bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Power transformer optimal design using an innovative heuristic algorithm combined with mixed‐integer non‐linear programming and FEM technique
Authors: Yadollahi Milad , Lesani Hamid
Published: April 2017

Power transformer optimal design (PTOD) is a complex multi‐objective optimisation problem. Due to large variables search space, most optimisation methods proposed in literature for PTOD are prone to find local minimum instead of the global one. To prevail over the aforementioned problem, this study aims to propose a new heuristic algorithm combined with mixed‐integer non‐linear programming (MINLP), and also, some modifications to conventional PTOD procedure. Some promising features of the proposed method in comparison to the previously proposed methods are (i) it considers more design variables as a gene for transformer constructing chromosome (TCC), (ii) before building the main TCC, it divides the PTOD algorithm into some sub‐algorithms and starts to construct some sub‐chromosomes with lower number of genes as parts of the main TCC, which allows us to detect improper genes based on a sensitivity analysis and design constraints, (iii) not only it considers technical and consumer constrains, but it also take manufacturing constraints into account, (iv) MINLP is used to find global optimum point, and (v) the validity of obtained optimal solution is further assessed by presenting comprehensive finite‐element method (FEM) and experimental result.
Trust management for reliable decision making among social objects in the Social Internet of Things
Authors: Meena Kowshalya A. , Valarmathi M.L.
Published: April 2017

The Internet is populated with billions of electronic gadgets that have become a part of our fabric. Internet of Things is gaining popularity in at most all applications from smart buildings, intelligent transportation, healthcare and defence. IoT is a many vision one paradigm technology. One of the many visions of IoT is to make ‘Things’ social. Social Internet of Things (SIoT) is a young paradigm that integrates IoT and Social networking principles where Things are not only autonomous and smarter but also socially conscious. The authors propose a trust management scheme to facilitate trustworthy automatic decision making based on behaviour of objects. The authors use SIoT Trust metrics namely direct trust, centrality, community interest, Cooperativeness, Service Score to compute Trustworthiness among objects. The Expected trust and periodic trust updates evidently identify the presence of ‘on off’ selective forwarding attacks. The authors demonstrate the advantages of the proposed scheme with other existing trust management schemes in the literature.
Method for diagnosis of the effect of AC on the X70 pipeline due to an inductive coupling caused by HVPL
Authors: Ouadah M'hamed , Touhami Omar , Ibtiouen Rachid , Zergoug Mourad
Published: April 2017

The inductive coupling between high‐voltage power lines (HVPL) and buried pipelines has been an important research subject over the last decades. This coupling may result in alternating current (AC) on pipelines that may pose a serious threat to the pipelines due to corrosive effects and the cathodic protection (CP) performance. A method to investigate the effects of the induced AC density on the corrosion and the CP performances of the X70 steel buried pipeline due to the inductive interference caused by HVPL is proposed in this study. The method is based on the corrosion parameters of the X70 steel pipeline obtained by electrochemical measurements such as Tafel slopes, corrosion current densities, and corrosion potentials. These parameters were used as boundary conditions in the elaborated CP model. The results showed that, firstly, the induced AC density affects the electrochemical characteristic of the X70 steel and accelerates the corrosion of the pipeline. On the other hand, the impressed current cathodic protection is incapable of maintaining the CP potential level. However, some technical solutions were proposed to prevent the pipelines from AC corrosion and maintain the CP potential to an acceptable level.
Comparative Pharmacokinetics of Cholecalciferol in Dogs from 2 Different Oral Formulations Using Corrective Measures to Overcome Interference from Endogenous Cholecalciferol
Authors: Patel Harilal , Patel Prakash , Bhatt Chandrakant , Ghoghari Ashok , Patel Urvesh , Ukawalal Mukesh , Sheikh Shafiq , Ramanathan Vikram , Srinivas Nuggehally
Published: April 2017

The aim of the preclinical investigation was to obtain single dose pharmacokinetics in dogs from 2 different oral cholecalciferol formulations using corrective measures to overcome the interference of endogenous cholecalciferol. 6 dogs were fasted overnight and the following day received 60 000 IU dose cholecalciferol [reference, Eris®, vs. test, Sunbless®] by oral dosing. Blood samples were collected on day 0 (baseline establishment) and after dosing on day 1 up to 28 days. The serum samples were extracted using protein precipitation/solid phase extraction and analysed to determine cholecalciferol by LC-MS/MS assay with calibrators prepared from cholecalciferol free serum. Standard pharmacokinetic analysis was carried out to assess pharmacokinetic parameters. An un-paired t-test was employed for comparing statistical significance between formulations. Serum cholecalciferol concentration vs. time profiles for the 2 formulations was almost superimposable. None of the pharmacokinetic parameters showed statistically significant differences (p>0.05) between the 2 treatments. For example: Cmax (ng/mL) and AUCinf (ng.h/mL) derived after the baseline corrections were 708.65 and 38 877.18 for reference and 743.71 and 40 665.51 for test, respectively. Pharmacokinetics of cholecalciferol was comparable between reference vs. test formulations. The procedures, baseline correction and employment of cholecalciferol devoid serum, can be readily adopted in future pharmacokinetic studies in animals or humans.
Clinical Significance of Intraluminal Contrast Enhancement in Patients with Spontaneous Cervical Artery Dissection: A Black-Blood MRI Study
Authors: Coppenrath Eva , Lenz Olga , Sommer Nora , Lummel Nina , Linn Jennifer , Treitl Karla , Bamberg Fabian , Reiser Maximilian , Pfefferkorn Thomas , Saam Tobias
Published: April 2017

