Thai conceptualizations of forgiveness within a work context : comparison with Western models

Forgiveness research has focused almost exclusively on individualistic Western culture despite acknowledgement of the importance of cultural factors. Conflict at work is common yet studies of forgiveness in work contexts are rare, as are qualitative studies. Addressing these short-comings, this study examines the forgiveness process as experienced by Thai nurses in a hospital within a collectivist culture heavily influenced by Buddhism. Thirty nurses were interviewed about a situation at work where the need for forgiveness arose. Qualitative methods were used to identify participants' cognitions, emotions, and behaviors in relation to the offensive event. Definitions of forgiveness were also elicited. Four continuous stages of the forgiveness process emerged: an experiencing stage, re-attribution stage, forgiveness stage, and behavioral stage. There were similarities with Western individualistic models but also some important differences related to Buddhism and Thai culture. Five dimensions of forgiveness emerged from the Thai definitions: overcoming negative approaches towards the offender, abandonment of negative judgment, fostering of positive approaches and loving-kindness towards the offender, awareness of the benefits of forgiveness, and forgiveness as incorporated within Buddhist beliefs. The results highlight the need to consider cultural influences when examining concepts like forgiveness

Hall of Mirrors Scattering from an Impurity in a Quantum Wire

This paper develops a scattering theory to examine how point impurities affect transport through quantum wires. While some of our new results apply specifically to hard-walled wires, others--for example, an effective optical theorem for two-dimensional waveguides--are more general. We apply the method of images to the hard-walled guide, explicitly showing how scattering from an impurity affects the wire's conductance. We express the effective cross section of a confined scatterer entirely in terms of the empty waveguide's Green's function, suggesting a way in which to use semiclassical methods to understand transport properties of smooth wires. In addition to predicting some new phenomena, our approach provides a simple physical picture for previously observed effects such as conductance dips and confinement-induced resonances.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in Physical Review B. Minor additions to text, added reference

The effect of prolonged starvation on blood chemistry of horseshoe crab, Carcinoscorpius rotundicauda (Chelicerata: Xiphosura)

This study investigated the effects of prolonged starvation on oxygen consumption, ammonia-N excretion, and blood chemistry of the horseshoe crab, Carcinoscorpius rotundicauda. Starvation over a period of 7 weeks showed no significant difference of body weight between the starved and fed groups. The oxygen consumption rate decreased during weeks 1-4 and then significantly increased after week 6 of starvation. Starvation also resulted in a significant increase in ammonia-N rate from week 3 to 7. The O:N ratios were significantly reduced in the starved group from week 3 to 7. Starving induced the reduction of hemolymph osmolality from week 5. Hemolymph Na+ and Cl‾ of the starved group decreased from week 4 for Na+ and from week 3 to 7 for Cl‾, while hemolymph K+ increased from week 4 to 7. Hemolymph K+ of both groups was hyperionic during the experiment. Thus, horseshoe crab can survive starvation for more than 7 weeks

Recurrent deletions and duplications of chromosome 2q11.2 and 2q13 are associated with variable outcomes

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/115980/1/ajmga37269_am.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/115980/2/ajmga37269.pd

The Development of Whole Sporozoite Vaccines for Plasmodium falciparum Malaria

Each year malaria kills hundreds of thousands of people and infects hundreds of millions of people despite current control measures. An effective malaria vaccine will likely be necessary to aid in malaria eradication. Vaccination using whole sporozoites provides an increased repertoire of immunogens compared to subunit vaccines across at least two life cycle stages of the parasite, the extracellular sporozoite, and intracellular liver stage. Three potential whole sporozoite vaccine approaches are under development and include genetically attenuated parasites, radiation attenuated sporozoites, and wild-type sporozoites administered in combination with chemoprophylaxis. Pre-clinical and clinical studies have demonstrated whole sporozoite vaccine immunogenicity, including humoral and cellular immunity and a range of vaccine efficacy that depends on the pre-exposure of vaccinated individuals. While whole sporozoite vaccines can provide protection against malaria in some cases, more recent studies in malaria-endemic regions demonstrate the need for improvements. Moreover, challenges remain in manufacturing large quantities of sporozoites for vaccine commercialization. A promising solution to the whole sporozoite manufacturing challenge is in vitro culturing methodology, which has been described for several Plasmodium species, including the major disease-causing human malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum. Here, we review whole sporozoite vaccine immunogenicity and in vitro culturing platforms for sporozoite production

Optimizing copy number variation analysis using genome-wide short sequence oligonucleotide arrays

The detection of copy number variants (CNV) by array-based platforms provides valuable insight into understanding human diversity. However, suboptimal study design and data processing negatively affect CNV assessment. We quantitatively evaluate their impact when short-sequence oligonucleotide arrays are applied (Affymetrix Genome-Wide Human SNP Array 6.0) by evaluating 42 HapMap samples for CNV detection. Several processing and segmentation strategies are implemented, and results are compared to CNV assessment obtained using an oligonucleotide array CGH platform designed to query CNVs at high resolution (Agilent). We quantitatively demonstrate that different reference models (e.g. single versus pooled sample reference) used to detect CNVs are a major source of inter-platform discrepancy (up to 30%) and that CNVs residing within segmental duplication regions (higher reference copy number) are significantly harder to detect (P < 0.0001). After adjusting Affymetrix data to mimic the Agilent experimental design (reference sample effect), we applied several common segmentation approaches and evaluated differential sensitivity and specificity for CNV detection, ranging 39–77% and 86–100% for non-segmental duplication regions, respectively, and 18–55% and 39–77% for segmental duplications. Our results are relevant to any array-based CNV study and provide guidelines to optimize performance based on study-specific objectives

Effects of hydroxyurea on CNV induction in the mouse germline

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146452/1/em22233.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146452/2/em22233_am.pd

Genetic, environmental and stochastic factors in monozygotic twin discordance with a focus on epigenetic differences

PMCID: PMC3566971This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited