Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Historicising Criminalisation: Conceptual and Empirical Issues

This paper charts a renaissance in scholarly analysis of criminalisation, and suggests that we do not have the conceptual tools or empirical knowledge to make the claims about `overcriminalisation' which motivate much of this scholarship. My argument gives further shape to projects under the umbrella of criminalisation, setting out some of the conceptual issues to be resolved before we can work towards an adequate interpretive, and normative, vision of how criminal law has been and might be used. The paper elaborates a number of projects in `criminalisation scholarship', and suggests there is a failure adequately to distinguish the different senses of `criminalisation' in the literature, or the varying methods which might be applied within historical, interpretive, analytic and normative studies of criminalisation. In conclusion, the paper argues for a certain genre of criminalisation scholarship, and for a multi-disciplinary criminalisation research agenda informed by history, sociology and political science as much as by law, criminology and philosophy.
CCAAT/Enhancer-Binding Protein γ Is a Critical Regulator of IL-1β-Induced IL-6 Production in Alveolar Epithelial Cells

CCAAT/enhancer binding protein γ (C/EBPγ) is a member of the C/EBP family of transcription factors, which lacks known activation domains. C/EBPγ was originally described as an inhibitor of C/EBP transactivation potential. However, previous study demonstrates that C/EBPγ augments the C/EBPβ stimulatory activity in lipopolysaccharide induction of IL-6 promoter in a B lymphoblast cell line. These data indicate a complexing functional role for C/EBPγ in regulating gene expression. Furthermore, the expression and function of C/EBPγ during inflammation are still largely unknown. In this study, we demonstrate that C/EBPγ activation was induced by IL-1β treatment in lung epithelial cells. Importantly, we demonstrate for the first time that C/EBPγ plays a critical role in regulating IL-1β-induced IL-6 expression in both mouse primary alveolar type II epithelial cells and a lung epithelial cell line, MLE12. We further provide the evidence that C/EBPγ inhibits IL-6 expression by inhibiting C/EBPβ but not NF-κB stimulatory activity in MLE12 cells. These findings suggest that C/EBPγ is a key transcription factor that regulates the IL-6 expression in alveolar epithelial cells, and may play an important regulatory role in lung inflammatory responses.
The Absorption of Phosphorus and Iron from Nutrient Solutions.

Two of the more popular solutions for experimental culture of plants show a striking yariation in the amounts of phosphorus used. Shive's socalled best solution, R5-C2 (4) contains 2.45 gm. per liter or 0.018 mols of KH2PO4, partly as a source of phosphorus, but more perhaps as an acid buffer tending to maintain the solution at pH 4.5-5.0. Hoagland's 1940 solution (2) on the other hand contains only 0.068 gm. per liter or 0.0005 mols of the same salt. The Shive solution thus contains 36 times as much phosphorus as the equally successful Hoagland solution. As a portion of a general study of ion balance in nutrient solutions we have compared the growth, color and phosphorus absorption of several plants in these mixtures and in two experimental solutions; the first ("X") somewhat resembling the Hoagland solution, but carrying more than half of its nitrogen as NH4NO3, and the second ("P") being a modification of Zinzadze's buffered solution (6) carrying a moderately high concentration of phosphorus as a colloidal precipitate of the tricalcium salt and with the nitrogen again added as NH4NO3. Methods
Identification of genes and pathways involved in retinal neovascularization by microarray analysis of two animal models of retinal angiogenesis.

PURPOSE Comparative retinal gene expression analysis in two rodent models of oxygen-induced retinopathy (OIR) was performed to identify the genes and pathways involved in retinal neovascularization. METHODS Three independent experimental runs were conducted for each species, according to standard protocols for induction of OIR. Total retinal RNA was isolated at two time points, corresponding to the early response to relative hypoxia (P13 in mouse, P15 in rat) and to the later phase of maximum retinal neovascularization (P18 in mouse, P20 in rat) and was used to prepare labeled probes for hybridization. Gene expression was compared between normal and experimental conditions for each species at each time point. Probesets with a false-discovery rate of <or=0.05 were considered significantly different and were classified as cellular functions or biological pathways. Changes in expression of selected genes were confirmed by quantitative rtPCR. RESULTS At the early time point, there were changes in 43 genes in each species, with two in common. Increased expression of members of the VEGF and ephrin receptor signaling pathways were identified in both models. At the later time point, there were changes in 26 genes in the rat and in 1622 in the mouse, with 13 in common. Four pathways were identified in both models. CONCLUSIONS Genes and pathways known to be involved in angiogenesis, as well as other biologically plausible genes and pathways, were identified. This work serves as a comprehensive resource for the study of retinal neovascularization and identification of potential rational targets for antiangiogenic therapy.
Lorentz factor distribution of blazars from the optical Fundamental plane of black hole activity