Purpose Recent studies have suggested that intraluminal thrombi show contrast enhancement on carotid black-blood T1w MRI. The aim of this study was to evaluate the significance of intraluminal contrast enhancement (iCE) regarding symptom status in patients with spontaneous cervical artery dissection (sCAD).

Methods 33 consecutive patients (19 men) with sCAD received a brain MRI (DIFF, T2w, T2*w, FLAIR) and a multi-sequence 3T-MRI with fat-saturated high-resolution black-blood T1w-sequences pre- and post-contrast, contrast-enhanced MR angiography and TOF images of carotid and vertebral arteries. Presence/absence of iCE, vessel occlusion and vessel wall hematoma (hyperintense in T1w pre-contrast) were analysed by two radiologists in consensus decision.

Results 44 of 132 analysed vessels had a vessel wall hematoma, consistent with sCAD. In 17 of 44 dissected vessels an acute ischemic stroke was found. 16 of 17 (94.1 %) vessels ipsilateral to ischemic stroke demonstrated iCE, compared to 9 of 44 (20.4 %) dissected vessels without stroke (P< 0.001). The presence/absence of iCE resulted in a sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value and accuracy for ischemic stroke of 0.94, 0.67, 0.64, 0.95, and 0.77, respectively, and an odds ratio of 32.0.

Conclusion iCE, which is suggestive of intraluminal thrombus formation, is strongly correlated with ischemic symptoms in patients with sCAD.

Key points 

Citation Format
A 3D-printed cap with sideoptics for colonoscopy: a randomized ex vivo study
Authors: Walter Benjamin , Hann Alexander , Frank Rena , Meining Alexander
Published: April 2017

Background Adequate polyp detection is crucial to colonoscopy; however, detection can be impaired. In particular, flat polyps located behind folds or near the colonic flexures appear to be a problem. We present a cheap and easily adjustable 3D-printed tool to enhance the view of a standard colonoscope using additional commercially available sideoptics.

Materials and methods A cap adjustable to a standard endoscope was printed by a 3 D printer and had two microcameras fixed to offer two additional views. Fourteen endoscopists performed one standard and one sideoptic-enhanced colonoscopy in a randomized order. Flat lesions were simulated in an endoscopy training model. Time for withdrawal was measured, along with the number of flat lesions detected.

Results Withdrawal time did not differ significantly between standard and sideoptic-enhanced colonoscopy (329 vs. 389 seconds). The median number of detected flat lesions per endoscopic examination was significantly higher using the sideoptic tool (8 vs. 6.5; P = 0.001).

Conclusions A 3D-printed sideoptic-enhanced cap including two microcameras may be a cheap, easy, and feasible add-on to improve adenoma detection rates in routine colonoscopy.
High-order regularization in lattice-Boltzmann equations
Authors: Mattila Keijo K. , Philippi Paulo C. , Hegele Luiz A.
Published: April 2017

A lattice-Boltzmann equation (LBE) is the discrete counterpart of a continuous kinetic model. It can be derived using a Hermite polynomial expansion for the velocity distribution function. Since LBEs are characterized by discrete, finite representations of the microscopic velocity space, the expansion must be truncated and the appropriate order of truncation depends on the hydrodynamic problem under investigation. Here we consider a particular truncation where the non-equilibrium distribution is expanded on a par with the equilibrium distribution, except that the diffusive parts of high-order non-equilibrium moments are filtered, i.e., only the corresponding advective parts are retained after a given rank. The decomposition of moments into diffusive and advective parts is based directly on analytical relations between Hermite polynomial tensors. The resulting, refined regularization procedure leads to recurrence relations where high-order non-equilibrium moments are expressed in terms of low-order ones. The procedure is appealing in the sense that stability can be enhanced without local variation of transport parameters, like viscosity, or without tuning the simulation parameters based on embedded optimization steps. The improved stability properties are here demonstrated using the perturbed double periodic shear layer flow and the Sod shock tube problem as benchmark cases.
Hydrodynamic turbulence in quasi-Keplerian rotating flows
Authors: Shi Liang , Hof Björn , Rampp Markus , Avila Marc
Published: April 2017

