Prison Anger Reduction Programs Evaluation Development Project

This report describes efforts to develop Alaska-specific norms for the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), using the Megargee offender classification system, for use in program evaluations in Alaska correctional facilities, specifically for evaluation of three pilot anger reduction programs initiated at Alaska Department of Corrections institutions in late 1984/early 1985: (1) Women in Crisis (at Fairbanks Correctional Center); (2) M. E. N., Inc. (at Lemon Creek Correctional Center, Juneau); (3) Bering Sea Women's Group (at Nome Correctional Center). The report provides assessments of the three programs and the correctional centers where they were held and makes recommendations for completing the development of Alaska-specific MMPI-based norms and for the administration of the MMPI as pre- and post-test for measuring psychological changes — particularly in hostility/frustration levels — in participants in anger reduction programs.Alaska Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual AssaultIntroduction / Section I. History of the Project / Section II. Psychological Testing / Section III. Site Assessment — Facilities / Section IV. Site Assessment — Programs / Section V. Recommendations / APPENDICES / A. Domestic Violence Evaluation Project: Assessment of Programs for Anger Reduction in Incarcerated Alaskan Prisoners [Project proposal] / B. Letter from Nancy E. Schafer to Barbara Miklos, June 7, 1985 / C. Site Visits / D. Criminal Justice Assessment Cervices, Inc.: Experimental MMPI Scales Availabl

An extension and application of the Leontief pollution model for waste generation and disposal in Scotland

Solid waste generation, treatment and disposal are important policy concerns for the Scottish Parliament. As a result of the Environment Act 1995, a National Waste Strategy for Scotland was introduced with the general aim of reducing the amount of waste produced and dealing with what is produced in more sustainable ways. This implies the need for an empirical framework to inform policymakers regarding the relationship between economic activity and waste generation, treatment and disposal and the likely impacts of any policy actions or other disturbances on all types of sustainability indicators. In this paper we report on a study to develop an extended input-output (IO) system of the type originally proposed in the seminal paper by Leontief (1970). This involves extending the standard IOaccounts to take account of pollution or waste generation as an additional output accompanying production and consumption activities in the economy and of the activity required to clean up (or prevent) these unwanted outputs. The extension of IO tables to take account of pollution/waste generation is relatively widespread in the literature. It is usually achieved through the introduction of physical pollution/waste-output coefficients, and has been previously applied to Scotland for the case ofair pollution (see McNicoll & Blackmore, 1993, McGregor et al, 2001). Such an approach allows us to examine the impact of the economy on the environment, in terms of the amount of pollution/waste emitted as a result of economic activity. However, it does not allow us to track the feedback from the environment to the economy in terms of the resources used in environmental cleaning. If we areinterested in this aspect, we need to identify the input structure of any pollution abatement or waste disposal activities and identify columns in the IO tables representing cleaning activities

Abdominal functional electrical stimulation to assist ventilator weaning in acute tetraplegia: a cohort study

Background Severe impairment of the major respiratory muscles resulting from tetraplegia reduces respiratory function, causing many people with tetraplegia to require mechanical ventilation during the acute stage of injury. Abdominal Functional Electrical Stimulation (AFES) can improve respiratory function in non-ventilated patients with sub-acute and chronic tetraplegia. The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical feasibility of using an AFES training program to improve respiratory function and assist ventilator weaning in acute tetraplegia.<p></p> Methods AFES was applied for between 20 and 40 minutes per day, five times per week on four alternate weeks, with 10 acute ventilator dependent tetraplegic participants. Each participant was matched retrospectively with a ventilator dependent tetraplegic control, based on injury level, age and sex. Tidal Volume (VT) and Vital Capacity (VC) were measured weekly, with weaning progress compared to the controls.<p></p> Results Compliance to training sessions was 96.7%. Stimulated VT was significantly greater than unstimulated VT. VT and VC increased throughout the study, with mean VC increasing significantly (VT: 6.2 mL/kg to 7.8 mL/kg VC: 12.6 mL/kg to 18.7 mL/kg). Intervention participants weaned from mechanical ventilation on average 11 (sd: ± 23) days faster than their matched controls.<p></p> Conclusion The results of this study indicate that AFES is a clinically feasible technique for acute ventilator dependent tetraplegic patients and that this intervention may improve respiratory function and enable faster weaning from mechanical ventilation.<p></p&gt

The evolution of inverted magnetic fields through the inner heliosphere

Local inversions are often observed in the heliospheric magnetic field (HMF), but their origins and evolution are not yet fully understood.Parker Solar Probe has recently observed rapid, Alfvénic, HMF inversions in the inner heliosphere, known as ‘switchbacks’, which have been interpreted as the possible remnants of coronal jets. It has also been suggested that inverted HMF may be produced by near-Sun interchange reconnection; a key process in mechanisms proposed for slow solar wind release. These cases suggest that the source of inverted HMF is near the Sun, and it follows that these inversions would gradually decay and straighten as they propagate out through the heliosphere. Alternatively, HMF inversions could form during solar wind transit, through phenomena such velocity shears, draping over ejecta, or waves and turbulence. Such processes are expected to lead to a qualitatively radial evolution of inverted HMF structures. Using Helios measurements spanning 0.3–1 AU, we examine the occurrence rate of inverted HMF, as well as other magnetic field morphologies, as a function of radial distance r, and find that it continually increases. This trend may be explained by inverted HMF observed between 0.3–1 AU being primarily driven by one or more of the above in-transit processes, rather than created at the Sun. We make suggestions as to the relative importance of these different processes based on the evolution of the magnetic field properties associated with inverted HMF. We also explore alternative explanations outside of our suggested driving processes which may lead to the observed trend

