Females and Barriers to Work-Family Balance: A Case Study of Casino Dealers

( Grace,Suk Ha Chan ),( Perry,Yun Kit Ip ),( Fei Fei Lin ),( Xi Chen ) 한국문화관광학회 2018 문화관광연구 Vol.20 No.1

A positive work-family balance (WFB) can enhance service quality and facilitate job satisfaction among staff members, thereby reducing absenteeism and turnover rate. Female participation in hospitality is one of the significant changes in the last century. Significant progress has been achieved by women with their increase movements in their occupations. The proportion of female dealers in Macau has increased. If females spend additional time in their job, they will often spend less time for their family and social life. This condition is often considered ‘win-lose’ outcomes and hardly achieves WFB. This study investigates the features of quality WFB of female dealers in a casino hotel in Macau. Long work hours, shift duties, demanding customers and a stressful environment are taken-for-granted in the casino business and could lead to an unbalanced WFB. This qualitative study involves face-to-face interviews with 25 casino hotel female dealers from five major large casino hotels in Macau. Content analysis is used to elaborate the female employees’ perception of WFB and identify the challenges and barriers in achieving WFB. Findings show that human resources should provide additional support to eliminate the concern of females in balancing their family and job security. Recommendations will be formulated in the study.

Nod-like receptors in the control of inflammation and cancer in the colon

Grace Yi Chen 한국실험동물학회 2012 한국실험동물학회 학술발표대회 논문집 Vol.2012 No.8

Seed development and hydroxy fatty acid biosynthesis in <i>Physaria lindheimeri</i>

Chen, Grace Q.,Riiff, Timothy J.,Johnson, Kumiko,Morales, Eva,Kim, Hyun Uk,Lee, Kyeong-Ryeol,Lin, Jiann-Tsyh ELSEVIER 2017 INDUSTRIAL CROPS AND PRODUCTS Vol. No.

<P><B>Abstract</B></P> <P>Hydroxy fatty acids (HFAs) are valuable industrial raw materials used in many industries. <I>Physaria lindheimeri</I> accumulates over 80% HFA, in the form of lesquerolic acid (20:1OH), in its seed oil. Understanding the seed development of <I>Physaria lindheimeri</I> is an important step to utilizing this unique wild species as a genetic source of HFAs biosynthesis. The changes of seed growth, lipid accumulation and fatty acid composition during seed development of <I>P. lindheimeri</I> were examined from 14days after pollination (DAP) to desiccation (56 DAP). The seed development could be divided into three periods. During the early period (14 and 21 DAP), seed rapidly increased in size and fresh weight. In mid-maturation period (28, 35, and 42 DAP), lipids and dry weights accumulated steadily. When seeds developed to late-maturation/desiccation stages (49 and 56 DAP), fresh weight dropped significantly due to water loss, and the dry weight and lipid accumulation reached their maximums. Seed color remained green up to 42 DAP and turned to orange-brown at 49 and 56 DAP. The major fatty acid 20:1OH started accumulation when seeds developed into mid-maturation stage (28 DAP) and the accumulation continued thereafter up to 56 DAP, eventually reaching up to 77% of the total seed oil. The HFA accumulation indicates embryonic storage tissue formation, thus 28 DAP defines a critical time point for seed development entering reserve synthesis and accumulation. The information and knowledge obtained from this study are essential to the success of HFA production using metabolic pathway engineering approaches in commodity oilseed crops.</P> <P><B>Highlights</B></P> <P> <UL> <LI> Three distinct seed developmental periods of <I>Physaria lindheimeri</I> have been established. </LI> <LI> A starting time point of embryo development of <I>P. lindheimeri</I> has been identified. </LI> <LI> This research provides a framework for future seed developmental studies in <I>P. lindheimeri</I>. </LI> </UL> </P>

Females and Barriers to Work–Family Balance: A Case Study of Casino Dealers

Grace. Suk Ha Chan,Perry. Yun Kit Ip,Fei Fei Lin,Xi Chen 한국문화관광학회 2018 문화관광연구 Vol.20 No.1

A positive work–family balance (WFB) can enhance service quality and facilitate job satisfaction among staff members, thereby reducing absenteeism and turnover rate. Female participation in hospitality is one of the significant changes in the last century. Significant progress has been achieved by women with their increase movements in their occupations. The proportion of female dealers in Macau has increased. If females spend additional time in their job, they will often spend less time for their family and social life. This condition is often considered ‘win–lose’ outcomes and hardly achieves WFB. This study investigates the features of quality WFB of female dealers in a casino hotel in Macau. Long work hours, shift duties, demanding customers and a stressful environment are taken-for-granted in the casino business and could lead to an unbalanced WFB. This qualitative study involves face-to-face interviews with 25 casino hotel female dealers from five major large casino hotels in Macau. Content analysis is used to elaborate the female employees’ perception of WFB and identify the challenges and barriers in achieving WFB. Findings show that human resources should provide additional support to eliminate the concern of females in balancing their family and job security. Recommendations will be formulated in the study

RAPID, SPECIFIC, AND SENSITIVE ON-SITE DIAGNOSIS OF MICROSPORIDIAN Enterocytozoon hepatopenaei ON POCKIT<SUB>TM</SUB> SYSTEM, A FIELD-DEPLOYABLE TOOL

Simon Chung,Chen Su,Pin-Hsing Chou,Yun-Long Tsai,Pei-Yu Alison Lee,Hsiao-Fen Grace Chang 한국수산과학회 양식분과 2015 한국수산과학회 양식분과 학술대회 Vol.2015 No.5

Structure-Mechanical Property Relationships of 3D-Printed Porous Polydimethylsiloxane

Jiayu Zhao,Rebekah Woo,Grace Chen,Jinhye Bae 한국고분자학회 2021 한국고분자학회 학술대회 연구논문 초록집 Vol.46 No.2

We studied the structure-mechanical property relationship to demonstrate the highly tunable mechanical properties of printed porous PDMS via direct ink writing. To enable 3D printing, we develop a porous PDMS ink consisting of a PDMS precursor, silicone oil, dibutyl phthalate (DBP), and fumed silica nanoparticles by tuning the rheological behaviors. The rheological impact of each component was characterized by viscosity, storage modulus and loss modulus measurements. The porous structures in PDMS are subsequently generated by the removal of DBP in the cured PDMS matrix and characterized by scanning electron microscopy. Mechanical characterization exhibits that the printed sample using the porous PDMS precursor has enhanced stiffness, strength, toughness, and ductility compared to the nonporous PDMS sample. Notably, a broad range of mechanical properties is achieved by varying structural parameters (i.e. , infill densities and printing patterns) for 3D printing of a single porous PDMS material system, which provides insight for designing adaptive soft robots and actuators that can integrate different mechanical properties into a single device by simply changing the structural parameters.

Current progress towards the metabolic engineering of plant seed oil for hydroxy fatty acids production.

Lee, Kyeong-Ryeol,Chen, Grace Q,Kim, Hyun Uk Springer 2015 Plant cell reports Vol.34 No.4

<P>Hydroxy fatty acids produced in plant seed oil are important industrial material. This review focuses on the use of metabolic engineering approaches for the production of hydroxy fatty acids in transgenic plants. Vegetable oil is not only edible but can also be used for industrial purposes. The industrial demand for vegetable oil will increase with the continued depletion of fossil fuels and ensuing environmental issues such as climate change, caused by increased carbon dioxide in the air. Some plants accumulate high levels of unusual fatty acids in their seeds, and these fatty acids (FAs) have properties that make them suitable for industrial applications. Hydroxy fatty acids (HFAs) are some of the most important of these industrial FAs. Castor oil is the conventional source of HFA. However, due to the presence of toxin ricin in its seeds, castor is not cultivated on a large scale. Lesquerella is another HFA accumulator and is currently being developed as a new crop for a safe source of HFAs. The mechanisms of HFA synthesis and accumulation have been extensively studied using castor genes and the model plant Arabidopsis. HFAs accumulated to 17% in the seed oil of Arabidopsis expressing a FA hydroxylase gene from castor (RcFAH12), but its seed oil content and plant growth decreased. When RcFAH12 gene was coexpressed with additional castor gene(s) in Arabidopsis, ~30% HFAs were accumulated and the seed oil content and plant growth was almost restored to the wild-type level. Further advancement of our understanding of pathways, genes and regulatory mechanisms underlying synthesis and accumulation of HFAs is essential to developing and implementing effective genetic approaches for enhancing HFA production in oilseeds.</P>

