Errant Behavior Research Articles

Global Distribution of Canine Visceral Leishmaniasis and the Role of the Dog in the Epidemiology of the Disease.

Visceral leishmaniasis is a disease caused by protozoa of the species Leishmania (Leishmania) infantum (syn = Leishmania chagasi) and Leishmania (Leishmania) donovani, which are transmitted by hematophagous insects of the genera Lutzomyia and Phlebotomus. The domestic dog (Canis familiaris) is considered the main urban reservoir of the parasite due to the high parasite load on its skin, serving as a source of infection for sandfly vectors and, consequently, perpetuating the disease in the urban environment. Some factors are considered important in the perpetuation and spread of canine visceral leishmaniasis (CVL) in urban areas, such as stray dogs, with their errant behavior, and houses that have backyards with trees, shade, and organic materials, creating an attractive environment for sandfly vectors. CVL is found in approximately 50 countries, with the number of infected dogs reaching millions. However, due to the difficulty of controlling and diagnosing the disease, the number of infected animals could be even greater. In the four continents endemic for CVL, there are reports of disease expansion in endemic countries such as Brazil, Italy, Morocco, and Tunisia, as well as in areas where CVL is not endemic, for example, Uruguay. Socio-environmental factors, such as migration, drought, deforestation, and global warming, have been pointed out as reasons for the expansion into areas where it had been absent. Thus, the objective of this review is to address (i) the distribution of CVL in endemic areas, (ii) the role of the dog in the visceral leishmaniasis epidemiology and the factors that influence dog infection and the spread of the disease, and (iii) the challenges faced in the control of CVL.

Feedforward attentional selection in sensory cortex

Salient objects grab attention because they stand out from their surroundings. Whether this phenomenon is accomplished by bottom-up sensory processing or requires top-down guidance is debated. We tested these alternative hypotheses by measuring how early and in which cortical layer(s) neural spiking distinguished a target from a distractor. We measured synaptic and spiking activity across cortical columns in mid-level area V4 of male macaque monkeys performing visual search for a color singleton. A neural signature of attentional capture was observed in the earliest response in the input layer 4. The magnitude of this response predicted response time and accuracy. Errant behavior followed errant selection. Because this response preceded top-down influences and arose in the cortical layer not targeted by top-down connections, these findings demonstrate that feedforward activation of sensory cortex can underlie attentional priority.

Detraque: Dynamic execution tracing techniques for automatic fault localization of hardware design code.

In an error-prone development process, the ability to localize faults is a crucial one. Generally speaking, detecting and repairing errant behavior at an early stage of the development cycle considerably reduces costs and development time. The debugging of the Verilog program takes much time to read the waveform and capture the signal, and in many cases, problem-solving relies heavily on experienced developers. Most existing Verilog fault localization methods utilize the static analysis method to find faults. However, using static analysis methods exclusively may result in some types of faults being inevitably ignored. The use of dynamic analysis could help resolve this issue. Accordingly, in this work, we propose a new fault localization approach for Verilog, named Detraque. After obtaining dynamic execution through test cases, Detraque traces these executions to localize faults; subsequently, it can determine the likelihood of any Verilog statement being faulty and sort the statements in descending order by suspicion score. Through conducting empirical research on real Verilog programs with 61 faulty versions, Detraque can achieve an EXAM score of 18.3%. Thus, Detraque is verified as able to improve Verilog fault localization effectiveness when used as a supplement to static analysis methods.

Data-Driven Models Reveal Mutant Cell Behaviors Important for Myxobacterial Aggregation.

