Hongyi Li

Knowledge of three-dimensional structures of each individual particles of asymmetric and flexible proteins is essential in understanding those proteins' functions; but their structures are difficult to determine. Electron tomography provides a tool for imaging a single and unique biological object from a series of tilted angles, but it is challenging to image a single protein for three-dimensional reconstruction due to the imperfect mechanical control capability of the specimen goniometer under both a medium to high magnification and an optimized beam coherence condition. Here, we report a fully mechanical control method for automating ET data acquisition without using beam tilt/shift processes. This method could reduce the accumulation of beam tilt/shift that used to compensate the error from the mechanical control, but downgraded the beam coherence. Our method was developed by minimizing the error of the target object center during the tilting process through a closed-loop proportional-integral control algorithm. The validations by both negative staining and cryo-electron microscopy suggest that this method has a comparable capability to other ET methods in tracking target proteins while maintaining optimized beam coherence conditions for imaging.

This paper aims to study the determinants of subjective happiness among working females with a focus on female managers. Drawn on a large social survey data set in China, this paper constructs gender development index at sub-national levels to study how institutional settings are related to female managers’ happiness. We find that female managers report higher levels of happiness than non-managerial employees. However, the promoting effect is contingent on individual characteristics and social-economic settings. The full sample regression suggests that female managers behaving in a masculine way generally report a high level of happiness. Meanwhile, female managers who refuse to support gender equality report low happiness levels. Sub-sample analysis reveals that these causalities are conditioned on regional culture. Masculine behavior and gender role orientation significantly predict subjective happiness only in gender-egalitarian regions. This study is one of the first to consider both internal and external factors when investigating how female managers’ happiness is impacted. Also, this study challenges the traditional wisdom on the relationship between female managers’ job satisfaction and work-home conflict. This study extends the literature by investigating the impacts of female managers’ masculine behavior on their happiness. This study is useful for promoting female managers’ leadership effectiveness and happiness.