Public Attitudes Toward Crime and Incarceration in Finland

The following paper provides insights into Finland’s criminal justice system and discusses the policies that emphasize using prison for rehabilitation, not merely for punishment. These methods of prevention and rehabilitation, in conjunction with correctional and educational staff within and outside the prison walls, have contributed to consistently low recidivism rates in Finland. This study discusses many ideological similarities between public opinions towards criminals and crime in Finland and the United States. Like Americans, Finns are intolerant of crime and violence, yet open to the idea of alternative forms of punishment, especially for non-violent and juvenile offenders. People in both countries tend to believe criminals are not born into a criminal life and that societal factors play a role in creating criminal behavior. This study sheds light on both the public support for ex-offenders’ rehabilitation in Finland and the extent to which Americans support alternative forms of punishment. It also provides a narrative of the disconnect between public opinion and what public officials think public opinion is

Meeting Report: Biomedical Science Conference on Thursday 14th April 2016 at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) Cambridge Campus, UK

Attendance: This meeting brought together staff, postgraduate students taking ARU’s MSc in Biotechnology (led by Havovi Chichger), and finalists taking ARU’s BSc (Hons.) in Biomedical Science (led by Claire Pike). Approximately 140 students and 20 staff attended. The conference was timetabled for the undergraduate module Current Advances in Biomedical Science (led by Richard Jones) and the MSc module Professional and Ethical Practice in Industry (led by Grisha Pirianov). Aims and ambitions: The aims of this conference were as follows: to provide good value for grant money; to improve course communities; to strengthen relationships between staff and students; to help integration between UK and international students; to strengthen links between ARU, the Biochemical Society and the Institute of Biomedical Science (IBMS); to encourage interest in exciting research; and to add to the learning on the courses. Knowledge accumulated during the conference will be assessed at the end of the modules during written examinations. Plenary lectures: Speakers explained cutting-edge research techniques, their results and what they mean for biomedical science. Mike Harrison (School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Leeds) outlined how the rotary ATPases function as nano-scale motors that drive biology. His lecture illustrated the physiological roles of the rotary ATPases, their structure and organisation, how they work, their regulation and control, and inhibitor binding and therapeutic potential. Grisha Pirianov (Department of Biomedical and Forensic Sciences, ARU) discussed current technology for drug discovery and validation for treatment of inflammatory based vascular diseases such as aneurysms. Dominika Gruszka (Francis Crick Institute) lectured on studies of protein folding, misfolding and aggregation performed with Jane Clarke (Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge) and Jennifer Potts (Department of Biology, University of York). Dominika outlined the following: the basis of the protein folding problem; factors that can lead to protein denaturation; examples of experimental techniques used to study protein folding; the process of protein misfolding and aggregation including causes and examples of amyloidosis; and the formation of biofilms on implanted medical devices. Manal Mohammed (Department of Biomedical and Forensic Sciences, ARU) discussed how modern molecular, DNA sequencing and computational tools are enabling us to prepare for, and react to, outbreaks of infectious diseases that are difficult to treat. Students’ contributions: Students presented coursework posters that reflected their own developing and wide-ranging biomedical and industrial science interests. The posters were assessed by staff on the day. For the undergraduates, first prize was awarded to the poster entitled, “Cephalosomatic anastomosis: the proposition for the human head transplant” created by Gabriele Saba, Anton Zolotukhin, Lewis Mudway and Johnathan Willgress. Joint second prize was awarded to the posters, “Is 3D cell culture a better predictor of LD50 than 2D cell culture and how does it compare to in-vivo results?” by David Glasspool, and, “Does saturated fat intake increase the risk of coronary disease?” by Ololade Adenaike, Ernest Asamoah, Rita Cappiello and Khadijat Mansaray. The postgraduates presented case studies of biotechnology companies. First prize was awarded to the poster, “Horizon Discovery Group plc” by Sabastina Amoako. Joint second prize was awarded to the posters, “Oxitec Limited,” by Ada Luisa Soto Chavarria and, “Novabiotics,” by Thilini Kanchana Wickremasinghe. Anonymous comments regarding the conference provided by students in module evaluations included the following: “The lecturers were very enthusiastic with very interesting current research topics”; “I liked that the lecturers are current researchers in the subjects they are talking about”; and “Presenting a poster was enjoyable and a good way of being assessed.” Head of Department’s Comments: Jocelyn Pryce (Acting Head of the Department of Biomedical and Forensic Sciences at ARU) said that, “The students were able to apply the knowledge they have gained throughout their degree to their specialist interests, allowing them to showcase their work and success. This resulted in presentations of high quality posters and evidence of excellent critical defence of each subject area. This conference is growing in strength with each year and we would like to thank the Biochemical Society and the ARU Extra Curricular Fund and for their continued support in identifying new ways to increase the student experience. ” Funding: This conference was funded by a Biochemical Society Sponsored Events Grant (£500) and an ARU Extra Curricular Event Award (£1500). These awards supported student poster prizes, packed lunches, light refreshments during session breaks, and travel costs for the external visiting speakers

