To Protect and Collect: A Nationwide Study of Profit-motivated Police Crime

This study is part of a larger research project on police crime in the United States. Police crimes are those criminal offenses committed by sworn law enforcement officers who have the general powers of arrest. Profit-motivated police crime involves officers who use their authority of position to engage in crime for personal gain. This study reports the findings on 1,591 cases where a law enforcement officer was arrested for one or more profit-motivated crimes during the seven-year period 2005-2011. The profit-motivated arrest cases involved 1,396 individual officers employed by 782 state, local, special, constable, and tribal law enforcement agencies located in 531 counties and independent cities in 47 states and the District of Columbia. Our data is the first systematic study of profit-motivated police crime. The study describes the nature of this form of police misconduct in terms of several dimensions, including the characteristics of police who perpetrate these crimes, where it occurs, the specific criminal charges, and the contexts within which profit-motivated police crime is punished through police agencies and the criminal courts

Method of extending hyperfine coherence times in Pr^3+:Y_2SiO_5

In this letter we present a method for increasing the coherence time of praseodymium hyperfine ground state transitions in Pr^3+:Y_2SiO_5 by the application of a specific external magnetic field. The magnitude and angle of the external field is applied such that the Zeeman splitting of a hyperfine transition is at a critical point in three dimensions, making the first order Zeeman shift vanishingly small for the transition. This reduces the influence of the magnetic interactions between the praseodymium ions and the spins in the host lattice on the transition frequency. Using this method a phase memory time of 82ms was observed, a value two orders of magnitude greater than previously reported. It is shown that the residual dephasing is amenable quantum error correction

CRISPR-Cas defense system and potential prophages in cyanobacteria associated with the coral black band disease

Understanding how pathogens maintain their virulence is critical to developing tools to mitigate disease in animal populations. We sequenced and assembled the first draft genome of Roseofilum reptotaenium AO1, the dominant cyanobacterium underlying pathogenicity of the virulent coral black band disease (BBD), and analyzed parts of the BBD-associated Geitlerinema sp. BBD_1991 genome in silico. Both cyanobacteria are equipped with an adaptive, heritable clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-Cas defense system type I-D and have potential virulence genes located within several prophage regions. The defense system helps to prevent infection by viruses and mobile genetic elements via identification of short fingerprints of the intruding DNA, which are stored as templates in the bacterial genome, in so-called CRISPRs. Analysis of CRISPR target sequences (protospacers) revealed an unusually high number of self-targeting spacers in R. reptotaenium AO1 and extraordinary long CRIPSR arrays of up to 260 spacers in Geitlerinema sp. BBD_1991. The self-targeting spacers are unlikely to be a form of autoimmunity; instead these target an incomplete lysogenic bacteriophage. Lysogenic virus induction experiments with mitomycin C and UV light did not reveal an actively replicating virus population in R. reptotaenium AO1 cultures, suggesting that phage functionality is compromised or excision could be blocked by the CRISPR-Cas system. Potential prophages were identified in three regions of R. reptotaenium AO1 and five regions of Geitlerinema sp. BBD_1991, containing putative BBD relevant virulence genes, such as an NAD-dependent epimerase/dehydratase (a homolog in terms of functionality to the third and fourth most expressed gene in BBD), lysozyme/metalloendopeptidases and other lipopolysaccharide modification genes. To date, viruses have not been considered to be a component of the BBD consortium or a contributor to the virulence of R. reptotaenium AO1 and Geitlerinema sp. BBD_(1)991. We suggest that the presence of virulence genes in potential prophage regions, and the CRISPR-Cas defense systems are evidence of an arms race between the respective cyanobacteria and their bacteriophage predators. The presence of such a defense system likely reduces the number of successful bacteriophage infections and mortality in the cyanobacteria, facilitating the progress of BBD

A unified evaluation of iterative projection algorithms for phase retrieval

Iterative projection algorithms are successfully being used as a substitute of lenses to recombine, numerically rather than optically, light scattered by illuminated objects. Images obtained computationally allow aberration-free diffraction-limited imaging and the possibility of using radiation for which no lenses exist. The challenge of this imaging technique is transfered from the lenses to the algorithms. We evaluate these new computational ``instruments'' developed for the phase retrieval problem, and discuss acceleration strategies.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, revte

