The use of mindfulness to promote ethical decision making and behavior: Empirical evidence from the public sector in Thailand

The study has two main purposes. First, the study explores core ethical values and behaviors from the perspective of Thai public service organizational leaders. Second, the study investigates the extent to which public sector leaders in Thailand consider Buddhist-based mindfulness practice to be a potentially effective mechanism for reinforcing core ethical values and behaviors in the public sector in Thailand. Using interview data derived from in-depth semi-structured interviews with 12 senior public sector officials in Thailand, the analysis elicits four dimensions of core ethical values and behaviors that are perceived by Thai public service organizational leaders as central to ethical behavior in the public sector. The study also sheds light on the interviewees' positive perceptions towards mindfulness and the role its associated practices can play in promoting ethical decision making and behavior in the public sector in Thailand.     

Patterns of Young Adult Social Roles Transitions Across 24 Months and Subsequent Substance Use and Mental Health

Journal of Youth and Adolescence - Young adults experience social role transitions across multiple life domains, and a deeper understanding of the ways in which these simultaneous transition...     

Evaluating Bioinformatic Pipeline Performance for Forensic Microbiome Analysis*,†,‡

Microbial communities have potential evidential utility for forensic applications. However, bioinformatic analysis of high-throughput sequencing data varies widely among laboratories. These differences can potentially affect microbial community composition and downstream analyses. To illustrate the importance of standardizing methodology, we compared analyses of postmortem microbiome samples using several bioinformatic pipelines, varying minimum library size or minimum number of sequences per sample, and sample size. Using the same input sequence data, we found that three open-source bioinformatic pipelines, MG-RAST, mothur, and QIIME2, had significant differences in relative abundance, alpha-diversity, and beta-diversity, despite the same input data. Increasing minimum library size and sample size increased the number of low-abundant and infrequent taxa detected. Our results show that bioinformatic pipeline and parameter choice affect results in important ways. Given the growing potential application of forensic microbiology to the criminal justice system, continued research on standardizing computational methodology will be important for downstream applications.     

Volatile Organic Compound Profiling from Postmortem Microbes using Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are by-products of cadaveric decomposition and are responsible for the odor associated with decomposing remains. The direct link between VOC production and individual postmortem microbes has not been well characterized experimentally. The purpose of this study was to profile VOCs released from three postmortem bacterial isolates (Bacillus subtilis, Ignatzschineria indica, I. ureiclastica) using solid-phase microextraction arrow (SPME Arrow) and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Species were inoculated in headspace vials on Standard Nutrient Agar and monitored over 5 days at 24°C. Each species exhibited a different VOC profile that included common decomposition VOCs. VOCs exhibited upward or downward temporal trends over time. Ignatzschineria indica produced a large amount of dimethyldisulfide. Other compounds of interest included alcohols, aldehydes, aromatics, and ketones. This provides foundational data to link decomposition odor with specific postmortem microbes to improve understanding of underlying mechanisms for decomposition VOC production.     

A Census of Medicolegal Death Investigation in the United States: A Need to Determine the State of our Nation’s Toxicology Laboratories and Their Preparedness for the Current Drug Overdose Epidemic

In 2007, the Bureau of Justice Statistics reported on 2004 data collected from the Census of Medical Examiner and Coroner Offices (CMEC). The CMEC was one of the first comprehensive reports on the state of the medicolegal death investigation system in the United States and included information on administration, expenditure, workload, specialized death investigations, records and evidence retention, and resources. However, the report did not include responses on questions that were related to toxicology such as specimen retention and type of testing. The purpose of this publication is to provide the community with toxicology laboratory-specific responses from nearly 2000 medical examiner and coroner (MEC) offices. Data obtained from a BJS CMEC public use dataset for any remaining information that was not reported in the 2007 BJS report were evaluated specific to the operation of toxicology laboratories within a MEC office or specific to toxicology testing. The CMEC includes information on average operating budget for MEC offices with internal or external toxicology services, budget for toxicology/microbiology services, respondents’ routine uses of toxicology analysis, toxicology specimen retention time, average turnaround times, use of computerized information management systems, and participation in federal data collections. These historical data begin to address the present state of our nation’s toxicology laboratories within the medicolegal death investigation system and their preparedness for the current drug overdose epidemic.     

A Comparison of Coronary Artery Stenosis Estimates Made by Forensic Pathologists and Medical Students

Previous studies suggest cardiovascular pathologists are less accurate than noncardiovascular pathologists (e.g., clinical pathologists) in estimating the degree of coronary artery stenosis. To further investigate the effect of training on accurate estimation of coronary artery stenosis, we designed a study to compare the accuracy of estimates made by forensic pathologists versus medical students. Six forensic pathologists and twelve medical students each independently examined 24 images of coronary artery cross sections and gave an estimate of the degree of stenosis. When comparing all 24 images, the forensic pathologists had a median difference between the estimated percentage of stenosis and actual percentage of stenosis of −12.380 and the medical students had a median difference of −16.50 (p-value of 0.08542). In estimating the percentage of stenosis, training in forensic pathology does not guarantee significantly improved accuracy compared with medical students. Our study showed no consistent statistically significant difference between estimates given by forensic pathologists and by medical students.     

Evaluation of Suspected Counterfeit Pharmaceutical Tablets Declared to Contain Controlled Substances Using Handheld Raman Spectrometers

This study describes the performance of handheld Raman devices for determining whether suspect pharmaceutical tablets declared to contain controlled substances were consistent with authentic (CWA) or not consistent with authentic (NCWA) tablets using a simple, rapid, field-friendly method capable of being used by nonexperts. Twenty-five authentic products and 84 known NCWA tablets were examined using three “parent” devices for a total of 327 analyses. On average, the parent devices yielded a true pass rate of 100%, a true fail rate of 98.4%, a false pass rate of 1.6%, and a false fail rate of 0%. The methods/libraries were then transferred to 13 identical “daughter” devices, which were used to examine 10 suspect finished dosage forms in duplicate (six known NCWA tablets and four authentic tablets) for a total of 260 measurements. On average, the daughter devices had a true pass rate of 100%, a true fail rate of 95.5%, a false pass rate of 4.5%, and a false fail rate of 0.0%. These data demonstrate that the parent–daughter electronic transfer method was successful, which permits the ability to develop methods in the laboratory that can be seamlessly pushed out to field devices. The methods can then be used to (i) prioritize samples for additional testing using other more time-consuming laboratory-based techniques needed to detect and quantify active ingredients and (ii) help support the interdiction of dangerous tablets at ports of entry, thereby preventing them from reaching the supply chain.     

How do body-worn cameras affect the amount and makeup of police-initiated activities? A randomized controlled trial in Milwaukee,Wisconsin

Journal of Experimental Criminology - Examine how the amount and makeup of police-initiated activities changed after the introduction of body-worn cameras (BWCs). From May 21 to November 22, 2016,...     

Helping to Break the Glass Ceiling? Fathers,First Daughters,and Presidential Vote Choice in 2016

Political Behavior - Throughout her 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton crafted messages intended to appeal to fathers of daughters and to highlight the...     

Learning from each other: causal inference and American political development

Public Choice - Within political science, a movement focused on increasing the credibility of causal inferences (CIs) has gained considerable traction in recent years. While CI has been...