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Background: Worldwide, the United States has the highest incarceration rate per capita. Thousands of people are released from US correctional facilities each year, including many who are impacted by HIV infection and substance use disorder (SUD), two frequently comorbid conditions that present multiple challenges upon reentry. Reentry and care engagement research involving justice-involved people with HIV (PWH) with comorbid SUD has been largely limited to the perspective of those released. To formulate effective interventions for this population aimed at maintaining health and reducing recidivism, it is crucial to collect data from formerly incarcerated individuals with firsthand experience of the reentry process as well as other actors within the reentry framework. Insights from medical and legal service providers working in reentry systems have the potential to address key implementation concerns. To inform an intervention aimed at helping recently-released individuals PWH and SUD, we conducted a qualitative study to assess barriers and facilitators to community reentry from the perspectives of diverse consumers and providers of medical, legal, and reentry services. Results: Fifteen stakeholders within XXX County participated in in-person interviews. Results indicated that 1) Patients/clients emphasized psychosocial support and individual attitude more than medical and legal participants, who chiefly focused on logistical factors such as finances, housing, and transportation; 2) Patients/clients expressed both medical and legal needs during the reentry period, though medical providers and participants from legal entities mainly expressed concerns limited to their respective scopes of work; 3) All three participant groups underscored the need for a low-barrier, collaborative, patient-centered approach to reentry with the goal of achieving self-sufficiency. Conclusions: Findings support and extend existing literature detailing the barriers and facilitators to successful reentry. Our findings underscore the notion that an effective reentry intervention addresses both medical and legal needs, includes an individualized approach that incorporates psychosocial needs, and focuses on establishing self-sufficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aromia bungii is a serious pest of stone fruit trees including cherries, plums, peaches and apricots. It is native to eastern Asia but has recently been introduced into and has established in Japan, Germany and Italy and has been intercepted in cargo entering the USA and Great Britain. We synthesized the naturally produced enantiomer of the major pheromone component, (E)-2-cis-6,7-epoxynonenal, and in field tests, comparing its attractiveness to that of the racemate. We also tested different ratios of a minor pheromone component, (2E,6Z)-nona-2,6-dienal, on attraction to the major component. Lastly, we conducted a dose–response assay to determine the optimal loading rates. Addition of the minor component at a ratio of 0.31 mg minor to 25 mg major component is more than double the trap captures of males but not females. Using this ratio, we found no difference in trap captures with 10 mg, 32 mg or 100 mg of the major component, but the 10 mg load attracted significantly more females than the 3.2 mg load, and only the 32 mg load attracted significantly more males than the 3.2 mg load. The natural enantiomer was significantly more attractive to females than the racemate. However, the multi-step, low-yielding synthesis likely will prohibit the insect-produced enantiomer from being used for operational trapping. The addition of the minor component to the racemate significantly increased trap catches, and the dose–response assay did not indicate significant differences in loads above 10 mg of the racemic major component when formulated with ~ 1.2% of the minor component. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this viewpoint, case study analysis paper is to assist in understanding how history repeats itself in the case of insider trading, even with regulatory intervention. Design/methodology/approach – Qualitative methodology approach, using interviews of some of the watchdogs of Wall Street (SEC, US Attorney's Office) during the insider trading scandals of the 1980s. Key themes including ambiguity of money, regulation, and the networks of financial institution professionals are discussed. Findings – Findings suggest that regulation is difficult if nearly impossible, in the face of limited resources and regulatory ambiguity. Practical implications – This paper suggests a network approach to regulators, corporate decision makers, and academics in order to understand the structure of insider trading conspiracies. Originality/value – Continues the tradition of qualitative research in a niche of white-collar crime that is more often approached with strict statistic analysis. Value is that the data are allowed to "speak for themselves" and patterns of structure are allowed to emerge without prior biases of hypotheses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is rarely an introductory text in sociology that does not begin with C. Wright Mills’s (1967) distinction between personal troubles and structural or public issues. To lack sociological imagination is to confuse between these two levels of analysis in trying to explain public issues in terms of personal troubles, or history in terms of the individual’s biography. “Troubles occur within the character of the individual and within the range of his immediate relations with others; Issues have to do with matters that transcend these local environments of the individual and the range of his inner life” ( Mills, 1967:8 ). Issues are generated in response to the dynamics of the social system and unfold within the larger structural and historical contexts where the character of the individual takes shape. Yet, the most popular explanation of the contemporary financial crisis with its disastrous social and economic consequences is personal greed. It is the greedy investment bankers, corrupt politicians, and unscrupulous lobbyists who are to take the brunt of the current economic meltdown in the United States. A few bad apples on Wall Street have created havoc on Main Street. Here, one may argue that greed that—if not kept in check—which seems to afflict almost everyone, transcending social class and status boundaries, may be a public issue—a structural problem—rather than a problem within the character of the individual. Not to be greedy within the contemporary social and economic system may be considered pathological, an instance of personal trouble. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Two health status measures for adults with diabetes are compared in order to identify gender-based differences between norm-based scores for health status and self-rated health scores. Methods: Data were obtained from the 2001 and 2003 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey(MEPS). Diabetes was identified by self-report or ICD-9 code. Demographic and clinical (e.g., body mass index [BMI], comorbidities) parameters were included. Outcomes were norm-based measures of physical and mental health (SF-12 Physical and Mental Component Scores: SF-12 PCS and SF-12 MCS) and self-rated perception of health status. Sex-based differences in the three outcome measures, SF-12 PCS, SF-12 MCS, and self-rated health scores, were evaluated in univariate analyses and multivariate linear regression for survey data. Results: A cohort of 3640 respondents with diabetes was identified (2037 women, 1603 men). In unadjusted analyses, women were older than men (60.7 vs. 59.3 years, p < 0.001), reported higher mean BMI (31.1 vs. 30.4), more comorbidities, depression, and physical limitations (all p < 0.001), had poorer SF-12 MCS scores ( p = 0.01), and self-rated their health status significantly higher than did men ( p < 0.01). In adjusted analyses, female gender was associated with lower SF-12 MCS scores and higher self-rated health scores. No factors were positively associated with higher scores across all three measures; only cognitive limitations consistently predicted lower health status scores in all three measures. Conclusions: Among adults with diabetes in a nationally representative sample of the U.S. adult population, discrepancies exist in health status measures. Despite being older, having more comorbidities and physical limitations, and lower norm-based scores for mental functional status, women self-rate their own health status higher than do men. Further research into the gender-based determinants and clinical implications of self-rated health status is warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides a rationale for the argument that most future clinical pharmacy practitioners should be board-certified based on the guidelines of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP). The Joint Commission of Pharmacy Practitioners developed a consensus position on the future of pharmacy practice for 2015 which represents the opinion of multiple pharmacy organizations. ACCP defines clinical pharmacy practitioners as the individuals who practice pharmacy concerned on rational medication use.