\u27Scared Straight\u27 and Other Juvenile Awareness Programs for Preventing Juvenile Delinquency

Background: \u27Scared Straight\u27 and other similar programs involve organized visits to prison by juvenile delinquents or children at risk for criminal behavior. Programs are designed to deter participants from future offending through firsthand observation of prison life and interaction with adult inmates. These programs remain in use despite research questioning their effectiveness. This is an update of a 2002 review. Objectives: To assess the effects of programs comprising organized visits to prisons by juvenile delinquents (officially adjudicated, that is, convicted by a juvenile court) or pre-delinquents (children in trouble but not officially adjudicated as delinquents), aimed at deterring them from delinquency. Search methods: To update this review, we searched 22 electronic databases, including CENTRAL, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and Criminal Justice Abstracts, in December 2011. In addition, we searched clinical trials registries, consulted experts, conducted Google Scholar searches, and followed up on all relevant citations. Selection criteria: We included studies that tested programs involving the organized visits of delinquents or children at risk for delinquency to penal institutions such as prisons or reformatives. Studies that had overlapping samples of juvenile and young adults (for example, ages 14 to 20 years) were included. We only considered studies that assigned participants to conditions randomly or quasi-randomly (that is, by odd/even assignment to conditions). Each study had to have a no-treatment control condition and at least one outcome measure of \u27post-visit\u27 criminal behavior. Data collection and analysis: The search methods for the original review generated 487 citations, most of which had abstracts. The lead review author screened these citations, determining that 30 were evaluation reports. Two review authors independently examined these citations and agreed that 11 were potential randomized trials. All reports were obtained. Upon inspection of the full-text reports, two review authors independently agreed to exclude two studies, resulting in nine randomized trials. The lead review author extracted data from each of the nine study reports using a specially designed instrument. In cases in which outcome information was missing from the original reports, we made attempts via correspondence to retrieve the data for the analysis from the original investigators. Outcome data were independently checked by a second review author (CTP). In this review, we report the results of each of the nine trials narratively. We conducted two meta-analyses of seven studies that provided postintervention offending rates using official data. Information from other sources (for example, self-report) was either missing from some studies or critical information was omitted (for example, standard deviations). We examined the immediate post-treatment effects (that is, \u27first-effects\u27) by computing odds ratios (OR) for data on proportions of each group reoffending, and assumed both fixed-effect and random-effects models in our analyses. Main results: We have included nine studies in this review. All were part of the original systematic review; no new trials meeting eligibility criteria were identified through our updated searches. The studies were conducted in eight different states of the USA, during the years 1967 to 1992. Nearly 1000 (946) juveniles or young adults of different races participated, almost all males. The average age of the participants in each study ranged from 15 to 17 years. Meta-analyses of seven studies show the intervention to be more harmful than doing nothing. The OR (fixed-effect) for effects on first post-treatment effect on officially measured criminal behavior indicated a negative program effect (OR 1.68, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.20 to 2.36) and nearly identical regardless of themeta-analytic strategy (random-effects OR 1.72, 95% CI 1.13 to 2.62). Sensitivity analyses (random-effects) showed the findings were robust even when removing one study with an inadequate randomization strategy (OR 1.47, 95% CI 1.03 to 2.11), or when removing one study with high attrition (OR 1.96, 95% CI 1.25 to 3.08), or both (OR 1.68, 95% CI 1.10 to 2.58). Authors\u27 conclusions: We conclude that programs such as \u27Scared Straight\u27 increase delinquency relative to doing nothing at all to similar youths. Given these results, we cannot recommend this program as a crime prevention strategy. Agencies that permit such programs, therefore, must rigorously evaluate them, to ensure that they do not cause more harm than good to the very citizens they pledge to protect

