Curing America\u27s Addiction to Prisons

Our prisons have failed society because they do not, generally, provide an experience that is likely to help offenders overcome the obstacles that led them to make mistakes for which they are now being punished. Instead, they reinforce the violence and exploitation that many offenders were sentenced to prison for in the first place. They have failed because they do not promote restoration, a key to successful reintegration, and nobody benefits when offenders are more dangerous when they are released than when they entered prison. This Essay proposes that a restorative model of justice replace our failed punitive model. By changing their vision and implementing constructive reforms, policymakers can conquer an addiction that is wasting lives and billions of dollars

Pharmaceuticals in source separated sanitation systems: Fecal sludge and blackwater treatment

This study investigated, for the first time, the occurrence and fate of 29 multiple-class pharmaceuticals (PhACs) in two source separated sanitation systems based on: (i) batch experiments for the anaerobic digestion (AD) of fecal sludge under mesophilic (37 `C) and thermophilic (52 "C) conditions, and (ii) a full-scale blackwater treatment plant using wet composting and sanitation with urea addition. Results revealed high concentrations of PhACs in raw fecal sludge and blackwater samples, with concentrations up to hundreds of pg L-1 and fig kg-1 dry weight (dw) in liquid and solid fractions, respectively. For mesophilic and thermophilic treatments in the batch experiments, average PhACs removal rates of 31% and 45%, respectively, were observed. The average removal efficiency was slightly better for the full-scale blackwater treatment, with 49% average removal, and few compounds, such as atenolol, valsartan and hydrochlorothiazide, showed almost complete degradation. In the AD treatments, no significant differences were observed between mesophilic and thermophilic conditions. For the full-scale blackwater treatment, the aerobic wet composting step proved to be the most efficient in PhACs reduction, while urea addition had an almost negligible effect for most PhACs, except for citalopram, venlafaxine, oxazepam, valsartan and atorvastatin, for which minor reductions (on average 25%) were observed. Even though both treatment systems reduced initial PhACs loads considerably, significant PhAC concentrations remained in the treated effluents, indicating that fecal sludge and blackwater fertilizations could be a relevant vector for dissemination of PhACs into agricultural fields and thus the environment. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Report and Recommendations on the Economic Impact of the Historic Environment in Scotland

This report is submitted by HEACS, the Historic Environment Advisory Council for Scotland, which was established in 2003 to provide Scottish Ministers with strategic advice on issues affecting the historic environment. In its second term HEACS was asked by the Scottish Ministers: To identify for Scottish Ministers the economic impact of the historic environment in Scotland. In 2008 HEACS commissioned an economic impact study of the historic environment from ECOTEC Research and Consulting Ltd. The Project Steering Group comprised the HEACS Economic Significance Working Group, augmented by economists from the Scottish Government and the Fraser of Allander Institute. The project also benefited from close liaison with Historic Scotland throughout. The primary aim of the economic impact study was that it should establish for the first time a robust set of estimates for the economic contribution of Scotland's historic environment to the nation's economy. The remit of the project was tightly drawn in order to ensure that the Government and wider sector could have confidence in the results. The results of this study should therefore be regarded as a conservative assessment of the economic contribution of the historic environment in Scotland. This HEACS report is intended to be read as an introduction to and in conjunction with the ECOTEC report, Economic Impact of the Historic Environment in Scotland, which is also submitted in its entirety to the Scottish Ministers

Pedagogical Agents for Fostering Question-Asking Skills in Children

Question asking is an important tool for constructing academic knowledge, and a self-reinforcing driver of curiosity. However, research has found that question asking is infrequent in the classroom and children's questions are often superficial, lacking deep reasoning. In this work, we developed a pedagogical agent that encourages children to ask divergent-thinking questions, a more complex form of questions that is associated with curiosity. We conducted a study with 95 fifth grade students, who interacted with an agent that encourages either convergent-thinking or divergent-thinking questions. Results showed that both interventions increased the number of divergent-thinking questions and the fluency of question asking, while they did not significantly alter children's perception of curiosity despite their high intrinsic motivation scores. In addition, children's curiosity trait has a mediating effect on question asking under the divergent-thinking agent, suggesting that question-asking interventions must be personalized to each student based on their tendency to be curious.Comment: Accepted at CHI 202

Etest® versus broth microdilution for ceftaroline MIC determination with Staphylococcus aureus: results from PREMIUM, a European multicentre study

Objectives: To compare the concordance of ceftaroline MIC values 24 by reference broth microdilution (BMD) and Etest (BioMérieux, France) for MSSA and MRSA isolates, respectively, in isolates from PREMIUM (D372SL00001), a European multi-centre study.  Methods: Ceftaroline MICs were determined by reference BMD and by Etest for 1,242 MSSA and MRSA from adult patients with community-acquired pneumonia or complicated skin and soft tissue infections collected between February and May 2012; tests were performed across six European laboratories. Selected isolates with ceftaroline resistance in broth (MIC >1 mg/L) were retested in three central laboratories to confirm their behaviour.  Results: Overall concordance between BMD and Etest was good, with >97% essential agreement and >95% categorical agreement. Nevertheless, 12 of the 26 MRSA isolates found resistant by BMD scored as susceptible by Etest, with MICs ≤1 mg/L, thus counting as very major errors, whereas only five of 380 MRSA found ceftaroline susceptible in BMD were mis-categorised as resistant by Etest. Twenty-one of the 26 isolates with MICs of 2 mg/L by BMD were then re-tested twice by each of three central laboratories: BMD MICs of 2 mg/L were consistently found for 19 of the 21 isolates. Among 147 Etest results for these 21 isolates (original plus six repeats per isolate) 112 were >1 mg/L.  Conclusions: BMD and Etest have good overall agreement for ceftaroline against Staphylococcus aureus; nevertheless, reliable Etest-based discrimination of the minority of ceftaroline-resistant (MIC 2 mg/L) MRSA is extremely challenging, requiring careful reading of strips, ideally with duplicate testing

The complexity of counting edge colorings and a dichotomy for some higher domain Holant problems

We show that an effective version of Siegel’s Theorem on finiteness of integer solutions and an application of elementary Galois theory are key ingredients in a complexity classification of some Holant problems. These Holant problems, denoted by Holant(f), are defined by a symmetric ternary function f that is invariant under any permutation of the κ ≥ 3 domain elements. We prove that Holant(f) exhibits a complexity dichotomy. This dichotomy holds even when restricted to planar graphs. A special case of this result is that counting edge κ-colorings is #P-hard over planar 3-regular graphs for κ ≥ 3. In fact, we prove that counting edge κ-colorings is #P-hard over planar r-regular graphs for all κ ≥ r ≥ 3. The problem is polynomial-time computable in all other parameter settings. The proof of the dichotomy theorem for Holant(f) depends on the fact that a specific polynomial p(x, y) has an explicitly listed finite set of integer solutions, and the determination of the Galois groups of some specific polynomials. In the process, we also encounter the Tutte polynomial, medial graphs, Eulerian partitions, Puiseux series, and a certain lattice condition on the (logarithm of) the roots of polynomials.