We report a direct-numerical-simulation study of the Taylor–Couette flow in the quasi-Keplerian regime at shear Reynolds numbers up to O(105). Quasi-Keplerian rotating flow has been investigated for decades as a simplified model system to study the origin of turbulence in accretion disks that is not fully understood. The flow in this study is axially periodic and thus the experimental end-wall effects on the stability of the flow are avoided. Using optimal linear perturbations as initial conditions, our simulations find no sustained turbulence: the strong initial perturbations distort the velocity profile and trigger turbulence that eventually decays.
Influence of voltage rise time on phase locking by priming effect in weakly resonant relativistic backward wave oscillators
Authors: Yang Dewen , Deng Yuqun , Teng Yan , Shi Yanchao , Wu Ping , Chen Changhua
Published: April 2017

Phase locking is the key point of coherent power combination, which is very important for the development of high power microwave sources. In this paper, theoretical analysis and particle-in-cell simulations investigate the influence of the diode voltage rise time on phase locking by the priming effect in a weakly resonant relativistic backward wave oscillator (RBWO). When the diode voltage rise time becomes long and the final output frequency remains unchanged, the initial operation frequency may fluctuate around a value which is not equal to the final output frequency. Moreover, this state may last for several nanoseconds and then jumps to the final output frequency, which is very important for phase locking. Besides, it is suggested that, due to the weak resonance of the RF cavity without the electron beam, the microwave signal with frequency which is much lower than the final output frequency is usually excited at the beginning of the starting process. Finally, it is found that, when the injected frequency approaches the frequency of the initial microwave signal, the phase locking by the priming effect in the RBWO with long voltage rise time is noticeably improved, and the starting process becomes more rapid as well. The simulation results agree well with theoretical analysis.
Probing film-depth-related light harvesting in polymer solar cells via plasma etching
Authors: Gao Shuang , Bu Laju , Zheng Zhong , Wang Xudong , Wang Weichen , Zhou Ling , Hou Jianhui , Lu Guanghao
Published: April 2017

Light harvesting is the first step of photovoltaic process in polymer solar cells. However, such donor: acceptor bulk junction layers are usually featured with vertical phase segregation as well as film-depth-dependent molecular aggregation, chain orientation and crystallinity, leading to a significant variation of photon absorption and exciton generation at different film-depths. We propose an experimentally and numerically accessible method to investigate the depth-dependent light harvesting behaviors in the active layer in polymer solar cells. A low-pressure oxygen plasma is utilized to etch the active layer gradually which is monitored by a light absorption spectrometer. Including the obtained sublayer absorption spectra into transfer matrix optical model yields depth-dependent optical properties and exciton generation profiles, which contribute to quantum efficiency and short-circuit current. This approach is helpful to optimize vertical material variation and provide insights into photovoltaic process.
Intense infrared upconversion luminescence of NaGdF4:Yb/Tm with controlled intensity
Authors: Chen X. , Vanacken J. , Han J. , Zhong Z. , Li L. , Han Y. , Liu Y. , Moshchalkov V. V.
Published: April 2017

Nanoparticles with different core@shell structures (NaGdF4:Yb/Tm@NaLnF4 with Ln = lanthanide) were successfully synthesized for luminescence upconversion from 980 nm to 800 nm. The upconversion luminescence of the core@shell nanoparticles (NaGdF4:Yb/Tm@NaGdF4) has a much stronger infrared emission centered at 800 nm than that of the core-only nanoparticles (NaGdF4:Yb/Tm). This is not only due to the removal of surface defects of the core nanoparticles by the shell, which results in the decrease of the luminescence quenching, but also due to the breaking of the crystal field symmetry around the Tm3+ ion. By replacing the NaGdF4 shell with an NaYF4, the emission could further be enhanced. We suggest that the breaking of the crystal field symmetry plays also in this case a key role for further enhancement of upconversion emission. The importance of this asymmetry was further revealed by investigating the energy transfer between Er3+ ion in the shell and the Tm3+ ion of the core nanoparticle.
Phonon transport in Na2He at high pressure from a first-principles study
Authors: Guo San-Dong , Zhang Ai-Xia
Published: April 2017

Phonon transport of recently fabricated Na2He at high pressure is investigated from a combination of first-principles calculations and the linearized phonon Boltzmann equation within the single-mode relaxation time approximation. The calculated room-temperature lattice thermal conductivity is 149.19 W m−1 K−1, which is very close to that of Si. It is found that low-frequency optical modes comprise 16% of the lattice thermal conductivity, while high-frequency optical modes have negligible contribution. The high lattice thermal conductivity is due to large group velocities, small Grüneisen parameters, and long phonon lifetimes. The size effects on lattice thermal conductivity are considered by cumulative thermal conductivity with respect to the phonon mean free path. To significantly reduce the lattice thermal conductivity, the characteristic length smaller than 100 nm is required and can reach a decrease of 36%. These results may be useful to understand thermal transport processes that occur inside giant planets.
Nonlinear optical response and applications of tin disulfide in the near- and mid-infrared
Authors: Yang H. R. , Liu X. M.
Published: April 2017