Single mutations frequently alter several aspects of cell behavior but rarely reveal whether a particular statistically significant change is biologically significant. To determine which behavioral changes are most important for multicellular self-organization, we devised a new methodology using Myxococcus xanthus as a model system. During development, myxobacteria coordinate their movement to aggregate into spore-filled fruiting bodies. We investigate how aggregation is restored in two mutants, csgA and pilC, that cannot aggregate unless mixed with wild-type (WT) cells. To this end, we use cell tracking to follow the movement of fluorescently labeled cells in combination with data-driven agent-based modeling. The results indicate that just like WT cells, both mutants bias their movement toward aggregates and reduce motility inside aggregates. However, several aspects of mutant behavior remain uncorrected by WT, demonstrating that perfect recreation of WT behavior is unnecessary. In fact, synergies between errant behaviors can make aggregation robust.IMPORTANCE Self-organization into spatial patterns is evident in many multicellular phenomena. Even for the best-studied systems, our ability to dissect the mechanisms driving coordinated cell movement is limited. While genetic approaches can identify mutations perturbing multicellular patterns, the diverse nature of the signaling cues coupled to significant heterogeneity of individual cell behavior impedes our ability to mechanistically connect genes with phenotype. Small differences in the behaviors of mutant strains could be irrelevant or could sometimes lead to large differences in the emergent patterns. Here, we investigate rescue of multicellular aggregation in two mutant strains of Myxococcus xanthus mixed with wild-type cells. The results demonstrate how careful quantification of cell behavior coupled to data-driven modeling can identify specific motility features responsible for cell aggregation and thereby reveal important synergies and compensatory mechanisms. Notably, mutant cells do not need to precisely recreate wild-type behaviors to achieve complete aggregation.

Defiant Priests: Domestic Unions, Violence, and Clerical Masculinity in Fourteenth-Century Catalunya by Michelle Armstrong-Partida

Reviewed by: Defiant Priests: Domestic Unions, Violence, and Clerical Masculinity in Fourteenth-Century Catalunya by Michelle Armstrong-Partida Richard Ibarra Michelle Armstrong-Partida, Defiant Priests: Domestic Unions, Violence, and Clerical Masculinity in Fourteenth-Century Catalunya (Ithaca: Cornell University Press 2017) xvi + 392 pp. The medieval clergy, especially the local village priests, are often described by scholars and students as ignorant, promiscuous, and corrupt. This view is largely based on two assumptions: the first is a general acceptance of the medieval and Protestant rhetoric about clerical deviancy that can be found throughout the literature, synodal decrees, and sermons of the period, and the second is the acceptance of the rhetoric separating the clergy from the laity, particularly through celibacy. Any divergent action is simply brushed off as deviant, with no interest in trying to understand and more fully explain the "errant behavior." Michelle Armstrong-Partida's Defiant Priests: Domestic Unions, Violence, and Clerical Masculinity in Fourteenth-Century Catalunya tackles these assumptions through a gender-sensitive reading of the sources, providing a very fruitful explanation of the mental world of the average village priest—at the very least in Catalunya, if not elsewhere in the Mediterranean and Central Europe—that explains their behavior as something beyond lack of continence. Looking at these priests as fundamentally enmeshed in their local communities, Armstrong-Partida argues that their proclivity to enter into domestic unions, called clerical concubinage by ecclesiastical authorities, and to use violence and intimidation to solve disputes can be explained as a statement about their masculinity in the terms that the lay society around them would understand. Scholarship on the issue of clerical concubinage has generally only tried to understand the position of these priests with a kind of [End Page 222] sympathy in the transition period surrounding the First and Second Lateran Councils, when it was officially banned in canon law. Moreover, most readings of the sources tend to conflate reports of clerical sexuality with the more passing sexual relations common among the clergy in France, England, and the Low Countries, ignoring their distinction from long-term, marriage-like unions. These long-term relationships were viewed differently by the laity in other parts of Europe, like Catalunya, where their prevalence and general acceptance among the parish community in most cases suggests that celibacy was not universally identified as the defining feature of the clergy, despite the efforts of reformers. It has also been argued in previous scholarship that a crisis in clerical masculinity was exacerbated by the Gregorian Reform, only to be resolved by the promulgation of a separate kind of clerical masculinity focusing on celibacy, eschewing any contact with women, the display of intellectual prowess, or the identification of clergy as spiritual fathers, warriors, or bridegrooms. However, Armstrong-Partida argues that much of this scholarship focused on the redefinition of clerical masculinity among the clerical elite, who often only engaged with others who shared similar views. For the majority of the secular clergy living in a village community from which they often originated, these alternative forms of proving clerical masculinity did not necessarily suffice. It is Armstrong-Partida's attention to this difference and her careful reading of the sources, revealing the underlying issue of masculinity where others saw only incontinency, that are the two greatest strengths of the book. With this new perspective, she combs the visitation records of the dioceses of Gerona, Vic, Urgell, and Barcelona over a sixty-year period showing not only the prevalence of clerical concubinage, especially the marriage-like unions which account for eighty percent of the charges related to clerical sexuality, but also the unexpected acceptance shown by the diocesan authorities and the parish communities in their dealings with clerical families. For example, Armstrong-Partida argues that the naming practices of a priest's female partner in Catalunya, usually referred to as "muller, dona, or fembra," were more neutral than the terms "vilis mulier, bagassa, and puta [used] to indicate a woman's sexual promiscuity in Catalan society," which were generally absent from visitation records concerning clerical families (47). This differed from practice in northern Europe, where clerical families were much less prominent and the attitudes of reformers had enjoyed greater success in changing...

