Alcohol Availability and Violence: A Closer Look at Space and Time

Alcohol availability plays an important role in violence. Less is known about how spatiotemporal patterns of alcohol–violence association vary across time of day and across various crime types. This study examined whether and how the associations between on- and off-premise alcohol outlets and assaults, and between on- and off-premise alcohol outlets and robberies, vary across different times of day (morning, daytime, evening, and late night). This cross-sectional study used socioeconomic, alcohol license, and crime data from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, aggregated to US Census block groups and estimated spatially lagged maximum likelihood regression models that controlled for spatial dependence. On-premise outlets were negatively associated with evening assaults and positively associated with daytime and late-night robberies. Off-premise outlets were positively associated with evening assaults, late-night assaults, daytime robberies, and evening robberies. Spatiotemporal alcohol–violence associations vary across crime types and across time of day. On- and off-premise alcohol outlets play a unique role across four different temporal categories and across two violent crime types. These findings have the potential to inform theoretical explanations of the alcohol–violence relationship and may be beneficial when considering and designing custom-tailored local alcohol policy to reduce alcohol-related harm

The Relationship Between Alcohol Beverage Types and Violence

There is substantial evidence of an ecological association between off-premise alcohol outlets and violence. We know less, however, about how specific beverage types that are sold in the outlets might explain the difference in violence rates across different alcohol outlets. Data on alcohol beverage types were collected for all off-premise alcohol outlets in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, using a systematic social observation instrument. Spatially lagged regression models were estimated to determine whether the variation in alcohol beverage types is related to robbery density net of important neighborhood predictors of crime rates. Availability of all alcohol beverage types (beer, wine, spirits, premixed, single beer, single spirits, single premixed) was positively associated with the density of robberies, net of neighborhood characteristics. Reducing alcohol beverages, regardless of the beverage type, sold at off-premise alcohol outlets may reduce violence in communities

The Composition of the Interstellar Medium towards the Lockman Hole. HI, UV and X-ray observations

The Lockman Hole is well known as the region with the lowest neutral atomic hydrogen colum density on the entire sky. We present an analysis of the soft X-ray background radiation towards the Lockman Hole using ROSAT all-sky survey data. This data is correlated with the Leiden/Dwingeloo survey (Galactic HI 21cm-line emission) in order to model the soft X-ray background by using radiative transfer calculations for four ROSAT energy bands simultaneously. It turns out, that an important gas fraction, ranging between 20-50%,of the X-ray absorbing material is not entirely traced by the HI but is in the form of ionized hydrogen. Far-ultraviolet absorption line measurements by FUSE are consistent with this finding and support an ionized hydrogen component towards the Lockman Hole.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figures, Accepted for Publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics, For full resolution images, see http://www.astro.uni-bonn.de/~mkappes/pub/ms3506.pd

The Neighborhood-Level Association Between Alcohol Outlet Density and Female Criminal Victimization Rates

The aim of this study was to explore the neighborhood-level association between alcohol outlet density and non–intimate partner violent victimization rates among females. Violent offending and victimization are more prevalent for males than females, and most research on alcohol outlets and violence emphasizes males. Studies that do focus on alcohol outlets and female violent victimization tend to focus on intimate partner violence (IPV), yet non-IPV events are over three quarters of all female violent victimization incidents in the United States. We collected data on violent victimization rates, on- and off-premise alcohol outlet density, and neighborhood-level covariates of violence rates for Milwaukee block groups. We used spatially lagged regression models to test this association, to compare non-IPV results with those for overall female violent victimization rates, and to compare results for females with those for males. Our findings showed density of both on- and off-premise alcohol outlets was positively associated with non-IPV female violent victimization rates, which is an important finding given lack of research on this topic. We also found results for females (both overall and non-IPV violent victimization) were generally the same as for males, but the effect of off-premise outlets on non-IPV female violent victimization rates was weaker than the same association for males. Our findings have clear policy implications for local jurisdictions. Alcohol outlet density is important for both female and male violent victimization. Limiting the licensing of alcohol-selling establishments, especially those that engage in irresponsible retail practices, may be a suitable approach to address violent victimization

Local Interstellar Medium Kinematics towards the Southern Coalsack and Chamaeleon-Musca dark clouds

The results of a spectroscopic programme aiming to investigate the kinematics of the local interstellar medium components towards the Southern Coalsack and Chamaeleon-Musca dark clouds are presented. The analysis is based upon high-resolution (R ~ 60,000) spectra of the insterstellar NaI D absorption lines towards 63 B-type stars (d < 500 pc) selected to cover these clouds and the connecting area defined by the Galactic coordinates: 308 > l > 294 and -22 < b < 5. The radial velocities, column densities, velocity dispersions, colour excess and photometric distances to the stars are used to understand the kinematics and distribution of the interstellar cloud components. The analysis indicates that the interstellar gas is distributed in two extended sheet-like structures permeating the whole area, one at d < 60 pc and another around 120-150 pc from the Sun. The dust and gas feature around 120-150 pc seem to be part of an extended large scale feature of similar kinematic properties, supposedly identified with the interaction zone of the Local and Loop I bubbles.Comment: 19 pages, accepted for MNRA

Probing the structure of the cold dark matter halo with ancient mica

Mica can store (for >1 Gy) etchable tracks caused by atoms recoiling from WIMPs. Ancient mica is a directional detector despite the complex motions it makes with respect to the WIMP "wind". We can exploit the properties of directionality and long integration time to probe for structure in the dark matter halo of our galaxy. We compute a sample of possible signals in mica for a plausible model of halo structure.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure

Colloidal microgels - untapped potential?

Colloidal microgels are discrete cross-linked polymeric nanoparticles that may be prepared from a range of different monomer types. These monomers may confer dispersion sensitivity to a wide range of stimuli including temperature, pH, salinity and the addition of co-solvents. Microgels are spherical and are typically in the size range from 50 nm up to 1000 nm. They are prepared by a polymerization of a monomer or monomers in the presence of a crossliner

The harmonic power spectrum of the soft X-ray background I. The data analysis

Fluctuations of the soft X-ray background are investigated using harmonic analysis. A section of the ROSAT All-Sky Survey around the north galactic pole is used. The flux distribution is expanded into a set of harmonic functions and the power spectrum is determined. Several subsamples of the RASS have been used and the spectra for different regions and energies are presented. The effects of the data binning in pixels are assessed and taken into account. The spectra of the analyzed samples reflect both small scale effects generated by strong discrete sources and the large scale gradients of the XRB distribution. Our results show that the power spectrum technique can be effectively used to investigate anisotropy of the XRB at various scales. This statistics will become a useful tool in the investigation of various XRB components.Comment: 12 pages, A&A accepte