Is There Such a Thing as “Defended Community Homicide”?: The Necessity of Methods Triangulation

Data on homicides in Buffalo, New York, are analyzed to demonstrate the importance of “methods triangulation” for assessing the validity of quantitative measures. Defended community homicides are quantitatively operationalized as acts that occur in the offender’s community against a nonlocal victim. Poisson models provide strong support for the existence of defended community homicide, which is significantly more common in residentially stable and racially homogenous neighborhoods. However, subsequent qualitative analyses of the victim and offender characteristics and motives of these homicides undermine the “defended community” concept. Qualitative analyses are necessary to assess the validity of quantitative measures in criminological research

Effects of Detention for Flooding Mitigation under Climate Change Scenarios— Implication for Landscape Planning in the Charles River Watershed, Massachusetts, USA

Climate change has posed increased risks to environmental hazards (e.g., flooding, droughts, hurricanes) in addition to new challenges under climate change impacts (e.g., early snow melt, sea level rises, heat waves). Floods are omnipresent in almost every city in the United States and account for the most economic losses than any other single geophysical hazard (White and Haas 1975). Previous climate change studies have suggested promising trends of increasing temperature and changing precipitation patterns as well as increased intensity and duration of storm events that are likely to result in more flooding events in the Northeast region. Flooding mitigation strategies have been focusing on structured engineering solutions such as dams and dikes along streams and rivers since the late 1910s. In recent decades, in lieu of conventionally engineered infrastructure, scholars have called for “soft” strategies such as green infrastructure (Thomas and Littlewood 2010) and land use planning (Burby 1998; Godschalk 2004) for comprehensive hazard mitigation and stormwater management integrated into planning and design interventions for flooding mitigation. Stormwater detention is among the most prevalent stormwater management practices for flooding mitigation; however, the perceived benefits could be overestimated without empirical study (Beecham et al. 2005). In addition, planners are now facing challenges to cope with uncertainties from climate change impacts under a paradox between making room for water while managing growth in land use planning. For local planners and stakeholders to make adaptive land use decisions for climate change, this paper aims to answer two key questions: (1) to what degree and in what way does climate change have impacts on long-term flooding hazards? (2) how much detention area in the watershed would be needed for mitigating flooding hazards induced by climate change? And what do the results imply for innovations in landscape planning

Artificial intelligence approaches to predicting and detecting cognitive decline in older adults: A conceptual review.

Preserving cognition and mental capacity is critical to aging with autonomy. Early detection of pathological cognitive decline facilitates the greatest impact of restorative or preventative treatments. Artificial Intelligence (AI) in healthcare is the use of computational algorithms that mimic human cognitive functions to analyze complex medical data. AI technologies like machine learning (ML) support the integration of biological, psychological, and social factors when approaching diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of disease. This paper serves to acquaint clinicians and other stakeholders with the use, benefits, and limitations of AI for predicting, diagnosing, and classifying mild and major neurocognitive impairments, by providing a conceptual overview of this topic with emphasis on the features explored and AI techniques employed. We present studies that fell into six categories of features used for these purposes: (1) sociodemographics; (2) clinical and psychometric assessments; (3) neuroimaging and neurophysiology; (4) electronic health records and claims; (5) novel assessments (e.g., sensors for digital data); and (6) genomics/other omics. For each category we provide examples of AI approaches, including supervised and unsupervised ML, deep learning, and natural language processing. AI technology, still nascent in healthcare, has great potential to transform the way we diagnose and treat patients with neurocognitive disorders

Changes in the redox state and endogenous fluorescence of in vivo human skin due to intrinsic and photo-aging, measured by multiphoton tomography with fluorescence lifetime imaging

Ultraviolet radiation from solar exposure is a key extrinsic factor responsible for premature skin aging (i.e., photo-aging). Recent advances using in vivo multiphoton tomography (MPT) demonstrate the efficacy of this approach to assess intrinsic and extrinsic skin aging as an alternative to existing invasive techniques. In this study, we measured changes in epidermal autofluorescence, dermal collagen second harmonic generation (SHG), and the redox state of solar-exposed and solar-protected human skin by MPT with fluorescence lifetime imaging (MPT-FLIM). Twenty-four volunteers across four age categories (20 to 29, 30 to 39, 40 to 49, and 50 to 59 years old; six volunteers each) were recruited for MPT-FLIM imaging of the dorsal (solar-exposed; photo-damaged) and volar (solar-protected) forearm. We demonstrate a higher intensity of dermal collagen SHG within the volar forearm compared to dorsal solar-exposed skin. Redox imaging of each epidermal skin stratum by FLIM demonstrates an increase in fluorescence lifetime in the solar-exposed dorsal forearm that is more apparent in aged skin. The results of this study suggest the redox state of the viable epidermis is a key marker in assessing intrinsic and photo-damage skin aging, in combination with changes in autofluorescence and SHG

Proteolytic Cleavage of Apolipoprotein E in the Down Syndrome Brain

Down syndrome (DS) is one of the most common genetic causes of intellectual disability and is characterized by a number of behavioral as well as cognitive symptoms. Many of the neuropathological features of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease (AD) including senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) are also present in people with DS as a result of triplication of the amyloid precursor gene on chromosome 21. Evidence suggests that harboring one or both apolipoprotein E4 (APOE4) alleles may increase the risk for AD due to the proteolytic cleavage of apoE4 and a subsequent loss of function. To investigate a role for the apoE proteolysis in vivo, we compared three autopsy groups; 7 DS with AD neuropathology cases over 40 years, 5 young DS cases without AD pathology under 40 years (YDS) and 5 age-matched control cases over 40 years by immunohistochemistry utilizing an antibody that detects the amino-terminal fragment of apoE. Application of this antibody, termed the amino-terminal apoE fragment antibody (nApoECF) revealed labeling of pyramidal neurons in the frontal cortex of YDS cases, whereas in the DS-AD group, labeling with nApoECF was prominent within NFTs. NFT labeling with nApoECF was significantly greater in the hippocampus versus the frontal cortex in the same DS-AD cases, suggesting a regional distribution of truncated apoE. Colocalization immunofluorescence experiments indicated that 52.5% and 53.2% of AT8- and PHF-1-positive NFTs, respectively, also contained nApoECF. Collectively, these data support a role for the proteolytic cleavage of apoE in DS and suggest that apoE fragmentation is closely associated with NFTs

Bupropion Reduces Some of the Symptoms of Marihuana Withdrawal in Chronic Marihuana Users: A Pilot Study

Bupropion’s (Zyban® SR) effectiveness to treat symptoms experienced in marihuana withdrawal was tested in a double-blind, placebo-controlled study with chronic, heavy marihuana users. Participants maintained their usual marihuana intake until Quit Day after which they were required to cease intake of THC products for 14 days. A Withdrawal Discomfort Score revealed that for 7 days immediately following cessation, placebo-treated subjects reported more symptoms than bupropion-treated subjects. Self-reported craving for marihuana increased for the placebo-treated group but not for those treated with bupropion. Measures of sleep and cognitive performance were not different between the two groups. Participants in the bupropion treatment arm were more likely to complete the study than those randomized to the placebo arm (50% completion for bupropion vs. 33% completion for placebo). These results suggest that bupropion may be useful for alleviating marihuana withdrawal symptoms and be useful in subject retention during long-term cessation programs