Blazar radiation is dominated by a relativistic jet which can be modeled at first approximation using just two intrinsic parameters - the Lorentz factor $\Gamma$ and the viewing angle $\theta$. Blazar jet observations are often beamed due to relativistic effects, complicating the understanding of these intrinsic properties. The most common way to estimate blazar Lorentz factors needs the estimation of apparent jet speeds and Doppler beaming factors. We present a new and independent method of constructing the blazar Lorentz factor distribution, using the optical fundamental plane of black hole activity. The optical fundamental plane is a plane stretched out by both the supermassive black holes and the X-ray binaries, in the 3D space provided by their [OIII] line luminosity, radio luminosity and black hole mass. We use the intrinsic radio luminosity obtained from the optical fundamental plane to constrain the boosting parameters of the VLBA Imaging and Polarimetry Survey (VIPS) blazar sample. We find a blazar bulk Lorentz factor distribution in the form of a power law as $N(\Gamma) \propto \Gamma^{-2.1 \pm 0.4}$ for the $\Gamma$ range of 1 to 40. We also discuss the viewing angle distribution of the blazars and the dependence of our results on the input parameters.
Optimizing Channel Access for Event-Driven Wireless Sensor Networks: Analysis and Enhancements

We study the problem of medium access control in domain of event-driven wireless sensor networks (WSNs). In this kind of WSN, sensor nodes send data to sink node only when an event occurs in the monitoring area. The nodes in this kind of WSNs encounter correlated traffic as a subset of nodes start sending data by sensing a common event simultaneously. We wish to rethink of medium access control (MAC) for this type of traffic characteristics. For WSNs, many existing MAC protocols utilize the basic CSMA/CA strategy such as IEEE 802.11 Binary Exponential Backoff (BEB) algorithm to handle the collisions among packets when more than one node need to access the channel. We show that this BEB algorithm does not work well without incurring access delay or performance degradation due to increased number of collisions and retransmissions when nodes encounter correlated traffic. Based on above observations in mind, We present a Adaptive Random Backoff (ARB) algorithm that is capable of mitigating the impact of correlated traffic and capable of minimizing the chance of collisions. ARB is based on minor modifications of BEB. We show using numerical analysis that our proposals improve the channel access in terms of latency, throughput, and frame dropping probability as compared with IEEE 802.11 DCF. Simulations using NS-2 network simulator are conducted to validate the analytical results.
IKAP/hELP1 down-regulation in neuroblastoma cells causes enhanced cell adhesion mediated by contactin overexpression

A splicing mutation in the IKBKAP gene encoding the IKAP/hELP1 (IKAP) protein was found to be the major cause of Familial Dysautonomia (FD). This mutation affects both the normal development and survival of sensory and sympathetic neurons of the peripheral nervous system (PNS). To understand the FD phenotype it is important to study the specific role played by IKAP in developing and mature PNS neurons. We used the neuroblastoma SHSY5Y cell line, originated from neural crest adrenal tumor, and simulated the FD phenotype by reducing IKAP expression with retroviral constructs. We observed that IKAP – down - regulated cells formed cell clusters compared to control cells under regular culture conditions. We examined the ability of these cells to differentiate into mature neurons in the presence of laminin, an essential extracellular matrix for developing PNS neurons. We found that the cells showed reduced attachment to laminin, morphological changes and increased cell-to-cell adhesion resulting in cell aggregates. We identified Contactin as the adhesion molecule responsible for this phenotype. We show that Contactin expression is related to IKAP expression, suggesting that IKAP regulates Contactin levels for appropriate cell-cell adhesion that could modulate neuronal growth of PNS neurons during development.
Investigations on large-scale lightly-supervised training for statistical machine translation.

