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Melinda Jankovich was a young woman in 1979. In 1979, the young woman strode into Festival Hall B of the labyrinthine glass structure built over the old brick walls of the University of Illinois campus, which once sat among the boats on Navy Pier. Her hair was not as short as it is in 2010. In 1979, she used less rouge. Her skin did not billow when she smiled, and she had yet to ever talk to herself while looking into a mirror. Nineteen seventy-nine was a good year for Melinda Jankovich.
It was the year she met John Malkovich. In fact, she met him that very night in Festival Hall B, at the inaugural Entrepreneurial Women’s Convention, the night her lips parted in awe as her eyes traced the lightbulbs that outlined the main supports of the vaulted ceiling. Melinda would spend most her time during dinner fixated on the tiny lights high above her, frustrated by her inability to determine how the maintenance crew replaced the dead bulbs so high off the ground. At the 31st Annual Entrepreneurial Women’s Convention in 2010, the year her story would be written, Melinda just looked up at the dead bulbs and was glad no one ever figured out how to replace them. But in 1979, before her hair began to fall out and her cheeks began to sag and mirrors weren’t something she spoke into just yet, John Malkovich was absolutely certain he had found someone at this fucking thing his aunt had dragged him to that might actually have drugs on them. The wonder in her eyes when she leveled her gaze at him, her crooked smile, revealed the perfect mixture of intoxication and stupidity that John Malkovich had been searching for all night, and his penis was startled too. It jumped in his pants.
He cornered her that night in the back of Festival Hall B, beneath the banners of the corporate sponsors. When he mentioned acting at the Steppenwolf she looked at him the same way she looked at one of the tiny bright lights on the ceiling. Melinda told John Malkovich that she was a realtor, catering only to the high-rise crowd, the fabulously well-to-do that filled the seats of the Steppenwolf. John told her he had been looking for a place to live, a flat he could retire to after an opening night to celebrate. She asked him if he had a “boopah,” which is polish slang for a grandmother. John Malkovich, whose star in the universe was only beginning to rise in 1979, had never been asked a question of this nature during sex. “That is the weirdest fucking thing someone has ever fucking asked me mid-fuck,” he informed her. Melinda, alone, cleaned the apartment she had taken him to see that night. She put her dress back on in the bathroom, and the cosmetic mirror didn’t say a thing to her as she inspected her make up before leaving.
When Melinda told Becky Jacoby about the mirrors in 2009, Becky neatly penciled
onto an empty line in her notebook. It was part of the standard protocol she had adopted during her 15 years in psychotherapy to counter any ominous notation with a reassuring nod, so as not to startle one of her patients with the truth. Becky nodded reassuringly. She reached into her desk and retrieved a few sample packets of INVEGA, offering a handful of the tiny white pills to Melinda as their hour together expired. “Take these,” she said.
Melinda tore at the foil of a sample packet later that afternoon. Her ex-boyfriend, a man she dated for seven years and lived with for three, Sean Loop, had been pounding on the front door of her apartment for the last five minutes. She swallowed the white pills and opened the door. Sean had come for the signed Brian Urlacher jersey Melinda had given his autistic son some time ago, before she accused the boy of putting shoe polish in her coffee. Melinda had no intention of relinquishing the jersey, and Sean knew it. He wandered about the apartment as Melinda ignored him. Sean Loop knew Melinda would soon be moving into one of the condominiums she had failed to sell. It had been two years since her last sale. With every month, she seemed to recede further into herself, into dusty memories of her past that didn’t sound right anymore. Memories of her father, the policeman, anecdotes about what he had been like when she was a child and not the confused, bitter man she coerced Sean into visiting on occasion. He worried about Melinda, but hated her too. Sean had also taken white pills recently. His were meant for people who felt blue. When Sean Loop told Ken Salazar that he sometimes went over to Melinda’ apartment because he took pleasure in watching Melinda unravel before his very eyes, Ken carefully scribed
onto the bottom line of his legal pad, and underscored it twice. Ken nodded reassuringly.
Frankie, Melinda’s three-year-old, caramel-colored daschund, was in desperate need of the outdoors later that night. He could not afford another mistake on the carpet, as the last one had resulted in a baffling hour spent watching his owner sob uncontrollably while rubbing the stain into oblivion, uprooting the tendrils of the carpet and leaving a bald spoton the floor. He would wait as long as he could. Frankie patiently sat in the hallway as Melinda held two of the tiny white pills up in front of her eyes in the bathroom mirror, confident that she would notice him soon enough. “I should’ve had children, Frankie,” Melinda said.
Hours later, Frankie would successfully defecate mid-sprint for the first and only time in his short life. Melinda lifted herself from the floor of her garage, long after the white pills that stuck in her throat had taken effect, and tore off into the darkness on the tandem bicycle Sean had bought her years before, towing the reluctant dachshund in her wake. She had become surprisingly adept at riding the bike meant for two by herself, leaning into her turns along the pathways as the moon lit the breakers of Lake Michigan beside her. “Paliperidone,” Melinda laughed.
John Malkovich did not resurface in Melinda Jankovich’s life until the weekend of her move in 2010. Melinda had been expecting him. She delicately removed the packaging and pushed past the packing peanuts. Frankie tugged at the leather straps that hung from Melinda’s hands. The doorbell rang. Melinda hid John Malkovich in her duffel bag. The woman she had hired to pack her things arrived. Melinda left after assuring her that she would surely notice if the woman stole anything. She drove to her office with the top down on the Mercedes that she could no longer afford and John Malkovich asleep in the trunk.
There were 79 messages on Melinda Jankovich’s answering machine. She laughed. Ben Fusberg, marketing coordinator at Gold Coast Realty, watched Melinda from a distance. Ben was an aspiring playwright, and had been working on a stage play about Melinda for some time. Melinda had attended every play of his to date, and Ben despised her for this. He did not want Melinda Jankovich in his audience. It was embarrassing enough that he worked at Gold Coast Realty without Melinda misinterpreting his work as she butted into the conversations of his pupils at the after parties. His plan was to reveal his hatred by personally inviting Melinda to the desecration of her character on stage. When Ben Fusberg told his father, Charles Fusberg, PhD, that he had written such a scathing account of one of his co-workers, Charles made a note of it on his personal voice memo recorder, enunciating each letter
while nodding to himself, but did not feel reassured.
And with this prescription dominating much of his character, Ben’s aripiprazole would collide with Melinda’s paliperidone and give him the spite he needed to continue rifling through her drawers on the days she couldn’t drag herself to work. Melinda fired almost a dozen temporary workers because of the obvious snooping that had occurred after each hiatus from her office. The aripiprazole made it hard for Ben to feel any remorse for this. The aripiprazole made it hard for Ben to feel anything. As he observed Melinda on the 20th Floor of the Hancock Building, Frankie tore at the foil of a sample packet of INVEGA in the guest bedroom of the apartment Melinda's old apartment. He had not eaten in days. The two white pills tasted not at all like food to the poor dog.
Melinda coursed through her new condominium in the dark that night. She did not turn on the lights in fear of one of the neighbors noticing her. She had explained away the boxes and the movers by claiming that she was bringing in furniture meant to showcase the dramatic features of the apartment when it was viewed by potential buyers. She had been searching for Frankie for some time. Frankie’s life had taken a turn that evening; the paliperidone that he ingested had manifested a lucidity within him that was not meant for dogs. Melinda found him asleep on the duffel bag she had stuffed John Malkovich inside earlier that day. With one in each hand, she proceeded to the bedroom that did not belong to her.
Frankie felt heavier than she remembered. She set him on the bed, and he settled limply between the sheets. Melinda opened her duffel bag and kissed John Malkovich on the top of his head. She stroked the latex shaft, and ran her finger along the veins that bulged from his sides.
She walked out onto the terrace after John had finished making love to her. She lit a cigarette for the first time in ages. Melinda blew smoke at the moon and laughed. She looked out over the Field Museum, at the lake, as it quietly churned against the shoreline. Then, in the pearl-white hue of the moon, a figure passed over her shoulder, beyond the railing of the porch she had no legal right to. Frankie’s nose flared and his fangs settled as air and life and energy flowed inside him for the last time, enveloped in an absolute unending shade of black in all directions. His owner watched as he soared out into the night with John Malkovich still strapped to his head.
Melinda spent most of the night with Frankie, in the parking lot where he had landed. When she awoke in the morning, she walked the eight blocks to her office and put her head down on her desk. The phone had barely stopped ringing since her arrival. She finally picked up. A voice on the other end asked if she was Melinda Jankovich.
“I haven’t been Melinda Jankovich for a long time,” she said.
Ben’s play began with the flower scene he had cut from his first draft. As the house lights dimmed, Melinda lugged an arrangement of potted flowers across the garage floor of her condominium and mumbled to her summer intern about the neighbors. This last minute decision plagued his dreams in the early morning hours of opening day. His first draft began with a scene in which a younger Melinda arrived at the 1979 Entrepreneurial Woman’s Convention on Navy Pier. His more discerning friends would have had a field day with such heavy-handed symbolism in the opening minutes of the production. The aluminum ribbing strung with the tiny light bulbs that capture young Melinda Jankovich’s imagination would be lowered into sight for the second scene.
Aside from this change, Ben’s original draft survived to see the stage. A few mechanical problems had been smoothed out. Not that it was any sort of surprise, but John Malkovich’s agent never responded to Ben’s email with the “e-n-v-e-l-o-p-e-s” manuscript attached. Luckily Gary Sinese was available, and had done a rather impressive job of quickly memorizing the few lines and stage directions he had been given.
From the moment the curtains were pulled back, this play spoke to Melinda, and not in the condescending tone the rear view mirror had taken when it criticized her choice of lipstick in the parking lot. She could relate to this Melinda woman. She seemed to grapple with the very same issues that the real Melinda Jankovich struggled with. Could this be? The real Melinda Jankovich watched as the Sean Loop on stage sidled out of the mock-apartment and towards the fourth wall at the end of the first act. The stage darkened, and a lone shaft of lamplight focused on a much more attractive, crowd-worthy version of Sean Loop.
“I love Melinda Jankovich.”
A man wearing a hat and sunglasses seated in front of Melinda stood quickly and darted up the main aisle. The real Sean Loop pinched the bill of his cap as he passed the real Melinda Jankovich but Melinda wasn’t looking at him anyways. After all, the Sean Loop on stage, however derivative and specious the words Ben had given him might have been, was much more attractive, and Melinda had always found it hard to listen to the real Sean because he wasn’t.
“I love Melinda Jankovich. But I hate her too. I hate loving her almost as much as I love hating her. She’s sick and it’s not going away. And I can’t remember why I’ve stuck around for so long anymore. There isn’t anything left for me here. There isn’t anything left here for anyone. I’ve spent the last three years of my life falling out of love with the woman I spent two decades falling in love with as she fucked every available rich guy in Chicago. I loved her so much more then, when I couldn't have her, when even a kiss was just too much to ask. I cried the night she met John Malkovich. We were friends back then and I thought she was the one and then she met him and I was sure that was it. I fell in love listening to her go on and on about him and his penis that had jumped out of his pants that night. I fell in love with her as the days and weeks went by and he didn’t return her calls or the messages she had written on his car in lipstick. But I hated her too.”
When the stuffed daschund with a strap-on dildo attached to its head was hurled from the scaffolding on the stage towards the end of the play, over the shoulder of Melinda Jankovich as she stood frozen and drenched in spotlight, the real Melinda Jankovich could not stifle her laughter from the audience. When Melinda Jankovich reappeared on the stage below the scaffolding, sobbing over Frankie’s carcass, the real Melinda realized something that she was not prepared for. She had never enjoyed one of Ben’s plays as much as she was enjoying this one. Frankly, his other pieces bored her. Too preachy.
Melinda drank too much at the after-party. Ben’s aripiprazole had helped him pick out a nice tie and shirt combination, and the suit Ben’s father had handed down to him the week before fit as if tailored to his own dimensions. When Ben first noticed Melinda at the play earlier in the night, he instantly regretted his decision to invite her. He hadn’t fully considered what she was capable of if she caught on and decided to do something drastic.
Melinda kept her eyes on him as she crossed the small tavern’s basement that Ben reserved for the cast and close friends. She approached him, kissing him hard on the lips. Ben Fusberg didn’t know what to do. The room went quiet as every eye and ear trained itself on the pair. His cheeks flushed and his arms reached around her. Melinda cradled his bulge in one hand, and put her lips to his neck.
It was very late when the two arrived on the doorstep of Melinda’s new apartment. Ben tried not to look around too much on their way into the bedroom. Everywhere, boxes were stacked on top of one another, and personal effects covered what little floor space remained. Melinda put Ben’s cock in her mouth. Her tongue was dry and she made little sucking sounds when the head of his penis escaped her lips.
Ben eased his way onto the bed without interrupting Melinda. His eyes adjusted to the shadows. The faint, putrid smell of dead meat made its way to his nostrils. Ben looked around. A black duffel bag sat in the corner of the bedroom. A tail poked out of one end, and something else Ben could not make out in the half-darkness of the bedroom protruded from the opposite end.
Ben walked out onto the terrace after Melinda had finished making love to him. He lit a cigarette and laughed at the moon. He looked out over the South Loop. A Metra train pulled into the station from the north. The lake shimmered against the shoreline. Suddenly Melinda appeared next to him under the spotlight of the moon, cradling the fur and pulp that was left of Frankie. She put one leg over the railing and then the next, holding on to the opposite side with one hand. Her lips parted in awe as she gazed up at the tiny bright lights high above them.
Melinda said nothing. Her cheeks billowed. Her rouge had rubbed off on Ben’s pants in the taxi.
Two minutes passed.
“I really liked your play.”
“Who was it about?”
“You, mostly. And Gary Sinese.”
Melinda lowered her head and peered below her. One of Frankie’s legs detached and fell. Melinda didn’t notice. She looked back at Ben.
“It was very accurate.”
Ben was becoming impatient.
“Die,” he said, and began to pry her fingers from the railing.
“There was a time in my life when I considered myself beautiful. There was a time in my life when I was considered. I never loved Sean Loop. I never loved Gary Sinese or Frankie or John Malkovich. I've never been in love. I know I’m sick, and I have been for long time. It’s not my fault. I am not Melinda Jankovich. I’m not anyone, neither are you. And while you fucked me I couldn’t stop thinking about the bald spot on the back of your head.”
Ben’s aripiprazole contemplated the possibility of finger prints, of trace amounts of semen that might be found in her pulverized cervix if she were to fall. Ben had not listened to Melinda’s final adieu. Ben’s aripiprazole was resistant to the temptation of aiding Melinda’s suicide. It seemed cliché, even to a prescription drug for bipolarity.
“I’m going to help you. Give me the dog.”
Melinda handed Frankie to Ben. The weight of John Malkovich had become too much for the dead daschund’s tiny neck, and Frankie’s head fell off onto the porch. Melinda laughed. She hastily began to climb back over the railing to retrieve it, but slipped. Melinda fell backwards.
Ben watched as she made her way down into the parking lot. Melinda tucked her legs up into her chest, somersaulted twice, and straightened out into a swan dive for the remainder of her journey. Ben pondered this as he laid Frankie on the terrace. He couldn’t help but think about what a tidier ending he had given Melinda on stage earlier that night, bringing up the house lights as she admitted on the phone that she was no longer Melinda Jankovich, but he couldn’t fault her for lack of originality. He looked down on Melinda.
Melinda rolled her lips off of yours when she kissed. They touched yours plushy and soft all at once. And when she pulled away it was like something that had always been there was gone and it shouldn’t be. Ben hadn’t been taking his aripiprazole. Or going to work. Ben probably wasn’t employed at the moment. His parents, Charles and Ruth Fusberg, rancorous hosts of the past seven Fusberg-Salazar Thanksgiving dinners, seven, let the basement to their son, whose apparent grief over his fallen coworker had begun to affect Ben the way puberty had during but not limited to the first three or so of the aforementioned Thursdays in November when the mail isn’t delivered.
Ben drank lilac wine. It put his mind at ease, but more importantly it made him drunk. When he was drunk he could think about Melinda’s lips and they way they felt that night and not about how he had said “Nine-point-five” when she hit the pavement. That was cold. He couldn’t believe he said that. Ben drank out of the disposable cups his mother had socked away somewhere in the unfinished half of the basement. Ruth kept things like that. Not a hoarder, Ben didn’t suppose. Hateful of waste. The childhood boxers he found in the unfurnished storage area and had resorted to wearing didn’t fit anymore, and the elastic waistband kept flipping over from the fat he stored on his abdomen, fat he had been keeping much more of now that he was at home and drunk on lilac wine and not taking his pills anymore.
Ben went to the funeral. He was worried that if he didn’t it might look suspicious, and he didn’t want that. The night his play debuted, Ben got out of Melinda’s building and away from where she and Frankie had landed without much hullabaloo. When the police interviewed him he admitted that he had been there earlier in the night, the only night the two had shared since Melinda admitted her deep seeded desire to do things to his cock. No one needed much convincing that Melinda had jumped without any help anyway.
Her funeral mass was held at St. John’s downtown. Melinda’s pearled-pink coffin sat on casters behind Frankie’s tiny urn. Heavy rays of sunlight streamed through the inlaid chunks of stained glass mosaics lining the walls. In the first row of pews, a few people sat facing the casket. Ben was late. No one noticed him as he approached. Someone coughed. Ben ambled up the center aisle, closer and closer to the casket. Melinda was always willing to help others, but, in her later years, never seemed able to help herself, said the priest from behind the pulpit.
Her body was interred at Palamino Pines Cemetery later that afternoon. In a moment perceived as tenderness by those around him, Ben ran his hand along the paneling like it was the brand new car he had never bought or owned.
Ben looked across the plot and saw Sean Loop standing next to Sean Loop from Ben’s play. How embarrassing. The actor was at least a half foot taller than his source material, and his hair was much thicker. He had been crying. The real Sean Loop had not. When it was all over, Ben could tell that Sean was waiting for him, waiting for his chance to say something to Ben. Ben made sure to separate himself from the small --very small-- group of people gathered around the grave when he was certain that Sean was making his move towards him.
Ben said nothing.
Two minutes passed.
“I liked your play. What I saw of it at least.”
“It was very accurate.”
“I loved Melinda Jankovich. But I hated her too. I hated loving her almost as much as I loved hating her. She was sick for a long time, you know. I spent the last three years of my life falling out of love with the woman I had spent decades falling in love with as she fucked everyone else in Chicago. I loved her so much more then, when I didn’t have her, when even a kiss was just too much to ask. I cried the night she met John Malkovich. We were friends back then and I thought that someday she’d be my wife and then she met him and I finally understood that there would always be a John Malkovich, some brighter light from on high that would eclipse me in her eyes. I fell in love listening to her go on and on about him and his penis that had jumped out of his pants that night. I fell in love with her as the days and weeks went by and he hadn’t returned her calls or the messages she had written on his car in lipstick. But I hated her too.”
© Joe Sorrentino 2011
This story may not be archived, reproduced or distributed further without the author's express permission. Please see our conditions of use.
The Barcelona Review is a registered non-profit organization
Joe Sorrentino is a 26-year-old graduate of DePaul University's Writing and Publishing program. Originally from Omaha, Nebraska, he currently resides in Chicago where he is working on his first novel and a collection of short stories.
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domain: literature


