Detecting a decline in serial homicide : have we banished the devil from the details?

The current research provides perspective regarding the true prevalence of serial murderers in modern society and addresses the conflict between the evidenced decline in serial homicide and the viewpoint that the phenomenon is increasing. The likelihood that serial murderers are responsible for most unresolved homicides and missing persons is examined in the context of a declining prevalence. A mixed methods approach was used, consisting of a review of a sample of unresolved homicides, a comparative analysis of the frequency of known serial homicide series and unresolved serial homicide series, and semi-structured interviews of experts. In failing to become serial killers, aspiring and probable serial killers and spree killers have impacted the rate of serial murder by not reaching their potential. The past decade contained almost half the cases (13%) that existed at the 1980s peak of serial homicide (27%). Only 282 (1.3%) strangled females made up the 22,444 unresolved homicides reviewed. Most expert respondents thought it unreasonable that any meaningful proportion of missing persons cases are victims of serial homicide. Technology, shifts in offending behavior, proactive law enforcement action, and vigilance of society have transformed serial killing and aids in viewing offenders as people impacted by societal shifts and cultural norms. The absence of narrative details inhibited some aspects of the review. An exhaustive list of known unresolved serial homicide series remained elusive as some missing persons are never reported. Future research should incorporate those intending to murder serially, but whose efforts were stalled by arrest, imprisonment, or death

The life cycle impact for platinum group metals and lithium to 2070 via surplus cost potential

© 2017 The Author(s)Purpose: A surplus cost potential (SCP) indicator has been developed as a measure of resource scarcity in the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) context. To date, quality SCP estimates for other minerals than fossils are either not yet available or suffer methodological and data limitations. This paper overcomes these limitations and demonstrate how SCP estimates for metals can be calculated without the utilisation of ore grade function and by collecting primary economic and geological data. Methods: Data were collected in line with the geographical distribution, mine type, deposit type and production volumes and total production costs in order to construct cost-cumulative availability curves for platinum group metals (PGMs) and lithium. These curves capture the total amount of known mineral resources that can be recovered profitably at various prices from different types of mineral deposits under current conditions (this is, current technology, prevailing labour and other input prices). They served as a basis for modelling the marginal cost increase, a necessary parameter for estimating the SCP indicator. Surplus costs were calculated for different scenario projections for future mineral production considering future market dynamics, recyclability rates, demand-side technological developments and economic growth and by applying declining social discount rate. Results and discussion: Surplus costs were calculated for three mineral production scenarios, ranging from (US$2014/kg) 6545–8354 for platinum, 3583–4573 for palladium, 8281–10,569 for rhodium, 513–655 for ruthenium, 3201–4086 for iridium and 1.70–5.80 for lithium. Compared with the current production costs, the results indicate that problematic price increases of lithium are unlikely if the latest technological trends in the automotive sector will continue up to 2070. Surplus costs for PGMs are approximately one-third of the current production costs in all scenarios; hence, a threat of their price increases by 2070 will largely depend on the discovery of new deposits and the ability of new technologies to push these costs down over time. This also applies to lithium if the increasing electrification of road transport will continue up to 2070. Conclusions: This study provides useful insight into the availability of PGMs and lithium up to 2070. It proves that if time and resources permit, reliable surplus cost estimates can be calculated, at least in the short-run, based on the construction of one’s own curves with the level of quality comparable to expert-driven consulting services. Modelling and incorporating unknown deposits and potential future mineral production costs into these curves is the subject of future work

Visualization of mouse barrel cortex using ex-vivo track density imaging

We describe the visualization of the barrel cortex of the primary somatosensory area (S1) of ex vivo adult mouse brain with short-tracks track density imaging (stTDI). stTDI produced much higher definition of barrel structures than conventional fractional anisotropy (FA), directionally-encoded color FA maps, spin-echo and T2-weighted imaging and gradient echo Ti/T2*-weighted imaging. 3D high angular resolution diffusion imaging (HARDI) data were acquired at 48 micron isotropic resolution for a (3 mm)3 block of cortex containing the barrel field and reconstructed using stTDI at 10 micron isotropic resolution. HARDI data were also acquired at 100 micron isotropic resolution to image the whole brain and reconstructed using stTDI at 20 micron isotropic resolution. The 10 micron resolution stTDI maps showed exceptionally clear delineation of barrel structures. Individual barrels could also be distinguished in the 20 micron stTDI maps but the septa separating the individual barrels appeared thicker compared to the 10 micron maps, indicating that the ability of stTDI to produce high quality structural delineation is dependent upon acquisition resolution. Close homology was observed between the barrel structure delineated using stTDI and reconstructed histological data from the same samples. stTDI also detects barrel deletions in the posterior medial barrel sub-field in mice with infraorbital nerve cuts. The results demonstrate that stTDI is a novel imaging technique that enables three-dimensional characterization of complex structures such as the barrels in S1 and provides an important complementary non-invasive imaging tool for studying synaptic connectivity, development and plasticity of the sensory system. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Healable Cellulose Iontronic Hydrogel Stickers for Sustainable Electronics on Paper

