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The dataset describes the mechanism of suppressing the background noise of the divided-aperture differential confocal Raman microscopy system and the range of tilting angles that the system can handle. On the basis of the confocal microscopy (CM), the divided-aperture confocal microscopy divided the pupil plane of the objective lens into the illumination pupil and collection pupil. Compared with the CM, the divided-aperture confocal microscopy only changes the pupil parameters, according to the partially coherent imaging theory, we simulate and analyze the axial response curves of the divided-aperture confocal system and the traditional confocal system. We also simulated the differential confocal response curve at different tilting angles and get the data for the applicability of the differential confocal response curve to see if there is a single zero-crossing point or a good linearity near the zero-crossing point. The goodness-of-fit (GOF) is used to evaluate the accuracy of linear fitting, and can be used as a simple measure method of linearity. And the closer the GOF value is to 1, the higher fitting accuracy is. Through simulation analysis, we can have a better understanding of the advances of divided-aperture differential confocal Raman microscopy.

Confocal Raman microscopy (CRM) is extensively employed in several fields owing to providing molecular fingerprint information without destroying and labelling samples. Most materials are heterogeneous; therefore, it is important to not only identify the chemical composition of samples, but also acquire high-precision surface topographic information. However, conventional CRM cannot accurately obtain the surface topographies of samples, which restricts the further application. We propose divided-aperture differential confocal Raman microscopy (DADCRM), which combines divided-aperture differential confocal microscopy with CRM. We use the reflected light to achieve accurate focus tracking, which is combined with Raman scattering to perform high-precision surface topographic imaging and Raman mapping simultaneously. The axial focusing ability of the proposed DADCRM system is estimated at 2 nm, which provides inherent anti-drift capability. The abilities of DADCRM to suppress background noise interference and improve stability are also demonstrated. We present in-situ Raman mapping and high-precision surface topographic imaging using DADCRM. These results provide new perspectives for both conventional CRM and CRM-based imaging in various fields.

Based on a rare survey of criminal justice practitioners from one large coastal province in China, this study provides an application of Bourdieusian sociology of juridical practice in Chinese criminal courts. We test whether and how criminal trial outcomes can be predicted by using variables measuring various forms of Bourdieusian capital. We found that measurements based on self-reported efficacy of legal representation practices during the pretrial and trail stages (as activated judicial capital), more so than those indicating respondents’ personal and professional statuses (either inherited or acquired capital), yield greater and more consistent impact on the trial outcomes. Implications for future theory, methodology and Chinese rule of law reform are discussed.

Criminological study on China and in China is not new. The development of Chinese criminology since the beginning of the 20th century has been well noted in the scholarly literature (e.g., [4, 11, 29]). This special issue is an attempt to showcase scholarships that explore the new frontier in criminological research in China. The contributors of this special issue are mostly Chinese diaspora a group of U.S. trained criminologists, who took their training to practice by collecting first-hand data on the ground in China or analyzing existing data with a fresh eye for comparative insights.

The study intends to explain the convergence of the UCR and NCVS data series (1973–2008). Hypothesized explanatory variables include increased police productivity, change in people’s attitudes toward crime and the police, demographic changes, changes in the measurements used in data collections, and the advancement of telecommunication tools. The time series models with relevant predictor variables are estimated to explain the convergence of the two crime data series in five different crime categories. The results show that an increase in the total number of employees in the police, changes in measurements, especially the methodological changes adopted in the victimization survey in 1992, and changing attitudes toward crime and the police affect the relationship between the two crime data series and may have helped the convergence of the two. We argue that (1) the convergence of the two crime data series is not a mere convergence of methodological inadequacies resulting from the declining quality of the victimization survey and (2) all the predictor variables only partially affect the convergence of the two crime data series. Methodological limitations of this study are also addressed.

The survival of most patients with both unresectable hepatic and pulmonary metastases of colorectal cancer is poor. In this retrospective study, we investigated the efficacy of computed tomography (CT)-guided radiofrequency ablation (RFA) and systemic chemotherapy plus hepatic artery infusion of floxuridine (HAI-FUDR). Sixty-one patients were selected from 1,136 patients with pulmonary and hepatic metastases from colorectal cancer. Patients were treated with RFA and systemic chemotherapy plus HAI-FUDR (ablation group, n = 39) or systemic chemotherapy plus HAI-FUDR (FUDR group, n = 22). Patients in the two groups were matched by sex, age, number of metastases, and calendar year of RFA or FUDR. Survival data were evaluated by using univariate and multivariate analyses. Clinical characteristics were comparable between the two groups. All patients in the ablation group underwent RFA and chemotherapy. Median follow-up was 56.8 months. The 1-, 3-, and 5-year overall survival (OS) rates were 97%, 64%, and 37%, respectively, for the ablation group, and 82%, 32%, and 19%, respectively, for the FUDR group. The 1-, 3-, and 5-year survival rates after metastasis were 97%, 49%, and 26% for the ablation group, and 72%, 24%, and 24% for the FUDR group, respectively. The median OS times were 45 and 25 months for the ablation and FUDR groups, respectively. In the multivariate analysis, treatment allocation was a favorable independent prognostic factor for OS (P = 0.001) and survival after metastasis (P = 0.009). These data suggest that the addition of RFA to systemic chemotherapy plus HAI-FUDR improves the survival of patients with both unresectable hepatic and pulmonary metastases from colorectal cancer.

This study evaluated the clinical efficacy of autologous cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cell transfusion in combination with transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) and radiofrequency ablation (RFA), compared to sequential therapy with TACE and RFA, for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We retrospectively studied 2 groups of HCC patients: 85 patients in the TACE+RFA+CIK group were treated with adoptive autologous CIK cell transfusion in combination with minimally invasive therapy, 89 patients in the TACE+RFA group were treated with minimally invasive therapy alone. The overall response rate was 76.5% in the TACE+RFA+CIK group and 79.8% in the TACE+RFA group. The disease control rate was higher in the TACE+RFA+CIK group than that in the TACE+RFA group (95.3% vs. 88.8%), but the difference was not significant (P=0.113). Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that the patients in the TACE+RFA+CIK group had significantly longer overall survival (56 vs. 31 mo, P=0.001) and progression-free survival (17 vs. 10 mo, P=0.001) than those in the TACE+RFA group. No severe side effects occurred in the CIK cell transfusion patients. In conclusion, CIK cell immunotherapy may be a valuable therapeutic strategy to prevent recurrence and metastasis in HCC patients after TACE and RFA, and to improve patient prognosis and quality of life. Combined CIK immunotherapy and minimally invasive therapies represent a safe, potential treatment modality for HCC. However, because patient assignment to the 2 treatments was not randomized, any conclusions concerning improvements in survival must be interpreted with great caution.

Inter-study discrepancies in the length of available time series, definition of convergence, rate calculation adjustment, and application of statistical techniques have contributed to confusions in understanding the relationship between the uniform crime reports (UCR) and the national crime victimization survey (NCVS). This study tests and compares the outcomes of UCR–NCVS crime rate convergence in a 36-year time series (1973-2008) using multiple definitions and an assortment of methods. With adjusted crime rates, our graphic analysis shows strong evidence of convergence between the two series in all crime categories. High correlation coefficients (.80+) are obtained in Robbery, Burglary and MV Theft categories using nondetrended data and the full 36-year time series. Split-series correlation analyses based on 18 equal-sized (half) series yield not only very high coefficients (.90+) in the more recent split-series but also a clear pattern in support of the UCR–NCVS convergence (as “correlated rates”) conc...

