Effects of Acculturation on Mammography Utilization among Korean American Women

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between acculturation and mammography utilization among Korean American (KA) women. The specific aims of this study were to determine the differences in demographic characteristics, perceived health beliefs, self-efficacy, and knowledge of breast cancer, and mammogram history among the four cultural groups (American identity, Bicultural, Korean identity, and Marginality) of KA women, and to examine the effects of the level of acculturation on the likelihood of getting a mammogram. Breast cancer remains the most commonly diagnosed cancer among KA women. However, KA women consistently have lower screening rates for breast cancer. Although the overall rate of mammogram utilization by KA women in the United States is low, it is relatively higher when compared with that of women in Korea. This comparatively higher screening rate in KA women may be an indication of sociocultural influences from the host country. A descriptive correlational study using a cross sectional design was conducted. A convenience of sample of 215 KA women was recruited from local Korean churches in LA County. The participants completed several self-administered questionnaires and they were divided into four cultural groups according to their scores on the acculturation scale. The perceived barriers played as the most significant factor for receiving a mammogram. The American identity group scored the highest in the self-efficacy scale while the Marginality group scored the lowest. No relationship was identified between knowledge and mammography utilization. The American identity group had the highest rate (57.1%) of recent mammograms while the Marginality group had the lowest rate (26.1%). The Bicultural group had the highest rate (21.7%) of regular mammograms while the Korean identity and Marginality groups demonstrated lower rates. Logistic Regressions demonstrated that the Bicultural group would be significantly more likely to receive regular mammograms than the Korean identity group (OR = 0.340). Therefore, acculturation was an important predictor for mammography utilization among KA women in this study. Developing culturally appropriate interventions with specific emphasis on targeting different acculturation levels would be an important factor for increasing breast cancer screening practices of KA women. Keywords: acculturation, mammography, Korean American women

Effects of time perspective and self-control on procrastination and Internet addiction

College students experiencing stress show tendencies to procrastinate and can develop Internet addiction problems. This study investigated the structural relationship between time perspective and self-control on procrastination and Internet addiction. Methods College students (N = 377) residing in South Korea completed the following questionnaires: the Pathological Internet Use Behavior Symptom Scale for Adults, the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory, the Self-Control Rating Scale, and the Aitken Procrastination Inventory. The sample variance–covariance matrix was analyzed using AMOS 20.0. Results Time perspective had a direct effect on self-control and an indirect effect on Internet use and procrastination. In addition, self-control affected procrastination and Internet use. Conclusions Individuals with a present-oriented time perspective tend to evidence poorer self-control, increasing the likelihood of procrastination and Internet addiction. Individuals with a future-oriented time perspective, on the other hand, tend to have stronger self-control, decreasing their risk of procrastination and Internet addiction

DPM: A Novel Training Method for Physics-Informed Neural Networks in Extrapolation

We present a method for learning dynamics of complex physical processes described by time-dependent nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs). Our particular interest lies in extrapolating solutions in time beyond the range of temporal domain used in training. Our choice for a baseline method is physics-informed neural network (PINN) [Raissi et al., J. Comput. Phys., 378:686--707, 2019] because the method parameterizes not only the solutions but also the equations that describe the dynamics of physical processes. We demonstrate that PINN performs poorly on extrapolation tasks in many benchmark problems. To address this, we propose a novel method for better training PINN and demonstrate that our newly enhanced PINNs can accurately extrapolate solutions in time. Our method shows up to 72% smaller errors than existing methods in terms of the standard L2-norm metric.Comment: Accepted by AAAI 202

q-Rung orthopair fuzzy information aggregation and their application towards material selection

Material selection is a complex process that involves selecting the best material for a given application. It is a critical process in engineering, and the importance of selecting the right material for the job cannot be overstated. Multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) is an important tool that can be used to help engineers make informed decisions about material selection. The logistic function can be extended using the soft-max function, which is widely used in stochastic classification methods like neural nets, soft-max extrapolation, linear differential analysis, and Naïve Bayes detectors. This has inspired researchers to develop soft-max-based fuzzy aggregation operators (AOs) for q-rung orthopair fuzzy sets (q-ROPFS) and to propose an MCDM approach based on these AOs. To test the effectiveness of this approach, the researchers applied it to a practical problem using q-rung orthopair fuzzy data and conducted a numerical example to validate the suggested procedures

The complete mitochondrial genome of a Dokdo shrimp, Lebbeus groenlandicus

Lebbeus groenlandicus is a shrimp species indigenous to the Dokdo islands in the East Sea of Korea. We report the 17,399 bp mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of the species that consists of 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNAs (tRNAs), 2 ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs), and a control region (CR). A maximum-likelihood tree, constructed with 18 prawn and 45 shrimp mitogenomes, confirmed that L. groenlandicus occupies the most basal position within the Caridea infra-order and is closely related to Pandalidae shrimps

RNA-Guided Genome Editing in Drosophila with the Purified Cas9 Protein

We report a method for generating Drosophila germline mutants effectively via injection of the complex of the purified Cas9 protein, tracrRNA, and gene-specific crRNAs, which may reduce delayed mutations because of the transient activity of the Cas9 protein, combined with the simple mutation detection in GO founders by the T7E1 assay.