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STNDRDISSUE “Art Banner” – “Polk Fade” Upper Banner
Digitally Printed High Performance Vinyl – Matte Laminate
Colors: Multi Colored
Availability: In stock
We have a thing for Polka Dots! We’ve used them several times on previous banner designs but we’ve never done them on an upper banner! So here we are, the first upper banner to feature a clean Polka Dot fade and a STNDRDISSUE box logo. This banner is more than just a banner – it’s a work of art.
Size: Will fit all windshields

domain: design


text:
Family planning is one of the most cost-effective ways to prevent maternal, infant, and child mortality. Yet today more than 200 million women and girls in developing countries who wish to prevent, limit, or space pregnancies are not using a modern contraceptive method. In fact, in the world’s 69 poorest countries, the number of women with unmet need for contraception has increased in recent years, resulting in 80 million unintended pregnancies each year.
A family in Dioro, Mali
© Michelle Bashin, Courtesy of Photoshare
This Wednesday, July 11, family planning stakeholders from around the world will unite for the London Summit on Family Planning. The UK Government and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are partnering with UNFPA to host this gathering of leaders from national government, donors, civil society, the private sector, the research and development community, and others to renew and revitalize global commitment to ensuring the world’s women and girls, particularly those living in low-resource settings, have access to contraceptive information, services, and supplies.
Organizers hope the summit will “mobilize global policy, financing, commodity and service delivery commitments to support the rights of an additional 120 million women and girls in the world’s 69 poorest countries to use contraceptive information, services and supplies, without coercion or discrimination, by 2020.” Doing so will prevent a staggering 100 million unintended pregnancies, 50 million abortions, 200,000 pregnancy- and childbirth-related maternal deaths, and 3 million infant deaths.

