Counting the cost: estimating the number of deaths among recently released prisoners in Australia

Objective: To estimate the number of deaths among people released from prison in Australia in the 2007–08 financial year, within 4 weeks and 1 year of release. Design, participants and setting: Application of crude mortality rates for ex-prisoners (obtained from two independent, state-based record-linkage studies [New South Wales and Western Australia]) to a national estimate of the number and characteristics of people released from prison in 2007–08. Main outcome measures: Estimated number of deaths among adults released from Australian prisons in 2007–08, within 4 weeks and 1 year of release, classified by age, sex, Indigenous status and cause of death. Results: It was estimated that among people released from prison in 2007–08, between 449 (95% CI, 380–527) and 472 (95% CI, 438–507) died within 1 year of release. Of these, between 68 (95% CI, 56–82) and 138 (95% CI, 101–183) died within 4 weeks of release. Most of these deaths were not drug-related. Conclusion: The estimated annual number of deaths among recently released prisoners in Australia is considerably greater than the annual number of deaths in custody, highlighting the extreme vulnerability of this population on return to the community. There is an urgent need to establish a national system for routine monitoring of ex-prisoner mortality and to continue the duty of care beyond the prison walls

Sensitivity of a national coronial database for monitoring unnatural deaths among ex-prisoners in Australia

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The period immediately after release from custody is a time of marked vulnerability and increased risk of death for ex-prisoners. Despite this, there is currently no routine, national system for monitoring ex-prisoner mortality in Australia. This study subsequently aimed to evaluate the sensitivity of Australia's National Coroners Information System (NCIS) for identifying reportable deaths among prisoners and ex-prisoners.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>Prisoner and ex-prisoner deaths identified through an independent search of the NCIS were compared with 'gold standard' records of prisoner and ex-prisoner deaths, generated from a national monitoring system and a state-based record linkage study, respectively. Of 294 known deaths in custody from 2001-2007, an independent search of the NCIS identified 229, giving a sensitivity of 77.9% (72.8%-82.3%). Of 677 known deaths among ex-prisoners from 2001-2007, an independent search of the NCIS identified 37, giving a sensitivity of 5.5% (4.0-7.4%). Ex-prisoner deaths that were detected were disproportionately drug-related, occurring within the first four weeks post-release, among younger prisoners and among those with more than two prior prison admissions.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Although a search of the NCIS detected the majority of reportable deaths among prisoners, it was only able to detect a small minority of reportable deaths among ex-prisoners. This suggests that the NCIS is not effective for monitoring mortality among ex-prisoners in Australia. Given the elevated rates of mortality among ex-prisoners in Australia and elsewhere, there remains an urgent need to establish a process for routine monitoring of ex-prisoner mortality, preferably through record linkage.</p

500-fold amplification of small molecule circularly polarised luminescence through circularly polarised FRET

Strongly dissymmetric circularly polarised (CP) luminescence from small organic molecules could transform a range of technologies, such as display devices. However, highly dissymmetric emission is usually not possible with small organic molecules, which typically give dissymmetric factors of photoluminescence (gPL) less than 10-2. Here we describe an almost 103-fold chiroptical amplification of a π-extended superhelicene when embedded in an achiral conjugated polymer matrix. This combination increases the |gPL| of the superhelicene from approximately 3 × 10-4 in solution to 0.15 in a blend film in the solid-state. We propose that the amplification arises not simply through a chiral environment effect, but instead due to electrodynamic coupling between the electric and magnetic transition dipoles of the polymer donor and superhelicene acceptor, and subsequent CP Förster resonance energy transfer. We show that this amplification effect holds across several achiral polymer hosts and thus represents a simple and versatile approach to enhance the g-factors of small organic molecules

Conformational landscapes of bimesogenic compounds and their implications for the formation of modulated nematic phases

The twist-bend phase (NTB) is most commonly observed in materials with a gross-bent shape: dimers; bent-cores; bent-oligomers. We had suggested previously that the bend-angle of such systems effectively dictates the relative thermal stability of the NTB phase. However, our earlier paper relied on the use of a single energy-minimum conformer and so failed to capture any information about flexibility and conformational distribution. In the present work, we revisit our hypothesis and examine a second set of dimers with varying linking groups and spacer composition. We have improved on our earlier work by studying the conformational landscape of each material, allowing average bend-angles to be determined as well as the conformer distribution. We observe that the stability of the NTB phase exhibits a strong dependence not only on the Boltzmann-weighted average bend-angle (rather than just a static conformer), but also on the distribution of conformers. To a lesser extent, the flexibility of the spacer appears important. Ultimately, this work satisfies both theoretical treatments and our initial experimental study and demonstrates the importance of molecular bend to the NTB phase

Roman CCS White Paper: Characterizing the Galactic population of isolated black holes

Although there are estimated to be 100 million isolated black holes (BHs) in the Milky Way, only one has been found so far, resulting in significant uncertainty about their properties. The Galactic Bulge Time Domain Survey provides the only opportunity in the coming decades to grow this catalog by order(s) of magnitude. This can be achieved if 1) Roman's astrometric potential is fully realized in the observation strategy and software pipelines, 2) Roman's observational gaps of the Bulge are minimized, and 3) observations with ground-based facilities are taken of the Bulge to fill in gaps during non-Bulge seasons. A large sample of isolated BHs will enable a broad range of astrophysical questions to be answered, such as massive stellar evolution, origin of gravitational wave sources, supernova physics, and the growth of supermassive BHs, maximizing Roman's scientific return.Comment: 20 pages. Submitted in response to Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope white paper call: https://roman.gsfc.nasa.gov/science/ccs_white_papers.htm

Uncoupling Protein-4 (UCP4) Increases ATP Supply by Interacting with Mitochondrial Complex II in Neuroblastoma Cells

