Perceptions of Immigrant Criminality: Crime and Social Boundaries

Researchers studying the relationship between immigration and crime frequently note the discrepancy between actual rates and public perceptions of criminal behavior by immigrants. Analyzing staff‐ and reader‐generated texts in a local newspaper, we find that this connection is maintained through a conflation of key terms, assumptions of the legal status of immigrants, and a focus on high‐profile criminal acts. We argue that the discourse of immigrant criminality has been critical in constructing social boundaries used in recent immigration legislation. Our analysis helps explain why current scholarly findings on immigration and crime have had little influence in changing public opinion

A Tale of Two Imperial Residences: Aurangzeb's Architectural Patronage

While the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb Alamgir is not well-known for his architectural commissions as his predecessors, there are still a few extant buildings associated with him. Two of these are residential sites, built almost fifty years apart, at the beginning and end of his career as an emperor. This essay examines these hitherto unpublished sites, and documents them as part of a Mughal legacy in the Deccan that has remained uncelebrated. The palace at Aurangabad and a royal residential compound just outside of Ahmadnagar are the two sites which bracket the emperor's career and offer an insight into his political fortunes and religious life as it changed

Hierarchical amino acid utilization and its influence on fermentation dynamics: rifamycin B fermentation using Amycolatopsis mediterranei S699, a case study

BACKGROUND: Industrial fermentation typically uses complex nitrogen substrates which consist of mixture of amino acids. The uptake of amino acids is known to be mediated by several amino acid transporters with certain preferences. However, models to predict this preferential uptake are not available. We present the stoichiometry for the utilization of amino acids as a sole carbon and nitrogen substrate or along with glucose as an additional carbon source. In the former case, the excess nitrogen provided by the amino acids is excreted by the organism in the form of ammonia. We have developed a cybernetic model to predict the sequence and kinetics of uptake of amino acids. The model is based on the assumption that the growth on a specific substrate is dependent on key enzyme(s) responsible for the uptake and assimilation of the substrates. These enzymes may be regulated by mechanisms of nitrogen catabolite repression. The model hypothesizes that the organism is an optimal strategist and invests resources for the uptake of a substrate that are proportional to the returns. RESULTS: Stoichiometric coefficients and kinetic parameters of the model were estimated experimentally for Amycolatopsis mediterranei S699, a rifamycin B overproducer. The model was then used to predict the uptake kinetics in a medium containing cas amino acids. In contrast to the other amino acids, the uptake of proline was not affected by the carbon or nitrogen catabolite repression in this strain. The model accurately predicted simultaneous uptake of amino acids at low cas concentrations and sequential uptake at high cas concentrations. The simulated profile of the key enzymes implies the presence of specific transporters for small groups of amino acids. CONCLUSION: The work demonstrates utility of the cybernetic model in predicting the sequence and kinetics of amino acid uptake in a case study involving Amycolatopsis mediterranei, an industrially important organism. This work also throws some light on amino acid transporters and their regulation in A. mediterranei .Further, cybernetic model based experimental strategy unravels formation and utilization of ammonia as well as its inhibitory role during amino acid uptake. Our results have implications for model based optimization and monitoring of other industrial fermentation processes involving complex nitrogen substrate

A theory of regular MSC languages

Message sequence charts (MSCs) are an attractive visual formalism widely used to capture system requirements during the early design stages in domains such as telecommunication software. It is fruitful to have mechanisms for specifying and reasoning about collections of MSCs so that errors can be detected even at the requirements level. We propose, accordingly, a notion of regularity for collections of MSCs and explore its basic properties. In particular, we provide an automata-theoretic characterization of regular MSC languages in terms of finite-state distributed automata called bounded message-passing automata. These automata consist of a set of sequential processes that communicate with each other by sending and receiving messages over bounded FIFO channels. We also provide a logical characterization in terms of a natural monadic second-order logic interpreted over MSCs. A commonly used technique to generate a collection of MSCs is to use a hierarchical message sequence chart (HMSC). We show that the class of languages arising from the so-called bounded HMSCs constitute a proper subclass of the class of regular MSC languages. In fact, we characterize the bounded HMSC languages as the subclass of regular MSC languages that are finitely generated

Detonating Cord for Flux Compression Generation using Electrical Detonator No. 33

The paper highlights the use of electrical detonators for magnetic flux compression generator applications which requires synchronisation of two events with precise time delay of tens of ms and jitter within a few ms. These requirements are generally achieved by exploding bridge wire type detonators which are difficult to develop and are not commercially available. A technique has been developed using commercially available electrical detonator no. 33 to synchronise between peak of seed current in stator coil and detonation of explosive charge in armature. In present experiments, electrical signal generated by self-shorting pin due to bursting of electrical detonator has been used to trigger the capacitor discharge and the detonating cord of known length has been used to incorporate predetermined delay to synchronise the events. It has been demonstrated that using electrical detonator and known length of detonating cord, the two events can be synchronised with predetermined delay between 31 and 251 ms with variation of ± 0.5ms. The technique developed is suitable for defence applications like generation of high power microwaves using explosive driven magnetic flux compression generators.Defence Science Journal, 2011, 61(1), pp.19-24, DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/dsj.61.3

Masking effect of anti-androgens on androgenic activity in European river sediment unveiled by effect-directed analysis

