Neurotechnology to reduce recidivism: Ethical and legal challenges.

Crime comes with enormous costs, not only financial but also in terms of loss of mental and physical health and, in some cases, even loss of life. Recidivism is responsible for a considerable percentage of the crimes, and therefore, society deems reducing recidivism a priority. To reduce recidivism, several types of interventions can be used, such as education and employment-focused rehabilitation programs which are intended to improve psychological and social factors.

SARS-CoV-2 breakthrough infections after COVID-19 vaccination in patients with inflammatory bowel disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) have an attenuated serologic response to COVID-19 vaccination. It is unclear whether an impaired immune response in vaccinated IBD patients impacts the susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection and occurrence of severe COVID-19.

Objectives: To evaluate SARS-CoV-2 breakthrough infection rates and the disease course of COVID-19 in vaccinated IBD patients.

'A difficult conversation': community stakeholders' and key informants' perceptions of the barriers to talking about sex and HIV with adolescents and young people in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

Adolescence and young adulthood are important periods of transition and therefore for action and intervention to ensure future sexual and reproductive health (SRH). Caregiver-adolescent communication about sex and sexuality is a protective factor for SRH, but there are often barriers to this. Adults' perspectives are limited within the literature but important as they should lead this process.

Searching for Gravitational Waves from Cosmological Phase Transitions with the NANOGrav 12.5-Year Dataset.

We search for a first-order phase transition gravitational wave signal in 45 pulsars from the NANOGrav 12.5-year dataset. We find that the data can be modeled in terms of a strong first order phase transition taking place at temperatures below the electroweak scale.

Asymmetric mass ratios for bright double neutron-star mergers.

The discovery of a radioactively powered kilonova associated with the binary neutron-star merger GW170817 remains the only confirmed electromagnetic counterpart to a gravitational-wave event. Observations of the late-time electromagnetic emission, however, do not agree with the expectations from standard neutron-star merger models. Although the large measured ejecta mass could be explained by a progenitor system that is asymmetric in terms of the stellar component masses (that is, with a mass ratio q of 0.

Refining Interventions Through Formative Research: A Focus on Ethical Considerations in a Family-Based Home-Based Counseling and Testing (FBCT) Intervention in KwaZulu-Natal.

Conducting formative research is a scientific, ethical, and community engagement imperative. This article describes how formative research refined ethical processes for a family-based home-based counseling and testing (FBCT) intervention in KwaZulu-Natal. In-depth interviews were conducted to explore community ( = 20) and key stakeholders' ( = 20) needs, concerns, and perspectives on the FBCT model, including ethical issues for working with children and families.

Sensorized, Flat, Pneumatic Artificial Muscle Embedded with Biomimetic Microfluidic Sensors for Proprioceptive Feedback.

In recent years, soft components, such as pneumatic artificial muscles (PAMs), have been increasingly employed to design safer wearable devices. Despite the inherent compliance of the materials used to fabricate PAMs, the actuators are able to produce relatively large forces and work when compared to their weight. However, effective operation of these systems has traditionally required bulky external force and position sensors, which limit the maneuverability of users.

Design of a bio-inspired pneumatic artificial muscle with self-contained sensing.

Pneumatic artificial muscles (PAMs) are one of the most famous linear actuators in bio-inspired robotics. They can generate relatively high linear force considering their form factors and weights. Furthermore, PAMs are inexpensive compared with traditional electromagnetic actuators (e.

Autologous bone-marrow mononuclear cell implantation in patients with severe lower limb ischaemia: a comparison of using blood cell separator and Ficoll density gradient centrifugation.

Different studies have provided evidence that implantation of bone-marrow mononuclear cells (BM-MNC) into ischaemic limbs can improve tissue vascularization. Based on these results we performed a pilot study in patients with critical lower limb ischaemia to assess efficacy and safety of implantation of autologous BM-MNC. The amount and efficacy of BM-MNC purified either by an automated method or by a manual procedure were compared.