Racial prejudice and support by whites for police use of force : A research note

The use of force by police in a democratic society continues to be controversial. Despite the theoretical and practical importance of police use of force, little is known about the sources of public attitudes toward it. Recent research suggests that whites\u27 approval of police use of force may derive partly from racial prejudice against African Americans. In this paper we test this possibility with data from the 1990 General Social Survey and find that negative stereotypes of African Americans contribute to whites\u27 support for police use of excessive force. We also address the theoretical and pragmatic significance of our findings

Religion and Spiritual Experience: Revisiting Key Assumptions in Sociology

In this paper, we examine the dominant materialist assumption that there is an inherent conflict between sociology, religion, and spirituality. We will suggest that such a conflict is not fundamental and that accepting the possibility that religious experiences might reflect contact with a transcendent reality can enrich the theoretical possibilities of sociology, supplementing rather than replacing existing insights

Gay Movements and Legal Change: Some Aspects of the Dynamics of a Social Problem

This paper examines public opinion and media coverage surrounding four important events which affected the development of homosexual rights in Maine in the 1970s: the birth of a homosexual student group on a University of Maine campus and the conference it organized; the adoption of a gay rights plank in the election platform of the state\u27s Democratic Party; revisions to the state\u27s criminal code which decriminalized homosexual activities; and a second conference organized by the student group. Only the first event aroused major public outcry. We describe these events in detail, examine how the media covered them, and analyze why some were more controversial than others. Our analysis shows how differing levels of control over the media affect the rise and resolution of public issues

The Political-Economy of Nuclear Power 1946-1982

The dissertation seeks to explain the pattern of nuclear power development in the United States, treating the subject as a case study of how major infrastructural development choices are made in a modern capitalist economy. Because such decisions are laden with uncertainty and sensitive to numerous scale economies, different technologies may be able to win enduring market dominance if first in capturing scale and other critical mass efficiencies. Recognition of this potential can spur political-economic interests to attempt to capture critical mass for congenial technologies, in pursuit of economic rents or positive political externalities. The main concept adduced in the thesis to organize nuclear history is that of an Official Technology (OT). The latter enjoys strong state support, the promoted image of the coming technology and capture of critical mass advantages. The dissertation analyzes the incentive key political-economic interests had for promoting nuclear power to OT status 1946-1974 and the mechanisms used by these groups to facilitate nuclear explansion. An OT differential , tallying the microeconomic impact of nuclear\u27s capture of OT status is calculated. Included in the differential are the benefits of: scale economies, learning curve cost reductions, federal subsidies and regulatory incentives, misleading information environments and bureaucratic momentum. Nuclear\u27s decline after 1974 is tied to the erosion of this differential by a political challenge to the technology\u27s OT status. The dissertation\u27s key claim is that the OT framework can uncover socio-political roots for technical choice decisions that appear determined solely by engineering parameters in a static, a-historical framework

Nucleotide sequence of the luxA gene of Vibrio harveyi and the complete amino acid sequence of the alpha subunit of bacterial luciferase

The nucleotide sequence of the 1.85-kilobase EcoRI fragment from Vibrio harveyi that was cloned using a mixed-sequence synthetic oligonucleotide probe (Cohn, D. H., Ogden, R. C., Abelson, J. N., Baldwin, T. O., Nealson, K. H., Simon, M. I., and Mileham, A. J. (1983) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 80, 120-123) has been determined. The alpha subunit-coding region (luxA) was found to begin at base number 707 and end at base number 1771. The alpha subunit has a calculated molecular weight of 40,108 and comprises a total of 355 amino acid residues. There are 34 base pairs separating the start of the alpha subunit structural gene and a 669-base open reading frame extending from the proximal EcoRI site. At the 3' end of the luxA coding region there are 26 bases between the end of the structural gene and the start of the luxB structural gene. Approximately two-thirds of the alpha subunit was sequenced by protein chemical techniques. The amino acid sequence implied by the DNA sequence, with few exceptions, confirmed the chemically determined sequence. Regions of the alpha subunit thought to comprise the active center were found to reside in two discrete and relatively basic regions, one from around residues 100-115 and the second from around residues 280-295

The promoter for intestinal cell kinase is head-to-head with F-Box 9 and contains functional sites for TCF7L2 and FOXA factors

