Displacing and Disrupting: A Dialogue on Hmong Studies and Asian American Studies

This article summarizes a roundtable discussion of scholars that took place at the Association for Asian American Studies Conference in San Francisco, 2014. Hailing from various academic disciplines, the participants explored the relationship between the emerging field of Hmong/Hmong American Studies and Asian American Studies. Questions of interest included: In what ways has Asian American Studies informed Hmong/Hmong American Studies, or failed to do so? In what ways does Hmong/Hmong American Studies enrich/challenge Asian American Studies? What are the tensions between these two fields and other related fields? How do/should the new programs in Hmong/Hmong American Studies relate to the existing Asian American Studies programs regarding curriculum, activism and/or resource allocation

Re-Examining Mortality Sources and Population Trends in a Declining Seabird: Using Bayesian Methods to Incorporate Existing Information and New Data

The population of flesh-footed shearwaters (Puffinus carneipes) breeding on Lord Howe Island was shown to be declining from the 1970’s to the early 2000’s. This was attributed to destruction of breeding habitat and fisheries mortality in the Australian Eastern Tuna and Billfish Fishery. Recent evidence suggests these impacts have ceased; presumably leading to population recovery. We used Bayesian statistical methods to combine data from the literature with more recent, but incomplete, field data to estimate population parameters and trends. This approach easily accounts for sources of variation and uncertainty while formally incorporating data and variation from different sources into the estimate. There is a 70% probability that the flesh-footed shearwater population on Lord Howe continued to decline during 2003–2009, and a number of possible reasons for this are suggested. During the breeding season, road-based mortality of adults on Lord Howe Island is likely to result in reduced adult survival and there is evidence that breeding success is negatively impacted by marine debris. Interactions with fisheries on flesh-footed shearwater winter grounds should be further investigated

The nucleon's strange electromagnetic and scalar matrix elements

Quenched lattice QCD simulations and quenched chiral perturbation theory are used together for this study of strangeness in the nucleon. Dependences of the matrix elements on strange quark mass, valence quark mass and momentum transfer are discussed in both the lattice and chiral frameworks. The combined results of this study are in good agreement with existing experimental data and predictions are made for upcoming experiments. Possible future refinements of the theoretical method are suggested.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figure

Genome-wide linkage analysis for alcohol dependence: a comparison between single-nucleotide polymorphism and microsatellite marker assays

Both theoretical and applied studies have proven that the utility of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers in linkage analysis is more powerful and cost-effective than current microsatellite marker assays. Here we performed a whole-genome scan on 115 White, non-Hispanic families segregating for alcohol dependence, using one 10.3-cM microsatellite marker set and two SNP data sets (0.33-cM, 0.78-cM spacing). Two definitions of alcohol dependence (ALDX1 and ALDX2) were used. Our multipoint nonparametric linkage analysis found alcoholism was nominal linked to 12 genomic regions. The linkage peaks obtained by using the microsatellite marker set and the two SNP sets had a high degree of correspondence in general, but the microsatellite marker set was insufficient to detect some nominal linkage peaks. The presence of linkage disequilibrium between markers did not significantly affect the results. Across the entire genome, SNP datasets had a much higher average linkage information content (0.33 cM: 0.93, 0.78 cM: 0.91) than did microsatellite marker set (0.57). The linkage peaks obtained through two SNP datasets were very similar with some minor differences. We conclude that genome-wide linkage analysis by using approximately 5,000 SNP markers evenly distributed across the human genome is sufficient and might be more powerful than current 10-cM microsatellite marker assays

Multifactor-dimensionality reduction versus family-based association tests in detecting susceptibility loci in discordant sib-pair studies

Complex diseases are generally thought to be under the influence of multiple, and possibly interacting, genes. Many association methods have been developed to identify susceptibility genes assuming a single-gene disease model, referred to as single-locus methods. Multilocus methods consider joint effects of multiple genes and environmental factors. One commonly used method for family-based association analysis is implemented in FBAT. The multifactor-dimensionality reduction method (MDR) is a multilocus method, which identifies multiple genetic loci associated with the occurrence of complex disease. Many studies of late onset complex diseases employ a discordant sib pairs design. We compared the FBAT and MDR in their ability to detect susceptibility loci using a discordant sib-pair dataset generated from the simulated data made available to participants in the Genetic Analysis Workshop 14. Using FBAT, we were able to identify the effect of one susceptibility locus. However, the finding was not statistically significant. We were not able to detect any of the interactions using this method. This is probably because the FBAT test is designed to find loci with major effects, not interactions. Using MDR, the best result we obtained identified two interactions. However, neither of these reached a level of statistical significance. This is mainly due to the heterogeneity of the disease trait and noise in the data

Whole-genome variance components linkage analysis using single-nucleotide polymorphisms versus microsatellites on quantitative traits of derived phenotypes from factor analysis of electroencephalogram waves

Alcohol dependence is a serious public health problem. We studied data from families participating in the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA) and made available to participants in the Genetic Analysis Workshop 14 (GAW14) in order to search for genes predisposing to alcohol dependence. Using factor analysis, we identified four factors (F1, F2, F3, F4) related to the electroencephalogram traits. We conducted variance components linkage analysis with each of the factors. Our results using the Affymetrix single-nucleotide polymorphism dataset showed significant evidence for a novel linkage of F3 (factor comprised of the three midline channel EEG measures from the target case of the Visual Oddball experiment ttdt2, 3, 4) to chromosome 18 (LOD = 3.45). This finding was confirmed by analyses of the microsatellite data (LOD = 2.73) and Illumina SNP data (LOD = 3.30). We also demonstrated that, in a sample like the COGA data, a dense single-nucleotide polymorphism map provides better linkage signals than low-resolution microsatellite map with quantitative traits

Instanton Contribution to the Proton and Neutron Electric Form Factors

We study the instanton contribution to the proton and neutron electric form factors. Using the single instanton approximation, we perform the calculations in a mixed time-momentum representation in order to obtain the form factors directly in momentum space. We find good agreement with the experimentally measured electric form factor of the proton. For the neutron, our result falls short of the experimental data. We argue that this discrepancy is due to the fact that we neglect the contribution of the sea quarks. We compare to lattice calculations and a relativistic version of the quark-diquark model.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, updated references, to appear in Phys. Lett.

Search for genetic factors predisposing to atherogenic dyslipidemia

BACKGROUND: Atherogenic dyslipidemia (AD) is a common feature in persons with premature coronary heart disease. While several linkage studies have been carried out to dissect the genetic etiology of lipid levels, few have investigated the AD lipid triad comprising elevated serum triglyceride, small low density lipoprotein (LDL) particles, and reduced high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels. Here we report the results of a whole-genome screen for AD using the Framingham Heart Study population. RESULTS: Our analyses provide some evidence for linkage to AD on chromosomes 1q31, 3q29, 10q26, 14p12, 14q13, 16q24, 18p11, and 19q13. CONCLUSION: AD susceptibility is modulated by multiple genes in different chromosomes. Our study confirms results from other populations and suggests new areas of potential importance

Genome-wide screen for heavy alcohol consumption

BACKGROUND: To find specific genes predisposing to heavy alcohol consumption (self-reported consumption of 24 grams or more of alcohol per day among men and 12 grams or more among women), we studied 330 families collected by the Framingham Heart Study made available to participants in the Genetic Analysis Workshop 13 (GAW13). RESULTS: Parametric and nonparametric methods of linkage analysis were used. No significant evidence of linkage was found; however, weak signals were identified in several chromosomal regions, including 1p22, 4q12, 4q25, and 11q24, which are in the vicinity of those reported in other similar studies. CONCLUSION: Our study did not reveal significant evidence of linkage to heavy alcohol use; however, we found weak confirmation of studies carried out in other populations