The dynamics of divorce, income, and female labor force participation in Singapore.

Singapore has experienced rising income and female labor force participation over the years. This growth, however, is also accompanied by increasing divorce rate. This paper utilizes Granger causality tests within a multivariate error correction framework to examine the short-run and long-run causal interactions among divorce, income and female labor force participation in Singapore. The long–run results suggest the presence of tradeoffs between income, female labor participation and the family unit, with the twin objectives of economic expansion and the move to draw more women into the labor market having a negative impact on the institution of marriage.causality, divorce, female labor force participation, income, Singapore

Fast and sensitive taxonomic classification for metagenomics with Kaiju

Metagenomics emerged as an important field of research not only in microbial ecology but also for human health and disease, and metagenomic studies are performed on increasingly larger scales. While recent taxonomic classification programs achieve high speed by comparing genomic k-mers, they often lack sensitivity for overcoming evolutionary divergence, so that large fractions of the metagenomic reads remain unclassified. Here we present the novel metagenome classifier Kaiju, which finds maximum (in-)exact matches on the protein-level using the Burrows–Wheeler transform. We show in a genome exclusion benchmark that Kaiju classifies reads with higher sensitivity and similar precision compared with current k-mer-based classifiers, especially in genera that are underrepresented in reference databases. We also demonstrate that Kaiju classifies up to 10 times more reads in real metagenomes. Kaiju can process millions of reads per minute and can run on a standard PC. Source code and web server are available at http://kaiju.binf.ku.dk

Urban Malaysian Adolescents' Online Activities.

Many Malaysian adolescents are immersed in the global contemporary,technological and digital culture. Their everyday literacy practices involve participation in a range of activities on the Internet

Recommended Finite Element Formulations for the Analysis of Off-shore Blast Walls in an Explosion

This study suggests relevant finite element (FE) formulations for the structural analysis of offshore blast walls subjected to blast loadings due to hydrocarbon explosions. The present blast wall model adopted from HSE (2003) consists of a corrugated panel and supporting members, and was modelled with shell, thick-shell, and solid element combinations in LS-DYNA, an explicit finite element analysis (FEA) solver. Stainless and mild steels were employed as materials for the blast wall model, with consideration of strain rate effect throughout ten (10) pulse pressure load regimes. The obtained FEA results were validated by experimental data from HSE (2003) with decent agreement. In the present study, recommended FE formulations with additional hourglass control functions were widely discussed from the perspectives of solution accuracy and computational cost based on a statistical approach. The obtained outcomes could be used for the structural analysis and design of offshore blast walls in the estimations of maximum and permanent deformations under blast loadings.111Ysciescopu

Molecular Mechanisms of West Nile Virus Pathogenesis in Brain Cells

We analyzed the response of human glioma cells to West Nile virus infection by investigating host transcriptional changes. Changes in expression of 23 genes showed similarities to those in other neurodegenerative diseases. These changes may be useful as potential biomarkers and elucidate novel mechanisms behind the neuropathology of infection with this virus

Sintesis, pencirian spektroskopi dan sifat fotomangkin Rutenium(II) Bis(bipiridil)-2-(1H-pirazol-3-il)piridil

Kompleks Ru(II), [Ru(bpy)2(pypzH)](PF6)2 dengan bpy = 2,2’-bipiridil dan pypzH= 2-(1H-pirazol-3-il)piridin, telah berjaya disintesis dan dicirikan dengan teknik spektroskopi transformasi Fourier inframerah (FTIR), ultralembayung dan cahaya nampak (UV-Vis), resonans magnet nukleus (RMN), serta spektrometer jisim. Pengiraan dengan kaedah teori fungsi ketumpatan (DFT) dan DFT bersandar masa (TD) telah dijalankan untuk membangunkan struktur optimum dan elektronik kompleks Ru(II). Data yang diperoleh menunjukkan orbital molekul terisi dengan tenaga tertinggi (HOMO) disetempatkan pada logam Ru(II) dan ligan pypzH, manakala orbital molekul tidak terisi dengan tenaga terendah (LUMO) didapati tersebar secara menyeluruh pada kedua-dua struktur ligan bpy. Aktiviti fotomangkin kompleks telah diuji terhadap penguruaian pewarna tekstil bromotimol biru (BTB) disebabkan aktiviti foto [Ru(bpy)2(pypzH)](PF6)2 di bawah sinaran lampu xenon 450W (AM 1.5, penapis inframerah). Kadar dan tertib tindak balas foto-uraian BTB dikenal pasti dan dibincangkan bersama dengan mekanisma foto-uraian BTB

Effects of Steaming Time and Frequency for Manufactured Red Liriope platyphylla on the Insulin Secretion Ability and Insulin Receptor Signaling Pathway

In oriental medicine, Liriope platyphylla (LP) has long been regarded as a curative herb useful for the treatment of diabetes, asthma, and neurodegenerative disorders. The principal objective of this study was to assess the effects of steaming time and frequency for manufactured Red LP (RLP) on insulin secretion ability and insulin receptor signaling pathway. To achieve our goal, several types of LPs manufactured under different conditions were applied to INS cells and streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic ICR mice, after which alterations in insulin concentrations were detected in the culture supernatants and sera. The optimal concentration for the investigation of insulin secretion ability was found to be 50 ug/mL of LP. At this concentration, maximum insulin secretion was observed in the INS cells treated with LP extract steamed for 3 h (3-SLP) with two repeated steps (3 h steaming and 24 h air-dried) carried out 9 times (9-SALP); no significant changes in viability were detected in any of the treated cells. Additionally, the expression and phosphorylation levels of most components in the insulin receptor signaling pathway were increased significantly in the majority of cells treated with steaming-processed LP as compared to the cells treated with LP prepared without steaming. With regard to glucose transporter (GLUT) expression, alterations of steaming time induced similar responses on the expression levels of GLUT-2 and GLUT-3. However, differences in steaming frequency were also shown to induce dose-dependent responses in the expression level of GLUT-2 only; no significant differences in GLUT-3 expression were detected under these conditions. Furthermore, these responses observed in vitro were similarly detected in STZ-induced diabetic mice. 24-SLP and 9-SALP treatment applied for 14 days induced the down-regulation of glucose concentration and upregulation of insulin concentration. Therefore, these results indicated that the steaming processed LP may contribute to the relief of diabetes symptoms and should be regarded as an excellent candidate for a diabetes treatment

Ultrasound-guided Lateral Femoral Cutaneous Nerve Block in Meralgia Paresthetica

Meralgia paresthetica is a rarely encountered sensory mononeuropathy characterized by paresthesia, pain or sensory impairment along the distribution of the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve (LFCN) caused by entrapment or compression of the nerve as it crossed the anterior superior iliac spine and runs beneath the inguinal ligament. There is great variability regarding the area where the nerve pierces the inguinal ligament, which makes it difficult to perform blind anesthetic blocks. Ultrasound has developed into a powerful tool for the visualization of peripheral nerves including very small nerves such as accessory and sural nerves. The LFCN can be located successfully, and local anesthetic solution distribution around the nerve can be observed with ultrasound guidance. Our successfully performed ultrasound-guided blockade of the LFCN in meralgia paresthetica suggests that this technique is a safe way to increase the success rate

Entropy of black holes in the deformed Ho\v{r}ava-Lifshitz gravity

We find the entropy of Kehagias-Sfetsos black hole in the deformed Ho\v{r}ava-Lifshitz gravity by using the first law of thermodynamics. When applying generalized uncertainty principle (GUP) to Schwarzschild black hole, the entropy $S=A/4+(\pi/\omega)\ln(A/4)$ may be interpreted as the GUP-inspired black hole entropy. Hence, it implies that the duality in the entropy between the Kehagias-Sfetsos black hole and GUP-inspired Schwarzschild black hole is present.Comment: 11 pages, version to appear in PL