The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the technical efficacy and survival following CT-guided radiofrequency ablation (RFA) of liver metastases (LM) from nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and to determine prognostic factors.Between 2000 and 2008, 376 patients with LM from NPC were identified. Of these 17 patients with 31 LM from NPC underwent CT-guided percutaneous RFA. We assessed the technical effectiveness, complications and prognostic value of LM characteristics including timing (synchronous versus metachronous), number, size, presence of extra hepatic metastases and treatment regimen. Survival rates were calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method.Technical success was achieved in 30/31 metastases (96.7%). The median overall survival was 16.5 months from the time of diagnosis of LM for all the 376 NPC patients with LM, and 48.1 months for the 17 NPC patients with LM who received RFA treatment. Of the 376 patients, 111 had 1-3 LM who did not receive RFA treatment, with a median survival of 25.9 months compared to 48.1 months for the 14 patients with 1-3 LM who received RFA.CT-guided RFA of LM from NPC can be performed with a high degree of technical effectiveness and offers the promise of improved survival in selected patients.

This study focused on the reasons why adolescents bring guns to schools. It is argued that the etiology for carrying other weapons to school is not the same as that for carrying a gun to school for protection. Data from a nationally representative sample of school youth were analyzed with an appropriate analytic technique multinomial logistic regression in dealing with nominal dependent variable. The results supported the hypotheses that both correlates and correlational strengths of carrying guns and other weapons to school for protection are different. Such factors as others' drug use, gangs at school, skipping school, perception, and age influence the probability of carrying other weapons to school, but are not related to carrying a gun to school. The three factors that relate to both carrying a gun and other weapons to schools are physical fights, peers' carrying guns, and gender. Their correlational strengths, however, are quite different.

This article examines the relevance of a number of factors presumed to be associated with the employment of female police officers in U.S. municipal law enforcement agencies. Female officer representation is investigated with respect to three primary race/ethnic groups in mind: Caucasians, African Americans, and Hispanics. This study utilizespanel data collected during the period from 1993 to 2000 on a representative sample of police departments serving populations of 25,000+ residents distributed across the United States. A noteworthy increase in the number of female officers did occur during the decade of the 1990s, and both internal departmental and external environmental influences on the hiring of female police officers were investigated. The major finding observed is that different sets of external and internal features have an influence on the hiring of women officers in each race/ethnic group.

In research on policing, James Q. Wilson was among the first scholars to suggest that local political culture constitutes a significant factor in explaining variation among law enforcement agency practices. Almost forty years after the publication of Varieties of Police Behavior, a classic study of police organizational behavior, Wilson's monograph remains the basis of a widely held theory used to explain variation in police agency behaviors. More specifically, Wilson (1968) identified three distinctive styles of policing: the legalistic, the watchman, and the service styles. In his empirical work with these styles of policing, Wilson argued that local political culture was the major determinant of variation in policing styles. The purpose of this study was to retest the validity of Wilson's argument in today's policing environment. Using panel data collected among police agencies across the U.S. surveyed in 1993, 1996, and 2000, the authors found that there was little evidence to support the application of Wilson's theory to the practices of contemporary police organizations.

Gottfredson and Hirschi claimed, as part of their general theory of crime, that a child’s criminal propensity, what they called level of self-control, is fairly fixed by age 10. Low self-control children, they further claimed, exhibit greater proclivities for delinquency and analogous behaviors than children with high levels of self-control. They see self-control levels for children at both ends of the spectrum—and their propensities for crime and analogous behaviors—as immutable over the life course. The authors explore the self-control levels, self-reported illegal behavior, and supporting attitudes exhibited by a panel of youths from in six cities at five points in time. Some of our findings substantiated Gottfredson and Hirschi’s claims (e.g., claims linking self-control, sex, and race or ethnicity); however, other findings are at odds with their theory (e.g., the unchanging nature of self-control). The authors review the implications of these findings for self-control theory.

