The Chinese New Middle Class and Green NGOs in South China: Vanguards of Guanxi (Connections)-Seeking, Laggards in Promoting Social Causes?

By examining the emerging Chinese new middle class as well as green non-governmental organisations, this study finds that while the emergence of the Chinese new middle class facilitates the growth of green NGOs, the Chinese new class is not activists or agitators working against the government. Based on in-depth interviews with leaders of green NGOs founded by the Chinese new middle class in Guangdong province, this research examines why green NGOs do not call for or advocate environmental protection It concludes that contrary to conventional wisdom, the Chinese new middle class is a vanguard of guanxi (connections)-seeking, but a laggard in promoting environmental protection and civil-society activism. Green NGOs are principally used as a tool to cultivate social capital in the form of guanxi in order to promote personal material interests

O assistente social como mediador cultural em escolas públicas dos bairros de Guamá e Terra firme

I Congresso Internacional América Latina e Interculturalidade: América Latina e Caribe: cenários linguístico-culturais contemporâneos, 07, 08 e 09 de novembro de 2013 - UNILAA intervenção do Assistente Social nas atividades de arte e cultura nas instituições de ensino fundamental e médio nos bairros do Guamá e da Terra Firme. Estudos anteriores constatam que estes não são apenas espaços de violência, como registra a mídia. São espaços multiculturais e agregadores de cultura antiviolência, onde os sujeitos artistas utilizam a arte como meio de transformação social, através do método fenomenológico busco contribuir para a sistematização da intervenção do assistente social na área da educação e cultura, identificando as atividades de arte e cultura nas instituições de ensino fundamental e médio, importância nas instituições em que são desenvolvidas e habilidades requeridas ao profissional de Serviço Social. A metodologia conduziu a investigação nos respectivos bairros com os alunos que estudam nas instituições de ensino fundamental e médio nos bairros, por meio de aplicação de questionários sócio­econômico­cultural que ao definir cultura identificaram as manifestações culturais que estavam ocorrendo no mês (junho/2013) em que o questionário foi aplicado, quanto ao fazer profissional do Serviço Social, a maioria dos alunos da escola pública estadual relacionam o trabalho do assistente social com a prestação de ajuda e auxílio. Os alunos da escola pública federal demonstraram maior efetividade e segurança na resposta, em consonância com o Código de Ética do Assistente Social, também foi realizada entrevista semi­estruturada com a Assistente Social das instituições de ensino. Segundo a pesquisa identifica­se a sobrecarga do profissional do serviço social com as demandas postas pelos alunos no processo de ensino e aprendizagem, de tal modo que não possa acompanhar atividades de arte e cultura desenvolvidas nas instituições de ensino, e por meio de levantamentos bibliográficos e visitas de observação ao local de pesquisa foi possível identificar as atividades, projetos de extensão de arte e cultura nas instituições de ensino

Berberine induces autophagic cell death and mitochondrial apoptosis in liver cancer cells: The cellular mechanism

Extensive studies have revealed that berberine, a small molecule derived from Coptidis rhizoma (Huanglian in Chinese) and many other plants, has strong anti-tumor properties. To better understand berberine-induced cell death and its underlying mechanisms in cancer, we examined autophagy and apoptosis in the human hepatic carcinoma cell lines HepG2 and MHCC97-L. The results of this study indicate that berberine can induce both autophagy and apoptosis in hepatocellular carcinoma cells. Berberine-induced cell death in human hepatic carcinoma cells was diminished in the presence of the cell death inhibitor 3-methyladenine, or following interference with the essential autophagy gene Atg5. Mechanistic studies showed that berberine may activate mitochondrial apoptosis in HepG2 and MHCC97-L cells by increasing Bax expression, the formation of permeable transition pores, cytochrome C release to cytosol, and subsequent activation of the caspases 3 and 9 execution pathway. Berberine may also induce autophagic cell death in HepG2 and MHCC97-L cells through activation of Beclin-1 and inhibition of the mTOR-signaling pathway by suppressing the activity of Akt and up-regulating P38 MAPK signaling. This is the first study to describe the role of Beclin-1 activation and mTOR inhibition in berberine-induced autophagic cell death. These results further demonstrate the potential of berberine as a therapeutic agent in the emerging list of cancer therapies with novel mechanisms. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.postprin

On Determining Dead Layer and Detector Thicknesses for a Position-Sensitive Silicon Detector

In this work, two particular properties of the position-sensitive, thick silicon detectors (known as the "E" detectors) in the High Resolution Array (HiRA) are investigated: the thickness of the dead layer on the front of the detector, and the overall thickness of the detector itself. The dead layer thickness for each E detector in HiRA is extracted using a measurement of alpha particles emitted from a $^{212}$Pb pin source placed close to the detector surface. This procedure also allows for energy calibrations of the E detectors, which are otherwise inaccessible for alpha source calibration as each one is sandwiched between two other detectors. The E detector thickness is obtained from a combination of elastically scattered protons and an energy-loss calculation method. Results from these analyses agree with values provided by the manufacturer.Comment: Accepted for publication in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Researc

Measurement of Cosmic-ray Muons and Muon-induced Neutrons in the Aberdeen Tunnel Underground Laboratory

We have measured the muon flux and production rate of muon-induced neutrons at a depth of 611 m water equivalent. Our apparatus comprises three layers of crossed plastic scintillator hodoscopes for tracking the incident cosmic-ray muons and 760 L of gadolinium-doped liquid scintillator for producing and detecting neutrons. The vertical muon intensity was measured to be $I_{\mu} = (5.7 \pm 0.6) \times 10^{-6}$ cm$^{-2}$s$^{-1}$sr$^{-1}$. The yield of muon-induced neutrons in the liquid scintillator was determined to be $Y_{n} = (1.19 \pm 0.08 (stat) \pm 0.21 (syst)) \times 10^{-4}$ neutrons/($\mu\cdot$g$\cdot$cm$^{-2}$). A fit to the recently measured neutron yields at different depths gave a mean muon energy dependence of $\left\langle E_{\mu} \right\rangle^{0.76 \pm 0.03}$ for liquid-scintillator targets.Comment: 14 pages, 17 figures, 3 table

Unraveling information about supranuclear-dense matter from the complete binary neutron star coalescence process using future gravitational-wave detector networks

Gravitational waves provide us with an extraordinary tool to study the matterinside neutron stars. In particular, the postmerger signal probes an extremetemperature and density regime and will help reveal information about theequation of state of supranuclear-dense matter. Although current detectors aremost sensitive to the signal emitted by binary neutron stars before the merger,the upgrades of existing detectors and the construction of the next generationof detectors will make postmerger detections feasible. For this purpose, wepresent a new analytical, frequency-domain model for theinspiral-merger-postmerger signal emitted by binary neutron stars systems. Theinspiral and merger part of the signals are modeled withIMRPhenomD$\_$NRTidalv2, and we describe the main emission peak of postmergerwith a three-parameter Lorentzian, using two different approaches: one in whichthe Lorentzian parameters are kept free, and one in which we model them viaquasi-universal relations. We test the performance of our new complete waveformmodel in parameter estimation analyses, both with simulated signals andnumerical relativity waveforms. We investigate the performance of differentdetector networks to determine the improvement that future detectors will bringto our analysis. We consider Advanced LIGO+ and Advanced Virgo+, KAGRA, andLIGO-India. We also study the possible impact of a detector with highsensitivity in the kilohertz band like NEMO, and finally we compare theseresults to the ones we obtain with third-generation detectors, the EinsteinTelescope and the Cosmic Explorer.<br