Biochemical Society sponsors event at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge

Attendance: This meeting brought together staff, postgraduate students taking ARU’s MSc in Biotechnology (led by Philip Warburton), and finalists taking either ARU’s BSc in Biomedical Science (led by Claire Pike) or University Centre Harlow’s (UCH) BSc in Bioscience (led by Linda King and Matt Webster). Approximately 135 students and 22 staff attended. The conference included undergraduates taking the module Current Advances in Biomedical Science (led by Richard Jones) and MSc students taking the module Professional and Ethical Practice in Industry (led by Benjamin Evans). Aims and ambitions: The aims of this conference were as follows: to provide good value for grant money; to improve course communities; to strengthen relationships between staff and students; to help integration between UK and international students; to strengthen links between ARU, UCH, the Biochemical Society and the Institute of Biomedical Science; to encourage interest in exciting research; and to add to the learning on the courses. Knowledge accumulated during the conference will be assessed at the end of the modules during written examinations. Plenary lectures: Speakers explained cutting-edge research techniques, their results and what they mean for biomedical science. Dominika Gruszka (Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge) gave a lecture on studies of protein folding, misfolding and aggregation performed with Jane Clarke (Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge) and Jennifer Potts (Department of Biology, University of York). Dominika outlined the following: the basis of the protein folding problem; factors that can lead to protein denaturation; examples of experimental techniques used to study protein folding; the process of protein misfolding and aggregation including causes and examples of amyloidosis; and the formation of biofilms on implanted medical devices. Mike Harrison (School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Leeds) outlined how the rotary ATPases function as nano-scale motors that drive biology. His lecture illustrated the physiological roles of the rotary ATPases, their structure and organisation, how they work, their regulation and control, and inhibitor binding and therapeutic potential. Philip Warburton (Department of Biomedical and Forensic Sciences, ARU) explained high-throughput sequencing methodologies, and how advances in DNA sequencing could lead to hospital-based whole-genome sequencing at birth and personalised medicine within healthcare. Benjamin Evans (Department of Biomedical and Forensic Sciences, ARU) discussed how modern molecular and computational tools are enabling us to prepare for, and react to, outbreaks of infectious diseases. Students’ contributions: Students presented coursework posters that reflected their own developing and wide-ranging biomedical and industrial science interests. The posters were assessed by staff on the day. For the undergraduates, first prize was awarded to the poster entitled, “Gene therapy for cystic fibrosis: can lentivirus deliver?” created by Sandra Sullivan, Milagrosa Sparrow, Nicola Brown and Alice Mussett. Second prize was awarded to the poster, “Can poly glycerol sebacate (PGS) be used to produce bio-compatible corneal stroma substitutes?” by Ashleigh Mitcham, Glenda Fellows and Charlotte Thomas. Third prize was awarded to the poster, “Could three-parent babies be the future for prevention of mitochondrial disease?” by Azhar Mohamudally, Dan Jiang, Susan Chizema and Roxana Buruiana. For the postgraduates, first prize was awarded to the poster, “AquaBounty: a case study,” by Joshua Kerr. Second prize was awarded to the poster, “Case study: Vernalis,” by Charys Presland-Palmer. A special prize was given to David McQuarrie for representing the finalists on University committees. Joseph Batchelor took photographs on the day. Jocelyn Pryce (Acting Head of the Department of Biomedical and Forensic Sciences at ARU) said that, “The conference was a fantastic opportunity for students to showcase their work. They applied the knowledge they have gained throughout their degree to their specialist interests, as each group selected their own poster topic. This resulted in enthusiastic presentations of high quality posters.” Anonymous comments regarding the conference provided by students in module evaluations included the following: “It’s great to be taught about the practical reality of research, and to hear from guest speakers. The conference day was very enjoyable. Presenting the poster was really fun.”; “Fantastic – great speakers.”; “I liked the opportunity to attend the conference day. There was a good mix of speakers and lectures were informative.” Funding: Jocelyn Pryce and Richard Jones thank the Biochemical Society for a Sponsored Events Grant (£500) and Julie Walkling and Helen Valentine for allocating an ARU Extra Curricula Event Award (£1500). These awards supported student poster prizes, packed lunches, light refreshments during session breaks, and travel costs for the external visiting speakers

Meeting Report: Biomedical Research Conference

This meeting brought together staff from the Department of Life Sciences at Anglia Ruskin University and the 150 final-year BSc (Hons) Biomedical Science students taking the ‘Current Advances in Biomedical Science’ module led by Richard Jones. The module aimed to promote students’ career prospects and interest in exciting research through employability, studentship and biomedical research conference days at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) in semester 2, 2014. The venue for all three conference days was the Mumford Theatre at ARU’s Cambridge Campus. The Mumford Theatre has excellent acoustics and normally hosts theatre companies. Knowledge accumulated during these days was assessed at the end of the module using a 1 hour written examination

