Machine Learning Algorithms and Police Decision-Making: Legal, Ethical and Regulatory Challenges

This report seeks to critically assess the use of machine learning algorithms for policing, and provide practical recommendations designed to contribute to the fast-moving debate over policy and governance in this area

Determining Ohio physician assistants' attitudes on assessing geriatric driving

Scholarly project (M.S.)

Der Einfluss von Eltern und Freunden auf die Ausländerfeindlichkeit von Gymnasiasten in einem neuen Bundesland

Dass Rechtsradikalismus und damit verbundene Ausländerfeindlichkeit eine Wurzelin Familientraditionen hat, wurde immer wieder nachgewiesen. Zusätzlich findet sichin der Literatur häufig die Feststellung, dass es sich dabei um ein Peer-Group-Phänomen handle. Für diesen zweiten sozialisatorischen Zusammenhang finden sich in der empirischen Forschung aber kaum Belege. Im vorliegenden Beitrag wird versucht, auf der Grundlage eines Längsschnittdatensatzes mit vier Erhebungswellen (N=2622 Jugendliche, N=839 Elternpaare, N=2351 Angaben von Freunden in der ersten Welle) die Frage des Einflusses von Eltern und Gleichaltrigen auf die Ausländerfeindlichkeit von Jugendlichen zu überprüfen. Eines der Probleme, die dabei auftauchen, besteht in der Frage, inwieweit Übereinstimmungen zwischen Eltern und Kindern und zwischen gleichaltrigen Freunden als Einflüsse gedeutet werden können. Im Falle der Eltern stellt sich zusätzlich die Frage, ob die Einflussrichtung nur von den Eltern zu den Kindern verläuft oder ob sich auch umgekehrte Einflüsse zeigen. Im Falle der Gleichaltrigen stellt sich die Frage, ob die Übereinstimmung durch Sozialisation, also durch Beeinflussungsprozesse in Freundschaftsbeziehungen, oder durch Selektion gleich gesinnter Freunde zu Stande kommt. Die Bearbeiter versuchen diese Fragen zu beantworten indem die Bearbeiter 1. querschnittlich prüfen, ob die Übereinstimmung durch Faktoren moderiert werden, die für Beeinflussungsprozesse sprechen (z.B. Kommunikation über Politik oder Enge der Beziehung), und indem wir 2. längsschnittlich Kreuzpfadmodelle berechnen, in denen Pfade von den Eltern auf die Kinder und von den Kindern auf die Eltern zugelassen werden. Im Falle der Freunde versuchen wir 3. ein Verfahren zu replizieren, das Denise Kandel für den Drogenkonsum zur Unterscheidung von Sozialisation und Selektion erprobt hat. Dabei wird die Übereinstimmung von im Längsschnitt stabilen Freundschaften mit der Übereinstimmungin abgebrochenen und in neu eingegangenen Freundschaften verglichen. Die Ergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass zwischen Eltern und Kindern Beeinflussungen in beide Richtungen stattfinden. Auch in Bezug auf Freundschaftsbeziehungen ergeben sich Hinweise auf Beeinflussungsprozesse, allerdings nur in den querschnittlichen Analysen. Die längsschnittlichen Analysen legen den Schluss nahe, dass in Freundschaftsbeziehungen Selektionsprozesse überwiegen

Microseeding – A Powerful Tool for Crystallizing Proteins Complexed with Hydrolyzable Substrates

Hydrolysis is an often-encountered obstacle in the crystallization of proteins complexed with their substrates. As the duration of the crystallization process, from nucleation to the growth of the crystal to its final size, commonly requires several weeks, non-enzymatic hydrolysis of an “unstable” ligand occurs frequently. In cases where the crystallization conditions exhibit non neutral pH values this hydrolysis phenomenon may be even more pronounced. ChoX, the substrate binding protein of a choline ABC-importer, produced crystals with its substrate acetylcholine after one month. However, these crystals exhibited only choline, an acetylcholine hydrolysis product, in the binding site. To overcome this obstacle we devised a microseeding protocol leading to crystals of ChoX with bound acetylcholine within 24 hours. One drawback we encountered was the high twinning fraction of the crystals, possibly was due to the rapid crystal growth

Models of gravitational lens candidates from Space Warps CFHTLS

We report modelling follow-up of recently-discovered gravitational-lens candidates in the Canada France Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey. Lens modelling was done by a small group of specially-interested volunteers from the SpaceWarps citizen-science community who originally found the candidate lenses. Models are categorised according to seven diagnostics indicating (a) the image morphology and how clear or indistinct it is, (b) whether the mass map and synthetic lensed image appear to be plausible, and (c) how the lens-model mass compares with the stellar mass and the abundance-matched halo mass. The lensing masses range from ~10^11 Msun to >10^13 Msun. Preliminary estimates of the stellar masses show a smaller spread in stellar mass (except for two lenses): a factor of a few below or above ~10^11 Msun. Therefore, we expect the stellar-to-total mass fraction to decline sharply as lensing mass increases. The most massive system with a convincing model is J1434+522 (SW05). The two low-mass outliers are J0206-095 (SW19) and J2217+015 (SW42); if these two are indeed lenses, they probe an interesting regime of very low star-formation efficiency. Some improvements to the modelling software (SpaghettiLens), and discussion of strategies regarding scaling to future surveys with more and frequent discoveries, are included.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures, 1 table, online supplement table_1.csv contains additional detailed numbers shown in table 1 and figure

