An analysis of the sport policy process in the Republic of Korea: the cases of elite sport development and sport for all

This thesis aims to analyse the sport policy process in the Republic of Korea through an examination of the cases of elite sport and sport for all. This study assesses the utility of a number of theoretical frameworks all of which were created either in the North America or Europe. The following macro-level theories are discussed and assessed: Marxism, Elitism and Pluralism. At the meso-level Policy Community (Marsh and Rhodes 1992), Multiple Streams Framework (Kingdon, 1995) and Advocacy Coalition Framework (Sabatier and Jenkin-Smith, 1999) were investigated and their utility in the Korean context was evaluated. Two case studies, elite sport and sport for all, were chosen and qualitative research methods were used in order to gather empirical data. A series of forty three semistructured interviews were undertaken. The first round of interview was conducted between 22nd June 2007 and 11th July 2007 followed by more extensive second round of interviews from 29th November 2007 to 15th June 2008 in Korea. The interviewees included academics, journalists, elite athletes, senior officers in the government and sub-national government, senior officers in national government organisations such as KSC, NACOSA, SOSFO, senior officials in KISS, NGBs, the business sector, the military sector and voluntary organisations such as YMCA. Interview data was supported by extensive analysis of documents including government reports, annual Sport White Papers, newspapers and magazine articles. One of the central findings is that decision-making in relation to high performance (elite) sport policy is dominated by members of the political, business and military elite. High performance sport decision-making is tightly controlled by the government which has been consistently the core actor in Korea’s elite sport policy process with there being little evidence of civil society involvement. As regard Sport For All, different levels of government and also non-government organisations were involved in promoting Sport For All. However of particular note is the lack of contact and cooperation between the government and other nongovernment organisations, for example, YMCA in terms of sharing experiences of promoting sport. Despite the involvement of different levels of government and of non-government organisations policy direction and momentum was largely set by the elite level of central government. The analysis reveals that elitism is the most appropriate framework to apply in Korean sport policy at the macro-level. As for the meso-level, none of the three frameworks were considered to be particularly useful although Policy Community appeared to be appropriate in the early stage of the research

Analysis of Women’s Leadership Program in Sport and Policy Proposals

PURPOSE This study analyzed the KSPO women’s sports leadership program and foreign cases to suggest policy proposals. METHODS A literature review was conducted involving official webpage of the programs, related technical reports, media resources, and academic articles collected from international and domestic research databases. RESULTS The major results are as follows: (1) The curriculum of current program should be examined and reconstructed to achieve the intended purpose. (2) Since selfawareness is a key factor in demonstrating effective leadership, implementing selfawareness training program should be considered. (3) Mentoring is regarded to be an effective tool in promoting women leadership; therefore, establishing sustainable women mentoring program is required. CONCLUSIONS Despite several limitations, this paper is the first study, to the best of our knowledge, to review and analyze the KSPO women’s sports leadership program comparing foreign cases for the purpose of seeking improvement. As women’s leadership in the field of sport would become even more important in the future, this program should be redesigned to be able to train and nurture leaders so that they can progress to the higher level of decision making in sport organizations

Exploration of Measures for Women's Football Vitalization Based on Participation in WUFL(Women's University Football Club League)

PURPOSE This study aims to provide policy recommendations for the development of women’s football and the enhancement of the Women’s University Football League (WUFL) by examining participant satisfaction and meaningfulness of football. METHODS To achieve this goal, we distributed survey questionnaires, including 5-point Likert scale and open-ended questions, and subsequently analyzed 153 responses using qualitative data analysis software, N-vivo. RESULTS Our findings reveal that female students actively engaged in the WUFL express high overall satisfaction. Furthermore, participants perceive football as a source of happiness, an energy booster, and a platform for new experiences. Their involvement in football goes beyond typical leisure; it is regarded as a form of serious leisure. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS Based on these results, we propose actions such as fostering and elevating amateur women’s competitions, promoting female students’ participation in football, and developing a comprehensive strategy for increasing women’s enjoyment of playing football

A Qualitative Study on the Perceptual Changes of [Goal Kicking Women] Male Viewers Regarding Women’s Football

PURPOSE This study aims to identify how the [Goal Kicking Women] TV program has changed the perceptions of male viewers on women’s football. METHODS Using a qualitative research design, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 8 male viewers who are in their 50s. Thematic analysis was used to draw implications from the interviews. RESULTS Results show that having watched [Goal Kicking Women], 1) participants have become more familiarized with women playing football; 2) participants’ initial stereotype about women’s alleged inferiority in football has changed, as the performance of female stars in the program, who did not have any experience playing football, improved; and 3) the genuine passion that female stars showed for football made participants think that women’s football was just as good as men’s. CONCLUSIONS This study provides practical and academic implications, as it identifies men’s perceptions on women’s football and analyzes the influence of [Goal Kicking Women]. To conclude, establishing a foundation for planning and implementing effective policies to promote women’s football in South Korea is recommended

eIF2A, an initiator tRNA carrier refractory to eIF2 kinases, functions synergistically with eIF5B