Explaining transgression in respiratory rate observation methods in the emergency department: A classic grounded theory analysis

BackgroundAbnormal respiratory rates are one of the first indicators of clinical deterioration in emergency department(ED) patients. Despite the importance of respiratory rate observations, this vital sign is often inaccurately recorded on ED observation charts, compromising patient safety. Concurrently, there is a paucity of research reporting why this phenomenon occurs. ObjectiveTo develop a substantive theory explaining ED registered nurses' reasoning when they miss or misreport respiratory rate observations. DesignThis research project employed a classic grounded theory analysis of qualitative data. Participants: Seventy-nine registered nurses currently working in EDs within Australia. Data collected included detailed responses from individual interviews and open-ended responses from an online questionnaire. MethodsClassic grounded theory (CGT) research methods were utilised, therefore coding was central to the abstraction of data and its reintegration as theory. Constant comparison synonymous with CGT methods were employed to code data. This approach facilitated the identification of the main concern of the participants and aided in the generation of theory explaining how the participants processed this issue. ResultsThe main concern identified is that ED registered nurses do not believe that collecting an accurate respiratory rate for ALL patients at EVERY round of observations is a requirement, and yet organizational requirements often dictate that a value for the respiratory rate be included each time vital signs are collected. The theory ‘Rationalising Transgression’, explains how participants continually resolve this problem. The study found that despite feeling professionally conflicted, nurses often erroneously record respiratory rate observations, and then rationalise this behaviour by employing strategies that adjust the significance of the organisational requirement. These strategies include; Compensating, when nurses believe they are compensating for errant behaviour by enhancing the patient’s outcome; Minimalizing, when nurses believe that the patient’s outcome would be no different if they recorded an accurate respiratory rate or not and; Trivialising, a strategy that sanctions negligent behaviour and occurs when nurses ‘cut corners’ to get the job done. Nurses’ use these strategies to titrate the level ofemotional discomfort associated with erroneous behaviour, thereby rationalising transgression ConclusionThis research reveals that despite continuing education regarding gold standard guidelines for respiratory rate collection, suboptimal practice continues. Ideally, to combat this transgression, a culture shift must occur regarding nurses' understanding of acceptable practice methods. Nurses must receive education in a way that permeates their understanding of the relationship between the regular collection of accurate respiratory rate observations and optimal patient outcomes.

Searching prison cells and prisoner bodies: Redacting carceral power and glimpsing gendered resistance in women’s prisons

In this article, I explore the routinized practices of prisoner discipline: searching bodies and cells in four Canadian federal women’s prisons. Through an analysis of post-search reports as well as reported incidents of use of force, I discuss three key findings: searching and confiscation patterns across institutions are not dictated by size of the inmate population or security level of the institution; the redaction of information by prison authorities is an increasing and pervasive tactic of penal governance legitimated through an inter-legality of privacy and security; and that the searching of prisoner bodies and cells suggests a highly discretionary use of searching authority across women’s federal prisons that produces a gendered organizational logic. The text of the reports implies how women prisoners continue to be censured for their errant behaviour through the confiscation of personal items deemed to be unauthorized. These data also illustrate the ways in which women prisoners seek to achieve agency and self-determination within limited means.

Working memory capacity and task goals modulate error-related ERPs.