No museum is an island : Ethnography beyond methodological containerism

This article addresses the question of how to go beyond the conceptualisation of museums as islands in museum ethnography without losing the ethnographic depth and insights that such research can provide. Discussing existing ethnographic research in museums, the ethnographic turn in organization studies, and methodological innovation that seeks to go beyond bounded locations in anthropology, we offer a new museum methodology that retains ethnography’s capacity to grasp the often overlooked workings of organizational life – such as the informal relations, uncodified activities, chance events and feelings – while also avoiding ‘methodological containerism’, that is, the taking of the museum as an organization for granted. We then present a project design for a multi-sited, multi-linked, multi-researcher ethnography to respond to this; together with its specific realisation as the Making Differences project currently underway on Berlin’s Museum Island. Drawing on three sub-projects of this large ethnography – concerned with exhibition-making in the Museum of Islamic Art, in the Ethnological Museum in preparation for the Humboldt Forum (a high profile and contested cultural development due to open in 2019) and a new exhibition about Berlin, also for the Humboldt Forum – we highlight the importance of what happens beyond the ‘container,’ the discretion of what we even take to be the ‘container’, and how ‘organization-ness’ of various kinds is ‘done’ or ‘achieved’. We do this in part through an analysis of organigrams at play in our research fields, showing what these variously reveal, hide and suggest. Understanding museums, and organizations more generally, in this way, we argue, brings insight both to some of the specific developments that we are analysing as well as to museum and organization studies more widely

Mcl-1 Is a Key Regulator of Apoptosis Resistance in Chlamydia trachomatis-Infected Cells

Chlamydia are obligate intracellular bacteria that cause variety of human diseases. Host cells infected with Chlamydia are protected against many different apoptotic stimuli. The induction of apoptosis resistance is thought to be an important immune escape mechanism allowing Chlamydia to replicate inside the host cell. Infection with C. trachomatis activates the Raf/MEK/ERK pathway and the PI3K/AKT pathway. Here we show that inhibition of these two pathways by chemical inhibitors sensitized C. trachomatis infected cells to granzyme B-mediated cell death. Infection leads to the Raf/MEK/ERK-mediated up-regulation and PI3K-dependent stabilization of the anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 family member Mcl-1. Consistently, interfering with Mcl-1 up-regulation sensitized infected cells for apoptosis induced via the TNF receptor, DNA damage, granzyme B and stress. Our data suggest that Mcl-1 up-regulation is primarily required to maintain apoptosis resistance in C. trachomatis-infected cells

Heme oxygenase-1 genotype and restenosis after balloon angioplasty: a novel vascular protective factor

AbstractObjectivesWe investigated the association of the heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) promoter genotype with the inflammatory response and restenosis after balloon angioplasty.BackgroundHeme oxygenase-1, which is induced by balloon angioplasty, can inhibit neointima formation and vascular remodeling. A dinucleotide repeat in the HO-1 gene promoter shows a length polymorphism that modulates HO-1 gene transcription. Short (<25 guanosine thymidine [GT]) repeats are associated with a 10-fold greater up-regulation of HO-1 than are longer repeats.MethodsWe studied 381 consecutive patients who underwent femoropopliteal balloon angioplasty (n = 210) and comparison groups with femoropopliteal stenting (n = 68) and lower limb angiography (n = 103). C-reactive protein (CRP) was measured at baseline, 24, and 48 h. We evaluated patency at six months by duplex sonography and assessed the association of the length of GT repeats in the HO-1 gene promoter with postintervention CRP and restenosis.ResultsRestenosis within six months was found in 74 patients (35%) after balloon angioplasty and in 21 patients (31%) after stenting. After balloon angioplasty, carriers of the short length (<25 GT) dinucleotide repeats had a lower postintervention CRP at 24 h (p = 0.009) and 48 h (p < 0.001) and a reduced risk for restenosis (adjusted relative risk 0.43, 95% confidence interval: 0.24 to 0.71, p < 0.001) compared with patients with longer alleles. After stenting or angiography, we found no association between the HO-1 genotype with CRP or restenosis.ConclusionsThe HO-1 promoter genotype that controls the degree of HO-1 up-regulation in response to stress stimuli is associated with the postintervention inflammatory response and the restenosis risk after balloon angioplasty

Effect of fumonisins and Salmonella on digestive flora profiles assessed using a molecular tool (CE-SSCP).

Fumonisins (FB) are mycotoxins frequently found in vegetal feedstuffs, especially in maize used for pig feeding. Among fumonisins, FB1 was the better described toxin. It caused pulmonary and hepatic damages as well as immune response disorders in pigs that were recognised as especially sensitive to FB Intoxication. The FB1 immunosuppressor induced a higher susceptibility of pigs to gut pathogens such as E coli. Effects on Salmonella have poorly been studied despite the frequent asymptomatic carnage in pigs and the presumptive role of nora equilibrium on prevention of Salmonella excretion or re-excretion. To determine the influence of Salmonella carriage, fumonisins or both on digestive flora equilibrium, the use of a molecular technique CE-SSCP (Capillary-Electrophoresis Single Strand Conformation Polymorphism) appeared a good complement to the conventional bacteriological techniques. The objective was to assess the perturbation of nora associated with co-exposition in experimental conditions in absence of clinical sign