domain: sociology


text: Big K.R.I.T has re-emerged with a new EP entitled Thrice X. This 3-track EP with no guest appearances feature the self-reflective track called “Higher (King Pt. 6),” which is another installment of the Mississippi rapper’s “royal” series. The release also includes “Glorious,” which finds the artist kicking a quicker flow than usual, and “Look What I Got,” a track where K.R.I.T. gets retrospective about where he came from versus where he is today.

domain: artistic


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Action Plan Amendment #48 Public Comment Period Now Closed
The public comment period for Action Plan Amendment #48 closed at 5 p.m. on September 28, 2022.
Action Plan Amendment #48 details the State’s proposal to reallocate $52.6 million in Superstorm Sandy Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds. These funds would be reallocated to assist with Hurricane Ida recovery in counties that were determined by the federal government to be most impacted both in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy and Hurricane Ida. The overlapping counties are Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Middlesex, Passaic, and Union counties.
The New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (DCA) is now reviewing all public comments provided during the 30-day public comment period. Per federal guidelines, DCA will synthesize the public comments and then include written responses to those comments as part of the final Action Plan Amendment #48 submitted to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for review and approval.
Action Plan Amendment #48 that includes the public comments and written responses will be posted on this website.


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Effective and Affordable Hash Addiction Treatment for Saudis at The Cabin Chiang Mai
Hashish, or hash, is essentially a concentrated form of marijuana – and it comes in many forms.
It’s made from the resins of the cannabis plant which are collected and compressed to create a hard, dry and crumbly substance that is often dark brown in colour. Sold in sticks, balls or blocks, the hash is then broken down and smoked.
You can also find the drug sold as an oil – generally in small glass jars, with an amber to dark brown liquid inside. Most commonly, users put a few drops on a cigarette to ingest the drug. The drug can also be cooked into food.
Similar to marijuana, many people think that hashish is a harmless drug that is not addictive, but that is simply not true. Many people are addicted to hashish and are suffering the consequences.
Signs of Hash Use
- Distorted perceptions
- Impaired short-term memory
- Dry mouth
- Increased appetite
- Distortions in perception
- Impaired thought, speech and coordination
- Loss of interest in school, work or hobbies
- Slowed speech
Long-term Effects of Hash Abuse
- Loss of motivation
- Respiratory problems (cough, phlegm, chronic bronchitis, frequent chest colds)
- Increased chance of lung infections
- Strained personal relationships
- Job loss and/or financial strain
- Cognitive impairment
- Delayed reactions
- Inability to relax when sober
Hash Addiction Treatment at The Cabin Chiang Mai
In many cases, hash addiction is a reaction to an underlying disorder – and it’s important that any co-occurring disorder is diagnosed before beginning treatment for addiction.
At the Cabin Chiang Mai, our specialised addiction counsellors will work in collaboration with psychologists using our Recovery Zones programme to help you to heal. Recovery Zones is a unique treatment model that varies for each client, pulling from a variety of proven techniques including a secular version of the 12 Steps, cognitive behavioural therapy and mindfulness.
These treatments help you to understand and identify your own relapse triggers, develop alternative means to cope with stress and anxiety and sustain a sober lifestyle. The programme also provides relapse prevention, sober time management and aftercare planning.
We combine this psychological treatment with a holistic health and wellness programme that includes yoga, meditation, fitness and massage therapy.

domain: medical


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The ABCG2 membrane protein is a key xeno- and endobiotic transporter, modulating the absorption and metabolism of pharmacological agents and causing multidrug resistance in cancer. ABCG2 is also involved in uric acid elimination and its impaired function is causative in gout. Analysis of ABCG2 expression in the erythrocyte membranes of healthy volunteers and gout patients showed an enrichment of lower expression levels in the patients. By genetic screening based on protein expression, we found a relatively frequent, novel ABCG2 mutation (ABCG2-M71V), which, according to cellular expression studies, causes reduced protein expression, although with preserved transporter capability. Molecular dynamics simulations indicated a stumbled dynamics of the mutant protein, while ABCG2-M71V expression in vitro could be corrected by therapeutically relevant small molecules. These results suggest that personalized medicine should consider this newly discovered ABCG2 mutation, and genetic analysis linked to protein expression provides a new tool to uncover clinically important mutations in membrane proteins.
ASJC Scopus subject areas

domain: health


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“Smart Igbos” upset and riled that MNK is addressing Fulani Terrorist Herdsmen as murderers
By Fulani Terrorist Herdsmen, who are herding Igbo men, women, and children to the forest and slaughtering them as rams.
“Smart Igbos” disturbed that MNK is labeling Nigeria a zoo
By Fulani Muhammadu Buhari labeling Nigeria a big grazing zoo for Fulani cattle.
“Smart Igbos” worried that MNK does not respect Buhari
By Buhari disrespecting Igbos, by fraudulently installing one Alhaji Haruna Uzodinma, as the Governor of an Igbo State
More Nigerians are being killed in the Northern States where Buhari is revered
In the South East where Buhari is reviled and rejected.
Wish there are more “Dumb Igbos” in the Northern Nigerian tribes who abuse Buhari.
The killings of Northern Christians, Farmers, Children, Adults, and Pregnant women shall abate.
When you respect and praise your killers, your killers kill more to show appreciation to the Toadies in your tribe
When you show displeasure by excoriating your killers and alerting the world to an ongoing genocide.
Wish there were more “Dumb Igbos” in the world
“Smart Igbos” in the world since Dumb Igbos have curbed the murderous, jihadist Fulani incursion into Igbo land.


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NEW YORK (AP) Officials say another coyote has been spotted in New York City, this time near LaGuardia Airport.
The Port Authority, which runs the airport, says it was sighted in a marsh near 82nd Street and Ditmars Boulevard in Queens on Thursday morning.
The animal then darted into Elmjack Field, where authorities lost track of it.
It was the latest in a string of coyote sighting around the city. In late April, another coyote was seen in Queens. It was tranquilized and captured by police. That same month, another coyote was captured near a sidewalk in downtown Manhattan.
At least four other coyotes have been spotted in the city this year.

domain: news


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AIS Thailand wows with GOT7’s BamBam and BLACKPINK’s Lisa commercial.
On June 24, AIS Thailand shared on Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube the full commercial with BamBam and Lisa along with the message, “AIS 5G THE FUTURE IS YOURS”. In the video, the artists showed off their chemistry by looking at each other with a big smile and gentle eyes.
Fans left many comments such as, “I kept replaying the part “The future is yours” and their handshake,” “Imagine being the most successful friendship ever, only Bamlisa can relate,” and “Wow this is the best commercial.”
Check out the video below!

