Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma inhibits cell growth and negatively regulates DNA methyltransferase promoter activity in SK-N-AS neuroblastoma cells

Neuroblastoma is the most common extra-cranial childhood solid tumour which arises from embryonic neural crest cells that fail to undergo a differentiation programme to form mature sympathetic neurones. Most children with advanced stage neuroblastoma have a 5-year event free survival rate of only 20%. However, the spontaneous differentiation of some early stage neuroblastoma into non-malignant gangliomas has prompted the search for agents that can induce neuroblastoma differentiation. Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPAR?) is a member of the nuclear receptor superfamily of ligand-dependent transcription factors which play a major role in adipocyte differentiation and exhibits anticancer activity against a range of tumour cells in vitro. High levels of PPAR? have been shown to be associated with differentiated neuroblastoma and low levels of PPAR? with poorly differentiated tumours. Therefore, the aim of this project is to investigate whether PPAR? acts as a tumour suppressor gene in neuroblastoma. Our research shows that overexpression of PPAR? in the human neuroblastoma cell line SK-N-AS cells inhibited cell growth but had no effect on cell viability or the degree of differentiation, suggesting that PPAR? may modulate cell cycle progression in SK-N-AS neuroblastoma cells. Additionally, we show that PPAR? strongly represses the DNMT1 promoter activity. This suggests that PPAR? may in addition to regulating the cell cycle also modulate epigenetic processes within the cell

An Exploration of the Experience of Interaction between the Police and Juvenile Offenders in Taiwan

By developing Foucault’s concepts of power, this paper aims to explore the interaction experience between Taiwanese police and juvenile offenders from a critical perspective. From macro analysis of social discourse to micro daily practice, the study objectives are to examine whether the police act as a mechanism of discourse formation for juvenile offenders, to articulate how the strategies and techniques are enforced or strengthened and to scrutinise how juveniles are disciplined and resisted. The findings reveal that the dual-oppositional discourses are constructed by defining juveniles as either ‘normal’ or ‘deviant’. Through the discipline and inspection techniques used by police, juveniles are forced to fit the image of the ‘normal juvenile’. To maintain a sense of their autonomous self, juveniles choose to resist these stereotypes. The struggle contributes to the criminal discourse reproduction, pushing juveniles into categories of criminal offenders. It is hoped that this paper can offer a framework for analysing and discussing policy in criminology and criminal justice

Determinants of Systemic Risk and Information Dissemination

We introduce a measure of information dissemination for the determination of systemic risk, print-media consumer pessimism, controlling for VIX volatility. VIX volatility has a significant direct impact upon systemic risk of financial firms under distress, and consumer pessimism does impact upon firm\u27s financial stress via the externality of other firm\u27s financial stress. In the internet bubble of the 1990s, pessimism predicts larger systemic risk in the whole period of exuberance while the VIX predicts a sharp larger systemic risk in the height of the bubble. Our evidence suggests that consumer pessimism might be dominated by the VIX when predicting systemic risk

Emisi Pencemaran Udara Dari Biomass Open Burning Pada Lahan Gambut Di Indonesia Menggunakan Data Gis Dan Citra Modis

Biomass open burning melepaskan sejumlah besar polutan yang menyebabkan terganggunya komponen kimia di atmosfer. Fenomena ini juga merupakan salah satu penyebab utama dalam Perubahan iklim. Asia tenggara merupakan region yang memiliki wilayah agrikultur yang luas sehingga memiliki potensi untuk terbakar secara terbuka dan berkontribusi menyumbang emisi pencemaran udara yang sangat besar. Pencitraan satelit dan remote sensing digunakan dalam penelitian ini untuk menghitung area terbakar dan besarnya emisi yang dihasilkan dalam konteks spasial di wilayah Asia Tenggara. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk mendapatkan seberapa besar pengaruh emisi yang dihasilkan oleh kebakaran lahan gambut di Indonesia terhadap besarnya emisi yang dihasilkan dari terbakarnya biomass secara tebuka di Asia Tenggara. Kebakaran agrikultur pada lahan gambut di Indonesia menghasilkan emisi pencemaran udara dalam jumlah yang besar sehingga kasus ini diambil menjadi topik spesifik pada penelitian ini. Data produk dari MODIS burned area dan land cover digunakan untuk mendeteksi area terbakar dan memperkirakan faktor emisi di Asia Tenggara yang digunakan dalam perhitungan emisi. Pada hasil penelitian ini, tahun 2001-2007, bulan Mei sampai Oktober, Indonesia berkontribusi sekitar 80% dari total keseluruhan total area terbakar di Asia tenggara. Data dan hasil dari penelitian ini bisa digunakan untuk pertimbangan pembuatan kebijakan di wilayah Asia Tenggara

