Conclusion: Popular Criminology Revisited

The concluding chapter discusses the significance of popular criminology, revisiting the key issues addressed in the different chapters of the book. It highlights the diversity of contemporary crime-and-deviance-related popular culture and provides an outlook for future research in the field

Choreography, controversy and child sex abuse: Theoretical reflections on a cultural criminological analysis of dance in a pop music video

This article was inspired by the controversy over claims of ‘pedophilia!!!!’ undertones and the ‘triggering’ of memories of childhood sexual abuse in some viewers by the dance performance featured in the music video for Sia’s ‘Elastic Heart’ (2015). The case is presented for acknowledging the hidden and/or overlooked presence of dance in social scientific theory and cultural studies and how these can enhance and advance cultural criminological research. Examples of how these insights have been used within other disciplinary frameworks to analyse and address child sex crime and sexual trauma are provided, and the argument is made that popular cultural texts such as dance in pop music videos should be regarded as significant in analysing and tracing public perceptions and epistemologies of crimes such as child sex abuse

Variation of the Fine-Structure Constant and Laser Cooling of Atomic Dysprosium

Radio-frequency electric-dipole transitions between nearly degenerate, opposite parity levels of atomic dysprosium (Dy) were monitored over an eight-month period to search for a variation in the fine-structure constant, $\alpha$. The data provide a rate of fractional temporal variation of $\alpha$ of $(-2.4\pm2.3)\times10^{-15}$ yr$^{-1}$ or a value of $(-7.8 \pm 5.9) \times 10^{-6}$ for $k_\alpha$, the variation coefficient for $\alpha$ in a changing gravitational potential. All results indicate the absence of significant variation at the present level of sensitivity. We also present initial results on laser cooling of an atomic beam of dysprosium.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, fixed typos in section 5, updated result

Investigation of the Gravitational Potential Dependence of the Fine-Structure Constant Using Atomic Dysprosium

Radio-frequency E1 transitions between nearly degenerate, opposite parity levels of atomic dysprosium were monitored over an eight month period to search for a variation in the fine-structure constant. During this time period, data were taken at different points in the gravitational potential of the Sun. The data are fitted to the variation in the gravitational potential yielding a value of $(-8.7 \pm 6.6) \times 10^{-6}$ for the fit parameter $k_\alpha$. This value gives the current best laboratory limit. In addition, our value of $k_{\alpha}$ combined with other experimental constraints is used to extract the first limits on k_e and k_q. These coefficients characterize the variation of m_e/m_p and m_q/m_p in a changing gravitational potential, where m_e, m_p, and m_q are electron, proton, and quark masses. The results are $k_e = (4.9 \pm 3.9) \times 10^{-5}$ and $k_q = (6.6 \pm 5.2) \times 10^{-5}$.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

Edging your bets: advantage play, gambling, crime and victimisation

Consumerism, industrial development and regulatory liberalisation have underpinned the ascendance of gambling to a mainstream consumption practice. In particular, the online gambling environment has been marketed as a site of ‘safe risks’ where citizens can engage in a multitude of different forms of aleatory consumption. This paper offers a virtual ethnography of an online ‘advantage play’ subculture. It demonstrates how advantage players have reinterpreted the online gambling landscape as an environment saturated with crime and victimisation. In this virtual world, advantage play is no longer simply an instrumental act concerned with profit accumulation to finance consumer desires. Rather, it acts as an opportunity for individuals to engage in a unique form of edgework, whereby the threat to one’s well-being is tested through an ability to avoid crime and victimisation. This paper demonstrates how mediated environments may act as sites for edgeworking and how the potential for victimisation can be something that is actively engaged with

Critical Ultrasonics Near the Superfluid Transition : Finite Size Effects

The suppression of order parameter fluctuations at the boundaries causes the ultrasonic attenuation near the superfluid transition to be lowered below the bulk value. We calculate explicitly the first deviation from the bulk value for temperatures above the lambda point. This deviation is significantly larger than for static quantities like the thermodynamic specific heat or other transport properties like the thermal conductivity. This makes ultrasonics a very effective probe for finite size effects.Comment: 10 pages (LaTeX), 1 figure (PostScript

