The object of this study was to analyze treatment outcomes and to identify the prognostic factors, with a focus on the role of adjuvant radiotherapy (ART), predicting disease progression in atypical meningiomas. From 1997 to 2011, 83 patients with meningioma were included in this study. All patients were histologically confirmed as atypical meningioma and were treated with surgical resection with or without ART. As primary therapy, 27 patients received surgical resection followed by ART, and 56 received no adjuvant therapy. Of 83 evaluable patients, 55 (66.3 %) patients underwent complete resection. The median ART dose was 61.2 Gy and their median age was 52 years. The 5- and 10-year actuarial overall survival rates were 90.2 and 62.0 %, and the 5- and 10-year progression-free survival (PFS) rates were both 48.0 %, with a median follow-up of 43.0 months. Addition of ART (p = 0.016) and complete tumor resection (p = 0.002) were associated with superior PFS. When stratified to four groups according to resection status and ART, the groups of patient with incomplete resection without ART showed significantly worse PFS compared to other three groups (p < 0.001). In conclusion, surgical resection followed by ART led to lower local tumor progression in patients with atypical meningioma defined by the updated 2000/2007 WHO classification. Our results may contribute to the routine use of ART, especially after incomplete resection, until the outcomes of ongoing prospective trials are available.

Korean American youth experience immigration-related parent-child challenges including language barriers, parent-child conflicts, and generational cultural divides. Using grounded theory methods, this article examines the ways in which 18 Korean American college-enrolled emerging adults retrospectively made sense out of their experiences of immigrant family hardships. Of those who narrated childhood hardship, over half narrated positive change in which they reinterpreted their relationship to their parents and redeemed their immigrant parents either through their own maturation or through spirituality. This narrative strategy is consistent with cognitive change in emerging adults’ view of their parents that have been documented in other studies (Arnett, 2004). Only a minority of participants did not narrate positive changes and remained distressed over their relationship to their parents. Findings suggest the possibility that narration of positive change is a culturally salient process by which many Korean American emerging adults come to terms with early family challenges.

Adolescents in the United States are more likely than teens in other industrialized nations to experience unplanned pregnancies, teen births, and sexually transmitted infections as a result of risky sexual behaviors (e.g., early sexual initiation, unprotected sex; Guttmacher Institute, 2002). In many non-Western nations, including the Asian and Latin American nations from which most current U.S. immigrants originate, adolescent sexual involvement (especially among girls) has traditionally been uncommon or occurred in the context of marriage (e.g., Blum & Mmari, 2005). Thus, immigrant adolescents are typically confronted with the challenge of negotiating sexuality in a very different context than their (or their parents') home country.This chapter examines whether an immigrant paradox is evident for adolescent sexual behavior. The immigrant paradox refers to the phenomenon whereby later immigrant generation (or increased acculturation) is associated with worsening outcomes despite decreases in objective risk factors (e.g., improvements in socioeconomic status and English fluency). The immigrant

Hwa-Byung (HB) has been categorized as a Korean culture-bound syndrome that refers to insidious, long-standing, serious discontent that is projected into the body and is manifested by numerous symptoms such as insomnia, fatigue, panic, palpitations, dyspnea, and others. This study was designed to investigate the prevalence rate of HB in Korean women, validate the predominant symptoms of HB, and validate the related sociodemographic factors and lifestyle factors that differentiate women with HB from those without HB. A total of 2,807 women ages 41 to 65 years were recruited from seven metropolitan areas and six provinces in Korea. The prevalence rate of women who designated themselves as having experienced HB was 4.95%. The rates were higher in women of low socioeconomic status, living in rural areas, among the divorced or separated, smokers, and drinkers. A set of 31 HB symptoms differentiated the potential HB women from the non-HB women.

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