Climate-smart agriculture: what is it good for?

Leading international organisations presently argue that a transition to ‘climate-smart agriculture’ (CSA) is an obligatory task to ensure food supply for an anticipated nine billion people by 2050. Despite the rubric’s newfound importance, the conceptual underpinnings of CSA are often left unclear. Focusing on the World Bank’s framework, this paper critically interrogates the principles and concepts that underpin CSA. It argues that while CSA provides greater policy space for more holistic approaches to agriculture, it nonetheless operates within an apolitical framework that is narrowly focused on technical fixes at the level of production. This depoliticised approach to the global food system tends to validate existing policy agendas and minimise questions concerning power, inequality and access. By highlighting four strong tensions that permeate the CSA framework, the paper extols the need to greatly widen the scope of debate. To this end, it proposes an alternative ‘climate-wise’ framework to foreground the inherently political dimensions of food and agriculture in an era of climatic change.     

Exploring the Taxometric Status of Psychopathy Among Youthful Offenders: Is There a Juvenile Psychopath Taxon?

Several recent studies have examined the taxometric status of psychopathic and antisocial traits in adult samples, almost all of which have supported a dimensional model. The three studies examining whether psychopathic traits among youths are best conceptualized as a discrete latent class (or taxon) or as a dimensional construct, however, have provided conflicting results. In a sample of 723 delinquent youths who completed two self-report measures of psychopathic traits, results across taxometric procedures provided uniform support for a dimensional model. Additionally, analyses comparing putative dichotomous and dimensional classification models in terms of predicting relevant criterion measures (e.g., delinquent behavior, substance abuse, and hostility) indicated superior validity for the dimensional model. Implications for research, policy, and practice are reviewed.     

Do PCL-R scores from state or defense experts best predict future misconduct among civilly committed sex offenders?

In a recent study of sex offender civil commitment proceedings, Murrie et al. (Psychol Public Policy Law 15:19-53, 2009) found that state-retained experts consistently assigned higher PCL-R total scores than defense-retained experts for the same offenders (Cohen's d > .83). This finding raises an important question about the validity of these discrepant scores: Which type of score, state or defense evaluator, provides the most useful information about risk? We examined the ability of PCL-R total scores from state and defense evaluators to predict future misconduct among civilly committed sex offenders (N = 38). For comparison, we also examined predictive validity when two state experts evaluated the same offender (N = 32). Agreement between evaluators was low for cases with opposing experts (ICCA,1 = .43 to .52) and for cases with two state experts (ICCA,1 = .40). Nevertheless, scores from state and defense experts demonstrated similar levels of predictive validity (AUC values in the .70 range), although scores from different types of state evaluators (corrections-contracted vs. prosecution-retained) did not. The finding of mean differences between opposing evaluator scores, but similar levels of predictive validity, suggests that scores from opposing experts in SVP cases may need to be interpreted differently depending on who assigned them. Findings have important implications for understanding how rater disagreement may relate to predictive validity.     

Comparison of quantitative PCR and culture-based methods for evaluating dispersal of Bacillus thuringiensis endospores at a bioterrorism hoax crime scene

Since the anthrax mail attacks of 2001, law enforcement agencies have processed thousands of suspicious mail incidents globally, many of which are hoax bioterrorism threats. Bio-insecticide preparations containing Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) spores have been involved in several such threats in Australia, leading to the requirement for rapid and sensitive detection techniques for this organism, a close relative of Bacillus anthracis. Here we describe the development of a quantitative PCR (qPCR) method for the detection of Bt crystal toxin gene cry1, and evaluation of the method's effectiveness during a hoax bioterrorism event in 2009. When combined with moist wipe sampling, the cry1 qPCR was a rapid, reliable, and sensitive diagnostic tool for detecting and quantifying Bt contamination, and mapping endospore dispersal within a mail sorting facility. Results from the cry1 qPCR were validated by viable counts of the same samples on Bacillus-selective agar (PEMBA), which revealed a similar pattern of contamination. Extensive and persistent contamination of the facility was detected, both within the affected mailroom, and extending into office areas up to 30m distant from the source event, emphasising the need for improved containment procedures for suspicious mail items, both during and post-event. The cry1 qPCR enables detection of both viable and non-viable Bt spores and cells, which is important for historical crime scenes or scenes subjected to decontamination. This work provides a new rapid method to add to the forensics toolbox for crime scenes suspected to be contaminated with biological agents.     