The present study investigated individual differences in information processing following errant behavior. Participants were initially classified as high or as low working memory capacity using the Operation Span Task. In a subsequent session, they then performed a high congruency version of the flanker task under both speed and accuracy stress. We recorded ERPs and behavioral measures of accuracy and response time in the flanker task with a primary focus on processing following an error. The error-related negativity was larger for the high working memory capacity group than for the low working memory capacity group. The positivity following an error (Pe) was modulated to a greater extent by speed-accuracy instruction for the high working memory capacity group than for the low working memory capacity group. These data help to explicate the neural bases of individual differences in working memory capacity and cognitive control.

Emotional Stability: From the Buddhism Lens

Emotional Stability enables a person to develop an integrated and balanced way of perceiving the problems of life. This ability and structured perception helps one to develop reality oriented thinking, judgment and evaluations. Further Buddhism as a philosophy points out Equanimity, which means even-mindedness, describes as, a perfect, unshakable balance of mind, rooted in insight, which is parallel with Emotional Stability. This study explored the Equanimity as an analogous construct to Emotional Stability and examine how it explicate the upkeep of equilibrium in different circumstances. The purpose of this study is to comprehend Emotional Stability from the Buddhism’s lens. The review firmly shows the Equanimity supersedes Emotional Stability that escaping people from errant behaviors, making them free from the dichotomy of good and bad and letting them to accept all that happenings with wisdom and happiness which will yield more of high Emotional Stability.

The Life and Legends of Calamity Jane by Richard W. Etulain (review)

Reviewed by: The Life and Legends of Calamity Jane by Richard W. Etulain Cheryl A. Wells (bio) The Life and Legends of Calamity Jane. By Richard W. Etulain. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2014. Pp. 416. Cloth, $24.95.) Richard W. Etulain’s The Life and Legends of Calamity Jane represents an attempt to read the “silent spaces” of Martha Canary’s, later [End Page 610] Calamity Jane’s, life in an endeavor to untangle fact from fiction and reveal her in flesh and blood and in popular culture and imagination (31). The author offers measured and “educated guesses” based on historical research as well as lore, myth, admittedly sketchy biographies, and fanciful writings of popular culture to fill in these spaces with mixed results (xv). Problematically, but unabashedly and purposely offering no “specific thesis” or framework, Etulain divides his work into two parts (xvi). The first half of his work focuses on piecing together a biographical narrative of Martha Canary’s life from childhood through to her transformation into Calamity Jane and ultimately her death. With a sharp eye that carefully sorts and chronicles the vast amounts of circulating misinformation, Etulain attempts to unbraid the strands of truth from the strands of fiction, which have obscured the life of Martha Canary. He details the Canary family’s migration west, Martha’s birth, her parents’ death, and her ensuing abandonment and migratory lifestyle around the West. Martha emerges as a desperate, sometimes vulnerable, and often needy woman “adrift in a pioneer man’s world, without home, family, or occupation,” which leads to her masculinization in appearance, attitude, and occupation (4). Here Etulain misses a golden opportunity for a fruitful engagement with Peter Boag’s brilliant 2011 work Re-Dressing America’s Frontier Past, an engagement that would have no doubt added a depth and understanding to Calamity Jane’s domination of Martha and perhaps her popularity in the eyes of the public. How and when the created and evolving myth of Calamity Jane digested the realities of Martha’s identity in popular imagination are unclear. Perhaps owing in part to rampant rumors of her serving with General Custard, participating in Crook’s expedition, and romancing Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, by 1876, emerged as the “notorious woman of a frenetic frontier” (114). She appeared as a staple in sensationalistic dime novels and embellished newspaper accounts. Calamity Jane seemingly embraced and cultivated her growing outrageous reputation. Her private persona as Martha continued to struggle in the face of her thriving public persona as Calamity Jane. The 1880s and 1890s witnessed a marriage or marriages and the birth of Martha’s children, yet it was “her masculine dress, drinking, and errant behavior” that grabbed the nation’s attention (128). While Calamity Jane dominated the public sphere, in private Martha wandered restlessly in search of elusive stability. The twentieth century witnessed Martha’s decline, ending on August 1, 1903, with her death, most likely related to her alcoholism. [End Page 611] Death, however, did nothing to dampen the public’s already wetted appetite for the adventures—real, imagined, and fabricated—of Calamity Jane. The second part of Etulain’s work traces the emergence and evolution of Calamity Jane in popular culture from roughly 1877 into the twenty-first century and offers a kaleidoscopic view of Calamity Jane’s incarnations. During her lifetime, local, regional, and national newspapers as well as Calamity Jane’s own words shaped and reshaped her image into legend. Writers trumpeted her Wild West shows, and as she aged they “castigat[ed] her as an increasingly destitute, drunken, wretched wreck of a woman” (204). In death, her identity remained obscured, for Calamity Jane, or Mrs. M. E. Burke, not Martha Canary, lies buried under an error-riddled tombstone in Mount Moriah Cemetery in Deadwood, South Dakota. Even her obituary in the nation’s leading newspaper, the New York Times, mischaracterizes and erroneously romanticizes her life by declaring her, among other things, the “Woman Who Became Famous as an Indian Fighter” (205). The national mythologizing of Calamity Jane curiously fell out of vogue between 1905 and 1930 only to fiercely reemerge. Dime novels, films, radio broadcasts, television productions, musicals, novelists, and biographers...

