Homelessness and housing stress among police detainees: results from the DUMA program

This research reaffirms the need for intensive accommodation support services to complement criminal justice responses to crime and those who have contact with the criminal justice system. Foreword It is generally accepted that a person’s living situation, in particular their experience of homelessness and housing stress, can have both long-lasting and wide-ranging consequences. For criminal justice practitioners, the task of limiting homelessness and preventing crime remain key policy priorities in need of ongoing and integrated research. This paper provides a much needed examination of homelessness and housing stress among Australia’s criminal justice population. Using data from the AIC’s Drug Use Monitoring in Australia program, this study examines the prevalence and nature of homelessness among a sample of police detainees. It is the first of its kind to examine a broader range of homelessness experiences and the reasons why some offenders have few choices but to ‘sleep rough’ or seek accommodation support. Importantly, the authors estimate that 22 percent of the detainee population is homeless or experiencing housing stress in some form; much higher than has been previously estimated. This research reaffirms the need for intensive accommodation support services to complement criminal justice responses to crime and those who have contact with the criminal justice system

The Relationship Between Segment-Level Manipulations And Audit Fees

We examine the auditor’ssensitivity to manipulative financial reporting by investigating the relationbetween audit fees and segment-level manipulations.  Segment reporting provides an interestingsetting to examine auditor risk assessments because of the discretion affordedto management under existing regulations.  Segment manipulations, a form of classificationsmoothing, are not in violation of accounting standards; nevertheless, thesemanipulations violate the spirit of faithful representation by distorting theperformance of a subset of the reporting unit at the expense of (or to thebenefit) of another subset.  Because disaggregatedinformation is used by analysts and investors in bottom-upforecasting, these distortions can influence firm value even though they do notaffect bottom-line net income.  Ourmeasure of classification smoothing measurescost shifting between core operating segments and non-core segments to proxyfor segment manipulation.  We find thataudit fees, a proxy for the auditor’s risk assessment, have a positiveassociation with segment-level manipulations.  Subsequent analyses suggest that higher auditfees are also due to the additional effort exerted in the presence of segment-levelmanipulations.  Further, auditors appearjustified in charging higher fees to clients that engage in segmentmanipulations as we document evidence of a positive association betweenrestatements and segment-level manipulations.  Collectively, these results suggest thatauditors are aware of the risk associated with companies that engage in segment-levelmanipulations and auditors respond appropriately by charging higher fees anddoing additional work

Narrating identity and territoriality: The cases of the U.S.-Mexico and U.S.-Canada borderlands.

Analysing the processes and relationships of political territoriality and collective identity in the American borderlands, this thesis examines the narrative and material dimensions of policies increasingly favouring securitised border 'control'. This 'reterritorialisation' contrasts markedly with concurrent moves to increase economic integration under the North American Free Trade Agreement and with long patterns of transnational socio-cultural interaction, emblematic of larger relational, transnational 'mobilities' fostered by globalisation. Through a historical and transdisciplinary survey, borders are examined as representations and socio-political constructs: a unique, contingent, political cartography connected to a precise, early modern notion of space and identity. Borders are in a continual process of being reproduced through both material means and supportive state-produced 'texts' or narratives. The analysis is part of a larger project in International Relations: the development of the 'identities/borders/orders' heuristic triad, designed to narrow and produce new theoretical and empirical insights by coupling three key concepts and exploring the co-constitutive relationships. Focussing on the identity-border link within the triad, the first case study analyses 'Operation Hold the Line' and related events in the securitisation of the southern borderlands against undocumented migration. The second case study provides an account of major official documentation and public debate framing current developments on the northern border, including a reading of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996. Border policy is understood as an example of reflexive territoriality, suggesting continual, ever speedier revision, monitoring, and reproduction of a state's constructed strategy responding to control defined 'risks', such as migration. These regulations are fed and actualised by new information flows and technologies, as the state's attempt to 'control' its borders by making them political realities of difference with particular material and normative outcomes. Here, the politics of representation involves an image of border 'security' which effects the socio-spatialisation of collective identity, specifically the reinforcement of difference and a secure nationalism narrative. The securitisation also reflects a modern understanding of knowledge as regulation and order

The Dependence of Growth-Model Results on Proficiency Cut Scores

States participating in the Growth Model Pilot Program reference individual student growth against “proficiency” cut scores that conform with the original No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Although achievement results from conventional NCLB models are also cut-score dependent, the functional relationships between cut-score location and growth results are more complex and are not currently well described. We apply cut-score scenarios to longitudinal data to demonstrate the dependence of state- and school-level growth results on cut-score choice. This dependence is examined along three dimensions: 1) rigor, as states set cut scores largely at their discretion, 2) across-grade articulation, as the rigor of proficiency standards may vary across grades, and 3) the time horizon chosen for growth to proficiency. Results show that the selection of plausible alternative cut scores within a growth model can change the percentage of students “on track to proficiency” by more than 20 percentage points and reverse accountability decisions for more than 40% of schools. We contribute a framework for predicting these dependencies, and we argue that the cut-score dependence of large-scale growth statistics must be made transparent, particularly for comparisons of growth results across states

Deficiency in the mouse mitochondrial adenine nucleotide translocator isoform 2 gene is associated with cardiac noncompaction.

