Using Dynamic Risk to Enhance Conditional Release Decisions in Prisoners to Improve Their Outcomes.

Advances in criminal risk assessment have increased sufficiently that inclusion of valid risk measures to anchor assessments is considered a best practice in release decision-making and community supervision by many paroling authorities and probation agencies. This article highlights how decision accuracy at several key stages of the offender's release and supervision process could be further enhanced by the inclusion of dynamic factors. In cases where the timing of release is discretionary and not legislated, the utilization of a validated decision framework can improve transparency and potentially reduce decision errors.

Rehabilitation group coparticipants' risk levels are associated with offenders' treatment performance, treatment change, and recidivism.

Objective: Exposure to antisocial others within treatment group sessions may have negative impact. We extend prior research with adolescents by examining rehabilitation group composition among adult male incarcerated offenders.

Method: Data were gathered from institution files of rehabilitation completers (N = 1,832; M age = 33.

The leukotriene D4-receptor antagonist zafirlukast attenuates exercise-induced bronchoconstriction in children.

Objective: To determine the effects of zafirlukast on exercise-induced bronchoconstriction in children.

Study Design: Exercise challenges were done 4 hours after single oral doses of zafirlukast or placebo were administered in asthmatic children (6 to 14 years) treated with beta 2-agonists alone. Subjects randomized to treatment had a >/=20% decrease in forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1 ) after a screening challenge.

Zafirlukast improves asthma symptoms and quality of life in patients with moderate reversible airflow obstruction.

Background: Previous trials demonstrated the effectiveness of the leukotriene receptor antagonist zafirlukast in patients with mild-to-moderate asthma.

Objectives: We sought to assess the efficacy and safety of zafirlukast and its effect on patients' quality of life (QOL) during a 13-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter trial in adults and adolescents with moderate reversible airflow obstruction.

Methods: Patients (age range, 12 to 68 years) with total daytime asthma symptoms scores of 10 or greater over 7 consecutive days (maximum, 21/wk), FEV1 45% or greater but less than or equal to 80% of predicted value (>/=6 hours after beta2 -agonist), and reversible airway disease were randomized to 20 mg zafirlukast twice daily (nZ = 231) or placebo twice daily (nP = 223).

A single dose of zafirlukast reduces LTD4-induced bronchoconstriction in patients on maintenance inhaled corticosteroid therapy.

Background: Previous studies demonstrated that leukotriene receptor antagonists (LTRAs) are effective in reducing asthma symptoms and the airway response to inhaled leukotriene D4 (LTD4) in asthmatic patients receiving inhaled beta2-agonists alone.

Objective: To investigate the efficacy of a single 20-mg dose of the oral LTRA zafirlukast in reducing the airway response to inhaled LTD4 in mild-to-moderate asthmatic patients receiving inhaled beta2-agonists and inhaled corticosteroids (ICS).

Methods: In this double-blind, crossover trial, six patients on maintenance ICS (median dose 800 microg/day; range 336 to 1600 microg/day), who had a 20% decrease in FEV1 following inhalation of a maximal concentration of 50 microg/mL LTD4, received either zafirlukast or placebo on each of two study days.