Free Expression and a Satisfied Society: What Child Pornography Laws Really Protect

Motion pictures portray childhood sexuality by pushing the elusive and controversial line between free expression and exploitation. While child pornography laws protect real children as subjects in overtly sexually exploitative motion pictures (kiddy porn), in practice, due to issues of interpretation, application, and accessibility, free expression in mainstream motion pictures is supported more fully than child protection. Recent Supreme and Circuit Court decisions allow the motion picture industry to more freely portray childhood sexuality without fear of expression becoming illegal. Thus, as our social history illustrates, the societal awareness of the sexuality of children is all the more satisfied. Legally through what it consumes and where it places its implicit and explicit interests, society supports the sexualization of children. Concomitantly, filmmakers respond with motion pictures that feed society’s desires and push, if not exceed, the bounds of legitimate free expression. The perverse and unintended consequence is that crimes against children continue because child protection efforts forever languish in this history

Christian Education and Constructivism: Learning through the Adult Sunday School Class

Religious education has been the foundation of the Christian church. Sunday school has been an integral part of the teachings in the Christian church. However, little research exists, which examines adults’ learning in Sunday school classes. In this paper, we use the constructivist learning theory as a framework to examine learning experiences of adults in Sunday school

New Local, National and Regional Cereal Price Indices for Improved Identification of Food Insecurity

Large price increases over a short time period can be indicative of a deteriorating food security situation. Food price indices developed by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) are used to monitor food price trends at a global level, but largely reflect supply and demand conditions in export markets. However, reporting by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)'s Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) indicates that staple cereal prices in many markets of the developing world, especially in surplus-producing areas, often have a delayed and variable response to international export market price trends. Here we present new price indices compiled for improved food security monitoring and assessment, and specifically for monitoring conditions of food access across diverse food insecure regions. We found that cereal price indices constructed using market prices within a food insecure region showed significant differences from the international cereals price, and had a variable price dispersion across markets within each marketshed. Using satellite-derived remote sensing information that estimates local production and the FAO Cereals Index as predictors, we were able to forecast movements of the local or national price indices in the remote, arid and semi-arid countries of the 38 countries examined. This work supports the need for improved decision-making about targeted aid and humanitarian relief, by providing earlier early warning of food security crises

In vivo evaluation of pathogenicity and transmissibility of influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 hemagglutinin receptor binding domain 222 intrahost variants isolated from a single immunocompromised patient

AbstractThe influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 virus has circulated worldwide and continued to cause complicated infections and deaths. Reports have identified an increased prevalence of the hemagglutinin receptor binding domain D222G mutation in viruses isolated from individuals who have suffered such severe infections, but this association is still unclear. Virus isolated from a nasopharyngeal wash of a severely ill immunocompromised patient at the time of diagnosis contained the D222, but isolates collected later in his course from a bronchoalveolar lavage contained primarily the G222 mutation and was mixed with a minor population of D222. These clinical isolates were compared to a G222 plaque purified virus in the ferret model. The G222 predominant clinical isolate was the most pathogenic in ferrets and developed the most diversity at the 222 amino acid position during infection, suggesting that increased diversity and not a specific polymorphism at HA 222 may be important in predicting pathogenic potential

Minutes 1876

https://place.asburyseminary.edu/freemethodistminutesyearbooks/1014/thumbnail.jp

CCAAT/enhancer binding proteins α and β regulate the tumor necrosis factor receptor 1 gene promoter

CCAAT/enhancer binding protein (C/EBP) transcription factors play essential roles in regulating an array of cellular processes, including differentiation, energy metabolism, and inflammation. In this report we demonstrate that both C/EBPα and C/EBPβ activate the promoter driving transcription of the tumor necrosis factor receptor 1 (TNFR1). TNFR1 is the major receptor for tumor necrosis factor (TNF), a critical cytokine mediator of the inflammatory response. Although the TNFR1 protein has been shown to be regulated through post-translational modifications, very little is known about the transcriptional regulation of the TNFR1 gene. Here we have identified a specific C/EBP binding site within the TNFR1 promoter, and shown that this site is required for both C/EBPα and C/EBPβ activation of the promoter in reporter gene assays. Furthermore, we show that both C/EBPα and C/EBPβ are bound to the TNFR1 promoter in cells using chromatin immunoprecipitation assays. Finally, we demonstrate that reducing the level of C/EBPα and C/EBPβ expression in cells using siRNA technology leads to decreased expression of the TNFR1 protein. These results suggest that the C/EBPα and C/EBPβ transcription factors enhance expression of the TNFR1 protein in cells. Given that TNF and C/EBPβ are known to activate each other's expression, C/EBPβ may greatly amplify the initial TNF signal through a positive auto-regulatory mechanism