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Modern computer systems generate an enormous number of logs. IBM Mining Effectively Large Output Data Yield (MELODY) is a unique and innovative solution for handling these logs and filtering out the anomalies and failures. MELODY can detect system errors early on and avoid subsequent crashes by identifying the root causes of such errors. By analyzing the logs leading up to a problem, MELODY can pinpoint when and where things went wrong and visually present them to the user, ensuring that corrections are accurately and effectively done. We present the MELODY solution and describe its architecture, algorithmic components, functions, and benefits. After being trained on a large portion of relevant data, MELODY provides alerts of abnormalities in newly arriving log files or in streams of logs. The solution is being used by IBM services groups that support IBM xSeriesA servers on a regular basis. MELODY was recently tested with ten large IBM customers who use zSeriesA machines and was found to be extremely useful for the information technology experts in those companies. They found that the solution's ability to reduce extensively large log data to manageable sets of highlighted messages saved them time and helped them make better use of the data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a petroleum geologist knowledge of the density of the distribution of subsurface Cretaceous reefs is a matter of practical interest. Hence, the discovery in the Judean Desert of Israel, near the western margin of the Dead Sea, of an exhumed sea bottom below an erosional unconformity is of particular interest, because it reveals the original distribution of such reefs, and thus may provide a clue to their subsurface distribution. In this desert, newly described Turonian (Upper Cretaceous) reefs are the dominant geomorphic features, as in their original habitat on the Cretaceous sea bottom. These reefs can be traced on aerial photographs: they are generally 5-15 m in diameter and l-2.5 m in vertical dimension. Generally, reefs occur within 100-200 m of one another; m many places they are less than 50 m apart. The shapes of the patch or pinnacle reefs are almost circular, as are those occurring m the Edwards Limestone (Comanchean, Lower Cretaceous) in central Texas (Roberson, 1972). The hard, resistant, ring-like outer rims of these exposed reefs weather out as raised rims. A central depression within such structures consists, in places, of Senonian soft chalky or friable material that has been interpreted as a diagenetic product of the vadose zone. The massive reef core consists of porous dolomite. The flanking strata which dip away from the reef core at angles of approximately 15-25° are composed of a probable original grainstone which has been diagenetically changed to a micritic fabric. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the preparation of thin-film superconducting junctions in situ by a multistep laser ablation deposition process. Suppression of the critical current by a magnetic field; Observation of Shapiro steps whose magnitude versus the microwave field agreed qualitatively with the resistively shunted junction model of a current biased junction.

Examines the preparation and characterization of dc superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUID) based on YBa[sub 2]Cu[sub 3]O[sub 7]/Ag/YBa[sub 2]Cu[sub 3]O[sub 7] edge junctions. Importance of the multistep ex situ laser ablation deposition process in SQUID preparation; Difference between voltage periodicity and magnetic field; Method use in the formation of junction barriers.

Examines the characteristics of YBa[sub 2]Cu[sub 3]O[sub 7] edge junctions. Use of strontium titanate as an insulating layer; Fabrication of the junctions by laser ablation deposition; Observation of Shapiro steps under microwave radiation.

Discusses the use of organometallic chemical vapor deposited layers of stabilized zirconia on sapphire as a substrate for laser ablated YBa[sub 2]Cu[sub 3]O[sub 7-x] (YBCO) thin films. X-ray diffraction patterns; Resistivity versus temperature; Role of the buffer layer in obtaining better YBCO films.

Prison sentences that exceed the natural lifespan present a puzzle because they have no more power to deter or incapacitate than a single life sentence. In three survey experiments, we tested the extent to which participants support these longer-than-life sentences under different decision contexts. In Experiment 1, 130 undergraduates made hypothetical prison sentence-length recommendations for a serious criminal offender, warranting two sentences to be served either concurrently or consecutively. Using a nationally representative sample (N = 182) and an undergraduate pilot sample (N = 260), participants in Experiments 2 and 3 voted on a hypothetical ballot measure to either allow or prohibit the use of consecutive life sentences. Results from all experiments revealed that, compared to concurrent life sentences participants supported the use of consecutive life sentences for serious offenders. In addition, they adjusted these posthumous years in response to mitigating factors in a manner that was indistinguishable from ordinary sentences (Experiment 1), and their support for consecutive life sentencing policies persisted, regardless of the default choice and whether the policy was costly to implement (Experiments 2 and 3). These judgment patterns were most consistent with retributive punishment heuristics and have implications for sentencing policy and for theories of punishment behavior.