Single-Event Multiple-Transient Characterization and Mitigation via Alternative Standard Cell Placement Methods

As fabrication technology scales towards smaller transistor sizes and lower critical charge, single-event radiation effects are more likely to cause errant behavior in multiple, physically adjacent devices in modern integrated circuits (ICs), and with higher operating frequencies, this risk increasingly impacts design logic over memory as well. In order to increase future system reliability, circuit designers need greater awareness of multiple-transient charge-sharing effects during the early stages of their design flow with standard cell placement and routing. To measure the propagation and observability of multiple transients from single radiation events, this work uses several intra-pipeline combinational logic circuits at the 32nm technology node, investigates several different standard cell placements of each design, and analyzes those placements with a novel, physically realistic transient injection and simulation method. It is shown that (1) this simulation methodology, informed by experimental data, provides an increased realism over other works in traditional fault injection fields, (2) different placements of the same circuit where standard cells are grouped by logical hierarchy can result in different reliability behavior and benefits especially useful within the area of approximate computing, and (3) improved reliability through charge-sharing transient mitigation can be gained with no area penalty and minimal speed and power penalties by adjusting the placement of standard cells.

Organisational aspects of elder mistreatment in long term care

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to propose five organisational factors associated with abuse, neglect and/or loss of dignity of older people resident in care homes. It derives from one set of findings from the ResPECT Study of Organisational Dynamics of Elder Care commissioned by Comic Relief and Department of Health through the Prevention of Abuse and Neglect In the Care of Older Adults programme.Design/methodology/approach– A knowledge synthesis method was selected to identify organisational aspects of elder mistreatment in residential care settings. The method was selected for its suitability in examining ill-defined and contested concepts such as; elder mistreatment – where the available evidence is dispersed and produced in varied forms. A rapid review comprising a search of three academic databases and a detailed examination of selected investigation reports into institutional mistreatment was followed by panel meetings with subject matter experts to complete the knowledge synthesis.Findings– This paper identifies and elaborates five organisational factors associated with elder mistreatment; infrastructure, management and procedures, staffing, resident population characteristics and culture. It also indicates macro-structural factors affecting care quality.Research limitations/implications– Further research is needed to elaborate the influence of these organisational factors on mistreatment and to understand any interactions.Practical implications– As an adjunct to personal factors, the knowledge synthesis indicates common organisational factors contributing to institutional abuse. This suggests that care quality is produced systemically and that it can collapse as a result of seemingly minor and unrelated organisational changes.Social implications– Care home safety and quality is an ongoing concern, with popular analysis frequently stopping at the point of describing individual errant behaviour. However, as “problem” organisations are closed down, “problem” organisational factors continue to recur elsewhere.Originality/value– The paper identifies and elaborates organisational aspects of elder mistreatment in residential care settings. The findings are original, valuable and grounded in relevant experience by the method of analysis and synthesis of the findings from inquiry reports as well as research and the contribution to the development of findings by those central to the issue, residents, relatives and care providers.

