The Humanitarian's Dilemma: The experience of international NGOs in North Korea

Until the drastic reduction in the flow ofinternational aid precipitated by US sanctions in 2005, International Non-Governmental Organisations (INGOs) conducted significant operations in the Democratic People's Republic ofKorea (DPRK). The DPRK solicited assistance from the international community in 1995, after a major flood and subsequent chronic food shortage. Over subsequent years the country became increasingly dependant on international assistance. Given this dependence on foreign aid by one of the world's most isolated, repressive andpotentially dangerous regimes and the recent withdrawal of' many aid agencies, it is timely to examine the impact of NGO operations, not only in humanitarian terms but with regards to economic, political and social development. After discussion of the various theories relating to the role ofINGOs in economic, social and political development, including their potential to promote democratisation, the pdper examines the impact of the activities of international aid organisations participating directly or indirectly in the provision ofhumanitarian aid, assistance or development in the DPRK. Based on the findings of10 semi-structured telephone interviews with relevant INGO personnel, INGO documents and other economic and social data, the paper examines the impact of INGOs on three key areas: Humanitarian objectives, economic development andpolitical/ social development

Feeding the dictator or making a difference? The experiences of international aid and development agencies in North Korea 1995-2005

Since 2005 food aid to North Korea has been in steep decline, however, during the period 1995 to 2005 North Korea received more food aid from the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and US government than any other country. Similarly, private relief aid to North Korea significantly increased, with approximately 130 organisations worldwide providing over US$2 billion in aid between 1995 and 2005. This article revisits this period marked by the most extensive engagement of humanitarian organisations since the establishment of the Democratic Peopleâs Republic of Korea (DPRK) in 1948. In the context of this dependence on foreign aid the article examines the impact of International Aid Agencies or International Nongovernment Organisationsâ (INGOs) operations, not only in humanitarian terms but with regards to political, social and economic development. We argue that due to tight operating restrictions there was no discernable impact on North Korean society or the polity. However, it is argued that longer term and unanticipated effects are likely due to the extensive diversion of aid to the emerging informal market economy

Factors influencing labour migration of Korean women into the entertainment and sex industry in Australia

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Destination Australia: Working conditions of Korean women working in the entertainment and sex industry

The experience of women working in the sex and entertainment industry is an issue central to feminism, social and human rights movements, and ongoing political debate. Although now an area of scholarly research the clandestine nature of this industry makes research challenging and means many aspects remain unknown. In this paper, the researchers examine the working conditions of Korean women working in the sex industry in Australia. The paper reports on recent trends in patterns of migration and draws attention to the fact that increasing numbers of Korean women are utilising =working holiday` visas to work in the sex and entertainment industry and that under Australian law this practice is essentially legal. The paper also examines the nature of their service in the sex industry and details the conditions of their employment. Findings from this study aim to inform recommendations to policy makers in relevant government and non-government community service organisations

ABCD Neurocognitive Prediction Challenge 2019: Predicting individual residual fluid intelligence scores from cortical grey matter morphology

We predicted residual fluid intelligence scores from T1-weighted MRI data available as part of the ABCD NP Challenge 2019, using morphological similarity of grey-matter regions across the cortex. Individual structural covariance networks (SCN) were abstracted into graph-theory metrics averaged over nodes across the brain and in data-driven communities/modules. Metrics included degree, path length, clustering coefficient, centrality, rich club coefficient, and small-worldness. These features derived from the training set were used to build various regression models for predicting residual fluid intelligence scores, with performance evaluated both using cross-validation within the training set and using the held-out validation set. Our predictions on the test set were generated with a support vector regression model trained on the training set. We found minimal improvement over predicting a zero residual fluid intelligence score across the sample population, implying that structural covariance networks calculated from T1-weighted MR imaging data provide little information about residual fluid intelligence.Comment: 8 pages plus references, 3 figures, 2 tables. Submission to the ABCD Neurocognitive Prediction Challenge at MICCAI 201