Psychopathic traits have been associated with rearrest in adolescents involved in the criminal legal system. Much of the prior work has focused on White samples, short follow-up windows, and relatively low-risk youth. The current study aimed to evaluate the utility of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL:YV) for predicting general and violent felony recidivism in a large sample of high-risk, predominantly Hispanic/Latino, male adolescents (n = 254) with a five-year follow-up period. Results indicated higher PCL:YV scores and lower full-scale estimated IQ scores were significantly associated with a shorter time to felony and violent felony rearrest. These effects generalized to Hispanic/Latino adolescents (n = 193)-a group that faces disproportionate risk of being detained or committed to juvenile correctional facilities in the U.S. These results suggest that expert-rated measures of psychopathic traits and IQ are reliable predictors of subsequent felony and violent felony rearrest among high-risk male adolescents., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) raise important questions about whether people view moral evaluations by AI systems similarly to human-generated moral evaluations. We conducted a modified Moral Turing Test (m-MTT), inspired by Allen et al. (Exp Theor Artif Intell 352:24-28, 2004) proposal, by asking people to distinguish real human moral evaluations from those made by a popular advanced AI language model: GPT-4. A representative sample of 299 U.S. adults first rated the quality of moral evaluations when blinded to their source. Remarkably, they rated the AI's moral reasoning as superior in quality to humans' along almost all dimensions, including virtuousness, intelligence, and trustworthiness, consistent with passing what Allen and colleagues call the comparative MTT. Next, when tasked with identifying the source of each evaluation (human or computer), people performed significantly above chance levels. Although the AI did not pass this test, this was not because of its inferior moral reasoning but, potentially, its perceived superiority, among other possible explanations. The emergence of language models capable of producing moral responses perceived as superior in quality to humans' raises concerns that people may uncritically accept potentially harmful moral guidance from AI. This possibility highlights the need for safeguards around generative language models in matters of morality., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Previous work in incarcerated boys and adult men and women suggest that individuals scoring high on psychopathic traits show altered resting-state limbic/paralimbic, and default mode functional network properties. However, it is unclear whether similar results extend to high-risk adolescent girls with elevated psychopathic traits. This study examined whether psychopathic traits [assessed via the Hare Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL:YV)] were associated with altered inter-network connectivity, intra-network connectivity (i.e., functional coherence within a network), and amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFFs) across resting-state networks among high-risk incarcerated adolescent girls ( n = 40). Resting-state networks were identified by applying group independent component analysis (ICA) to resting-state fMRI scans, and a priori regions of interest included limbic, paralimbic, and default mode network components. We tested the association of psychopathic traits (PCL:YV Factor 1 measuring affective/interpersonal traits and PCL:YV Factor 2 assessing antisocial/lifestyle traits) to these three resting-state measures. PCL:YV Factor 1 scores were associated with increased low-frequency and decreased high-frequency fluctuations in components corresponding to the default mode network, as well as increased intra-network FNC in components corresponding to cognitive control networks. PCL:YV Factor 2 scores were associated with increased low-frequency fluctuations in sensorimotor networks and decreased high-frequency fluctuations in default mode, sensorimotor, and visual networks. Consistent with previous analyses in incarcerated adult women, our results suggest that psychopathic traits among incarcerated adolescent girls are associated with altered intra-network ALFFs-primarily that of increased low-frequency and decreased high-frequency fluctuations-and connectivity across multiple networks including paralimbic regions. These results suggest stable neurobiological correlates of psychopathic traits among women across development., Competing Interests: CA, JM, AG, BE, CH, NA, KH, and KK were employed by The Mind Research Network. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Allen, Maurer, Gullapalli, Edwards, Aharoni, Harenski, Anderson, Harenski, Calhoun and Kiehl.)

Background: Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is the only curative option for many nonmalignant hematopoietic-derived diseases in pediatric patients. Survival after HSCT has improved in recent years and resulted in a 90% survival rate and cure in some nonmalignant diseases. Graft-vs.-host disease (GVHD) remains a frequent and major complication of HSCT, and a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. Prognosis of patients with high-grade GVHD is dismal, with survival rates varying from 25% in the adult population to 55% in pediatric patients., Methods: The main aim of this study is to evaluate the incidence, risk factors, and outcome of severe acute GVHD (AGVHD) in pediatric patients with nonmalignant diseases, following allogeneic HSCT. Clinical and transplant data were retrospectively collected for all pediatric patients who underwent allogeneic HSCT for nonmalignant diseases at the Hadassah Medical Center between 2008 and 2019. Patients who developed severe AGVHD were compared with those who did not., Results: A total of 247 children with nonmalignant diseases underwent 266 allogeneic HSCTs at Hadassah University Hospital over an 11-year period. Seventy-two patients (29.1%) developed AGVHD, 35 of them (14.1%) severe AGVHD (grade 3-4). Significant risk factors for developing severe AGVHD were unrelated donor ( p  < 0.001), mismatch donor ( p  < 0.001), and the use of peripheral blood stem cells (PBSCs) ( p  < 0.001). Survival rates of pediatric patients with severe AGVHD was 71.4%, compared with 91.9% among those with mild (grade 1-2) AGVHD and 83.4% among patients without AGVHD ( p  = 0.067)., Conclusions: These results demonstrate a high survival rate in pediatric patients with nonmalignant diseases despite severe GVHD. Significant mortality risk factors found in these patients were the source of donor PBSC ( p  = 0.016) and poor response to steroid treatment ( p  = 0.007)., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (© 2023 Zaidman, Even-Or, Aharoni, Averbuch, Dinur-Schejter, NaserEddin, Slae, Shadur and Stepensky.)

Scholars have proposed that incarceration rates might be reduced by a requirement that judges justify incarceration decisions with respect to their operational costs (e.g., prison capacity). In an Internet-based vignette experiment ( N = 214), we tested this prediction by examining whether criminal punishment judgments (prison vs. probation) among university undergraduates would be influenced by a prompt to provide a justification for one's judgment, and by a brief message describing prison capacity costs. We found that (1) the justification prompt alone was sufficient to reduce incarceration rates, (2) the prison capacity message also independently reduced incarceration rates, and (3) incarceration rates were most strongly reduced (by about 25%) when decision makers were asked to justify their sentences with respect to the expected capacity costs. These effects survived a test of robustness and occurred regardless of whether participants reported that prison costs should influence judgments of incarceration. At the individual crime level, the least serious crimes were most amenable to reconsideration for probation. These findings are important for policymakers attempting to manage high incarceration rates., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Aharoni, Nahmias, Hoffman and Fernandes.)

Judges are typically tasked to consider sentencing benefits but not costs. Previous research finds that both laypeople and prosecutors discount the costs of incarceration when forming sentencing attitudes, raising important questions about whether professional judges show the same bias during sentencing. To test this, we used a vignette-based experiment in which Minnesota state judges ( N  = 87) reviewed a case summary about an aggravated robbery and imposed a hypothetical sentence. Using random assignment, half the participants received additional information about plausible negative consequences of incarceration. As predicted, our results revealed a mitigating effect of cost exposure on prison sentence term lengths. Critically, these findings support the conclusion that policies that increase transparency in sentencing costs could reduce sentence lengths, which has important economic and social ramifications., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Aharoni, Kleider-Offutt, Brosnan and Hoffman.)

