Beyond Basic Needs: Social Support and Structure for Successful Offender Reentry

Barriers to successful reentry have long been identified as impeding an offender’s ability to successfully reenter society upon release from incarceration. As a result, research has long examined what shared obstacles the majority of offenders often face upon reentering society. Much of the research identifies factors such as poor education, obtaining/maintaining employment, stable housing, and transportation as common barriers to successful reentry. By using in-depth interviews with ex-offenders deemed as successful that were conducted by two respective non-profit agencies, the present study explores what significant requirements, if any, successful offenders perceive to need and/or have experienced as lacking while attempting to successfully reenter society. Findings from this study highlight that many of the research- identified needs are not major barriers because they are often provided for by various non-profit agencies. Furthermore, successful ex-offenders overwhelmingly identify poor social support as a major barrier that oftentimes remains neglected in government and non-profit organizational programming

A contribution to laser range imaging technology

The goal of the project was to develop a methodology for fusion of a Laser Range Imaging Device (LRID) and camera data. Our initial work in the project led to the conclusion that none of the LRID's that were available were sufficiently adequate for this purpose. Thus we spent the time and effort on the development of the new LRID with several novel features which elicit the desired fusion objectives. In what follows, we describe the device developed and built under contract. The Laser Range Imaging Device (LRID) is an instrument which scans a scene using a laser and returns range and reflection intensity data. Such a system would be extremely useful in scene analysis in industry and space applications. The LRID will be eventually implemented on board a mobile robot. The current system has several advantages over some commercially available systems. One improvement is the use of X-Y galvonometer scanning mirrors instead of polygonal mirrors present in some systems. The advantage of the X-Y scanning mirrors is that the mirror system can be programmed to provide adjustable scanning regions. For each mirror there are two controls accessible by the computer. The first is the mirror position and the second is a zoom factor which modifies the amplitude of the position of the parameter. Another advantage of the LRID is the use of a visible low power laser. Some of the commercial systems use a higher intensity invisible laser which causes safety concerns. By using a low power visible laser, not only can one see the beam and avoid direct eye contact, but also the lower intensity reduces the risk of damage to the eye, and no protective eyeware is required

The Importance of Broad Emission-Line Widths in Single Epoch Black Hole Mass Estimates

Estimates of the mass of super-massive black holes (BHs) in distant active galactic nuclei (AGNs) can be obtained efficiently only through single-epoch spectra, using a combination of their broad emission-line widths and continuum luminosities. Yet the reliability and accuracy of the method, and the resulting mass estimates, M_BH, remain uncertain. A recent study by Croom using a sample of SDSS, 2QZ and 2SLAQ quasars suggests that line widths contribute little information about the BH mass in these single-epoch estimates and can be replaced by a constant value without significant loss of accuracy. In this Letter, we use a sample of nearby reverberation-mapped AGNs to show that this conclusion is not universally applicable. We use the bulge luminosity (L_Bulge) of these local objects to test how well the known M_BH - L_Bulge correlation is recovered when using randomly assigned line widths instead of the measured ones to estimate M_BH. We find that line widths provide significant information about M_BH, and that for this sample, the line width information is just as significant as that provided by the continuum luminosities. We discuss the effects of observational biases upon the analysis of Croom and suggest that the results can probably be explained as a bias of flux-limited, shallow quasar samples.Comment: 10 text pages + 4 Figures + 1 Table. Accepted for publication in ApJ Letter

Proceedings of the First NASA Formal Methods Symposium

Topics covered include: Model Checking - My 27-Year Quest to Overcome the State Explosion Problem; Applying Formal Methods to NASA Projects: Transition from Research to Practice; TLA+: Whence, Wherefore, and Whither; Formal Methods Applications in Air Transportation; Theorem Proving in Intel Hardware Design; Building a Formal Model of a Human-Interactive System: Insights into the Integration of Formal Methods and Human Factors Engineering; Model Checking for Autonomic Systems Specified with ASSL; A Game-Theoretic Approach to Branching Time Abstract-Check-Refine Process; Software Model Checking Without Source Code; Generalized Abstract Symbolic Summaries; A Comparative Study of Randomized Constraint Solvers for Random-Symbolic Testing; Component-Oriented Behavior Extraction for Autonomic System Design; Automated Verification of Design Patterns with LePUS3; A Module Language for Typing by Contracts; From Goal-Oriented Requirements to Event-B Specifications; Introduction of Virtualization Technology to Multi-Process Model Checking; Comparing Techniques for Certified Static Analysis; Towards a Framework for Generating Tests to Satisfy Complex Code Coverage in Java Pathfinder; jFuzz: A Concolic Whitebox Fuzzer for Java; Machine-Checkable Timed CSP; Stochastic Formal Correctness of Numerical Algorithms; Deductive Verification of Cryptographic Software; Coloured Petri Net Refinement Specification and Correctness Proof with Coq; Modeling Guidelines for Code Generation in the Railway Signaling Context; Tactical Synthesis Of Efficient Global Search Algorithms; Towards Co-Engineering Communicating Autonomous Cyber-Physical Systems; and Formal Methods for Automated Diagnosis of Autosub 6000