Sentence-aligned bilingual texts are a crucial resource to build statistical machine translation (SMT) systems. In th is paper we propose to apply lightly-supervised training to produce additional parallel data. The idea is to translate larg e amounts of monolingual data (up to 275M words) with an SMT system, and to use those as additional training data. Results are reported for the translation from French into English. We consider two setups: first the intial SMT system is only trained with a very limited amount of human-produced translations, and then the case where we have more than 100 million words. In both conditions, lightly-supervised tra ining achieves significant improvements of the BLEU score.
Personal Epistemologies and Learning to Teach

Personal epistemologies, individuals' beliefs about the nature of knowledge and how one comes to know, can facilitate and constrain cognition, motivation, and learning (Pintrich, 2002). They are especially relevant in teacher education because preservice teachers will become responsible for the knowledge and knowing of others. This study investigated the question, How do preservice teachers approach their learning in a unified teacher education program? Through extensive interviews with 14 participants over the course of two semesters, the researchers gained insight into the preservice teachers' learning process and related epistemological beliefs. By understanding these beliefs, teacher educators may be able to improve instruction and learning in teacher education.
Image Disparity estimation Based on fractional Dual-Tree Complex Wavelet Transform: a Multi-Scale Approach

In this paper, an efficient multi-scale image disparity estimation algorithm is proposed which estimates the local displacements needed to align different regions between a pair of images. This phase-based approach is based on fractional dual-tree complex wavelet transform (FrDTCWT). In the proposed FrDTCWT, initially we obtained the fractional Fourier transform of the image. We decomposed the fractional transformed image by dual-tree complex wavelet transform into real and imaginary parts. The complex analytic signal is obtained from the real-valued function which is obtained from this FrDTCWT. The FRDTCWT inherits the excellent mathematical properties of DTCWT and FrFT. Phase and amplitude of the image are computed from the complex analytic signal. The disparity is estimated as the optical flow using the phase difference method. The efficiency of the proposed algorithm is carried out by different experiments on synthetic as well as on realistic image sequences.
DURATION EFFECT FROM HUMAN CHORIONIC GONADOTROPHIN (hCG) INJECTION TO OOCYTE RETRIEVAL ON INTRACYTOPLASMIC SPERM INJECTION (ICSI) PERFORMANCE IN MICE

This study was conducted to compare the effect of duration from human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG) injection to oocyte retrieval (13-15 h or 16-18 h) on intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) performance in mice. The mice were superovulated with 5 IU of pregnant mare’s serum gonadotrophin (PMSG) and subsequently 5 IU of hCG 48 h later via intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection. The oocytes were retrieved 13-15 h or 16-18 h after hCG administration. The number of ovulated oocytes showing the first polar body (PB1; metaphase II indicating matured oocytes) were higher at 13- 15 h compared to 16-18 h post-hCG injection (P < 0.05). Only oocytes with the PB1 were used for ICSI. All cleavage rates following ICSI were shown to be higher in oocytes retrieved at 13-15 h post-hCG compared to 16-18 h post-hCG injection (P < 0.05). In conclusion, it is suggested that oocytes can be retrieved at 13-15 h post-hCG injection and longer duration may be detrimental for ICSI performance in mice. ABSTRAK Kajian ini telah dijalankan untuk membandingkan kesan tempoh suntikan dari human chorionic gonadotrophin (pos-hCG) ke perolehan oosit (13-15 jam atau 16-18 jam) ke atas prestasi suntikan sperma intrasitoplasma (ICSI) dalam mencit. Mencit telah disuperovulasi dengan 5 IU pregnant mare’s serum gonadotrophin (PMSG) dan kemudian dengan 5 IU hCG jarak 48 jam secara suntikan intraperitoneum (i.p.). Oosit dipungut 13-15 jam atau 16-18 jam selepas sunitkan hCG. Bilangan oosit terovulasi diperolehi yang menunjukkan jasad kutub pertama (PB; metafasa II menunjukkan oosit matang) adalah lebih tinggi pada tempoh 13-15 jam berbanding dengan 16-18 jam suntikan pos-hCG (P<0.05). Hanya oosit dengan PB1 digunakan untuk ICSI. Semua kadar pembelahan selepas ICSI telah ditunjukkan lebih tinggi pada tempoh 13-15 jam berbanding dengan suntikan 16-18 jam pos-hCG (P<0.05). Kesimpulannnya, adalah dicadangkan bahawa oosit boleh dipungut pada tempoh suntikan 13-15 jam pos-hCG dan tempoh yang lebih panjang mungkin memnjejaskan prestasi ICSI dalam mencit. (Keywords: Post-hCG, Oocyte post-maturity, Intracytoplsmic sperm injection, Mice)
Peptidomimetic Star Polymers for Targeting Biological Ion Channels

