Bilinguals’ Emotion and Language: An Exploratory Study of Korean-English Bilinguals’ Experience of and Expression of Shame

A major aim of this study was to investigate Korean-English bilingual students’ psychological experiences and verbal expressions of shame in Korean and English. In particular, this study focused on how English as a language of Education influences the ways in which University students acknowledge and express their feelings. A total of 41 Korean L1 students in both UK and South Korean Universities where English is used as a medium of instruction (EMI) participated in this study. The analyses included both quantitative and qualitative methods, using data from two sets of questionnaires. The Assessment of Self-Conscious Emotion (AoSCE) collected the participants’ verbal responses, whereas the Test of Self-Conscious Narrative (ToSCN) examined their behaviour and psychological reactions. Both sets of questionnaires had ten identical scenarios that potentially evoke shame as well as guilt, which are often experienced independently or concurrently. Participants completed both questionnaires online in English and Korean in a randomised order. Using content analysis techniques, the participants’ English and Korean narratives were utilised to explore the verbal expressions of shame and guilt (Study I). Using statistical analysis techniques, the relationships between the psychological and behavioural aspects of shame were examined in comparison with guilt in the English-speaking and Korean-speaking contexts (Study II). After reviewing the findings from these two analyses, a case study on classroom behaviour was carried out based on one of the ten scenarios from the questionnaire. The data regarding this scenario were triangulated and investigated in detail, whilst considering the educational and cultural contexts of the participants (Study III). Overall, this study provided a platform for discovering the dynamics of emotion and language in Korean-English bilinguals’ shame experiences and expressions. This research addresses a gap in the literature as it highlights the impact of the English language for non-native English-speaking students’ emotions in Higher Education, which is an under-researched topic

The Gorenstein and complete intersection properties of associated graded rings

Let I be an m-primary ideal of a Noetherian local ring (R,m). We consider the Gorenstein and complete intersection properties of the associated graded ring G(I) and the fiber cone F(I) of I as reflected in their defining ideals as homomorphic images of polynomial rings over R/I and R/m respectively. In case all the higher conormal modules of I are free over R/I, we observe that: (i) G(I) is Cohen-Macaulay iff F(I) is Cohen- Macaulay, (ii) G(I) is Gorenstein iff both F(I) and R/I are Gorenstein, and (iii) G(I) is a relative complete intersection iff F(I) is a relative complete intersection. In case R/I is Gorenstein, we give a necessary and sufficient condition for G(I) to be Gorenstein in terms of residuation of powers of I with respect to a reduction J of I with \mu(J) = dim R and the reduction number r of I with respect to J. We prove that G(I) is Gorenstein iff J:I^{r-i} = J + I^{i+1}, for i = 0, ...,r-1. If (R,m) is a Gorenstein local ring and I \subseteq m is an ideal having a reduction J with reduction number r such that \mu(J) = ht(I) = g > 0, we prove that the extended Rees algebra R[It, t^-1}] is quasi-Gorenstein with \a-invariant a if and only if J^n:I^r = I^{n+a-r+g-1} for every integer n

Biomarkers for gastric cancer: molecular classification revisited

Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most common lethal cancer worldwide. In recent years, several new targeted therapeutic agents for the treatment of metastatic GC have been developed. These include drugs that block human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) or epidermal growth factor receptor, ramucirumab monoclonal antibody that binds to a receptor for vascular endothelial growth factor, and other targeted agents such as sorafenib and apatinib, and immunotherapies. In this short review, we provide a summary of clinical and preclinical biomarkers (HER2, mesenchymal-epithelial transition [MET], fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 [FGFR2], ring finger protein 43 [RNF43], microsatellite instability and mismatch repair, Epstein-Barr virus, programmed cell death ligand-1, and tumor infiltrating lymphocytes) for treatment strategies and will address the molecular classification of GC revisited with an aim to select the best-precision treatment strategies for GC patients

Two-point discrimination values vary depending on test site, sex and test modality in the orofacial region: a preliminary study

The two-point discrimination (TPD) test is one of the most commonly used neurosensory tests to assess mechanoperception in the clinical settings. While there have been numerous studies of functional sensibility of the hand using TPD test, there have been relatively not enough reports on TPD in the orofacial region. Objective The aims of the present study were to determine the normal values of TPD in the six trigeminal sites (the forehead, cheek, mentum, upper lip, lower lip, and the tongue tip) and to investigate the effect of the site, sex, and test modality on the TPD perception. Material and Methods Forty healthy volunteers consisting of age-matched men (20) and women (20) with a mean age of 27.1 years were recruited. One examiner performed the TPD test using a simple hand-operated device, i.e., by drawing compass with a blunt or sharp-pointed tip. The static TPD with a blunt-pointed tip (STPDB), moving TPD with a blunt-pointed tip (MTPDB), and static TPD with a sharp-pointed tip (STPDS) were measured. The predictors were the site, sex, and test modality, and the outcome variable was the TPD value. Three-way ANOVA was used for statistics. Results The analysis showed a significant effect of the site, sex and test modality on the TPD values. Significant differences between the test sites were observed with the descending order from the forehead and cheek>;mentum>;upper lip and lower lip>;tongue tip and index finger. Women showed lower TPD values than those of men. The STPDS measurements were consistently lower than those of the STPDB and MTPDB. Conclusions The normal values of TPD in this study suggest that the cheek and forehead were less sensitive than other regions evaluated and women were more sensitive than men. The STPDS was the most sensitive test modality

Differential Proteomic Analysis of Human Saliva using Tandem Mass Tags Quantification for Gastric Cancer Detection.

Novel biomarkers and non-invasive diagnostic methods are urgently needed for the screening of gastric cancer to reduce its high mortality. We employed quantitative proteomics approach to develop discriminatory biomarker signatures from human saliva for the detection of gastric cancer. Salivary proteins were analyzed and compared between gastric cancer patients and matched control subjects by using tandem mass tags (TMT) technology. More than 500 proteins were identified with quantification, and 48 of them showed significant difference expression (p < 0.05) between normal controls and gastric cancer patients, including 7 up-regulated proteins and 41 down-regulated proteins. Five proteins were selected for initial verification by ELISA and three were successfully verified, namely cystatin B (CSTB), triosephosphate isomerase (TPI1), and deleted in malignant brain tumors 1 protein (DMBT1). All three proteins could differentiate gastric cancer patients from normal control subjects, dramatically (p < 0.05). The combination of these three biomarkers could reach 85% sensitivity and 80% specificity for the detection of gastric cancer with accuracy of 0.93. This study provides the proof of concept of salivary biomarkers for the non-invasive detection of gastric cancer. It is highly encouraging to turn these biomarkers into an applicable clinical test after large scale validation