What\u27s With the Attitude? Changing Attitudes About Criminal Justice Issues

Public policies related to the criminal justice system in the United States ultimately reflect the attitudes of its citizens. It is surprising, therefore, how few studies have investigated influences on attitudes about criminal justice issues and how narrow the scope of such investigations has been. In this study, we examined the effects of education on attitudes toward several criminal justice issues in college students enrolled in a senior-level forensic psychology course compared to a nonpsycholegal psychology course. Results indicated that education about public policy issues influenced students\u27 attitudes toward the death penalty, prison reform, and the insanity defense. In addition, we examined preexisting differences in these attitudes based on demographic and other status variables (i.e., race, gender, academic class standing) and found that these variables were associated with differences in attitudes about criminal justice issues in a much more complex way than previously considered in the extant literature

pH-Sensitive Hydrogel Based On a Novel Photocross-Linkable Copolymer

A pH sensitive hydrogel has been prepared by a UV irradiation technique. Starting polymer was the PHM (poly hydroxyethylaspartamide methacrylated) oibtained from polyaspartamide (PHEA) partially derivatized with methacrylic anhydride (MA). This new copolymer has been further derivatized with succinic anhydride (SA) to obtain PHM-SA that has been cross-linked by UV irradiation to form a pH sensitive hydrogel. The network, recovered after washing as a powder, has been characterized by FT-IR spectrophotometry and size distribution analysis. Moreover, to have information about water affinity of the prepared sample, swelling measurements have been carried out in aqueous media mimicking biological fluids. The possibility to employ the prepared hydrogel as a pH-sensitive drug delivery system (DDS) has been investigated. In particular, ibuprofen ((S)(+)4-isobutyl-\uf061-methylphenyl-acetic acid), chosen as a model drug, has been entrapped into PHM-SA hydrogel, and in vitro release studies have showed that its release rate depends on different swelling of the network as a function of the environmental pH