Layered metal dichalcogenides (LMDs) have received considerable attention in optoelectronics and photonics. Tin disulfide (SnS2) as a member of the LMDs has been employed for transistors, energy storage, and photocatalysts. The optical properties of SnS2 in the ultraviolet and visible regions have been widely investigated, while the applications of SnS2 in the near- and mid-infrared regions are still rare. Here, we demonstrate the nonlinear optical response of layered SnS2 that is exploited as a saturable absorber in the near- and mid-infrared regions. The saturable absorption of SnS2 is measured at 1.06 and 1.55 μm, which illustrates a low saturable intensity. SnS2 covered on a D-shaped fiber is used to initiate the mode-locking operations in erbium-, ytterbium-, and thulium-doped fiber lasers and ultrafast pulses are achieved at 1.03, 1.56, and 1.91 μm. These results make SnS2 an appealing candidate for broadband applications across the near- and mid-infrared regions.
High temperature limit of semiconductor nanowire lasers
Authors: Zapf Maximilian , Ronning Carsten , Röder Robert
Published: April 2017

Nanoscale light sources for intense laser emission based on CdS nanowires provide both an extremely localized emission and an ultrafast response even on sub-ps timescales. These fundamental mechanisms were investigated in the past, and practical device applications, such as on-chip laser driven applications working in different temperature ranges up to values far beyond room temperature, are becoming the focus of research. Here, we present a detailed study of the power dependent performance of CdS nanowire lasers which exhibit four distinct working regimes divided by certain threshold values. These regimes are spontaneous emission, amplified spontaneous emission, lasing, and a regime of vanishing laser oscillations due to active material degradation. The three threshold values bridging these four regimes are evaluated as a function of operating temperature, enabling the determination of an upper temperature limit for stable CdS nanowire lasing, at which the degradation threshold drops below the lasing threshold. Furthermore, the degradation mechanism of the CdS nanolasers will be proposed.
Wideband quin-stable energy harvesting via combined nonlinearity
Authors: Wang Chen , Zhang Qichang , Wang Wei
Published: April 2017

In this work, we propose a wideband quintuple-well potential piezoelectric-based vibration energy harvester using a combined nonlinearity: the magnetic nonlinearity induced by magnetic force and the piecewise-linearity produced by mechanical impact. With extra stable states compared to other multi-stable harvesters, the quin-stable harvester can distribute its potential energy more uniformly, which provides shallower potential wells and results in lower excitation threshold for interwell motion. The mathematical model of this quin-stable harvester is derived and its equivalent piecewise-nonlinear restoring force is measured in the experiment and identified as piecewise polynomials. Numerical simulations and experimental verifications are performed in different levels of sinusoid excitation ranging from 1 to 25 Hz. The results demonstrate that, with lower potential barriers compared with tri-stable counterpart, the quin-stable arrangement can escape potential wells more easily for doing high-energy interwell motion over a wider band of frequencies. Moreover, by utilizing the mechanical stoppers, this harvester can produce significant output voltage under small tip deflections, which results in a high power density and is especially suitable for a compact MEMS approach.
Intracytoplasmic oxidative stress reverses epigenetic modifications in polycystic ovary syndrome
Authors: Eini Fatemeh , Novin Marefat Ghaffari , Joharchi Khojasteh , Hosseini Ahmad , Nazarian Hamid , Piryaei Abbas , Bidadkosh Arash
Published: April 2017

In polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), substantial genetic and environmental alterations, along with hyperandrogenism, affect the quality of oocytes and decrease ovulation rates. To determine the mechanisms underlying these alterations caused specifically by an increase in plasma androgens, the present study was performed in experimentally-induced PCOS mice. As the study model, female B6D2F1 mice were treated with dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA, 6 mg per 100 g bodyweight). After 20 days, oocytes at the germinal vesicle and metaphase II stages were retrieved from isolated ovaries and subsequent analyses of oocyte quality were performed for each mouse. DHEA treatment resulted in excessive abnormal morphology and decreased polar body extrusion rates in oocytes, and was associated with an increase in oxidative stress. Analysis of fluorescence intensity revealed a significant reduction of DNA methylation and dimethylation of histone H3 at lysine 9 (H3K9) in DHEA-treated oocytes, which was associated with increased acetylation of H4K12. Similarly, mRNA expression of DNA methyltransferase-1 and histone deacetylase-1 was significantly decreased in DHEA-treated mice. There was a significant correlation between excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and increased histone acetylation, which is a novel finding and may provide new insights into the mechanism causing PCOS. The results of the present study indicate that epigenetic modifications of oocytes possibly affect the quality of maturation and ovulation rates in PCOS, and that the likely mechanism may be augmentation of intracytoplasmic ROS.
Bayesian posteriors for arbitrarily rare events
Authors: Fudenberg Drew , He Kevin , Imhof Lorens A.
Published: April 2017