domain: entertainment


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Information processing models of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) suggest that PTSD is characterized by preferential allocation of attentional resources to potentially threatening stimuli. However, few studies have examined the neural pattern underlying attention and emotion in association with PTSD symptomatology. In the present study, combat veterans with PTSD symptomatology engaged in an emotional oddball task while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Veterans were classified into a high or low symptomatology group based on their scores on the Davidson Trauma Scale (DTS). Participants discriminated infrequent target stimuli (circles) from frequent standards (squares) while emotional and neutral distractors were presented infrequently and irregularly. Results revealed that participants with greater PTSD symptomatology showed enhanced neural activity in ventral-limbic and dorsal regions for emotional stimuli and attenuated activity in dorsolateral prefrontal and parietal regions for attention targets. In the anterior cingulate gyrus, participants with fewer PTSD symptoms showed equivalent responses to attentional and emotional stimuli while the high symptom group showed greater activation for negative emotional stimuli. Taken together, the results suggest that hyperresponsive ventral-limbic activity coupled with altered dorsal-attention and anterior cingulate function may be a neural marker of attention bias in PTSD.
Rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are high, with some estimates showing that close to 20% of Army and Marine troops meet criteria for PTSD three to four months post-deployment (Hoge et al., 2006). PTSD in these veterans is associated with cognitive deficits and functional impairment in everyday life (Hoge et al., 2006; Vasterling et al., 2006). Neuropsychological studies suggest that the nature of these cognitive deficits is more closely related to inattention and interference during the encoding process than retention loss due to amnesia (Vasterling, 2005). One such source of interference in PTSD may be attentional bias to threatening information, which disrupts ongoing cognitive activities by redirecting attentional resources away from the cognitive task at hand. For instance, combat veterans show longer response latencies while naming the color of the ink used to print trauma-related words during an emotional Stroop task (McNally et al., 1990; Kaspi et al., 1995; Constans et al., 2004). It is therefore hypothesized that delayed naming of emotional words represents a diversion of attention away from neutral stimuli toward traumatic stimuli in individuals with PTSD. Further evidence for attentional bias in PTSD comes from ERP studies that show enhanced P3 amplitude responses to threat or novel distracting stimuli (Attias et al., 1996; Kimble et al., 2000; Stanford et al., 2001). These studies employed modified oddball paradigms in which infrequent salient target stimuli were interspersed with frequent standard stimuli. Alterations in P3 amplitudes and latencies for emotional versus neutral stimuli provide evidence for heightened responsivity to potentially threatening stimuli in PTSD.
While there is evidence for attentional bias for threat from behavioral and ERP studies, evidence from neuroimaging studies for threat bias is scarce. The majority of previous neuroimaging studies in PTSD have focused on investigating provocation of trauma symptoms (Rauch et al., 1996; Bremner et al., 1999; Liberzon et al., 1999; Shin et al., 1999; Lanius et al., 2001; Lanius et al., 2002; Pissiota et al., 2002; Lanius et al., 2003a; Gilboa et al., 2004; Shin et al., 2004; Yang et al., 2004; Britton et al., 2005; Sakamoto et al., 2005), while others have examined cognition in PTSD such as working memory impairment without inclusion of emotional stimuli (Clark et al., 2003). However, in order to understand the neural circuitry underlying concentration and attention difficulties in relation to PTSD symptomatology, examination of both emotion and executive processing is necessary. Few neuroimaging studies have examined both emotion and attention within the same paradigm to simulate emotional distraction that occurs during cognitive task performance in real life. Neuroimaging studies that have employed emotional Stroop tasks in patients with PTSD (Shin et al., 2001; Bremner et al., 2004) combine the focus of both emotion and attention systems on the same stimulus, rendering it difficult to separate these two processes.
The goal of the present study was to examine the neural circuitry underlying alterations in attention by emotional distraction in veterans with symptoms of PTSD. We employed a modified emotional oddball paradigm based on our previous work in healthy adults, in which we demonstrated that emotion and attention function segregate into two large-scale neural networks (Yamasaki et al., 2002), with emotional content engaging fronto-limbic regions including the amygdala and inferior prefrontal cortex (IFG) and attentional targets engaging dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and posterior parietal regions. Additionally, emotional distractors and attentional targets both engage the rostral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) suggesting that this region is important for integrating executive and emotion processing streams (Yamasaki et al., 2002; Fichtenholtz et al., 2004). The present study tested several hypotheses. First, PTSD symptom severity should be related to greater activation in ventral-limbic regions during the emotional condition, including the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and amygdala. Second, symptom severity should be related to attenuated activity in dorsal frontal and parietal regions during the attention task, such as the middle frontal gyrus (MFG) and supramarginal gyrus (SMG) reflecting the disruption of executive pathways in PTSD. Finally, based on our previous work, we hypothesized that PTSD symptomatology would be related to an altered pattern of ACC activity for emotional and target stimuli.
Twenty-six recently returned (mean ± standard deviation; 23 ± 14 months) veterans from deployments to post-9/11 military conflicts completed the fMRI procedures. Veterans were recruited from a large recruitment database for the study of post-deployment mental health. Veterans entering the registry completed a neuropsychiatric self-assessment battery which included the Davidson Trauma Scale (DTS; Davidson et al., 1997), Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II; Beck et al., 1996), Combat Exposure Scale (CES; Keane, 1989), Trauma Life Events Questionnaire (TLEQ; Kubany et al., 2000), Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT; Saunders et al., 1993), and Drug Abuse Screening Test (DAST; Skinner, 1982). Veterans with prior history of combat trauma as assessed by the TLEQ were contacted by phone and screened to exclude those with a history of psychotic symptoms, serious medical illness, head injury resulting in a loss of consciousness, or shrapnel or other metal in their bodies. Twenty-one participants served in either Iraq or Afghanistan, while the remaining subjects served in other regions including Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Participants provided written informed consent for procedures approved by the Institutional Review Boards at Duke University and the Durham VA Medical Center.
The DTS is a 17-item self report measure that assesses trauma symptoms and has high test-retest reliability, internal consistency, convergent and divergent validity, and predictive validity (Davidson et al., 1997). This measure was administered to participants prior to scanning to obtain a current measure of PTSD symptomatology. A cutoff score of 40, which has previously shown to have good diagnostic accuracy against a clinician-administered interview (Davidson et al., 1997), was used to partition participants into a low DTS group (n = 12; M DTS = 14; SD = 14) and a high DTS group (n = 14; M DTS = 71; SD = 23).
Subject demographics are summarized in Table 1. The groups did not differ on age, education, gender, ethnicity, handedness, alcohol use as assessed by the AUDIT, or drug abuse as assessed by the DAST. The high DTS group reported greater exposure to combat situations than the low DTS group as assessed by the CES. The high DTS group also had significantly higher scores on the BDI than the low DTS group. Three participants (2 high DTS and 1 low DTS) were taking antidepressant medication that included selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and/or norepinephrine dopamine modulators.
Four categories of stimuli were displayed: (i) emotional distractor pictures from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS; Lang et al., 2005) (ii) neutral distractor pictures matched with negative pictures for luminance, presence of human figures, and chromatic features (iii) baseline standards consisting of squares of varying colors and sizes (iv) attentional targets consisting of circles of varying colors and sizes.
Negative IAPS pictures were utilized in this study in lieu of Iraq War combat-specific pictures for their known psychometric properties. Pictures included depictions of mutilations, burn victims, attacks and aimed guns, sick or crying children, and medical illnesses. Arousal and valence ratings of each negative picture included in the study are shown in Table 2.
Stimuli were presented for 1.5 sec with a 2.0 sec stimulus onset asynchrony in an event-related design. Target circles and emotional and neutral distractors were pseudorandomly distributed throughout each run. The interval between successive rare stimuli (i.e., targets, distractors, or both) was randomized. Eight runs lasted 4 min and 52 sec each. Stimuli consisted of 891 standards (84.4% of all trials), 87 attentional targets (8.2%), and 39 each of emotional and neutral pictures (3.7%). Participants were instructed to press the same button for all standard, emotional and neutral stimuli, but a different button press for target stimuli.
Functional images were acquired on a 3-Tesla GE scanner. fMRI data were collected with a gradient-echo inverse spiral pulse sequence (Guo and Song, 2003) with the following imaging parameters: repetition time (TR) = 2000 ms; echo time (TE) = 30 ms, field of view (FOV) = 24; 34 axial slices parallel to the AC-PC plane, 3.75 × 3.75 × 3.8 mm. High-resolution 3D SPGR images (TR = 12 ms; TE = 5.4 ms; FOV = 24) covering the entire brain were acquired to aid in normalization and coregistration. Functional data sets were preprocessed using FSL version 3.3.5 (Smith et al., 2004). Preprocessing was applied to individual participants’ data in the following steps: (i) brain extraction for non-brain removal (Smith, 2002), (ii) motion correction using MCFLIRT (Jenkinson et al., 2002), (iii) spatial smoothing using a Gaussian kernel of FWHM 5 mm, (iv) mean-based intensity normalization of all volumes by the same factor, and (v) high-pass filtering (Jenkinson et al., 2002; Smith et al., 2004). Functional images of each participant were co-registered to structural images in native space, and structural images were normalized into a standard stereotaxic space (Montreal Neurological Institute) for intersubject comparison. The same transformation matrices used for structural-to-standard transformations were then used for functional-to-standard space transformations of co-registered functional images.
Statistical analyses consisting of both voxel-based and region of interest (ROI) analyses were performed using custom software. For each individual, the fMRI signal was selectively averaged as a function of trial type (i.e., emotional, neutral, and target) and two pre-stimulus and eight post-stimulus time points (i.e., image volumes). Epoch averages were correlated at each voxel with a canonical hemodynamic response function. T-statistics from each participant were then submitted to a random effects group analysis to evaluate whether the mean effect from the population differs from zero. For group difference analyses, time points around the peak signal change for each condition were averaged within each individual and then contrasted between the two groups.
Functional ROIs were selected from voxels showing maximum effects in the contrasts of interest as identified by voxel-based analyses. For both voxel- and ROI-based analyses, an intensity threshold of P < 0.002 (two-tailed) and extent threshold of 10 contiguous voxels was used for a priori areas of interest, and P < 0.001 and extent threshold of 10 voxels for all other areas. Selection of a priori areas of interest was guided by hypotheses derived from our previous emotional oddball studies (Yamasaki et al., 2002; Fichtenholtz et al., 2004; Morey et al., 2008) and included IFG, amygdala, vmPFC, orbitofrontal cortex (OFG), MFG, SMG, and the cingulate cortex. Percent signal change at time points 2, 4, 6, and 8 seconds poststimulus for each ROI was analyzed by repeated measures MANOVA. An alpha level of 0.05 was used to determine significant activity in all MANOVA contrasts.
Finally, to investigate individual differences regarding symptom severity and executive and emotion processing, multiple regression analyses between fMRI data and DTS and BDI were performed within ROIs identified by voxel-based analyses of contrasts of interest (i.e., emotion > target and target > emotion).
Behavioral analysis is based on 11 high DTS participants and 11 low DTS participants. Three participants were excluded from the behavioral analysis because they did not make a button press to distractor pictures, and one participant was excluded from the behavioral analysis for making the same button press to both targets and distractors. MANOVA for reaction time with condition (emotion, neutral, target, standard) as a within subjects factor and group (low or high DTS) as a between subjects factor yielded a main effect of condition (Wilks’ Lambda = 0.12; F3,18 = 44.99, P < 0.0001). Post hoc analyses revealed that participants had longer reaction time latencies for the emotional condition than for the other conditions (P’s < 0.001 for all). There was no condition by group interaction (Wilks’ Lambda = 0.84; F3,18 = 1.15, P > 0.3).
For response accuracy, MANOVA revealed a main effect of condition (Wilks’ Lambda = 0.35; F3,18 = 11.2, P < 0.001). Participants were less accurate in making a button response to target stimuli in comparison to emotional, neutral and standard conditions (P < 0.0001 for all) and also less accurate for emotion stimuli than neutral stimuli (P = 0.05). There was a marginal condition by group interaction (Wilks’ Lambda = 0.66; F3,18 = 3.04, P = 0.056) suggesting that high DTS participants were less accurate in detecting targets versus the other picture types relative to low DTS participants.
As expected, random effects group analysis for the emotional condition revealed activation in ventral brain regions including IFG, OFG, vmPFC, and amygdala (see Fig. 1). Percent signal change extracted from an IFG ROI shows that this region was activated for emotional stimuli, but not for neutral or target stimuli. MANOVA was highly significant for a main effect of condition (Wilks’ Lambda = 0.24; F2,24 = 37.19, P < 0.00001), time point (Wilks’ Lambda = 0.28; F3,23 = 19.43, P < 0.0001) and a condition by time interaction (Wilks’ Lambda = 0.39; F6,20 = 5.15, P < 0.003). Activation was greater for emotion than neutral and target at all time points examined (P < 0.002 for all).
Conversely, the target identification task evoked activity in dorsal regions, including the right middle frontal gyrus (MFG) and other frontoparietal regions. In MFG there was a main effect for condition (Wilks’ Lambda = 0.75; F2,24 = 4.05, P < 0.04) and a condition by time interaction (Wilks’ Lambda = 0.39; F6,20 = 5.20, P < 0.003). Planned comparisons revealed that at 4 seconds, percent signal change was higher for targets than emotional (P < 0.0003) and neutral (P < 0.04) distractors.
The between-group contrast of emotion > target revealed greater activation in bilateral IFG (414 voxels) in low DTS participants relative to high DTS participants (see Fig. 2). MANOVA yielded a significant condition by group interaction (Wilks’ Lambda = 0.56; F2,23 = 9, P < 0.002). Planned comparisons revealed that emotional distractors elicited greater signal in the low DTS group than the high DTS group at 2 and 6 seconds (P’s < 0.05). A left anterior temporal lobe and left cerebellar region was also activated although we did not hypothesize a role for these regions prior to the study.
