Morality is thought to underlie both ideological and punitive attitudes. In particular, moral foundations research suggests that group-oriented moral concerns promote a conservative orientation, ...while individual-oriented moral concerns promote a liberal orientation (Graham, Haidt, & Nosek, 2009). Drawing on classical sociological theory, we argue that endorsement of group-oriented moral concerns also elicits higher levels of punitiveness by promoting a view of crime as being perpetrated against society, while endorsement of individual-oriented moral concerns reduces punitiveness by directing attention toward the welfare of offenders as well as victims. Data from 2 independent samples (N = 1,464 and N = 1,025) showed that endorsement of group-oriented moral concerns was associated with more punitive and more conservative attitudes, while endorsement of individual-oriented moral concerns was associated with less punitive and less conservative attitudes. These results suggest that the association between conservatism and punitiveness is in part spurious because of their grounding in the moral foundations. Consequently, studies that do not take the moral foundations into account are at risk of overstating the relationship between conservatism and punitiveness.
Researchers of public mass shooters are increasingly focusing on the pre-attack behaviors and experiences of these offenders. Varying in scope from consideration of individual factors to more ...generalized life course and threat assessment analyses, their scholarship has identified behavioral and experiential factors associated with public mass shooters. However, what is generally missing from this body of research is consideration of the order in which the offender encounters these factors, and prior related research has shown that analyzing sequences allows for insights not available from a catalogue of common characteristics. To address this shortcoming, we use a sample of offenders from 1999 to 2020 for whom the most detailed data is available and conduct a sequence analysis of their stressors, antisocial behaviors, mental health issues, and planning and preparation activities. We calculate proximity coefficients for each variable in relation to all others, capturing both local and distant connections between and among them. Our findings reveal relatively coherent phases in the lives of attackers, highlight the centrality of family problems and interest in past mass killings in the overall sequence, and provide new context to understanding the effect of mental health issues and firearms acquisition in the lives of offenders. A discussion of findings illustrates potential intervention points that may have been overlooked, as well suggestions for future research.
Objectives
The public hold both punitive and pragmatic attitudes toward prison policy. Yet it is unclear whether the public supports compassionate efforts that do not directly relate to recidivism. ...This study explores the role of exclusionary symbolic aims (prioritizing non-prisoner groups), inclusionary symbolic aims (minimizing health risk for the vulnerable), and cost (taxes).
Methods
Using a quota-based national sample fielded in spring 2021 (N=1260), we embedded two experimental vignettes to assess support for vaccination priorities and personal protective equipment (PPE) for in-person visitation. We also examine respondent experiences (e.g., exposure to COVID-19, vaccine status, personal or vicarious arrest) and beliefs (e.g., political ideology, racial resentment, stigma).
Results
Consistent with dominant exclusionary symbolic aims, respondents showed strong preferences for non-prisoner groups in facilitating safe in-person visits (in long-term care facilities) and vaccine priorities (to prison guards). Inclusionary symbolic aims were less clear when examining risk from vaccine side effects or helping vulnerable populations (the elderly). High cost reduced support for compassionate policy.
Conclusions
Public support for policies aimed at maintaining the health of individuals who are incarcerated may be motivated by similar factors as punishment preferences.
Programmed death 1 ligand 1 (PD-L1) is an immune regulatory molecule that limits antitumor immune activity. Targeting of PD-L1 and other immune checkpoint proteins has shown therapeutic activity in ...various tumor types. The expression of PD-L1 and its correlation with response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer has not been studied extensively. Our goal was to assess PD-L1 expression in a cohort of breast cancer patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Pretreatment biopsies from 105 patients with breast cancer from Yale New Haven Hospital that subsequently received neoadjuvant chemotherapy were assessed for PD-L1 protein expression by automated quantitative analysis with a rabbit monoclonal antibody (E1L3N) to the cytoplasmic domain of PD-L1. In addition, tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) were assessed on hematoxylin and eosin slides. PD-L1 expression was observed in 30% of patients, and it was positively associated with hormone-receptor-negative and triple-negative status and high levels of TILs. Both TILs and PD-L1 measured in the epithelium or stroma predicted pathologic complete response (pCR) to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in univariate and multivariate analyses. However, because they are strongly associated, TILs and PD-L1 cannot both be included in a significant multivariate model. PD-L1 expression is prevalent in breast cancer, particularly hormone-receptor-negative and triple-negative patients, indicating a subset of patients that may benefit from immune therapy. Furthermore, PD-L1 and TILs correlate with pCR, and high PD-L1 predicts pCR in multivariate analysis.
Although competency-based medical education (CBME) has attracted renewed interest in recent years among educators and policy-makers in the health care professions, there is little agreement on many ...aspects of this paradigm. We convened a unique partnership - the International CBME Collaborators - to examine conceptual issues and current debates in CBME.
We engaged in a multi-stage group process and held a consensus conference with the aim of reviewing the scholarly literature of competency-based medical education, identifying controversies in need of clarification, proposing definitions and concepts that could be useful to educators across many jurisdictions, and exploring future directions for this approach to preparing health professionals.
