456 research outputs found
Interstitial crime analysis
Crime on public transport can be very difficult to analyse. 'Stealth crimes' like pick-pocketing
present a particular challenge because victims often have an imprecise knowledge of the location
and time of the offence. In this scenario crime has typically been recorded as happening at the
reporting station (often at the ‘end of line’) which skews any analysis of the collective crime
locations.
Interstitial crime analysis (ICA) is a technique which overcomes this problem and improves the
estimation of the spatial distribution of crime on networks when the exact location of offences is
unknown. Based on the aoristic analysis technique (devised to estimate the temporal distribution of
crime when only a time period is known), ICA is used to estimate the location of crimes in the
interstices – the intervening spaces - of a network when the location is unknown
Predictable Policing: Measuring the Crime Control Benefits of Hotspots Policing at Bus Stops
A fairly robust body of evidence suggests that hotspots policing is an effective crime prevention strategy. In this paper, we present contradictory evidence of a backfiring effect.
In a randomized controlled trial, aimed at reducing crime and disorder, London’s ‘hottest’ 102 bus-stops were targeted. Double patrol teams of Metropolitan Police Service uniformed officers visited the stops three times per shift (12:00–20:00), 5-times per week, for a duration of 15 min, over a 6 month period. Crucially, officers arrived and departed the bus stop on a bus, with significantly less time spent outside the bus stop setting. Outcomes were measured in terms of victim-generated crimes reported to the police and bus driver incident reports (DIRs), within targeted and catchment areas. We used adjusted Poisson-regression models to compare differences in pre- and post-treatment measures of outcomes and estimated-marginal-means to illustrate the treatment effect.
DIRs went down significantly by 37 % ( = 0.07) in the near vicinity of the bus stops (50 m), by 40 % in the 100 m catchment area ( = 0.04) and marginally and non-significantly in the farthest catchment (10 %; = 0.66), compared to control conditions. However, victim-generated crimes—the primary outcome measured in previous experiments—increased by 25 % ( = 0.10) in the near vicinity, by 23 % ( = 0.08) and 11 % ( 0.001) within the 100–150 m catchment areas, respectively.
These findings illustrate the role of bounded-rationality in everyday policing: reductions in crime are predicated on an elevated perceived risk-of-apprehension. Previous studies focused on clusters of addresses or public facilities, with police moving freely and unpredictably within the boundaries of the hotspot, but the patrol areas of officers in this experiment were limited to bus stops so offenders could anticipate their movements. Hotspots policing therefore backfires when offenders can systematically and accurately predict the temporal and spatial pattern of long-term targeting at a single location.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10940-016-9312-
Action and value: community, livelihoods and indigenous struggle in Highland Ecuador
This thesis is an ethnographic study of collaborative action and notions of value in
San Isidro, an indigenous community of c.90 families in Ecuador’s central highlands.
Drawing on Arendt’s theory of action as a mode of human togetherness, it focuses on
forms of activity that are both affective (appealing to particular values, principles and
practices) and productive (engaging in struggles to reorder social and economic
relations). These include communal gatherings, shared work-parties, assemblies,
meetings, campaigns and celebrations. Developing work by Lambek and Graeber,
the thesis explores how such actions are used to generate different kinds of ethical
and material value, the criteria people use to evaluate competing visions of hope and
possibility, and the related dynamics of division and cooperation. I argue that such a
focus on action and value allows us to build on insights from existing regional
literature which tends to interpret indigenous collective action as either
predominantly expressive (through cultural revival) or instrumental (in terms of
economic and political practice).
A core theme that emerges is how localised expressions of what people hold to be
vital or desirable interact with coordinated efforts to defend and secure livelihoods.
