Community policing strategies need to take into account police and residents’ different perceptions of neighborhood crime.

Do police officers and residents have different perceptions of crime and cohesion in urban neighborhoods? In new research, Rachel E. Stein and Candace Griffith find resident observations of neighborhood measures are relatively consistent across three urban neighborhoods in a Midwestern city. Police perceptions of their relationship with residents and the close-knit structure of the community, however, are more positive in the primarily white neighborhood that has an active crime prevention program. The results suggest that what officers see on the “surface” of the neighborhood is driving overall perceptions, while underlying problems are secondary. Differences between resident and police perceptions can influence the success of crime prevention strategies employed in community policing

Our Side of the Fence: Investigating the New Nativism in the United States

This study examines the new nativism movement in the United States. Specifically I look at groups who have formed in Arizona to combat illegal crossings over the U.S.-Mexico border. The new nativism arises from the perceived inability of the government to secure the border from illegal crossing. I draw on community policing and vigilante literatures to determine whether these groups could be considered a neighborhood watch or vigilante group. Using a sequential mixed method design, I conduct semi-structured interviews and engage in participate observation in the Sonoran desert with the Arizona Border Defenders, to identify how these groups label their actions. In addition to the qualitative methods, I employ a survey to group members to gauge the commonality between their views and the general public. Having gained a limited sample, I use t-tests to determine a significant difference between their means and use descriptive statistics to bolster the explanations provided from the interviews and participant observations. These groups respond to the threat of undocumented immigrants and their potential harm to the U.S. society. Their response is neither wholly vigilante nor neighborhood watch. I discover two main types of members, the wholly vigilante and the hybrid identity. I provide a critical assessment of the views group members hold to determine three main categories; mistaken beliefs, exaggerated truths, and genuine concerns. I propose we look at these groups as important contributors to border security and to look past previous vigilante labels to expand our knowledge about these groups

Las Vegas metropolitan area social survey 2010 highlights

UNLV sociologists conducted the Las Vegas Metropolitan Area Social Survey (LVMASS) to identify the socio-spatial distribution of attitudes and attributes relevant to urban sustainability in the Las Vegas Valley. The project goal is to understand how Las Vegas residents think about urban sustainability issues across three dimensions: 1) natural environment; 2) community and quality of life; 3) economy

“At ‘Amen Meals’ It’s Me and God” Religion and Gender: A New Jewish Women’s Ritual

New ritual practices performed by Jewish women can serve as test cases for an examination of the phenomenon of the creation of religious rituals by women. These food-related rituals, which have been termed ‘‘amen meals’’ were developed in Israel beginning in the year 2000 and subsequently spread to Jewish women in Europe and the United States. This study employs a qualitative-ethnographic methodology grounded in participant-observation and in-depth interviews to describe these nonobligatory, extra-halakhic rituals. What makes these rituals stand out is the women’s sense that through these rituals they experience a direct con- nection to God and, thus, can change reality, i.e., bring about jobs, marriages, children, health, and salvation for friends and loved ones. The ‘‘amen’’ rituals also create an open, inclusive woman’s space imbued with strong spiritual–emotional energies that counter the women’s religious marginality. Finally, the purposes and functions of these rituals, including identity building and displays of cultural capital, are considered within a theoretical framework that views ‘‘doing gender’’ and ‘‘doing religion’’ as an integrated experience

Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors Enhance Cell Killing and Block Interferon-Beta Synthesis Elicited by Infection with an Oncolytic Parainfluenza Virus

Previous results have shown that infection with the cytoplasmic-replicating parainfluenza virus 5 mutant P/V-CPI- sensitizes cells to DNA damaging agents, resulting in the enhanced killing of airway cancer cells. Here, we have tested the hypothesis that histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors can also act with P/V-CPI- infection to enhance cancer cell killing. Using human small cell lung cancer and laryngeal cancer cell lines, 10 HDAC inhibitors were tested for their effect on viability of P/V-CPI- infected cells. HDAC inhibitors such as scriptaid enhanced caspase-3/7, -8 and -9 activity induced by P/V-CPI- and overall cell toxicity. Scriptaid-mediated enhanced killing was eliminated in lung cancer cells that were engineered to express a protein which sequesters double stranded RNA. Scriptaid also enhanced cancer cell killing by two other negative strand RNA viruses − the La Crosse virus and vesicular stomatitis virus. Scriptaid treatment enhanced the spread of the P/V-CPI- virus through a population of cancer cells, and suppressed interferon-beta induction through blocking phosphorylation and nuclear translocation of Interferon Regulatory Factor 3 (IRF-3). Taken together, these data support a role for combinations of a cytoplasmic-replicating RNA virus such as the P/V-CPI- mutant along with chemotherapeutic agents

