different lockable storage devices.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Following a baseline survey of pesticide storage practices, randomly selected households received a pesticide safe storage device. The study was conducted in two phases. In the first phase a total of 200 households in two villages were provided with in-house safe storage devices and two follow-up surveys were conducted seven and 24 months after distribution. The results of the seven month post-distribution survey have already been published. In the second phase, a further 168 households were selected in two additional villages and given a choice between an in-house and an in-field storage device and a follow-up survey conducted seven months after distribution. Both follow-up surveys aimed to assess the use of the device, obtain detailed user feedback on the different storage designs, and to identify problems faced with safeguarding the key. Twelve focus group discussions were held with representatives of households that received a storage device to derive from the community qualitative feedback on the design requirements for such devices.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>One hundred and sixty one of the 200 households selected during the first phase were using pesticides at the time of the follow-up survey, 24 months after distribution. Of these 161 households 89 (55%) had the pesticides stored and locked in the provided device. Among the 168 households that were given a choice between an in-house and an in-field storage device 156 used pesticides at the time of survey and of these 103 (66%) selected in-field storage devices and 34% chose in-house storage devices. Of the 156 households, 106 (68%) stored all pesticides in a locked storage device at the time of the follow-up survey seven months after distribution. The majority of households that received an in-field storage device chose to install the device within their compound rather than in the field as they were concerned about the possibility of theft. The preferred design of the storage device was influenced by a number of occupational factors such as land size, crop patterns, types and the quantity of pesticides used. The presence of termites, perceived safety, material used to manufacture the device and ease of location influenced their choice. The study revealed that it was difficult to keep the key to the device hidden from children; and that the person in charge of the key would have easy access to the stored poison.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study confirms the high acceptance of lockable storage devices by the community although the use of the device reduced over time. A large proportion of pesticides stored within the compound after the introduction of the device may have implications for accessibility to pesticides in the domestic environment. The ability of other household members, including children, to easily find the key is also worrying.</p