This article analyzes two films from 2009 that are not only striking in their use of children as protagonists but also noteworthy in returning to the once-popular subject of abandoned children: So Yong Kim’s Treeless Mountain and Ounie Lecomte’s A Brand New Life. The significance of these two works lies in their similar narratives of abandonment and journeying but also in the comparable backgrounds of the filmmakers as Westerners with Korean origins. Both filmmakers left Korea as children. Both films were created as mementos of the filmmakers’ Korean roots and childhoods in Korea. This article’s analysis of the films is twofold. First, a textual reading reveals child perspectives and their matching visuals as playing crucial roles in understating—or even concealing—the gravity of the issues of abandonment and adoption embodied in the narratives. Second, the author discusses the “accented context” of the films and their filmmakers, borrowing from Hamid Naficy’s theory of “accented cinema” (2001). The geographic and thematic return to Korea and the Korean family by these Western-Korean filmmakers brings forth questions beyond the narratives, of what constitutes a Korean film and a Korean experience. Keywords: Korean film, Korean cinema, diaspora, accented cinema, Ounie Lecomte, So Yong Kim, children, abandonment, adoption

This study was conducted to establish the feasibility of corneal transplantation using the big-bubble technique (BBT) to perform deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty (DALK) in three dogs. After the cornea was trephined 750 µm, 4 mL of air was injected, and the blanched stroma was removed to expose Descemet's membrane (DM). The donor corneal button, which was gently stripped off the DM, was sutured onto the bare DM of the recipient cornea. The dogs received topical antibiotics every 6 h for 7 days and 2% cyclosporine ointment every 12 h for 1 month. The eyes were examined post-operatively at 7, 14, 21, 28 and 150 days. The central portion of the transplanted cornea stayed transparent while corneal haze developed around the transplanted margin. Menace response was normal even though the transplanted cornea was edematous until 3 weeks after surgery. A marginal haze was rarely observed between the donor and recipient corneas at 150 days after the operation. A spotted haze developed in the central part of the deep stroma near the DM. Upon histopathological examination, the stroma and epithelium of the donor cornea had normal structures. Corneal transplantation using DALK with BBT can be performed in dogs preserving the healthy endothelium.

Background

The weight-adjusted waist index (WWI) reflected body compositional changes with aging. This study was to investigate the association of WWI with abdominal fat and muscle mass in a diverse race/ethnic population.

Methods

Computed tomography (CT) data from 1,946 participants for abdominal fat and muscle areas from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (785 Whites, 252 Asians, 406 African American, and 503 Hispanics) were used. Among them, 595 participants underwent repeated CT. The WWI was calculated as waist circumference (cm) divided by the square root of body weight (kg). The associations of WWI with abdominal fat and muscle measures were examined, and longitudinal changes in abdominal composition measures were compared.

Results

In all race/ethnic groups, WWI was positively correlated with total abdominal fat area (TFA), subcutaneous fat area, and visceral fat area, but negatively correlated with total abdominal muscle area (TMA) and abdominal muscle radiodensity (P<0.001 for all). WWI showed a linear increase with aging regardless of race and there were no significant differences in the WWI distribution between Whites, Asians, and African Americans. In longitudinal analyses, over 38.6 months of follow-up, all abdominal fat measures increased but muscle measures decreased, along with increase in WWI. The more the WWI increased, the more the TFA increased and the more the TMA decreased.

Conclusion

WWI showed positive associations with abdominal fat mass and negative associations with abdominal muscle mass, which likely reflects the abdominal compositional changes with aging in a multi-ethnic population.

Optineurin (OPTN) mutations are linked to glaucoma pathology and E50K mutation shows massive cell death in photoreceptor cells and retinal ganglion cells. However, little is known about E50K-mediated mitochondrial dysfunction in photoreceptor cell degeneration. We here show that overexpression of E50K expression triggered BDNF deficiency, leading to Bax activation in RGC-5 cells. BDNF deficiency induced mitochondrial dysfunction by decreasing mitochondrial maximal respiration and reducing intracellular ATP level in RGC-5 cells. However, BDNF deficiency did not alter mitochondrial dynamics. Also, BDNF deficiency resulted in LC3-mediated mitophagosome formation in RGC-5 cells. These results strongly suggest that E50K-mediated BDNF deficiency plays a critical role in compromised mitochondrial function in glaucomatous photoreceptor cell degeneration.

Optineurin (OPTN) mutations are linked to glaucoma pathology and E50K mutation shows massive cell death in photoreceptor cells and retinal ganglion cells. However, little is known about E50K-mediated mitochondrial dysfunction in photoreceptor cell degeneration. We here show that overexpression of E50K expression triggered BDNF deficiency, leading to Bax activation in RGC-5 cells. BDNF deficiency induced mitochondrial dysfunction by decreasing mitochondrial maximal respiration and reducing intracellular ATP level in RGC-5 cells. However, BDNF deficiency did not alter mitochondrial dynamics. Also, BDNF deficiency resulted in LC3-mediated mitophagosome formation in RGC-5 cells. These results strongly suggest that E50K-mediated BDNF deficiency plays a critical role in compromised mitochondrial function in glaucomatous photoreceptor cell degeneration.

Background

Tumor-based classification of human glioma portends patient prognosis, but considerable unexplained survival variability remains. Host factors (eg, age) also strongly influence survival times, partly reflecting a compromised immune system. How blood epigenetic measures of immune characteristics and age augment molecular classifications in glioma survival has not been investigated. We assess the prognostic impact of immune cell fractions and epigenetic age in archived blood across glioma molecular subtypes for the first time.

Methods

We evaluated immune cell fractions and epigenetic age in archived blood from the University of California San Francisco Adult Glioma Study, which included a training set of 197 patients with IDH-wild type, 1p19q intact, TERT wild type (IDH/1p19q/TERT-WT) glioma, an evaluation set of 350 patients with other subtypes of glioma, and 454 patients without glioma.

Results

IDH/1p19q/TERT-WT patients had lower lymphocyte fractions (CD4+ T, CD8+ T, natural killer, and B cells) and higher neutrophil fractions than people without glioma. Recursive partitioning analysis delineated 4 statistically significantly different survival groups for patients with IDH/1p19q/TERT-WT based on an interaction between chronological age and 2 blood immune factors, CD4+ T cells, and neutrophils. Median overall survival ranged from 0.76 years (95% confidence interval = 0.55-0.99) for the worst survival group (n = 28) to 9.72 years (95% confidence interval = 6.18 to not available) for the best (n = 33). The recursive partitioning analysis also statistically significantly delineated 4 risk groups in patients with other glioma subtypes.

Conclusions

The delineation of different survival groups in the training and evaluation sets based on an interaction between chronological age and blood immune characteristics suggests that common host immune factors among different glioma types may affect survival. The ability of DNA methylation-based markers of immune status to capture diverse, clinically relevant information may facilitate noninvasive, personalized patient evaluation in the neuro-oncology clinic.