Can self-control change substantially over time?: Rethinking the nature and role of self-control in Gottfredson and Hirschi's general theory of crime

The primary goal of this study is to verify if the changing level of structural and situational `sensitivity' to costs and benefits associated with deviant behaviors (e.g., Hirschi (2004) and Gottfredson (2006)'s redefined self-control, Tittle, Ward, and Grasmick's (2004) "desire to exercise self-control," Wikström and Treiber's (2007) "situationally-based" self-control) is associated with the changing level of more general `ability' to measure costs and benefits within individuals (e.g., Gottfredson and Hirschi's (1990) trait-like self-control, Tittle, Ward, and Grasmick's (2004) "capacity for self-control," Wikström and Treiber's (2007) "executive capability"). More importantly, to better disentangle the causal mechanisms underlying stability and change in offending behaviors over time, This study examines how low self-control as one of the constituent elements of offending propensity changes over time in the general population and across different study groups using both a hierarchical linear model (HLM) and a second-order latent growth model (LGM). Then, structural equation modeling (SEM) is employed to examine the on-going processes of cumulative advantage and disadvantage by more explicitly testing the bidirectional relationship of key theoretical constructs (e.g., self-control vs. social control/bond) over time. In contrast to the Gottfredson and Hirschi's prediction, this study found meaningful differences in the growth pattern of self-control among individuals in the population in general and especially across different study groups. Interestingly, the changing level of social control/bond triggered by experimental conditions accounted for the between-group difference observed. The same pattern persists when different analytic techniques and model specifications are applied to test the same research hypotheses, which suggests that the results are not an artifact of measurement error, model specification, or statistical methods. Most of all, this study was able to better disentangle the `long-term' relationship between self- and social control variables, which is found to be more dynamic and bidirectional than previously hypothesized

Investigating the environmental Kuznets curve of consumption for developing and developed countries: a study of Albania and Sweden

Summary The aim of this research was to investigate the long-run relationship between economic growth and environmental quality in Sweden and Albania using the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis. This was done through empirical research using secondary data for Gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, ecological footprint (EF) and trade openness (EX) which were run through both a regression and an Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL)analysis. Objectives I) To investigate the individual EKCs for Sweden and Albania and their respective turning points. II) To discover a potential delinking of economic growth and environmental quality in Sweden and Albania. Conclusions I) There was no evidence for an EKC for Sweden, and therefore no turning point was found using the dataset from 1984 to 2012. In other words, there was no decoupling between economic growth and environmental quality. II) An EKC exists for Albania in terms of the relationship between income per capita and the EF. The turning point was around $1808.6, which meant that Albania has already decoupled their economic growth from environmental quality

Adaptive NN output-feedback control for stochastic time-delay nonlinear systems with unknown control coefficients and perturbations

This paper addresses the problem of adaptive output-feedback control for more general class of stochastic time-varying delay nonlinear systems with unknown control coefficients and perturbations. By using Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional, backstepping and tuning function technique, a novel adaptive neural network (NN) output-feedback controller is constructed with fewer learning parameters. The designed controller guarantees that all the signals in the closed-loop system are 4-moment (or mean square) semi-globally uniformly ultimately bounded (SGUUB). Finally, a simulation example is shown to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme

Therapeutic benefit of aripiprazole-olanzapine combination in the treatment of senile Alzheimer’s disease complicated by mental disorders

Purpose: To determine the clinical efficacy of aripiprazole-olanzapine combination treatment in elderly Alzheimer’s disease complicated with mental disorders. Methods: Ninety-two elderly patients with Alzheimer’s disease and mental disorders who were admitted to Binzhou People's Hospital, were enrolled in the study. They were randomized into control and study groups. Control group was treated with olanzapine, while the study group was treated with aripiprazole as an adjuvant therapy in addition to olanzapine. The clinical efficacy, scores on different scales (MMSE, ADAS-cog, CDR, ADL, NPI and CMAI), and incidence of adverse reactions were determined. Results: The overall degree of response was significantly higher in the study group than in the control group (p < 0.05). There were no significant differences in MMSE, ADAS-cog, CDR, ADL, NPI and CMAI scores between the two groups before treatment (p > 0.05). The MMSE score of the study group was significantly higher than that of the control group, and the scores in the other scales in the study group were significantly lower after treatment (p < 0.05). The study group had significantly lower incidence of adverse reactions than control group (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Aripiprazole-olanzapine combination has significant therapeutic benefit in the treatment of elderly Alzheimer’s disease patients complicated with mental disorders. It promotes recovery of neurological function, as well as produces a lower incidence of adverse reactions. Keywords: Aripiprazole, Olanzapine, Alzheimer’s disease, Mental disorder