The contributory role of autism symptomology in child pornography offending : why there is an urgent need for empirical research in this area

Purpose As recently highlighted by Creaby-Attwood and Allely (2017) it is crucial that the possible innate vulnerabilities that contributed to sexual offending behaviour in an individual with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are taken into consideration for the application of a diversion program to avoid the stigma of a criminal conviction or during sentencing for a non-custodial outcome. Specifically, in those defendants with a diagnosis of what used to be referred to as Asperger's Syndrome (AS) and now is recognised as an ASD and who are charged and convicted of a non-contact sexual offence, education and mental health intervention will best serve the interests of justice. Design/methodology/approach This paper focuses on one particular type of sexual offending behaviour, namely, possession of child pornography. A systematic PRISMA review was conducted. Findings The authors linked examples of child pornography in the research literature to the ASD symptomology and describe how the symptomology explains such behaviour as not reflecting actual sexual deviance. Originality/value Downloading and viewing of child pornography by individuals with ASD has received relatively little research outside the mental health field. This review is of particular importance to those in the criminal justice system who may not have much knowledge and understanding of ASD. It is suggested that diversion programmes and mental health courts should be set up for this particular population charged with this particular crime in mind so that the necessary treatment/intervention/support and care can be given to this particular group. Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorder; Asperger’s syndrome; child pornography; child exploitative material; pretrial diversio

Predictability of European winter 2020/2021: Influence of a mid‐winter sudden stratospheric warming

This is the final version. Available from Wiley via the DOI in this record. DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT: The GloSea5 and ERA5 data used in the paper are available from the C3S Climate data store (https://cds.climate. copernicus.eu/#!/home). HadSST4 is available from https:// www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadsst4/, and HadSLP2r is available from https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/ hadslp2/.Boreal winter (December–February) 2020/2021 in the North Atlantic/European region was characterised by a negative North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index. Although this was captured within the ensemble spread of predictions from the Met Office Global Seasonal forecast system (GloSea5), with 17% of ensemble members predicting an NAO less than zero, the forecast ensemble mean was shifted towards a positive NAO phase. The observed monthly NAO anomalies were particularly negative in January and February, following an early January sudden stratospheric warming (SSW), and a prolonged period of Phase 6 or 7 of the Madden Julian Oscillation (MJO) in late January/early February. In contrast, predictions showed the expected teleconnection from the observed La Niña, with a positive NAO signal resulting from a weakening of the Aleutian Low leading to a reduction in tropospheric wave activity, an increase in polar vortex strength and a reduced chance of an SSW. Forecasts initialised later in the winter season successfully predicted the negative NAO in January and February once the SSW and MJO were within the medium range timescale. GloSea5 likely over-predicted the strength of the La Niña which we estimate caused a small negative bias in the SSW probability. However, this error is smaller than the uncertainty in SSW probability from the finite forecast ensemble size, emphasising the need for large forecast ensembles. This case study also demonstrates the advantage of continuously updated lagged ensemble forecasts over a ‘burst’ ensemble started on a fixed date, since a change in forecast signal due to events within the season can be detected early and promptly communicated to users.United Kingdom Public Weather ServiceMet Office Hadley Centre Climate Programm

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead