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Legal Punishment as Civil Ritual: Making Cultural Sense of Harsh Punishment
Get PDFThis article is an excerpt American Prisons: A Critical Primer on Culture and Conversion to Islam. The central aim of this chapter is to examine the post-civil rights push toward harsh punishment through the cultural lens of ritual. The United States is one of the most punitive countries on the planet--the country is the world leader in imprisonment and is one of the top five that executes capital defendants. However, determining the catalysts of this turn to harsh punishment has proved vexing. Scholars have adequately explained how the end of the welfare state, followed by a proliferation of drug laws, police profiling, plea bargaining, and tough on crime law and policy were the major forces behind mass incarceration. This chapter’s ritual framework helps explain why
Validation of temporal and spatial consistency of facility- and speed-specific vehicle-specific power distributions for emission estimation: A case study in Beijing, China
No full textVehicle-specific power (VSP) has been found to be highly correlated with vehicle emissions and is used in many studies on emission modeling, e.g., Motor Vehicle Emissions Simulator (MOVES) model. The existing studies develop specific VSP distributions or OpMode distribution in MOVES for different road types and various average speeds to represent the vehicle operating modes on road. The temporal and spatial consistency of the facility- and speed-specific VSP distributions in Beijing was investigated. The VSP distributions in different years and in different areas were developed, based on real-world vehicle activity data. The root mean square error was applied to quantify the difference between the VSP distributions. The maximum differences of the VSP distributions between different years and between different areas were approximately 20% of that between different road types. The analysis of the CO2 emission factor indicated that the temporal and spatial differences of the VSP distributions have no great impact on vehicle emission estimation, with relative error of less than 3%. The database of the specific VSP distributions in the VSP-based emission models can maintain in terms of time. Thus, it is unnecessary to update the database regularly, and it is reliable to use the history vehicle activity data to forecast the emissions in the future
Strategic Joining and Optimal Pricing in the Cognitive Radio System With Delay-Sensitive Secondary Users
No full textThe transmission times with generally random distributed for both primary user (PU) and secondary user (SU) in a cognitive radio system with a single PU band is investigated. To characterize the random access protocols of wireless networks, a retrial queueing system is employed to model the decentralized and centralized behavior of SUs. Based on the tradeoff between the service reward and the delay cost, each SU must decide whether to join or balk the system upon arrival based on different levels of information provided by the system. Two situations in which SUs have no information or partially observable information are studied. In each situation, two kinds of strategies are considered: 1) individual equilibrium strategies (i.e., non-cooperative strategies) that maximize SUs\u27 own profit and 2) socially optimal strategies (i.e., cooperative strategies) that maximize the expected social welfare. Moreover, comparisons are carried out between these two kinds of strategies. The results indicate that the equilibrium joining probability in the non-cooperative case is not less than the optimal joining probability in the cooperative case. To regulate the SUs\u27 behavior, an equilibrium pricing scheme is proposed to make these strategies coincide. In addition, we observe that the expected delay and the mean number of SUs in the system only depend on the first two moments of the SU\u27s transmission time. Numerical examples also show that the partially observable queue is more profitable from the perspective of the social planner
Identification of candidate genes associated with triple negative breast cancer
No full textWhen triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) are analyzed by gene expression profiling different subclasses are identified, at least one characterized by genes related to immune signaling mechanisms supporting the role of these genes in the cancers. In an earlier study we observed differences in TNBC cell lines with respect to their expression of the cytokine IL32. Our analyses showed that certain cell lines expressed higher levels of the cytokine compared to others. Because TNBC are heterogeneous and immune-related genes appear to play a pivotal role in these cancers, we chose to examine the transcriptomes of the different cell lines based on IL32 expression. We performed group analyses of TNBC cell lines demonstrating high IL32 compared to low IL32 levels and identified IL32, GATA3, MYBL1, ETS1, PTX3 and TMEM158 as differentially associated with a subpopulation of TNBC. The six candidate genes were validated experimental and in different patient datasets. The genes distinguished a subset of TNBC from other TNBC, and TNBC from normal, luminal A, luminal B, and HER2 patient samples. The current project serves as a preliminary study in which we outline the discovery and validation of our list of six candidate genes
Drivers\u27 smart advisory system improves driving performance at STOP sign intersections
