Group Membership and Context of Participation in Electoral Politics among Korean, Chinese, and Filipino Americans

Asian Americans have fallen behind other ethnic groups with regard to political participation, despite being one of the fastest growing populations and having achieved socioeconomic advantages over the last few decades. This paper examines this puzzle by looking at a demographic and socioeconomic portrait of major Asian-American groups and their participation patterns in electoral politics. The paper focuses on a host of factors, such as group membership, generation, assimilation, and political and community contexts, that go beyond individual level attributes. The paper explores particularly how group-specific political and community contexts mediate voting behavior differently or similarly across three major Asian groups—Korean, Chinese, and Filipino Americans—based on a review of existing research, secondary data from the Current Population Surveys of 2000, 2004, and 2008, and the 2011 American Community Survey

Molecular Mechanism of Local Drug Delivery with Paclitaxel-Eluting Membranes in Biliary and Pancreatic Cancer: New Application for an Old Drug

Implantation of self-expanding metal stents (SEMS) is palliation for patients suffering from inoperable malignant obstructions associated with biliary and pancreatic cancers. Chemotherapeutic agent-eluting stents have been developed because SEMS are susceptible to occlusion by tumor in-growth. We reported recently that paclitaxel-eluting SEMS provide enhanced local drug delivery in an animal model. However, little is known about the molecular mechanisms by which paclitaxel-eluting stents attenuate tumor growth. We investigated the signal transduction pathways underlying the antiproliferative effects of a paclitaxel-eluting membrane (PEM) implanted in pancreatic/cholangiocarcinoma tumor bearing nude mice. Molecular and cellular alterations were analyzed in the PEM-implanted pancreatic/cholangiocarcinoma xenograft tumors by Western blot, immunoprecipitation, and immunofluorescence. The quantities of paclitaxel released into the tumor and plasma were determined by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectroscopy. Paclitaxel from the PEM and its diffusion into the tumor inhibited angiogenesis, which involved suppression of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) through regulation of hypoxia inducible factor (HIF-1) and increased apoptosis. Moreover, implantation of the PEM inhibited tumor-stromal interaction-related expression of proteins such as CD44, SPARC, matrix metalloproteinase-2, and vimentin. Local delivery of paclitaxel from a PEM inhibited growth of pancreatic/cholangiocarcinoma tumors in nude mice by suppressing angiogenesis via the mTOR and inducing apoptosis signal pathway