Explaining the Long-Term Trend in Violent Crime: A Heuristic Scheme and Some Methodological Considerations

There has been a discontinuous but fairly persistent long-term decline in homicide rates in core European countries since about 1500. Since the 1950s, however, we observe an upward trend in violent crime not only in Europe but in almost all of the economically advanced nations that combine democratic political structures with free-market economies. The paper presents an explanatory scheme designed to account for both, the long decline and its apparent reversal. The theoretical model draws heavily upon ideas taken from the sociological work of Emile Durkheim and Norbert Elias—with some modifications and extensions. It seeks to integrate sociological and historical perspectives and to give due weight to both, structural and developmental forces. A key hypothesis is that the pacifying effects of the erosion of traditional collectivism can only be maintained to the extent by which “cooperative individualism” dominates over against the forces of “disintegrative individualism.” Some suggestions are made concerning the selection of appropriate indicators and the handling of methodological problems related to causal attribution.

A compact and portable deposition chamber to study nanoparticles in air-exposed tissue

BACKGROUND Epidemiological studies show that elevated levels of particulate matter in ambient air are highly correlated with respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Atmospheric particles originate from a large number of sources and have a highly complex and variable composition. An assessment of their potential health risks and the identification of the most toxic particle sources would require a large number of investigations. Due to ethical and economic reasons, it is desirable to reduce the number of in vivo studies and to develop suitable in vitro systems for the investigation of cell-particle interactions. METHODS We present the design of a new particle deposition chamber in which aerosol particles are deposited onto cell cultures out of a continuous air flow. The chamber allows for a simultaneous exposure of 12 cell cultures. RESULTS Physiological conditions within the deposition chamber can be sustained constantly at 36-37°C and 90-95% relative humidity. Particle deposition within the chamber and especially on the cell cultures was determined in detail, showing that during a deposition time of 2 hr 8.4% (24% relative standard deviation) of particles with a mean diameter of 50 nm [mass median diameter of 100 nm (geometric standard deviation 1.7)] are deposited on the cell cultures, which is equal to 24-34% of all charged particles. The average well-to-well variability of particles deposited simultaneously in the 12 cell cultures during an experiment is 15.6% (24.7% relative standard deviation). CONCLUSIONS This particle deposition chamber is a new in vitro system to investigate realistic cell-particle interactions at physiological conditions, minimizing stress on the cell cultures other than from deposited particles. A detailed knowledge of particle deposition characteristics on the cell cultures allows evaluating reliable dose-response relationships. The compact and portable design of the deposition chamber allows for measurements at any particle sources of interest.

A trilocus sequence typing scheme for hospital epidemiology and subspecies differentiation of an important nosocomial pathogen, Enterococcus faecalis.

In this study, we present a trilocus sequence typing (TLST) scheme based on intragenic regions of two antigenic genes, ace and salA (encoding a collagen/laminin adhesin and a cell wall-associated antigen, respectively), and a gene associated with antibiotic resistance, lsa (encoding a putative ABC transporter), for subspecies differentiation of Enterococcus faecalis. Each of the alleles was analyzed using 50 E. faecalis isolates representing 42 diverse multilocus sequence types (ST(M); based on seven housekeeping genes) and four groups of clonally linked (by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis [PFGE]) isolates. The allelic profiles and/or concatenated sequences of the three genes agreed with multilocus sequence typing (MLST) results for typing of 49 of the 50 isolates; in addition to the one exception, two isolates were found to have identical TLST types but were single-locus variants (differing by a single nucleotide) by MLST and were therefore also classified as clonally related by MLST. TLST was also comparable to PFGE for establishing short-term epidemiological relationships, typing all isolates classified as clonally related by PFGE with the same type. TLST was then applied to representative isolates (of each PFGE subtype and isolation year) of a collection of 48 hospital isolates and demonstrated the same relationships between isolates of an outbreak strain as those found by MLST and PFGE. In conclusion, the TLST scheme described here was shown to be successful for investigating short-term epidemiology in a hospital setting and may provide an alternative to MLST for discriminating isolates.