Conversely, the high DTS group showed greater activation in right vmPFC, right peri-amygdala regions, and right OFG. In the vmPFC (132 voxels), MANOVA indicated a significant condition by group interaction (Wilks’ Lambda = 0.7; F2,23 = 5, P < 0.02). Emotional distractors elicited greater signal in the high DTS than low DTS group at all time points (P’s < 0.03). In peri-amygdala regions (110 voxels), MANOVA revealed a significant condition by group interaction (Wilks’ Lambda = 0.57; F2,23 = 8.63, P < 0.003) and a condition by time by group interaction (Wilks’ Lambda = 0.54; F6,19 = 2.71, P < 0.05). Follow up tests showed greater activity for emotional pictures in the high DTS group in comparison to the low DTS group at 6 and 8 seconds (P < 0.02). In OFG (447 voxels), repeated measures MANOVA revealed a significant condition by group interaction (Wilks’ Lambda = 0.66; F2,23 = 5.84, P < 0.01). Follow up tests showed that the high DTS group had greater activation for emotional stimuli than the low DTS group at 4, 6, and 8 seconds (P < 0.03 for all).
For attentional targets, we hypothesized that high DTS symptoms would be associated with reduced activity in putative dorsal-attention regions. As expected, the high DTS group showed reduced activity in right MFG and right SMG for the target > emotion contrast. In MFG (731 voxels), repeated measures MANOVA indicated a significant condition by group interaction (Wilks’ Lambda = 0.66; F2,23 = 5.83, P < 0.01). Planned comparisons revealed decreased activation in the high DTS group than the low DTS group in MFG for targets at 4 s (P < 0.03) and 6 s (P < 0.02). The high DTS group, however, had greater activation in this region for emotional stimuli at 4 s (P < 0.007), 6 seconds (P < .004), and 8 seconds (P < 0.04).
In right SMG (296 voxels), MANOVA revealed a significant condition by group interaction (Wilks’ Lambda = 0.55; F2,23 = 9.32, P < 0.002), condition by time by group interaction (Wilks’ Lambda = 0.49; F6,19 = 3.33, P < 0.03) and condition by time interaction (Wilks’ Lambda = 0.42; F6,19 = 4.45, P < 0.007) (Fig. 3). Follow up tests showed that the high DTS group had reduced activation for target stimuli in comparison to the low DTS group at 6 s (P < 0.02), but greater activation for emotional stimuli at 4 s (P < 0.02) and 6 s (P < 0.03). There were no regions for which the high DTS group had greater activation than the low DTS group for target stimuli.
Multiple regression analysis by DTS and BDI scores was performed to examine the relationship between regions of interest and PTSD and depression symptomatology. Based on the between groups IFG ROI contrast, results indicate that the variables entered significantly explained the variation in IFG (F2,23 = 7.52, P < 0.004). However, only the DTS was a significant predictor in the model (t23 = 3.75, P < 0.002). The results suggest that activity in the IFG decreased as PTSD symptom severity increased. Similarly, PTSD symptom severity inversely predicted BOLD signal activity in the MFG (t23 = 3.79, P < 0.002), but again depression symptom severity was not a significant predictor in the model (t23 = 0.79, P > 0.44). This finding is consistent with our hypothesis that greater PTSD symptom severity is related to attenuation of the dorsal-attention network.
In the vmPFC ROI, DTS again was a significant predictor in the model (t23 = 2.75, P < 0.02), whereas BDI was not (t23 = 0.47, P > 0.64). This result indicates a significant positive relationship between vmPFC and PTSD symptom severity but not depression symptom severity.
To investigate the putative role of the anterior cingulate in emotion and attention integration, we examined regions of overlap where both emotion and target stimuli evoked greater activation than neutral stimuli in the entire group of participants. Three cingulate regions were activated as shown in Fig. 4, including a rostral ACC region (region 1; 70 voxels), a dorsal ACC region (region 2; 41 voxels), and a posterior ventral region (region 3; 116 voxels). These regions were submitted to ROI analysis and compared across and within the two groups.
A 3-way MANOVA using condition (emotion, target, and neutral) and region (1, 2, and 3) as repeated variables and group (high, low DTS) as the between subjects factor at peak time points yielded a significant condition by region by group interaction (Wilks’ Lambda = 0.65; F4,21 = 2.87, P < 0.05). Follow up tests revealed that in region 2, the high DTS group showed greater activation to emotion distractors than the low DTS group.
The low DTS group showed two patterns of responses across the cingulate regions. In region 1, MANOVA revealed a significant condition by time interaction (F6,66 = 3.6, P < 0.004). Follow up tests showed that emotion and target stimuli evoked greater activation than neutral stimuli at 6 and 8 s, but emotion and target signals were not different from each other. In region 2, differential activation for picture type was not observed. In region 3 MANOVA revealed a significant condition by time interaction (F6,66 = 2.3, P < 0.05). Both target and emotion stimuli evoked greater activation than neutral stimuli at 4, 6, and 8 seconds, but target and emotion did not differ from each other at any time point.
The high DTS group showed three patterns of activation. In region 1, there was a significant condition by time interaction (F6,78 = 2.96, P < 0.02). A graded activation pattern emerged such that target stimuli evoked greater activation than neutral distractors at 4 and 6 s, and in turn emotion distractors evoked greater activation than target stimuli at 6 seconds (P < 0.05). In region 2, the high DTS group again showed a graded activation pattern. MANOVA revealed a significant condition by time interaction (F6,78 = 4.72, P < 0.001). Follow up tests showed that target stimuli evoked greater activation than neutral stimuli at 4, 6, and 8 s, and emotion stimuli evoked greater activation than both target and neutral stimuli at 6 seconds (P < 0.05). In region 3, the high DTS group showed a main effect for condition (F2,26 = 6.07, P < 0.008). Across all time points, emotion stimuli evoked greater activation than neutral stimuli (P < 0.002).
In summary, these results demonstrated that the high DTS group showed greater activation for the emotion distractors in the dorsal ACC, whereas the low DTS group generally showed equivalent activation for emotion and target stimuli.
Examination of emotion and attention in a group of recently returned combat veterans revealed alterations in the neural circuitry associated with posttraumatic stress symptomatology indicating an attentional bias to emotional stimuli in PTSD. Integration of the findings within the broader emotion and PTSD literature is discussed below.
Differential activation was observed in the ventral regions for the low and high DTS groups during the emotion condition in accordance with previous neuroimaging findings of PTSD symptomatology (Morey et al., 2008). High DTS symptoms were associated with activation in the vmPFC, peri-amygdala regions, and OFG. This result is largely consistent with a number of studies examining the neural pathways of trauma processing in PTSD (Liberzon and Martis, 2006).
The low DTS group showed greater bilateral IFG activity than the high DTS group. Although IFG activity in response to emotional stimuli in healthy samples has been reported in several studies (Shin et al., 1999; Yamasaki et al., 2002; Fichtenholtz et al., 2004), the function of this region in emotion remains unclear. In prior studies, the IFG –particularly in the right hemisphere— has been implicated in inhibitory functions, which allow one to carry out thoughts and actions with minimal interruption from external, distracting stimuli (Aron et al., 2004). Impaired inhibition in PTSD may be contributory towards attentional bias to emotionally relevant information (Amir et al., 2002). The present results are consistent with the IFG’s role in inhibition of distracting stimuli and the growing literature suggesting that a failure to engage this putatively inhibitory IFG activity is decreased in participants with posttraumatic symptomatology.
There is now abundant evidence that in healthy individuals, attentional targets elicit activity in dorsal regions including the MFG and parietal cortex (Kirino et al., 2000; Yamasaki et al., 2002; Fichtenholtz et al., 2004; Morey et al., 2008). In the present study, attentional targets were associated with attenuated signal in the dorsal network in combat veterans with greater PTSD symptomatology relative to combat veterans with fewer symptoms. This neural finding coincided with lowered behavioral performance of the high symptom group for target stimuli as compared to other picture types. However, while neutral targets elicited attenuated signal in MFG in the high DTS group, emotional distractors elicited the greatest activity in MFG. There is some evidence that the MFG plays an active role in attention to salient target stimuli regardless of the emotional content (Fichtenholtz et al., 2004). Therefore, it is possible that while the low DTS group applied greatest attention to circle (target) stimuli, the high DTS group applied greater attention to the emotional distractors. These results yield findings complementary to ERP studies in which P3 signal is attenuated for neutral targets and enhanced for threat stimuli (Stanford et al., 2001). The differential MFG signal observed between groups could be a corresponding neural marker for threat bias in PTSD.
Interestingly, Bryant et al. (2005) demonstrated that PTSD was related to increased activity in dorsal-attention systems including parietal cortex during an oddball task that did not employ emotional distractors. The authors suggested that attentional systems may be enhanced in PTSD patients in the absence of emotional stimuli, reflecting generalized hypervigilance. In light of these findings, it is possible that dorsal-attention regions may be enhanced in PTSD during processing of salient neutral stimuli whereas within the context of threat, these regions are attenuated for neutral stimuli in favor of processing emotional stimuli. This finding parallels the ERP literature, in which studies that included emotional probes found increased responsivity for emotional stimuli (Stanford et al., 2001), while those that did not found increased responsivity for salient target stimuli (Kimble et al., 2000).
The ACC has reciprocal connections with both dorsal-attention regions and ventral-affective regions and therefore this region may be ideally suited to regulate interactions between dorsal-ventral pathways. However, there is some conflicting evidence in the neuroimaging literature regarding the ACC’s role in PTSD. The majority of studies have shown that this region either deactivated in patients with PTSD or failed to activate in comparison to control participants (Bremner, 1999; Bremner et al., 1999; Shin et al., 1999; Lanius et al., 2001; Shin et al., 2001; Lanius et al., 2003b; Shin et al., 2004; Shin et al., 2005; Etkin and Wager, 2007). However, some studies have also demonstrated the opposite, that the ACC is in fact activated or correlated with PTSD symptomatology. For instance, activation in this region is associated with PTSD symptomatology during a script-driven symptom provocation study (Rauch et al., 1996), and while viewing trauma scenes (Morey et al., 2008), negative pictures, (Shin et al., 1997), and listening to combat sounds (Zubieta et al., 1999). Activity in this region is also heightened for salient non-threatening targets in an oddball paradigm (Bryant et al., 2005). The conflicting evidence therefore raises the concern that other factors likely account for the discrepancy of results including task differences, differences in dissociative states (see Lanius et al., 2002), and depression comorbidity, among others.
The present study supports the hypothesis that the ACC serves as an intermediary between attention and emotion processing. Compared to low-symptom individuals, participants with high levels of PTSD symptomatology showed greater activity for emotional distractors than attentional targets in a rostral ACC region, and greater activity in a dorsal ACC region for emotional distractors. Thus, the greater activity may reflect a twofold effort to integrate emotion and attention streams, although with limited success, as observed by attenuated activity for target stimuli and poorer behavioral performance. These results are also consistent with our previous work in healthy adults which demonstrated that activity in the ACC increased when subjects are instructed to apply greater attention to emotional stimuli versus nonemotional stimuli (Fichtenholtz et al., 2004).
A limitation of the present study is that a clinician administered measure was not used to classify groups. Although the DTS has good diagnostic accuracy against a clinician-administered interview (Davidson et al., 1997), use of the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale or another clinician administered measure may help to more accurately diagnose whether the symptoms participants report meet DSM-IV PTSD criteria.
Another limitation of the present study is that several of the high DTS participants had significant depression scores on the BDI, leaving open the possibility that our results could be influenced by depressive symptomatology. Comorbidity rates between PTSD and other mood disorders are strikingly high. By one estimate, lifetime comorbidity with another DSM disorder was over 80% in men with PTSD (Kessler et al., 1995). This issue raises the concern that the current nosology of the DSM-IV does not adequately acknowledge depressive symptoms as a characteristic of PTSD (Simms et al., 2002). Nonetheless, the present results suggest that activation in ventral-limbic regions increased as a function of PTSD symptoms, but not depressive symptoms, suggesting that these two aspects of the disorder may have distinct neural effects. Additionally, we observed heightened activation in the dorsal ACC whereas this region is hypothesized to be attenuated in depression (Mayberg, 1997; Wang et al., in press). At least two other studies have examined neural differences in PTSD patients with and without depression (Kemp et al., 2007; Lanius et al., 2007). The findings appear to be mixed; Lanius et al. (2007) reported increases in ACC activity in PTSD patients with comorbid depression, while Kemp et al. (2007) reported increases in ACC in PTSD patients without depression. These differences may be due to additional factors including the nature of the task employed and differences in dissociative states (see Lanius et al., 2002). Additional studies directly investigating the role of depression in PTSD are warranted.
A major strength of the present study is that participants comprised a relatively homogeneous group of post-9/11 combat veterans who were exposed to similar war zone experiences. Additionally, we were able to assess acute PTSD symptomatology on average less than two years had elapsed between development of PTSD symptoms and date enrolled in the study. By contrast, other studies in the literature are often hampered by chronicity of symptoms.
Understanding the challenges post-9/11 soldiers face as they attempt to re-integrate into civilian life is an important public health concern, as cognitive deficits can have negative implications on work and school related productivity. In the present study, participants with high levels of PTSD symptomatology showed attenuated activity in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and parietal regions for neutral targets but enhanced activity for emotional distractors, which coincided with lowered capacity to detect attentional targets. Furthermore, PTSD symptom severity was related to greater ventral-limbic activation during the emotional task. Taken together, the results suggest that hyperresponsive ventral-limbic activity coupled with altered function of dorsal attention systems and increased activation for emotional stimuli in the dorsal ACC may be a neural marker of inattention and threat bias in PTSD. Additionally, this study provides testable hypotheses about the role of the IFG in inhibiting and managing distracting emotions in PTSD, and the role of the ACC in integrating attention and emotion processes. Future studies should include the contribution of these regions towards a comprehensive understanding of the neural circuitry of PTSD.
This research was supported by the Department of Veterans Affairs, Mental Illness Research Education and Clinical Center Grant for Post-Deployment Mental Health and by the National Institute of Mental Health Grant K23 MH073091. We would like to thank Debra Cooper, Srishti Seth, Lihong Wang, Larry Tupler, as well as the Journal editors and reviewers for their helpful comments and contributions to the paper.
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124.9cc air-cooled single-cylinder four-stroke
BORE & STROKE
52.4mm x 57.9mm
PGM-FI with automatic enrichment
730mm x 1,755mm x 1000mm
USD Front Forks, 31mm
Mono shock, steel square pipe swingarm
Single 220mm disc with hydraulic dual-piston caliper
Single 190mm disc with hydraulic single piston caliper
Candy Caribbean Sea Blue, Candy Ultimate Pink, Pearl Valentine Red and Lemon Ice Yellow.
Honda reserves the right to alter specifications and features without notice. Images shown are overseas models any accessories are not included and are for illustration purposes only.


