Modeling Inflation in Singapore: An econometric bottom-up approach

Master'sMASTER OF SOCIAL SCIENCE

Gender, Race, and the Politics of Crime Rhetoric

Since the mid-1970s, the United States has taken a punitive policy turn and incarcerated more of its citizens than any other industrialized democracy. To explain the rise of the carceral state, extant research has focused mainly on the influence of the punitive public or the public speeches of conservative national male leaders. Yet, we do not know much about the political rhetoric adopted by women and racial/ethnic minorities. Do women and racial/ethnic minority leaders talk about crime in distinct ways? Are women and racial/ethnic minority more or less likely to adopt tough-on-crime rhetoric and non-punitive rhetoric than men and whites? Is there an interactive effect of demographic and social identities on crime rhetoric? This dissertation aims to answer these questions. The existing literature provides two theoretical narratives to understand how political elites bring out a carceral state. One focuses on the racial politics and the other is derived from the social construction theory of target population. While both lines of research successfully demonstrate the political nature of mass incarceration, neither of them explores the possible variation in crime rhetoric among political elites. To fill in this knowledge gap, I use the literature of descriptive representation and stereotypes of voters to demonstrate why female and racial/ethnic minority elites may have distinct voices in the public discourse on crime. In the first empirical chapter of my dissertation, I use Google’s Speech-to-Text API to tran- scribe more than 1100 political ad videos in 2012 and 2016 into an original text dataset. Using structural topic models, I find that female candidates, particularly Democratic women, are more likely to discuss crimes against women than their male counterparts. I also find women are less likely to adopt a punitive stance by avoiding highlighting powerless and negatively viewed social groups. There was also a marked difference in their vocabularies used to discuss criminal justice issues. In the second empirical chapter, I examine the cause and consequence of gendered voices in crime rhetoric. I conduct a survey experiment to test a 2X2 research design in which the rhetoric used and gender of the candidate are randomly varied in embedded political ads. Focusing on the impact of gender stereotypes, I find that adopting tough-on-crime rhetoric does not dispropor- tionately lower the rating of female candidates, but using rehabilitation rhetoric will. I also find that only male candidates’ tough-on-crime rhetoric has a framing effect on the public. The last empirical chapter focuses on the crime rhetoric of Blacks and Latinxs. Using traditional content analysis, I find evidence for descriptive representation of Latinx candidates as they are more likely to discuss illegal immigration and less likely to support decriminalization of illegal immigrants than whites. But I do not find that African American candidates attach more attention to the topic of incarceration/sentencing than whites. They are also just like their white peers regarding the use of war-on-drugs rhetoric. My dissertation makes several contributions to the literature. First, it increases our knowledge about descriptive representation. It shows that descriptive representation does not always enhance substance substantive representation. It depends on how women and racial/ethnic minor- ity leaders understand the issue and how they perceive the target population of crime policies based on their life experience. It is also conditioned on the interaction of different demographic and so- cial identities. Second, this project shows how electoral concerns shape the crime rhetoric adopted by women and racial/ethnic minority politicians. Finally, I demonstrate how to use machines to analyze political discourse from videos and audios. This innovative approach allows scholars to analyze a large collection of rhetoric text without massive funding support. It also illustrates how to use structural topic modeling to measure crime rhetoric

Extracts of Zuo Jin Wan, a traditional Chinese medicine, phenocopies 5-HTR1D antagonist in attenuating Wnt/β-catenin signaling in colorectal cancer cells

Abstract Background In vitro and in vivo studies have shown that Zuo Jin Wan (ZJW), a herbal formula of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), possessed anticancer properties. However, the underlying mechanism for the action of ZJW remains unclear. Various subtypes of 5-Hydroxytryptamine receptor (5-HTR) have been shown to play a role in carcinogenesis and cancer metastasis. 5-HTR1D, among the subtypes, is highly expressed in colorectal cancer (CRC) cell lines and tissues. The present study aimed at investigating effect of ZJW extracts on the biological function of CRC cells, the expression of 5-HTR1D, and molecules of Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. Methods In this study, the effect of ZJW extracts on 5-HTR1D expression and Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway were investigated and contrasted with GR127935 (GR), a known 5-HTR1D antagonist, using the CRC cell line SW403. The cells were respectively treated with GR127935 and different doses of ZJW extracts. Proliferation, apoptosis, migration, and invasion of SW403 cells were compared between ZJW and GR127935 treatments. The expression of 5-HTR1D and signaling molecules involved in the canonic Wnt/β-catenin pathway were determined by Western blot analysis. Results After ZJW extracts treatment and GR127935 treatment, G1 arrest in cell cycle of SW403 was increased. Cell apoptosis was pronounced, and cell migration and invasion were suppressed. SW403 cells showed a dose-dependently decreased expression of 5-HTR1D, meanwhile, β-catenin level was significantly decreased in nucleus of cells cultured with GR127935. Treatment of ZJW extracts dose-dependently resulted in decreased 5-HTR1D and a concomitant reduction in the Wnt/β-catenin signal transduction, an effect indistinguishable from GR127935 treatment. Conclusion The anticancer activity of ZJW extracts may be partially achieved through attenuation of the 5-HTR1D-Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway

Increased ARPP-19 Expression Is Associated with Hepatocellular Carcinoma

The cAMP-regulated phosphoprotein 19 (ARPP-19) plays a key role in cell mitotic G2/M transition. Expression of ARPP-19 was increased in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) compared to adjacent non-tumorous liver tissues in 36 paired liver samples, and the level of ARPP-19 in HCC tissues was positively correlated with the tumor size. To determine the interrelationship between ARPP-19 expression and HCC, we silenced ARPP-19 expression in the human hepatocarcinoma HepG2 and SMMC-7721 cells using lentivirus encoding ARPP-19 siRNA. HepG2 and SMMC-7721 cells with ARPP-19 knockdown displayed lowered cell growth rate, retarded colony formation and increased arrest at the G2/M phase transition. Silencing ARPP-19 in HCC cells resulted in decreased protein levels of phospho-(Ser) CDKs substrates and increased levels of inactivated cyclin division cycle 2 (Cdc2). Therefore, ARPP-19 may play a role in HCC pathogenesis through regulating cell proliferation