The authors acknowledge the support from FCT - Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology through the Ph.D. scholarships SFRH/BD/126409/2016 (I.C.) and SFRH/BD/122286/2016 (J.M.). The authors would like to acknowledge the European Commission under project NewFun (ERC-StG-2014, GA 640598) and project SYNERGY (H2020-WIDESPREAD-2020-5, CSA, proposal no 952169). This work was also supported by the FEDER funds through the COMPETE 2020 Program and the National Funds through the FCT - Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology under the Project No. POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007688, reference UID/CTM/50025, project CHIHC, reference PTDC/NAN-MAT/32558/2017. The authors would also like to thank their colleagues Daniela Gomes and Ana Pimentel from CENIMAT/i3N for the SEM and DSC-TGA measurements, respectively.Novel nature-based engineered functional materials combined with sustainable and economically efficient processes are among the great challenges for the future of mankind. In this context, this work presents a new generation of versatile flexible and highly conformable regenerated cellulose hydrogel electrolytes with high ionic conductivity and self-healing ability, capable of being (re)used in electrical and electrochemical devices. They can be provided in the form of stickers and easily applied as gate dielectric onto flexible indium–gallium–zinc oxide transistors, decreasing the manufacturing complexity. Flexible and low-voltage (<2.5 V) circuits can be handwritten on-demand on paper transistors for patterning of conductive/resistive lines. This user-friendly and simplified manufacturing approach holds potential for fast production of low-cost, portable, disposable/recyclable, and low-power ion-controlled electronics on paper, making it attractive for application in sensors and concepts such as the “Internet-on-Things.”.publishersversionpublishe

Violence is rare in autism : when it does occur, is it sometimes extreme?

A small body of literature has suggested that, rather than being more likely to engage in offending or violent behaviour, individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may actually have an increased risk of being the victim rather than the perpetrator of violence (Sobsey et al., 1995). There is no evidence that people with ASD are more violent than those without ASD (Im, 2016). There is nevertheless a small subgroup of individuals with ASD who exhibit violent offending behaviours and our previous work has suggested that other factors, such as adverse childhood experiences, might be important in this subgroup (Allely et al., 2014). Fitzgerald (2015) highlights that school shootings and mass killings are not uncommonly carried out by individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders, with frequent evidence of warning indicators. The aim of the present review is to investigate this in more detail using the 73 mass shooting cases identified by Mother Jones (motherjones.com) in their database for potential ASD features. This exercise tentatively suggests evidence of ASD in six of 73 included cases (8%) which is ten times higher when compared to the prevalence of ASD found in the general population worldwide (motherjones.com). The 8% figure for individuals with ASD involved mass killings is a conservative estimate. In addition to the six cases which provide the 8% figure, there were 15 other cases with some indication of ASD. Crucially, ASD may influence, but does not cause, an individual to commit extreme violent acts such as a mass shooting episode

© Rinton Press ON THE IMAGE CONTENT OF A WEB SEGMENT: CHILE AS A CASE STUDY

We propose a methodology to characterize the image contents of a web segment, and we present an analysis of the contents of a segment of the Chilean web (.CL domain). Our framework uses an efficient web-crawling architecture, standard content-based analysis tools (to extract low-level features such as color, shape and texture), and novel skin and face detection algorithms. In an automated process we start by examining all websites within a domain (e.g.,.cl websites), obtaining links to images, and downloading a large number of the images (in all of our experiments approx. 383,000 images that correspond to about 35 billion pixels). Once the images are downloaded to a local server, our process automatically extracts several low-level visual features (color, texture, shape, etc.). Using novel algorithms we perform skin and face detection. The results of visual feature extraction, skin, and face detection are then used to characterize the contents of a web segment. We tested our methodology on a segment of the Chilean web (.cl), by automatically downloading and processing 183,000 images in 2003 and 200,000 images in 2004. We present some statistics derived from both sets of images, which should be of use to anyone concerned with the image content of the web in Chile. Our study is the first one to use content-based tools to determine the image contents of a given web segment

Using behavior sequence analysis to map serial killers’ life histories

The aim of the current research was to provide a novel method for mapping the developmental sequences of serial killers’ life histories. An in-depth biographical account of serial killers’ lives, from birth through to conviction was gained and analysed using Behaviour Sequence Analysis. The analyses highlight similarities in behavioural events across the serial killers’ lives, indicating not only which risk factors occur, but the temporal order of these factors. Results focused on early childhood environment, indicating the role of parental abuse; behaviours and events surrounding criminal histories of serial killers, showing that many had previous convictions and were known to police for other crimes; behaviours surrounding their murders, highlighting differences in victim choice and modus operandi; and, finally, trial pleas and convictions. The present research, therefore, provides a novel approach to synthesising large volumes of data on criminals and presenting results in accessibly, understandable outcomes

On the Image Content of the Chilean Web

In this paper we perform a study of the image contents of the Chilean web (.cl domain) using automatic feature extraction, content-based analysis and face detection algorithms. In an automated process we examine all .cl websites and download a large number of the images available (approx. 83,000). Then we extract several visual features (color, texture, shape, etc.) and we perform face detection using novel algorithms. Using this process we semi-automatically characterize the image content of the web in Chile in terms of the detected faces and the visual features obtained automatically. We present statistics of use to anyone concerned with the image content of the web in Chile. Our study is the first one to use content-based tools to determine the image contents of the web