Liquid crystals in woodpile photonic crystals : fabrication, numerical calculation and measurement

Both experimental and numerical studies on Liquid Crystal (LC) infiltrated woodpile Photonic Crystal (PhC) are implemented in this thesis. The most well-known optical phenomenon of PhC is photonic bandgap (PBG). It is observed either in frequency or in spatial domain. The former means for a chromatic plane wave propagating though PhC that a range of frequencies do not transmit but reflect. The later means for a monochromatic focused beam passing though PhC that certain angular components do not transmit but deflect or reflect. The most well-investigated optical phenomenon of LC is birefringence. It is due to the strong dielectric anisotropy LC possesses. When the applied stimulations (e.g. electric/ optical field or external heater) are present, the orientation of LC molecules and different refractive indices (e.g. polarization or temperature dependent) are observed. The presence of LC inside PhC not only reduces index contrast (where angular BG appears) but also brings the tunability to such LC-PhC composite device. Therefore band-stop angular filter and sensitive refractometer for liquid material are potential applications controlled by multiple external stimulations. In this thesis, the related physical properties of PhCs and LCs are introduced beforehand. The fabrication of woodpile PhC is also demonstrated. Direct Laser Writing lithography technique is adopted to build microstructures with high resolution up to hundreds of nanometers. A tunable band-stop filter controlled by polarization and temperature is investigated in linear regime. To bridge our investigation to nonlinear regime, dye-doped LC is used to create graded indices inside LC medium corresponding to intensity. Numerical calculations are conducted to the experimental observations. To sum up, LC-PhC composite device possesses very promising features as demonstrated which could be applied into tunable elements in integrated optical systems and its abundant nonlinear properties remains to be explored carefully.Ambos estudios experimentales y numéricos en cristal líquido (LC) pila de leña infiltrado de cristal fotónico (PhC) se implementan en esta tesis.El fenómeno óptico más conocido de la PhC es la banda prohibida fotónica (PBG). Se observa ya sea en la frecuencia o en el dominio espacial. Los antiguos medios para una onda que se propaga plano cromática aunque PhC que un rango de frecuencias no transmiten sino que reflejan. El medio más tarde para un paso haz enfocado monocromática aunque PhC que ciertos componentes angulares no transmiten, pero desvían o reflejan.El fenómeno óptico más bien investigado de LC es la birrefringencia. Es debido a la anisotropía dieléctrica fuerte LC posee. Cuando los estímulos aplicados (por ejemplo campo óptico / eléctrico o calentador externo) están presentes, se observa la orientación de las moléculas de cristal líquido y los diferentes índices de refracción (por ejemplo, polarización o dependientes de la temperatura). La presencia de LC en el interior PhC no sólo reduce el contraste de índice (donde aparece angular BG), pero también trae consigo la capacidad de ajuste a dicho dispositivo compuesto LC-PhC. Por lo tanto banda eliminada del filtro angular y refractómetro sensible para material líquido son posibles aplicaciones controladas por múltiples estímulos externos. En esta tesis, las propiedades físicas relacionadas de PhC y las LC se introducen de antemano. La fabricación de pila de leña PhC se demuestra. Escritura técnica de litografía láser directa se adopta para construir microestructuras con alta resolución de hasta cientos de nanómetros. Un filtro elimina banda sintonizable controlado por la polarización y la temperatura se investiga en régimen lineal. Para salvar nuestra investigación con el régimen no lineal, LC tinte dopado se utiliza para crear índices graduadas dentro de medio LC correspondiente a la intensidad. cálculos numéricos se llevan a cabo con las observaciones experimentales.Para resumir, dispositivo compuesto LC en la PhC posee características muy prometedoras como se ha demostrado que se pueden aplicar en elementos sintonizables en sistemas ópticos integrados y sus propiedades no lineales abundantes que queda por explorar con cuidado

Developing Efficient Algorithms of Decoding the Systematic Quadratic Residue Code with Lookup Tables

The lookup table methods for decoding binary systematic Quadratic Residue (QR) code are presented in this paper. The key ideas behind this decoding technique are based on one to one corresponding mapping between the syndromes and the correctable error patterns. Such algorithms determine the error locations directly by lookup tables without the operations of addition and multiplication over a finite field. Moreover, the methods to dramatically reduce the memory requirement by shift-search decoding are utilized. Two new algorithm have been verified through a software simulation in C language. The new approach is modular, regular and naturally suitable for System on Chip (SOC) software implementation