Presence of orexin A and orexin 1 receptor in the buffalo prostate

The orexins A and B are two peptides discovered initially in the rat lateral hypothalamus involved in the regulation of some body functions such as food intake, sleep/wake cycle, arterial pressure and heart rate. They interact with two receptors defined "orexin receptors 1 and 2", the first of which shows high selectivity for orexin A and the second binds both the peptides. In this preliminary study the presence of orexin A and orexin 1 receptor in the prostate of the buffalo Bubalus bubalis has been described utilizing the immunohistochemical avidin-biotin technique. The orexin A- and orexin 1 receptor- positive prostatic cells are very numerous and belong to the normal exocrine cytotype which makes up the glandular parenchyma. The role played by orexin A in the genital tract is poorly known. The peptide is retained to stimulate testosterone secretion and to inhibit spermatogonia proliferation in the rat testis

Shallow shear-wave velocity structure of Solfatara volcano (Campi Flegrei, Italy),from inversion of Rayleigh-wave dispersion curves

In this work, we infer the 1D shear-wave velocity model at Solfatara volcano using the dispersion properties of Rayleigh waves generated by artificial explosions. The groupvelocity dispersion curves are retrieved by applying the Multiple Filter Technique to single-station recordings of air-gun sea shots. Seismic signals are filtered in different frequency bands and the dispersion curves are obtained by evaluating the arrival times of the envelope maxima of the filtered signals. Fundamental and higher modes are carefully recognized and separated by using a Phase Matched Filter. The dispersion curves obtained indicate Rayleigh-wave fundamental-mode group velocities ranging from about 0.8 to 0.6 km/s over the 2-12 Hz frequency band. These group velocity dispersion curves are then inverted to infer a shallow shear-wave velocity model down to a depth of about 250 m. The shear-wave velocities thus obtained are compatible with those derived both from cross- and down-hole measurements in neighbouring wells and from laboratory experiments. These data are eventually interpreted in the light of the geological setting of the area. Using the velocity model obtained, we calculate the theoretical ground response to a vertically-incident S-wave getting two, main amplification peaks centered at frequencies of 2.2 and 5.4 Hz. The transfer function was compared to those obtained experimentally from the application of Nakamura’s technique to microtremor data, artificial explosions and local earthquakes. Agreement among the experimental and theoretical transfer functions is observed for the amplification peak of frequency 5.4 Hz

Prototypes of productivity tools for the jadescript programming language

Jadescript is an agent-oriented programming language built on top of JADE. So far, the focus of the development of the language was on design choices, on syntax refinements, and on the introduction of expressions and constructs for agent-related abstractions and tasks. In this paper, a proposal to achieve the crucial goal of making Jadescript suitable for professional use is presented. The success of Jadescript, as a solid language to build real-world agent-based software systems, is necessarily related to its effective integration with mainstream development tools. In this paper, some of the productivity tools developed to integrate Jadescript with a mainstream development environment are presented as a way to promote the successful adoption of the language towards the community of JADE users

Neuroendocrine cells in the urogenital tract of the buffalo

Neuroendocrine cells or paraneurons are cytotypes producing biogenic amines and/or hormonal peptides, scattered in the glandular and lining epithelia of the body. In this study the presence of chromogranin A-, serotonin- and somatostatin-immunoreactive neuroendocrine cells has been described immunohistochemically in the urethro- prostatic complex and female urethra of subjects of the buffalo Bubalus bubalis. The chromogranin A- containing neuroendocrine cells resulted the most numerous cytotype, the serotonin- containing ones the most irregular in shape for the presence of dendritic-like cytoplasmic extensions and the somatostatin- containing the rarest. The role played by the amine serotonin in the genital tract has been related to the determinism of sexual climax and to the contraction of smooth muscle. The function played by the neuroendocrine genital somatostatin is unknown. Analogically to what described for the same gastrointestinal hormone, it could inhibit both exocrine and endocrine secretions

Conservation Genetics of Mediterranean Brown Trout in Central Italy (Latium): A Multi-Marker Approach

