Broken Bodies, Shattered Dreams: The Aftermath of a Life as a Korean Comfort Woman

The Pacific War in Asia is infamous for the sickening atrocities committed by the military forces of both the Allies and Japan. Proof of the carnage is undeniable and is often discussed in textbooks, history classes, and documentaries around the world. The forced recruitment of women to serve as sex slaves to the Japanese military is included on the long list of wartime tragedies, however it often remains on the periphery of discussions on wartime violence. The negligence is due in part to the half century of silence that followed the victimization of the women most often known as “ianfu,” “wianbu,” “Military sexual slaves,” “Japanese war rape victims,” or the less provocative “comfort women.”1 Yet the inattention can also be attributed to the Japanese government’s repeated denial of culpability, be it from shame or simple economic greed. Despite Japan’s desire to hush up the stories of the military sexual slavery, recent women’s movements in Korea and the international community have spurred the outspokenness of the survivors. This paper will discuss the rationales used by the Japanese government for the establishment of the comfort system, its effects on women’s lives, and their reasons for decades long silence. Also examined are the women’s recent demands for justice and various governmental reactions in an effort to reveal the actions that necessitate emotional and mental healing, as well as prevention of future abuses against women

The Relationship Between Vision and Athletic Performance

In today\u27s competitive world of athletics it is not uncommon to discover a few athletes actively involved in some form of vision enhancement motivated by the promise that the exercises will improve their athletic performance. A review of past and present literature in the area of sports vision revealed that these athletes are performing exercises based upon a very weak scientific foundation. Most of the research investigating the relationship between vision and athletic performance has been plagued by flawed methodology, as well as extremely low numbers of subjects. The purpose of this study was to test for any relationship between vision and athletic performance. If it could be shown that a relationship exists between a particular visual attribute and a specific athletic skill, it would help establish the utility for using vision enhancement exercises to improve athletic performance. In the present study, four NCAA Division I athletic teams were tested on a battery of visual attributes prior to the start of their regular seasons. The athletic teams tested were Women\u27s volleyball (N=14), Men\u27s basketball (N=15), Women\u27s basketball (N=12), and Men\u27s baseball (N=27). Each athlete was tested on the following visual measures: visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, depth perception, choice reaction time, hand and eye dominance, and peripheral attention. A copy of each team\u27s cumulative seasonal statistics was obtained and used as a measure of athletic ability. These statistics contained cumulative information on each individual player. Only the major players were selected for analysis. The selection of the major players was based on a ratio of participation for each sport. Data analyses were carried out separately for each sport. For all three sports the visual attribute of contrast sensitivity suffered from a lack of variance and was omitted from further analyses. A significant amount of variance was accounted for in only one seasonal statistic from the data for Women\u27s volleyball. Choice reaction time and UFOV™ duration (a peripheral attention score) accounted for 79% of the variance for the volleyball statistic of digs per game. Examination of the data for the Men\u27s and Women\u27s basketball teams did not reveal any significant relationships. The analyses of the data from the Men\u27s baseball team revealed a significant correlation between batting average and depth perception, as well as a marginal trend between batting average and choice reaction time. The present study improved over past research by employing a test of peripheral awareness. It was felt that the employment of this measurement was an improvement because peripheral awareness has been shown to be a better predictor of complex behavior compared to tests of peripheral perimetry used in past research. Two other ways in which the present study improved over past studies were by analyzing data from major players only and by investigating multiple visual attributes, sports, and athletic performance criteria. The present study could have been improved by employing an alternative method for measuring contrast sensitivity, by increasing the number of subjects analyzed for each sport and for each position within each sport, and by developing a test or battery of tests to measure specific athletic skills in the absence of environmental confounds such as player-position bias, opponents, and teammates

Shared Leadership: A Unique but Beneficial Arrangement within a University Department

Universities often lose some of their best teachers and researchers to transitions to administration. Conversely, the ability of universities to persuade some faculty to assume administrative duties is undermined due to faculty members’ reluctance to give up teaching or research. In this article, two faculty members who currently serve as co-department heads discuss (a) their motivation for pursuing such an arrangement, (b) the way in which their duties are divided and shared, (c) challenges in pursuing the co-head arrangement, (d) challenges in implementing the co-head arrangement, (e) their perceptions of the success of the arrangement, and (f) significant considerations for those who may be interested in pursuing a similar arrangement

Following in the Footsteps of Diego Rivera

Components: “Diego Rivera”, “Rubrics”, and “Following in the Footsteps” (Spanish, Social Studies, Art; Grades 5-8)Latin American Studie

Engagement

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Restoring Ureagenesis in Hepatocytes by CRISPR/Cas9-mediated Genomic Addition to Arginase-deficient Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells.

Urea cycle disorders are incurable enzymopathies that affect nitrogen metabolism and typically lead to hyperammonemia. Arginase deficiency results from a mutation in Arg1, the enzyme regulating the final step of ureagenesis and typically results in developmental disabilities, seizures, spastic diplegia, and sometimes death. Current medical treatments for urea cycle disorders are only marginally effective, and for proximal disorders, liver transplantation is effective but limited by graft availability. Advances in human induced pluripotent stem cell research has allowed for the genetic modification of stem cells for potential cellular replacement therapies. In this study, we demonstrate a universally-applicable CRISPR/Cas9-based strategy utilizing exon 1 of the hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase locus to genetically modify and restore arginase activity, and thus ureagenesis, in genetically distinct patient-specific human induced pluripotent stem cells and hepatocyte-like derivatives. Successful strategies restoring gene function in patient-specific human induced pluripotent stem cells may advance applications of genetically modified cell therapy to treat urea cycle and other inborn errors of metabolism

Women recovering in Alcoholics Anonymous: The impact of social bonding

This study examines the process of same-sex bonding within the Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) women\u27s community. More specifically, this research measures the impact of same-sex bonding on life-satisfaction and length of sobriety for alcoholic women in A.A. Linear regression analyses of survey data from female A.A. members (N = 293) indicate (1) a statistically significant relationship between Respondents\u27 same-sex social bonding and life-satisfaction, and (2) that the effect of this social bonding on the number of years respondents have remained sober is mediated by life-satisfaction. Therefore, it is likely that higher female bonding scores among women lead to higher life-satisfaction and, in turn, higher life-satisfaction leads to longer sobriety terms. This model is supported by qualitative data gathered from ten volunteer survey respondents. Informants indicated that their self-transformations resulted in a positive attitude change toward same-sex bonding; in addition, sexual dynamics may play a role in such change. Future research should explore these relationships