Affordability After Subsidies: Understanding the Trajectories of Former Assisted Housing in Florida

Each year, thousands of units are lost from the assisted rental housing inventory through deterioration and default, subsidy expiration, and market-rate conversion. While a good deal of research and data collection has focused on identifying at-risk developments, less is known about what happens to former assisted developments after they exit income and rent restrictions. This article uses a survey of former assisted properties in Florida to identify their postsubsidy trajectories—that is, as to whether developments continue as rental housing, are converted to condominiums, or leave the housing stock through vacancy and demolition; and for those that continue as rental housing, whether they continue to offer affordable rents. Using logistic regression models, the article examines the property, housing market, and neighborhood characteristics that determine these trajectories. The results show that smaller properties, those that have been out of subsidy programs longer, and those in stronger neighborhood housing markets are more likely to be converted to condominiums. Among developments that continue as rental housing, those that previously had more stringent rent restrictions, those in strong rental submarkets, and those with better transit access tend to become unaffordable compared with previous rent limits.     

The correctional staff burnout literature

Correctional staff job burnout is costly to all involved. As such, it has generated a growing body of research. This study reviewed 53 empirical studies of correctional staff burnout and two review articles published between 1981 and 2014. The majority of studies focused on staff working in a variety of institutional positions, fewer studies focused exclusively on the subgroup of correctional officers, and even fewer focused on a different subgroup. The majority of studies also involved staff at US government-run adult prisons. Most but not all studies utilized Maslach’s Burnout Inventory. Research on the antecedents of job burnout among correctional staff is more common than research on the possible consequences or outcomes of job burnout. Interestingly, despite the empirical emphasis on antecedents of burnout, there has been almost no research on effective interventions designed to deal with correctional staff burnout. Based on this narrative review, significant gaps remain in the research on correctional staff burnout.     

Female serial killers in the United States: means,motives, and makings

Most studies that have focused on female serial killers (FSKs), although informative, have examined limited sample sizes. We consulted mass media reports of demographics, motives, methods, mental health, and victim characteristics of 64 FSKs who committed their crimes in the US from 1821 to 2008. Consistent with other studies, our data showed that FSKs were typically White, educated, have been married, and held a caregiving role (e.g. mother, health care worker). Nearly 40% of FSKs in this sample experienced some form of mental illness. Their most common motive for murder was financial gain, and their most common method of killing was poisoning. FSKs knew all or most of their victims, and most were related to their victims. In all cases, FSKs targeted at least one victim who was a child, elderly, or infirm – those who had little chance of fighting back. We interpret these killers’ behaviors from clinical and evolutionary angles.     

The Committee of the Parents of the Missing and Disappeared: 30 Years of Struggle and Protest

This article investigates the work of a Lebanese non-governmental organization (NGO) called the Committee of the Parents of the Missing and the Disappeared. Although the successive Lebanese governments, most political leaders, ex-militia leaders and ex-combatants did not want to help in revealing the truth about what had happened to the people who went missing during the Lebanese civil war of 1975, the Committee managed to mobilize the families of the missing people under one banner for more than 30 years and was successful in making the Lebanese government and the legal authorities take few but important decisions that favoured the cause of the families of the missing people. It managed to do so without being deterred by the social, political and economic challenges it faced and due to the ability of its leadership to clearly define the sources of contention it wanted to protest against and by selecting the protests methods that best serve its cause.     

The Accuracy of Handheld Pre‐Arrest Breath Test Instruments as a Predictor of the Evidential Breath Alcohol Test Results

Drunk driving is a serious threat to public safety. All available and appropriate tools for curbing this threat should be employed to their full extent. The handheld pre‐arrest breath test instrument (PBT) is one tool for identifying the alcohol‐impaired driver and enforcing drunk driving legislation. A set of data was evaluated (n = 1779) where the PBT instrument was employed in drunk driving arrests to develop a multivariate predictive model. When maintained and operated by trained personnel, the PBT provides a reasonable estimate of the evidential test result within the relevant forensic range (95% prediction interval:  ± 0.003 g/210 L). ROC analysis shows that a multivariate model for PBT prediction of the evidentiary alcohol concentration above versus below the legal limit of 0.08 g/210 L has excellent performance with an AUC of 0.96. These results would be of value in evidential hearings seeking to admit the PBT results in drunk driving trials.     

Nondestructive Methods for Recovery of Biological Material from Human Teeth for DNA Extraction

The extraction of DNA from human skeletal remains applied to forensic, and evolutionary studies do not exclude risks, which are to be evaluated when working with unique specimens that could be damaged or even destroyed. In the present study were evaluated several nondestructive methods for recovering DNA instead of the most currently used pulverization method. Three different procedures to access inside the dental pieces (occlusal perforation, cervical perforation, and cervical cut) have been compared with the aim of recovering as many cell remains as possible to carry out a DNA extraction. Given the DNA quantitation results, a method was proposed that consists of a cervical cut to facilitate the access to the pulp cavity and a subsequent filing of the root canals down to the apex of the dental root. This methodology allows the recovery of both mitochondrial and nuclear DNA, with the minimum deterioration for the dental pieces.     

大鼠过敏性休克死后血清IgE、类胰蛋白酶的变化

目的观察大鼠过敏性休克死亡后血清IgE、类胰蛋白酶的变化规律,探讨其与死亡时间(PMI)、尸体及样本保存环境的相关性。方法建立大鼠过敏性休克死亡动物模型并分组,包括室温组、冷藏组、冷冻组、人工溶血组、血清样本保存组,并设立对照组。大鼠处死采血后,按离心后上层血清颜色进行溶血程度分级。通过ELISA法检测血清IgE、类胰蛋白酶在各组中的质量浓度。结果大鼠过敏性休克死亡后血清IgE、类胰蛋白酶水平明显高于对照组;室温、冷冻保存下血清IgE、类胰蛋白酶随PMI的不同有明显变化,冷藏保存下浓度相对稳定;随溶血程度的增加,血清IgE、类胰蛋白酶水平均呈升高趋势。样本不同温度条件下保存25 d,血清IgE、类胰蛋白酶无明显变化。结论大鼠过敏性休克死后血清IgE、类胰蛋白酶明显升高,但其水平受PMI、环境温度影响较大,尤其是室温或冷冻保存。