text:
Psyched Up30 April 2013
The geriatric dude’s overtaking me. Again. I take a look behind because I’m sure someone’s laughing at me. It’s raining and I’m jogging around Princes Park. I wanna throw up in my coach’s face.
Rest assured, this is all part of my genius plan to kick social anxiety’s ass—by putting myself in situations that interest me but have previously avoided for fear of embarrassment or failure. It was the same fear that made me think I wasn’t worthy of attending university. If you’ve ever experienced social anxiety, you’ll know how much it digs forcing you to hang out in an Orwellian dystopia where it acts as Big Brother, and any thoughts that might create positive mental health outcomes are expunged.
Before I even get to the running club I’m certain I’ll humiliate myself. Within the first ten minutes of jogging, I just know I’ll trip over. The person in front of me will turn around after hearing the crack of the concrete. They’ll yell, “Are you okay?” while contemplating coming back to peel me of the ground. I’ll choke back tears and hastily answer, “No, no. I’m fine. You keep going. All good.” And they’ll sprint on and I’ll finish the run too. Even though I’ll be pretty sure my shin bone wasn’t aggressively poking through my skin before.
Afterwards, the doctors at the emergency room will inform me that because I didn’t attend to the broken bone straight away, I’ll never walk again. “How’d you even run on it?” they’ll ask, mystified. “Man, don’t ask me,” I’ll reply. “This is an anxiety day-dream. Logic doesn’t work here!”
Psychologists call this line of thinking, ‘catastrophising’. I cancel three times before dragging my nervous behind to the running group around the corner from my house.
I feel awkward the second I get there. I stand next to the athletics track where I’ve been told to wait for the coach. I try not to be consumed by a ridiculous river of anxious thoughts: Am I standing weird? What the fuck do I do with my hands? Should I put them on my hips? No. Don’t. You’ll look arrogant. Fuck it. I’ll just let them hang by my side.
I end up looking like some dipstick boy scout standing to attention, singing the national anthem while the Australian flag is raised.
Is it too late to bounce back to the lockers, grab my bag and head home to torrent the latest episode of Girls? Yep. A grinning Norwegian guy is asking me something.
“Are you Merran? The one who emailed me last night? I’m Anders. Nice to meet you.” I instantly feel more relaxed. Mainly because the coach is such a delightful man, that if I did stack it I wouldn’t be wholly consumed by embarrassment.
And I pass the geriatric dude on my final lap around the park. I haven’t fallen over. But I am in a lot of pain. The kind of pain personal trainers say is desirable. Meanwhile, grand-dad’s doing push-ups. God, I’m unfit. Physically. But mentally, I’m fucking killing it.

domain: psychology


text:
Senate President, Bukola Saraki’s ally, Alhaji Kawu Baraje has criticised the All Progressives Congress (APC), over what he described as the party’s poor performance.
Punch reports that Baraje said Nigerians are not happy with the APC, and called on the Buhari led administration to address the sufferings of the people.
He also advised the party not to repeat the mistakes of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Baraje said “I belong to the group that is not very satisfied with the performance of the party; not only because the Senate President is having a very serious political issue, but because there are other cases and instances where we are not happy with the performance of our party.”
He also said “I am not a prophet of doom, neither am I a political prostitute. Are you happy going to queue up for up to two to three hours? Are you happy that electricity is not functioning well and people sleep in darkness?
“What we are saying is that majority of Nigerians are not happy and we need to make them happy.
“Majority of Nigerians are suffering and we need to make our impact felt by addressing the suffering of the masses.”
Baraje also threatened to leave the party, saying the APC lacks focus and is distracted.
Baraje said, “The PDP made me. I was the National Secretary and later become the National Chairman of the PDP. I made my mark. If I have to be grateful to any political party, I think, it is the PDP.
“So, if I can leave that party, then you will know that the party had gone contrary seriously against my principles of life.
“If I can leave the PDP because of impunity, lack of respect for the rule of law; then do I want to continue in another party that way? But it has not got to that level. That is why we are sounding a note of warning that gradually some of these problems are creeping into the APC. And we must warn ourselves.”
Many Nigerians, on social media, constantly express their anger and frustration at the current situation of the country.
Alhaji Kawu Baraje once served as the acting National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).


text:
With “The Mortal Instruments : City of Bones” likely to make more money than a Beverly Hills surgeon on opening weekend (and I’ll be one of the patrons! really looking forward to seeing how the yarn works on celluloid!), no surprise to hear that it’s all guns firing on a movie sequel.
Producers are out to Sigourney Weaver to play the ruthless leader of the Shadowhunters in ”The Mortal Instruments: City of Ashes”, due to film in October.
Weaver, who has been working busily the last few years, appearing in everything from the Taylor Lautner dud “Abduction” to “Cabin in the Woods” (though uncredited), would join Lily Collins and Jamie Campbell Bower in the Constantin sequel.
“Ashes” would continue the story “of a girl (Collins) who discovers she is a demon-slaying Shadowhunter and enters a world filled with warring vampires, werewolves and faeries, while also falling for another Shadowhunter (Bower)”, says The Hollywood Reporter.
Weaver’s character, the aforesaid leader of the Shadowhunters, is out seek revenge on the man that killed her son.
Harald Zwart, who directs next month’s “City of Bones”, would reprise his role as director.