This study shows that the androgen receptor agonistic potency is clearly concealed by the effects of androgen receptor antagonists in a total sediment extract, demonstrating that toxicity screening of total extracts is not enough to evaluate the full in vitro endocrine disrupting potential of a complex chemical mixture, as encountered in the environment. The anti-androgenic compounds were masking the activity of androgenic compounds in the extract with relatively high anti-androgenic potency, equivalent to 200 nmol flutamide equivalents/g dry weight. A two-step serial liquid chromatography fractionation of the extract successfully separated anti-androgenic compounds from androgenic compounds, resulting in a total androgenic potency of 3,820 pmol dihydrotestosterone equivalents/g dry weight. The fractionation simplified the chemical identification analysis of the original complex sample matrix. Seventeen chemical structures were tentatively identified. Polyaromatic hydrocarbons, a technical mixture of nonylphenol and dibutyl phthalate were identified to contribute to the anti-androgenic potency observed in the river sediment sample. With the GC/MS screening method applied here, no compounds with AR agonistic disrupting potencies could be identified. Seventy-one unidentified peaks, which represent potentially new endocrine disrupters, have been added to a database for future investigation

The satisfactory growth and development at 2 years of age of the INTERGROWTH-21st Fetal Growth Standards cohort support its appropriateness for constructing international standards.

BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization recommends that human growth should be monitored with the use of international standards. However, in obstetric practice, we continue to monitor fetal growth using numerous local charts or equations that are based on different populations for each body structure. Consistent with World Health Organization recommendations, the INTERGROWTH-21st Project has produced the first set of international standards to date pregnancies; to monitor fetal growth, estimated fetal weight, Doppler measures, and brain structures; to measure uterine growth, maternal nutrition, newborn infant size, and body composition; and to assess the postnatal growth of preterm babies. All these standards are based on the same healthy pregnancy cohort. Recognizing the importance of demonstrating that, postnatally, this cohort still adhered to the World Health Organization prescriptive approach, we followed their growth and development to the key milestone of 2 years of age. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine whether the babies in the INTERGROWTH-21st Project maintained optimal growth and development in childhood. STUDY DESIGN: In the Infant Follow-up Study of the INTERGROWTH-21st Project, we evaluated postnatal growth, nutrition, morbidity, and motor development up to 2 years of age in the children who contributed data to the construction of the international fetal growth, newborn infant size and body composition at birth, and preterm postnatal growth standards. Clinical care, feeding practices, anthropometric measures, and assessment of morbidity were standardized across study sites and documented at 1 and 2 years of age. Weight, length, and head circumference age- and sex-specific z-scores and percentiles and motor development milestones were estimated with the use of the World Health Organization Child Growth Standards and World Health Organization milestone distributions, respectively. For the preterm infants, corrected age was used. Variance components analysis was used to estimate the percentage variability among individuals within a study site compared with that among study sites. RESULTS: There were 3711 eligible singleton live births; 3042 children (82%) were evaluated at 2 years of age. There were no substantive differences between the included group and the lost-to-follow up group. Infant mortality rate was 3 per 1000; neonatal mortality rate was 1.6 per 1000. At the 2-year visit, the children included in the INTERGROWTH-21st Fetal Growth Standards were at the 49th percentile for length, 50th percentile for head circumference, and 58th percentile for weight of the World Health Organization Child Growth Standards. Similar results were seen for the preterm subgroup that was included in the INTERGROWTH-21st Preterm Postnatal Growth Standards. The cohort overlapped between the 3rd and 97th percentiles of the World Health Organization motor development milestones. We estimated that the variance among study sites explains only 5.5% of the total variability in the length of the children between birth and 2 years of age, although the variance among individuals within a study site explains 42.9% (ie, 8 times the amount explained by the variation among sites). An increase of 8.9 cm in adult height over mean parental height is estimated to occur in the cohort from low-middle income countries, provided that children continue to have adequate health, environmental, and nutritional conditions. CONCLUSION: The cohort enrolled in the INTERGROWTH-21st standards remained healthy with adequate growth and motor development up to 2 years of age, which supports its appropriateness for the construction of international fetal and preterm postnatal growth standards

Gestational Exposure to Low Dose Bisphenol A Alters Social Behavior in Juvenile Mice

Bisphenol A (BPA) is a man-made compound used to make polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins; public health concerns have been fueled by findings that BPA exposure can reduce sex differences in brain and some behaviors. We asked if a low BPA dose, within the range measured in humans, ingested during pregnancy, would affect social behaviors in prepubertal mice. We noted sex differences in social interactions whereby females spent more time sitting side-by-side, while males engaged in more exploring and sitting alone. In addition BPA increased display of nose-to-nose contacts, play solicitations and approaches in both sexes. Interactions between sex and diet were found for self grooming, social interactions while sitting side-by-side and following the other mouse. In all these cases interactions were produced by differences between control and BPA females. We examined brains from embryos during late gestation to determine if gene expression differences might be correlated with some of the sexually dimorphic or BPA affected behaviors we observed. Because BPA treatments ended at birth we took the brains during embryogenesis to increase the probability of discovering BPA mediated effects. We also selected this embryonic age (E18.5) because it coincides with the onset of sexual differentiation of the brain. Interestingly, mRNA for the glutamate transporter, Slc1a1, was enhanced by exposure to BPA in female brains. Also we noted that BPA changed the expression of two of the three DNA methyltransferase genes, Dnmt1 and Dnmt3a. We propose that BPA affects DNA methylation of Sc1a1 during neural development. Sex differences in juvenile social interactions are affected by BPA and in particular this compound modifies behavior in females