The criminal justice voluntary sector: concepts and an agenda for an emerging field

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Tomczak, P. & Buck, G. (2019). The criminal justice voluntary sector: concepts and an agenda for an emerging field. Howard Journal of Crime and Justice, 58(3), which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/hojo.12326. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.Volunteers and voluntary organisations play significant roles pervading criminal justice. They are key actors, with unrecognised potential to shore up criminal justice and/or collaboratively reshape social justice. Unlike public and for-profit agents, criminal justice volunteers and voluntary organisations (CJVVOs) have been neglected by scholars. We call for analyses of diverse CJVVOs, in national and comparative contexts. We provide three categories to highlight distinctive organising auspices, which hold across criminal justice: statutory volunteers, quasi-statutory volunteers and voluntary organisations. The unknown implications of these different forms of non-state, non-profit justice involvement deserve far greater attention from academics, policymakers and practitioners

Global Retinoblastoma Presentation and Analysis by National Income Level

Importance: Early diagnosis of retinoblastoma, the most common intraocular cancer, can save both a child's life and vision. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that many children across the world are diagnosed late. To our knowledge, the clinical presentation of retinoblastoma has never been assessed on a global scale. Objectives: To report the retinoblastoma stage at diagnosis in patients across the world during a single year, to investigate associations between clinical variables and national income level, and to investigate risk factors for advanced disease at diagnosis. Design, Setting, and Participants: A total of 278 retinoblastoma treatment centers were recruited from June 2017 through December 2018 to participate in a cross-sectional analysis of treatment-naive patients with retinoblastoma who were diagnosed in 2017. Main Outcomes and Measures: Age at presentation, proportion of familial history of retinoblastoma, and tumor stage and metastasis. Results: The cohort included 4351 new patients from 153 countries; the median age at diagnosis was 30.5 (interquartile range, 18.3-45.9) months, and 1976 patients (45.4) were female. Most patients (n = 3685 84.7%) were from low-and middle-income countries (LMICs). Globally, the most common indication for referral was leukocoria (n = 2638 62.8%), followed by strabismus (n = 429 10.2%) and proptosis (n = 309 7.4%). Patients from high-income countries (HICs) were diagnosed at a median age of 14.1 months, with 656 of 666 (98.5%) patients having intraocular retinoblastoma and 2 (0.3%) having metastasis. Patients from low-income countries were diagnosed at a median age of 30.5 months, with 256 of 521 (49.1%) having extraocular retinoblastoma and 94 of 498 (18.9%) having metastasis. Lower national income level was associated with older presentation age, higher proportion of locally advanced disease and distant metastasis, and smaller proportion of familial history of retinoblastoma. Advanced disease at diagnosis was more common in LMICs even after adjusting for age (odds ratio for low-income countries vs upper-middle-income countries and HICs, 17.92 95% CI, 12.94-24.80, and for lower-middle-income countries vs upper-middle-income countries and HICs, 5.74 95% CI, 4.30-7.68). Conclusions and Relevance: This study is estimated to have included more than half of all new retinoblastoma cases worldwide in 2017. Children from LMICs, where the main global retinoblastoma burden lies, presented at an older age with more advanced disease and demonstrated a smaller proportion of familial history of retinoblastoma, likely because many do not reach a childbearing age. Given that retinoblastoma is curable, these data are concerning and mandate intervention at national and international levels. Further studies are needed to investigate factors, other than age at presentation, that may be associated with advanced disease in LMICs. © 2020 American Medical Association. All rights reserved

Physically coupling two objects in a bimanual task alters kinematics but not end-state comfort

Hughes C, Haddad JM, Franz EA, Zelaznik HN, Ryu JH. Physically coupling two objects in a bimanual task alters kinematics but not end-state comfort. Experimental Brain Research. 2011;211(2):219-229

Interlimb coupling during cooperative bimanual actions when objects are physically connected

Hughes CML, Zelaznik HN, Haddad JM, Gipson AD. Interlimb coupling during cooperative bimanual actions when objects are physically connected. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology. 2010:79

