[Share] The stressed-out postdoc_Hailey

Science 1 August 2014: 
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.

[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.

[Highlight#009]On the psychology of poverty_Chelsea

Poverty by Matteo Angelino by creative commmons from Flickr

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

[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:

[Highlight#007]Peer Pressure_Chelsea

Peer Pressure by Hannah Nino by creative commmons from Flickr

Peer Pressure Can Be a Lifesaver

By HELEN COSTER

 MAY 14, 2014, 11:00 AM

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

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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.

[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.

[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:

When in reality, it’s more like this: 

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.

[Daily Ranting]You don't want to be stuck there_Chelsea

Stuck by Madamepsychosis by creative commmons from Flickr

Later today I went to a seminar by a professor from School of Pharmacology, about the potential of developing vege-product/diet/food into chemoprevention tools for cancers. It sounded fancy to me at first. But then as the talk went on, I found several interesting yet dismayed points:

1. "Prove it to me!"
As an observer, I was sitting there silently yet ranting in my mind: well, you said it's working, but... show me the evidence... or at least something, something to get me willing enough to take it. They were stuck in the process of getting funding from every corner: NIH, industry, private sector..., but still struggling with getting enough to afford the clinical trials. One of the key problem (and obvious too) is, since it's a prevention medicine, how could you prove it, while the whole purpose is to get something "not happening" (think about the story of condom in terms of HIV infection). Therefore, if I am a potential customer, what's your selling point? "It's gonna do good to your health!" Well, how about I just adopt more fresh vege and fruits, and less sugar? Anyway both approaches are not provable.

[Selfwriting#006] I am a writer_Chelsea

I am a writer by David Turnbull by creative commmons from Flickr

As far as I can remember, I was a little writer for my wonderland-novel back when I was 6. Still remember the little book I scrambled words upon, and also my dad’s warm appraises in the cold winter days.

Then as I entered in elementary school, my writing plumbed as I didn’t know the rule of the game. After one year or two, I figured it out scoring top of class in writing.

In high school, I treated weekly writing assignments as  precious moments, as I would be willing to spend the whole night to work on one piece of work, while other students just crammed in whatever. To me, fictions were my own wonderland, and in those immature writing, I enjoyed the free will of depicting my own characters and storylines.

[006 Cousera assignment] I am a writer_ Hailey

I am a writer

-Assignment from Cousera “English Composition” class

Writing to me has always been a fun and adventurous self-discovery journey. It is a way to communicate with my subconscious, and bring out more of what’s unknown about my inner feelings.

Like most of the people, I started writing during my elementary school, as an important part of the homework. During Chinese language class, we first learn “pinyin”, next characters, then words and short phrases. I remember as homework, we were always asked to make sentences using the words we’ve learned in class. Later on as I went through middle and high schools, I started to learn issues, arguments, book reports, and many different types of writing. I was more used to write what I think and feel rather than making up fictions and novels.

I was quite into writing blogs while in college. During that time, I seemed to have overflowing amount of ideas and emotions that filled with hopes and dreams towards future. Sadly now, being as a “Ph.D. to be” in biomedical science field, writing becomes a burden to me. During work, I was no longer allowed to write what I feel, instead, each sentence we write has to be based on facts from the literature or experiment results we generated. Scientific writing is such a sophisticated and logic driven style of writing, which require specific formats and steps to follow. You need to be very clear and reasonable, yet still passionate enough to be persuasive. I am still trying to learn, and hope someday, it will become less painful and more enjoyable.

The transition from Chinese to English, and casual blogging just for releasing emotions to professional scientific writing for publishing peer review articles is quite challenging. It requires constant learning and persistent practice.

Wish us good luck!

[005 mimic]What's right with the autistic mind?_Hailey

WHAT'S RIGHT WITH THE AUTISTIC MIND
-By focusing on the deficits, we overlook the strengths of brains built differently

By Temple Grandin and Richard Panek

CREATIVE THINKING

I recently read a definition of creativity that made an impression on me:" a sudden, unexpected recognition of concepts or facts in a new relation not previously seen." I don't know if being autistic makes you fundamentally more creative, but I do think that being autistic makes a certain kind of creativity more likely to arise.

See enough trees and you'll eventually make out the forest. But the forest that the autistic brain winds up seeing might not look the same as the forest that the neurotypical brain sees.
............
For me, autism is secondary. My primary identity is as an expert on livestock. Autism is part of who I am, but I won't allow it to define me. Some people's difficulties are simply too severe for them to ever have the same opportunities I have. But for so many people on the spectrum, identifying their strengths can change their lives. Instead of only accommodating their deficits, they can cultivate their dreams.