The impact of retrieval processes, age, general achievement level, and test scoring scheme for children's metacognitive monitoring and controlling

This multi-phase study examined the influence of retrieval processes on children’s metacognitive processes in relation to and in interaction with achievement level and age. First, N = 150 9/10- and 11/12-year old high and low achievers watched an educational film and predicted their test performance. Children then solved a cloze test regarding the film content including answerable and unanswerable items and gave confidence judgments to every answer. Finally, children withdrew answers that they believed to be incorrect. All children showed adequate metacognitive processes before and during test taking with 11/12- year-olds outperforming 9/10-year-olds when considering characteristics of on-going retrieval processes. As to the influence of achievement level, high compared to low achievers proved to be more accurate in their metacognitive monitoring and controlling. Results suggest that both cognitive resources (operationalized through achievement level) and mnemonic experience (assessed through age) fuel metacognitive development. Nevertheless, when facing higher demands regarding retrieval processes, experience seems to play the more important role.

Precipitation isoscape of high reliefs: interpolation scheme designed and tested for monthly resolved precipitation oxygen isotope records of an Alpine domain

Stable oxygen isotope composition of atmospheric precipitation (δ18Op) was scrutinized from 39 stations distributed over Switzerland and its border zone. Monthly amount-weighted δ18Op values averaged over the 1995–2000 period showed the expected strong linear altitude dependence (−0.15 to −0.22‰ per 100 m) only during the summer season (May–September). Steeper gradients (~ −0.56 to −0.60‰ per 100 m) were observed for winter months over a low elevation belt, while hardly any altitudinal difference was seen for high elevation stations. This dichotomous pattern could be explained by the characteristically shallower vertical atmospheric mixing height during winter season and provides empirical evidence for recently simulated effects of stratified atmospheric flow on orographic precipitation isotopic ratios. This helps explain "anomalous" deflected altitudinal water isotope profiles reported from many other high relief regions. Grids and isotope distribution maps of the monthly δ18Op have been calculated over the study region for 1995–1996. The adopted interpolation method took into account both the variable mixing heights and the seasonal difference in the isotopic lapse rate and combined them with residual kriging. The presented data set allows a point estimation of δ18Op with monthly resolution. According to the test calculations executed on subsets, this biannual data set can be extended back to 1992 with maintained fidelity and, with a reduced station subset, even back to 1983 at the expense of faded reliability of the derived δ18Op estimates, mainly in the eastern part of Switzerland. Before 1983, reliable results can only be expected for the Swiss Plateau since important stations representing eastern and south-western Switzerland were not yet in operation.

A serial scheme for minimizing the duration of resource-constrained projects within Microsoft Project

Microsoft Project is one of the most-widely used software packages for project management. For the scheduling of resource-constrained projects, the package applies a priority-based procedure using a specific schedule-generation scheme. This procedure performs relatively poorly when compared against other software packages or state-of-the-art methods for resource-constrained project scheduling. In Microsoft Project 2010, it is possible to work with schedules that are infeasible with respect to the precedence or the resource constraints. We propose a novel schedule-generation scheme that makes use of this possibility. Under this scheme, the project tasks are scheduled sequentially while taking into account all temporal and resource constraints that a user can define within Microsoft Project. The scheme can be implemented as a priority-rule based heuristic procedure. Our computational results for two real-world construction projects indicate that this procedure outperforms the built-in procedure of Microsoft Project

A Compact Tetrathiafulvalene-Benzothiadiazole Dyad and Its Highly Symmetrical Charge-Transfer Salt: Ordered Donor π-Stacks Closely Bound to Their Acceptors