Previous research (Aharoni et al., 2013, 2014) found that hemodynamic activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) during error monitoring predicted non-violent felony rearrest in men released from prison. This article reports an extension of the Aharoni et al. (2013, 2014) model in a sample of women released from state prison (n = 248). Replicating aspects of prior work, error monitoring activity in the dACC, as well as psychopathy scores and age at release, predicted non-violent felony rearrest in women. Sex differences in the directionality of dACC activity were observed-high error monitoring activity predicted rearrest in women, whereas prior work found low error monitoring activity predicted rearrest in men. As in prior analyses, the ability of the dACC to predict rearrest outcomes declines with more generalized outcomes (i.e., general felony). Implications for future research and clinical and forensic risk assessment are discussed., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

This study examined parental coping with grief and identified protective factors for better coping among parents who suffered the loss of a child during military service in Israel. Coping indicators included complicated grief, functioning in life tasks, succeeding in living meaningful lives, and personal growth. Participants were 164 parents who had lost children 5-16 years previously. We found strong associations between parents' decision to continue life despite traumatic loss and several indicators of coping. Meaning-making was associated with better functioning and greater personal growth. Practitioners should explore with parents the internal struggles about deciding whether to continue in life.

Prosecutors can influence judges' sentencing decisions by the sentencing recommendations they make-but prosecutors are insulated from the costs of those sentences, which critics have described as a correctional "free lunch." In a nationally distributed survey experiment, we show that when a sample of ( n =178) professional prosecutors were insulated from sentencing cost information, their prison sentence recommendations were nearly one-third lengthier than sentences rendered following exposure to direct cost information. Exposure to a fiscally equivalent benefit of incarceration did not impact sentencing recommendations, as predicted. This pattern suggests that prosecutors implicitly value incorporating sentencing costs but selectively neglect them unless they are made explicit. These findings highlight a likely but previously unrecognized contributor to mass incarceration and identify a potential way to remediate it., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Aharoni, Kleider-Offutt and Brosnan.)

Previous studies have associated adult men with elevated psychopathic traits with reduced endorsement of certain moral foundations measured with the Moral Foundations Questionnaire (MFQ), including Harm/Care (measuring one's concern for protecting individuals from harm) and Fairness/Reciprocity (measuring one's concern for the rights of individuals). However, it is not known whether such results extrapolate to women with elevated levels of psychopathic traits. Here, we examined the relationship between endorsement of moral foundations (assessed via the MFQ) and psychopathy scores (assessed via the Psychopathy Checklist - Revised [PCL-R]) in a sample of 299 incarcerated adult women. Consistent with hypotheses, higher PCL-R total scores were associated with reduced endorsement of MFQ Harm/Care and Fairness/Reciprocity foundations. Additionally, we extended upon previous studies, observing higher PCL-R total, Factor 1 (measuring interpersonal/affective psychopathic traits), and Facet 1 (measuring interpersonal psychopathic traits) scores were associated with reduced endorsement of the MFQ Authority/Respect foundation (measuring one's respect for authority figures) in incarcerated adult women. Our results highlight reduced endorsement for similar moral foundations between men and women scoring high on psychopathic traits (i.e., Harm/Care and Fairness/Reciprocity), while also outlining a moral foundation that may be uniquely associated with women scoring high on psychopathic traits (i.e., Authority/Respect).

Competing Interests: Competing interests: KAJS: none. GM: none. DJK: none. EA: device design, employee of VisionCare Ophthalmic Technologies.

Do people punish more than they would if the decision costs were more transparent? In two Internet-based vignette experiments, we tested whether juvenile sentencing recommendations among U.S. adults are responsive to variation in the salience of the taxpayer costs and public safety benefits of incarceration. Using a 2 Cost (present vs. absent) x 2 Benefit (present vs. absent) factorial design, Experiment 1 (N = 234) found that exposure to information about the direct costs of incarcerating the juvenile offender reduced sentencing recommendations by about 28%, but exposure to the public safety benefits had no effect on sentences. Experiment 2 (N = 301) manipulated cost-benefit salience by asking participants to generate their own list of costs of incarceration, benefits of incarceration, or an affectively neutral, unrelated word list. Results revealed a similar selective effect whereby sentencing recommendations were reduced in the cost condition relative to the benefits and control conditions, but sentences in the benefit condition did not differ from the control. This combined pattern suggests that laypeople selectively neglect to factor cost considerations into these judgments, thereby inflating their support for punishment, unless those costs are made salient. These findings contribute to the debate on transparency in sentencing., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Since the historical conception of psychopathy, researchers have been interested in understanding moral functioning among psychopathic individuals. The present study investigated the association between psychopathic traits and moral intuitions among incarcerated juvenile offenders ( N = 178). Participants were assessed using the Psychopathy Checklist:Youth Version (Forth et al., 2003) and the Moral Foundations Questionnaire (Graham et al., 2011), which defines five core moral foundations: Harm/care, Fairness/reciprocity, Ingroup/loyalty, Authority/respect, and Purity/sanctity. As expected, psychopathy in juvenile offenders negatively predicted endorsement of all five foundations. This study is the first to demonstrate broad abnormalities in Haidt et al.'s moral foundations in a juvenile sample and can help explain delinquent behavior in juveniles with psychopathic traits. Implications for theories of psychopathy are discussed., Competing Interests: The authors declare that there are no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Legal theorists have characterized physical evidence of brain dysfunction as a double-edged sword, wherein the very quality that reduces the defendant's responsibility for his transgression could simultaneously increase motivations to punish him by virtue of his apparently increased dangerousness. However, empirical evidence of this pattern has been elusive, perhaps owing to a heavy reliance on singular measures that fail to distinguish between plural, often competing internal motivations for punishment. The present study employed a test of the theorized double-edge pattern using a novel approach designed to separate such motivations. We asked a large sample of participants (N = 330) to render criminal sentencing judgments under varying conditions of the defendant's mental health status (Healthy, Neurobiological Disorder, Psychological Disorder) and the disorder's treatability (Treatable, Untreatable). As predicted, neurobiological evidence simultaneously elicited shorter prison sentences (i.e., mitigating) and longer terms of involuntary hospitalization (i.e., aggravating) than equivalent psychological evidence. However, these effects were not well explained by motivations to restore treatable defendants to health or to protect society from dangerous persons but instead by deontological motivations pertaining to the defendant's level of deservingness and possible obligation to provide medical care. This is the first study of its kind to quantitatively demonstrate the paradoxical effect of neuroscientific trial evidence and raises implications for how such evidence is presented and evaluated., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

This study investigated the effect of cost-benefit salience on simulated criminal punishment judgments. In two vignette-based survey experiments, we sought to identify how the salience of decision costs influences laypeople's punishment judgments. In both experiments (N 1  = 109; N 2  = 398), undergraduate participants made sentencing judgments with and without explicit information about the direct, material costs of incarceration. Using a within-subjects design, Experiment 1 revealed that increasing the salience of incarceration costs mitigated punishments. However, when costs were not made salient, punishments were no lower than those made when the costs were externalized (i.e., paid by a third party). Experiment 2 showed the same pattern using a between-subjects design. We conclude that, when laypeople formulate sentencing attitudes without exposure to the costs of the punishment, they are prone to discount those costs, behaving as if punishment is societally cost-free. However, when cost information is salient, they utilize it, suggesting the operation of a genuine, albeit labile, punishment preference. We discuss the implications of these findings for psychological theories of decision making and for sentencing policy, including the degree of transparency about the relevant costs of incarceration during the decision process., (© 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