Significance

Many decision problems in contexts ranging from drug safety tests to game-theoretic learning models require Bayesian comparisons between the likelihoods of two events. When both events are arbitrarily rare, a large data set is needed to reach the correct decision with high probability. The best result in previous work requires the data size to grow so quickly with rarity that the expectation of the number of observations of the rare event explodes. We show for a large class of priors that it is enough that this expectation exceeds a prior-dependent constant. However, without some restrictions on the prior the result fails, and our condition on the data size is the weakest possible.
Service-like TMF tests for the life assessment of an SX GT blade
Authors: Costa A. , Guarnone P. , Poggio E. , Sanguineti A. , Vacchieri E. , Villari P. , Holdsworth S. R.
Published: April 2017

Thermo-mechanical fatigue (TMF) is the main source of failure of gas turbine (GT) components, owing to thermal gradients and complex geometry. A GT-component life assessment procedure has to consider TMF and the effect of metallic coatings. A single crystal (SX) blade is analysed by FE simulation to identify the critical locations and their thermo-mechanical conditions during a ‘cold’ startup/shutdown transient. The defined TMF cycle is applied to SX superalloy specimens with two different coatings. The results highlight a significant life reduction for specimens with the coating having the highest Re content due to its microstructure. The experimental results are confirmed by field feedback from operated blades.

This paper is part of a thematic issue on the 9th International Charles Parsons Turbine and Generator Conference. All papers have been revised and extended before publication in Materials Science and Technology.
The role of Cu and Al addition on the microstructure and fracture characteristics in the simulated coarse-grained heat-affected zone of high-strength low-alloy steels with superior toughness
Authors: Liu Yu , Li Guangqiang , Wan Xiangliang , Wang Honghong , Wu Kaiming , Misra R. D. K.
Published: April 2017

The effects of Cu and Al addition on the microstructure and fracture in the coarse-grained heat-affected zone (CGHAZ) of high-strength low-alloy steels with superior toughness were studied and compared with the X70 pipeline base steel counterpart. The microstructure in base steel was dominated by a small fraction of acicular ferrite and predominantly bainite. However, acicular ferrite microstructure was obtained in Cu-bearing steel, which nucleated on complex oxide with outer layer of MnS and CuS because of Cu addition. The microstructure in Al-bearing steel consisted of bainite with ultrafine martensite–austenite constituent, which was refined by Al addition. CGHAZ in Cu-bearing and Al-bearing steels had superior impact toughness and ductile fracture, which were attributed to acicular ferrite and ultrafine martensite–austenite constituent, respectively.
Source Credibility, Expertise, and Trust in Health and Risk Messaging
Authors: Hocevar Kristin Page , Metzger Miriam , Flanagin Andrew J.
Published: April 2017

Our understanding and perceptions of source credibility significantly drive how we process health and risk messages, and may also influence relevant behaviors. Source credibility is believed to be impacted by both perceptions of source trustworthiness and expertise, and the effect of credibility on changes in attitudes and behavior has been studied for decades in the persuasion literature. However, how we understand and define source credibility—particularly the dimension of expertise—has changed dramatically as social media and other online platforms are increasingly used to design and disseminate health messages. While earlier definitions of source credibility relied heavily on the source’s credentials as indicators of expertise on a given topic, more recent conceptualizations must also account for expertise held by laypeople who have experience with a health concern. This shifting conceptualization of source credibility may then impact both why and when people select, as well as how they perceive, process, and judge, health messaging across both novel and more traditional communication contexts.
Psychological, Social, and Cultural Barriers to Public Engagement With Climate Change
Authors: Geiger Nathaniel , Middlewood Brianna , Swim Janet
Published: April 2017

Given the severity of the threat posed by climate change, why is large-scale public engagement with the topic not more widespread? The following are categories of barriers to accurate risk perceptions and action. First, many - especially in the Global North - underestimate of the threat posed by climate change. Second, many lack knowledge and perceive they do not have the ability contribute to addressing the threat. Third, there exist social barriers that discourage climate change engagement such as anti-climate action social norms. Finally, some common types of worldviews, such as market fundamentalism, can conflict with climate change engagement.
Popular Criminology
Authors: Kohm Steven
Published: April 2017

Popular criminology is a theoretical and conceptual approach within the field of criminology that is used to interrogate popular understandings of crime and criminal justice. In the last decade, popular criminology has most often been associated with analyses of fictional crime film, while in previous decades, popular criminology referred most often to “true crime” literature or, more generally, to popular ideas about crime and justice. While the term has appeared sporadically in the criminological literature for several decades, popular criminology is most closely associated with the work of American criminologist Nicole Rafter. Popular criminology refers in a broad sense to the ideas that ordinary people have about the causes, consequences, and remedies for crime, and the relationship of these ideas to academic discourses about crime. Criminologists who utilize this approach examine popular culture as a source of commonsense ideas and perceptions about crime and criminal justice. Films, television, the Internet, and literature about crime and criminal justice are common sources of popular criminology interrogated by criminologists working in this field. Popular criminology is an analytic tool that can be used to explore the emotional, psychological, and philosophical features of crime and criminal justice that find expression in popular culture. The popular cultural depiction of crime is taken seriously by criminologists working in this tradition and such depictions are placed alongside mainstream criminological theory in an effort to broaden the understanding of the impact of crime and criminal justice on the lives of everyday people. Popular criminology has become solidified as an approach within the broader cultural criminology movement which seeks to examine the interconnections between crime, culture and media.
The Cultural Afterlife of Criminal Evidence
Authors: Biber Katherine
Published: April 2017