Four end-functionalized star polymers that could attenuate the flow of ionic currents across biological ion channels were first de novo designed computationally, then synthesized and tested experimentally on mammalian K+ channels. The 4-arm ethylene glycol conjugate star polymers with lysine or a tripeptide attached to the end of each arm were specifically designed to mimic the action of scorpion toxins on K+ channels. Molecular dynamics simulations showed that the lysine side chain of the polymers physically occludes the pore of Kv1.3, a target for immuno-suppression therapy. Two of the compounds tested were potent inhibitors of Kv1.3. The dissociation constants of these two compounds were computed to be 0.1 μM and 0.7 μM, respectively, within 3-fold to the values derived from subsequent experiments. These results demonstrate the power of computational methods in molecular design and the potential of star polymers as a new infinitely modifiable platform for ion channel drug discovery.
Polymerization shrinkage of dental composite resins

Abstract Aesthetic materials have always been a priority for the restoration of anterior teeth; increasingly, they have also gained prominence in the restoration of posterior teeth. This has been due to their advantages as an alternative to amalgam. Their drawbacks however, can include poor marginal adaptation, postoperative sensitivity and cuspal movement. These are particularly associated with the polymerization shrinkage accompanying the placement of composite resins. Consequently, a variety of methods have been used for determining the polymerization shrinkage. These range from dilatometer methods, specific gravity methods and deflecting disc systems to optical methods. In this work a unique method for the qualitative analysis of polymerization shrinkage was undertaken. This method utilized a miniature transducer and provided details of the shrinkage from within the material. The results indicated movement of material towards the initiating light, followed by a return movement away from it. The study was expanded to incorporate clinical aspects, whereby the composite resin was in direct contact with dental tissue, as in a restoration. Tests were performed with surfacetreated cavity moulds, as in restoration placement, and without surface treatment. Results indicated that the shrinkage was highly dependent upon the region under investigation, as well as on the state of the surface.
New Perspectives on Media Credibility Research

The mass media serves as an important forum in which journalists, public relations professionals, advertising practitioners, politicians, and issue advocates (as well as many others) try to educate, inform, pursue, and influence media audiences. The suc-cess or failure of such efforts can often depend on audiences’ overall perceptions of media credibility (Wanta & Hu, 1994). Scholarship has identified the concept of media credibility as a complex and mul-tidimensional construct (Berlo, Lemert, & Mertz, 1970). Research has typically focused on two main dimensions of media credibility: source credibility (Hovland, Janis, & Kelley, 1953; Sundar, 1998; Greer, 2003) and medium credibility (Gaziano, 1987; Kiousis, 2001; Newhagen & Nass, 1989). Source credibility research typically focuses on the characteristics of the message source (such as the speaker, the organiza-tion, or the news organization), whereas research on medium credibility focuses on the medium through which the message is delivered (for example, newspaper compared to television). Scholars of media credibility have pointed to the important influence of audience-based variables in their assessments of both source and medium credibility. These include, but are not limited to, variables such as age (Bucy, 2003), income (Ibelema & Powell, 2001), education (Mulder, 1981), gender (Robinson & Kohut, 1988), and race (Beaudoin & Thorson, 2005). The current issue of
Amphetamine augments vesicular dopamine release in the dorsal and ventral striatum through different mechanisms

