The Effectiveness of the Sheriff\u27s Department\u27s Juvenile Diversion Projects in Southeast Los Angeles County (CA)

The major message of this report is that juvenile diversion, as practiced by the three Sheriff\u27s Department Projects in southeast Los Angeles County, appears to be quite successful. The accomplishments of these three projects were assessed with regard to two primary goals: 1. Reduction of the number of juveniles referred further into the juvenile justice system (probation and the courts) by law enforcement. 2. Reduction of the incidence of juvenile delinquency among youthful offenders subsequent to diversion. 1. The pattern of findings reviewed in this report provide convincing evidence that both these goals are being met. The highlights of that evidence are as follows: a. With the inception of the diversion projects in 1976, the number of diversions from the participating law enforcement stations increased substantially. b. The majority of the juveniles selected for diversion would probably have been referred to the Probation Department on non-detained petition applications if diversion had not been available; only a minority would have been counseled and released. c. The records of the sheriff\u27s stations participating in the diversion projects showed that they sent fewer non-detained petition applications to the Probation Department after the projects began operations

Top Management Team Diversity: A systematic Review

Empirical research investigating the impact of top management team (TMT) diversity on executives’ decision making has produced inconclusive results. To synthesize and aggregate the results on the diversity-performance link, a meta-regression analysis (MRA) is conducted. It integrates more than 200 estimates from 53 empirical studies investigating TMT diversity and its impact on the quality of executives’ decision making as reflected in corporate performance. The analysis contributes to the literature by theoretically discussing and empirically examining the effects of TMT diversity on corporate performance. Our results do not show a link between TMT diversity and performance but provide evidence for publication bias. Thus, the findings raise doubts on the impact of TMT diversity on performance

Early risk factors for adolescent antisocial behaviour: an Australian longitudinal study

Objective: This investigation utilizes data from an Australian longitudinal study to identify early risk factors for adolescent antisocial behaviour. Method: Analyses are based on data from the Mater University Study of Pregnancy, an on-going longitudinal investigation of women’s and children’s health and development involving over 8000 participants. Five types of risk factors (child characteristics, perinatal factors, maternal/familial characteristics, maternal pre- and post-natal substance use and parenting practices) were included in analyses and were based on maternal reports, child assessments and medical records. Adolescent antisocial behaviour was measured when children were 14 years old, using the delinquency subscale of the Child Behaviour Checklist. Results: Based on a series of logistic regression models, significant risk factors for adolescent antisocial behaviour included children’s prior problem behaviour (i.e. aggression and attention/restlessness problems at age 5 years) and marital instability, which doubled or tripled the odds of antisocial behaviour. Perinatal factors, maternal substance use, and parenting practices were relatively poor predictors of antisocial behaviour. Conclusions: Few studies have assessed early predictors of antisocial behaviour in Australia and the current results can be used to inform prevention programs that target risk factors likely to lead to problem outcomes for Australian youth

A Comprehensive Meta-Analysis of Spatial Interference From Linguistic Cues: Beyond Petrova et al. (2018)

Words with spatial associations (e.g., “bird”) can hinder identification of an unrelated visual stimulus at the implied location (i.e., at the top of a display). This spatial interference effect has been demonstrated many times by several independent research groups (e.g., Estes, Verges, & Barsalou, 2008), and it fits within the theoretical framework of grounded cognition. Petrova et al. (in-press) reported a series of experiments that varied in similarity to Estes et al. (2008), successfully replicating the spatial interference effect only once, and concluding that the effect is unreliable. Here we report a comprehensive meta-analysis of 37 tests of the spatial interference effect. We show that the effect is moderately large and highly reliable among studies that evoke semantic processing of the linguistic cues and that assess interference at suitably short delays. In conclusion, the spatial interference effect occurs reliably with semantic processing, and varies systematically with temporal and linguistic constraints