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Intestinal cell kinase (ICK; GeneID 22858) is a conserved MAPK and CDK-like kinase that is widely expressed in human tissues. Data from the Cancer Genome Anatomy Project indicated ICK mRNA is increased in cancer, and that its expression correlated with expression of mRNA for an uncharacterized F-box protein, FBX9 (GeneID: 26268). <it>ICK </it>and <it>FBX9 </it>genes are arranged head-to-head on opposite strands, with start sites for transcription separated by ~3.3 kb. We hypothesized ICK and FBX9 are potentially important genes in cancer controlled by a bidirectional promoter.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We assessed promoter activity of the intergenic region in both orientations in cancer cell lines derived from breast (AU565, SKBR3), colon (HCT-15, KM12), and stomach (AGS) cancers, as well as in embryonic human kidney (HEK293T) cells. The intergenic segment was active in both orientations in all of these lines, and ICK promoter activity was greater than FBX9 promoter activity. Results from deletions and truncations defined a minimal promoter for ICK, and revealed that repressors and enhancers differentially regulate ICK versus FBX9 promoter activity. The ICK promoter contains consensus motifs for several FOX-family transcription factors that align when mouse and human are compared using EMBOSS. FOXA1 and FOXA2 increase luciferase activity of a minimal promoter 10-20 fold in HEK293T cells. Consensus sites for TCF7L2 (TCF4) (Gene Id: 6934) are also present in both mouse and human. The expression of β-catenin increased activity of the minimal promoter ~10 fold. ICK reference mRNAs (NM_014920.3, NM_016513) are expressed in low copy number and increased in some breast cancers, using a ten base tag 5'-TCAACCTTAT-3' specific for both ICK transcripts.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p><it>ICK </it>and <it>FBX9 </it>are divergently transcribed from a bidirectional promoter that is GC-rich and contains a CpG island. A minimal promoter for <it>ICK </it>contains functional sites for β-cateinin/TCF7L2 and FOXA. These data are consistent with functions that have been proposed for ICK in development and in proliferation or survival of some breast and colon cancers.</p

Catalyzing Rebellion: An Introduction to the Mobilization in Miniature Project

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/50913/1/138.pd

Cardiopulmonary bypass, myocardial management, and support techniques Changes in autonomic response of the cerebral circulation after normothermic extracorporeal circulation

AbstractPatients who undergo cardiopulmonary bypass frequently have neuropsychologic dysfunction. This study was undertaken to determine whether altered cerebral perfusion and vascular responses may in part lead to these neuropsychologic changes. Pigs were placed on normothermic cardiopulmonary bypass for 2 hours. Basal cerebral blood flow and in vivo responses to administration by internal carotid artery of neuronally released vasoactive substances were evaluated before and 5 to 15 minutes after termination of cardiopulmonary bypass. Another group of pigs were placed on cardiopulmonary bypass for 2 hours and then perfused off bypass for 1 additional hour. In vitro responses of cerebral arterial microvessels (100 to 175 μm) from both groups were examined in a pressurized (40 mm Hg) no-flow state with videomicroscopy. Vessels from uninstrumented pigs served as control preparations for in vitro studies. Cerebrovascular resistance and cerebral perfusion were maintained constant during cardiopulmonary bypass and after separation from bypass. The internal carotid artery infusion of acetylcholine (cholinergic agonist) caused increased internal carotid artery blood flow before cardiopulmonary bypass but decreased blood flow after cardiopulmonary bypass. After 2 hours of cardiopulmonary bypass, the increase in internal carotid artery blood flow induced by isoproterenol (a β-adrenoceptor agonist) was reduced, whereas the response to sodium nitroprusside (a guanylate cyclase activator) was unchanged. In vitro acetylcholine-induced microvascular vasodilation was converted to a contractile response and isoproterenol elicited less relaxation after 2 hours of cardiopulmonary bypass. One hour of cerebral perfusion after cardiopulmonary bypass caused a further reduction in isoproterenol-induced relaxation but had no further effect on the cholinergically mediated response. In vitro relaxation responses to sodium nitroprusside and forskolin (an adenylate cyclase activator) were similar in all experimental groups, suggesting that second-messenger mechanisms remain intact after normothermic cardiopulmonary bypass. In conclusion, basal cerebrovascular resistance and internal carotid artery blood flow are maintained if the systemic circulation and pressure are supported with fluid administration after cardiopulmonary bypass. Agonist-induced vasodilation of cerebral microvessels to cholinergic and β-adrenoceptor stimulation are selectively impaired after normothermic cardiopulmonary bypass, whereas second-messenger mechanisms remain intact. (J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 1996;112:450-61