Prison Research from the Inside: The Role of Convict Autoethnography

A perspective that has often been absent in criminal justice research is that of former prisoners. This article discusses the establishment, in 1997, of “convict criminology,” a group of scholars producing research informed by their experiences of crime and the criminal justice process; that is, either those who have served time themselves or who have operated alongside prisoners as professionals in custodial settings. It is argued that such scholars face similar dilemmas to others in terms of emotionalism, but suggests that their emotions are of a different nature. While an “insider” perspective cannot lay claim to scientific “objectivity,” the article argues that the existence of emotion does not invalidate an “insider” criminologist’s views. Rather, the passion engendered by the experience of incarceration can add color, context, and contour to data collection, findings, and analysis and may therefore be regarded as an essential thread in the tapestry of criminological inquiry

The DiReCT study - improving recruitment into clinical trials: a mixed methods study investigating the ethical acceptability, feasibility and recruitment yield of the cohort multiple randomised controlled trials design

This is a freely-available open access publication. Please cite the published version which is available via the DOI link in this record.RESULTS: We obtained a favourable ethical opinion from the UK Health Research Authority. Clinicians approached 131/752 (17%) potentially eligible participants for consent. Of these 131, 84 (64%) initially consented to be contacted by a researcher and all but one consented to being randomised into future trials. We confirmed consent for 71 (54%) of participants approached by clinicians, of whom 69 (53%) consented to being randomised into hypothetical future trials, 9% (69/752) of all potentially eligible patients. The interviewed clinicians described issues impacting on their ability to recruit participants in terms of clinical concerns for patient wellbeing, work pressure, their views of both general research and the specific DiReCT study, and how they viewed patients' responses to being offered participation in the study.NIHREuropean Science Foundation Research Network Programme ‘REFLECTION

Optimal Time-Series Selection of Quasars

We present a novel method for the optimal selection of quasars using time-series observations in a single photometric bandpass. Utilizing the damped random walk model of Kelly et al. (2009), we parameterize the ensemble quasar structure function in Sloan Stripe 82 as a function of observed brightness. The ensemble model fit can then be evaluated rigorously for and calibrated with individual light curves with no parameter fitting. This yields a classification in two statistics --- one describing the fit confidence and one describing the probability of a false alarm --- which can be tuned, a priori, to achieve high quasar detection fractions (99% completeness with default cuts), given an acceptable rate of false alarms. We establish the typical rate of false alarms due to known variable stars as <3% (high purity). Applying the classification, we increase the sample of potential quasars relative to those known in Stripe 82 by as much as 29%, and by nearly a factor of two in the redshift range 2.5<z<3, where selection by color is extremeley inefficient. This represents 1875 new quasars in a 290 deg^2 field. The observed rates of both quasars and stars agree well with the model predictions, with >99% of quasars exhibiting the expected variability profile. We discus the utility of the method at high-redshift and in the regime of noisy and sparse data. Our time series selection complements well independent selection based on quasar colors and has strong potential for identifying high redshift quasars for BAO and other cosmology studies in the LSST era.Comment: 28 pages, 8 figures, 3 tables; Accepted to A

A Simple Likelihood Method for Quasar Target Selection

We present a new method for quasar target selection using photometric fluxes and a Bayesian probabilistic approach. For our purposes we target quasars using Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) photometry to a magnitude limit of g=22. The efficiency and completeness of this technique is measured using the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) data, taken in 2010. This technique was used for the uniformly selected (CORE) sample of targets in BOSS year one spectroscopy to be realized in the 9th SDSS data release. When targeting at a density of 40 objects per sq-deg (the BOSS quasar targeting density) the efficiency of this technique in recovering z>2.2 quasars is 40%. The completeness compared to all quasars identified in BOSS data is 65%. This paper also describes possible extensions and improvements for this techniqueComment: Updated to accepted version for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. 10 pages, 10 figures, 3 table

Clinical laboratory testing for smoking toxicity: implications for early identification of respiratory diseases

Smoking toxicity has short and long term clinical effects and also leads to organ damage. However, clinical assessment in the context of early identification of smoke toxicity by evidence-base pathology is yet to be practiced. The present study was aimed to assess the knowledge and practice of health practitioners regarding clinical laboratory testing of smoking toxicity, with a view to generate a debate on why and how to test. In this pilot study, various health practitioners and students were asked via interviews about laboratory testing of smoking toxicity. There is considerable dismissal of ‘why’ to test and up 57% responded that it was unnecessary. However, there is general opinion that laboratory routine tests can be used to identify toxicity. It appears that there is a gap between knowledge and practice of clinical laboratory testing of cigarette toxicity. Students and health practitioners have the knowledge on smoke toxicity but this requires articulation into evidence-base pathology for early identification and intervention of subclinical pathology in smoking toxicity, especially before noticeable organ damage

Evaluation of oxidative stress and whole blood viscosity for clinical laboratory testing of smoking toxicity

Background: There are no clearly established clinical biochemical markers for cigarette smoking despite the knowledge that cigarette smoking is a risk factor for various diseases, especially cardiovascular complications of respiratory pathologies. However, there are reports of significant increases in blood viscosity and oxidative stress among smokers. The main objective of the study was to ascertain the association of toxicity from cigarette smoking on whole blood viscosity in our data.Methods: This study analysed the archived clinical data of 20 cigarette smokers and 20 apparently healthy individuals.Results: The data show that on average, oxidative stress levels are relatively the same between groups, while whole blood viscosity is statistically significantly lower in non-smokers compared to smokers.Conclusions: This report suggests that oxidative stress induced whole blood hyper-viscosity could be a valid biomarker for laboratory testing of smoking toxicity among cigarette smokers

Deuterium as a Stereochemically Invisible Blocking Group for Chiral Ligand Synthesis

Highly diastereoselective lithiation (s-BuLi/TMEDA ix Et2O, -78 degrees C, 2 h) of (5)-2-ferroceny1-4-(substituted)-oxazolines followed by addition of MeOH-d(4) gave up to 95% D incorporation. Subsequent application of alternative lithiation conditions (n-BuLi in THF, -78 degrees C, 2 h), followed by addition of an electrophile, resulted in a reversal of diastereoselectivity controlled primarily by the high k(H)/k(D) value for lithiation (isomer ratio typically between 10:1 and 20:1)

Quasar Selection Based on Photometric Variability

We develop a method for separating quasars from other variable point sources using SDSS Stripe 82 light curve data for ~10,000 variable objects. To statistically describe quasar variability, we use a damped random walk model parametrized by a damping time scale, tau, and an asymptotic amplitude (structure function), SF_inf. With the aid of an SDSS spectroscopically confirmed quasar sample, we demonstrate that variability selection in typical extragalactic fields with low stellar density can deliver complete samples with reasonable purity (or efficiency, E). Compared to a selection method based solely on the slope of the structure function, the inclusion of the tau information boosts E from 60% to 75% while maintaining a highly complete sample (98%) even in the absence of color information. For a completeness of C=90%, E is boosted from 80% to 85%. Conversely, C improves from 90% to 97% while maintaining E=80% when imposing a lower limit on tau. With the aid of color selection, the purity can be further boosted to 96%, with C= 93%. Hence, selection methods based on variability will play an important role in the selection of quasars with data provided by upcoming large sky surveys, such as Pan-STARRS and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). For a typical (simulated) LSST cadence over 10 years and a photometric accuracy of 0.03 mag (achieved at i~22), C is expected to be 88% for a simple sample selection criterion of tau>100 days. In summary, given an adequate survey cadence, photometric variability provides an even better method than color selection for separating quasars from stars.Comment: (v2) 50 pages, accepted to Ap