Quality of Primary Care in Low-Income Countries: Facts and Economics

New research on the quality of care in public and private primary care facilities has significantly enriched our understanding of how health care is delivered in low- and middle-income countries. First, this article summarizes recent advances in the measurement of quality, distinguishing between measurements of provider knowledge and provider effort. Second, it looks at the determinants of practice quality variation in low-income settings, highlighting the limited role of structural constraints such as infrastructure, the supply of materials including drugs, and provider training—the mainstay of much of global health policy today. In contrast, practice quality variation is clearly linked to provider effort, an aspect of provider behavior that can be altered through a variety of means. Third, it provides a broad economic framework to interpret the findings. We look for evidence of specific market failures in the provision of primary care and emphasize that the key difficulty is (and always was) the transaction-specific nature of medical advice. Providers can do too much or too little (or both), and the extent of either depends on the specific patient and the specific disease. We document specific ways in which it is difficult for both consumers and governments to monitor every transaction to detect potentially errant behavior.

H-Ras forms dimers on membrane surfaces via a protein–protein interface

The lipid-anchored small GTPase Ras is an important signaling node in mammalian cells. A number of observations suggest that Ras is laterally organized within the cell membrane, and this may play a regulatory role in its activation. Lipid anchors composed of palmitoyl and farnesyl moieties in H-, N-, and K-Ras are widely suspected to be responsible for guiding protein organization in membranes. Here, we report that H-Ras forms a dimer on membrane surfaces through a protein-protein binding interface. A Y64A point mutation in the switch II region, known to prevent Son of sevenless and PI3K effector interactions, abolishes dimer formation. This suggests that the switch II region, near the nucleotide binding cleft, is either part of, or allosterically coupled to, the dimer interface. By tethering H-Ras to bilayers via a membrane-miscible lipid tail, we show that dimer formation is mediated by protein interactions and does not require lipid anchor clustering. We quantitatively characterize H-Ras dimerization in supported membranes using a combination of fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, photon counting histogram analysis, time-resolved fluorescence anisotropy, single-molecule tracking, and step photobleaching analysis. The 2D dimerization Kd is measured to be ∼1 × 10(3) molecules/µm(2), and no higher-order oligomers were observed. Dimerization only occurs on the membrane surface; H-Ras is strictly monomeric at comparable densities in solution. Analysis of a number of H-Ras constructs, including key changes to the lipidation pattern of the hypervariable region, suggest that dimerization is a general property of native H-Ras on membrane surfaces.

Public procurement in Zimbabwe: Issues and challenges

With negative coverage largely by the media on state procurement, this article aims at exploring challenges and issues that militate against public procurement in Zimbabwe. The exploration is done through content analysis of statutes and procurement practices that currently obtain in the country. The study shows that despite the presence of some regulations public officials manipulate tender procedures for personal gains. There is need for improved political will to enforce the law on errant behavior. The value for money that the procurement system should promote is lost. There is no mechanism for feedback to inform management and policy makers. The article provides recommendations for the government in pursuit of public procurement best practices.

Woyzeck and the Birth of the Human Research Subject: Genetic Disposition and the Nature-Nurture Debate Through the Looking-Glass of Fiction

In various writings Michel Foucault has shown how, in the beginning of the 19th century, in settings such as army barracks, psychiatric hospitals and penitentiary institutions, the modern human sciences were 'born' as an ensemble of disciplines (medical biology, psychiatry, psychology, criminology, and the like). From the beginning, the nature-nurture debate has been one of its key disputes. Are human individuals malleable by environmental factors (such as psychiatric treatments or disciplinary regimes), or do they rather display inborn predispositions for delinquency and other forms of antisocial behaviour? In the current era of genetic testing, in behavioural genomics and neuroscience, this issue is as controversial and topical as ever. Buchner’s unfinished drama Woyzeck (written in 1836) is a remarkable anticipation of this debate, staging the birth of the human individual as a research subject. It is the story of a destitute soldier who, according to his superiors, displays errant behaviour and is therefore recruited to serve as a research subject in an experiment. His army physician turns him into a 'case', which can be meticulously monitored and studied so as to record the genesis of a crime. In this paper, Buchner’s unsettling play is analysed in detail as one of the great anticipatory literary documents of the 19th century, exploring the idea of predictive psychiatry and the quest for genetic predispositions: a primal scene as it were of the nature-nurture debate as it unfolds from predictive criminology up to behavioural genomics.