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You're on our mind during COVID-19. See our related wedding FAQs.
Wedding venues in Callander: find the perfect place to celebrate your wedding day with our extensive range of listed venues. Be it a fairytale castle, an elegant banquet hall or a rustic country barn, you can find it here. Ask for prices, check availability and start planning the ceremony and reception you have always wanted.
Located in Callander, Ontario, Red Maple Barn is a company that specializes in hosting rustic or modern weddings in this charming farm wedding venue. This venue is only a 5-minute drive to the beach for sunset and fun beach photos and is set upon well-landscaped property with trees, flowers, and... (Wedding venues Callander)
Wedding Venues in other towns of Ontario:

domain: geography


text:
DescriptionThese games use a top-down view, also called an overhead view or a helicopter view. A top-down view is strict and cannot have any angle at all.
Mars Miner is a Bomberman remake. The protagonist is an astronaut stranded on Mars after the ship's collision with a...
Acorn 32-bit (1997)
Marsquake is a sequel to Moonquake and like its predecessor it's a variant of Bomberman. The player takes the role...
The Terran's military bases in the Martian realm have been attacked, and Deimos was the only area not to be...
Marvel Brothel is a simple freeware manager/RPG, taking the form of a fangame in the X-Men universe.Professor Charles Xavier decided...
A rather advanced implementation of the classic "Worm" game for BBSes, Marvin-mask puts the player in the shoes of a...
Masa Krytyczna is a puzzle game for two players. The aim of the game is to eliminate all the chips...
Masked Riders Club: Battle Race is a top-down action racing game based on the Kamen Rider television franchise. The game...
Masken means "the worm" in Swedish, and this is another "snake" game. You must guide your worm around a playfield...
Windows 3.x (1994)
Masque Blackjack is a blackjack game for 1 - 4 players in which the player can choose to play by...
Set in the Mass Effect universe, Mass Effect Galaxy describes an episode in the perilous life of a new human...
Massive Assault Network is a turn-based multiplayer game and strongly based on its predecessor Massive Assault. The story details a...
Top games by as rated by the press:
- 99 Chrono Trigger
- 96 Pac-Man: Championship Edition DX
- 96 Gauntlet
- 95 Radiant Silvergun
- 94 NHL '94
- 94 The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
- 93 Tecmo Super Bowl
- 93 Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon
- 93 Sid Meier's Civilization II
- 93 Shadowfire
Games must have at least a Critic Score of 80 to be considered.
Top games as rated by our users:
- 4.79 Sea Battle (1980)
- 4.78 Napalm: The Crimson Crisis (1998)
- 4.75 Summer Carnival '92: Recca (1992)
- 4.69 Pac-Man: Championship Edition DX (2010)
- 4.67 Arc the Lad Collection (2002)
- 4.66 Pac-Man: Championship Edition (2007)
- 4.62 Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection (2008)
- 4.61 Aleste 2 (1989)
- 4.60 Ultima: The Second Trilogy (1992)
- 4.59 SD Snatcher (1990)
Games must have at least 5 votes and a User Score of 4.0 to be considered.

domain: game


text:
Valletta FC have lodged a protest against the result of their Premier League clash against Sliema Wanderers last Saturday.
Sliema Wanderers beat Valletta 2-1 at the National Stadium for their first Premier League win of the season but the result is now in jeopardy following a complaint filed at the Malta FA offices by the Citizens.
Valletta are contending that Sliema Wanderers player Warsama Hassan was ineligible to play in the match as he was supposed to be serving a quarantine period following his appearance with Djibouti in a World Cup qualifier against Algeria.
On November 12, Hassan played part in Djibouti’s 4-0 defeat at the Cairo National Stadium in Egypt which incidentally is one of the red-listed countries.
Sliema coach Andrea Pisanu roped in Hassan in the closing stages of the match.
According the Malta Public Health regulations, someone who travelled to a red-listed country should serve a 14-day quarantine.


Is this the best head you carry for cleaning furniture, large pillows and bedspreads?
Jana from Lake Havasu
If the Mini Electric works with your hose (if you have an electric hose with two contact holes in the handle) then it is the best. The vibrating tool is good for some quick uses here and there but the Mini Electric will keep on going. Here is the Mini Electric https://builtinvacuum.com/retail/shopretail.php?part_no=472
Wizard Vibrating Head
I'm looking for a vibrating beater head for carpets. Western Auto Stores used to carry "Wizard" vacuum cleaners that had that type of a head. I can not find one anywhere. Do you have such an attachment?
Hi, we don't have another vibrating brush besides this one. We are not familar with other ones for the central vacuum market. This tool may work for you though.
How it Vibrates
How does the brush vibrate...from muscle power...I don't see a power connection.
The air rushing into the tool causes the bands to vibrate. It is quite simple, quite smart, and really effective.
will this fit onto a electrolux silverado canister model ?
Probably not since this tool receives a metal tube into it for connection (standard on vacuum but Electrolux).


Garbage is collected every other week. Check your personalized waste calendar for your collection schedule.
This information applies to you if your address receives cart-based collection.
If you do not have garbage or recycling carts, visit Bag-Based Collection.
Garbage carts (gray lid)
This video gives an overview of preparing garbage for your garbage cart.
Using your garbage cart
- To avoid odour and spills, it is preferred to put garbage in plastic bags before putting into the cart but it is not mandatory.
- Leave at least 1 m (3 ft.) of clear space around cart at curb.
- Make sure the lid is closed. The lid of your garbage cart must be closed for collection.
- Face the handles towards your home and point the arrows towards the street.
- Do not fasten lids with wire or bungee cords.
- Do not place carts on top of snow banks.
Exchanging, repairing or replacing your garbage cart
You can change your garbage cart for a smaller or larger-sized cart. An exchange fee of $25 will apply. Get more details about changing a cart size.
Garbage carts that are damaged, broken, lost or stolen will be repaired or replaced, free of charge, except in the case of negligence. Report a cart problem.
These items are a sample of acceptable garbage items.
- Aluminum foil
- Bread and milk tags
- Chewing gum
- Pet waste
- Absorbent pads from meat trays
- Feminine hygiene products
- Coffee cups
- Plastic cereal and cracker box liners
- Shrink wrap
Check How to Sort Your Waste to see if an item goes in the garbage.
During an exemption period you can put unlimited amounts of acceptable garbage on the curb.
You don’t need garbage bag tags during this time.
Upcoming garbage exemption days
Your upcoming garbage exemption days for 2019 and 2020 are during the weeks of:
- September 16 – 27, 2019
- January 27 – February 7, 2020
Find your next exemption day in your collection calendar.
Placement and collection
- Put your extra garbage out on your garbage collection day. Collectors won’t pick up garbage from the curb on recycling collection days.
- Collectors might collect your cart and excess garbage at different times during the day.
- Leave your garbage cart and excess garbage at the curb until 8 p.m. If neither are collected by 8 p.m., report a missed collection.
Placing extra garbage on the curb
- Put smaller garbage items in garbage bags.
- Place larger items separately on the curb.
- Place your excess garbage next to your garbage cart. Leave 1 m (3 ft.) of space between the excess garbage and the cart.
Excess garbage bag weight and size limits
A garbage bag placed at the curb for collection cannot:
- Weigh more than 20 kg (44 lbs).
- Be larger than 66 cm (26 in) wide and 90 cm (35 in) high.
Be smaller than 30 cm (12 in) wide and 30 cm (12 in) high.


text:
The new Disney+ era set to begin for the Marvel Cinematic Universe has picked up a ton of steam over the last few weeks. In October alone, casting announcements have been made for Tatiana Maslany as She-Hulk, newcomer Iman Vellani as Ms Marvel, and most notably, Oscar Isaac as Moon Knight.
These series may be later on in the MCU’s release schedule, but the studio is already making plenty of headway filling in positions in front of the camera and behind it. That continues with a new report revealing who will help bring Moon Knight to the small screen as well...
Deadline has reported that Marvel Studios has tapped Mohamed Diab to direct the upcoming Disney+ series Moon Knight. There has been no official confirmation of this hire by either Marvel or Diab’s representatives, nor is there word on how many episodes the Egyptian director is set to take on.
WHAT THIS MEANS
Mohamed Diab has mostly made his name writing and directing in Egypt, his native country, but his work has been recognized worldwide. Most recently, Diab wrote, directed, and produced Eshtebak (Clash), a 2016 film that scored a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes and was officially selected at that year's Cannes Film Festival. This will be his first major production in both Hollywood and in the USA, and it just so happens to come with one of the biggest franchises in cinematic history.
Diab's background also lends itself wonderfully to the very Marvel project that he is heading up thanks to Moon Knight's noted background with Egyptian history. Alongside leading actor Oscar Isaac, Diab should have an absolutely golden opportunity to explore every angle of Marc Spector and his superhero persona, especially as he dives deep into both Spector's own psyche and the lore of ancient Egypt.
Moon Knight is set to premiere on Disney+ sometime in 2022, and there is no set timeframe for production to begin as of yet.