This article explores what happens to criminal evidence after the conclusion of legal proceedings, described here as the afterlife of evidence. The text investigates the ways that this material proliferates in the shadow of the law, in both cultural and commercial contexts. During the criminal trial, the rules of evidence and criminal procedure operate to tightly regulate the collection, admissibility, and interpretation of evidence. After the criminal trial, these rules no longer control evidence, and this material is sometimes subject to the substantial cultural curiosity associated with true crime and its artifacts. This article sets out some of the new questions that are posed by this material when it is transferred beyond the law’s control.
War Crimes Trials in Popular Culture: The Afterlife of Nuremberg
Authors: Hartouni Valerie
Published: April 2017

How do we account for the place that the Nuremberg trials have come to occupy in American popular memory, culture, and discourse? For some observers, the Nuremberg trials, conducted at the end of World War II, represent an exemplary, and thus to be celebrated, first effort to establish international norms of conduct between nations in the wake of unimaginable atrocity. Rather than exercising arbitrary or indiscriminate retribution, the war’s victors turned to law for redress against Germany and in the process laid the foundation for a normative framework that might subsequently be employed to adjudicate global conflict. Little appreciated in such legal-centric accounts of the impact of the trials or explanations of their lasting importance is the role of visual texts in the proceedings and, more specifically, the prosecution’s use of concentration camp liberation footage to provide evidence of Nazi criminality. In the context of the trials, these texts established a certain regime of truth, fortified a particular moral position, and fixed as self-evident Nazi lawlessness. Significantly, they have since come to securely anchor what people believe animated the trials’ legal arguments and thus what the trials were about. To understand, therefore, the place that the Nuremberg trials have come to occupy in popular memory, culture, and discourse, one must consider how the prosecution incorporated and used visual texts and how these texts then helped shape not only popular renderings of the postwar proceedings but an enduring belief in the magically transformative nature of law to counter (Nazi) evil and reestablish humanity’s common bonds.
Representations of Law, Rights, and Criminal Justice
Authors: Machura Stefan
Published: April 2017

Criminal justice and its institutions are key objects of popular culture and attract extensive media attention. The portrayal of the justice system, its rules, professions, and institutions has been invigorated with the invention of new media technology. The authorities’ reaction to wrong doing has proven not less exciting to the audience than the criminal acts themselves. French sociologist Emile Durkheim emphasized that every member of society has an interest in social cohesion and wishes to see perpetrators appropriately punished. The media plays to this basic inclination. From the reactions of the justice system to crime, people take clues not only for its effectiveness but the public also wants to see its basic values represented in the work of officials and their decisions. Therefore, aspects of procedural and distributive justice are picked up by popular imagination and exploited to the full by media producers. Beyond recognition that media depictions of criminal justice will follow media conventions and will therefore be distorted in systematic ways, it has to be acknowledged that those representations and the expectations they formed have become a major force in society. Political repercussions and influences on how crime is dealt with are a consequence.
Visual Criminology
Authors: Brown Michelle
Published: April 2017

Visual criminology emerges from a call to rethink the manner in which images are reshaping the world and criminology as a project. The mobility, malleability, banality, speed, and scale of images and their distribution demand that we engage both old and new theories and methods. Visual criminologists pursue a refinement of concepts and tools as well as innovative new ones to tackle questions of crime, harm, culture, and control. Concerned with how ways of seeing are foundational to social orders, visual criminology gives close attention to the production of crime’s power and spectacle in the visual field and relies upon emergent conceptual terms and vocabularies to do so. It insists that it is no longer possible to understand crime and control separately from how they are represented. Visual criminology is born as an alternative academic space that is neither supplementary nor secondary to mainstream social science; rather, it calls us to understand the power of crime and punishment beyond the written and numeric registers of reports, studies, and research.

The concerns of visual criminology are numerous. Visual criminologists are interested in the role of vision and the visual in the historical foundations of criminology as a discipline. They push crime and media scholars to investigate more deeply the role of the image itself, beyond conventional studies of crime and media. Using a growing and sophisticated set of theories, methods, and concepts, they track how the various optics of criminology and criminal justice (defined by disciplinary, institutional, and epistemological boundaries) are produced, culminating in popular and scientific perspectives that inevitably bring certain principles, claims, and possibilities into the line of vision and omit others. They also give attention to how these optics are contested and transgressed. Focal points of this work span a variety of media and artistic modes that continue to grow at an unprecedented rate: photodocumentary, photoethnography, new and social media, interactive and social documentary, architecture, data visualizations, design, conceptual and performance art, mixed media, theater, embodiment, spatialization, surveillance and aerial/satellite/drone technology, graffiti and urban aesthetics, ruins and dark tourism, models, exhibitions, and imaginative interventions to envision crime and punishment otherwise. Even as this visual focus expands the disciplinary tools and insights of criminology, it also broadens the field’s boundaries, drawing from a rich theoretical terrain of interdisciplinary studies.
Alternatives to Incarceration
Authors: Taxman Faye S. , Breno Alex
Published: April 2017