Concurrent Segmentation and Localization for Tracking of Surgical Instruments

Real-time instrument tracking is a crucial requirement for various computer-assisted interventions. In order to overcome problems such as specular reflections and motion blur, we propose a novel method that takes advantage of the interdependency between localization and segmentation of the surgical tool. In particular, we reformulate the 2D instrument pose estimation as heatmap regression and thereby enable a concurrent, robust and near real-time regression of both tasks via deep learning. As demonstrated by our experimental results, this modeling leads to a significantly improved performance than directly regressing the tool position and allows our method to outperform the state of the art on a Retinal Microsurgery benchmark and the MICCAI EndoVis Challenge 2015.Comment: I. Laina and N. Rieke contributed equally to this work. Accepted to MICCAI 201

Case-control study of arsenic in drinking water and lung cancer in California and Nevada.

Millions of people are exposed to arsenic in drinking water, which at high concentrations is known to cause lung cancer in humans. At lower concentrations, the risks are unknown. We enrolled 196 lung cancer cases and 359 controls matched on age and gender from western Nevada and Kings County, California in 2002-2005. After adjusting for age, sex, education, smoking and occupational exposures, odds ratios for arsenic concentrations ≥85 µg/L (median = 110 µg/L, mean = 173 µg/L, maximum = 1,460 µg/L) more than 40 years before enrollment were 1.39 (95% CI = 0.55-3.53) in all subjects and 1.61 (95% CI = 0.59-4.38) in smokers. Although odds ratios were greater than 1.0, these increases may have been due to chance given the small number of subjects exposed more than 40 years before enrollment. This study, designed before research in Chile suggested arsenic-related cancer latencies of 40 years or more, illustrates the enormous sample sizes needed to identify arsenic-related health effects in low-exposure countries with mobile populations like the U.S. Nonetheless, our findings suggest that concentrations near 100 µg/L are not associated with markedly high relative risks

Bulk and surface energetics of lithium hydride crystal: benchmarks from quantum Monte Carlo and quantum chemistry

We show how accurate benchmark values of the surface formation energy of crystalline lithium hydride can be computed by the complementary techniques of quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) and wavefunction-based molecular quantum chemistry. To demonstrate the high accuracy of the QMC techniques, we present a detailed study of the energetics of the bulk LiH crystal, using both pseudopotential and all-electron approaches. We show that the equilibrium lattice parameter agrees with experiment to within 0.03 %, which is around the experimental uncertainty, and the cohesive energy agrees to within around 10 meV per formula unit. QMC in periodic slab geometry is used to compute the formation energy of the LiH (001) surface, and we show that the value can be accurately converged with respect to slab thickness and other technical parameters. The quantum chemistry calculations build on the recently developed hierarchical scheme for computing the correlation energy of a crystal to high precision. We show that the hierarchical scheme allows the accurate calculation of the surface formation energy, and we present results that are well converged with respect to basis set and with respect to the level of correlation treatment. The QMC and hierarchical results for the surface formation energy agree to within about 1 %.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figure

Combustion and emissions characteristics of toluene/n-heptane and 1-octene/n-octane binary mixtures in a direct injection compression ignition engine

Successfully designing and making effective of use of the next generation of liquid fuels, which will be derived from a range of biomass and fossil sources, requires an understanding of the interactions between structurally similar and dissimilar fuel components when utilised in current engine technology. Interactions between fuel components can influence the release of energy and production of harmful emissions in compression ignition combustion through determination of the autoignition behavior of the fuel. This paper presents experimental studies carried out in a single-cylinder engine supplied with a range of binary mixture fuels to investigate the effect of fuel component interactions on autoignition in direct injection compression ignition. A range of binary mixtures consisting of toluene and n-heptane and also 1-octene and n-octane were tested so as to observe respectively the effect of an aromatic compound and an alkene on n-alkane combustion and emissions. The engine tests were carried out at constant injection timing and they were repeated at constant ignition timing and at constant ignition delay, the latter being achieved through the addition to the various fuels of small quantities of ignition improver (2-ethylhexyl nitrate). Increasing the presence of toluene in the toluene/n-heptane binary mixtures resulted in an increased ignition delay time and generated a distinct two stage ignition process. An increased level of 1-octene in the binary mixtures of 1-octene/n-octane was also found to increase ignition delay, though to a much lesser extent than toluene in the case of the toluene/n-heptane mixtures. Interactions between the fuel components during the ignition delay period appear important in the case of the toluene/n-heptane mixtures but not those of 1-octene/n-octane. At constant injection and constant ignition timings, the combustion phasing and the level of emissions produced by each binary mixture were primarily driven by the ignition delay time. With ignition delay equalised, an effect of adiabatic flame temperature on NOx production was visible