The Use of the Polygraph with Sex Offenders in the UK

From introduction: "For more than ten years the polygraph has been the subject of research and increased application with sex off enders in the United Kingdom. However, it is not without its detractors (Ben-Shakhar, 2008; Lykken, 1998; Meijer, Verschuere, Merckelbach and Crombez, 2008). Indeed, Craig (2011), described it as “a lightning rod for controversy” (p. 59), principally because of ongoing disputes with regard to its scientifi c acceptability (Grubin, 2008), its accuracy/ validity (Madsen, 2009) and its ethical standing (Vess, 2010)."(...

Predicting criticality and dynamic range in complex networks: effects of topology

The collective dynamics of a network of coupled excitable systems in response to an external stimulus depends on the topology of the connections in the network. Here we develop a general theoretical approach to study the effects of network topology on dynamic range, which quantifies the range of stimulus intensities resulting in distinguishable network responses. We find that the largest eigenvalue of the weighted network adjacency matrix governs the network dynamic range. Specifically, a largest eigenvalue equal to one corresponds to a critical regime with maximum dynamic range. We gain deeper insight on the effects of network topology using a nonlinear analysis in terms of additional spectral properties of the adjacency matrix. We find that homogeneous networks can reach a higher dynamic range than those with heterogeneous topology. Our analysis, confirmed by numerical simulations, generalizes previous studies in terms of the largest eigenvalue of the adjacency matrix.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

The legal framework for private sector development in a transitional economy : the case of Poland

The economies of Central and Eastern Europe are in the midst of a historic transition from central planning and state ownership to development of a market-driven private sector. This transition requires comprehensive changes in"rules of the game"- including the legal framework for economic activity. A market economy presupposes a set of property rights and a system of laws or customs that allow the exchange of those rights. The legal framework in a market economy has at least three basic functions: defining the universe of property rights; setting the rules for entry into and exit from productive activities; and setting the rules of market exchange. These legal tasks are accomplished by areas of law such as: company, foreign investment, bankruptcy, contract and competition law. Poland has a rich legal tradition dating from pre-socialist times, which was suppressed but not eliminated during its forty years of socialism. This tradition is being revised as the country moves toward a private market economy. The current legal framework in Poland closely follows other continental jurisdictions and has a clear and reasonable internal logic. Many of the laws are old, but most are flexible enough to permit a wide range of modern, market-oriented activity. Property law, however, remains a"jungle". The wide discretion and general lack of precedent create tremendous legal uncertainty that is sure to hamper private sector development.Environmental Economics&Policies,Banks&Banking Reform,Municipal Housing and Land,Legal Products,Land and Real Estate Development

An Alternative to Dye-Based Approaches to Remove Background Autofluorescence From Primate Brain Tissue

Brain tissue contains autofluorescing elements that potentially impede accurate identification of neurons when visualized with fluorescent microscopy. Age-related accumulation of molecules with autofluorescent properties, such as lipofuscin, can possess spectral profiles that invade the typical emission range of fluorophores commonly utilized in fluorescent microscopy. The traditional method for accounting for this native fluorescence is to apply lipophilic dyes that are able to sequester these unwanted signals. While effective, such dyes can present a range of problems including the obstruction of fluorescent probe emissions. The present study utilizes aged primate midbrain tissue stained for tyrosine hydroxylase and calbindin to investigate an image processing approach for removing autofluorescence utilizing spectral imaging and linear unmixing. This technique is then compared against the traditional, dye-based autofluorescence sequestration method using Sudan Black B (SBB). Spectral imaging and linear unmixing yielded significantly higher cell numbers than SBB treatment. This finding suggests that computational approaches for removing autofluorescence in neural tissue are both viable and preferential to dye-based approaches for estimation of cell body numbers.NIA [R01 AG050548, P51 RR000169, F31 AG055263]; McKnight Brain Research FoundationOpen access journalThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

Computing Scalable Multivariate Glocal Invariants of Large (Brain-) Graphs

Graphs are quickly emerging as a leading abstraction for the representation of data. One important application domain originates from an emerging discipline called "connectomics". Connectomics studies the brain as a graph; vertices correspond to neurons (or collections thereof) and edges correspond to structural or functional connections between them. To explore the variability of connectomes---to address both basic science questions regarding the structure of the brain, and medical health questions about psychiatry and neurology---one can study the topological properties of these brain-graphs. We define multivariate glocal graph invariants: these are features of the graph that capture various local and global topological properties of the graphs. We show that the collection of features can collectively be computed via a combination of daisy-chaining, sparse matrix representation and computations, and efficient approximations. Our custom open-source Python package serves as a back-end to a Web-service that we have created to enable researchers to upload graphs, and download the corresponding invariants in a number of different formats. Moreover, we built this package to support distributed processing on multicore machines. This is therefore an enabling technology for network science, lowering the barrier of entry by providing tools to biologists and analysts who otherwise lack these capabilities. As a demonstration, we run our code on 120 brain-graphs, each with approximately 16M vertices and up to 90M edges.Comment: Published as part of 2013 IEEE GlobalSIP conferenc