Alternatives to incarceration are more than options, they have evolved into sentences of their own accord. Originally, probation and prison were the two major sentences; however, the concept of intermediate or graduated sanctions emerged in the 1980s and evolved throughout the 1990s. While alternatives to incarceration were considered options, they are now recognized as intermediate sanctions, graduated sanctions, and just plain sentencing options. This emergence occurred during the time that probation-plus-conditions sentences spiked, so that the average probationer now has over 17 standard conditions. With Justice Reinvestment Initiatives as a national effort to reduce the impact of mass incarceration policies, the JRI policy effort the has served to legitimize sentences that used to be considered “alternatives” by incorporating risk/need assessments, legislation to reduce sentence lengths and incarceration sentences, and changes in practices to address noncompliant probationers and parolees. Here, a new conceptual model is proposed that integrates sentencing options with results from a risk and need assessment depending on various types of liberty restrictions. Given the need to reduce prison overcrowding, there is an even further need to examine how different sentencing options can be used for different type of individuals.
Consumer Fraud
Authors: Van Slyke Shanna R. , Corbo Leslie A.
Published: April 2017

Consumer fraud is the intentional deception of one or more individuals with the promise of goods, services, or other financial benefits that either never existed, were never going to be provided, or were grossly misrepresented. In contrast to ancient times when consumer fraud and other white-collar crimes were considered to be at least as serious as violence and other street crimes, today’s consumer fraudster tends to be viewed as less dangerous and deserving of harsh sanctioning. Despite several social movements against consumer fraud and a proliferation of popular and scholarly literature on the topic, contemporary U.S. society has maintained a relatively lenient stance toward white-collar crime—a “soft on crime” position that is inconsistent with conservative “tough on crime” approaches that have dominated U.S. penal policy since the 1960s.
Political Corruption and State Crime
Authors: Peoples Clayton , Sutton James E.
Published: April 2017

The state is responsible for maintaining law and order in society and protecting the people. Sometimes it fails to fulfill these responsibilities; in other cases, it actively harms people. There have been many instances of political corruption and state crime throughout history, with impacts that range from economic damage to physical injury to death—sometimes on a massive scale (e.g., economic recession, pollution/poisoning, genocide). The challenge for criminologists, however, is that defining political corruption and state crime can be thorny, as can identifying their perpetrators—who can often be collectives of individuals such as organizations and governments—and their victims. In turn, pinpointing appropriate avenues of controlling these crimes can be difficult. These challenges are exacerbated by power issues and the associated reality that the state is in a position to write or change laws and, in essence, regulate itself. One possible solution is to define political corruption and state crime—as well as their perpetrators and victims—as broadly as possible to include a variety of scenarios that may or may not exhibit violations of criminal law. Likewise, a resolution to the issue of social control would be to move beyond strictly institutional mechanisms of control. Criminological research should further elucidate these issues; it should also, however, move beyond conceptual dilemmas toward (a) better understanding the processes underlying political corruption/state crime and (b) illustrating the broader ramifications of these crimes.
Criminal Underworlds
Authors: Shore Heather
Published: April 2017

The concept of the criminal underworld has played a powerful role in media representations of serious criminality from the early 20th century. Even before this period, the idea of a subterranean “otherworld” that mirrored and mimicked the more respectable “upperworld” can be identified in published texts across Western Europe and North America, and in the colonial cities of empire. Colorful terms such as the “netherworld,” “deeps,” “stews,” “sinks,” “rookeries,” “dens,” and “dives” described the slums that developed in many 19th-century cities. But by the 19th-century, slum life was increasingly correlated with criminality by the press, social investigators, fiction writers, and penal practitioners in the urban landscape.

Earlier texts that described criminal types and ascribed to them a specific set of practices and values (languages, rituals, secret codes, the places in which they “congregated”) can be found in the 16th and 17th centuries. In England, dramatists such as Thomas Harman, Robert Greene, and Thomas Dekker described such villainy in a new genre that would become known as “rogue literature.” Other European countries also had traditions of rogue literature that became popular in the early modern period. From the 18th century, the emergence of penal reform and new systems of law enforcement in the Western world saw concerns about crime reflected in the expansion of print culture. A demand for crime themed texts, including broadsheets, criminal biographies, and crime novels, further popularized the notion of a distinct criminal underworld. However, it would be in the 20th century that the underworld moved more directly onto political agendas. From the 1920s, events in North American cities would explicitly shape the public awareness of the underworld and organized crime. Within a relatively short time of gang warfare breaking out in cities such as New York and Chicago, the “gangster” and the underworld that he (apparently) inhabited became the subject of a global popular crime culture. Film, cheap fiction, and villain/police memoirs from the early 1930s popularized the “gangster.” Paul Muni memorably evoked the life of Al Capone in his character, Antonio “Tony” Camonte in Scarface (1932). Since then, gangsters have rarely gone out of fashion. In the 21st century, the relationship between the underworld and upperworld continues to be portrayed in popular culture. Television dramas like Boardwalk Empire and Peaky Blinders successfully build on an unacknowledged consensus about the existence of the underworld. Indeed, the press, police, and politicians continue to refer to the criminal underworld in a way that gives it solid form. There are few attempts to critically engage in discussions about the underworld or to provide a more meaningful definition.
Culture of Punishment in the USA
Authors: Cusac Anne-Marie
Published: April 2017

