Vulnerability, Resilience and Well-being of Intermarriage: An Ethnographic Approach to Korean Women

Korean women who immigrate into the U.S. following their American husbands face a harsh reality. A new Korean wife and American husband may find themselves in unfamiliar situations that expose their marital life to vulnerability and cause their marriage to end quickly. This study endeavors to describe the diverse patterns of inequality in the marital life of select couples, and the resilience that Korean women display in their American lives after marital crises, such as divorce. The study also explores the relationship between “social factors,” including financial status, familial relations, age, activities in the community, and the situation of “psychosocial well-being” among such Korean women. Through intensive interviews of Korean women who married American soldiers, the study shows that differences in culture, income, and the historical hierarchy inherent in the political/military relationship between South Korea and the U.S. are significant in explaining the social and psychological well-being of Korean women and their modes of survival and adaptation to life in American society. The cases analyzed in this study demonstrated that these women were weak and vulnerable socially as well as psychologically

Work-related correlates of occupational sitting in a diverse sample of employees in Midwest metropolitan cities

The worksite serves as an ideal setting to reduce sedentary time. Yet little research has focused on occupational sitting, and few have considered factors beyond the personal or socio-demographic level. The current study i) examined variation in occupational sitting across different occupations, ii) explored whether worksite level factors (e.g., employer size, worksite supports and policies) may be associated with occupational sitting. Between 2012 and 2013, participants residing in four Missouri metropolitan areas were interviewed via telephone and provided information on socio-demographic characteristics, schedule flexibility, occupation, work related factors, and worksite supports and policies. Occupational sitting was self-reported (daily minutes spent sitting at work), and dichotomized. Occupation-stratified analyses were conducted to identify correlates of occupational sitting using multiple logistic regressions. A total of 1668 participants provided completed data. Those employed in business and office/administrative support spent more daily occupational sitting time (median 330 min) compared to service and blue collar employees (median 30 min). Few worksite supports and policies were sitting specific, yet factors such as having a full-time job, larger employer size, schedule flexibility, and stair prompt signage were associated with occupational sitting. For example, larger employer size was associated with higher occupational sitting in health care, education/professional, and service occupations. Work-related factors, worksite supports and policies are associated with occupational sitting. The pattern of association varies among different occupation groups. This exploratory work adds to the body of research on worksite level correlates of occupational sitting. This may provide information on priority venues for targeting highly sedentary occupation groups

Development of stable marker-free nuclear transformation strategy in the green microalga Chlorella vulgaris

Although microalgae have valuable resources with great necessity in many biotechnological applications, no tools have been developed yet for a stable genetic transformation without antibiotic marker genes in these organisms. Chlorella is one of the most useful genus for biotechnological applications. The transfer of foreign DNA (vector or linear DNA cassette) into Chlorella by electroporation has very low stability and it is hard to screen the transformants without antibiotic marker genes. However, the marker genes have some disadvantages to host cells. To avoid the negative effects caused by the marker genes, we tried to develop a stable marker-free nuclear transformation system in Chlorella. For this, linear gene expression cassettes (LGEC) were constructed with functional domains, which are responsible for transformation, of SV40 large T antigen. The LGECs were transferred into Chlorella via electroporation and durability of the LGECs were confirmed in transgenic Chlorella. Transcription levels of the LGECs were also determined at different cell cycle sates. The LGECs integrated into the chromosomal DNA of Chlorella were stably replicated and were expressed successfully at G0-, G1-, and G2-phases. This study presents a stable marker-free nuclear transformation system with potential for biotechnological applications.Key words: Chlorella vulgaris, marker-free nuclear transformation, SV40 large T antigen, microalga

Inverse-designed diamond photonics

Diamond hosts optically active color centers with great promise in quantum computation, networking, and sensing. Realization of such applications is contingent upon the integration of color centers into photonic circuits. However, current diamond quantum optics experiments are restricted to single devices and few quantum emitters because fabrication constraints limit device functionalities, thus precluding color center integrated photonic circuits. In this work, we utilize inverse design methods to overcome constraints of cutting-edge diamond nanofabrication methods and fabricate compact and robust diamond devices with unique specifications. Our design method leverages advanced optimization techniques to search the full parameter space for fabricable device designs. We experimentally demonstrate inverse-designed photonic free-space interfaces as well as their scalable integration with two vastly different devices: classical photonic crystal cavities and inverse-designed waveguide-splitters. The multi-device integration capability and performance of our inverse-designed diamond platform represents a critical advancement toward integrated diamond quantum optical circuits

A memetic algorithm with adaptive hill climbing strategy for dynamic optimization problems

Copyright @ Springer-Verlag 2008Dynamic optimization problems challenge traditional evolutionary algorithms seriously since they, once converged, cannot adapt quickly to environmental changes. This paper investigates the application of memetic algorithms, a class of hybrid evolutionary algorithms, for dynamic optimization problems. An adaptive hill climbing method is proposed as the local search technique in the framework of memetic algorithms, which combines the features of greedy crossover-based hill climbing and steepest mutation-based hill climbing. In order to address the convergence problem, two diversity maintaining methods, called adaptive dual mapping and triggered random immigrants, respectively, are also introduced into the proposed memetic algorithm for dynamic optimization problems. Based on a series of dynamic problems generated from several stationary benchmark problems, experiments are carried out to investigate the performance of the proposed memetic algorithm in comparison with some peer evolutionary algorithms. The experimental results show the efficiency of the proposed memetic algorithm in dynamic environments.This work was supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (NSFC) under Grant Nos. 70431003 and 70671020, the National Innovation Research Community Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 60521003, and the National Support Plan of China under Grant No. 2006BAH02A09 and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) of UK under Grant EP/E060722/01

The multi-omic landscape of transcription factor inactivation in cancer

BACKGROUND: Hypermethylation of transcription factor promoters bivalently marked in stem cells is a cancer hallmark. However, the biological significance of this observation for carcinogenesis is unclear given that most of these transcription factors are not expressed in any given normal tissue. METHODS: We analysed the dynamics of gene expression between human embryonic stem cells, fetal and adult normal tissue, as well as six different matching cancer types. In addition, we performed an integrative multi-omic analysis of matched DNA methylation, copy number, mutational and transcriptomic data for these six cancer types. RESULTS: We here demonstrate that bivalently and PRC2 marked transcription factors highly expressed in a normal tissue are more likely to be silenced in the corresponding tumour type compared with non-housekeeping genes that are also highly expressed in the same normal tissue. Integrative multi-omic analysis of matched DNA methylation, copy number, mutational and transcriptomic data for six different matching cancer types reveals that in-cis promoter hypermethylation, and not in-cis genomic loss or genetic mutation, emerges as the predominant mechanism associated with silencing of these transcription factors in cancer. However, we also observe that some silenced bivalently/PRC2 marked transcription factors are more prone to copy number loss than promoter hypermethylation, pointing towards distinct, mutually exclusive inactivation patterns. CONCLUSIONS: These data provide statistical evidence that inactivation of cell fate-specifying transcription factors in cancer is an important step in carcinogenesis and that it occurs predominantly through a mechanism associated with promoter hypermethylation

dbDEMC 2.0: updated database of differentially expressed miRNAs in human cancers.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are often deregulated in cancer and are thought to play an important role in cancer development. Large amount of differentially expressed miRNAs have been identified in various cancers by using high-throughput methods. It is therefore quite important to make a comprehensive collection of these miRNAs and to decipher their roles in oncogenesis and tumor progression. In 2010, we presented the first release of dbDEMC, representing a database for collection of differentially expressed miRNAs in human cancers obtained from microarray data. Here we describe an update of the database. dbDEMC 2.0 documents 209 expression profiling data sets across 36 cancer types and 73 subtypes, and a total of 2224 differentially expressed miRNAs were identified. An easy-to-use web interface was constructed that allows users to make a quick search of the differentially expressed miRNAs in certain cancer types. In addition, a new function of 'meta-profiling' was added to view differential expression events according to user-defined miRNAs and cancer types. We expect this database to continue to serve as a valuable source for cancer investigation and potential clinical application related to miRNAs. dbDEMC 2.0 is freely available at http://www.picb.ac.cn/dbDEMC

Extreme and rapid bursts of functional adaptations shape bite force in amniotes

Adaptation is the fundamental driver of functional and biomechanical evolution. Accordingly, the states of biomechanical traits (absolute or relative trait values) have long been used as proxies for adaptations in response to direct selection. However, ignoring evolutionary history, in particular ancestry, passage of time and the rate of evolution, can be misleading. Here, we apply a recently developed phylogenetic statistical approach using significant rate shifts to detect instances of exceptional rates of adaptive changes in bite force in a large group of terrestrial vertebrates, the amniotes. Our results show that bite force in amniotes evolved through multiple bursts of exceptional rates of adaptive changes, whereby whole groups—including Darwin's finches, maniraptoran dinosaurs (group of non-avian dinosaurs including birds), anthropoids and hominins (fossil and modern humans)—experienced significant rate increases compared to the background rate. However, in most parts of the amniote tree of life, we find no exceptional rate increases, indicating that coevolution with body size was primarily responsible for the patterns observed in bite force. Our approach represents a template for future studies in functional morphology and biomechanics, where exceptional rates of adaptive changes can be quantified and potentially linked to specific ecological factors underpinning major evolutionary radiation

Effect of voids and pressure on melting of nano-particulate and bulk aluminum

Abstract Molecular dynamics simulations are performed using isobaric-isoenthalpic (NPH) ensembles to study the effect of internal defects in the form of voids on the melting of bulk and nano-particulate aluminum in the size range of 2-9 nm. The main objectives are to determine the critical interfacial area required to overcome the free energy barrier for the thermodynamic phase transition, and to explore the underlying mechanisms for defect-nucleated melting. The inter-atomic interactions are captured using the Glue potential, which has been validated against the melting temperature and elastic constants for bulk aluminum. A combination of structural and thermodynamic parameters, such as the potential energy, Lindemann index, translational-order parameter, and radial-distribution functions, are employed to characterize the melting process. The study considers a variety of void shapes and sizes, and results are compared with perfect crystals. For nano aluminum particles smaller than 9 nm, the melting temperature is size dependent. The presence of voids does not impact the melting properties due to the dominancy of nucleation at the surface, unless the void size exceeds a critical value beyond which lattice collapse occurs. The critical void size depends on the particle dimension. The effect of pressure on the particulate melting is found to be insignificant in the range of 1-300 atm. The melting behavior of bulk aluminum is also examined as a benchmark. The critical interfacial area required for the solid-liquid phase transition is obtained as a function of the number of atoms considered in the simulation. Imperfections such as voids reduce the melting point. The ratio between the structural and thermodynamic melting points is 1.32. This value is comparable to the ratio of 1.23 for metals like copper