Going to Prison: The Effect of a Prison Tour on Students’ Attitudes Toward Punitiveness

The pedagogical approaches of a criminal justice education affect the attitudes and perceptions of those most likely to develop and administer criminal justice policies in the future. This study examines the effect of a prison tour on students’ understanding of prison and attitudes about punishment. Undergraduate criminal justice students were given a survey to assess their attitudes about prisons, prisoners, and alternative sanctions before and after a field trip to the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility. Post-survey responses showed changes in students’ perceptions regarding punitiveness, prisons, prisoners, and rehabilitation. We discuss this finding within the framework of the contact hypothesis, and we recommend including this type of first-hand exposure as part of a criminal justice curriculum.     

Unpacking the Impacts of a Universal Parenting Program on Child Behavior

This study examined the theory of change of the ACT Raising Safe Kids parenting program, including whether intervention effects on children's behavior problems were explained by improvements in mothers’ reported parenting practices, as well as whether baseline child behavior problems moderated these relations. Adult mothers of 3-to 8-year-old Brazilian children were assigned to the intervention (n = 97) or control (n = 46) groups. Results showed that the intervention improved mothers' perceptions of their parenting practices (positive discipline, emotional and behavioral regulation, and communication). Intervention-induced reductions in children’s internalizing and externalizing behavior problems were mediated by improvements in mothers’ emotional and behavioral regulation. Program effects were strongest for children with high levels of baseline behavior problems.     

The promise of curriculum in the post-Covid world: Eclecticism,deliberation, and a return to the practical and the prophetic

PROSPECTS - This article focuses on the possibilities through which curriculum on the other side of the Covid-19 pandemic might contribute more proactively to future social and political crises...     

Oxidant and antioxidant status in vegetarians and fish eaters

An adequate antioxidant reserve which is usually present in a vegetarian diet is associated with higher life expectancy. On the other hand habitual consumption of fish is associated with lower risk of cardiovascular diseases which is attributed to the polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) present in it. However the PUFA are readily susceptible to oxidation leading to the formation of free radicals which is known to be involved in the causation of several diseases. The oxidant-antioxidant status of 23 vegetarians and 22 fish eaters was studied by determining the plasma lipid peroxides measured as malondialdehyde (MDA) and the antioxidants, viz. glutathione (GSH), ascorbic acid, ceruloplasmin and uric acid. Results show that the ascorbic acid values were significantly higher in vegetarians. In addition, MDA correlated negatively with ascorbic acid only in vegetarians. However, correlation of MDA with glutathione showed a significant negative correlation only in fish eaters. There was no statistically significant difference in the MDA, GSH, ceruloplasmin and uric acid levels. The mechanism behind these findings are not clear and needs to be explored.     

Strategies in pharmaceutical research

Until comparatively recently the only systematic means of discovering new biologically active substances was laboriously to screen very large numbers of compounds. Now, however, computer graphics is replacing this crude shotgun technique and making it possible to display in some detail the conformation of substances before they are synthesized and determine how far they match the essential features of those in which the biological activity desired has already been demonstrated.     

Technology transfer revisited from the perspective of the knowledge-based economy

This contribution proposes a revised framework for understanding and analyzing the process of technology transfer in the perspective of the knowledge-based economy (KBE). The underlying hypothesis is that the context of the knowledge-based economy introduces a major shift in the way technology transfer is conceived. The traditional model of technology transfer was based on the vision of technology moving from one well-defined economic unit to another well-defined unit. We suggest that in the new perspective technology transfer is essentially considered as a specific knowledge-transfer process that depends on the ways firms and other institutions manage knowledge, in particular the co-evolution of their absorptive capabilities and their knowledge-transmission strategies. To support the theoretical analysis, we analyze the business case of Nortel Networks over the past 50 years.     

Serum and urinary zinc in zinc miners and zinc smelters

Serum (200.6±64.8 mg/dl) and urinary zinc (1186.0±265.5 mg/l.) of zinc miners at Zawar were significantly higher as compared to zinc smelter workers (Serum 89.7±9.9. mg/dl; Urine 590.0±32.1 mg/l.). Debari and Udaipur residents (Serum 104.0±18.6 mg/dl; Urine 735.0±180.2 mg/l.). This was most likely attributable to higher dietary zinc intake by zinc miners due to higher zinc content of foodstuffs grown in Zawar areas as compared to Debari and Udaipur.     

Purification and mechanism of action of antitubercular principle from garlic (Allium sativum) active against isoniazid susceptible and resistantMycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv

Allicin was prepared from the ethanol extract of garlic without the use of heat. It inhibited the growth ofMycobacterium tuberculosis H₃₇R_v andM. tuberculosis TRC-C 1193 resistant to isoniazid completely when grown as surface cultures as well as shake cultures. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was 70 μg/ml for both organisms. Further purification of allicin over silica gel-G columns gave a chloroform elutable fraction called CEF-allicin which inhibited the growth of both the susceptible and the isoniazid resistant strains ofM. tuberculosis. Its MIC is 25 μg/ml and is the lowest reported so far when compared with very high inhibitory concentration of 1 to 3mg/ml reported by other workers. It completely inhibited the synthesis of lipids and DNA from¹⁴C-acetate and³H-thymidine respectively and almost completely that of proteins and glycine derived carbohydrates from¹⁴C-glycine ofM. tuberculosis within 6 hr of exposure to CEF-allicin.