Age is one of the best predictors of antisocial behavior. Risk models of recidivism often combine chronological age with demographic, social and psychological features to aid in judicial decision-making. Here we use independent component analyses (ICA) and machine learning techniques to demonstrate the utility of using brain-based measures of cerebral aging to predict recidivism. First, we developed a brain-age model that predicts chronological age based on structural MRI data from incarcerated males ( n  = 1332). We then test the model's ability to predict recidivism in a new sample of offenders with longitudinal outcome data ( n  = 93). Consistent with hypotheses, inclusion of brain-age measures of the inferior frontal cortex and anterior-medial temporal lobes (i.e., amygdala) improved prediction models when compared with models using chronological age; and models that combined psychological, behavioral, and neuroimaging measures provided the most robust prediction of recidivism. These results verify the utility of brain measures in predicting future behavior, and suggest that brain-based data may more precisely account for important variation when compared with traditional proxy measures such as chronological age. This work also identifies new brain systems that contribute to recidivism which has clinical implications for treatment development.

Rearrest has been predicted by hemodynamic activity in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) during error-processing (Aharoni et al., 2013). Here, we evaluate the predictive power after adding an additional imaging modality in a subsample of 45 incarcerated males from Aharoni et al. (2013). Event-related potentials (ERPs) and hemodynamic activity were collected during a Go/NoGo response inhibition task. Neural measures of error-processing were obtained from the ACC and two ERP components, the error-related negativity (ERN/Ne) and the error positivity (Pe). Measures from the Pe and ACC differentiated individuals who were and were not subsequently rearrested. Cox regression, logistic regression, and support vector machine (SVM) neuroprediction models were calculated. Each of these models proved successful in predicting rearrest and SVM provided the strongest results. Multimodal neuroprediction SVM models with out of sample cross-validating accurately predicted rearrest (83.33%). Offenders with increased Pe amplitude and decreased ACC activation, suggesting abnormal error-processing, were at greatest risk of rearrest.

This article reviews the scientific literature on the epidemiology, prevention, and treatment of problematic Internet use (PIU) with the goal of informing Air Force policies aimed at mitigating PIU's negative impact on operations and the mental health of Airmen. The study is motivated by a recent RAND study estimating that 6 percent of Airmen have PIU. Individuals with PIU, similar to people with substance addictions, suffer from excessive and compulsive online activities, symptoms of tolerance and withdrawal, and functional impairment. PIU is also strongly associated with other mental health problems including major depression. However, at present there is no single accepted definition of PIU, and no up-to-date estimates of the prevalence of PIU in the general U.S. population are available. A range of prevention and treatment approaches have been developed, but none has been rigorously tested in clinical trials. Prevention programs rely on workplace Internet policies and strategies to help individuals self-regulate their Internet use. Treatment approaches that have proven feasible and acceptable to patients with PIU include adaptations of cognitive-behavioral therapy, an evidence-based treatment for depression and anxiety, to the specific symptoms of PIU. Based on our findings, we recommend: (1) increasing awareness of PIU among organizational leadership and mental health professionals, (2) incorporating content related to PIU into existing trainings related to mental health, (3) providing support for self-regulation of Internet use on the job by incorporating PIU management principles into Internet use policies, and (4) continuing monitoring of the emerging scientific literature on PIU.

We report a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study of 102 healthy participants who completed a demanding Go/NoGo task. The primary purpose of this study was to delineate the neural systems underlying responses to errors in a large sample. We identified a number of regions engaged during error processing including the anterior cingulate, left lateral prefrontal areas and bilateral inferior frontal gyrus, and the subthalamic nucleus. The power afforded by the large cohort enabled identification of regions not consistently measured during Go/NoGo tasks thus helping to incrementally refine our understanding of the neural correlates of error processing. With the present fMRI results, in combination with our previous exploration of response inhibition (Steele et al.), we outline a comprehensive set of regions associated with both response inhibition and error processing., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Issues of publication bias, lack of replicability, and false discovery have long plagued the genetics community. Proper utilization of public and shared data resources presents an opportunity to ameliorate these problems. We present an approach to public database management that we term Quality Preserving Database (QPD). It enables perpetual use of the database for testing statistical hypotheses while controlling false discovery and avoiding publication bias on the one hand, and maintaining testing power on the other hand. We demonstrate it on a use case of a replication server for GWAS findings, underlining its practical utility. We argue that a shift to using QPD in managing current and future biological databases will significantly enhance the community's ability to make efficient and statistically sound use of the available data resources., (© 2014 WILEY PERIODICALS, INC.)

A recently published study by the present authors reported evidence that functional changes in the anterior cingulate cortex within a sample of 96 criminal offenders who were engaged in a Go/No-Go impulse control task significantly predicted their rearrest following release from prison. In an extended analysis, we use discrimination and calibration techniques to test the accuracy of these predictions relative to more traditional models and their ability to generalize to new observations in both full and reduced models. Modest to strong discrimination and calibration accuracy were found, providing additional support for the utility of neurobiological measures in predicting rearrest.

We report a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study of healthy adult participants who completed a demanding Go/NoGo task. The primary purpose of this study was to delineate the neural systems underlying successful and unsuccessful response inhibition using a large sample (N=102). We identified a number of regions uniquely engaged during successful response inhibition, including a fronto-parietal network involving the anterior cingulate, supplementary motor areas, lateral and inferior prefrontal regions, and the inferior parietal lobule. Unique hemodynamic activity was also noted in the amygdala and in frontostriatal regions including the inferior frontal gyrus and portions of the basal ganglia. Also, contrasts were defined to explore three variants of hemodynamic response allowing for more specificity in identifying the underlying cognitive mechanisms of response inhibition. Addressing issues raised by prior small sample studies, we identified a stable set of regions involved in successful response inhibition. The present results help to incrementally refine the specificity of the neural correlates of response inhibition., (Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Identification of factors that predict recurrent antisocial behavior is integral to the social sciences, criminal justice procedures, and the effective treatment of high-risk individuals. Here we show that error-related brain activity elicited during performance of an inhibitory task prospectively predicted subsequent rearrest among adult offenders within 4 y of release (N = 96). The odds that an offender with relatively low anterior cingulate activity would be rearrested were approximately double that of an offender with high activity in this region, holding constant other observed risk factors. These results suggest a potential neurocognitive biomarker for persistent antisocial behavior.

A prominent view of psychopathic moral reasoning suggests that psychopathic individuals cannot properly distinguish between moral wrongs and other types of wrongs. The present study evaluated this view by examining the extent to which 109 incarcerated offenders with varying degrees of psychopathy could distinguish between moral and conventional transgressions relative to each other and to nonincarcerated healthy controls. Using a modified version of the classic Moral/Conventional Transgressions task that uses a forced-choice format to minimize strategic responding, the present study found that total psychopathy score did not predict performance on the task. Task performance was explained by some individual subfacets of psychopathy and by other variables unrelated to psychopathy, such as IQ. The authors conclude that, contrary to earlier claims, insufficient data exist to infer that psychopathic individuals cannot know what is morally wrong.

The common scenario in computational biology in which a community of researchers conduct multiple statistical tests on one shared database gives rise to the multiple hypothesis testing problem. Conventional procedures for solving this problem control the probability of false discovery by sacrificing some of the power of the tests. We suggest a scheme for controlling false discovery without any power loss by adding new samples for each use of the database and charging the user with the expenses. The crux of the scheme is a carefully crafted pricing system that fairly prices different user requests based on their demands while keeping the probability of false discovery bounded. We demonstrate this idea in the context of HIV treatment research, where multiple researchers conduct tests on a repository of HIV samples.

The present study examined whether and in what ways psychopathy is associated with abnormal moral intuitions among criminal offenders. Using Haidt et al.'s Moral Foundations Questionnaire, 222 adult male offenders assessed for clinical psychopathy reported their degree of support for five moral domains: Harm Prevention, Fairness, Respect for Authority, Ingroup Loyalty, and Purity/Sanctity. As predicted, psychopathy total score explained a substantial proportion of the variance in reduced support for Harm Prevention and Fairness, but not the other domains. These results confirm that psychopathy entails a discrete set of moral abnormalities and suggest that these abnormalities could potentially help to explain the characteristic antisocial behavior of individuals with psychopathy.