Amphetamine has well‐established actions on pre‐synaptic dopamine signaling, such as inhibiting uptake and degradation, activating synthesis, depleting vesicular stores, and promoting dopamine‐transporter reversal and non‐exocytotic release. Recent in vivo studies have identified an additional mechanism: augmenting vesicular release. In this study, we investigated how amphetamine elicits this effect. Our hypothesis was that amphetamine enhances vesicular dopamine release in dorsal and ventral striata by differentially targeting dopamine synthesis and degradation. In urethane‐anesthetized rats, we employed voltammetry to monitor dopamine, electrical stimulation to deplete stores or assess vesicular release and uptake, and pharmacology to isolate degradation and synthesis. While amphetamine increased electrically evoked dopamine levels, inhibited uptake, and up‐regulated vesicular release in both striatal sub‐regions in controls, this psychostimulant elicited region‐specific effects on evoked levels and vesicular release but not uptake in drug treatments. Evoked levels better correlated with vesicular release compared with uptake, supporting enhanced vesicular release as an important amphetamine mechanism. Taken together, these results suggested that amphetamine enhances vesicular release in the dorsal striatum by activating dopamine synthesis and inhibiting dopamine degradation, but targeting an alternative mechanism in the ventral striatum. Region‐distinct activation of vesicular dopamine release highlights complex cellular actions of amphetamine and may have implications for its behavioral effects.
The Time Relevance of Social Capital

This article examines how the time relevance of social capital from social networks affects upward mobility. An analysis of survey data from 229 employees in a high-technology workplace shows that the effects of position-related networks (measured by network size and density) on promotion are affected by the temporal distribution of ties (measured by whether a tie was formed before or after an employee's positional change), while the effects of person-related networks are insensitive to temporal effects. The results support a necessary emphasis on the time-contingent value of social capital. I conclude with a discussion of the implications of the findings for organization theories and network theories.
Effects of Socioeconomic Status and Social Support on Well-being

Based on the theoretical analysis, with first-hand data collection and using multiple regression models, this study explored the relationship between social support, socioeconomic status and well-being. We draw on the following conclusions: (1) Family support and general support of others have positive influences on general well-being. And these influences largely remain constant for the sampled subjects regardless of their socioeconomic status. (2) One dimension of socioeconomic status (family annual income) has a positive influence on general well-being. But in consideration of the social support and interaction terms of socioeconomic status and social support, this influence is no longer significant.
A lesson on authentication protocol design

The purpose of this note is to describe a useful lesson we learned on authentication protocol design. In a recent article [9], we presented a simple authentication protocol to illustrate the concept of a trusted server. The protocol has a flaw, which was brought to our attention by Mart~n Abadi of DEC. In what follows, we first describe the protocol and its flaw, and how the flaw-was introduced in the process of deriving the protocol from its correct full information version. We then introduce a principle, called the Principle of Full Information, and explain how its use could have prevented the protocol flaw. We believe the Principle of Full Information is a useful authentication protocol design principle, and advocate its use. Lastly, we present several heuristics for simplifying full information protocols and illustrate their application to a mutual authentication protocol.
Learning leadership matters

School leadership has been shown to exert a positive but mostly indirect influence on school and student outcomes. Currently, there is great interest in how quality leadership preparation is related to leadership practice and improved teacher outcomes. The purpose of the study was to understand the moderating influence of leadership preparation on leadership practices and teachers’ job collaboration, leadership and satisfaction. The study features a non-experimental design that combined data from a US study of exemplary leadership preparation and a nationally representative sample of elementary school principals. The sample consists of 175 teachers whose principals were prepared in an exemplary leadership program and 589 teachers whose principals were traditionally prepared. Data were analyzed with structural equation techniques and results have shown that innovative leadership preparation exerts a statistically significant direct effect on principalship leadership practices and a significant indirect effect on teacher collaboration and satisfaction. The results provide important policy implications. Investments in leadership preparation influences leadership practices that yield more positive teacher work conditions, which are essential for improve student learning and as a result leadership preparation program design and improvement can play an important role in district reform and school improvement.