Increasing effect of body weight perception on suicidal ideation among young Korean women: Findings from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2001 and 2005

Dong-Sik KimDepartment of Gender Equality and Social Cohesion Research, Korean Women's Development Institute, Seoul, Republic of KoreaObjective: To examine the prevalence of actual and perceived overweight and to compare the mediating effect of perceived overweight on the relationship between actual overweight and suicidal ideation among young Korean women between 2001 and 2005.Methods: Data were gathered from the 2001 and 2005 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys involving a nationally representative sample of young women (568 in 2001 and 385 in 2005) aged 20–29 years.Results: Over the 5-year period, the prevalence of actual overweight (body mass index ≥23 kg/m2) and perceived overweight increased by 10.5% and 22.8%, respectively. The discrepancy between actual and perceived body weights was much wider in 2005 than in 2001. After controlling for covariates (age, marital status, educational attainment, employment status, smoking status, alcohol consumption, and regular exercise), overweight women were more likely to think about suicide than their normal-weight counterparts in both periods. However, in both periods, the association between overweight and suicidal ideation became nonsignificant when perceived weight was considered. In both periods, a self-perception of overweight was associated with an increased risk of suicidal ideation, but the association was much stronger in 2005 than in 2001.Conclusion: This study suggests a need for educational programs or effective treatments to help young women who perceive themselves as overweight to reduce the potential risk of suicidal ideation in later life.Keywords: body mass index, perceived body weight, body weight, body image, suicidal ideation&nbsp

A High-Precision Micropipette Sensor for Cellular-Level Real-Time Thermal Characterization

We report herein development of a novel glass micropipette thermal sensor fabricated in a cost-effective manner, which is capable of measuring steady thermal fluctuation at spatial resolution of similar to 2 mu m with an accuracy of +/- 0.01 degrees C. We produced and tested various micrometer-sized sensors, ranging from 2 mu m to 30 mu m. The sensor comprises unleaded low-melting-point solder alloy (Sn-based) as a core metal inside a pulled borosilicate glass pipette and a thin film of nickel coating outside, creating a thermocouple junction at the tip. The sensor was calibrated using a thermally insulated calibration chamber, the temperature of which can be controlled with an accuracy of +/- 0.01 degrees C, and the thermoelectric power (Seebeck coefficient) of the sensor was recorded from 8.46 to 8.86 mu V/degrees C. We have demonstrated the capability of measuring temperatures at a cellular level by inserting our temperature sensor into the membrane of a live retinal pigment epithelium cell subjected to a laser beam with a focal spot of 6 mu m. We measured transient temperature profiles and the maximum temperatures were in the range of 38-55 +/- 0.5 degrees C.open111212sciescopu

Amplitude death in a ring of nonidentical nonlinear oscillators with unidirectional coupling

We study the collective behaviors in a ring of coupled nonidentical nonlinear oscillators with unidirectional coupling, of which natural frequencies are distributed in a random way. We find the amplitude death phenomena in the case of unidirectional couplings and discuss the differences between the cases of bidirectional and unidirectional couplings. There are three main differences; there exists neither partial amplitude death nor local clustering behavior but oblique line structure which represents directional signal flow on the spatio-temporal patterns in the unidirectional coupling case. The unidirectional coupling has the advantage of easily obtaining global amplitude death in a ring of coupled oscillators with randomly distributed natural frequency. Finally, we explain the results using the eigenvalue analysis of Jacobian matrix at the origin and also discuss the transition of dynamical behavior coming from connection structure as coupling strength increases.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figure

High Performance Work Practices and Employee Voice: A Comparison of Japanese and Korean Workers

Using a unique new cross-national survey of Japanese and Korean workers, we report the first systematic evidence on the effects on employee voice of High Performance Work Practices (HPWPs) from the two economies which are noted for the wide use of HPWPs. We find for both nations that: (i) workers in firms with HPWPs aimed at creating opportunities for employees to get involved (such as shopfloor committees and small group activities) are indeed more likely to have stronger senses of influence and voice on shopfloor decision making than other workers; (ii) workers whose pay is tied to firm performance are more likely to have a stake in firm performance and hence demand such influence and voice; and (iii) consequently workers in firms with HPWPs are more likely to make frequent suggestions for productivity increase and quality improvement. As such, this paper contributes to a small yet growing new empirical literature which tries to understand the actual process and mechanism through which HPWPs lead to better enterprise performance.high performance work practices, employee voice, Japan, Korea

Discovery of a rapid, luminous nova in NGC 300 by the KMTNet Supernova Program

We present the discovery of a rapidly evolving transient by the Korean Microlensing Telescope Network Supernova Program (KSP). KSP is a novel high-cadence supernova survey that offers deep ($\sim21.5$ mag in $BVI$ bands) nearly continuous wide-field monitoring for the discovery of early and/or fast optical transients. KSP-OT-201509a, reported here, was discovered on 2015 September 27 during the KSP commissioning run in the direction of the nearby galaxy NGC~300, and stayed above detection limit for $\sim$ 22 days. We use our $BVI$ light-curves to constrain the ascent rate, $-3.7(7)$ mag day$^{-1}$ in $V$, decay time scale, $t^{V}_{2}=1.7(6)$ days, and peak absolute magnitude, $-9.65\leq M_{V}\leq -9.25$ mag. We also find evidence for a short-lived pre-maximum halt in all bands. The peak luminosity and lightcurve evolution make KSP-OT-201509a consistent with a bright, rapidly decaying nova outburst. We discuss constraints on the nature of the progenitor and its environment using archival HST/ACS images and conclude with a broad discussion on the nature of the system.Comment: 7 pages in aastex6 two-column format, 4 figures; accepted in Ap