No full textSTOP signs are often physically blocked by obstacles at the corner, forming a safety threat. To enhance the safety at an un-signalized intersection like a STOP sign intersection, a radio frequency identification (RFID) based drivers smart advisory system (DSAS) was developed, which provides drivers with an earlier warning message when they are approaching an un-signalized intersection. In this research, a pilot field test was conducted with the DSAS alarm on an approach towards a STOP sign intersection in a residential area in Houston, Texas. The designed test route covers all turning movements, including left turn, through movement, and right turn. GPS units recorded test drivers\u27 driving behaviors. A self-developed MATLAB program and statistically significant difference t-test were applied to analyze the impacts of the DSAS messages on drivers\u27 driving performance, in terms of approaching speed profile, acceleration/deceleration rates, braking distance, and possible extra vehicle emissions induced by the introduction of the DSAS message. Drivers\u27 preference on the DSAS was investigated by a designed survey questionnaire among test drivers. Results showed that the DSAS alarm was able to induce drivers to drive significantly slower to approach a STOP sign intersection, perform smaller fluctuation in acceleration/deceleration rates, and be more aware of a coming STOP sign indicated by decelerating earlier. All test drivers preferred to follow the DSAS alarm on roads for a safety concern. Further, the DSAS alarm caused the reduction in emission rates through movement. For a general observation, more road tests with more participants and different test routes were recommended
Relations between the dynamics of network systems and their subnetworks
No full textStatistical analysis of the connectivity of real world networks have revealed interesting features such as community structure, network motif and as on. Such discoveries tempt us to understand the dynamics of a complex network system by studying those of its subnetworks. This approach is feasible only if the dynamics of the subnetwork systems can somehow be preserved or partially preserved in the whole system. Most works studied the connectivity structures of networks while very few considered the possibility of translating the dynamics of a subnetwork system to the whole system. In this paper, we address this issue by focusing on considering the relations between cycles and fixed points of a network system and those of its subnetworks based on Boolean framework. We proved that at a condition we called agreeable, if X0 is a fixed point of the whole system, then X0 restricted to the phase-space of one of the subnetwork systems must be a fixed point as well. An equivalent statement on cycles follows from this result. In addition, we discussed the relations between the product of the transition diagrams (a representation of trajectories) of subnetwork systems and the transition diagram of the whole system
Algorithms and identities for bivariate (H1, H2)-Blossoming
No full textWe extend the definition of h-blossoming for polynomials in one variable to the polynomials in two variables, and we use this bivariate (h1, h2)- blossoming to study various properties, identities, and algorithms associated with (h1, h2)-Bézier surfaces. We construct a recursive (h1, h2)-midpoint subdivision algorithm for the (h1, h2)-Bézier surfaces and we prove its geometric rate of convergence
Spatial statistical analysis of the effects of urban form indicators on road-traffic noise exposure of a city in South Korea
No full textThe purpose of this study is to present a statistical model which can predict the noise level of road-traffic in urban area. A spatial statistical model which can take into account spatial dependency on geographically neighboring areas is constructed from a noise map of a city in South Korea. A system of 250 m × 250 m grid cells is placed on the city of Cheongju, South Korea, and the noise level and urban form indicators are averaged over each cell. The population-weighted mean of the noise level is subsequently regressed on the average urban form by adopting the spatial autoregressive model (SAR) and the spatial error model (SEM), as well as an ordinary least squares (OLS) model. Direct and indirect impacts are analyzed for a valid interpretation of the spatial statistical models. Factors such as GSI, FSI, traffic volume, traffic speed, road area density, and the fraction of industrial area turn out to have significant impacts on the noise level
Representative Bureaucracy, Street-Level Bureaucrats and Bureaucratic Discretion in Federal Disaster Assistance
Get PDFThis paper explores the role of representative bureaucracy and bureaucratic discretion in the allocation of federal disaster assistance to Hurricane Sandy survivors. Through the analysis of focus groups and key informant interviews, this study finds that FEMA home inspectors are not diverse in reference to race and gender; however, inspectors are found to be diverse in reference to place of origin. Although the role that race and gender play in the allocation of resources is found to be unclear, the region from which inspectors come from is found to be influential in the allocation of aid to survivors. As such, this research argues that the study of representative bureaucracy should not be limited to issues of race and gender, but be expanded to include other potentially important characteristics
Therapeutic potential of chemically modified siRNA: Recent trends
No full textSmall interfering RNAs (siRNAs) are one of the valuable tools to investigate the functions of genes and are also used for gene silencing. It has a wide scope in drug discovery through in vivo target validation. siRNA therapeutics are not optimal drug-like molecules due to poor bioavailability and immunogenic and off-target effects. To overcome the challenges associated with siRNA therapeutics, identification of appropriate chemical modifications that improves the stability, specificity and potency of siRNA is essential. This review focuses on the various chemical modifications and their implications in siRNA therapy