"Realization of the Promised Land": Christian Narratives in American Identity Formation Focusing on Filipino and Korean Americans

This article examines Protestant narratives of Filipino and Korean Americans with regard to their American national identity formation. The focus of this article is to find out how they have reinterpreted their ethnic backgrounds and immigrant experiences within the framework of the Biblical exodus story as ways of promoting their American identities based on America's historically inherited concept of God's chosen people. Their reinterpretation situates them in the status of God's chosen people who had been called to America which they believe is the Promised Land and who are on their sacred journey into the realization of the Promised Land. I selected these two groups because they have made up new immigrant groups in America since the late twentieth century and their pre-immigrant exposure to unilateral American influences caused the formation of their idealized perceptions of America. This tendency motivated them to leave their homeland for obtaining better social status and living conditions. These historical backgrounds have influenced the understanding of their post-immigrant lives in America. I made the cases of Protestant narratives of two influential theologians, Eleazar Fernandi and Dong-Sun Lim, to demonstrate how Christian symbols such as Canaan and Exodus are used to interpret their transnational immigration and to sanctify the process of their achievement of American Dream. Furthermore, their applications of the Biblical stories in making sense of their immigrant lives reflect their wishes to become central groups in mainstream American society as well as be part of American destiny as a global superpower, rather than to remain as marginal groups

Validation of UNIST Monte Carlo Code MCS using VERA Progression Problems

This paper presents the validation of UNIST in-house Monte Carlo code MCS used for the high-fidelity simulation of commercial pressurized water reactors (PWRs). Its focus is on the accurate, spatially detailed neutronic analyses of startup physics tests for the initial core of the Watts Bar Nuclear 1 reactor, which is a vital step in evaluating core phenomena in an operating nuclear power reactor. The MCS solutions for the Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors (CASL) Virtual Environment for Reactor Applications (VERA) core physics benchmark progression problems 1 to 5 were verified with KENO-VI and Serpent 2 solutions for geometries ranging from a single-pin cell to a full core. MCS was also validated by comparing with results of reactor zero-power physics tests in a full-core simulation. MCS exhibits an excellent consistency against the measured data with a bias of +/- 3 pcm at the initial criticality whole-core problem. Furthermore, MCS solutions for rod worth are consistent with measured data, and reasonable agreement is obtained for the isothermal temperature coefficient and soluble boron worth. This favorable comparison with measured parameters exhibited by MCS continues to broaden its validation basis. These results provide confidence in MCS's capability in high-fidelity calculations for practical PWR cores. (C) 2019 Korean Nuclear Society, Published by Elsevier Korea LLC

DVC analysis of a polymer material subjected to tensile loading with synchrotron radiation tomography

Subsurface deformation behavior of a polymeric material is studied through the digital volume correlation (DVC) technique. Fundamental principles of the DVC technique are presented and the supplemental state-of-the-art algorithmic schemes to improve the efficiency and accuracy of the DVC analysis are also introduced. Tensile tests on an epoxy material are performed in conjunction with synchrotron radiation tomography. In order to create randomly distributed grayscale values in the tomograms for the following image analysis, microscale high-density particles are embedded when the epoxy specimens are fabricated. 3D tomographic images taken at multiple loading steps are utilized for the DVC analysis. The performance of the present DVC analysis is evaluated with the experimental data

Improvement of pulmonary surfactant activity by introducing D-amino acids into highly hydrophobic amphiphilic α-peptide Hel 13-5

AbstractThe high costs of artificial pulmonary surfactants, ranging in hundreds per kilogram of body weight, used for treating the respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) premature babies have limited their applications. We have extensively studied soy lecithins and higher alcohols as lipid alternatives to expensive phospholipids such as DPPC and PG. As a substitute for the proteins, we have synthesized the peptide Hel 13-5D3 by introducing D-amino acids into a highly lipid-soluble, basic amphiphilic peptide, Hel 13-5, composed of 18 amino acid residues. Analysis of the surfactant activities of lipid-amphiphilic artificial peptide mixtures using lung-irrigated rat models revealed that a mixture (Murosurf SLPD3) of dehydrogenated soy lecithin, fractionated soy lecithin, palmitic acid (PA), and peptide Hel 13-5D3 (40:40:17.5:2.5, by weight) superior pulmonary surfactant activity than a commercially available pulmonary surfactant (beractant, Surfacten®). Experiments using ovalbumin-sensitized model animals revealed that the lipid-amphiphilic artificial peptide mixtures provided significant control over an increase in the pulmonary resistance induced by premature allergy reaction and reduced the number of acidocytes and neutrophils in lung-irrigated solution. The newly developed low-cost pulmonary surfactant system may be used for treatment of a wide variety of respiratory diseases

Neuroprotective effect of dexmedetomidine on autophagy in mice administered intracerebroventricular injections of Aβ25–35