The mouse fetal and adult hearts express two adenine nucleotide translocator (ANT) isoform genes. The predominant isoform is the heart-muscle-brain ANT-isoform gene 1 (Ant1) while the other is the systemic Ant2 gene. Genetic inactivation of the Ant1 gene does not impair fetal development but results in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in postnatal mice. Using a knockin X-linked Ant2 allele in which exons 3 and 4 are flanked by loxP sites combined in males with a protamine 1 promoter driven Cre recombinase we created females heterozygous for a null Ant2 allele. Crossing the heterozygous females with the Ant2(fl), PrmCre(+) males resulted in male and female ANT2-null embryos. These fetuses proved to be embryonic lethal by day E14.5 in association with cardiac developmental failure, immature cardiomyocytes having swollen mitochondria, cardiomyocyte hyperproliferation, and cardiac failure due to hypertrabeculation/noncompaction. ANTs have two main functions, mitochondrial-cytosol ATP/ADP exchange and modulation of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mtPTP). Previous studies imply that ANT2 biases the mtPTP toward closed while ANT1 biases the mtPTP toward open. It has been reported that immature cardiomyocytes have a constitutively opened mtPTP, the closure of which signals the maturation of cardiomyocytes. Therefore, we hypothesize that the developmental toxicity of the Ant2 null mutation may be the result of biasing the cardiomyocyte mtPTP to remain open thus impairing cardiomyocyte maturation and resulting in cardiomyocyte hyperproliferation and failure of trabecular maturation. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled 'EBEC 2016: 19th European Bioenergetics Conference, Riva del Garda, Italy, July 2-6, 2016', edited by Prof. Paolo Bernardi

Sex‐specific associations between AD genotype and the microbiome of human amyloid beta knock‐in (hAβ‐KI) mice

IntroductionEmerging evidence links changes in the gut microbiome to late-onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD), necessitating examination of AD mouse models with consideration of the microbiome.MethodsWe used shotgun metagenomics and untargeted metabolomics to study the human amyloid beta knock-in (hAβ-KI) murine model for LOAD compared to both wild-type (WT) mice and a model for early-onset AD (3xTg-AD).ResultsEighteen-month female (but not male) hAβ-KI microbiomes were distinct from WT microbiomes, with AD genotype accounting for 18% of the variance by permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA). Metabolomic diversity differences were observed in females, however no individual metabolites were differentially abundant. hAβ-KI mice microbiomes were distinguishable from 3xTg-AD animals (81% accuracy by random forest modeling), with separation primarily driven by Romboutsia ilealis and Turicibacter species. Microbiomes were highly cage specific, with cage assignment accounting for more than 40% of the PERMANOVA variance between the groups.DiscussionThese findings highlight a sex-dependent variation in the microbiomes of hAβ-KI mice and underscore the importance of considering the microbiome when designing studies that use murine models for AD.HighlightsMicrobial diversity and the abundance of several species differed in human amyloid beta knock-in (hAβ-KI) females but not males. Correlations to Alzheimer's disease (AD) genotype were stronger for the microbiome than the metabolome. Microbiomes from hAβ-KI mice were distinct from 3xTg-AD mice. Cage effects accounted for most of the variance in the microbiome and metabolome

Why Orange Guaymas Basin Beggiatoa spp. Are Orange: Single-Filament-Genome-Enabled Identification of an Abundant Octaheme Cytochrome with Hydroxylamine Oxidase, Hydrazine Oxidase, and Nitrite Reductase Activities

ABSTRACT Orange, white, and yellow vacuolated Beggiatoaceae filaments are visually dominant members of microbial mats found near sea floor hydrothermal vents and cold seeps, with orange filaments typically concentrated toward the mat centers. No marine vacuolate Beggiatoaceae are yet in pure culture, but evidence to date suggests they are nitrate-reducing, sulfide-oxidizing bacteria. The nearly complete genome sequence of a single orange Beggiatoa (“ Candidatus Maribeggiatoa”) filament from a microbial mat sample collected in 2008 at a hydrothermal site in Guaymas Basin (Gulf of California, Mexico) was recently obtained. From this sequence, the gene encoding an abundant soluble orange-pigmented protein in Guaymas Basin mat samples (collected in 2009) was identified by microcapillary reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) nano-electrospray tandem mass spectrometry (μLC–MS-MS) of a pigmented band excised from a denaturing polyacrylamide gel. The predicted protein sequence is related to a large group of octaheme cytochromes whose few characterized representatives are hydroxylamine or hydrazine oxidases. The protein was partially purified and shown by in vitro assays to have hydroxylamine oxidase, hydrazine oxidase, and nitrite reductase activities. From what is known of Beggiatoaceae physiology, nitrite reduction is the most likely in vivo role of the octaheme protein, but future experiments are required to confirm this tentative conclusion. Thus, while present-day genomic and proteomic techniques have allowed precise identification of an abundant mat protein, and its potential activities could be assayed, proof of its physiological role remains elusive in the absence of a pure culture that can be genetically manipulated

A first constraint on basal melt-water production of the Greenland ice sheet

PROMICE is funded by the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) and the Danish Ministry of Climate, Energy and Utilities under the Danish Cooperation for Environment in the Arctic (DANCEA), and is conducted in collaboration with DTU Space (Technical University of Denmark) and Asiaq, Greenland.The Greenland ice sheet has been one of the largest sources of sea-level rise since the early 2000s. However, basal melt has not been included explicitly in assessments of ice-sheet mass loss so far. Here, we present the first estimate of the total and regional basal melt produced by the ice sheet and the recent change in basal melt through time. We find that the ice sheet’s present basal melt production is 21.4 +4.4/−4.0 Gt per year, and that melt generated by basal friction is responsible for about half of this volume. We estimate that basal melting has increased by 2.9 ± 5.2 Gt during the first decade of the 2000s. As the Arctic warms, we anticipate that basal melt will continue to increase due to faster ice flow and more surface melting thus compounding current mass loss trends, enhancing solid ice discharge, and modifying fjord circulation.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe