Psychosocial Correlates of Criminal Behavior: Identity Styles of Male Inmates in The Utah State Prison

One hundred ninety-four inmates responded to a measure that taps Erikson\u27s fifth stage of psychosocial development, dealing with the issues of identity. Information concerning previous and current criminal activity, along with basic demographic information, was also collected. Cross-checks conducted on selected information within the Utah State Department of Correction\u27s computer system suggest validity for inmate self-reports. The criminal behavior questions were addressed in two main sections: previous and current criminal behavior. Results illustrate consistent relationships that exist between criminal behavior and cognitive identity style (the corollary to Marcia\u27s identity statuses). The identity styles represent the process involved with personal decision making and problem solving. Individuals with the style labeled Information orientation thoroughly consider relevant information before decisions and commitments are made; those with a Normative orientation are primarily concerned with the expectations of significant others; and those with a Diffuse/Avoidant orientation procrastinate and fail to resolve confronting problems. Findings suggest that previous criminal behavior was related to cognitive identity style; current criminal behavior was not. Specifically, Diffuse/Avoidant individuals are more likely to engage in substance use at a younger age than their criminal peers, get arrested younger, be involved in multiple arrests and convictions, have spent a longer time in prison and/or jail, and to have previous and current property convictions. Inmates with a Normative style tend to use substances at an older age than their criminal cohorts, are about four years older at first arrest, have fewer arrests and convictions, spend less time incarcerated, and are more likely to have had a previous and current drug offense. Information-oriented individuals tend to straddle these extremes on most variables and show no profound trends in the data. Discrimination between Diffuse/Avoidant and Normative individuals has been found previously in substance use research

Complete Genome Sequence of a Divergent Human Rhinovirus C Isolate from an Infant with Severe Community-Acquired Pneumonia in Colorado, USA.

Here, we report the genome sequence of a divergent human rhinovirus C isolate identified from an infant with a severe community-acquired respiratory infection. RNA sequencing performed on an Illumina platform identified reads aligning to human rhinovirus species, which were de novo assembled to produce a coding-complete genome sequence

Enhancement of chemotherapy using oncolytic virotherapy: Mathematical and optimal control analysis

Oncolytic virotherapy (OV) has been emerging as a promising novel cancer treatment that may be further combined with the existing therapeutic modalities to enhance their effects. To investigate how OV could enhance chemotherapy, we propose an ODE based model describing the interactions between tumour cells, the immune response, and a treatment combination with chemotherapy and oncolytic viruses. Stability analysis of the model with constant chemotherapy treatment rates shows that without any form of treatment, a tumour would grow to its maximum size. It also demonstrates that chemotherapy alone is capable of clearing tumour cells provided that the drug efficacy is greater than the intrinsic tumour growth rate. Furthermore, OV alone may not be able to clear tumour cells from body tissue but would rather enhance chemotherapy if viruses with high viral potency are used. To assess the combined effect of OV and chemotherapy we use the forward sensitivity index to perform a sensitivity analysis, with respect to chemotherapy key parameters, of the virus basic reproductive number and the tumour endemic equilibrium. The results from this sensitivity analysis indicate the existence of a critical dose of chemotherapy above which no further significant reduction in the tumour population can be observed. Numerical simulations show that a successful combinational therapy of the chemotherapeutic drugs and viruses depends mostly on the virus burst size, infection rate, and the amount of drugs supplied. Optimal control analysis was performed, by means of Pontryagin's principle, to further refine predictions of the model with constant treatment rates by accounting for the treatment costs and sides effects.Comment: This is a preprint of a paper whose final and definite form is with 'Mathematical Biosciences and Engineering', ISSN 1551-0018 (print), ISSN 1547-1063 (online), available at [http://www.aimsciences.org/journal/1551-0018]. Submitted 27-March-2018; revised 04-July-2018; accepted for publication 10-July-201

Healthcare Price Transparency: Policy Approaches and Estimated Impacts on Spending

Healthcare price transparency discussions typically focus on increasing patients' access to information about their out-of-pocket costs, but that focus is too narrow and should include other audiences -- physicians, employers, health plans and policymakers -- each with distinct needs and uses for healthcare price information. Greater price transparency can reduce U.S. healthcare spending.For example, an estimated $100 billion could be saved over the next 10 years if three select interventions were undertaken. However, most of the projected savings come from making price information available to employers and physicians, according to an analysis by researchers at the former Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC). Based on the current availability and modest impact of plan-based transparency tools, requiring all private plans to provide personalized out-of-pocket price data to enrollees would reduce total health spending by an estimated$18 billion over the next decade. While $18 billion is a substantial dollar amount, it is less than a tenth of a percent of the$40 trillionin total projected health spending over the same period. In contrast, using state all-payer claims databases to gather and report hospital-specific prices might reduce spending by an estimated $61 billion over 10 years.The effects of price transparency depend critically on the intended audience, the decision-making context and how prices are presented. And the impact of price transparency can be greatly amplified if target audiences are able and motivated to act on the information. Simply providing prices is insufficient to control spending without other shifts in healthcare financing, including changes in benefit design to make patients more sensitive to price differences among providers and alternative treatments. Other reforms that can amplify the impact of price transparency include shifting from fee-for-service payments that reward providers for volume to payment methods that put providers at risk for spending for episodes of care or defined patient populations. While price transparency alone seems unlikely to transform the healthcare system, it can play a needed role in enabling effective reforms in value-based benefit design and provider payment

Cosmic Variance in CMB Anisotropies: From 1∘1^{\circ} to COBE

Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropies that result from quantum fluctuations during inflation are explored and the impact of their ``cosmic variance'' on the ability to use existing data to probe inflationary models is studied. We calculate the rms temperature fluctuation, and its cosmic variance, for a number of experiments and for models with primordial power spectra which range from $n={1\over 2}$ to $1$. We find: (1) cosmic variance obscures the information which can be extracted, so a comparison of the rms temperature fluctuation on small scales with the COBE result can fix $n$ to only $\approx\pm 0.2$ at best; (2) measurements of the rms fluctuation on $1^{\circ}$ scales may not allow one to unambiguously infer the tensor contribution to the COBE anisotropy; (3) comparison of this contribution with the predictions of inflation are ambiguous if the quadrupole anisotropy alone is utilized. We discuss means for minimizing the uncertainty due to cosmic variance in comparisons between experiments.Comment: LaTeX, 18 pages, 6 figures (PostScript). CfPA-TH-93-01, YCTP-P44-92. (Final version with updated references, to appear in ApJ, Dec.~1, 1993

THE KU KLUX KLAN IN INDIANA IN THE 1920\u27S AS VIEWED BY THE INDIANA CATHOLIC AND RECORD

The Ku Klux Klan during the 1920\u27s attained a high level of influence though not outright control in the political and social affairs of Indiana. The Klan with its nativist vision of American life regarded with hostility the deviant values represented by Negroes, Jews, Roman Catholics, and aliens. The irony of the rise of this movement in Indiana was that the population of these minorities was proportionally lower in the Hoosier state than in most other states

Brain Specificity of Diffuse Optical Imaging: Improvements from Superficial Signal Regression and Tomography

Functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a portable monitor of cerebral hemodynamics with wide clinical potential. However, in fNIRS, the vascular signal from the brain is often obscured by vascular signals present in the scalp and skull. In this paper, we evaluate two methods for improving in vivo data from adult human subjects through the use of high-density diffuse optical tomography (DOT). First, we test whether we can extend superficial regression methods (which utilize the multiple source–detector pair separations) from sparse optode arrays to application with DOT imaging arrays. In order to accomplish this goal, we modify the method to remove physiological artifacts from deeper sampling channels using an average of shallow measurements. Second, DOT provides three-dimensional image reconstructions and should explicitly separate different tissue layers. We test whether DOT's depth-sectioning can completely remove superficial physiological artifacts. Herein, we assess improvements in signal quality and reproducibility due to these methods using a well-characterized visual paradigm and our high-density DOT system. Both approaches remove noise from the data, resulting in cleaner imaging and more consistent hemodynamic responses. Additionally, the two methods act synergistically, with greater improvements when the approaches are used together

The natural history, sensory ecology and biogeography of the seed dispersal of large fruits in Fynbos

Seed dispersal is a crucial life-history stage for the regeneration of all reseeding plants. In the Fynbos Biome of the Greater Cape Floristic Region (GCFR) of South Africa, at least 100 plant species have seed traits that suggest they are scatterhoarded by small mammals. The aims of this thesis were to investigate the dispersal biology of large-fruited Fynbos plants by: 1) determining the spatial and taxonomic extent of scatter-hoarding through seed trials, investigating both dry, nut-like and semi-fleshy fruits; 2) trait-based analyses investigating selective drivers of seed colour polymorphisms in flat-winged, serotinous Leucadendron and 3) modeling the relative influence of environmental, biological and disturbance drivers in predicting the distributions of serotinous and scatterhoarded Leucadendron. Seed predation and scatter-hoarding by small mammals was widespread, yet locally patchy. Four new fynbos species with large, nut-like fruits were confirmed to be scatter-hoarded, by either Acomys subspinosus or Gerbilliscus paeba. Many species with small, nut-like fruits, with no clear dispersal or defense strategies, suffered intense seed predation by the nonhoarding small mammals, Rhabdomys pumilio and Micaelamys namaquensis. The large, dry, nut-like fruits of Ceratocaryum argenteum have a globally unique, alternative strategy for effective dispersal. The nuts emit a strong scent that mimics the scent of herbivore dung and exploits the olfactory sensory perception of dung beetles, which rolled and buried the seeds. The semi-fleshy fruits of the rock-restricted Heeria argentea were dispersed by the mutualistic M. namaquensis, which consumed only the pericarp, allowing for germination, as well as moving fruits to fire-protected, rocky outcrops. Many flat-winged Leucadendron seeds, with polymorphic brown or black seed coats, displayed background matching with post-fire soils. This plant defense likely reduces predation by visually cued avian granivores. Finally, modeling results suggest that the distributions of both serotinous and scatter-hoarded plants are strongly negatively and positively influenced by more intense seasonal drought and longer fire return interval in the GCFR, respectively. Overall, this thesis advances our understanding of large-fruited Fynbos plants, providing unique insights into their natural history, ecology, evolution, conservation and biogeography