Asian English Language Learners’ Identity Construction in an After School Read, Talk, & Wiki Club

For English language learners (ELLs) who traverse two different sociocultural and linguistic worlds, identity construction is a particularly complicated process. However, examining learners’ identity construction is vital because language and literacy learning is mediated by learners’ identities (Gee, 2003). This investigation sought to address the dearth of studies on Asian ELLs in second language acquisition and literacy research which have been limited in part due to the model minority stereotype ascribed to Asian students (Ogbu, 1987). Within the frameworks of collective identity theories (Gee, 2003; Weedon, 1987; 2004) and sociocultural learning theories (Bakhtin, 1968; 1981; Vygotsky, 1986), the purpose of the study, therefore, was to expand our understanding of Asian ELLs by examining how they construct their identities in an after school literacy club through reading and discussing multicultural literature. The research question was: How do Asian adolescent English language learners construct their identities in an out-of-school Read, Talk, & Wiki (RTW) club? Participants included four Asian ELL high school boys: one Korean, one Uzbek, and two Indians. Data sources included interviews, face to face club meetings, electronic Wiki postings, member checking, peer debriefing sessions, and a researcher journal. Data analyses followed the principles of the constant comparative method (Glaser & Strauss, 1965), and individual case as well as cross case analyses were conducted (Yin, 2003). Trustworthiness, dependability, and credibility were established through triangulation of data sources and the transparent audit trail (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). The results revealed that the participants lived in separate home and school worlds. Participants also identified respect as an important Asian value that distinguished them from their American peers. In addition, although the participants capitalized on the positive model minority stereotype, they stressed the fallacy of using it to generalize to all Asians. The findings suggest that providing a safe literacy site where multicultural literature is used could be beneficial to ELLs. They also suggest that it is necessary to broaden our common understandings of Asian students and that educators need to recognize learners’ multiple identities through a variety of reading and writing activities

A beginning professor’s linguistic and teaching identity

I am a bilingual writer and teacher in both Korean and English languages. Having traveled to other countries and having lived in the United States while learning English has challenged and (re)shaped my cultural, linguistic, and teaching identities. In this chapter, I describe how I come to terms with who I am in two different linguistic and cultural worlds. I would like to describe my personal experiences of becoming a bilingual writer, speaker, and teacher in Korean and English over three different phases of my life: before, during, and after doctoral studies. My reflections will be enriched by attention to literature pertinent to second language learning and identity research. At the end, I explore what it means to be a novice scholar/professor in a department in which I received my Ph.D. degree

Asian English Language Learners\u27 Identity Construction in an After School Read, Talk, & Wiki Club

For English language learners (ELLs) who traverse two different sociocultural and linguistic worlds, identity construction is a particularly complicated process. However, examining learners’ identity construction is vital because language and literacy learning is mediated by learners’ identities (Gee, 2003). This investigation sought to address the dearth of studies on Asian ELLs in second language acquisition and literacy research which have been limited in part due to the model minority stereotype ascribed to Asian students (Ogbu, 1987). Within the frameworks of collective identity theories (Gee, 2003; Weedon, 1987; 2004) and sociocultural learning theories (Bakhtin, 1968; 1981; Vygotsky, 1986), the purpose of the study, therefore, was to expand our understanding of Asian ELLs by examining how they construct their identities in an after school literacy club through reading and discussing multicultural literature. The research question was: How do Asian adolescent English language learners construct their identities in an out-of-school Read, Talk, & Wiki (RTW) club? Participants included four Asian ELL high school boys: one Korean, one Uzbek, and two Indians. Data sources included interviews, face to face club meetings, electronic Wiki postings, member checking, peer debriefing sessions, and a researcher journal. Data analyses followed the principles of the constant comparative method (Glaser & Strauss, 1965), and individual case as well as cross case analyses were conducted (Yin, 2003). Trustworthiness, dependability, and credibility were established through triangulation of data sources and the transparent audit trail (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). The results revealed that the participants lived in separate home and school worlds. Participants also identified respect as an important Asian value that distinguished them from their American peers. In addition, although the participants capitalized on the positive model minority stereotype, they stressed the fallacy of using it to generalize to all Asians. The findings suggest that providing a safe literacy site where multicultural literature is used could be beneficial to ELLs. They also suggest that it is necessary to broaden our common understandings of Asian students and that educators need to recognize learners’ multiple identities through a variety of reading and writing activities