In this paper, we describe the evolution of CBME from the outcomes movement in the 20th century to a renewed approach that, focused on accountability and curricular outcomes and organized around competencies, promotes greater learner-centredness and de-emphasizes time-based curricular design. In this paradigm, competence and related terms are redefined to emphasize their multi-dimensional, dynamic, developmental, and contextual nature. CBME therefore has significant implications for the planning of medical curricula and will have an important impact in reshaping the enterprise of medical education.
We elaborate on this emerging CBME approach and its related concepts, and invite medical educators everywhere to enter into further dialogue about the promise and the potential perils of competency-based medical curricula for the 21st century.
The influence of judges' personal moral values on their sentencing decisions is of longstanding interest to researchers and the public. Few studies, however, have examined this influence empirically. ...Using a unique data set that combines a survey of 81 criminal court judges with archival data on their 40,385 criminal sentences over a 2-year period, and drawing on Moral Foundations Theory, we hypothesize that judges with strong care and fairness intuitions will sentence defendants less severely while judges with strong loyalty, authority, and sanctity intuitions will sentence defendants more severely. We further hypothesize that these effects will be heightened when the defendant is from a racial minority group. Results show that sentencing outcomes are largely independent of judges’ moral intuitions, except that fairness intuitions tend to increase leniency, especially when the defendant is Black, and sanctity intuitions tend to decrease leniency. Implications for future research on sentencing are discussed.
This study applies moral foundations theory to capital juror decision making. We hypothesized that binding moral foundations would predict death qualification and punitive sentencing decisions, ...whereas individualizing moral foundations would be associated with juror disqualification and a leniency effect. Additionally, we considered whether moral foundations can explain differences in death penalty application between conservatives and liberals. Respondents from two independent samples participated in a mock-juror task in which the circumstances of a hypothetical defendant's case varied. Results revealed moral foundations were strong predictors of death qualification. The binding and individualizing foundations were related to sentencing decisions in the expected ways. Supporting our contention that moral foundations operate differently across different types of cases, heterogeneity in the effects of moral foundations was observed. Finally, we found support for the hypothesis that the relationship between sentencing decisions and conservatism would be attenuated by moral foundations.
Public stigma toward people with prison records hinders re-entry initiatives. Although it is widely discussed in corrections, its measurement has been study specific. Based on existing literature, we ...develop and test a multidimensional public stigma scale. We examine the factor structure and dimensionality of the scale using a Qualtrics Panel sample of U.S. adults (N = 1,216) and exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, which show that 17 of the 20 proposed scale items produce a four-factor structure, including danger/distrust, dehumanization, dispositional crime attributions, and social/emotional distance. We assess construct validity by testing the relationship between public stigma and theoretical antecedents and expected support for policy outcomes. Results show that public stigma is positively related to belief in evil and racial resentment and negatively related to personal and vicarious arrest experiences. It is also positively related to support for disenfranchisement and punitive policies and negatively related to support for rehabilitative policies.
AIMSSepsis is a life-threatening condition of organ dysfunction caused by dysregulated inflammation which predisposes patients to developing cardiovascular disease. The ketone β-hydroxybutyrate is ...reported to be cardioprotective in cardiovascular disease and this may be due to their signaling properties that contribute to reducing inflammation. While exogenous ketone esters (KE) increase blood ketone levels, it remains unknown whether KEs can reduce the enhanced inflammatory response and multi-organ dysfunction that is observed in sepsis. Thus, this study assesses whether a recently developed and clinically safe KE can effectively improve the inflammatory response and organ dysfunction in sepsis. METHODS AND RESULTSTo assess the anti-inflammatory effects of a KE, we utilized a model of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced sepsis in which an enhanced inflammatory response results in multi-organ dysfunction. Oral administration of KE for three days prior to LPS-injection significantly protected mice against the profound systemic inflammation compared to their vehicle-treated counterparts. In assessing organ dysfunction, KE protected mice from sepsis-induced cardiac dysfunction as well as renal dysfunction and fibrosis. Furthermore, KE administration attenuated the sepsis-induced inflammation in the heart, kidney, and liver. Moreover, these protective effects occurred independent of changes to enzymes involved in ketone metabolism. CONCLUSIONThese data show that the use of an exogenous KE attenuates the dysregulated systemic and organ inflammation as well as organ dysfunction in a model of severe inflammation. We postulate that this exogenous KE is an appealing and promising approach to capitalize on the protective anti-inflammatory effects of ketones in sepsis and/or other inflammatory responses.
Objective
We examine whether affective, verbal, and restitutive displays of remorse are associated with perceived offender immorality, as well as whether displays of remorse exert indirect effects on ...preferences for criminal sentencing via perceived offender immorality.
Method
Data are from an online survey, which included a sentencing vignette with experimental manipulations for offender remorse and items measuring sentencing preferences, perceived offender and offense immorality, and controls (
N
= 352). OLS regression and bias-corrected bootstrap confidence intervals were used to estimate direct and indirect effects. Replication analyses were conducted with two student samples (
N
= 103 and
N
= 131).
Results
Displays of remorse were associated with perceived offender immorality. Displays of remorse also exerted indirect effects on preferences for sentencing severity and support for particular sentencing goals (including incapacitation, rehabilitation, and restoration).
Conclusions
Affective, verbal, and restitutive displays of remorse may be associated with sentencing preferences via perceived offender immorality.
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