Nasal aperture shape evaluation between black and white South Africans

The purpose of this study was to combine morphoscopic and metric analyses to assess variation in nasal aperture size and shape of black and white South Africans. Thirteen landmarks were digitized from the bony nasal region of 152 crania using an electromechanic instrument for geometric morphometric (general procrustes analysis) and craniometric analyses. Elliptical Fourier analysis was used to assess shape of the nasal aperture via outlines applied through photographs. Both principal component and discriminant function analyses were applied to these statistical methods. Black South Africans were classified 95-96% correctly and white South Africans were classified 91-94% correctly. In a four-way analysis of sex and ancestry, classification accuracy ranged from 56 to 70%. Most misclassifications were between the sexes within each group which suggests an absence of sexual dimorphism. This study found that there is quantifiable variation in shape of the nasal aperture between black and white South African groups using all three statistical methods. In forensic application, standard craniometrics can be used to accurately classify an unknown person.     

The Impact of Child Abuse History, PTSD Symptoms, and Anger Arousal on Dating Violence Perpetration Among College Women

Preliminary research suggests that child abuse is indirectly associated with female-perpetrated intimate partner violence via posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and anger. To date, however, no known studies have investigated these relationships for physical and psychological dating violence within a female college sample. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to examine the impact of child abuse history, PTSD symptoms, and anger arousal on female-perpetrated physical and psychological dating violence. Female undergraduates (N = 496) completed measures of child abuse, PTSD symptoms, anger arousal, and dating violence perpetration as part of a larger trauma and violence study. Results indicated that child abuse directly predicted female-perpetrated physical and psychological dating violence and indirectly impacted female-perpetrated physical and psychological dating violence via PTSD symptoms and anger arousal. The direct relationships between PTSD symptoms and female-perpetrated physical and psychological dating violence were nonsignificant after controlling for the effect of anger arousal.     

Family Influences on Female Offenders’ Substance Use: The Role of Adverse Childhood Events among Incarcerated Women

Childhood maltreatment, witnessing violence, and growing up with absent, addicted, or mentally ill caregivers influence adult physical and psychological well-being and may play an important role in female offending. This study utilizes data from a study of 60 incarcerated women to examine a possible intervening variable in the victimization-crime relationship. We conduct qualitative analyses to examine family influences on substance use among female offenders. Findings indicate that substance use may arise from a need to cope with child victimization and adversity, and that factors such as poor parental supervision may contribute to girls’ substance use. After onset of drug use, many women may turn to further criminal activity to support their habits. Implications for research and intervention are addressed.     

Help-seeking in a national sample of victimized Latino women: the influence of victimization types

The current study aimed to examine formal and informal help-seeking responses to interpersonal victimization among a national sample of Latino women. In addition, an examination of help-seeking by victimization type was undertaken. Data came from the Sexual Assault Among Latinas (SALAS) study that obtained help-seeking rates among a victimized subsample of Latino women (n = 714; 35.7% of a national sample). Results show a majority (76.6%) of the victimized participants engaged in some form of help-seeking with informal resources (68.9%) more often used than formal (32.5%). Medical attention was the type of formal help-seeking sought most often among victimized women who were injured (34.7%), and parents were the most common source of informal help-seeking (26.6%). However, logistic regression analyses show that help-seeking responses were significantly affected by type of victimization. Latino women who experienced childhood victimization were significantly less likely to engage in formal and informal help-seeking. Latino women who experienced stalking were significantly less likely to engage in formal help-seeking. Victimization with a weapon was significantly related to increased odds of formal help-seeking. Thus, women respond to violence in a way that is shaped by the dynamics of the victimization experience. Practice implications include the need to increase knowledge and availability of formal help-seeking venues.     