Below by Hailey

[Mimic#5&Booknotes]Falling in Love_Chelsea

Fall in Love Anne Worner by creative commmons from Flickr

Excerpts from Falling in Love by Ayala Malach Pines

• I cannot end the discussion of stage theories of love without mentioning my favorite theory proposed by one of Italy's great sociologists, Fancesco Alberoni. According to Alberoni, the significant stages of a romantic relationship are simply "falling in love" and "love". If falling in love is like taking off or flying, then love is like landing. Falling in love is being high above the clouds. Love is standing firmly on the ground. If falling in love is like a flower, then love is like a fruit. The fruit comes from the flower, but they are two different things. "And there is really no point in asking if the flower is better than the fruit or vice versa. By the same token, there is no flower is point in asking whether the nascent sate is better than the institution. One does not exist without the other. Life is made of both."

[Mimic#402_nonscientific]The Littleton Massacre_Chelsea

11th Grade - First Day of Schoolby Mitchell Joycelicensed by creative commmons from Flickr

U.S. COLUMBINE 15TH ANNIVERSARY

The Littleton Massacre: …In Sorrow And Disbelief

• Nancy Gibbs @nancygibbs
 

May 3, 1999

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The story of the slaughter at Columbine High School opened a sad national conversation about what turned two boys’ souls into poison. It promises to be a long, hard talk, in public and in private, about why smart, privileged kids rot inside. Do we blame the parents, blame the savage music they listened to, blame the ease of stockpiling an arsenal, blame the chemistry of cruelty and cliques that has always been a part of high school life but has never been so deadly? Among the many things that did not survive the week was the hymn all parents unconsciously sing as they send their children out in the morning, past the headlines, to their schools: It can’t happen here, Lord, no, it could never happen here.

[004 mimic#2 non scientific] Waiting for the Taliban_ Hailey

Waiting for the Taliban

By Krista Mahr, TIME

Despite the escalating violence, or perhaps because of it, a palpable streak of determination has been building in the run-up to the vote. In a recent survey by the Free and Fair Election Forum of Afghanistan, or FEFA, 92% of respondents said they supported the idea of elections; among those who didn’t plan to vote, most said it was because they weren’t registered, not because they feared the Taliban. Women, perhaps mindful of the consequences of the Taliban’s return, are especially invested in the vote: 81% said they would pick a candidate based on their qualities and programs, vs. 12% who said they would vote for the person suggested to them. During the candidate registration period, more than 300 women signed up to run in provincial-council elections. “We’ve always been ignored,” Habiba Sarabi, who is running for second vice president on Rassoul’s ticket, tells TIME. “This is the opportunity to show that women can be in a position of power.” Says Waliullah Rahmani, director of the Kabul Center for Strategic Studies: “A month ago, no one even thought there would be elections. Now you can see the momentum.”

[003 mimic#2 non scientific] A Thousand Splendid Suns_Hailey

A Thousand Splendid Suns

Khaled Hosseini

........

Every street of Kabul is enthralling to the eye 
Through the bazaars, caravans of Egypt pass
One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs 
And the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls
........
The poem Kabul, by Saib-e Tabrizi

Laila watches Mariam glue strands of yarn onto her doll’s head. In a few years, this girl will be a woman who will make small demands on life, who will never burden others, who will never let on that she too has had sorrows, disappointments, dreams that have been ridiculed. A woman who will be like a rock in a riverbed, enduring without complaint, her grace not sullied but shaped by the turbulence that washes over her. Already Laila sees something behind this young girl’s eyes, something deep in her core, that neither Rsheed nor the Taliban will be able to break. Something as hard and unyielding as a block of limestone. Something that, in the end, will be her undoing and Laila’s salvation.

[004 mimic #1 scientific] Amino acid metabolism_Hailey

Immunological Review

Control of immune response by amino acid metabolism

Ursula Grohmann, Vincenzo Bronte

The interaction between pathogenic microorganisms and their hosts is regulated by reciprocal survival strategies, including competition for essential nutrients. Though paradoxical, mammalian hosts have learned to take advantage of amino acid catabolism for controlling pathogen invasion and, at the same time, regulating their own immune responses. In this way, ancient catabolic enzymes have acquired novel functions and evolved into new structures with highly specialized functions, which go beyond the struggle for survival. In this review, we analyze the evidence supporting a critical role for the metabolism of various amino acids in regulating different steps of both innate and adaptive immunity.