Drying-mediated patterns in colloid-polymer suspensions

Drying-mediated patterning of colloidal particles is a physical phenomenon that must be understood in inkjet printing technology to obtain crack-free uniform colloidal films. Here we experimentally study the drying-mediated patterns of a model colloid-polymer suspension and specifically observe how the deposit pattern appears after droplet evaporation by varying particle size and polymer concentration. We find that at a high polymer concentration, the ring-like pattern appears in suspensions with large colloids, contrary to suppression of ring formation in suspensions with small colloids thanks to colloidpolymer interactions. We attribute this unexpected reversal behavior to hydrodynamics and size dependence of colloid-polymer interactions. This finding would be very useful in developing control of drying-mediated self-assembly to produce crack-free uniform patterns from colloidal fluids.ope

Sample size calculation for microarray experiments with blocked one-way design

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>One of the main objectives of microarray analysis is to identify differentially expressed genes for different types of cells or treatments. Many statistical methods have been proposed to assess the treatment effects in microarray experiments.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this paper, we consider discovery of the genes that are differentially expressed among <it>K </it>(> 2) treatments when each set of <it>K </it>arrays consists of a block. In this case, the array data among <it>K </it>treatments tend to be correlated because of block effect. We propose to use the blocked one-way ANOVA <it>F</it>-statistic to test if each gene is differentially expressed among <it>K </it>treatments. The marginal p-values are calculated using a permutation method accounting for the block effect, adjusting for the multiplicity of the testing procedure by controlling the false discovery rate (FDR). We propose a sample size calculation method for microarray experiments with a blocked one-way design. With FDR level and effect sizes of genes specified, our formula provides a sample size for a given number of true discoveries.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The calculated sample size is shown via simulations to provide an accurate number of true discoveries while controlling the FDR at the desired level.</p

Suv4-20h Histone Methyltransferases Promote Neuroectodermal Differentiation by Silencing the Pluripotency-Associated Oct-25 Gene

Post-translational modifications (PTMs) of histones exert fundamental roles in regulating gene expression. During development, groups of PTMs are constrained by unknown mechanisms into combinatorial patterns, which facilitate transitions from uncommitted embryonic cells into differentiated somatic cell lineages. Repressive histone modifications such as H3K9me3 or H3K27me3 have been investigated in detail, but the role of H4K20me3 in development is currently unknown. Here we show that Xenopus laevis Suv4-20h1 and h2 histone methyltransferases (HMTases) are essential for induction and differentiation of the neuroectoderm. Morpholino-mediated knockdown of the two HMTases leads to a selective and specific downregulation of genes controlling neural induction, thereby effectively blocking differentiation of the neuroectoderm. Global transcriptome analysis supports the notion that these effects arise from the transcriptional deregulation of specific genes rather than widespread, pleiotropic effects. Interestingly, morphant embryos fail to repress the Oct4-related Xenopus gene Oct-25. We validate Oct-25 as a direct target of xSu4-20h enzyme mediated gene repression, showing by chromatin immunoprecipitaton that it is decorated with the H4K20me3 mark downstream of the promoter in normal, but not in double-morphant, embryos. Since knockdown of Oct-25 protein significantly rescues the neural differentiation defect in xSuv4-20h double-morphant embryos, we conclude that the epistatic relationship between Suv4-20h enzymes and Oct-25 controls the transit from pluripotent to differentiation-competent neural cells. Consistent with these results in Xenopus, murine Suv4-20h1/h2 double-knockout embryonic stem (DKO ES) cells exhibit increased Oct4 protein levels before and during EB formation, and reveal a compromised and biased capacity for in vitro differentiation, when compared to normal ES cells. Together, these results suggest a regulatory mechanism, conserved between amphibians and mammals, in which H4K20me3-dependent restriction of specific POU-V genes directs cell fate decisions, when embryonic cells exit the pluripotent state