A Heritage Language Learner’s Literacy Practices in a Korean Language Course in a U.S. University: From a Multiliteracies Perspective

Drawing on multiliteracies, the author examines how a multiliteracies curriculum in a 3rdyear Korean heritage language (HL) class at a southeastern U.S. university contributed to the development of a student’s HL literacy skills. Print-based and multimodal responses (i.e., a digital animation movie) to the readings of students’ choices and language logs were aligned with the four components of a multiliteracies pedagogy (i.e., situated practice, overt instruction, critical framing, and transformative practice). The qualitative data analysis suggests that a multiliteracies curriculum helped an HL learner develop motivation to read in Korean, adopt an agentive take on Korean language learning, and form an emerging literate identity as a legitimate reader and writer in the HL. The author discusses important implications for reading/literacy educators in various contexts

Use of Undergraduates as Participants in Clothing and Textiles Research

Social science researchers (e.g., psychology, marketing) have questioned the practice of using undergraduates (UGs) as research participants; by the end of the 20th century, the use of UGs in consumer behavior research was trending upward. Peterson (2001, p. 451) reported that for the Journal of Consumer Research, “the percentage using college students has steadily increased, from 23% in the first volume to 89% in the most recent volume.” Further, he noted that “86% of the empirically based articles appearing in the Journal of Consumer Psychology since its inception in 1992 have employed college students as subjects” (p. 451). Similar figures have been reported in psychology journals (Sherman, Buddie, Dragan, End, & Finney, 1999)

CD300LF polymorphisms of inbred mouse strains confer resistance to murine norovirus infection in a cell type-dependent manner

Human norovirus is the leading cause of gastroenteritis worldwide, yet basic questions about its life cycle remain unanswered due to an historical lack of robust experimental systems. Recent studies on the closely related murine norovirus (MNV) have identified CD300LF as an indispensable entry factor for MNV. We compared the MNV susceptibilities of cells from different mouse strains and identified polymorphisms in murine CD300LF which are critical for its function as an MNV receptor. Bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMDMs) from I/LnJ mice were resistant to infection from multiple MNV strains which readily infect BMDMs from C57BL/6J mice. The resistance of I/LnJ BMDMs was specific to MNV, since the cells supported infection of other viruses comparably to C57BL/6J BMDMs. Transduction of I/LnJ BMDMs with C57BL/6J CD300LF made the cells permissible to MNV infection, suggesting that the cause of resistance lies in the entry step of MNV infection. In fact, we mapped this phenotype to a 4-amino-acid difference at the CC\u27 loop of CD300LF; swapping of these amino acids between C57BL/6J and I/LnJ CD300LF proteins made the mutant C57BL/6J CD300LF functionally impaired and the corresponding mutant of I/LnJ CD300LF functional as an MNV entry factor. Surprisingly, expression of the I/LnJ CD300LF in other cell types made the cells infectible by MNV, even though the I/LnJ allele did not function as an MNV receptor in macrophage-like cells. Correspondingly, I/LnJ CD300LF bound MNV virions in permissive cells but not in nonpermissive cells. Collectively, our data suggest the existence of a cell type-specific modifier of MNV entry

How do caregivers of children with congenital heart diseases access and navigate the healthcare system in Ethiopia?

Background Surgery can correct congenital heart defects, but disease management in low- and middle-income countries can be challenging and complex due to a lack of referral system, financial resources, human resources, and infrastructure for surgical and post-operative care. This study investigates the experiences of caregivers of children with CHD accessing the health care system and pediatric cardiac surgery. Methods A qualitative study was conducted at a teaching hospital in Ethiopia. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 13 caregivers of 10 patients with CHD who underwent cardiac surgery. We additionally conducted chart reviews for triangulation and verification. Interviews were conducted in Amharic and then translated into English. Data were analyzed according to the principles of interpretive thematic analysis, informed by the candidacy framework. Results The following four observations emerged from the interviews: (a) most patients were diagnosed with CHD at birth if they were born at a health care facility, but for those born at home, CHD was discovered much later (b) many patients experienced misdiagnoses before seeking care at a large hospital, (c) after diagnosis, patients were waiting for the surgery for more than a year, (d) caregivers felt anxious and optimistic once they were able to schedule the surgical date. During the care-seeking journey, caregivers encountered financial constraints, struggled in a fragmented delivery system, and experienced poor service quality. Conclusions Delayed access to care was largely due to the lack of early CHD recognition and financial hardships, related to the inefficient and disorganized health care system. Fee waivers were available to assist low-income children in gaining access to health services or medications, but application information was not readily available. Indirect costs like long-distance travel contributed to this challenge. Overall, improvements must be made for district-level screening and the health care workforce.This research was funded by the JW LEE Center for Global Medicine of Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, the Republic of Korea