A compact and planar donor–acceptor molecule 1 comprising tetrathiafulvalene (TTF) and benzothiadiazole (BTD) units has been synthesised and experimentally characterised by structural, optical, and electrochemical methods. Solution-processed and thermally evaporated thin films of 1 have also been explored as active materials in organic field-effect transistors (OFETs). For these devices, hole field-effect mobilities of μFE=(1.3±0.5)×10−3 and (2.7±0.4)×10−3 cm2 V s−1 were determined for the solution-processed and thermally evaporated thin films, respectively. An intense intramolecular charge-transfer (ICT) transition at around 495 nm dominates the optical absorption spectrum of the neutral dyad, which also shows a weak emission from its ICT state. The iodine-induced oxidation of 1 leads to a partially oxidised crystalline charge-transfer (CT) salt {(1)2I3}, and eventually also to a fully oxidised compound {1I3}⋅1/2I2. Single crystals of the former CT compound, exhibiting a highly symmetrical crystal structure, reveal a fairly good room temperature electrical conductivity of the order of 2 S cm−1. The one-dimensional spin system bears compactly bonded BTD acceptors (spatial localisation of the LUMO) along its ridge.

GROMOS-C, a novel ground-based microwave radiometer for ozone measurement campaigns

Stratospheric ozone is of major interest as it absorbs most harmful UV radiation from the sun, allowing life on Earth. Ground-based microwave remote sensing is the only method that allows for the measurement of ozone profiles up to the mesopause, over 24 hours and under different weather conditions with high time resolution. In this paper a novel ground-based microwave radiometer is presented. It is called GROMOS-C (GRound based Ozone MOnitoring System for Campaigns), and it has been designed to measure the vertical profile of ozone distribution in the middle atmosphere by observing ozone emission spectra at a frequency of 110.836 GHz. The instrument is designed in a compact way which makes it transportable and suitable for outdoor use in campaigns, an advantageous feature that is lacking in present day ozone radiometers. It is operated through remote control. GROMOS-C is a total power radiometer which uses a pre-amplified heterodyne receiver, and a digital fast Fourier transform spectrometer for the spectral analysis. Among its main new features, the incorporation of different calibration loads stands out; this includes a noise diode and a new type of blackbody target specifically designed for this instrument, based on Peltier elements. The calibration scheme does not depend on the use of liquid nitrogen; therefore GROMOS-C can be operated at remote places with no maintenance requirements. In addition, the instrument can be switched in frequency to observe the CO line at 115 GHz. A description of the main characteristics of GROMOS-C is included in this paper, as well as the results of a first campaign at the High Altitude Research Station at Jungfraujoch (HFSJ), Switzerland. The validation is performed by comparison of the retrieved profiles against equivalent profiles from MLS (Microwave Limb Sounding) satellite data, ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast) model data, as well as our nearby NDACC (Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change) ozone radiometer measuring at Bern.

Der Entwicklungsplan (Development Scheme) für Palästina

Arthur Ruppin

A MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM AND EVALUATION SCHEME FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS EMPLOYEE ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS

Early Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) had their origin in humanitarian motives, and there was little concern for their cost/benefit ratios; however, as some programs began accumulating data and analyzing it over time, even with single variables such as absenteeism, it became apparent that the humanitarian reasons for a program could be reinforced by cost savings particularly when the existence of the program was subject to justification.^ Today there is general agreement that cost/benefit analyses of EAPs are desirable, but the specific models for such analyses, particularly those making use of sophisticated but simple computer based data management systems, are few.^ The purpose of this research and development project was to develop a method, a design, and a prototype for gathering managing and presenting information about EAPS. This scheme provides information retrieval and analyses relevant to such aspects of EAP operations as: (1) EAP personnel activities, (2) Supervisory training effectiveness, (3) Client population demographics, (4) Assessment and Referral Effectiveness, (5) Treatment network efficacy, (6) Economic worth of the EAP.^ This scheme has been implemented and made operational at The University of Texas Employee Assistance Programs for more than three years.^ Application of the scheme in the various programs has defined certain variables which remained necessary in all programs. Depending on the degree of aggressiveness for data acquisition maintained by program personnel, other program specific variables are also defined. ^

Compact Singlet S Helium Wave functions(corrected)

This is a corrected version of the Phys. Rev. A 74,14501 (2006) article. The result is improved slightly from that in the original paper.