The initiator tRNA (Met-tRNA(i)(Met)) at the P site of the small ribosomal subunit plays an important role in the recognition of an mRNA start codon. In bacteria, the initiator tRNA carrier, IF2, facilitates the positioning of Met-tRNAiMet on the small ribosomal subunit. Eukarya contain the Met-tRNAiMet carrier, eIF2 (unrelated to IF2), whose carrier activity is inhibited under stress conditions by the phosphorylation of its -subunit by stress-activated eIF2 kinases. The stress-resistant initiator tRNA carrier, eIF2A, was recently uncovered and shown to load Met-tRNAiMet on the 40S ribosomal subunit associated with a stress-resistant mRNA under stress conditions. Here, we report that eIF2A interacts and functionally cooperates with eIF5B (a homolog of IF2), and we describe the functional domains of eIF2A that are required for its binding of Met-tRNAiMet, eIF5B, and a stress-resistant mRNA. The results indicate that the eukaryotic eIF5B-eIF2A complex functionally mimics the bacterial IF2 containing ribosome-, GTP-, and initiator tRNA-binding domains in a single polypeptide.112Ysciescopu

Impact of Grade, Hormone Receptor, and HER-2 Status in Women with Breast Cancer on Response to Specific Chemotherapeutic Agents by in vitro Adenosine Triphosphate-based Chemotherapy Response Assay

This study was designed to assess whether histological and biological factors of breast cancer can predict chemoresponse to specific agents. Adenosine triphosphate-based chemotherapy response assay (ATP-CRA) was employed to retrieve chemoresponse to 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), doxetaxel, doxorubicin, epirubicin, and paclitaxel in 49 patients. Tumors with high histologic and nuclear grade have higher response rate to doxorubicin (P<0.05) and palitaxel (P<0.05). Estrogen receptor (ER)-negative tumors respond well to doxorubicin (P=0.038), and progesterone receptor (PR)-negative tumors to 5-FU (P=0.039), doxetaxel (P=0.038), doxorubicin (P=0.000), epirubicin (P=0.010), and paclitaxel (P=0.003). Among the breast cancer subtypes determined by ER, PR, and HER-2 immunohistochemical stains, the HER-2+/ER- subtype has a higher response rate to doxorubicin (P=0.008). This in vitro result suggests that the combination of histologic and nuclear grade, hormone receptor, and HER-2 status can be a predictive factor of response to specific chemotherapy agents. Further in vivo study should be followed for clinical trials

Hierarchical Stereo Matching in Two-Scale Space for Cyber-Physical System

Dense disparity map estimation from a high-resolution stereo image is a very difficult problem in terms of both matching accuracy and computation efficiency. Thus, an exhaustive disparity search at full resolution is required. In general, examining more pixels in the stereo view results in more ambiguous correspondences. When a high-resolution image is down-sampled, the high-frequency components of the fine-scaled image are at risk of disappearing in the coarse-resolution image. Furthermore, if erroneous disparity estimates caused by missing high-frequency components are propagated across scale space, ultimately, false disparity estimates are obtained. To solve these problems, we introduce an efficient hierarchical stereo matching method in two-scale space. This method applies disparity estimation to the reduced-resolution image, and the disparity result is then up-sampled to the original resolution. The disparity estimation values of the high-frequency (or edge component) regions of the full-resolution image are combined with the up-sampled disparity results. In this study, we extracted the high-frequency areas from the scale-space representation by using difference of Gaussian (DoG) or found edge components, using a Canny operator. Then, edge-aware disparity propagation was used to refine the disparity map. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms previous methods

Trouble-makers in cytologic interpretation of the uterine cervix

The development and standardization of cytologic screening of the uterine cervix has dramatically decreased the prevalence of squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix. Advances in the understanding of biology of human papillomavirus have contributed to upgrading the histologic diagnosis of the uterine cervix; however, cytologic screening that should triage those that need further management still poses several difficulties in interpretation. Cytologic features of high grade intraepithelial squamous lesion (HSIL) mimics including atrophy, immature metaplasia, and transitional metaplasia, and glandular lesion masquerades including tubal metaplasia and HSIL with glandular involvement are described with accentuation mainly on the differential points. When the cytologic features lie in a gray zone between the differentials, the most important key to the more accurate interpretation is sticking to the very basics of cytology; screening the background and cellular architecture, and then scrutinizing the nuclear and cytoplasmic details