Mitochondrial uncoupling protein-4 (UCP4) protects against Complex I deficiency as induced by 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium (MPP+), but how UCP4 affects mitochondrial function is unclear. Here we investigated how UCP4 affects mitochondrial bioenergetics in SH-SY5Y cells. Cells stably overexpressing UCP4 exhibited higher oxygen consumption (10.1%, p<0.01), with 20% greater proton leak than vector controls (p<0.01). Increased ATP supply was observed in UCP4-overexpressing cells compared to controls (p<0.05). Although state 4 and state 3 respiration rates of UCP4-overexpressing and control cells were similar, Complex II activity in UCP4-overexpressing cells was 30% higher (p<0.05), associated with protein binding between UCP4 and Complex II, but not that of either Complex I or IV. Mitochondrial ADP consumption by succinate-induced respiration was 26% higher in UCP4-overexpressing cells, with 20% higher ADP:O ratio (p<0.05). ADP/ATP exchange rate was not altered by UCP4 overexpression, as shown by unchanged mitochondrial ADP uptake activity. UCP4 overexpression retained normal mitochondrial morphology in situ, with similar mitochondrial membrane potential compared to controls. Our findings elucidate how UCP4 overexpression increases ATP synthesis by specifically interacting with Complex II. This highlights a unique role of UCP4 as a potential regulatory target to modulate mitochondrial Complex II and ATP output in preserving existing neurons against energy crisis

Mitochondrial Uncoupling Protein-2 (UCP2) Mediates Leptin Protection Against MPP+ Toxicity in Neuronal Cells

Mitochondrial dysfunction is involved in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson’s disease (PD). Uncoupling proteins (UCPs) delink ATP production from biofuel oxidation in mitochondria to reduce oxidative stress. UCP2 is expressed in brain, and has neuroprotective effects under various toxic insults. We observed induction of UCP2 expression by leptin in neuronal cultures, and hypothesize that leptin may preserve neuronal survival via UCP2. We showed that leptin preserved cell survival in neuronal SH-SY5Y cells against MPP+ toxicity (widely used in experimental Parkinsonian models) by maintaining ATP levels and mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP); these effects were accompanied by increased UCP2 expression. Leptin had no effect in modulating reactive oxygen species levels. Stable knockdown of UCP2 expression reduced ATP levels, and abolished leptin protection against MPP+-induced mitochondrial depolarization, ATP deficiency, and cell death, indicating that UCP2 is critical in mediating these neuroprotective effects of leptin against MPP+ toxicity. Interestingly, UCP2 knockdown increased UCP4 expression, but not of UCP5. Our findings show that leptin preserves cell survival by maintaining MMP and ATP levels mediated through UCP2 in MPP+-induced toxicity

Functional Brain Networks Develop from a “Local to Distributed” Organization

The mature human brain is organized into a collection of specialized functional networks that flexibly interact to support various cognitive functions. Studies of development often attempt to identify the organizing principles that guide the maturation of these functional networks. In this report, we combine resting state functional connectivity MRI (rs-fcMRI), graph analysis, community detection, and spring-embedding visualization techniques to analyze four separate networks defined in earlier studies. As we have previously reported, we find, across development, a trend toward ‘segregation’ (a general decrease in correlation strength) between regions close in anatomical space and ‘integration’ (an increased correlation strength) between selected regions distant in space. The generalization of these earlier trends across multiple networks suggests that this is a general developmental principle for changes in functional connectivity that would extend to large-scale graph theoretic analyses of large-scale brain networks. Communities in children are predominantly arranged by anatomical proximity, while communities in adults predominantly reflect functional relationships, as defined from adult fMRI studies. In sum, over development, the organization of multiple functional networks shifts from a local anatomical emphasis in children to a more “distributed” architecture in young adults. We argue that this “local to distributed” developmental characterization has important implications for understanding the development of neural systems underlying cognition. Further, graph metrics (e.g., clustering coefficients and average path lengths) are similar in child and adult graphs, with both showing “small-world”-like properties, while community detection by modularity optimization reveals stable communities within the graphs that are clearly different between young children and young adults. These observations suggest that early school age children and adults both have relatively efficient systems that may solve similar information processing problems in divergent ways

ABUNDANCES, STELLAR PARAMETERS, AND SPECTRA FROM THE SDSS-III/APOGEE SURVEY

The SDSS-III/Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) survey operated from 2011–2014 using the APOGEE spectrograph, which collects high-resolution (R ~ 22,500), near-IR (1.51–1.70 µm) spectra with a multiplexing (300 fiber-fed objects) capability. We describe the survey data products that are publicly available, which include catalogs with radial velocity, stellar parameters, and 15 elemental abundances for over 150,000 stars, as well as the more than 500,000 spectra from which these quantities are derived. Calibration relations for the stellar parameters (Teff , log g, [M/H], [a/M]) and abundances (C, N, O, Na, Mg, Al, Si, S, K, Ca, Ti, V, Mn, Fe, Ni) are presented and discussed. The internal scatter of the abundances within clusters indicates that abundance precision is generally between 0.05 and 0.09 dex across a broad temperature range; it is smaller for some elemental abundances within more limited ranges and at high signal-to-noise ratio. We assess the accuracy of the abundances using comparison of mean cluster metallicities with literature values, APOGEE observations of the solar spectrum and of Arcturus, comparison of individual star abundances with other measurements, and consideration of the locus of derived parameters and abundances of the entire sample, and find that it is challenging to determine the absolute abundance scale; external accuracy may be good to 0.1–0.2 dex. Uncertainties may be larger at cooler temperatures (Teff < 4000 K). Access to the public data release and data products is described, and some guidance for using the data products is provided