[Mimic#401_Scientific]Cancer in the brain_Chelsea

Cancer by Roosh Inf3ktion licensed by creative commmons from Flickr

Cancer: Disabling defences in the brain
Janine T. Erler

Nature 508, 46–47 (03 April 2014) doi:10.1038/508046aPublished online 02 April 2014

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Most deaths from cancer are not caused by the primary tumor. A cancer can spread from the primary tumor to other organs through a process known as metastasis, and it is the growth of metastatic tumors that ultimately compromises normal organ function and is responsible for more than 90% of deaths in cancer patients1. Brain metastases present one of the poorest prognoses for cancer patients, and their rate of incidence is increasing2. Fortunately, metastasis is a highly inefficient process: fewer than 0.01% of cells that leave a primary tumor are able to colonize and grow in other organs3. The underlying molecular mechanisms that govern initial metastatic cancer-cell survival and growth in secondary organs remain largely unknown and are an area of intensive research. Writing in Cell, Valiente et al.4 show how cancer cells that have metastasized to the brain overcome death signals from host tissue cells and use the pre-existing vasculature to enable their proliferative growth. 

[MISC] Career and/or Relationship_Chelsea

Interracial Marble Relationship 3by  William J Serson licensed by creative commmons from Flickr

While we are looking for potential labs to work for during postdoc fellow period, I can't help but thinking of the similarity between "career" and "personal relationship".

1. Key:

Both are very essential parts of any human beings;

2. Uncertainties:

When you are going to move on, say graduating from school, or break up with your ex, you are facing the uncertainties of the future. Hope is not a strategy, but to the person clinging to it, hope feels very real. Hope doesn't help. You gotta go and find out who are there in the pool. You gotta to take on the risks of possibly "not suitable" "miserable" next period of time. 

[Mimic#302_Scientific]Interneurons_Chelsea

Science 11 April 2014:
Vol. 344 no. 6180
DOI: 10.1126/science.1240622
REVIEW

Interneurons from Embryonic Development to Cell-Based Therapy

Derek G. Southwell1, etc

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Alterations in neural excitation and inhibition cause a number of neurologic and psychiatric disorders. In the cerebral cortex, excitation and inhibition are mediated by two cell types born in distinct areas of the embryo: excitatory projection neurons, which are generated in the developing cortex, and inhibitory interneurons, which are produced outside the cortex in the ventral forebrain. After migrating from their origins across the developing brain, young interneurons reach the cortex and differentiate into various inhibitory neuronal cell types. Roughly two-thirds of these young cells survive in the cortex to form the local inhibitory circuits that shape excitatory neuron activity. The embryologic programs that guide interneuron migration, survival, and circuit integration are also executed by these young neurons after their transplantation into the juvenile and adult nervous systems. These processes, realized in the developmentally and topographically distinct environment of the recipient, offer a unique opportunity for studying neurodevelopment and therapeutically modifying neural circuits.

[Mimic#301_non-scientific]Stumbling on Happiness_Chelsea

Young Happiness by Jeyheich, licensed by creative commmons from Flickr

Except from Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert, page 15

Template:
A permanent present- what a  haunting phrase. How bizarre and surreal it must be to serve a life sentence in the prison of the moment, trapped forever in the perpetual now, a world without end, a time without later. Such an existence is so difficult for most of us to imagine, so alien to our normal experience, that we are tempted to dismiss it as a fluke- an unfortunate, rare, and freakish aberration brought on by traumatic, head injury.
But in fact, this strange existence is the rule and we are the exception. For the first few hundred million years after their initial appearance on our planet, all brains were stuck in the permanent present, and most brains still are today. But not yours and not mine, because two or three million years ago our ancestors began a great escape from the here and now, and their getaway vehicle was a highly specialized mass of gray tissue, fragile, wrinkled, and appended. This frontal lobe- the last part of the human brain to evolve, the slowest to mature, and the first to deteriorate in old age- is a time machine that allows each of us to vacate the present and experience the future before it happens. No other animal has a frontal lobe quite like ours, which is why we are the only animal that thinks about the future as we do.

[003 mimic #1 scientific] Metabolic quirks yield tumor hope_Hailey

Metabolic quirks yield tumour hope

Early clinical-trial results show promise for targeting cancer-related biochemical pathways.

Heidi Ledford

Cancer cells harness unusual metabolic pathways to obtain the energy and molecular building blocks that they need for their relentless proliferation. Many potential drugs have tried to take advantage of this hunger. Early results for a genetically targeted drug, unveiled this week at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in San Diego, California, suggest that the approach could pay off.

In some ways, the findings send cancer research back to its roots. For much of the twentieth century, the disease was considered a metabolic malady — an idea that arose in the 1920s, when the German biochemist Otto Warburg showed that cancer cells have an outsized appetite for glucose. The glucose is broken down, yielding energy in the form of ATP, produced in the cell’s mitochondria, as well as components of amino acids, lipids and other compounds needed to build new cells.