The Use of the Polygraph with Sex Offenders in the UK

Publikacja recenzowana / Peer-reviewed publicationJest to przekład artykułu „The Use of the Polygraph with Sex Offenders in the UK” autorstwa Daniela T. Wilcoxa i Rosie Gray’a, który ukazał się w „European Polygraph” numer 1 w 2012 roku. Artykuł dotyczy problematyki badań poligraficznych stosowanych wobec przestępców seksualnych w Wielkiej Brytanii. Publikacja ta jest ważna dla rozwoju polskiej polityki karnej, możliwych rozwiązań nowych regulacji w polskim prawodawstwie, a na skutek wykorzystania możliwości badawczych ekspertyz poligraficznych PCSOT, stosowanych wobec skazanych za przestępstwa popełnione na tle seksualnym, oferuje znaczne szanse monitorowania przestępców seksualnych.This is a translation of the article „The Use of the Polygraph with Sex Offenders in the UK” by Daniel T. Wilcox and Rosie Gray, appeared in a European Polygraph volume number 1 in the 2012.This article is about of how the polygraph can be used to work with sexual offenders in the United Kingdom Publication it’s important for the development of Polish penal policy, the possible solutions of new regulations in Polish legislation, and as a result of the use of research possibilities of Post Conviction Clinical Polygraph Examination Testing (Lie Detector Testing) offers significant opportunities for monitoring sex offenders

Sufficient Conditions for Fast Switching Synchronization in Time Varying Network Topologies

In previous work, empirical evidence indicated that a time-varying network could propagate sufficient information to allow synchronization of the sometimes coupled oscillators, despite an instantaneously disconnected topology. We prove here that if the network of oscillators synchronizes for the static time-average of the topology, then the network will synchronize with the time-varying topology if the time-average is achieved sufficiently fast. Fast switching, fast on the time-scale of the coupled oscillators, overcomes the descychnronizing decoherence suggested by disconnected instantaneous networks. This result agrees in spirit with that of where empirical evidence suggested that a moving averaged graph Laplacian could be used in the master-stability function analysis. A new fast switching stability criterion here-in gives sufficiency of a fast-switching network leading to synchronization. Although this sufficient condition appears to be very conservative, it provides new insights about the requirements for synchronization when the network topology is time-varying. In particular, it can be shown that networks of oscillators can synchronize even if at every point in time the frozen-time network topology is insufficiently connected to achieve synchronization.Comment: Submitted to SIAD

The environmental dependence of the stellar mass-size relation in STAGES galaxies

We present the stellar mass-size relations for elliptical, lenticular, and spiral galaxies in the field and cluster environments using HST/ACS imaging and data from the Space Telescope A901/2 Galaxy Evolution Survey (STAGES). We use a large sample of ~1200 field and cluster galaxies, and a sub-sample of cluster core galaxies, and quantify the significance of any putative environmental dependence on the stellar mass-size relation. For elliptical, lenticular, and high-mass (log M*/M_sun > 10) spiral galaxies we find no evidence to suggest any such environmental dependence, implying that internal drivers are governing their size evolution. For intermediate/low-mass spirals (log M*/M_sun < 10) we find evidence, significant at the 2-sigma level, for a possible environmental dependence on galaxy sizes: the mean effective radius a_e for lower-mass spirals is ~15-20 per cent larger in the field than in the cluster. This is due to a population of low-mass large-a_e field spirals that are largely absent from the cluster environments. These large-a_e field spirals contain extended stellar discs not present in their cluster counterparts. This suggests the fragile extended stellar discs of these spiral galaxies may not survive the environmental conditions in the cluster. Our results suggest that internal physical processes are the main drivers governing the size evolution of galaxies, with the environment possibly playing a role affecting only the discs of intermediate/low-mass spirals.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures, accepted to MNRA

Age-related neurochemical changes in the rhesus macaque inferior colliculus

Age-related hearing loss (ARHL) is marked by audiometric hearing deficits that propagate along the auditory pathway. Neurochemical changes as a function of aging have also been identified in neurons along the auditory pathway in both rodents and carnivores, however, very little is known about how these neurochemicals change in the non-human primate. To examine how these compensatory neurochemical changes relate to normal aging and audiometric sensitivity along the auditory pathway, we collected auditory brainstem responses (ABRs) and brain specimens from seven rhesus monkeys spanning in age from 15 to 35 years old, and examined the relationship between click evoked ABR thresholds and the ABR evoked pure tone average (PTA) and changes in the number of parvalbumin and NADPH-diaphorase positive cells in the auditory midbrain. We found that the number of parvalbumin positive cells in the central nucleus and the surrounding cortex regions of the inferior colliculus were strongly correlated with advancing age and ABR PTA. We also found that the numbers of NADPHd positive cells in these same regions were not associated with normal aging or changes in the ABR thresholds. These findings suggest that the auditory midbrain undergoes an up-regulation of parvalbumin expressing neurons with aging that is related to changes in the processing of frequencies across the audiometric range