Decreased DBC1 Expression Is Associated With Poor Prognosis in Patients With Non-Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer

Purpose The deleted in bladder cancer 1 (DBC1) gene is located within chromosome 9 (9q32-33), a chromosomal region that frequently shows loss of heterozygosity in bladder cancer (BC). It is suspected that it acts as a tumor suppressor gene, but its prognostic value remains unclear. The aim of the present study was to investigate the value of DBC1 as a prognostic marker in BC. Materials and Methods The expression of DBC1 was determined by real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis in 344 patients with BC (220 non-muscle-invasive BC [NMIBC] and 124 muscle-invasive BC [MIBC]) and in 34 patients with normal bladder mucosa. The results were compared with clinicopathologic parameters, and the prognostic value of DBC1 was evaluated by Kaplan-Meier analysis and a multivariate Cox regression model. Results: DBC1 expression was significantly decreased in patients with MIBC compared with those diagnosed with NMIBC (p=0.010). Patients with aggressive tumor characteristics had lower DBC1 expression levels in NMIBC (each, p<0.05). By multivariate Cox regression analysis, low DBC1 expression was a predictor of progression to MIBC (hazard ratio, 7.104; p=0.013). Kaplan-Meier estimates revealed a significant difference in tumor recurrence, progression to MIBC, and cancer-specific survival depending on the level of DBC1 expression in NMIBC (log-rank test, each, p<0.05). Conclusions: The expression of DBC1 was associated with tumor aggressiveness, progression to MIBC, and survival in NMIBC. Our results suggest that DBC1 expression can be a useful prognostic marker for patients with NMIBC

Molecular chaperone Hsp90 is a therapeutic target for noroviruses.

UNLABELLED: Human noroviruses (HuNoV) are a significant cause of acute gastroenteritis in the developed world, and yet our understanding of the molecular pathways involved in norovirus replication and pathogenesis has been limited by the inability to efficiently culture these viruses in the laboratory. Using the murine norovirus (MNV) model, we have recently identified a network of host factors that interact with the 5' and 3' extremities of the norovirus RNA genome. In addition to a number of well-known cellular RNA binding proteins, the molecular chaperone Hsp90 was identified as a component of the ribonucleoprotein complex. Here, we show that the inhibition of Hsp90 activity negatively impacts norovirus replication in cell culture. Small-molecule-mediated inhibition of Hsp90 activity using 17-DMAG (17-dimethylaminoethylamino-17-demethoxygeldanamycin) revealed that Hsp90 plays a pleiotropic role in the norovirus life cycle but that the stability of the viral capsid protein is integrally linked to Hsp90 activity. Furthermore, we demonstrate that both the MNV-1 and the HuNoV capsid proteins require Hsp90 activity for their stability and that targeting Hsp90 in vivo can significantly reduce virus replication. In summary, we demonstrate that targeting cellular proteostasis can inhibit norovirus replication, identifying a potential novel therapeutic target for the treatment of norovirus infections. IMPORTANCE: HuNoV are a major cause of acute gastroenteritis around the world. RNA viruses, including noroviruses, rely heavily on host cell proteins and pathways for all aspects of their life cycle. Here, we identify one such protein, the molecular chaperone Hsp90, as an important factor required during the norovirus life cycle. We demonstrate that both murine and human noroviruses require the activity of Hsp90 for the stability of their capsid proteins. Furthermore, we demonstrate that targeting Hsp90 activity in vivo using small molecule inhibitors also reduces infectious virus production. Given the considerable interest in the development of Hsp90 inhibitors for use in cancer therapeutics, we identify here a new target that could be explored for the development of antiviral strategies to control norovirus outbreaks and treat chronic norovirus infection in immunosuppressed patients