Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: During the past decade, there was a resurgent tendency in criminology to explain emerging patterns of crime within U.S. society by referring solely to dysfunctional families or dysfunctional individuals. Other criminologists questioned these latter approaches as detaching individuals and crime from the social institutions that envelope them. In light of this recent attempt to link crime to social institutions, it seems fruitful to revisit the work of one of the most astute analysts of institutional structure: C. Wright Mills.

Hence, this paper first presents an overview of Mills' sociological perspective and then endeavors to show how it might provide useful insights into institutional sources of illegal behavior. Second, the paper illustrates ways the Millsian perspective can be directly applied to an analysis of corporate crime in relation to other forms of crime emanating from the structure of contemporary U.S. society. The third section explores how the Millsian perspective can broaden understanding of the growing decline of ethics within America's: leading industries, governmental agencies, and criminal justice system. The paper concludes by addressing policy implications, particularly in regard to the prospects of linking the Millsian perspective with basic tenets of peacemaking criminology.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper considers implications of the neoliberal shift for forms of national integration that were achieved in sub-Saharan Africa during the developmentalist era. National integration strategies pursued during the developmentalist era created and helped to manage regional competition within not-completely-integrated national units. This was the old territorial politics. The argument here is that the neoliberal shift makes old strategies of national integration difficult to sustain. What has emerged is a new territorial politics, which revolves around attempts to consolidate power within sub-units of the state and reorder relations among them, to enforce political control within communities, and to reorder rural property rights. The paper argues that the new territorial politics is structured by four institutional legacies of the developmentalist era: indirect rule, discriminatory allocation of local citizenship rights, spatially fragmented markets for land and labor, the build-up of regional caciques or strongmen. The neoliberal turn reveals spatial and territorial aspects of state-formation strategies that were not so obvious, or did not seem so politically salient, in the earlier period. Côte d’Ivoire provides a case in point.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: For most substantive relevant ecological inference problems scholars face a R x C table from which only the marginals
can be observed. We argue that most frequent used ecological inference methods are computationally demanding and are inefficient since they do not make use of all the information that is available. We take a fresh look at an estimator that was precisely developed for these kinds of problems: EMax. This estimator utilizes more available information at the estimation stage than previous ecological inference estimators in the literature. As methodological innovation that remedy the main disadvantage of EMax in substantive applications, we derive model-based standard errors. Further we examine their validity by means of a simulation study and demonstrate their use in an application to the estimation of split-ticket voting in New Zealand voting districts.

Publication Type: Poster
Abstract: Hematopoiesis is regulated by a number of growth factors and cytokines, among which stem cell factor (SCF) plays a critical role for normal hematopoiesis. An important feature of SCF is its strong capability to synergize with the cytokines including IL-3, GM-CSF and EPO to regulate hematopoietic lineage differentiations. Our previous studies indicated that synergistic proliferation of the mouse hematopoietic progenitor cell line EML induced by SCF in combination with IL-3 was probably mediated by the synergistic increases in tyrosine phosphorylation of c-Kit and IL-3 receptor β-chain. The trans-phosphorylation between c-Kit and IL-3 receptor β-chain was also observed in both Lin-CD34+ and Lin-CD34- EML cells. In the research for the molecular mechanism behind the synergy between SCF and IL-3 we found that c-Kit and IL-3 receptor β-chain form a complex in EML cells. Antibody Ab-1 specific against c-Kit Ig-like domain 4 involving in the dimerazation of c-Kit inhibited the synergistic phosphorylation of c-Kit at Tyr719 and its downstream mediator Akt induced by the combination SCF and IL-3. SCF and IL-3 in combination synergistically activated Erks, and the phosphorylation of Erks is independent on the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3-kinase) pathway. These data suggested the possibility that the synergistic growth of EML cells induced by SCF in combination with IL-3 was mediated by multiple mechanisms that could include trans- and synergistic phosphorylation of c-Kit and IL-3 receptor β-chain, PI3-kinase dependent synergistic phosphorylation of Akt and PI3-kinase independent synergistic phosphorylation of Erks.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Hispanics are one of the fastest growing ethnic minority
groups in the United States today. Indeed, the Latino share of the
population projected to rise to 24 percent by 2050, and Hispanics recently
eclipsed African-Americans as the largest racial/ethnic minority in the
U.S. (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2003).
Though Latinos comprise a large and growing segment of the population,
they have historically been underrepresented in the political realm.
This has been due to a number of factors, from discrimination and
language barriers to low voting turnout in the Hispanic community.
Under-representation has been especially acute in the area of judicial
politics. Latinos have historically comprised a relatively small
percentage of the federal bench, their numbers have been increasing in
recent years.
In order to learn more about the judicial decision-making by this
growing cohort, my research seeks to determine if Latino judges in the
federal courts exhibit decision-making differences vís a vís their
non-Latino colleagues. While some prior research has touched upon this
question (Segal 2000), such research has been limited in its
methodology and scope of analysis. My study utilizes unique,
wide-ranging data looking at judges appointed by multiple presidents
over a multi-year period. Analyzing data from over 20,000 published
decisions by Latino and non-Latino federal district court judges
decided from 1968 to 2000, conclusions will be drawn about how powerful
the judicial attribute of ethnicity is in predicting case
outcomes.