MTU Maintenance Dallas is part of the world’s largest independent jet engine MRO company based in Germany providing aftermarket and OEM licensed engine maintenance services worldwide. As a part of MTU Aero Engines, with over 80 years of experience in the design, development and production of jet engine components, modules and engines; MTU Maintenance is a global network of over 4,000 employees with over 35 years of experience in the MRO market. MTU provides maintenance from targeted hospital visits to complete overhauls on over 30+ commercial aero engine and industrial gas turbine lines and has completed more than 18,000 shop visits for over 1,400 customers worldwide. Within this Global network, MTU Dallas provides hospital shop and on-site maintenance services.
Experienced A&P Licensed Field Service Technician to perform engine repairs and module level work scopes both in the MTU Maintenance shop and in the field, domestically and internationally. Job duties include a large range of maintenance from service bulletin and AD compliance to inspections and repairs and disassembly to module swaps. Individuals must maintain high level of performance and integrity and be an effective team player with leadership potential.
Individuals should have experience with the following work scopes:
borescope inspections, compressor top & bottom case repairs, module removal and installation, engine change & QEC, AD and SB modifications, hot section replacements, configuration change, fan blade replacement, lease return and pre-buy inspections.


text:
2261 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley, CA
1761 Alcatraz Ave, Berkeley, CA
1501 Ohio Ave, Richmond, CA
Photo of Angeline's Louisiana Kitchen - Berkeley, CA, United States .... happy
that this Cajun/Creole establishment has a good selection for me to choose from.
Combo of Bourbon Red Photo of Easy Creole - Berkeley, CA, United States.
Shrimp stuff & spinach Photo of Easy Creole - Berkeley, CA, United States.
Easy Creole is your all natural, never fried Creole & Cajun food.
3030 San Bruno Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94134 ... boy and authentic seafood
gumbo, our classic Creole- and Cajun-inspired menu includes fresh seafood, ...
Friday & Saturday: 11:30 a.m. - 10 p.m.. Sunday: 11:30 a.m. - 9 p.m.. 2261
Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, CA 94704 (on Shattuck near Bancroft) 510.548.6900.
Picán. 2295 Broadway Oakland, CA 94612 ... Cajun essence, braised cabbage,
pickled peppers, mustard seeds, blackening spices with red pepper jam. 15.00 ...
cajun & creole catering San Francisco, Bay Area CA. business meeting, group
luncheon, community event, fundraiser, or party.mobile truck Gumbo.
Cajun food for the Santa Cruz area in Capitola - quick, easy, delicious! Try our
gumbo's, etouffee's, jambalaya's and stews! Or hot beignets and a cafe au lait!
Music Culture Food Dance Saturday October 1, 2016 Lagoon Park San Rafael
California USA 11am-6pm.

domain: food


Kang Ning (email@example.com)
Hoong Kee Ng (firstname.lastname@example.org)
Hon Wai Leong (email@example.com)
Department of Computer Science, School of Computing, National University of Singapore, 3 Science Drive 2, 117543, Singapore
Peptide identification by tandem mass spectrometry is both an important and challenging problem in proteomics. At present, huge amount of spectrum data are generated by high throughput mass spectrometers at a very fast pace, but algorithms to analyze these spectra are either too slow, not accurate enough, or only gives partial sequences or sequence tags. In this paper, we emphasize on the balance between identification completeness and efficiency with reasonable accuracy for peptide identification by tandem mass spectrum. Our method works by converting spectra to vectors in high-dimensional space, and subsequently use self-organizing map (SOM) and multi-point range query (MPRQ) algorithm as a coarse filter reduce the number of candidates to achieve efficient and accurate database search. Experiments show that our algorithm is both fast and accurate in peptide identification.


text:
BACKGROUND The gap between improvements in women’s socioeconomic status and gender inequality at home has been offered as one explanation for very low fertility. Related empirical evidence is lacking for East Asian countries, where women may face particular challenges combining career and family due to unique regional contexts. OBJECTIVES This paper provides an up-to-date picture of Korean women’s fertility intentions and fertility behaviour, and of the division of their domestic labour with husbands, parents(-in-law), and formal childcare services. In addition, it examines how the informal and formal help women receive affects their fertility behavior. METHODS Using data from the 2008, 2010, and 2012 waves of the Korean Longitudinal Survey of Women and Families, I describe fertility intentions, fertility behaviour, and the labour division, and, focusing on women with one child, use logit regressions to estimate how various sources of help relate to the intended and unintended births of second children. RESULTS Particularly among women with one child, both fertility intentions and behaviour displayed greater variability, and fertility intentions were a good predictor of fertility behaviour. Husbands did not provide much help, and gender inequality grew with parity. As for intended births, husbands’ help increased their likelihood. Formal help also had a positive impact when its costs were not high, but parental help showed no significant impact. None of these sources of help was related to unintended births. CONCLUSION To tackle Korea’s low fertility, the government policies would be wise to target women with one child. Empirical evidence from Korea supports the recent theoretical literature on the association of low fertility with gender inequity. Various sources of support that relieve women’s domestic labour burden and enhance their work-life compatibility may boost fertility rates in East Asia.
2. CURRENT KNOWLEDGE AND GAPS IN THE LITERATURE
3. THE KOREAN CONTEXT
4. DATA, VARIABLES, AND RESEARCH DESIGN


- Shri Charan's vision of God will be online
May 20, 2020, 05:00 AM IST
Indore. The birth, penance and salvation of the 16th Tirthankara Lord Shree 1000 Shantinath of Digambar Jain Samaj will be celebrated on Thursday. On this day, to prevent the spread of corona epidemic in the world, online darshan will be done and God will be prayed for world peace. President of the Social Parliament Youth Cell, Rahul Sethi Rakesh Patni said that all the social people will be made to offer their respects. The reason for this is that Lord Shantinathji went to Moksha from this mountain, so at the time of Vandana, when Lord Shantinathji's taka will come, then Nirvana will be offered with the offering of Arghya at his feet. The event will be made live online at 8.30 am via social media by the youth cell.


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Ma Yu currently resides in Beijing after graduating from the Department of Chinese Painting at the Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts. She enjoys making picture books, product designs, and anything to do with painting. Wukong, Be A Good Boy! was one of her works that won the International Original Picture Book Award and was published in Japan by Hakuyosha. The Adventure on Mars, the third title in the “Wukong, Be A Good Boy!” series, won the 4th “Young China” Children’s Cultural Works Picture Book Group Finalist Award and the “Zhang Leping Picture Book Award” Finalist Award in 2016. The “Wukong, Be A Good Boy!” series also represented China at the 2017 Bratislava International Illustration Biennale.
Zhu Chengliang is an award-winning Chinese illustrator. Born in Shanghai and raised in Suzhou, he studied at the Department of Fine Art at Nanjing University and has worked as an author, illustrator, editor, and designer. He was nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2016. His books have been named to the IBBY Honour List, received first prize in the Feng Zikai Children’s Book Award contest, been named one of the Ten Best Illustrated Books by the New York Times, and been named Runner Up in the UNESCO Noma Concours for Picture Book Illustrations.
Da Wu is a picture book author and illustrator from China. Many of his works and essays are published in periodicals such as “Du You” and “Youth Digest” in China. He used to illustrate for authors including Keigo Higashino, Li Juan, and Liu Liangcheng. His picture book The King of Trees was selected by the UK dPICTUS in 2019 as one of the “World’s 100 Outstanding Picture Books” and was exhibited at the Frankfurt Book Fair that year. In 2019, his picture book Bird and Statue was awarded the New Talent Prize at the BIBF Ananas International Illustration Exhibition.
Li Xingming was born in Guangdong and attended the Central Academy of Fine Arts Picture Book Creation Studio. He received the first award in the China Central Academy of Fine Arts Graduation Design Award, as well as the Gold Award in the Tianhe Award International Innovation Design Competition. He is currently a lecturer at the Central Academy of Fine Arts. He is as well as the illustrator of the picture book, Sudan’s Rhino Horn.
Cao Wenxuan grew up in rural China and is now a professor of Chinese literature and children’s literature. He is the author of several celebrated books for young readers, including the novel Bronze and Sunflower, which received three starred reviews. His fluid, poetic prose depicts honest, sometimes raw, and often melancholy moments of life. He has also received significant recognition for his academic research and teaching in the field of children’s literature, and he was the first Chinese author to win the Hans Christian Andersen Author Award.
XI YUKE (LIU HANGYU)
Xi Yuke is a writer and freelance painter who was born in the north of China in 1993 and now lives in the south. He primarily writes novels and children’s books. His novel has been published in magazines such as Juvenile Literature, October Juvenile Literature, Reader, Children’s Literature, and others. He has received several awards, including the Bingxin Children’s Literature New Work Award, the 2nd Bronze Sunflower Children’s Novel Award, and the Jieli Cup Jinbo Early Childhood Literature Award.
Dai Yun is a children’s book author. She received a BA from the School of Foreign Languages, Nanjing University, and MA from the University of New South Wales, Australia. Sudan’s Rhino Horn, Where Do We Go?, The Wandering Chicken, and Kiri Tree are among her most notable pieces. Her works have won a number of prestigious national awards in China, including being named one of the Recommended Books by the National Library of China’s Wenjing Book Award, as well as the first prize in the 7th Feng Zikai Children’s Picture Book Award, which is considered the highest Chinese picture book honor.
Han Han, whose real name is Han Xian, is a native of Hunan and was born in 1983. In 2004, she graduated from Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, majoring in printmaking, and in 2007, graduated from the Department of Printmaking, Central Academy of Fine Arts, majoring in contemporary illustration and media, under the supervision of Professor You Jindong, mainly researching various art forms related to illustration, such as handmade books, original picture books, book illustrations, etc.
After retiring from the China Children’s Press and Publishing House, Zhou Xu began to focus on writing. He enjoys painting, photography, collecting stamps, fishing, and traveling. He began creating picture books again when he was 50 years old. His works include Playing Snowball, Heavy Snow Can’t Cover the Way Home, Pull The Turnip, The House Full of Holes, Little Rabbit Who Likes to Wear an Apron, and others.