Patterns and Predictors of Reincarceration among Prisoners with Serious Mental Illness: A Cohort Study: Modèles et Prédicteurs de Réincarcération Chez les Prisonniers Souffrant de Maladie Mentale Grave : Une Étude de Cohorte

Background: A small proportion of people who have serious mental illness and rapid and frequent incarcerations account for a disproportionate amount of overall service use and cost. It is important to describe such individuals, so that services can respond more effectively. Methods: We investigated a cohort of 4,704 incarcerated men and women who were discharged from a correctional mental health service and followed for a median of 535 days. We investigated social, clinical, demographic, and offense characteristics as predictors of return to the service using Cox survival analyses. Secondly, we characterized individuals as high-frequency service users as those who had 3 or more incarcerations during a 1-year period and investigated their characteristics. Results: We found that a higher rate of return to custody was associated with schizophrenia spectrum/bipolar affective disorder (BPAD), personality disorder traits, crack cocaine and methamphetamine use, and unstable housing. Charges of theft/robbery and breach of probation were also positively associated, and sex assault was negatively associated with return to custody. Within a 1-year time period, we found 7.2% of individuals were high-frequency service users, which accounted for 19.5% of all reincarcerations. Conclusion: Identification of the characteristics of those with mental illness in custody, especially those who have high-frequency returns to custody, may provide opportunity to target resources more effectively. The primary targets of intervention would be to treat those with schizophrenia/BPAD and substance use problems, particularly those using stimulants, and addressing homelessness. This could reduce the problem of repeated criminalization of the mentally ill and reduce the overall incarceration rate.

EVALUATION OF LEVEL OF SERVICE (LOS) ON ROUTES OF SMART BUS IN KAJANG, SELANGOR

Level of service (LOS) is a method used for the development of transportation infrastructure designations based on a specific analysis. The concept of LOS lies on the importance of an assessment of roadway operational performance services for the improvement of bus service delivery. A high performance of bus service delivery could relatively influence the satisfaction level of its users. This study assesses the LOS of three main designated routes of SMART buses in Kajang Selangor (KJ01, KJ02, and KJ03). The SMART buses are free buses provided under a free transit programme which aims to encourage people to use public transportation. An on-board survey and inventory observation were employed to collect the data. Findings indicate that KJ01, KJ02, and KJ03 fall under the category of LOS D considering the attributes of service frequency, service hours, passenger load/thresholds, and speed of bus. The discovery may serve as a useful guidance for the development of a comprehensive plan for LOS to be coordinated in improving the service quality of bus transportation.

Along the London Overground: Transport Improvements, Gentrification, and Symbolic Ownership along London's Trendiest Line

Between 2008 and 2011, the dysfunctional North London line was improved and rebranded into a high–quality, high–frequency service: the London Overground. Great ambitions for regeneration came with this project: The improved line, running through deprived areas of East London, was expected to bring inward investment and to open access to new opportunities outside the borough to its residents. Seven years after the beginning of the improvement works, Hackney's Overground stations have emerged as hubs for London's trendy, symbolic economy, and the current commercial dynamism has been interpreted by many as indicative of widespread gentrification. Through census data analysis and 58 interviews with local shopkeepers and experts around four stations of the London Overground—Dalston, Hackney Central, Homerton, and Hackney Wick—this study shows that the emergence of a trendy retail scene should not be mistaken for inclusive regeneration. The North London Line improvements catalyzed gentrification both by capital and by collective action, and fostered gentrification in both direct and indirect ways. The expansion of the trendy retail scene, if left uncontrolled by policymakers, will lead to a symbolic displacement of longstanding residents, which will be added to their direct displacement through rising rents and exclusion from employment opportunities in the symbolic economy.

Limited-Stop High-Frequency Service Design: Reducing In-Vehicle Congestion

Limited-Stop (LS) bus services have recently proved to be essential for improving user welfare and reducing operators’ costs in many cities. The design of LS services has been mainly focused on increasing fleet efficiency and reducing the passengers’ travel time. In this work, we change the focus of LS service design towards the user’s comfort. Given a fixed-size fleet (fixed costs) and a fixed demand on a very high-frequency bus corridor, we propose an algorithm to minimize the peak load profile, combining the usual All-Stop (AS) and one additional LS service, finding the set of stops for the LS service and the fleet split. The strategy is proved in a set of statistically generated corridors, showing average capacity reductions > 20% at a cost of a marginal travel time increase. Analyzing the peak value in the load profile of all simulated corridors, the number of cases where the majority of users would find a seat on the bus increases from 15% to 53%, making the services much more attractive without increasing the costs.

About Timekeeping Activities at NTSC

The National Time Service Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has taken the charge of the national standard time and frequency service since early 1970s. The China National Standard Time, UTC(NTSC), is generated and kept at the Timekeeping Laboratory of NTSC. The research activities and the facilities of the lab are described in this paper. The accuracy of UTC-UTC(NTSC) and stability of independent local time scale TAI-TA(NTSC) realized are shown in this paper.