The interactive effects of race and gender in a multi-dimensional assessment of police occupational stress were examined in this study. The sample from a large urban police department was divided into four subgroups: White males, African-American males, White females, and African-American females. Comparisons were carried out to assess group differences in three major domains of stress process: stressors, coping mechanisms, and multiple psychological manifestations of stress. Specific attentions were paid to observe any similar or dissimilar interactive effects of race and gender on the stress process. The results showed that dynamic factors such as measures of work environment and coping mechanisms contributed more in explaining police stress than static factors such as race and gender. Additionally, destructive coping and work-family conflict (spillover) were the most stable correlates of police stress across all subgroups included in the analysis. The impacts of negative exposure and camaraderie on police stress were conditional on the subgroup statuses. Limitations and implications of the study are discussed.

Using panel data collected on a representative sample of police departments serving populations of 25,000+ residents across the country in 1993, 1996, and 2000 (N=281), fixed-effect panel models were used to assess the influence of environmental and institutional variables on the hiring of African American and Latino officers. The primary findings were that the presence of a substantial minority population was among the most important predictors of minority officer employment in city police departments. The presence of a Latino mayor and the presence of an African American or a Latino police chief were also significantly associated with increased minority police officer employment. Additionally, no evidence was found to suggest a detrimental impact caused by different minority groups competing with each other for limited police employment resources. Implications for future research are discussed in some detail.

This article examines changes in organizational priorities related to the three core functions of American policing—crime control, the maintenance of order, and the provision of services—during the era of community-oriented policing (COP). The change in priorities is analyzed using panel data from three national surveys of more than 200 municipal police departments conducted in 1993, 1996, and 2000. The primary finding is that police core-function priorities remained largely unchanged during this period. However, the systematic implementation of COP programs reflects an all-out effort to address all three core functions of policing at a higher level of achievement.

This research examines the utility of the stream analogy of lethal violence. Based on frustration/aggression thesis and attribution thesis, expanded integrated models of total lethal violence and the suicide-homicide ratio are proposed. Using updated cross-national data, the results of regression analysis indicate that income inequality and economic development remain to be the predictors for the direction of lethal violence expressed as suicide, as the stream analogy predicts, after the divorce rate and unemployment rate are controlled for. The authors’ data also reveal that the divorce rate greatly increases the total amount of violence but does not influence the percentage of lethal violence that is expressed as suicide over homicide.

This study explores the impact of work environment, work‐family conflict, and coping mechanisms on physical and psychological stresses of police officers. Using survey data from a large police department located in the New England area, we pay specific attention to analyzing similar and dissimilar results while comparing across gender groups. Our research indicates that for both gender groups, work‐family conflict (spillover) and destructive coping mechanisms are among the strongest and most consistent stressors, regardless of the measures of dependent variable employed (i.e. somatization, anxiety and depression). On the other hand, we also find divergent impact of exposures to negative work environment, camaraderie, and constructive coping mechanisms on different measures of work related stresses across the two gender groups. Implications of these convergent and divergent effects are discussed.

Research on police officer stress has focused primarily on the rather atypical nature of police work and extent of adherence by law enforcement agencies across the nation to the Weberian bureaucratic form of organization and management practices. This study explores the effect of individual perceptions of work environment on male officer stress. Survey data from two large police departments in the northwestern United States are used in the analysis. The findings observed suggest that the levels of five dimensions of workplace stress are similar to adult males in the U.S. workforce and that an individual's perceptions of their work environment do have a significant impact on police officer stress.

The local foundations of law enforcement, public schools, and numerous types of special purpose governments are intended to ensure a close relationship between prevailing community values and policy preferences. Community policing is one of such attempts to promote police and resident partnership in reducing local social disorder and crimes. This article makes use of Rokeach's theory of human values and his survey instrument and analytical methodology to assess the degree to which the values and ideological perspectives of police officers differ from those of the citizens they serve in a typical medium-sized city (about 170 000 population) in the Western region of the United States. The results reported here indicate that there is a substantial difference in value orientations and in ideological perspectives between police officers and citizens in this city. The implications of these findings are discussed with respect to the successful implementation of community policing.