[002 mimic #2 nonscientific] Old World Order_Hailey

TIME

Old World Order

How geopolitics fuels endless chaos and old-school conflicts in the 21^st century

By Robert D. Kaplan, March 21, 2014

This isn’t what the 21^st century was supposed to look like. The visceral reaction of many pundits, academics and Obama Administration officials to Russian President Vlandimir Putin’s virtual annexation of Crimea has been disbelief bordering on disorientation. As Secretary of State John Kerry said, “It’s really 19^th century behavior in the 21^st century.” Well, the “19^th century”, as Kerry calls it, lives on and always will. Forget about the world being flat. Forget technology as the great democratizer. Forget the niceties of international law. Territory and the bonds of blood that go with it are central to what makes us human.

[Mimic#202_Scientific]Synapses and Human_Chelsea

Science 22 November 2013:
Vol. 342 no. 6161 pp. 944-945
DOI: 10.1126/science.1247515

PERSPECTIVENEUROSCIENCE

Synapses, Language, and Being Human

Philip Lieberman

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FOXP2 has become a “gene of interest” in the mystery that surrounds the evolution of the human brain. It first came to notice in a study of the behavioral deficits of the members of a large extended family who had only one copy of the gene. These individuals had profound difficulties in talking, comprehending, and forming sentences, and had depressed scores on intelligence tests (2). Anomalies in their basal ganglia, subcortical structures deep in the brain, were also noted (3). FOXP2 is one of the few human genes that differ from its chimpanzee version. A series of mutations in FOXP2 has occurred in the last 500,000 years; the most recent one took place about 200,000 years ago, when modern humans appeared in Africa (4). When a form of FOXP2 shared by humans, Neandertals, and Denisovans (another extinct hominin species) was introduced into mouse pups, synaptic plasticity and connections between basal ganglia neurons increased (5). But the mechanisms by which FOXP2 shapes the neural circuitry associated with language acquisition have not been clear. The CNTNAP2 gene, for example, also is targeted by FOXP2 and is linked to language disorders (6).

[Mimic#201_social]Sex at Dawn_Chelsea

Tintype of Unwoman and Joe Vorteque at Contemporal reading Sex at Dawn by Margaret Killjoy licensed by creative commmons from Flickr

Our point? That something feels natural or unnatural does't mean it is. Every one of the examples above, including saliva beer, is savored somewhere-by folks who would be disgusted by much of what you eat regularly. Especially when we're talking about intimate, personal, biological experiences like eating or having sex, we mustn't forget that the familiar fingers of culture reach deep into our minds. We can't feel them adjusting our dials and flicking our switches, but every culture leads its members to believe some things are naturally right and other's naturally wrong. These beliefs may feel right, but it's a feeling we trust at our own peril.[Excerpt from page 22]

[002 mimic#1 scientific] Into the wild_Hailey

Nature Immunology Commentary

Into the wild: digging at immunology’s evolutionary roots

Rick M Maizels & Daniel H Nussey

The two pillars of modern immunology have been man and mouse; in both settings, investigators seek to reduce complexity and control environmental conditions. However, the world outside the laboratory is immensely variable; this is not ‘noise’ but represents the genetic and environmental framework in which the immune system evolved and functions. Placing the ever-growing understanding of immunological mechanisms in wider real-world contexts is a massive but fundamentally important challenge.

[MISC]When you are old_Chelsea

Old lady by fsendel licensed by creative commmons from Flickr

Hola~

Just found this fine piece by William Butler Yeats. 1865. So beautiful. Savor it:)

When You are Old

When you are old and gray and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

[001-mimic#2 non scientific]The Audacity of Google-TIME_Hailey

The Audacity of Google 

Larry Page and the Art of the Moon Shot

-by Harry McCracken and Lev Grossman, TIME, September 28, 2013.

Original paragraphs

It’s worth pointing out that there is no other company in Silicon Valley that could plausibly make such an announcement. Smaller outfits don’t have the money; larger ones don’t have the bones. Apple may have set the standard for surprise unveilings, but excepting a major new product every few years, these mostly qualify as short term. Google’s modus operandi, in comparison, is gonzo airdrops into deep “Wait, really?” territory. Last week Apple announced a new iPhone; what did you do this week, Google? Oh, we founded a company that might one day defeat death itself.

The unavoidable question this raises is why a company built on finding information and serving ads next to it is spending untold amounts on a project that flies in the face of the basic fact of the human condition, the existential certainty of aging and death. To which the unavoidable answer is another question: Who the hell else is going to do it?

[How-To-Series002]Rewards and Punishment_Chelsea

                        Day 70: Rewards by eyesogreen licensed by creative commmons from Flickr

Human minds are flexible, transient, changing, windy... in one word: not reliable.

You may just find this blog, and feel motivated on the spot: Hey, that seems cool! I want to try too!!! But after spending 5 minutes wandering around, another voice kicks in: ugh, that is just not my style. I won't follow through anyway...

This is normal. Completely normal and acceptable.

That's why we need to generate plans and strategies while our motivation is still high (enough to push us to do the hard work), which will then deal with the low-motivated ourselves in the close future.

The plan is called: Dog training...