In San Isidro, such efforts contend with a limited land base, ongoing conflicts rooted
in histories of dispossession, and widespread patterns of migratory labour (mainly for
shift-work in the Amazon-based oil industry). At the same time, many residents
participate in collective work to maintain shared infrastructure, protest against land
inequalities, and manage areas of the communally-held páramo hills (registering as a
‘comunidad’ as recently as 2009). Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted
over fifteen months, I analyse how such collaborative actions are combined with
everyday forms of paid and unpaid work, memories of conflict, and a sense of duty
toward future generations. Through chapters that focus on shared labour, coordinated
campaigns, the legacies of land reform and accounts of labour migration, the thesis
also examines how cooperation is fostered within a community that is increasingly
diverse in access to resources, income and outlook, and how those involved negotiate
the ruptures and tensions that intentional actions entail
Patient-reported symptoms and discontinuation of adjuvant aromatase inhibitor therapy
BACKGROUND:
Aromatase inhibitor (AI) therapy results in substantial survival benefits for patients with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer. The rates of poor adherence and discontinuation of AI therapy are high, primarily because of treatment-related toxicities like musculoskeletal pain. Although pain-related symptoms may worsen during AI therapy, the authors hypothesized that nonpersistence with AI therapy was associated with symptoms that were present before treatment initiation.
METHODS:
Postmenopausal women initiating AI therapy who were enrolled in a prospective clinical trial completed questionnaires at baseline to assess sleep, fatigue, mood, and pain. Reasons for treatment discontinuation during the first year of treatment were recorded. Associations between baseline patient-reported symptoms and treatment discontinuation because of toxicity were identified using logistic regression.
RESULTS:
Four hundred forty-nine patients were evaluable. The odds of treatment discontinuation were higher in patients who reported a greater number of symptoms before AI initiation. Baseline poor sleep quality was associated with early treatment discontinuation, with an odds ratio (OR) of 1.91 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.26-2.89; P = .002). Baseline presence of tired feeling and forgetfulness had similar ORs for discontinuation (tired feeling: OR, 1.76; 95% CI, 1.15-2.67; P = .009; forgetfulness: OR, 1.66; 95% CI, 1.11-2.48; P = .015). An increasing total number of baseline symptoms was associated with an increased likelihood of treatment discontinuation, with an OR of 1.89 (95% CI, 1.20-2.96; P = .006) for 3 to 5 symptoms versus 0 to 2 symptoms.
CONCLUSIONS:
Symptom clusters in breast cancer survivors that are present before the initiation of adjuvant AI therapy may have a negative impact on a patient's persistence with therapy. Interventions to manage these symptoms may improve breast cancer outcomes and quality of life
10th Annual Collage Concert
An exciting highlight each season, the School of Music is proud to present the 10th Annual Collage Concert. Collage, a major fundraising event for supporting scholarships for music students, is the signature production of the School of Music featuring soloists, chamber groups, and ensembles totaling over 250 student and faculty performers. This special production features a rapid-fire program of diverse works presented as flowing vignette performances with unique lighting and stage design that combine to create a truly memorable and unique experience. The Collage Concert features a matinee at 5 p.m. and evening performance at 8 p.m.https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/musicprograms/1001/thumbnail.jp
The Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect in WMAP data
Using WMAP 5 year data, we look for the average Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect
(SZE) signal from clusters of galaxies by stacking the regions around hundreds
of known X-ray clusters. We detect the average SZE at a very high significance
level. The average cluster signal is spatially resolved in the W band. This
mean signal is compared with the expected signal from the same clusters
calculated on the basis of archival ROSAT data. From the comparison we conclude
that the observed SZE seems to be less than the expected signal derived from
X-ray measurements when a standard beta-model is assumed for the gas
distribution. This conclusion is model dependent. Our predictions depend mostly
on the assumptions made about the core radius of clusters and the slope of the
gas density profile. Models with steeper profiles are able to simultaneously
fit both X-ray and WMAP data better than a beta-model. However, the agreement
is not perfect and we find that it is still difficult to make the X-ray and SZE
results agree. A model assuming point source contamination in SZE clusters
renders a better fit to the one-dimensional SZE profiles thus suggesting that
contamination from point sources could be contributing to a diminution of the