The recent explosion in gang research has highlighted the importance of consistent definitions for gang affiliation and gang-related crime. Definitional questions have assumed greater significance in the wake of broad-ranging prevention and intervention strategies. In this article, the authors utilize a sample of approximately 6,000 middle-school students to examine the youth gang phenomenon using five increasingly restrictive membership definitions. The least restrictive definition includes all youth who claim gang membership at some point in time. The most restrictive definition includes only those youth who are current core gang members who indicate that their gang has some degree of organizational structure and whose members are involved in illegal activities. The authors examine the differentially defined gang and nongang youths on various demographic characteristics, theretical factors, and levels of self-reported crime. The authors also address the theoretical and policy implications of shifting definitions of gang membership.

Knowledge about police officers' job satisfaction to date has been limited to empirical inquiry based on individual officers' educational level, ethnicity, gender, and rank/years of service. This study explores the effect of the agency work environment on officers' job satisfaction in addition to the usual demographic variables. Until now, the police work environment primarily has been viewed in a pejorative context, synonymous with workers' stress, job burnout, cynicism, and alienation. Analysis of survey data from a medium-sized police department in the northwestern United States suggests that a police agency's work environment is a principal source of job satisfaction, regardless of the measure of the dependent variable employed.

This paper examines the value orientation of American police officers in a major municipal police department. Relying primarily on survey data, the aim of this paper is to utilize Milton Rokeach’s theory of human values to investigate the following three issues: What are the value orientations of police officers today? Have such value orientations among police officers changed over time? Is there a consensus on values among officers? The primary findings of this paper strongly suggest that value orientations among American police officers have remained relatively stable over recent decades. Moreover, there is a high degree of consensus on value priorities among police officers across years of service, level of education and gender.

The primary focus of this article is a critical examination of Chinese crime statistics. The problems related to the production as well as the comparative use of Chinese national crime statistics are tackled by means of an organizing framework that includes macro-level characteristics of Chinese society, factors that affect the quality and quantity of Chinese crime statistics, and specific problems related to the comparative use of Chinese crime statistics. It is argued that Chinese crime statistics are suspect as a measure of criminal misconduct, more so than in Western countries, but that they nevertheless can be quite useful when applied as a measure of organizational processes reflecting social control.

This chapter provides nuanced observations of selected provisions of the Chinese Criminal Law and their practical interpretations. A two-prong approach is adopted to illustrate how the government is coping with the dilemma of maintaining legitimacy of the legal system on the one hand while adhering to the increasingly confused and challenged orthodox socialist legality on the other. The remainder of the chapter contains examples of the actual application of the recently installed Chinese Sentencing Guidelines and observations of the Basic People’s courts in operation.

A Chinese court case dossier reveals much about the routine criminal justice practice with the associated organizational structure and power dimensions.

This chapter attempts to shed lights on the millennial bureaucratic tradition of magistrate’s court, the indigenous notion of justice and the conduct of imperial criminal trials. Law in ancient China is developed completely free of Western influences (Jones 2003). In the long history of imperial China from 221 BC to 1911 AD, the public image of law is mostly that of penal law and fearful sanctions. There is almost no exception that threat of physical punishment is attached to any normal criminal trial. Legitimized judicial torture is a permanent feature in reality as well as in the literary and dramatic depiction of Chinese imperial criminal trials. On the one hand, torture can be used indiscriminately to those entangled in a criminal case—the petitioners, the accused, and the witnesses.

This chapter traces the general chronological sequence of China’s rule of man, rule by law, and rule of law experiences. The highlights of the discussion are the imperial China’s blended rule of man and rule by law traditions and the use of rule of law promotion as a nation-building instrument at multiple points of sociopolitical transition in Chinese modern history.

This chapter provides an empirical-based assessment of the prevailing public sentiment toward social problems, social harmony, and social control in China at the current time. It gauges the level of willingness and readiness of the Chinese public toward supporting rule of law. It also compares and contrasts China’s rule of law performance with that of the other countries.