Protection orders protect against assault and injury: a longitudinal study of police-involved women victims of intimate partner violence

The objective of this study was to measure the efficacy of protection orders (POs) in reducing assault and injury-related outcomes using a matched comparison group and tracking outcomes over time. This study was a retrospective review of police, emergency department, family court, and prosecutor administrative records for a cohort of police-involved female IPV victims; all events over a 4-year study period were abstracted. Victims who obtained POs were compared with a propensity-score-based match group without POs over three time periods: Before, During, and After the issuance of a PO. Having a PO in place was associated with significantly more calls to police for nonassaultive incidents and more police charging requests that were of multiple-count and felony-level. Comparing outcomes, PO victims had police incident rates that were more than double the matched group prior to the PO but dropped to the level of the matched group during and after the order. ED visits dropped over time for both groups. This study confirmed the protective effect of POs, which are associated with reduced police incidents and emergency department visits both during and after the order and reduced police incidents compared with a matched comparison group.     

Automated Mapping of Explosives Particles in Composition C‐4 Fingerprints*†‡

Abstract: A method is described to perform automated mapping of hexahydro‐1,3,5‐trinitro‐1,3,5‐triazine (RDX) particles in C‐4 fingerprints. The method employs polarized light microscopy and image analysis to map the entire fingerprint and the distribution of RDX particles. This method can be used to evaluate a large number of fingerprints to aid in the development of threat libraries that can be used to determine performance requirements of explosive trace detectors. A series of 50 C‐4 fingerprints were characterized, and results show that the number of particles varies significantly from print to print, and within a print. The particle size distributions can be used to estimate the mass of RDX in the fingerprint. These estimates were found to be within ±26% relative of the results obtained from dissolution gas chromatography/μ‐electron capture detection for four of six prints, which is quite encouraging for a particle counting approach. By evaluating the average mass and frequency of particles with respect to size for this series of fingerprints, we conclude that particles 10–20 μm in diameter could be targeted to improve detection of traces of C‐4 explosives.     

Crimes by Visitors Versus Crimes by Residents: The Influence of Visitor Inflows

Objectives

To disaggregate the crime impact of visitor inflows. There is increasing evidence that visitors can make a major contribution to levels of crime in a given neighbourhood: crimes by visiting offenders may add to those committed by local offenders, while visitors (and their property) may provide local offenders with additional opportunities for crime.

Methods

Using police-recorded crime data for a large Eastern Canadian city we determined whether individuals charged or chargeable for property and violent crimes were visitors or residents of census tracts (CT) where crimes had been committed. This information was combined with data from a large transportation survey, allowing us to estimate daily population flows into each CT for four purposes (work, shopping, recreation, and education). Negative binomial regression models including spatial lags were used.

Results

An increase in visitor inflow not only increases the number of visitors charged with crimes but also the number of local residents charged. These effects vary significantly by visit purpose: more infractions are committed in tracts where visits are for recreation and, to a lesser extent, for shopping. Findings for work and education are mixed.

Conclusions

One important implication of our results is that, because most studies of aggregate crime counts or rates fail to account for whether crimes have been committed by visitors or residents, previous research may have provided hasty, partial, or even erroneous explanations for crime concentrations.

     

Identity in adolescence: Present and future self-concepts

This paper reports an investigation to test the hypothesis that anxiety concerning a concept of the self in the future will increase with age during adolescence, while anxiety relating to the self in the present will not. Subjects included a total of 80 adolescent boys from schools in a working class area of London, divided into three groups of 12-year-olds, 14-year-olds and 16-year-olds. The results strongly substantiated the hypothesis, and are discussed in relation to Erikson's theory of an adolescent identity crisis.At present Senior Lecturer in Psychology at The London Hospital Medical College (University of London). Is both a Developmental and Clinical Psychologist, with interests in adolescence and the preschool years.Medical student at The London Hospital Medical College, having a special interest in psychology.