Beginning in the mid-1970s, enormous changes governed U.S. punishment of criminal offenses, leading to harsher laws and longer prison terms than convicts in earlier decades served for the same offenses. The stark policy shift resulted in soaring prison populations that are disproportionate compared with most Western nations. The United States, with 5% of the world population, has more than 20% of the world’s prisoners. Its prison population rose 700% from 1970 to 2005. Today, one in 34 adults is under correctional control. The rates are disproportionate for minorities, especially less-educated black men (Lee, 2015; Pew, 2007, 2014; U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, 2012).

Shifts in physical treatment of prisoners accompanied the population boom. Jails and prisons adopted control technologies that would likely have been considered inappropriate and inhumane decades earlier. These included the stun belt and the restraint chair, devices that can cause considerable pain. These also included extensive use of solitary confinement in Supermax prisons, an echo of a method used in 18th- and 19th -century American penitentiaries and discarded because of the dangers it posed to inmate mental health. And, following the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, treatment in U.S. prisons seemed to echo overseas in abuse of foreign prisoners in American hands. The Bush administration attempted to declare physical coercion as legal during interrogations, in apparent violation of the Geneva Conventions (Shane, Johnston, & Risen, 2007).

What caused such a shift? Much of the change appears to be cultural in nature, connected strongly to forces such as politics, religion, pervasive beliefs about evil and children, popular culture, and economic realities. This also means that American punishment is historically more influenced by such cultural forces than by more seemingly related phenomena such as research on effective punishments, prisoner experience, or crime statistics.

That American cultural trends strongly influence American punishment also means that American daily lives respond to shifts in punitiveness. Such evidence of American punishment trends appear in popular television shows and treatment of children.
Local Elites and Scholarship in Late Imperial China
Authors: Miles Steven B.
Published: April 2017

Before the end of the Tang dynasty, cultural production was largely a court-centered activity. This began to change as the nature of China’s political, social, and cultural elite, the literati (shi), was transformed by the Southern Song dynasty. Henceforth, the elite of China was primarily a local elite, occasionally producing holders of high office but primarily focusing on activities in their home areas to achieve and maintain their status. One important activity was scholarship, which involved such activities as establishing private academies (shuyuan) and the production of texts such as gazetteers and anthologies, many of which were concerned with the locales in which they were produced. The late imperial period, beginning in the Song, witnessed alternating periods of statist and localist turns, as the initiative in scholarly production shifted between the imperial court and local elites. Intellectual movements such as Neo-Confucianism and evidential research (kaozheng) fed into the production of localist texts and the formation of regional or local schools of scholarship.
Benefit-Cost Analysis of Economic Resilience Actions
Authors: Rose Adam
Published: April 2017

Economic resilience, in its static form, refers to utilizing remaining resources efficiently to maintain functionality of a household, business, industry, or entire economy after a disaster strikes, and, in its dynamic form, to effectively investing in repair and reconstruction to promote accelerated recovery. As such, economic resilience is oriented to implementing various post-disaster actions (tactics) to reduce business interruption (BI), in contrast to pre-disaster actions such as mitigation that are primarily oriented to preventing property damage. A number of static resilience tactics have been shown to be effective (e.g., conserving scarce inputs, finding substitutes from within and from outside the region, using inventories, and relocating activity to branch plants/offices or other sites). Efforts to measure the effectiveness of the various tactics are relatively new and aim to translate these estimates into dollar benefits, which can be juxtaposed to estimates of dollar costs of implementing the tactics. A comprehensive benefit-cost analysis can assist public- and private sector decision makers in determining the best set of resilience tactics to form an overall resilience strategy.
An unusual case of sepsis and petechial rash
Authors: Gardner Christina
Published: April 2017

This article describes a man who presented to the ED in acute distress with signs and symptoms of sepsis, pneumonia, and a new petechial rash on his chest. He was eventually diagnosed with Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Aggressive treatment of sepsis and timely administration of empiric antibiotics were lifesaving in this situation.
Last but not least
Authors: Harris Tristen A. , Butler Kenneth R.
Published: April 2017

This article describes the history of physician assistants (PAs) in Mississippi, the last state to pass legislation allowing for PA practice. A small group of PAs in the state began pursuing a PA practice act in the early 1990s with little political advocacy experience, and in 1994, the American Academy of PAs actively joined “The Battle for Mississippi.” In April 2000, after years of PA advocacy, Mississippi passed the bill that would authorize PA practice in the state.