Interstitial crime analysis

Crime on public transport can be very difficult to analyse. 'Stealth crimes' like pick-pocketing present a particular challenge because victims often have an imprecise knowledge of the location and time of the offence. In this scenario crime has typically been recorded as happening at the reporting station (often at the ‘end of line’) which skews any analysis of the collective crime locations. Interstitial crime analysis (ICA) is a technique which overcomes this problem and improves the estimation of the spatial distribution of crime on networks when the exact location of offences is unknown. Based on the aoristic analysis technique (devised to estimate the temporal distribution of crime when only a time period is known), ICA is used to estimate the location of crimes in the interstices – the intervening spaces - of a network when the location is unknown

Why we shouldn’t dismiss the idea of women-only carriages

After Labour Party leadership candidate Jeremy Corbyn raised the idea of women-only carriages on trains the idea has been variously described as a “backward step for women”, or “another form of victim blaming”, and even compared to apartheid. The harassment women experience in public spaces and what to do about it is a highly emotive subject, so why dismiss the idea outright

Book Review: Multimodal transport security: Frameworks and policy applications in freight and passenger transport: Joseph Syzliowicz, Luca Zampari, Genserik Reniers and Dawna Rhoades (editors) Edward Elger Publishing, Chelterhan, Uk and Northampton, MA, USA, ISBN 978 1 78347 481 3

This edited collection is part of the series ‘Comparative Perspectives on Transportation Security’, also edited by Syzliowicz and Zampari. The previous book in this series (2014) focussed on maritime security. This edited collection attempts to address multimodal transportation and consists of 19 chapters, predominantly split into two sections: multimodal freight transportation security, and multimodal passenger transportation security. Each of these sections is then subdivided into two further subcomponents. For firstly freight, and secondly passenger security, the book repeats the same structure. A series of chapters are presented that examine themes and frameworks, and then a second set of chapters examine policy applications from the perspective of different international countries. This is a highly ambitions collection, and indeed as the editors asked themselves; ‘can we adequately cover multimodal transport for both passenger and freight transport in a single volume?’ (p292). That they managed to achieve this is a feat in itself, although as they acknowledge ‘this necessarily limited coverage’ although I would argue not to the book’s detriment

Activity nodes and licensed premises: Risky mixes and risky facilities

This paper examines two specific crime types, violence against the person and criminal damage that occur at activity nodes near alcohol supply points. These are defined as premises licensed to sell alcohol for on site and or off site consumption. A conjunctive analysis method is used (Meithe et al, 2008; Hart and Miethe, 2014) to examine the following question. What specific configurations of licensed premise types influence risk of these crime types (bar; nightclub; off license; supermarket; restaurant; takeaway/fast food; hotel; members club); what is the impact of density of premise and size of premises at these activity nodes on the above configurations; and what are the prevention implications of the findings. Truth tables reveal particular combinations of premise type and densities account for large proportion of crimes, and suggest targeting resources in these areas would be most beneficial for crime reduction. This advantage of this approach for examining the relationship between land use and crime, compared to regression analysis, is also highlighted

Disease activity and cognition in rheumatoid arthritis : an open label pilot study

Acknowledgements This work was supported in part by NIHR Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre. Funding for this study was provided by Abbott Laboratories. Abbott Laboratories were not involved in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; or in the writing of the report.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Sediment accumulation in embayments controlled by bathymetric slope and wave energy: Implications for beach formation and persistence

High energy, rocky coastlines often feature sandy beaches within headland‐bound embayments. Not all such embayments have beaches however, and beaches in embayments can be removed by storms and may subsequently reform. What dictates the presence or absence of an embayed beach and its resilience to storms? In this paper, we explore the effect of offshore slope and wind conditions on nearshore sediment transport within idealised embayments to give insight into nearshore sediment supplies. We use numerical simulations to show that sand can accumulate near shore if the offshore slope is >0.025 m/m, but only under persistent calm conditions. Our modelling also suggests that if sediment in an embayment with an offshore gradient steeper than 0.025 m/m is removed during a period of persistent stormy conditions, it will be unlikely to return in sub‐decadal timescales. In contrast, sediment located in embayments with shallower gradients can reform swiftly in both calm and stormy conditions. Our findings have wide implications for contemporary coastal engineering in the face of future global climate change, but also for Quaternary environmental reconstruction. Our simple method to predict beach stability based on slope can be used to interpret differing responses of embayments to periods of changing coastal storminess such as the medieval climate anomaly‐little ice age (MCA‐LIA) transition

Mechanical suppression of osteolytic bone metastases in advanced breast cancer patients: A randomised controlled study protocol evaluating safety, feasibility and preliminary efficacy of exercise as a targeted medicine