Alzheimer’s disease (AD), one of the most prevalent neurodegenerative diseases is associated with pathological autophagy-lysosomal pathway dysfunction. Dexmedetomidine (Dex) has been suggested as an adjuvant to general anesthesia with advantages in reducing the incidence of postoperative cognitive dysfunction in Dex-treated patients with AD and older individuals. Several studies reported that Dex improved memory; however, evidence on the effects of Dex on neuronal autophagy dysfunction in the AD model is lacking. We hypothesized that Dex administration would have neuroprotective effects by improving pathological autophagy dysfunction in mice that received an intracerebroventricular (i.c.v.) injection of amyloid β-protein fragment 25–35 (Aβ25–35) and in an autophagy-deficient cellular model. In the Y-maze test, Dex reversed the decreased activity of Aβ25–35 mice. Additionally, it restored the levels of two memory-related proteins, phosphorylated Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (p-CaMKII) and postsynaptic density-95 (PSD-95) in Aβ25–35 mice and organotypic hippocampal slice culture (OHSC) with Aβ25–35. Dex administration also resulted in decreased expression of the autophagy-related microtubule-associated proteins light chain 3-II (LC3-II), p62, lysosome-associated membrane protein2 (LAMP2), and cathepsin D in Aβ25–35 mice and OHSC with Aβ25–35. Increased numbers of co-localized puncta of LC3-LAMP2 or LC3-cathepsin D, along with dissociated LC3-p62 immunoreactivity following Dex treatment, were observed. These findings were consistent with the results of western blots and the transformation of double-membrane autophagosomes into single-membraned autolysosomes in ultrastructures. It was evident that Dex treatment alleviated impaired autolysosome formation in Aβ mice. Our study demonstrated the improvement of memory impairment caused by Dex and its neuroprotective mechanism by investigating the role of the autophagy-lysosomal pathway in a murine Aβ25–35 model. These findings suggest that Dex could be used as a potential neuroprotective adjuvant in general anesthesia to prevent cognitive decline

Real-Time Temporal Dynamics of Bicistronic Expression Mediated by Internal Ribosome Entry Site and 2A Cleaving Sequence

Multicistronic elements, such as the internal ribosome entry site (IRES) and 2A-like cleavage sequence, serve crucial roles in the eukaryotic ectopic expression of exogenous genes. For utilization of multicistronic elements, the cleavage efficiency and order of elements in multicistronic vectors have been investigated; however, the dynamics of multicistronic element-mediated expression remains unclear. Here, we investigated the dynamics of encephalomyocarditis virus (EMCV) IRES- and porcine teschovirus-1 2A (p2A)-mediated expression. By utilizing real-time fluorescent imaging at a minute-level resolution, we monitored the expression of fluorescent reporters bridged by either EMCV IRES or p2A in two independent cultured cell lines, HEK293 and Neuro2a. We observed significant correlations for the two fluorescent reporters in both multicistronic elements, with a higher correlation coefficient for p2A in HEK293 but similar coefficients for IRES-mediated expression and p2A-mediated expression in Neuro2a. We further analyzed the causal relationship of multicistronic elements by convergent cross mapping (CCM). CCM revealed that in all four conditions examined, the expression of the preceding gene causally affected the dynamics of the subsequent gene. As with the cross correlation, the predictive skill of p2A was higher than that of IRES in HEK293, while the predictive skills of the two multicistronic elements were indistinguishable in Neuro2a. To summarize, we report a significant temporal correlation in both EMCV IRES- and p2A-mediated expression based on the simple bicistronic vector and real-time fluorescent monitoring. The current system also provides a valuable platform to examine the dynamic aspects of expression mediated by diverse multicistronic elements under various physiological conditions.National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) of the Ministry of Science and ICT [NRF-2017R1C1B2008775, NRF-2017R1A4A1015534, NRF-2018M3C7A1022310]; KBRI basic research program through Korea Brain Research Institute - Ministry of Science and ICT [17-BR-04]Open access journalThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

Regulatory Reform for Fostering an Innovation Ecosystem

Although South Korea has taken various measures related to regulatory reform over the past decades, it has not made significant progress in transforming its regulatory framework. There are still a large number of regulations that are outdated and exist only in South Korea compared to other developed countries. This working paper reviews key measures made in recent years and clarifies critical steps that the country must take to make a successful transition. We first examine the direction of regulatory reform corresponding to the Fourth Industrial Revolution and how developed countries are rapidly moving to conceive the optimal regulatory design to promote innovation. Then, we highlight the major efforts South Korea has made in recent years to initiate regulatory reform and the fundamental challenges that remain. Lastly, we dive deep into regulatory reform for health care innovation, particularly as the government pledges to build a world-class bio-health industry over the next decade. We also approach regulatory reform from a public perspective, discussing how to encourage civic participation through open-minded communication and information-sharing with the public. As the South Korean society lacks trust towards new technologies and data usage, it is crucial to establish credibility of emerging industries as well as a balanced understanding of the potential benefits, ironing out conflicting views between stakeholders