A National Portrait of Domestic Violence Courts

A growing number of criminal courts nationwide handle domestic violence cases on separate calendars, termed domestic violence courts. There are now 208 confirmed domestic violence courts across the U.S. (Center for Court Innovation 2009). More than 150 similar projects have been established internationally. Some domestic violence courts emerged in the context of the broader "problem-solving court" movement and share characteristics with other specialized courts, such as separate dockets and specially trained judges. However, the origins of domestic violence courts are also distinct, growing out of the increased attention afforded domestic violence matters by the justice system over the past 30 years. With funding from the National Institute of Justice, this study explores how criminal domestic violence courts have evolved, their rationale, and how their operations vary across the U.S. This study does not test whether domestic violence courts reduce recidivism, protect victims, or achieve other specific effects -- although we provide a thorough literature review on these points. Rather, our aim is to present a comprehensive national portrait of the field as it exists today, laying the groundwork for future information exchange and research

The effect of incongruent information on schematic processing in person memory.

Results showed that the introduction of information that is highly incongruent with a schema makes information supporting the schema more memorable than it is when only congruent information is heard. This pattern of results was found under both immediate and delayed recall conditions, and with one or two incongruent facts. It is suggested that this effect may be one mechanism by which inappropriate schemas persevere in the face of counterevidence. The pattern of results is found to be more consistent with Hastie's (1980) network associational model of schematic processing (with slight modification) than with Smith and Graesser's (1981) script-pointer + tag model.Two studies were performed to determine the effect of incongruent information on recall of schematic information in the domain of person memory. Subjects heard descriptions of five stereotypical characters, followed by additional information varying in level of relevance to, and congruence with, the initial information. Free recall of the initial information establishing the schema, which included a stereotype label and two highly congruent facts, was measured

Marked elevation in plasma osteoprotegerin constitutes an early and consistent feature of cerebral malaria

Adherence of infected erythrocytes to vascular endothelium causes acute endothelial cell (EC) activation during Plasmodium falciparum infection. Consequently, proteins stored in Weibel-Palade (WP) bodies within EC are secreted into the plasma. Osteoprotegerin (OPG) binds to VWF and consequently is stored within WP bodies. Given the critical role of EC activation in the pathogenesis of severe malaria, we investigated plasma OPG levels in children with P. falciparum malaria. At presentation, plasma OPG levels were significantly elevated in children with cerebral malaria (CM) compared to healthy controls (means 16.0 vs 0.8 ng/ml; p<0.01). Importantly, OPG levels were also significantly higher in children with CM who had a fatal outcome, compared to children with CM who survived. Finally, in children with CM, plasma OPG levels correlated with other established prognostic indices (including plasma lactate levels and peripheral parasite density). To further investigate the relationship between severe malaria and OPG, we utilised a murine model of experimental CM in which C57BL/6J mice were infected with P. berghei ANKA. Interestingly, plasma OPG levels were increased 4.6 fold within 24 hours following P. berghei inoculation. This early marked elevation in OPG levels was observed before any objective clinical signs were apparent, and preceded the development of peripheral blood parasitaemia. As the mice became increasingly unwell, plasma OPG levels progressively increased. Collectively, these data suggest that OPG constitutes a novel biomarker with prognostic significance in patients with severe malaria. In addition, further studies are required to determine whether OPG plays a role in modulating malaria pathogenesis

Associations with photoreceptor thickness measures in the UK Biobank.

Spectral-domain OCT (SD-OCT) provides high resolution images enabling identification of individual retinal layers. We included 32,923 participants aged 40-69 years old from UK Biobank. Questionnaires, physical examination, and eye examination including SD-OCT imaging were performed. SD OCT measured photoreceptor layer thickness includes photoreceptor layer thickness: inner nuclear layer-retinal pigment epithelium (INL-RPE) and the specific sublayers of the photoreceptor: inner nuclear layer-external limiting membrane (INL-ELM); external limiting membrane-inner segment outer segment (ELM-ISOS); and inner segment outer segment-retinal pigment epithelium (ISOS-RPE). In multivariate regression models, the total average INL-RPE was observed to be thinner in older aged, females, Black ethnicity, smokers, participants with higher systolic blood pressure, more negative refractive error, lower IOPcc and lower corneal hysteresis. The overall INL-ELM, ELM-ISOS and ISOS-RPE thickness was significantly associated with sex and race. Total average of INL-ELM thickness was additionally associated with age and refractive error, while ELM-ISOS was additionally associated with age, smoking status, SBP and refractive error; and ISOS-RPE was additionally associated with smoking status, IOPcc and corneal hysteresis. Hence, we found novel associations of ethnicity, smoking, systolic blood pressure, refraction, IOPcc and corneal hysteresis with photoreceptor thickness

Mitochondrial-Nuclear DNA Interactions Contribute to the Regulation of Nuclear Transcript Levels as Part of the Inter-Organelle Communication System