Brown trout is considered a complex of incipient species, including several phylogenetic lineages, whose natural distribution in the Mediterranean area has been altered, since the beginning of the 1900s, by massive introductions of domestic strains of Atlantic origin to support fisheries. Introduced trout naturalize in new suitable environments and extensively hybridize with native populations. Here, we characterized putatively neutral and adaptive genetic variability and popu lation structure of Mediterranean brown trout from six river catchments in central peninsular Italy, as revealed by both mitochondrial (Control Region) and nuclear (microsatellites, LDH-C1, major histocompatibility complex) markers. We quantified the admixture of wild populations with hatchery strains and evaluated the effects of domestic trout introductions on shaping population genetics. Our analyses indicated: (1) a composite picture of genetic variability in the area, with the presence of all native Mediterranean trout mitochondrial lineages (“Adriatic”, “Mediterranean”, “marmoratus”), vari ous frequencies of allochthonous genotypes and different rates of introgression among sampling sites; (2) asymmetric mito-nuclear introgression; (3) increasing nuclear marker diversity with increasing levels of admixture across populations; (4) strong population structure coupled with relatively low effective population size. Data allowed the identification of five management units and we propose specific actions to support ongoing and future conservation strategies within the examined are

Shear-wave velocity structure at Mt. Etna from inversion of Rayleigh-wave dispersion patterns (2 s < T < 20 s)

In the present study, we investigated the dispersion characteristics of medium-to-long period Rayleigh waves (2 s < T < 20 s) using both singlestation techniques (multiple-filter analysis, and phase-match filter) and multichannel techniques (horizontal slowness [p] and angular frequency [~] stack, and cross-correlation) to determine the velocity structure for the Mt. Etna volcano. We applied these techniques to a dataset of teleseisms, as regional and local earthquakes recorded by two broad-band seismic arrays installed at Mt. Etna in 2002 and 2005, during two seismic surveys organized by the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV), sezione di Napoli. The dispersion curves obtained showed phase velocities ranging from 1.5 km/s to 4.0 km/s in the frequency band 0.05 Hz to 0.45 Hz. We inverted the average phase velocity dispersion curves using a non-linear approach, to obtain a set of shear-wave velocity models with maximum resolution depths of 25 km to 30 km. Moreover, the presence of lateral velocity contrasts was checked by dividing the whole array into seven triangular sub-arrays and inverting the dispersion curves relative to each triangle

Balancing selection, genetic drift, and human-mediated introgression interplay to shape MHC (functional) diversity in Mediterranean brown trout

The extraordinary polymorphism of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes is considered a paradigm of pathogen-mediated balancing selection, although empirical evidence is still scarce. Furthermore, the relative contribution of balancing selection to shape MHC population structure and diversity, compared to that of neutral forces, as well as its interaction with other evolutionary processes such as hybridization, re mains largely unclear. To investigate these issues, we analyzed adaptive (MHC-DAB gene) and neutral (11 microsatellite loci) variation in 156 brown trout (Salmo trutta complex) from six wild populations in central Italy exposed to introgression from do mestic hatchery lineages (assessed with the LDH gene). MHC diversity and structur ing correlated with those at microsatellites, indicating the substantial role of neutral forces. However, individuals carrying locally rare MHC alleles/supertypes were in bet ter body condition (a proxy of individual fitness/parasite load) regardless of the zygo sity status and degree of sequence dissimilarity of MHC, hence supporting balancing selection under rare allele advantage, but not heterozygote advantage or divergent allele advantage. The association between specific MHC supertypes and body condi tion confirmed in part this finding. Across populations, MHC allelic richness increased with increasing admixture between native and domestic lineages, indicating intro gression as a source of MHC variation. Furthermore, introgression across populations appeared more pronounced for MHC than microsatellites, possibly because initially rare MHC variants are expected to introgress more readily under rare allele advan tage. Providing evidence for the complex interplay among neutral evolutionary forces, balancing selection, and human-mediated introgression in shaping the pattern of MHC (functional) variation, our findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the evolution of MHC genes in wild populations exposed to anthropogenic disturbance