Correlates of Quality of Life in New Migrants to Hong Kong from Mainland China

The concept of Quality of life (QOL) has received considerable attention from different disciplines. The aim of this study was to identify what are the correlates of QOL among Chinese new immigrants in Hong Kong. Data were collected through a cross-sectional survey among 449 Hong Kong new immigrants from Mainland China. Bivariate and multiple regression analyses were performed to examine the association between immigrants' QOL and their demographic characteristics, socio-economic factors, optimism, sense of control, perceived social support, perceived neighborhood disorder, collective efficacy, pre-migration planning, depressive symptoms and acculturation stress. Our findings demonstrated that depressive symptom is the most prominent factor in reducing immigrants' level of QOL, perceived social support and optimism are the two important factors that enhance the QOL of these depressed immigrants. Our results indicate that preventive measures must be developed, and professional counseling and psychological support services must be provided to new immigrants in Hong Kong, especially those who have depressive symptoms. © 2011 The Author(s).published_or_final_versionSpringer Open Choice, 21 Feb 201

Transcriptomic Responses Of Corpuscle Of Stannius Gland Of Japanese Eels (anguilla Japonica) To Changes In Water Salinity

Physiological studies of a unique endocrine gland in fish, named corpuscles of Stannius (CS), described a Ca2+-regulatory function for this gland mediated by stanniocalcin-1, a hypocalcemic polypeptide hormone. However, to date, the endocrine functions of the glands have not been completely elucidated. We hypothesized that other unidentified active principles in the glands are involved in the regulation of plasma ion (Na+, Ca2+) and/or blood pressure. In this study, transcriptome sequencing of CS glands was performed using Japanese eels (Anguilla japonica) adapted to freshwater (FW) or seawater (SW) to reveal the presence and differential expression of genes encoding proteins related to the ion-osmoregulatory and pressor functions. We acquired a total of 14.1 Mb and 12.1 Mb quality-trimmed reads from the CS glands collected from FW and SW adapted eels, respectively. The de novo assembly resulted in 9254 annotated genes. Among them, 475 genes were differentially expressed with 357 up- and 118 down-regulated in the SW group. Gene ontology analysis further demonstrated the presence of natriuresis and pressor related genes. In summary, ours is the first study using high-throughput sequencing to identify gene targets that could explain the physiological importance of the CS glands.published_or_final_versio

Tissue-specific transcriptome assemblies of the marine medaka Oryzias melastigma and comparative analysis with the freshwater medaka Oryzias latipes

published_or_final_versio

A two-level flow control scheme for ABR traffic in ATM networks

In this paper, a new two-level flow control scheme using VP credit-based control and stop-and-go rate control for Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) networks is presented. Since the proposed scheme does not require any information on traffic characteristics, we propose to apply such a flow control scheme to the best effort traffic that requires no bandwidth guarantee From the network. The proposed flow control scheme can efficiently use the leftover bandwidth after the guaranteed traffic has been satisfied. Therefore, high bandwidth utilization can be achieved. Furthermore, cell loss can completely be avoided by the lower-level credit-flow control done on a per VP basis. On top of this, a higher-level Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) rate control is employed to avoid any performance degradation. Simulations have been performed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. It is found that the average end-to-end delay of our proposed scheme is better than that of the original VCFC scheme [1]. In addition, there is also a tremendous saving in the memory required when compared with the VCFC scheme

Early Zebrafish Development, a Screening Model to Identify Effects of Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals

Poster SessionThe exposure of mammalian foetus to endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) has been hypothesized to increase the propensity of offspring to develop organ dysfunction or diseases in adult life. Since fetal development is recognized as the most susceptible stage to be affected by different kinds of stress, there is a pressing need to understand the effects of EDCs on this critical developmental window. However, the understanding of the mechanistic basis of this cause-effect relationship is in fact stunningly complex, largely hampered by the complexity of the mammalian developmental processes. Zebrafish, an excellent model widely used in the field of developmental biology, provides an invaluable tool to the field of developmental toxicology. Furthermore, zebrafish was used in classical toxicological studies in sublethal or lethal toxicity test by exposure to different types of chemical contaminants. However, these studies did not provide information on the mechanistic action of the contaminants at realistic exposure dosages. In this study, the approach of using standard whole-mount in situ hybridization screening method was adopted to determine early developmental defects in zebrafish embryos exposed to the ubiquitous contaminant, bisphenol A (BPA) at three critical early developmental stages (60–75% epiboly, 8–10 somite, and prim-5). This screening strategy provided an important evidence to illustrate the effects of BPA on dorsal-ventral (DV) patterning, segmentation, and brain development in zebrafish embryos within 24 hours of the exposure

Cognitive Impairment in Heart Failure—A Review

10.3390/biology11020179Biology112179-17

Data for transcriptomic and iTRAQ proteomic analysis of Anguilla japonica gills in response to osmotic stress

This article contains data related to the two research articles titled Transcriptomic and iTRAQ proteomic approaches reveal novel short-term hyperosmotic stress responsive proteins in the gill of the Japanese eel (Anguilla japonica) and iTRAQ-based quantitative proteomic analysis reveals acute hypo-osmotic responsive proteins in the gills of the Japanese eel (Anguilla japonica). The two research articles show the usefulness of combining transcriptomic and proteomic approaches to provide molecular insights of osmoregulation mechanism in a non-model organism, the Japanese eel. The information presented here combines the raw data from the two studies and provides an overview on the physiological functions of fish gills

Effects of Sodium/Glucose Cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) Inhibitors on Cardiac Imaging Parameters: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

10.4250/jcvi.2021.0159Journal of Cardiovascular Imaging303153-16