Efeitos da transformação de uma variável com distribuição normal em sua inversa sobre os parâmetros de sua distribuição usando técnicas de Monte Carlo Effects of transforming a normally distributed variable into its inverse on parameters of the distribution using Monte Carlo techniques

Foram realizados quatro estudos de simulação para verificar a distribuição de inversas de variáveis com distribuição normal, em função de diferentes variâncias, médias, pontos de truncamentos e tamanhos amostrais. As variáveis simuladas foram GMD, com distribuição normal, representando o ganho médio diário e DIAS, obtido a partir da inversa de GMD, representando dias para se obter determinado peso. Em todos os estudos, foi utilizado o sistema SAS® (1990) para simulação dos dados e para posterior análise dos resultados. As médias amostrais de DIAS foram dependentes dos desvios-padrão utilizados na simulação. As análises de regressão mostraram redução da média e do desvio-padrão de DIAS em função do aumento na média de GMD. A inclusão de um ponto de truncamento entre 10 e 25% do valor da média de GMD reduziu a média de GMD e aumentou a de DIAS, quando o coeficiente de variação de GMD foi superior a 25%. O efeito do tamanho dos grupos nas médias de GMD e DIAS não foi significativo, mas o desvio-padrão e CV amostrais médios de GMD aumentaram com o tamanho do grupo. Em virtude da dependência entre a média e o desvio-padrão e da variação observada nos desvios-padrão de DIAS em função do tamanho do grupo, a utilização de DIAS como critério de seleção pode diminuir a acurácia da variação. Portanto, para a substituição de GMD por DIAS, é necessária a utilização de um método de análise robusto o suficiente para a eliminação da heterogeneidade de variância.<br>Four simulation studies were conducted to verify the distribution of the inverse of variables with normal distribution, relatively to variances, averages, truncation points and sample sizes. The variables simulated were GMD, with normal distribution and representing average daily gain, and DIAS defined as a multiple of the inverse of GMD and representing days to reach a fixed body weight. The SAS® (1990) system was used, for simulation of the data, and for subsequent analysis of the results in all studies. The standard deviations simulated for GMD significantly affected DIAS sampling averages. The regression analyses showed a reduction on the mean and in the standard deviation of DIAS as a function of the increase in the average of GMD. Including a truncation point at about 10 to 25% of the mean value reduced the mean of GMD and increased the mean of DIAS when the coefficient of variation of GMD was above 25%. Size of the groups did not significantly affect averages of GMD or DIAS. Standard deviation and CV of GMD increased with the increase on group size. Due to the dependence between the average and the standard deviation and the variation observed in the standard deviations of DIAS as a function of group size, the use of DIAS as selection criteria may reduce the accuracy of the genetic evaluation. Therefore, in order to substitute GMD by DIAS, it is necessary the use of a method of analysis robust enough to eliminate the heterogeneity of variance

Increase in Viral Load, Viral Integration, and Gain of Telomerase Genes during Uterine Cervical Carcinogenesis can be Simultaneously Assessed by the HPV 16/18 MLPA-Assay

Oncogenic human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is the most important risk factor in cervical carcinogenesis cases; high viral loads, viral integration into the host genome, and gain of the telomerase-related genes, TERT and TERC, are all factors associated with progression to cancer. A recently developed multiparameter HPV 16/18 multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA) assay, which allows the simultaneous assessment of these factors, was applied to a series of 67 normal and (pre)malignant frozen uterine cervical samples, as well as to 91 cytological preparations, to test the ability of the MLPA assay to identify high-risk lesions on the basis of these factors. Validation was performed using quantitative PCR, the PapilloCheck and fluorescence in situ hybridization. Only 5 out of 37 normal tissue samples or low-grade cervical lesions (ie, CIN1 and condyloma) showed either an HPV16 viral load higher than 25 copies per cell, viral integration, and/or gain of one of the telomerase-related genes, whereas for the high-grade cervical lesions, one or more of these risk factors was found in 25 of 30 cases. The HPV MLPA assay showed a sensitivity of 83% and a specificity of 86% in frozen cervical specimens. Furthermore, the feasibility of the MLPA assay was shown for cytological samples, where in 57% of high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion cases, the high-risk factors were detected using this assay