Asian American Studies and the Fight for Worker Justice

This essay explores higher education–labor partnerships in the contemporary era between Asian American Studies (AAS), the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA), and AAS community partnerships. With the intensified attacks on workers, unions, and Asian American, Pacific Islander, and other communities of color, the importance of higher education and labor and community partnerships will be a valuable resource to expand critical research and participatory education. These partnerships embody the community studies’ roots of AAS. Using three case studies, this essay highlights these partnerships and concludes with a discussion of the opportunities and challenges students can experience when working in labor union spaces and recommendations for building university-labor partnerships

Evaluation of person-level heterogeneity of treatment effects in published multiperson N-of-1 studies: systematic review and reanalysis.

OBJECTIVE:Individual patients with the same condition may respond differently to similar treatments. Our aim is to summarise the reporting of person-level heterogeneity of treatment effects (HTE) in multiperson N-of-1 studies and to examine the evidence for person-level HTE through reanalysis. STUDY DESIGN:Systematic review and reanalysis of multiperson N-of-1 studies. DATA SOURCES:Medline, Cochrane Controlled Trials, EMBASE, Web of Science and review of references through August 2017 for N-of-1 studies published in English. STUDY SELECTION:N-of-1 studies of pharmacological interventions with at least two subjects. DATA SYNTHESIS:Citation screening and data extractions were performed in duplicate. We performed statistical reanalysis testing for person-level HTE on all studies presenting person-level data. RESULTS:We identified 62 multiperson N-of-1 studies with at least two subjects. Statistical tests examining HTE were described in only 13 (21%), of which only two (3%) tested person-level HTE. Only 25 studies (40%) provided person-level data sufficient to reanalyse person-level HTE. Reanalysis using a fixed effect linear model identified statistically significant person-level HTE in 8 of the 13 studies (62%) reporting person-level treatment effects and in 8 of the 14 studies (57%) reporting person-level outcomes. CONCLUSIONS:Our analysis suggests that person-level HTE is common and often substantial. Reviewed studies had incomplete information on person-level treatment effects and their variation. Improved assessment and reporting of person-level treatment effects in multiperson N-of-1 studies are needed

Oxygen Saturation and Suck-Swallow-Breathe Coordination of Term Infants during Breastfeeding and Feeding from a Teat Releasing Milk Only with Vacuum

Background. Vacuum is an important factor in milk removal from the breast, yet compression is the predominant component of milk removal from bottle teats. Since bottle-feeding infants have lower oxygen saturation, vacuum levels, and different suck-swallow-breathe (SSwB) coordination to breastfeeding infants, we hypothesised that when infants fed from a teat that required a vacuum threshold of −29 mmHg for milk removal, that oxygen saturation, heart rate, and suck-swallow-breathe (SSwB) patterns would be similar to those of breastfeeding. Study Design. Infants (=16) were monitored during one breastfeed and one feed from the experimental teat. Simultaneous recordings were made of oxygen saturation, heart rate, vacuum, tongue movement, respiration, and swallowing. Results. There were no differences in oxygen saturation and heart rate between the breast and the teat. Infants displayed fewer sucks and breaths per swallow during nutritive sucking (NS) compared to non-nutritive sucking (NNS). The number of sucks per breath was similar for NS and NNS although respiratory rates were slower during NS. These patterns did not differ between the breast and the teat. Conclusion. These results suggest that vacuum may be conducive to safe and coordinated milk removal by the infant during both breast and bottle-feeding

25 Years of Research in Human Lactation: From Discovery to Translation.

Researchers have recently called for human lactation research to be conceptualized as a biological framework where maternal and infant factors impacting human milk, in terms of composition, volume and energy content are studied along with relationships to infant growth, development and health. This approach allows for the development of evidence-based interventions that are more likely to support breastfeeding and lactation in pursuit of global breastfeeding goals. Here we summarize the seminal findings of our research programme using a biological systems approach traversing breast anatomy, milk secretion, physiology of milk removal with respect to breastfeeding and expression, milk composition and infant intake, and infant gastric emptying, culminating in the exploration of relationships with infant growth, development of body composition, and health. This approach has allowed the translation of the findings with respect to education, and clinical practice. It also sets a foundation for improved study design for future investigations in human lactation

Dengue vector control in high-income, city settings: A scoping review of approaches and methods.

BACKGROUND: Dengue virus (DENV) is endemic to many parts of the world and has serious health and socioeconomic effects even in high-income countries, especially with rapid changes in the climate globally. We explored the literature on dengue vector control methods used in high-income, city settings and associations with dengue incidence, dengue prevalence, or mosquito vector densities. METHODS: Studies of any design or year were included if they reported effects on human DENV infection or Aedes vector indices of dengue-specific vector control interventions in high-income, city settings. RESULTS: Of 24 eligible sources, most reported research in the United States (n = 8) or Australia (n = 5). Biocontrol (n = 12) and chemical control (n = 13) were the most frequently discussed vector control methods. Only 6 sources reported data on the effectiveness of a given method in reducing human DENV incidence or prevalence, 2 described effects of larval and adult control on Aedes DENV positivity, 20 reported effectiveness in reducing vector density, using insecticide, larvicide, source reduction, auto-dissemination of pyriproxyfen and Wolbachia, and only 1 described effects on human-vector contact. CONCLUSIONS: As most studies reported reductions in vector densities, rather than any effects on human DENV incidence or prevalence, we can draw no clear conclusions on which interventions might be most effective in reducing dengue in high-income, city areas. More research is needed linking evidence on the effects of different DENV vector control methods with dengue incidence/prevalence or mosquito vector densities in high-income, city settings as this is likely to differ from low-income settings. This is a significant evidence gap as climate changes increase the global reach of DENV. The importance of community involvement was clear in several studies, although it is impossible to tease out the relative contributions of this from other control methods used

Renormalization Group Analysis of a Noisy Kuramoto-Sivashinsky Equation

We have analyzed the Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation with a stochastic noise term through a dynamic renormalization group calculation. For a system in which the lattice spacing is smaller than the typical wavelength of the linear instability occurring in the system, the large-distance and long-time behavior of this equation is the same as for the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation in one and two spatial dimensions. For the $d=2$ case the agreement is only qualitative. On the other hand, when coarse-graining on larger scales the asymptotic flow depends on the initial values of the parameters.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, revte

Robotic assistance for industrial sanding with a smooth approach to the surface and boundary constraints

Surface treatment operations, such as sanding, deburring, finishing, grinding, polishing, etc. are progressively becoming more automated using robotic systems. However, previous research in this field used a completely automatic operation of the robot system or considered a low degree of human-robot interaction. Therefore, to overcome this issue, this work develops a truly synergistic cooperation between the human operator and the robot system to get the best from both. In particular, in the application developed in this work the human operator provides flexibility, guiding the tool of the robot system to treat arbitrary regions of the workpiece surface; while the robot system provides strength, accuracy and security, not only holding the tool and keeping the right tool orientation, but also guaranteeing a smooth approach to the workpiece and confining the tool within the allowed area close to the workpiece. Moreover, to add more flexibility to the proposed method, when the user is not guiding the robot tool, a robot automatic operation is activated to perform the treatment in prior established regions. Furthermore, a camera network is used to get a global view of the robot workspace in order to obtain the workpiece location accurately and in real-time. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is shown with several experiments using a 6R robotic arm

'Reflexive Expectations' in EU-China Relations: A media analysis approach

To reverse the downturn in and develop EU–China relations requires mutual understanding. However, the opaque nature of Chinese politics makes it difficult to track China's expectations and its changing views of the EU and their relationship. This paper examines the official Chinese media discourse on the EU's ‘actorness’ and partnership with China. This helps to bridge the gap between international relations and media studies by linking government foreign relations to media discourse. It argues that China's relations with the EU should be characterized neither as a case of a ‘Capability–Expectations Gap’ (Hill, 1993) nor as an ‘Expectation Deficit’ (Tsuruoka, 2008), but should rather be seen as a matter of ‘Reflexive Expectations’ by China. The media analysis shows that China's changing national identity, interests and perception of the EU's capability at various times and in various situations influence expectations

Epigenetic changes on rat chromosome 4 contribute to disparate alcohol drinking behavior in alcohol-preferring and -nonpreferring rats

Background: Paternal alcohol abuse is a well-recognized risk factor for the development of an alcohol use disorder (AUD). In addition to genetic and environmental risk factors, heritable epigenetic factors also have been proposed to play a key role in the development of AUD. However, it is not clear whether epigenetic factors contribute to the genetic inheritance in families affected by AUD. We used reciprocal crosses of the alcohol-preferring (P) and -nonpreferring (NP) rat lines to test whether epigenetic factors also impacted alcohol drinking in up to two generations of offspring. Methods: F1 offspring derived by reciprocal breeding of P and NP rats were tested for differences in alcohol consumption using a free-choice protocol of 10% ethanol, 20% ethanol, and water that were available concurrently. In a separate experiment, an F2 population was tested for alcohol consumption not only due to genetic differences. These rats were generated from inbred P (iP) and iNP rat lines that were reciprocally bred to produce genetically identical F1 offspring that remained alcohol-naïve. Intercrosses of the F1 generation animals produced the F2 generation. Alcohol consumption was then assessed in the F2 generation using a standard two-bottle choice protocol, and was analyzed using genome-wide linkage analysis. Alcohol consumption measures were also analyzed for sex differences. Results: Average alcohol consumption was higher in the F1 offspring of P vs. NP sires and in the F2 offspring of F0 iP vs. iNP grandsires. Linkage analyses showed the maximum LOD scores for alcohol consumption in both male and female offspring were on chromosome 4 (Chr 4). The LOD score for both sexes considered together was higher when the grandsire was iP vs. iNP (5.0 vs. 3.35, respectively). Furthermore, the F2 population displayed enhanced alcohol consumption when the P alleles from the F0 sire were present. Conclusions: These results demonstrate that epigenetic and/or non-genetic factors mapping to rat chromosome 4 contribute to a transgenerational paternal effect on alcohol consumption in the P and NP rat model of AUD