Nuclear and mitochondrial organelles must maintain a communication system. Loci on the mitochondrial genome were recently reported to interact with nuclear loci. To determine whether this is part of a DNA based communication system we used genome conformation capture to map the global network of DNA-DNA interactions between the mitochondrial and nuclear genomes (Mito-nDNA) in Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells grown under three different metabolic conditions. The interactions that form between mitochondrial and nuclear loci are dependent on the metabolic state of the yeast. Moreover, the frequency of specific mitochondrial - nuclear interactions (i.e. COX1-MSY1 and Q0182-RSM7) showed significant reductions in the absence of mitochondrial encoded reverse transcriptase machinery. Furthermore, these reductions correlated with increases in the transcript levels of the nuclear loci (MSY1 and RSM7). We propose that these interactions represent an inter-organelle DNA mediated communication system and that reverse transcription of mitochondrial RNA plays a role in this process

Combining Structure and Sequence Information Allows Automated Prediction of Substrate Specificities within Enzyme Families

An important aspect of the functional annotation of enzymes is not only the type of reaction catalysed by an enzyme, but also the substrate specificity, which can vary widely within the same family. In many cases, prediction of family membership and even substrate specificity is possible from enzyme sequence alone, using a nearest neighbour classification rule. However, the combination of structural information and sequence information can improve the interpretability and accuracy of predictive models. The method presented here, Active Site Classification (ASC), automatically extracts the residues lining the active site from one representative three-dimensional structure and the corresponding residues from sequences of other members of the family. From a set of representatives with known substrate specificity, a Support Vector Machine (SVM) can then learn a model of substrate specificity. Applied to a sequence of unknown specificity, the SVM can then predict the most likely substrate. The models can also be analysed to reveal the underlying structural reasons determining substrate specificities and thus yield valuable insights into mechanisms of enzyme specificity. We illustrate the high prediction accuracy achieved on two benchmark data sets and the structural insights gained from ASC by a detailed analysis of the family of decarboxylating dehydrogenases. The ASC web service is available at http://asc.informatik.uni-tuebingen.de/

Synthesis of the land carbon fluxes of the Amazon region between 2010 and 2020

The Amazon is the largest continuous tropical forest in the world and plays a key role in the global carbon cycle. Human-induced disturbances and climate change have impacted the Amazon carbon balance. Here we conduct a comprehensive synthesis of existing state-of-the-art estimates of the contemporary land carbon fluxes in the Amazon using a set of bottom-up methods (i.e., dynamic vegetation models and bookkeeping models) and a top-down inversion (atmospheric inversion model) over the Brazilian Amazon and the whole Biogeographical Amazon domain. Over the whole biogeographical Amazon region bottom-up methodologies suggest a small average carbon sink over 2010-2020, in contrast to a small carbon source simulated by top-down inversion (2010-2018). However, these estimates are not significantly different from one another when accounting for their large individual uncertainties, highlighting remaining knowledge gaps, and the urgent need to reduce such uncertainties. Nevertheless, both methodologies agreed that the Brazilian Amazon has been a net carbon source during recent climate extremes and that the south-eastern Amazon was a net land carbon source over the whole study period (2010-2020). Overall, our results point to increasing human-induced disturbances (deforestation and forest degradation by wildfires) and reduction in the old-growth forest sink during drought

Abiraterone acetate plus prednisolone for metastatic patients starting hormone therapy: 5-year follow-up results from the STAMPEDE randomised trial (NCT00268476)

Abiraterone acetate plus prednisolone (AAP) previously demonstrated improved survival in STAMPEDE, a multiarm, multistage platform trial in men starting long-term hormone therapy for prostate cancer. This long-term analysis in metastatic patients was planned for 3 years after the first results. Standard-of-care (SOC) was androgen deprivation therapy. The comparison randomised patients 1:1 to SOC-alone with or without daily abiraterone acetate 1000 mg + prednisolone 5 mg (SOC + AAP), continued until disease progression. The primary outcome measure was overall survival. Metastatic disease risk group was classified retrospectively using baseline CT and bone scans by central radiological review and pathology reports. Analyses used Cox proportional hazards and flexible parametric models, accounting for baseline stratification factors. One thousand and three patients were contemporaneously randomised (November 2011 to January 2014): median age 67 years; 94% newly-diagnosed; metastatic disease risk group: 48% high, 44% low, 8% unassessable; median PSA 97 ng/mL. At 6.1 years median follow-up, 329 SOC-alone deaths (118 low-risk, 178 high-risk) and 244 SOC + AAP deaths (75 low-risk, 145 high-risk) were reported. Adjusted HR = 0.60 (95% CI: 0.50-0.71; P = 0.31 × 10−9) favoured SOC + AAP, with 5-years survival improved from 41% SOC-alone to 60% SOC + AAP. This was similar in low-risk (HR = 0.55; 95% CI: 0.41-0.76) and high-risk (HR = 0.54; 95% CI: 0.43-0.69) patients. Median and current maximum time on SOC + AAP was 2.4 and 8.1 years. Toxicity at 4 years postrandomisation was similar, with 16% patients in each group reporting grade 3 or higher toxicity. A sustained and substantial improvement in overall survival of all metastatic prostate cancer patients was achieved with SOC + abiraterone acetate + prednisolone, irrespective of metastatic disease risk group