Background: The extreme flexibility of the HIV type-1 (HIV-1) genome makes it challenging to build the ideal antiretroviral treatment regimen. Interpretation of HIV-1 genotypic drug resistance is evolving from rule-based systems guided by expert opinion to data-driven engines developed through machine learning methods., Methods: The aim of the study was to investigate linear and non-linear statistical learning models for classifying short-term virological outcome of antiretroviral treatment. To optimize the model, different feature selection methods were considered. Robust extra-sample error estimation and different loss functions were used to assess model performance. The results were compared with widely used rule-based genotypic interpretation systems (Stanford HIVdb, Rega and ANRS)., Results: A set of 3,143 treatment change episodes were extracted from the EuResist database. The dataset included patient demographics, treatment history and viral genotypes. A logistic regression model using high order interaction variables performed better than rule-based genotypic interpretation systems (accuracy 75.63% versus 71.74-73.89%, area under the receiver operating characteristic curve [AUC] 0.76 versus 0.68-0.70) and was equivalent to a random forest model (accuracy 76.16%, AUC 0.77). However, when rule-based genotypic interpretation systems were coupled with additional patient attributes, and the combination was provided as input to the logistic regression model, the performance increased significantly, becoming comparable to the fully data-driven methods., Conclusions: Patient-derived supplementary features significantly improved the accuracy of the prediction of response to treatment, both with rule-based and data-driven interpretation systems. Fully data-driven models derived from large-scale data sources show promise as antiretroviral treatment decision support tools.

Motivation: Optimizing HIV therapies is crucial since the virus rapidly develops mutations to evade drug pressure. Recent studies have shown that genotypic information might not be sufficient for the design of therapies and that other clinical and demographical factors may play a role in therapy failure. This study is designed to assess the improvement in prediction achieved when such information is taken into account. We use these factors to generate a prediction engine using a variety of machine learning methods and to determine which clinical conditions are most misleading in terms of predicting the outcome of a therapy., Results: Three different machine learning techniques were used: generative-discriminative method, regression with derived evolutionary features, and regression with a mixture of effects. All three methods had similar performances with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.77. A set of three similar engines limited to genotypic information only achieved an AUC of 0.75. A straightforward combination of the three engines consistently improves the prediction, with significantly better prediction when the full set of features is employed. The combined engine improves on predictions obtained from an online state-of-the-art resistance interpretation system. Moreover, engines tend to disagree more on the outcome of failure therapies than regarding successful ones. Careful analysis of the differences between the engines revealed those mutations and drugs most closely associated with uncertainty of the therapy outcome., Availability: The combined prediction engine will be available from July 2008, see http://engine.euresist.org.

Can neurological evidence help courts assess criminal responsibility? To answer this question, we must first specify legal criteria for criminal responsibility and then ask how neurological findings can be used to determine whether particular defendants meet those criteria. Cognitive neuroscience may speak to at least two familiar conditions of criminal responsibility: intention and sanity. Functional neuroimaging studies in motor planning, awareness of actions, agency, social contract reasoning, and theory of mind, among others, have recently targeted a small assortment of brain networks thought to be instrumental in such determinations. Advances in each of these areas bring specificity to the problems underlying the application of neuroscience to criminal law.

When deciding a criminal's punishment, people typically exhibit both retributive and consequentialist motives in their decision making, though retribution's role may be stronger. This study aimed to discern possible functions of retribution by examining a population predicted to be deficient in retributive drive. Participants who rated either high or low in psychopathic traits read stories about a homicide. These stories were designed to evoke both retribution and the consequentialist motive of behavior control by varying, respectively, criminal intent and likelihood of recidivism. The participants then recommended a length of confinement for the offender. Individuals high in psychopathic traits were uniquely insensitive to retributive cues, and they were particularly consequentialist in their punishment of criminal offenders. These results clarify aspects of psychopathic aggression and corroborate the hypothesis that retribution may stabilize cooperative behavior., (Copyright (c) 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)