SZE signal. Selecting a model that better fits both X-ray and WMAP data away
from the very central region, we estimate the level of contamination and find
that on average, the point source contamination is on the level of 16 mJy (at
41 GHz), 26 mJy (at 61 GHz) and 18 mJy (at 94 GHz). These estimated fluxes are
marginally consistent with the estimated contamination derived from radio and
infrared surveys thus suggesting that the combination of a steeper gas profile
and the contribution from point sources allows us to consistently explain the
X-ray emission and SZE in galaxy clusters as measured by ROSAT and WMAP.Comment: 17 pages and 17 figures. Submited to MNRA
The 8th Annual School of Music Collage Concert
Kennesaw State University School of Music presents The 8th Annual School of Music Collage Concert.https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/musicprograms/1370/thumbnail.jp
Survival, pathologic response, and genomics in CALGB 40601 (Alliance), a neoadjuvant Phase III trial of paclitaxel-trastuzumab with or without lapatinib in HER2-positive breast cancer
PURPOSE CALGB 40601 assessed whether dual versus single human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) -targeting drugs added to neoadjuvant chemotherapy increased pathologic complete response (pCR). Here, we report relapse-free survival (RFS), overall survival (OS), and gene expression signatures that predict pCR and survival. PATIENTS AND METHODS Three hundred five women with untreated stage II and III HER2-positive breast cancer were randomly assigned to receive weekly paclitaxel combined with trastuzumab plus lapatinib (THL), trastuzumab (TH), or lapatinib (TL). The primary end point was pCR, and secondary end points included RFS, OS, and gene expression analyses. mRNA sequencing was performed on 264 pretreatment samples. RESULTS One hundred eighteen patients were randomly allocated to THL, 120 to TH, and 67 to TL. At more than 7 years of follow-up, THL had significantly better RFS and OS than did TH (RFS hazard ratio, 0.32; 95% CI, 0.14 to 0.71; P 5.005; OS hazard ratio, 0.34; 95% CI, 0.12 to 0.94; P 5.037), with no difference between TH and TL. Of 688 previously described gene expression signatures, significant associations were found in 215 with pCR, 45 with RFS, and only 22 with both pCR and RFS (3.2%). Specifically, eight immune signatures were significantly correlated with a higher pCR rate and better RFS. Among patients with residual disease, the immunoglobulin G signature was an independent, good prognostic factor, whereas the HER2-enriched signature, which was associated with a higher pCR rate, showed a significantly shorter RFS. CONCLUSION In CALGB 40601, dual HER2-targeting resulted in significant RFS and OS benefits. Integration of intrinsic subtype and immune signatures allowed for the prediction of pCR and RFS, both overall and within the residual disease group. These approaches may provide means for rational escalation and de-escalation treatment strategies in HER2-positive breast cancer
9th Annual Kennesaw State University School of Music Collage Concert
KSU School of Music presents the 9th Annual Kennesaw State University School of Music Collage Concert.https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/musicprograms/1203/thumbnail.jp
A physical model for the origin of the diffuse cosmic infrared background
We present a physical model for origin of the cosmic diffuse infrared
background (CDIRB). By utilizing the observed stellar mass function and its
evolution as input to a semi-empirical model of galaxy formation, we isolate
the physics driving diffuse IR emission. The model includes contributions from
three primary sources of IR emission: steady-state star formation owing to
isolated disk galaxies, interaction-driven bursts of star formation owing to
close encounters and mergers, and obscured active galactic nuclei (AGN). We
find that most of the CDIRB is produced by equal contributions from objects at
z=0.5-1 and z>1, as suggested by recent observations. Of those sources, the
vast majority of the emission originates in systems with low to moderate IR
luminosities (L_{IR}<10^{12} $L_sun); the most luminous objects contribute
significant flux only at high-redshifts (z>2). All star formation in ongoing
mergers accounts for <10% of the total at all wavelengths and redshifts, while
emission directly attributable to the interaction-driven burst itself accounts
for <5%. We furthermore find that obscured AGN contribute <1-2% of the CDIRB at
all wavelengths and redshifts, with a strong upper limit of less than 4% of the
total emission. Finally, since electron-positron pair production interactions
with the CDIRB represent the primary source of opacity to very high energy
(VHE: E_\gamma > 1 TeV) \gamma-rays, the model provides predictions for the
optical depth of the Universe to the most energetic photons. We find that these
predictions agree with observations of high-energy cutoffs at TeV energies in
nearby blazars, and suggest that while the Universe is extremely optically
thick at >10 TeV, the next generation of VHE \gamma-ray telescopes can
reasonably expect detections from out to 50-150 Mpc.Comment: 14 pages, 13 figures, submitted to MNRA
- …