Background: Skeletal metastases present a major challenge for clinicians, representing an advanced and typically incurable stage of cancer. Bone is also the most common location for metastatic breast carcinoma, with skeletal lesions identified in over 80% of patients with advanced breast cancer. Preclinical models have demonstrated the ability of mechanical stimulation to suppress tumour formation and promote skeletal preservation at bone sites with osteolytic lesions, generating modulatory interference of tumour-driven bone remodelling. Preclinical studies have also demonstrated anti-cancer effects through exercise by minimising tumour hypoxia, normalising tumour vasculature and increasing tumoural blood perfusion. This study proposes to explore the promising role of targeted exercise to suppress tumour growth while concomitantly delivering broader health benefits in patients with advanced breast cancer with osteolytic bone metastases. Methods: This single-blinded, two-armed, randomised and controlled pilot study aims to establish the safety, feasibility and efficacy of an individually tailored, modular multi-modal exercise programme incorporating spinal isometric training (targeted muscle contraction) in 40 women with advanced breast cancer and stable osteolytic spinal metastases. Participants will be randomly assigned to exercise or usual medical care. The intervention arm will receive a 3-month clinically supervised exercise programme, which if proven to be safe and efficacious will be offered to the control-arm patients following study completion. Primary endpoints (programme feasibility, safety, tolerance and adherence) and secondary endpoints (tumour morphology, serum tumour biomarkers, bone metabolism, inflammation, anthropometry, body composition, bone pain, physical function and patient-reported outcomes) will be measured at baseline and following the intervention. Discussion: Exercise medicine may positively alter tumour biology through numerous mechanical and nonmechanical mechanisms. This randomised controlled pilot trial will explore the preliminary effects of targeted exercise on tumour morphology and circulating metastatic tumour biomarkers using an osteolytic skeletal metastases model in patients with breast cancer. The study is principally aimed at establishing feasibility and safety. If proven to be safe and feasible, results from this study could have important implications for the delivery of this exercise programme to patients with advanced cancer and sclerotic skeletal metastases or with skeletal lesions present in haematological cancers (such as osteolytic lesions in multiple myeloma), for which future research is recommended. Trial registration: anzctr.org.au, ACTRN-12616001368426. Registered on 4 October 2016

Characterizing K2 Candidate Planetary Systems Orbiting Low-mass Stars. I. Classifying Low-mass Host Stars Observed during Campaigns 1–7

We present near-infrared spectra for 144 candidate planetary systems identified during Campaigns 1–7 of the NASA K2 Mission. The goal of the survey was to characterize planets orbiting low-mass stars, but our Infrared Telescope Facility/SpeX and Palomar/TripleSpec spectroscopic observations revealed that 49% of our targets were actually giant stars or hotter dwarfs reddened by interstellar extinction. For the 72 stars with spectra consistent with classification as cool dwarfs (spectral types K3–M4), we refined their stellar properties by applying empirical relations based on stars with interferometric radius measurements. Although our revised temperatures are generally consistent with those reported in the Ecliptic Plane Input Catalog (EPIC), our revised stellar radii are typically 0.13 [subscript ⊙](39%) larger than the EPIC values, which were based on model isochrones that have been shown to underestimate the radii of cool dwarfs. Our improved stellar characterizations will enable more efficient prioritization of K2 targets for follow-up studies

Frequency of blood glucose monitoring in relation to glycaemic control: observational study with diabetes database

Objectives: To investigate patterns of self monitoring of blood glucose concentration in diabetic patients who use insulin and to determine whether frequency of self monitoring is related to glycaemic control. Setting: Diabetes database, Tayside, Scotland. Subjects: Patients resident in Tayside in 1993­-5 who were using insulin and were registered on the database and diagnosed with insulin dependent (type 1) or non­insulin dependent (type 2) diabetes before 1993. Main outcome measures: Number of glucose monitoring reagent strips dispensed (reagent strip uptake) derived from records of prescriptions. First recorded haemoglobin A1c concentration in the study period, and reagent strips dispensed in the previous 6 months. Results: Among 807 patients with type 1 diabetes, 128 (16%) did not redeem any prescriptions for glucose monitoring reagent strips in the 3 year study period. Only 161 (20%) redeemed prescriptions for enough reagent strips to test glucose daily. The corresponding figures for the 790 patients with type 2 diabetes who used insulin were 162 (21%; no strips) and 131 (17%; daily tests). Reagent strip uptake was influenced both by age and by deprivation category. There was a direct relation between uptake and glycaemic control for 258 patients (with recorded haemoglobin A1c concentrations) with type 1 diabetes. In a linear regression model the decrease in haemoglobin A1c concentration for every extra 180 reagent strips dispensed was 0.7%. For the 290 patients with type 2 diabetes who used insulin there was no such relation. Conclusions: Self monitoring of blood glucose concentration is associated with improved glycaemic control in patients with type 1 diabetes. Regular self monitoring in patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes is uncommon