Systems Biology of Coagulation Initiation: Kinetics of Thrombin Generation in Resting and Activated Human Blood

Blood function defines bleeding and clotting risks and dictates approaches for clinical intervention. Independent of adding exogenous tissue factor (TF), human blood treated in vitro with corn trypsin inhibitor (CTI, to block Factor XIIa) will generate thrombin after an initiation time (Ti) of 1 to 2 hours (depending on donor), while activation of platelets with the GPVI-activator convulxin reduces Ti to ∼20 minutes. Since current kinetic models fail to generate thrombin in the absence of added TF, we implemented a Platelet-Plasma ODE model accounting for: the Hockin-Mann protease reaction network, thrombin-dependent display of platelet phosphatidylserine, VIIa function on activated platelets, XIIa and XIa generation and function, competitive thrombin substrates (fluorogenic detector and fibrinogen), and thrombin consumption during fibrin polymerization. The kinetic model consisting of 76 ordinary differential equations (76 species, 57 reactions, 105 kinetic parameters) predicted the clotting of resting and convulxin-activated human blood as well as predicted Ti of human blood under 50 different initial conditions that titrated increasing levels of TF, Xa, Va, XIa, IXa, and VIIa. Experiments with combined anti-XI and anti-XII antibodies prevented thrombin production, demonstrating that a leak of XIIa past saturating amounts of CTI (and not “blood-borne TF” alone) was responsible for in vitro initiation without added TF. Clotting was not blocked by antibodies used individually against TF, VII/VIIa, P-selectin, GPIb, protein disulfide isomerase, cathepsin G, nor blocked by the ribosome inhibitor puromycin, the Clk1 kinase inhibitor Tg003, or inhibited VIIa (VIIai). This is the first model to predict the observed behavior of CTI-treated human blood, either resting or stimulated with platelet activators. CTI-treated human blood will clot in vitro due to the combined activity of XIIa and XIa, a process enhanced by platelet activators and which proceeds in the absence of any evidence for kinetically significant blood borne tissue factor

Neutrophil-bead collision assay: Pharmacologically induced changes in membrane mechanics regulate the PSGL-1/P-selectin adhesion lifetime

Visualization of flowing neutrophils colliding with adherent 1-µm-diameter beads presenting P-selectin allowed the simultaneous measurement of collision efficiency (ε), membrane tethering fraction (f), membrane tether growth dynamics, and PSGL-1/P-selectin binding lifetime. For 1391 collisions analyzed over venous wall shear rates from 25 to 200 s-1 ε decreased from 0.17 to 0.004, whereas f increased from 0.15 to 0.70, and the average projected membrane tether length, ∠mtether, increased from 0.35 µm to ⋍2.0 µm over this shear range. At all shear rates tested, adhesive collisions lacking membrane tethers had average bond lifetimes less than those observed for collisions with tethers. For adhesive collisions that failed to form membrane tethers, the regressed Bell parameters (consistent with single bond Monte Carlo simulation) were zero-stress offrate, Koff(0) = 0.56 s-1and reactive compliance, r = 0.10 nm, similar to published atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements. For all adhesion events (± tethers), the bond lifetime distributions were more similar to those obtained by rolling assay and best simulated by Monte Carlo with the above Bell parameters and an average of 1.48 bonds (n = 1 bond (67%), n = 2 (22%), and n = 3–5 (11%)). For collisions at 100 s-1, pretreatment of neutrophils with actin depolymerizing agents, latrunculin or cytochalasin D, had no effect on ε, but increased ∠mtether by 1.74- or 2.65-fold and prolonged the average tether lifetime by 1.41- or 1.65-fold, respectively. Jasplakinolide, an actin polymerizing agent known to cause blebbing, yielded results similar to the depolymerizing agents. Conversely, cholesterol-depletion with methyl-ß-cyclodextrin or formaldehyde fixation had no effect on ε, but reduced ∠mtether by 66% or 97% and reduced the average tether lifetime by 30% or 42%, respectively. The neutrophilbead collision assay combines advantages of atomic force microscopy (small contact zone), aggregometry (discrete interactions), micropipette manipulation (tether visualization), and rolling assays (physiologic flow loading). Membrane tether growth can be enhanced or reduced pharmacologically with consequent effects on PSGL-1/P-selectin lifetimes

A multisite study of performance drivers among institutional review boards.