Woyzeck and the birth of the human research subject. Genetic disposition and the nature-nurture debate through the looking-glass of fiction

In various writings Michel Foucault has shown how, in the beginning of the 19 th century, in settings such as army barracks, psychiatric hospitals and penitentiary institutions, the modern human sciences were ‹born› as an ensemble of disciplines (medical biology, psychiatry, psychology, criminology, and the like). From the beginning, the nature-nurture debate has been one of its key disputes. Are human individuals malleable by environmental factors (such as psychiatric treatments or disciplinary regimes), or do they rather display inborn predispositions for delinquency and other forms of antisocial behaviour? In the current era of genetic testing, in behavioural genomics and neuroscience, this issue is as controversial and topical as ever. Buchner’s unfinished drama Woyzeck (written in 1836) is a remarkable anticipation of this debate, staging the birth of the human individual as a research subject. It is the story of a destitute soldier who, according to his superiors, displays errant behaviour and is therefore recruited to serve as a research subject in an experiment. His army physician turns him into a ‹case›, which can be meticulously monitored and studied so as to record the genesis of a crime. In this paper, Buchner’s unsettling play is analysed in detail as one of the great anticipatory literary documents of the 19 th century, exploring the idea of predictive psychiatry and the quest for genetic predispositions: a primal scene as it were of the nature-nurture debate as it unfolds from predictive criminology up to behavioural genomics.

FOREGONE INTEREST AND CONTRACT MISPRICING IN PREDICTIVE MARKETS

Over the past 20 years, predictive markets have risen from relative obscurity to prominence. Relevant across several fields of study, these markets have utilized collective wisdom in order to better ascertain outcomes of future events. This paper look at the mechanics of trading and finds enduring pricing anomalies based on errant behavior on behalf of both buyers and sellers. Specifically, trading behavior seems to ignore the time value of money associated with buying and selling contracts even when the interest foregone is non-trivial. As such, the possibility for arbitrage presents itself in some of these cases. Finally, we examine the associated consequences of this behavior in regards to the mechanics of these markets and possible strengthening reforms in hopes of developing deeper, more robust predictions markets.The authors would like to thank Andrew de los Reyes and David Gordon for their help with research. In addition, we would like to thank Professor Michael Abramowicz for helpful comments.

Altered mechanical behavior and properties of the human anterior lens capsule after cataract surgery

Several studies have quantified the mechanics of the normal lens capsule, motivated in large part by the need to understand better the mechanism of accommodation. In addition to this principal physiologic function, the lens capsule also plays a significant clinical role by housing the prosthetic lens implanted during cataract surgery. This procedure alters dramatically the mechanical environment of the capsule, which may modulate the errant behavior of lens epithelial cells that leads to capsular contraction and deposition of non-native matrix proteins. Although much is known about histological alterations within the post-surgical capsule, little is known about the altered mechanics. We performed uniaxial mechanical tests on normal and post-surgical human anterior lens capsules and found, for the first time, that cataract surgery leads to a significant stiffening of the capsule nearest the capsulorhexis edge. These data promise to be important for developing predictive tools capable of elucidating interactions between the post-surgical capsule and implant.

Rethinking the History of Female Circumcision and Clitoridectomy: American Medicine and Female Sexuality in the Late Nineteenth Century

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, there was one kind of female orgasm and it was clitoral; there was also only one kind of healthy sexual instinct for a woman and it was for penetrative sex with her husband. When a woman behaved outside of this normality-by masturbating or by not responding to her husband's affections-her sexual instinct was seen as disordered. If healthy women, then, were believed only to be sexual within the marital embrace, what better way to explain these errant behaviors than by blaming the clitoris, an organ seen as key to female sexual instinct? Doctors corrected a clitoris in an unhealthy state using one of four surgeries-removing smegma or adhesions between the clitoris and its hood, removing the hood (circumcision), or removing the clitoris (clitoridectomy)-in order to correct a woman's sexual instinct in an unhealthy state. Their approach to clitoral surgery, at least as revealed in published medical works, was a cautious one that respected the importance of clitoral stimulation for healthy sexuality while simultaneously recognizing its role as cause and symptom in cases of insanity that were tied to masturbation.