The Therapeutic Efficacy of Domestic Violence Victim Interventions

Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

Genetic algorithm learning as a robust approach to RNA editing site prediction

BACKGROUND: RNA editing is one of several post-transcriptional modifications that may contribute to organismal complexity in the face of limited gene complement in a genome. One form, known as C → U editing, appears to exist in a wide range of organisms, but most instances of this form of RNA editing have been discovered serendipitously. With the large amount of genomic and transcriptomic data now available, a computational analysis could provide a more rapid means of identifying novel sites of C → U RNA editing. Previous efforts have had some success but also some limitations. We present a computational method for identifying C → U RNA editing sites in genomic sequences that is both robust and generalizable. We evaluate its potential use on the best data set available for these purposes: C → U editing sites in plant mitochondrial genomes. RESULTS: Our method is derived from a machine learning approach known as a genetic algorithm. REGAL (RNA Editing site prediction by Genetic Algorithm Learning) is 87% accurate when tested on three mitochondrial genomes, with an overall sensitivity of 82% and an overall specificity of 91%. REGAL's performance significantly improves on other ab initio approaches to predicting RNA editing sites in this data set. REGAL has a comparable sensitivity and higher specificity than approaches which rely on sequence homology, and it has the advantage that strong sequence conservation is not required for reliable prediction of edit sites. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that ab initio methods can generate robust classifiers of putative edit sites, and we highlight the value of combinatorial approaches as embodied by genetic algorithms. We present REGAL as one approach with the potential to be generalized to other organisms exhibiting C → U RNA editing

The influence of emotional cues on prospective memory: A systematic review with meta-analyses

Remembering to perform a behaviour in the future, prospective memory, is essential to ensuring that people fulfil their intentions. Prospective memory involves committing to memory a cue to action (encoding), and later recognising and acting upon the cue in the environment (retrieval). Prospective memory performance is believed to be influenced by the emotionality of the cues, however the literature is fragmented and inconsistent. We conducted a systematic search to synthesise research on the influence of emotion on prospective memory. Sixty-seven effect sizes were extracted from 17 articles and hypothesised effects tested using three meta-analyses. Overall, prospective memory was enhanced when positively-valenced rather than neutral cues were presented (d = 0.32). In contrast, negatively-valenced cues did not enhance prospective memory overall (d = 0.07), but this effect was moderated by the timing of the emotional manipulation. Prospective memory performance was improved when negatively-valenced cues were presented during both encoding and retrieval (d = 0.40), but undermined when presented only during encoding (d = -0.25). Moderating effects were also found for cue-focality and whether studies controlled for the arousal level of the cues. The principal finding is that positively-valenced cues improve prospective memory performance and that timing of the manipulation can moderate emotional effects on prospective memory. We offer a new agenda for future empirical work and theorising in this area

Greater benefit of self-affirmation for prevention-focused individuals prior to threatening health messages

Objective Individuals are often defensive toward health messages that suggest they are putting their health at risk because such messages threaten their self-competence and integrity. Although self-affirmation can facilitate prevention behaviors in response to health messages, effects are variable. We examined whether disease prevention focus might strengthen self-affirmation’s effects in response to disease prevention messages, given that prevention-focused individuals are likeliest to be persuaded by those messages after self-affirmation attenuates defensiveness. Design In Study 1, participants were self-affirmed before a message about sexually transmitted infections. In Studies 2 and 3, individuals were self-affirmed prior to a message about alcohol and cancer risk. Main Outcome Measures Studies assessed intentions to use condoms, intentions to reduce alcohol, and willingness to drink alcohol in specific scenarios. Results In Study 1, self-affirmation facilitated condom use intentions among those higher in prevention focus. In Studies 2 and 3, self-affirmation facilitated lower willingness to consume alcohol among those high in prevention focus. A meta-analysis across the three studies indicated that self-affirmation improved intentions and willingness under high, but not low, prevention focus (d = 0.20, p = .003). Conclusion These findings demonstrate that health prevention-focus can strengthen self-affirmation’s effects, thereby improving responsiveness to health communications about behaviors that increase disease risk

Do Multinational enterprises push up wages of domestic firms in the Italian Manufacturing sector?

This paper analyzes the effects of foreign direct investment on wages paid by domestic firms in the Italian manufacturing sector over the period 2002–2007. In particular, the authors investigate the im-pact of multinational enterprises on wages paid by local firms which operate in the same industry, known and horizontal wage spillovers, or have linkages with multinational enterprises in both downstream and upstream industries, known as vertical wage spillovers. By using a large panel dataset, consisting of 551,000 observations, the authors find evidence of wage spillovers only at inter-industry level and, more specifically, for those firms who supply their goods to multinational enterprises, described as backward wage spillovers. Moreover, findings suggest that the wage spillover effect is strongly affected by the technological gap between local and foreign firms: only workers employed in domestic firms with a low-medium technological absorptive capacity seem to benefit from the presence of multinational enterprises in terms of higher wages