Friday, August 1, 2014

[Share] The stressed-out postdoc_Hailey


Science
Vol. 345 no. 6196 p. 594 
DOI: 10.1126/science.345.6196.594

The stressed-out postdoc

  1. Carrie Arnold



After he defended his dissertation and moved to a new lab for his postdoc, Ian Street hoped his battles with anxiety and depression were over. He was happy about his successful defense, and a change of scenery seemed just what he needed. But a breakup with his girlfriend and the pressures of being a new postdoc brought back familiar feelings of sadness, isolation, and worry. When he was a graduate student, Street had access to an array of resources, from on-campus counseling to support groups. As a postdoc, however, he was no longer a tuition-paying student, so he was cut off from those sources of support.

Sunday, June 1, 2014

[010 mimic scientific]Nature-genome targeting in HSC_Hailey

Nature

Targeted genome editing in human repopulating haematopoietic stem cells

Genovese et al.


Targeted genome editing by artificial nucleases has brought the goal of site-specific transgene integration and gene correction within the reach of gene therapy. However, its application to long-term repopulating haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) has remained elusive. Here we show that poor permissiveness to gene transfer and limited proficiency of the homology-directed DNA repair pathway constrain gene targeting in human HSCs. By tailoring delivery platforms and culture conditions we overcame these barriers and provide stringent evidence of targeted integration in human HSCs by long-term multilineage repopulation of transplanted mice. We demonstrate the therapeutic potential of our strategy by targeting a corrective complementary DNA into the IL2RGgene of HSCs from healthy donors and a subject with X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID-X1). Gene-edited HSCs sustained normal haematopoiesis and gave rise to functional lymphoid cells that possess a selective growth advantage over those carrying disruptive IL2RGmutations. These results open up new avenues for treating SCID-X1 and other diseases.

Monday, May 26, 2014

[Highlight#009]On the psychology of poverty_Chelsea

Excerpt from

Science 23 May 2014:
Vol. 344 no. 6186 pp. 862-867
DOI: 10.1126/science.1232491


Poverty remains one of the most pressing problems facing the world; the mechanisms through which poverty arises and perpetuates itself, however, are not well understood. Here, we examine the evidence for the hypothesis that poverty may have particular psychological consequences that can lead to economic behaviors that make it difficult to escape poverty. The evidence indicates that poverty causes stress and negative affective states which in turn may lead to short-sighted and risk-averse decision-making, possibly by limiting attention and favoring habitual behaviors at the expense of goal-directed ones. Together, these relationships may constitute a feedback loop that contributes to the perpetuation of poverty. We conclude by pointing toward specific gaps in our knowledge and outlining poverty alleviation programs that this mechanism suggests.

[009 clip from novel] The Lowland_Hailey

The Lowland

By Jhumpa Lahiri



Sunday, May 18, 2014

[008 Tool box] Vocabulary Bank_Hailey

Vocabulary Bank

After summarizing these highlighted words and phrases from our mimic exercises, I agree with Chalsea that we definitely need to continue this practice, even it seems to be time consuming and rather ineffective. But writing skill can not be built in one day, we need to generate this habit of mimicking and collecting good vocabularies whenever and wherever we get the chance.

Keep climbing~~


001 mimic #1 scientific
Revolutionized
Broad introduction of…
Hygienic practices
Lead to a steady decrease of …
Reflect an exception to..
Fuel certain view
Become overly obsessed with …
Obliterate
A wealth of studies documenting an unforeseen complexity of…
Through the provision of….

[Have some fun:P]Urban Dic_Chelsea

"Huh? Ugh... "

When trying to get contact with friends, sometimes, for us New comers... It's da*n difficult to catch the slangs... Yeah, I am talking about slangs... It's usually not formal, not required THAT much in writing,,, but def. needed for daily life!... Email, texting, chit chat... I mean, gals, get a life! (instead of sticking to the computer all days... Lol)

So that's why I decided to open a new post for... urban words! Let's have some fun here~ I will keep updating words I came cross either in texting, books, conversations, emails, or any sources:P

*The format would be: 
e.g. 
Steven 
Sexy, Cool, Swave and Sophisticated
"Your Such A Steven!"
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Steven

[Toolbox#008]Tool Sum_Chelsea

Painting Toolkit by Ikhlasul Amal by creative commmons from Flickr

Hello, so this week we are going to sum up some interesting/nice phrases from previous posts and reignite our passion for future writing exercises:) Here are mine:

Thursday, May 15, 2014

[Highlight#007]Peer Pressure_Chelsea



Peer Pressure by Hannah Nino by creative commmons from Flickr


Fixes
Fixes looks at solutions to social problems and why they work.


When we hear that someone succumbed to peer pressure or conformed to group expectations, we are inclined to think about it in negative terms. We imagine a young person smoking his first cigarette or an adult parroting the consensus of her community. We know that these social forces can cause people to act in ways that are harmful to themselves and others; but every day we are discovering more ways that they can be harnessed to solve problems in health, education and other areas. This is crucial. For decades, development organizations have spent billions of dollars developing medicines, installing wells, or building clinics or schools that people have not fully used, if they have used them at all.

Sunday, May 11, 2014

[007 mimic] From the age of 30 onwards_Hailey

Science Daily

From the age of 30 onwards, physical inactivity exerts a greater impact on a woman's lifetime risk of developing heart disease than the other well-known risk factors, suggests research published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

        This includes overweight, the finding show, prompting the researchers to suggest that greater effort needs to be made to promote exercise.
        The researchers wanted to quantify the changing contribution made to a woman's likelihood of developing heart disease across her lifetime for each of the known top four risk factors in Australia: excess weight (high BMI); smoking; high blood pressure; and physical inactivity. Together, these four risk factors account for over half the global prevalence of heart disease, which remains the leading cause of death in high income countries.

Saturday, May 10, 2014

[Writing Tips]11 Rules for Better Writing

11 Rules for Better Writing

By Daniel Coyle

Here’s the basic problem: people think that writing is this:
the-writer-writing-3647594-640-428
When in reality, it’s more like this: channel-curation-featured-large
This happens to be Proust, but it could be Orwell or Austen or Whitman or Hemingway, who wrote no fewer than 47 different endings for A Farewell to Arms. Point is, writing isn’t wizardry, and good writers are not superhuman. Building a story is not magic. It’s more like building a piece of furniture: you need quality wood, basic design skills, and lots of sandpaper.