Control theory for principled heap sizing

We propose a new, principled approach to adaptive heap sizing based on control theory. We review current state-of-the-art heap sizing mechanisms, as deployed in Jikes RVM and HotSpot. We then formulate heap sizing as a control problem, apply and tune a standard controller algorithm, and evaluate its performance on a set of well-known benchmarks. We find our controller adapts the heap size more responsively than existing mechanisms. This responsiveness allows tighter virtual machine memory footprints while preserving target application throughput, which is ideal for both embedded and utility computing domains. In short, we argue that formal, systematic approaches to memory management should be replacing ad-hoc heuristics as the discipline matures. Control-theoretic heap sizing is one such systematic approach

STATURE AND LOAD AFFECT THE WALK TO RUN TRANSITION SPEED

Military personnel are often required to march “in-step” while carrying heavy loads. For example, the two speeds required to complete the role fitness test for the British Army are close to the preferred walking speed and preferred walk-to-run transition speed (PTS) for healthy adults when unloaded. PTS depends on anthropometry, including stature. Walking at speeds markedly different to PTS has been associated with increased metabolic cost and increased joint loading. There is also limited research into how this PTS is affected by load carriage. To minimise the risk of injury, there is a need to understand how load carriage affects PTS. This study found PTS for male and female personnel decreased with increased load carried, and that female personnel tended to transition from walking to running earlier than male personnel. The relationship between PTS and stature became more positive as load increased, irrespective of sex. Due to the association between deviating from preferred walking gait and increases in joint loading, these findings may have implications for the risk of injury in military personnel who are required to march “in-step”

Serum vitamin D levels, diabetes and cardio-metabolic risk factors in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians

Assesses levels of serum 25(OH)D in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians and explores relationships between 25(OH)D and cardio-metabolic risk factors and diabetes. Abstract Background: Low levels of serum 25 – hydroxy vitamin D (25(OH)D), have been associated with development of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD); however there are limited data on serum 25(OH)D in Indigenous Australians, a population at high risk for both diabetes and CVD. We aimed to assess levels of serum 25(OH)D in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians and to explore relationships between 25(OH)D and cardio-metabolic risk factors and diabetes. Methods: 592 Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Australian participants of The eGFR (estimated glomerular filtration rate) Study, a cross-sectional analysis of a cohort study performed in 2007 – 2011, from urban and remote centres within communities, primary care and tertiary hospitals across Northern Territory, Far North Queensland and Western Australia. Assessment of serum 25(OH)D, cardio-metabolic risk factors (central obesity, diabetes, hypertension, history of cardiovascular disease, current smoker, low HDL-cholesterol), and diabetes (by history or HbA1c ≥ 6.5%) was performed. Associations were explored between 25(OH)D and outcome measures of diabetes and number of cardio-metabolic risk factors. Results: The median (IQR) serum 25(OH)D was 60 (45 – 77) nmol/L, 31% had 25(OH)D <50 nmol/L. For participants with 25(OH)D < 50 vs ≥ 50 nmol/L, cardio-metabolic risk profile differed for: diabetes (54%, 36% p < 0.001), past history of cardiovascular disease (16%, 9%, p = 0.014), waist-hip ratio (0.98, 0.92, p < 0.001), urine albumin-creatinine ratio (2.7, 1.5 mg/mmol, p < 0.001). The OR (95% CI) for diabetes was 2.02 (1.03 – 3.95) for people in the lowest vs highest tertiles of 25(OH)D (<53 vs >72 nmol/L, respectively) after adjusting for known cardio-metabolic risk factors. Conclusion: The percentage of 25(OH)D levels <50 nmol/L was high among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians from Northern and Central Australia. Low 25(OH)D level was associated with adverse cardio-metabolic risk profile and was independently associated with diabetes. These findings require exploration in longitudinal studies

Development and Application of a Functional Human Esophageal Mucosa Explant Platform to Eosinophilic Esophagitis.

There is an increasing prevalence of esophageal diseases but intact human tissue platforms to study esophageal function, disease mechanisms, and the interactions between cell types in situ are lacking. To address this, we utilized full thickness human donor esophagi to create and validate the ex vivo function of mucosa and smooth muscle (n = 25). Explanted tissue was tested for contractile responses to carbachol and histamine. We then treated ex vivo human esophageal mucosa with a cytokine cocktail to closely mimic the Th2 and inflammatory milieu of eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) and assessed alterations in smooth muscle and extracellular matrix function and stiffening. We found that full thickness human esophagus as well as the individual layers of circular and longitudinal muscularis propria developed tension in response to carbachol ex vivo and that mucosa demonstrated squamous cell differentiation. Treatment of mucosa with Th2 and fibrotic cytokines recapitulated the majority of the clinical Eosinophilic Esophagitis Diagnostic Profile (EDP) on fluidic transcriptional microarray. Transforming growth factor-beta-1 (TGFβ1) increased gene expression of fibronectin, smooth muscle actin, and phospholamban (p < 0.001). The EoE cocktail also increased stiffness and decreased mucosal compliance, akin to the functional alterations in EoE (p = 0.001). This work establishes a new, transcriptionally intact and physiologically functional human platform to model esophageal tissue responses in EoE