Scaling of the superfluid density in high-temperature superconductors

A scaling relation \rho_s \simeq 35\sigma_{dc}T_c has been observed in the copper-oxide superconductors, where \rho_s is the strength of the superconducting condensate, T_c is the critical temperature, and \sigma_{dc} is the normal-state dc conductivity close to T_c. This scaling relation is examined within the context of a clean and dirty-limit BCS superconductor. These limits are well established for an isotropic BCS gap 2\Delta and a normal-state scattering rate 1/\tau; in the clean limit 1/\tau \ll 2\Delta, and in the dirty limit 1/\tau > 2\Delta. The dirty limit may also be defined operationally as the regime where \rho_s varies with 1/\tau. It is shown that the scaling relation \rho_s \propto \sigma_{dc}T_c is the hallmark of a BCS system in the dirty-limit. While the gap in the copper-oxide superconductors is considered to be d-wave with nodes and a gap maximum \Delta_0, if 1/\tau > 2\Delta_0 then the dirty-limit case is preserved. The scaling relation implies that the copper-oxide superconductors are likely to be in the dirty limit, and that as a result the energy scale associated with the formation of the condensate is scaling linearly with T_c. The a-b planes and the c axis also follow the same scaling relation. It is observed that the scaling behavior for the dirty limit and the Josephson effect (assuming a BCS formalism) are essentially identical, suggesting that in some regime these two effects may be viewed as equivalent. This raises the possibility that electronic inhomogeneities in the copper-oxygen planes may play an important role in the nature of the superconductivity in the copper-oxide materials.Comment: 8 pages with 5 figures and 1 tabl

Suppression of Raf-1 kinase activity and MAP kinase signalling by RKIP

Raf-1 phosphorylates and activates MEK-1, a kinase that activates the extracellular signal regulated kinases (ERK). This kinase cascade controls the proliferation and differentiation of different cell types. Here we describe a Raf-1-interacting protein, isolated using a yeast two-hybrid screen. This protein inhibits the phosphorylation and activation of MEK by Raf-1 and is designated RKIP (Raf kinase inhibitor protein). In vitro, RKIP binds to Raf-1, MEK and ERK, but not to Ras. RKIP co-immunoprecipitates with Raf-1 and MEK from cell lysates and colocalizes with Raf-1 when examined by confocal microscopy. RKIP is not a substrate for Raf-1 or MEK, but competitively disrupts the interaction between these kinases. RKIP overexpression interferes with the activation of MEK and ERK, induction of AP-1-dependent reporter genes and transformation elicited by an oncogenically activated Raf-1 kinase. Downregulation of endogenous RKIP by expression of antisense RNA or antibody microinjection induces the activation of MEK-, ERK- and AP-1-dependent transcription. RKIP represents a new class of protein-kinase-inhibitor protein that regulates the activity of the Raf/MEK/ERK modul

Unusual reticulin staining pattern in well-differentiated hepatocellular carcinoma

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Special stains, such as reticulin stain and CD34 immunostain, are very helpful in the diagnosis of well differentiated hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Most studies have shown that absent or decreased reticulin stain or an abnormal reticulin pattern with widened trabeculae is reliable for the diagnosis of well-differentiated HCC.</p> <p>Case report</p> <p>We report here two cases of well differentiated HCC with an unusual reticulin staining pattern. A strongly positive reticulin network was preserved within the tumor, which surrounded individual tumor cells in a monolayered trabecular pattern. At the same time, an increased CD34 stain was present in the tumor.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This unusual reticulin pattern represents part of the diverse reticulin staining patterns seen in HCC. Although this staining pattern is rare, it should be recognized when diagnosing well-differentiated HCC in small samples such as cellblock of fine needle aspiration or small core biopsies.</p