Introduction:The time required to obtain Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval is a frequent subject of efforts to reduce unnecessary delays in initiating clinical trials. This study was conducted by and for IRB directors to better understand factors affecting approval times as a first step in developing a quality improvement framework. Methods:807 IRB-approved clinical trials from 5 University of California campuses were analyzed to identify operational and clinical trial characteristics influencing IRB approval times. Results:High workloads, low staff ratios, limited training, and the number and types of ancillary reviews resulted in longer approval times. Biosafety reviews and the need for billing coverage analysis were ancillary reviews that contributed to the longest delays. Federally funded and multisite clinical trials had shorter approval times. Variability in between individual committees at each institution reviewing phase 3 multisite clinical trials also contributed to delays for some protocols. Accreditation was not associated with shorter approval times. Conclusions:Reducing unnecessary delays in obtaining IRB approval will require a quality improvement framework that considers operational and study characteristics as well as the larger institutional regulatory environment

Chemical abundances of damped Lyman alpha systems in the XQ-100 survey

The XQ-100 survey has provided high signal-noise spectra of 100 redshift 3-4.5 quasars with the X-Shooter spectrograph. The metal abundances for 13 elements in the 41 damped Lyman alpha systems (DLAs) identified in the XQ-100 sample are presented, and an investigation into abundances of a variety of DLA classes is conducted. The XQ-100 DLA sample contains five DLAs within 5000 km/s of their host quasar (proximate DLAs; PDLAs) as well as three sightlines which contain two DLAs within 10,000 km/s of each other along the same line-of-sight (multiple DLAs; MDLAs). Combined with previous observations in the literature, we demonstrate that PDLAs with logN(HI)<21.0 show lower [S/H] and [Fe/H] (relative to intervening systems with similar redshift and N(HI)), whilst higher [S/H] and [Si/H] are seen in PDLAs with logN(HI)>21.0. These abundance discrepancies are independent of their line-of-sight velocity separation from the host quasar, and the velocity width of the metal lines (v90). Contrary to previous studies, MDLAs show no difference in [alpha/Fe] relative to single DLAs matched in metallicity and redshift. In addition, we present follow-up UVES data of J0034+1639, a sightline containing three DLAs, including a metal-poor DLA with [Fe/H]=-2.82 (the third lowest [Fe/H] in DLAs identified to date) at z=4.25. Lastly we study the dust-corrected [Zn/Fe], emphasizing that near-IR coverage of X-Shooter provides unprecedented access to MgII, CaII and TiII lines (at redshifts 3-4) to provide additional evidence for subsolar [Zn/Fe] ratio in DLAs.Comment: Accepted to MNRAS. 19 pages plus Appendix material (102 pages total

An Alternative Approach To Measuring Reverberation Lags in Active Galactic Nuclei

Motivated by recent progress in the statistical modeling of quasar variability, we develop a new approach to measuring emission-line reverberation lags to estimate the size of broad-line regions (BLRs) in active galactic nuclei. Assuming that all emission-line light curves are scaled, smoothed, and displaced versions of the continuum, this alternative approach fits the light curves directly using a damped random walk model and aligns them to recover the time lag and its statistical confidence limits. We introduce the mathematical formalism of this approach and demonstrate its ability to cope with some of the problems for traditional methods, such as irregular sampling, correlated errors, and seasonal gaps. We redetermine the lags for 87 emission lines in 31 quasars and reassess the BLR size--luminosity relationship using 60 H-beta lags. We confirm the general results from the traditional cross-correlation methods, with a few exceptions. Our method, however, also supports a broad range of extensions. In particular, it can simultaneously fit multiple lines and continuum light curves which improves the lag estimate for the lines and provides estimates of the error correlations between them. Determining these correlations is of particular importance for interpreting emission-line velocity--delay maps. We can also include parameters for luminosity-dependent lags or line responses. We use this to detect the scaling of the BLR size with continuum luminosity in NGC 5548.Comment: match to the version accepted to ApJ. New code release available at http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~yingzu/spear.htm

North Korea’s Cultural Diplomacy in the Early Kim Jong-un Era

The rumours of Unhasu Orchestra’s demise soaked up a good deal of the bandwidth in the English-language press that focused on the DPRK in autumn 2013. Yet there remains a real dearth of academic work on this significant state institution, which was clearly intended to pursue Kim Jong-il’s ideology and spread Kim Jong-un’s glories, particularly in charismatic commemorative vein. Thus this article’s scope and interest in establishing the orchestra’s function in North Korea’s efforts to craft external views of itself is both useful and timely. The Associated Press bureau in Pyongyang, similarly, has been the focus of a great deal of ire and interest on the internet, but far less scholarly investigation. This article puts the AP-KCNA collaboration into a “soft power” framework whereby North Korea’s gains from the project are juxtaposed against the propaganda uses to which it is put. Even as the AP’s presence in Pyongyang (and, briefly, Manhattan) has manifested the glimmering if hardly full appearance of a new internationalism for North Korean viewers, the article holds out the possibility of the DPRK using the AP as a channel to Washington. In other words, its greatest use in the possible unfreezing of US-DPRK relations may be yet to come, inevitable criticisms of restricted reporting notwithstanding. Both the AP-KCNA joint exhibition and the Unhasu Orchestra’s sojourn to France coincided with the first months of Kim Jong-un’s reign. Thus they can provide an alternate perspective both on North Korean foreign policy and the wider debate about how to best engage the DPRK. The paper therefore adds to the literature on North Korean foreign relations under Kim Jong-un, and can enrich the ongoing debates over journalistic and musical engagement with North Korea