Identity in Sociocultural Context: Life Stories of Korean Youth in New York City

Despite the increasing number of Korean immigrants and children of Korean parents in the United States, there has been a dearth of research on these youth. The identity of Korean American youth has gained even less attention despite of its developmental importance. This research started from a recognition that the identity of Korean American youth has never been studied through their life stories. Thus, the goal of this research was to understand the identity of Korean youth in New York City through their life stories. I investigated how their life stories developed and what influences affected their identities while growing up as Korean Americans by employing McAdams’ life story model. By doing so, I expected to better understand the meanings of their lives and how they are related to their identity development. This study employed a qualitative methodology to examine participants’ subjective life experiences in the United States and the development of their identity in the process. I used McAdams’ life story model with its analytic schemes. Ethnographic techniques were also used in interviews and analyses to interpret the participants’ explicit and implicit expressions of Korean-ness. Because the purpose of this study was to explore the identity of Korean American young adults through their life experiences in the United States, ten second-generation Koreans in their late teens to twenties were recruited for the study. A primary focus was on the development of identity. To explore the identity of the ten Korean youth I had four overarching research questions: (1) What do individual life stories of Korean youth in New York City tell us about their identity; (2) How do their perceptions of ethnic identity relate to their life stories; (3) What are the meanings of “being a Korean” or “Korean-ness” in their everyday discourses; and (4) How do Koreans in the U.S. use societal images of Koreans to describe their life stories and those of Korean friends? The ten Korean youth interviews generated over 250 pages of transcripts, which were analyzed using the eight coding categories. The eight categories are: (1) theme of agency and communion; (2) two types of identity discourses; (3) neighborhood and cultural adaptation; (4) family relations and experiences; (5) friends, school, and Korean church network; (6) ethnic behaviors and practices; (7) changes in identity perception: Korean or American or both; and (8) prejudices and discrimination. The study findings revealed that the Korean youth’s awareness of Korean heritage occurred in facing many different life experiences. Parents, family, friends, school, church, and the Korean community in New York were all important contexts for the youth’s realization of their Korean-ness. Images of Koreans specifically and Asians in general influenced their awareness of Korean and Asian identity. The youth confronted racism, which along with American stereotypes and prejudices towards them raised their awareness of Korean and Asian identity. While a few youth perceived their Korean heritage would be hurdles to successful American lives, each realized that they had better embrace their Korean and American sides because their Korean heritage was undeniable. Although living between Korean and American life may on occasion be tough, the majority of the Korean youth felt comfortable accepting both Korean- and American-ness. They reported having made efforts to choose career paths to enhance their and their families’ lives. The life stories of the Korean youth, indeed, showed who they were and how they have been living in the United States. Thus, the identity of the Korean youth developed as their life stories were being written

Resonant inelastic X-ray scattering study of overdoped La2−x_{2-x}Srx_{x}CuO4_{4}

Resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) at the copper K absorption edge has been performed for heavily overdoped samples of La$_{2-x}$Sr$_{x}$CuO$_{4}$ with $x= 0.25$ and 0.30. We have observed the charge transfer and molecular-orbital excitations which exhibit resonances at incident energies of $E_i= 8.992$ and 8.998 keV, respectively. From a comparison with previous results on undoped and optimally-doped samples, we determine that the charge-transfer excitation energy increases monotonically as doping increases. In addition, the $E_i$-dependences of the RIXS spectral weight and absorption spectrum exhibit no clear peak at $E_i = 8.998$ keV in contrast to results in the underdoped samples. The low-energy ($\leq 3$ eV) continuum excitation intensity has been studied utilizing the high energy resolution of 0.13 eV (FWHM). A comparison of the RIXS profiles at $(\pi ~0)$ and $(\pi ~\pi)$ indicates that the continuum intensity exists even at $(\pi ~\pi)$ in the overdoped samples, whereas it has been reported only at $(0 ~0)$ and $(\pi ~0)$ for the $x=0.17$ sample. Furthermore, we also found an additional excitation on top of the continuum intensity at the $(\pi ~\pi)$ and $(\pi ~0)$ positions.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figure

Direct relation between the low-energy spin excitations and superconductivity of overdoped high-TcT_c superconductors

The dynamic spin susceptibility, $\chi''(\omega)$, has been measured over the energy range of $2 \leq \omega \leq 10$ meV for overdoped La$_{2-x}$Sr$_{x}$CuO$_{4}$. Incommensurate (IC) spin excitations are observed at 8 K for all superconducting samples for $0.25 \leq x \leq 0.28$ with $\chi''$ peaking at $\sim 6$ meV. The IC peaks at 6 meV become smaller in intensity with increasing $x$ and, finally, become unobservable for a sample with $x=0.30$ which has no bulk superconductivity. The maximum $\chi''$ decreases linearly with $T_c$(onset) in the overdoped region, implying a direct cooperative relation between the spin fluctuations and the superconductivity.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Dialogizer: Context-aware Conversational-QA Dataset Generation from Textual Sources

To address the data scarcity issue in Conversational question answering (ConvQA), a dialog inpainting method, which utilizes documents to generate ConvQA datasets, has been proposed. However, the original dialog inpainting model is trained solely on the dialog reconstruction task, resulting in the generation of questions with low contextual relevance due to insufficient learning of question-answer alignment. To overcome this limitation, we propose a novel framework called Dialogizer, which has the capability to automatically generate ConvQA datasets with high contextual relevance from textual sources. The framework incorporates two training tasks: question-answer matching (QAM) and topic-aware dialog generation (TDG). Moreover, re-ranking is conducted during the inference phase based on the contextual relevance of the generated questions. Using our framework, we produce four ConvQA datasets by utilizing documents from multiple domains as the primary source. Through automatic evaluation using diverse metrics, as well as human evaluation, we validate that our proposed framework exhibits the ability to generate datasets of higher quality compared to the baseline dialog inpainting model.Comment: Accepted to EMNLP 2023 main conferenc

Magnetic properties of the overdoped superconductor La2−x_{2-x}Srx_{x}CuO4_{4} with and without Zn impurities

The magnetic properties of the Zn-substituted overdoped high-$T_c$ superconductor La$_{2-x}$Sr$_{x}$Cu$_{1-y}$Zn$_{y}$O$_{4}$ have been studied by magnetization measurements and neutron scattering. Magnetization measurements reveal that for Zn-free samples with $x \geq 0.22$ a Curie term is induced in the temperature dependence of the magnetic susceptibility implying the existence of local paramagnetic moments. The induced Curie constant corresponds to a moment of 0.5 $\mu_B$ per additional Sr$^{2+}$ ion that exceeds $x=0.22$. Zn-substitution in the overdoped \lsco also induces a Curie term that corresponds to 1.2 $\mu_B$ per Zn$^{2+}$ ion, simultaneously suppressing $T_c$. The relationship between $T_c$ and the magnitude of the Curie term for Zn-free \lsco with $x \geq 0.22$ and for Zn-substituted \lsco with $x = 0.22$ are closely similar. This signifies a general competitive relationship between the superconductivity and the induced paramagnetic moment. Neutron scattering measurements show that Zn-substitution in overdoped \lsco anomalously enhances the inelastic magnetic scattering spectra around the $(\pi, \pi)$ position, peaking at $\omega \sim 7$ meV. These facts are discussed on the basis of a "swiss-cheese" model of Zn-substituted systems as well as a microscopic phase separation scenario in the overdoped region indicated by muon-spin-relaxation measurements.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figure

Treatment Using a Long Pulsed Nd:Yag Laser with a Pulsed Dye Laser for Four Cases of Blebbed Port Wine Stains

Port wine stains (PWS) are congenital capillary malformations consisting of ectasia of capillaries and venules. At birth,lesions are flat and relatively uniform in color, but evolve with age to become raised, thickened, irregularly surfaced, and deeply colored. Therefore, it is considered optimal to begin treatment of patients at an early age. Conventional treatment modalities, such as electrocautery or excision, require considerable effort and may be cosmetically unsatisfactory. We have performed treatment of blebbed PWS of four patients using a 1,064 nm long pulsed Nd:YAG laser with a contact cooling device. According to their size, most blebs required three or fewer treatment sessions at 8-week intervals. Treatments were well tolerated by all subjects and patients showed moderate to good improvement of blebs. A 1,064 nm long pulsed Nd:YAG laser with contact cooling may be considered as a promising therapeutic option for treatment of blebbed PWS

PHF7 Modulates BRDT Stability and Histone-to-Protamine Exchange during Spermiogenesis

Chang Rok Kim, Taichi Noda, Hyunkyung Kim, Gibeom Kim, Seongwan Park, Yongwoo Na, Seiya Oura, Keisuke Shimada, Injin Bang, Jun-Yeong Ahn, Yong Ryoul Kim, Se Kyu Oh, Hee-Jung Choi, Jong-Seo Kim, Inkyung Jung, Ho Lee, Yuki Okada, Masahito Ikawa, Sung Hee Baek, PHF7 Modulates BRDT Stability and Histone-to-Protamine Exchange during Spermiogenesis, Cell Reports, Volume 32, Issue 4, 2020, 107950, ISSN 2211-1247, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2020.107950

Micafungin prophylaxis for acute leukemia patients undergoing induction chemotherapy

Background Micafungin is a well-tolerated and effective prophylactic antifungal agent used in hematologic diseases. In this prospective trial, we evaluated the efficacy and safety of prophylactic micafungin during first induction chemotherapy in patients with acute leukemia. We also compared outcomes of prophylactic micafungin with those of prophylactic posaconazole in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Methods Medically fit patients with newly diagnosed acute leukemia received 50 mg micafungin intravenously once daily from the initiation of first induction chemotherapy to recovery of neutrophil count, suspected fungal infection, or unacceptable drug-related toxicity (Clinicaltrials.gov number, NCT02440178). The primary end point was incidence of invasive fungal infection, and the secondary end points were adverse events of prophylactic micafungin and mortality during induction therapy. Results The 65 patients (median age = 51 years, male:female = 34:31) enrolled in this study had diagnoses of AML (33, 50.8%), acute lymphoblastic leukemia (31, 47.7%), and acute biphenotypic leukemia (1, 1.5%). Median duration of micafungin treatment was 24 days (range 1–68), with proven invasive fungal disease in one patient (1.5%) and possible fungal infection in two patients (3.1%). Three of the patients (4.6%) experienced the following adverse events, but all events were tolerable: liver function abnormality (Grade 2, n = 1; Grade 3, n = 1) and allergic reaction (Grade 2, n = 1). Three patients died during induction therapy, and invasive aspergillosis pneumonia was the cause of death for one of those patients. Overall, 19 patients (29.2%) discontinued prophylactic micafungin, and 18 (27.7%) patients switched to another antifungal agent. We observed no fungal infections caused by amphotericin B-resistant organisms. In AML patients, outcomes of prophylactic micafungin during induction chemotherapy did not differ significantly with those of prophylactic posaconazole with regard to incidence of fungal infections, rate of discontinuation, or safety. Conclusions Our study demonstrates that prophylactic micafungin is safe and effective in patients with acute leukemia undergoing induction chemotherapy. Outcomes in patients with AML were similar to those of prophylactic posaconazole, indicating the usefulness of micafungin as a prophylactic antifungal agent during induction chemotherapy for AML. Trial registration Clinicaltrials.gov NCT02440178, registered May 12th 2015.This study was funded by Astellas Pharma Korea, Inc. Funding source had no role in the study design, data collection, data analysis or data interpretation

Advanced Lithium–Sulfur Batteries Enabled by a Bio-Inspired Polysulfide Adsorptive Brush

Issues with the dissolution and diffusion of polysulfides in liquid organic electrolytes hinder the advance of lithium–sulfur batteries for next-generation energy storage. To trap and re-utilize the polysulfides without hampering lithium ion conductivity, a bio-inspired, brush-like interlayer consisting of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowires and interconnected conductive frameworks is proposed. The chemical effect of ZnO on capturing polysulfides has been conceptually confirmed, initially by using a commercially available macroporous nickel foam as a conductive backbone, which is then replaced by a free-standing, ultra-light micro/mesoporous carbon (C) nanofiber mat for practical application. Having a high sulfur loading of 3 mg cm$^{-2}$, the sulfur/multi-walled carbon nanotube composite cathode with a ZnO/C interlayer exhibits a reversible capacity of 776 mA h g$^{-1}$ after 200 cycles at 1C with only 0.05% average capacity loss per cycle. A good cycle performance at a high rate can be mainly attributed to the strong chemical bonding between ZnO and polysulfides, fast electron transfer, and an optimized ion diffusion path arising from a well-organized nanoarchitecture. These results herald a new approach to advanced lithium–sulfur batteries using brush-like chemi-functional interlayers.T.Z. acknowledges the support of a Krishnan-Ang studentship from Trinity College, Cambridge. X.P., G.D., and C.D. acknowledge funding from ERC under Grant No. 259619 PHOTO EM. C.D. acknowledges financial support from the EU under Grant No. 312483 ESTEEM2. This work was also supported by the National Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 21373028), Major achievements Transformation Project for Central University in Beijing, and Beijing Science and Technology Project (Grant No. D151100003015001)