Torture, Mistreatment, and Forced Confessions in Mexico’s Accusatorial Criminal Justice System

This article examines the impact of Mexico’s 2008 criminal justice reform on the practice of utilizing torture and mistreatment to extract criminal confessions. Complaint data submitted to the National Commission on Human Rights (Comisión Nacional de Derecho Humanos, CNDH) and detainee survey data compiled by the National Institute for Statistics and Geography (Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía, INEGI) were employed to assess if the use of torture and mistreatment by judicial sector operators had decreased (1) in states with advanced levels of reform implementation and (2) in judicial districts that had already implemented the reform. The author also examined the incidence of forced confessions before and after the reform’s implementation at the judicial district level. The author hypothesized that decreases in torture, mistreatment, and forced confessions would be observed in each of these cases. Basic correlation and regression tests were employed to assess the geographic hypothesis, while two chi-square tests for independence were used for judicial district data. The results of these analyses demonstrate evidence rejecting the null hypothesis in each instance, suggesting that the reform can indeed be credited for small but meaningful reductions in torture, mistreatment, and forced confessions in Mexico. The author argues that reforms must be accompanied by further action to address the pervasive use of torture and mistreatment in Mexico.

Predictive factors for refractory stage I and II anti-resorptive agent-related osteonecrosis of the jaw

Objectives We aimed to predict the possibility of patients with stage I and II anti-resorptive agent-related osteonecrosis of the jaw (ARONJ) developing resistance to our treatment protocol by evaluating their clinical and imaging factors. Materials and methods We enrolled 58 patients with ARONJ who underwent imaging modality. As objective variables, we considered the healing, stage-down, and stable stages as successful outcomes, and the stage-up stage as resistant-to-treatment. As explanatory variables, we investigated the clinical and imaging factors. Furthermore, we examined stage-down as an improvement outcome to compare with the stable and stage-up stages, which were considered as no-improvement outcomes. We conducted unpaired between-group comparisons on all explanatory variables using χ2 tests for independence. Results Among 58 patients, the treatment was successful in 53 (91.4%); however, the disease was resistant in five (8.6%). Among the clinical factors, the resistant patients had a longer duration of administration of bone-modifying agents (BMAs) (cut-off: 1251 days, p = 0.032, odds ratio = 11.2, 95% confidence interval 1.115–122.518). In addition, the target disease that was being treated bone metastasis of malignant tumor was the only significant refractory factor (p = 0.024, OR: 3.667 95% CI 1.159–11.603) Conclusions A combination of metabolic and morphological imaging modalities may be useful for oral surgeons to evaluate the disease activity and predict course of refractory ARONJ.

“TO ASSESS GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT IN BETA-THALASSEMIC CHILDREN BASED ON THEIR TRANSFUSION AND CHELATION THERAPY STATUS”

Introduction: β-thalassemia is one of the most common transfusion dependent genetic disorders with consequences of transfusions or chelation therapy especially effecting on growth and development of these patients. Aims and objectives: To assess growth and development in β-thalassemic children based on their transfusion and chelation therapy status. Methodology: The clinical and socio-demographic data was collected from the β-thalassemia (n=52) patients (2-15 years of age) included in the study using predesigned proforma. Data and blood reports relevant to the study were collected and analysis was done by SPSS software v 22.0 applying non- parametric Man-Whitney U Test, chi-square tests for independence of attributes. Results: Growth retardation is significantly more in beta-thalassemia major patients (45.95%) than minor forms of beta-thalassemia (13.33%). Patients without chelation therapy and those having transfusions ≤ once monthly were associated with growth retardation (p <0.05). A range of 5 -12% patients were having subnormal IQ and SQ whereas 41.2% were diagnosed as Suspects by DDST-II. Conclusion: A significant number of β-thalassemia major patients were having inadequate transfusion and chelation therapy which affect their growth and development variably compared to β-thalassemia minor patients.

The Impact of COVID-19 on Staff Working Practices in UK Horseracing

Due to COVID-19, horseracing was required to cease all activity in March 2020; however, little is known about the pandemic’s impact on staff working practices. This study investigated the impact of COVID-19 on staff working practices during the initial lockdown phases. An online survey about working conditions during lockdown was answered by 287 participants. Chi-squared tests for independence and binary logistic regression (BLR) analysis was undertaken. A total of 53.7% (n = 154) of staff were working during lockdown. Pandemic-specific workplace changes were reported as effective by 87.8% (n = 115) of staff. Flat grooms reported workplace changes as less effective (χ2 (52, n = 131) = 92.996, p < 0.001). A total of 67.2% (n = 193) of staff were positive about job security. Trainers and grooms were significantly less likely to report jobs as secure (χ2 (52, n = 287) = 75.653, p < 0.05). The findings suggest that most of the racing industry positively received changes made by their employers to tackle the pandemic, and for staff still working during lockdown, their health and safety was prioritised. Continued development of employee support structures to promote job security and workforce stability is advised, which will minimise the disruption of staff changes on the care and welfare of the horses.

Herding the Hordes: Using Location-Based Services and Mobile Messaging to Affect Visitor Behavior

This study investigates modes of moving visitors in a tourist location using a location-based service. Two field experiments were conducted at a zoo using real visitors as participants and behavior-based dependent variables. Experiment 1 included 2,618 visitors and investigated whether the amount of rewards, in the form of free spins on a wheel of fortune, would affect the choice to move to this wheel and claim the offered rewards. The choice of using this offer was used as a dependent variable. Experiment 2 included 970 visitors and investigated whether labelling participants with a fitting trait led them to move to a certain location. Geographical data using iBeacon logging was used as the dependent variable. Using chi-square tests for independence, we causally show that both the reward and the label had a positive and significant effect on moving the visitors to the targeted location.

Two Tests for Dependence (of Unknown Form) between Time Series

This paper proposes two new nonparametric tests for independence between time series. Both tests are based on symbolic analysis, specifically on symbolic correlation integral, in order to be robust to potential unknown nonlinearities. The first test is developed for a scenario in which each considered time series is independent and therefore the interest is to ascertain if two internally independent time series share a relationship of an unknown form. This is especially relevant as the test is nuisance parameter free, as proved in the paper. The second proposed statistic tests for independence among variables, allowing these time series to exhibit within-dependence. Monte Carlo experiments are conducted to show the empirical properties of the tests

Role of Travel Behaviour Characteristics in Selecting Wellness Services at Tourism Destination

The main plan of this manuscript was to explore the peculiarities between the three kinds of visitors: Spiritual retreat, Beauty spa and Health resort visitors with reverence to choosing tourism destination and their socio demographic, travel behaviour characteristics. Data was collected from as a division of a investigate on tourists’ activities on a part of vacationers visiting and also residing at least one night in tourist service offered places in India. Respondents are international tourists to India specifically to the wellness tourism destinations such as Kerala, Karnataka, Tamilnadu and Pondicherry who are drawn from the study population. They may have used services from the three types of services and must be an international visitor to India. As Chennai, Bangalore, Kottakal, & Auroville were the few places of wellness tourism from each of the destinations mentioned above which is a representative of the requisite population the samples were drawn from above mentioned places. Few chi square tests for independence were performed to check if there exists any significant difference among the three types of wellbeing visitors with reverence to their demographic and voyage behaviour distinctiveness. Noteworthy dissimilarities among three types were initiated from the facet of sample travel behaviour distinctiveness, socio demographic, visiting other tourism destinations. Index Terms: Wellness, Travel behaviour, India.