1,087 research outputs found
The Failure of Local and Federal Prosecutors to Curb Police Brutality
Although police departments across the country have attempted to ameliorate the hostility between police officers and the cumminity, through careful screening of applicants, minority recruitment, and community policing, police brutality remains a problem within our urban cities. This Essay will first argue that police brutality is largely ignored. Second, it will examine the obstacles facing local and federal prosecutors in obtaining convictions. Then it will compare the advantages and disadvantages of delegating primary responsibility for these cases to the state versus the federal level. Finally, it will argue that, although there are obstacles and advantages for both local and federal prosecutors, ultimately justice is best seved when police brutality is primarily pursued by local prosecutors
Gas-Rich Companions of Isolated Galaxies
We have used the VLA to search for gaseous remnants of the galaxy formation
process around six extremely isolated galaxies. We found two distinct HI clouds
around each of two galaxies in our sample (UGC 9762 & UGC 11124). These clouds
are rotating and appear to have optical counterparts, strongly implying that
they are typical dwarf galaxies. The companions are currently weakly
interacting with the primary galaxy, but have short dynamical friction
timescales (~1 Gyr) suggesting that these triple galaxy systems will shortly
collapse into one massive galaxy. Given that the companions are consistent with
being in circular rotation about the primary galaxy, and that they have small
relative masses, the resulting merger will be a minor one. The companions do,
however, contain enough gas that the merger will represent a significant
infusion of fuel to drive future star formation, bar formation, or central
activity, while building up the mass of the disk thus making these systems
important pieces of the galaxy formation and evolution process.Comment: Corrected dynamical friction calculation error. Revised discussion &
conclusions. 7 pages, 4 tables, 6 figures, to appear in May 1999 Astronomical
Journa
Clinical Appraisals of Individual Differences in Treatment Responsivity Among Patients With Psychopathy: A Consensual Qualitative Research Study
This study addressed which factors expert clinicians consider crucial in successful completion versus dropout in the mandatory forensic psychiatric treatment of psychopathic patients in the Netherlands. Eleven clinicians were interviewed about patient characteristics, treatment (provider) characteristics, and other factors they deemed associated with failure (transfer to another facility) or completion. The interviews were coded using the guidelines of Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR). Overall, extremely high scores on Psychopathy Checklist–Revised (PCL-R) Facets 1 (Deceitful Interpersonal Style) and 2 (Defective Affective Experience) were thought to impede treatment retention, particularly by its negative impact on motivation and therapeutic relationship. Older patients, those with a prosocial network, and/or patients with comorbid borderline traits appeared to fare better. Treatment success was deemed more likely when treatment goals and expectations are stipulated in a concrete fashion, when an extended and gradual resocialization trajectory is offered, and the treatment team is expert, cohesive, and stable.</p
Global gene expression profiling of ischemic preconditioning in the rat retina
PURPOSE: To obtain and analyze the gene expression changes after ischemic preconditioning (IPC) in the rat retina. METHODS: Ischemic damage to the inner retina can be prevented by a short, non-deleterious, ischemic insult of 5 min applied 24 h preceding a full ischemic insult of 60 min; a phenomenon termed tolerance or IPC. The time course of changes in gene expression after induction of IPC was assessed by 22K oligonucleotide microarrays, followed by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) validation. Functional pathways of interest were identified by Gene Ontology-term analysis. RESULTS: Histology confirmed that IPC induction by 5 min of retinal ischemia results in a complete protection against the neurodegenerative effects of a 60 min ischemic period applied 24 or 48 h later. The microarray analysis revealed differential expression of 104 known genes at one or more time points between 1 h and 7 days after IPC. The group of altered genes contained a significant overrepresentation of genes involved in aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase activity (Iars, Lars, Cars, Yars, Gars, Tars), amino acid transport (Slc3a2, Slc6a6, Slc7a1, Slc38a2), regulation of transcription (including Egr1, Egr4, Nr4a1, Nr4a3, c-fos), and cell death (including Anxa1, Trib3). qPCR assays on cDNA of individual animals confirmed the microarray results. CONCLUSIONS: Endogenous neuroprotection, provoked by ischemic preconditioning is associated with changes in transcript levels of several functionally-related groups of genes. During the time window of effective protection, transcript levels of genes encoding for aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases and for amino acid transport are reduced. These changes suggest that a reduction of translational activity may play a significant role in preconditioning-mediated neuroprotectio
Using MMPI–2–RF Correlates to Elucidate the PCL–R and Its Four Facets in a Sample of Male Forensic Psychiatric Patients
This study documents the associations between the MMPI-2-RF (Ben-Porath & Tellegen, 2008 ) scale scores and the Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R; Hare, 2003 ) facet scores in a forensic psychiatric sample. Objectives were to determine how the MMPI-2-RF scales might enhance substantive understanding of the nature of the 4 PCL-R facets and to discern possible implications for the treatment of psychopathic patients. A sample of 127 male forensic psychiatric offenders admitted to a Dutch forensic psychiatric hospital completed the PCL-R and the MMPI-2. Exploratory stepwise regression analyses assessed the prediction of the PCL-R total and its facet scores from MMPI-2-RF scales at its 3 hierarchical levels. Conceptually meaningful results emerged at each level of the MMPI-2-RF hierarchy, including several consistent differences between predictor sets across the facets. Interestingly, ideas of persecution (RC6) was a specific predictor of PCL-R Facet 2, a facet noted for its association with treatment failure. Results are compared and contrasted to the extant body of empirical work to date, and some tentative clinical implications are offered
N-methyl-D-Aspartate- and Kainate receptor gene expression in hippocampal pyramidal and granular neurons in the kindling model of epileptogenesis.
Pseudo-immunolabelling with the avidin-biotin-peroxidase complex (ABC) due to the presence of endogenous biotin in retinal Muller cells of goldfish and salamander
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