A bicistronic transgene system for genetic modification of Parthenium argentatum

Grisel Ponciano,Niu Dong,Grace Chen,Colleen McMahan 한국식물생명공학회 2018 Plant biotechnology reports Vol.12 No.2

Parthenium argentatum (guayule) was transformed with a bicistronic transgene containing a viral 2A cleavage sequence. The transgene includes the coding sequences of two key enzymes of the mevalonate pathway, 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl- CoA reductase (HMGR) and farnesyl pyrophosphate synthase (FPPS), involved in rubber biosynthesis. The viral 2A peptide sequence located between the two transgenes allowed for their co-expression via the Arabidopsis CBF2 (C-Binding repeat Factor 2) cold-inducible promoter. We identified three independent transgenic lines expressing the bicistronic transgenes upon cold treatment and examined the rubber content in the in vitro guayule plants.

Small-molecule activation of procaspase-3 to caspase-3 as a personalized anticancer strategy

Putt, Karson S,Chen, Grace W,Pearson, Jennifer M,Sandhorst, Joseph S,Hoagland, Martin S,Kwon, Jung-Taek,Hwang, Soon-Kyung,Jin, Hua,Churchwell, Mona I,Cho, Myung-Haing,Doerge, Daniel R,Helferich, Willi NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP 2006 NATURE CHEMICAL BIOLOGY Vol.2 No.10

Mutation and aberrant expression of apoptotic proteins are hallmarks of cancer. These changes prevent proapoptotic signals from being transmitted to executioner caspases, thereby averting apoptotic death and allowing cellular proliferation. Caspase-3 is the key executioner caspase, and it exists as an inactive zymogen that is activated by upstream signals. Notably, concentrations of procaspase-3 in certain cancerous cells are significantly higher than those in noncancerous controls. Here we report the identification of a small molecule (PAC-1) that directly activates procaspase-3 to caspase-3 in vitro and induces apoptosis in cancerous cells isolated from primary colon tumors in a manner directly proportional to the concentration of procaspase-3 inside these cells. We found that PAC-1 retarded the growth of tumors in three different mouse models of cancer, including two models in which PAC-1 was administered orally. PAC-1 is the first small molecule known to directly activate procaspase-3 to caspase-3, a transformation that allows induction of apoptosis even in cells that have defective apoptotic machinery. The direct activation of executioner caspases is an anticancer strategy that may prove beneficial in treating the many cancers in which procaspase-3 concentrations are elevated.

Comparison Study of Uptake of Colorectal Cancer Testing between Ethnic Minorities and the General Population in Hong Kong

Choi, Kai-Chow,So, Winnie Kwok-Wei,Chen, Joanne Man-Ting,Lau, Grace Chieh,Lee, Paul Chi-Wai,Chan, Carmen Wing-Han Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2015 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.16 No.17

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common cancers. This study aimed to compare the uptake of CRC testing in the general public and in ethnic minorities in Hong Kong. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional survey covered 2,327 South Asian and Chinese adults aged over 50, recruited from two separate studies. A structured questionnaires were administered by research staff over the telephone or in faceto-face interviews. Results: The uptake rate of CRC testing among South Asians was significantly lower than that of the general population in Hong Kong. Factors associated with the uptake rate were health professional's recommendation, perception of regular visits to doctor, use of complementary therapy, ethnicity, perceived susceptibility to cancer, presence of chronic illness, and education level. In addition, a significant interaction (p<0.05) between ethnicity and health professionals' recommendations was found, after adjustment for the main independent factors identified. Conclusions: Older people with lower educational attainment, without chronic illness and those have lower perceived susceptibility to cancer may be targeted for CRC testing promotion in the society. In addition, health professionals can play a highly influential role in promoting such testing, particularly among ethnic minorities.