Considering the ecohealth approach: Shaping Haitian women's participation in urban agricultural projects

This paper examines the social and gender politics of a women's urban garden project supported by the International Organisation of Migration, in Cap Haitien, Haiti. My study highlights how the development process created an unmonitored symbolic space where society's normalised gender processes reproduced broader social inequalities, which, in turn, prevented the project from meeting the women's practical and strategic goals. Then, I discuss how the ecohealth approach, as an alternative design framework, could make symbolic space visible to be critically engaged and analysed by participants, to account for gender process, and create an emancipatory activity.     

The religious conversion and race of a prisoner: Mock parole board members' decisions,perceptions, and emotions

Parole board members (PBMs) decide whether to release inmates on parole. Decisions may be affected by in‐group bias or stereotypes regarding religion and race. Two experiments investigated whether religious conversions/secular lifestyle changes and race affect mock PBMs' release decisions, emotions, and perceptions. Mock PBMs read a case file of an inmate who was eligible for parole and decided whether to grant parole. Study 1 manipulated whether the inmate had converted to Christianity or Islam, had a secular lifestyle change, or had no lifestyle change. Study 2 also varied race (African American or Caucasian). Race was not a significant factor, possibly because the manipulation was not strong enough to influence participants or because participants did not want to appear racist. Conversions to Islam and Christianity impacted the parole decision, and effects were mediated by believability of the conversion. Secular lifestyle changes affected release decisions and were mediated by perceptions of the inmate and beliefs about his likelihood of recidivism. Such inmates were the most likely to be released and were perceived most positively; their conversions were the most believable. Inmates who made no changes were perceived least positively, indicating that any lifestyle change is better than none. Importantly, no bias towards either religion (Islam, Christianity) was found. Furthermore, conversion type affected how scared PBMs were of the inmate, but this fear did not impact release decisions.     

Emotional Dysregulation and Negative Affect Mediate the Relationship Between Maternal History of Child Maltreatment and Maternal Child Abuse Potential

Risk for committing child abuse is frequently attributed to an intergenerational “cycle of violence” through which abuse as a child increases risk for committing abuse as a parent. While this hypothesis has support, more research is needed to understand the factors that account for this pattern of risk. Given literature suggesting that adults with a history of child maltreatment have increased risk for a wide range of psychopathology, this study examined the role of two behavioral endophenotypes, emotional dysregulation and negative affect, in the association between maternal experiences of childhood maltreatment and maternal child abuse potential among 83 low-income, primarily African-American mothers of elementary school age children. Results indicate that a mother’s experience of abuse as a child predicts later risk for abusive parenting as measured by child abuse potential scores. However, our data also indicate that the relationship between maternal experience of child abuse and later child abuse potential is mediated by maternal emotional dysregulation and negative affect.     

Organic impurity profiling of fentanyl samples associated with recent clandestine laboratory methods

Nearly a decade ago, fentanyl reappeared in the United States illicit drug market. In the years since, overdose deaths have continued to rise as well as the amount of fentanyl seized by law enforcement agencies. Research surrounding fentanyl production has been beneficial to regulatory actions and understanding illicit fentanyl production. In 2017, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) began collecting seized fentanyl samples from throughout the United States to track purity, adulteration trends, and synthetic impurity profiles for intelligence purposes. The appearance of a specific organic impurity, phenethyl-4-anilino-N-phenethylpiperidine (phenethyl-4-ANPP) indicates a shift in fentanyl production from the traditional Siegfried and Janssen routes to the Gupta-patent route. Through a collaboration between the DEA and the US Army's Combat Capabilities Development Command Chemical Biological Center (DEVCOM CBC), the synthesis of fentanyl was investigated via six synthetic routes, and the impurity profiles were compared to those of seized samples. The synthetic impurity phenethyl-4-ANPP was reliably observed in the Gupta-patent route published in 2013, and its structure was confirmed through isolation and structure elucidation. Organic impurity profiling results for illicit fentanyl samples seized in late 2021 have indicated yet another change in processing with the appearance of the impurity ethyl-4-anilino-N-phenethylpiperidine (ethyl-4-ANPP). Through altering reagents traditionally used in the Gupta-patent route, the formation of this impurity was determined to occur through a modification of the route as originally described in the Gupta patent.