A new type of reconstruction on the InSb() surface determined by grazing incidence X-ray diffraction

The (3×3) reconstruction of the InSb( ) surface has been investigated by grazing incidence X-ray diffraction and scanning tunneling microscopy. The structure is characterized by 6-atom rings on top of a slightly buckled InSb top double layer. Two types of rings have been found, an elliptic ring consisting of 4 In and 2 Sb atoms and a trigonal ring with 3 In and 3 Sb atoms. The bond angles and lengths are consistent with the concept of rehybridization and depolarization which explains the reconstructions of the (111) and (110) surfaces

OPserver: interactive online-computations of opacities and radiative accelerations

Codes to compute mean opacities and radiative accelerations for arbitrary chemical mixtures using the Opacity Project recently revised data have been restructured in a client--server architecture and transcribed as a subroutine library. This implementation increases efficiency in stellar modelling where element stratification due to diffusion processes is depth dependent, and thus requires repeated fast opacity reestimates. Three user modes are provided to fit different computing environments, namely a web browser, a local workstation and a distributed grid.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figur

A self-consistent stellar and 3D nebular model for Planetary Nebula IC418

We present a coherent stellar and nebular model reproducing the observations of the Planetary Nebula IC418. We want to test whether a stellar model obtained by fitting the stellar observations is able to satisfactory ionize the nebula and reproduce the nebular observations, which is by no mean evident. This allows us to determine all the physical parameters of both the star and the nebula, including the abundances and the distance. We used all the observational material available (FUSE, IUE, STIS and optical spectra) to constrain the stellar atmosphere model performed using the CMFGEN code. The photoionization model is done with Cloudy_3D, and is based on CTIO, Lick, SPM, IUE and ISO spectra as well as HST images. More than 140 nebular emission lines are compared to the observed intensities. We reproduce all the observations for the star and the nebula. The 3D morphology of the gas distribution is determined. The effective temperature of the star is 36.7kK. Its luminosity is 7700 solar luminosity. We describe an original method to determine the distance of the nebula using evolutionary tracks. No clumping factor is need to reproduce the age-luminosity relation. The distance of 1.25 kpc is found in very good agreement with recent determination using parallax method. The chemical composition of both the star and the nebula are determined. Both are Carbon-rich. The nebula presents evidence of depletion of elements Mg, Si, S, Cl (0.5 dex lower than solar) and Fe (2.9 dex lower than solar). This is the first self-consistent stellar and nebular model for a Planetary Nebula that reproduces all the available observations ranging from IR to UV, showing that the combined approach for the modeling process leads to more restrictive constraints and, in principle, more trustworthy results.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics. V2: after corrections language edito

Deciphering a subgroup of breast carcinomas with putative progression of grade during carcinogenesis revealed by comparative genomic hybridisation (CGH) and immunohistochemistry

Distinct parallel cytogenetic pathways in breast carcinogenesis could be identified in recent years. Nevertheless, it remained unclear as to which tumours may have progressed in grade or which patterns of cytogenetic alteration may define the switch from an in situ towards an invasive lesion. In order to gain more detailed insights into cytogenetic mechanisms of the pathogenesis of breast cancer, the chromosomal imbalances of 206 invasive breast cancer cases were characterised by means of comparative genomic hybridisation (CGH). CGH data were subjected to hierarchical cluster analysis and the results were further compared with immunohistochemical findings on tissue arrays from the same breast cancer cases. The combined analysis of immunohistochemical and cytogenetic data provided evidence that carcinomas with gains of 7p, and to a lesser extent losses of 9q and gains of 5p, are a distinct subgroup within the spectrum of ductal invasive grade 3 breast carcinomas. These aberrations were associated with a high degree of cytogenetic instability (16.6 alterations per case on average), 16q-losses in over 70% of these cases, strong oestrogen receptor expression and absence of strong expression of p53, c-erbB2 and Ck 5. These characteristics provide strong support for the hypothesis that these tumours may develop through stages of well- and perhaps intermediately differentiated breast cancers. Our results therefore underline the existence of several parallel and also stepwise progression pathways towards breast cancer