Complement Inhibitors Vitronectin and Clusterin Are Recruited from Human Serum to the Surface of Coronavirus OC43-Infected Lung Cells through Antibody-Dependent Mechanisms

Little is known about the role of complement (C’) in infections with highly prevalent circulating human coronaviruses such as OC43, a group of viruses of major public health concern. Treatment of OC43-infected human lung cells with human serum resulted in C3 deposition on their surfaces and generation of C5a, indicating robust C’ activation. Real-time cell viability assays showed that in vitro C’-mediated lysis of OC43 infected cells requires C3, C5 and C6 but not C7, and was substantially delayed as compared to rapid C’-mediated killing of parainfluenza virus type 5 (PIV5)-infected cells. In cells co-infected with OC43 and PIV5, C’-mediated lysis was delayed, similar to OC43 infected cells alone, suggesting that OC43 infection induced dominant inhibitory signals. When OC43-infected cells were treated with human serum, their cell surfaces contained both Vitronectin (VN) and Clusterin (CLU), two host cell C’ inhibitors that can alter membrane attack complex (MAC) formation and C’-mediated killing. VN and CLU were not bound to OC43-infected cells after treatment with antibody-depleted serum. Reconstitution experiments with purified IgG and VN showed that human antibodies are both necessary and sufficient for VN recruitment to OC43-infected lung cells–novel findings with implications for CoV pathogenesis

Fermentation of Ammonia Fiber Expansion Treated and Untreated Barley Straw in a Rumen Simulation Technique using Rumen Inoculum from Cattle with Slow Versus Fast Rate of Fiber Disappearance

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of rumen inoculum from heifers with fast vs. slow rate of in situ fiber digestion on the fermentation of complex versus easily digested fiber sources in the forms of untreated and Ammonia Fiber Expansion (AFEX) treated barley straw, respectively, using an artificial rumen simulation technique (Rusitec). In situ fiber digestion was measured in a previous study by incubating untreated barley straw in the rumen of sixteen heifers fed a diet consisting of 700 g/kg barley straw and 300 g/kg concentrate. The two heifers with fastest rate of digestion (Fast > 4.18 % h-1) and the two heifers with the slowest rate of digestion (Slow 0.05) methane per gram of digested material for both untreated and AFEX straw, and reduced (interaction, P < 0.05) acetate: propionate ratio for untreated straw. Greater relative populations of Ruminococcus albus (P < 0.05) and increased microbial N production (P = 0.045) were observed in Fast rumen inoculum. AFEX straw in Fast inoculum had greater total bacterial populations than Slow, but for untreated straw this result was reversed (interaction, P = 0.013). These findings indicate that differences in microbial populations in rumen fluid contribute to differences in the capacity of rumen inoculum to digest fiber

Toward Creating a New Research Tool: Operationally Defining Cyberterrorism

The purpose of this essay is to present a theoretically informed and operationally useful definition of cyberterrorism to advance research in the fields of terrorism and cyberscience as well as to inform policy makers. The operationalization distinguishes terrorist events that are distinctly and fundamentally cyber in nature from those that are not. It frames cyberterrorism as a form of aggression and distinguishes it from other forms of cyber aggression: cyberwar, cyber espionage, cybercrime, and cyber mischief. The essay includes illustrative cases to identify key features of cyberterrorist events relative to other cyber and non-cyber aggression and concludes with a clear process to classify cyber aggression as cyberterrorism or not

CD24 Expression Dampens the Basal Antiviral State in Human Neuroblastoma Cells and Enhances Permissivity to Zika Virus Infection

Zika virus (ZIKV) exhibits distinct selectivity for infection of various cells and tissues, but how host cellular factors modulate varying permissivity remains largely unknown. Previous studies showed that the neuroblastoma cell line SK-N-AS (expressing low levels of cellular protein CD24) was highly restricted for ZIKV infection, and that this restriction was relieved by ectopic expression of CD24. We tested the hypothesis that CD24 expression allowed ZIKV replication by suppression of the antiviral response. SK-N-AS cells expressing an empty vector (termed CD24-low cells) showed elevated basal levels of phosphorylated STAT1, IRF-1, IKKE, and NF&kappa;B. In response to exogenously added type I interferon (IFN-I), CD24-low cells had higher-level induction of antiviral genes and activity against two IFN-I-sensitive viruses (VSV and PIV5-P/V) compared to SK-N-AS cells with ectopic CD24 expression (termed CD24-high cells). Media-transfer experiments showed that the inherent antiviral state of CD24-low cells was not dependent on a secreted factor such as IFN-I. Transcriptomics analysis revealed that CD24 expression decreased expression of genes involved in intracellular antiviral pathways, including IFN-I, NF&kappa;B, and Ras. Our findings that CD24 expression in neuroblastoma cells represses intracellular antiviral pathways support the proposal that CD24 may represent a novel biomarker in cancer cells for susceptibility to oncolytic viruses