Korea\u27s New Prostitution Policy: Overcoming Challenges to Effectuate the Legislature\u27s Intent to Protect Prostitutes from Abuse

Prostitution has been rampant in South Korea, exposing tens of thousands of women to abuse and violence. Beginning in 2000, however, women’s rights organizations spearheaded a legal reform campaign to change the nation’s prostitution policy. They drafted and proposed two bills to the National Assembly, which subsequently enacted them as laws. In passing the new legislation, the South Korean government vowed to eliminate prostitution as well as protect victims of exploitation and violence in the sex industry. However, the legislation fails to achieve these goals due to inherent inadequacies in the language and structure of the laws. This shortfall arises because the government failed to adequately discuss the breadth and depth of prostitution’s impact on Korean men and women. Consequently, the legislation retains a discriminatory attitude towards prostituting women and still criminalizes them unless they can prove their victim status. It is doubtful that these provisions can protect abused women in the sex industry, particularly when they face so many barriers in proving their victim status. To remedy these problems, the South Korean government must reconsider and rework its prostitution policy so that it is more protective of women engaged in prostitution and more appropriate for Korean society. It must also rethink enforcement mechanisms to allow prostituting women to seek help when necessary

PHYTOCHEMICAL AND ANTIOXIDANT CHARACTERIZATION OF THINNED IMMATURE CITRUS UNSHIU FRUITS

Objective: We aimed to evaluate the characterization of thinned immature Citrus unshiu fruits with regard to their phytochemical profile and antioxidant capacity.Methods: Determination of total phenolic, flavonoid, and carotenoid and ascorbic acid contents was done by UV-Visible spectrophotometry, whereas UPLC-mass detection was used for the analysis of individual flavanone (naringin, hesperidin, hesperetin, neohesperedine and narirutin) and flavonol (rutin). In addition, free radicals (DPPH, O2-, H2O2 and NO) scavenging assays were used to determine the antioxidant capacity.Results: Naringin, hesperidine, neohesperedine and narirutin were the main flavanones in all thinned immature Citrus unshiu fruits. The contents of total phenolic, flavonoid and carotenoid were more prevalent in immature fruits than the level found in mature fruits. All thinned immature Citrus unshiu fruits possess an evident antioxidant capacity. The immature Citrus extract concentrations providing 50% inhibition (IC50) for free radicals; 1.2-1.49 mg/ml for DPPH, 1.03-1.46 mg/ml for superoxide, 1.95-3.43 mg/ml for hydrogen peroxide and 1.64-3.45 mg/ml for nitric oxide was lower than those of mature Citrus extracts.Conclusion: Thinned immature Citrus unshiu fruits could be an economic and readily accessible source of natural antioxidants and as a possible food and pharmaceutical supplement

Apoptotic properties of Citrus sudachi Hort, ex Shirai (Rutaceae) extract on human A549 and HepG2 cancer cells

Purpose: To investigate whether Citrus sudachi harvested at two stages of maturity can induce toxicity in a cell-specific manner and to determine the possible  mechanisms of Citrus sudachi-induced cytotoxic responses in two types of cancer cells (human lung adenocarcinoma A549 and hepatocellular carcinoma HepG2 cells) and two normal cell lines (lung 16HBE140- and liver CHANG cells).Methods: 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) and annexin V/propidium iodidle assay were used to test the antiproliferative activity and apoptosis of methanol extract of Citrus sudachi, respectively. Griess reaction and reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) were carried out to evaluate nitric oxide (NO•) production and the mRNA levels of inhibitors of apoptosis (IAP).Results: Citrus sudachi exerted cytotoxicity in a time-dependent manner in cancer cells which increased with increase in maturity but did not affect normal cells. Citrus sudachi was found to induce accumulation of cells in the sub-G1 cell cycle phase, fragmentation of DNA and cell death with characteristics of apoptosis, in both types of cancer cells. Moreover, Citrus sudachi upregulated cellular NO• produced by activation of nitric oxide synthase (NOS), while it suppressed the levels of IAP mRNA in both types of cancer cells.Conclusion: The results obtained suggest that Citrus sudachi induces apoptosis in A549 and HepG2 cells, which may be mediated by NO•. There is need for further studies on the role of Citrus sudachi in cancer treatment.Keywords: Apoptosis, Citrus sudachi, Human lung and liver cancer cells, Inhibitors of apoptosis, Nitric oxid

Effect of dose and dosing rate on the mutagenesis of nitric oxide in supF shuttle vector

Purpose: To determine how the dose and rate of NO• treatment affects mutagenic responses.Methods: Shuttle vector pSP189 was used to determine the genotoxicity resulting from in vitro exposure to NO• using three delivery methods (reactor and Transwell co-culture systems, and NO• donor sodium nitroprusside), followed by plasmid replication in bacteria MBL50 and human AD293 cells.Results: When exposed to preformed 100% NO• for 3 h or 1% NO• for 35 h using a reactor system, a cumulative dose of 1260 μM × min reduced AD293 cell viability by 46 and 18% and increased mutation frequencies (MFs) 1.9- and 5.3-fold higher than argon control, respectively. Roughly 5-fold increase in MF of the supF gene of AD293 cells co-cultivated with macrophages stimulated with IFN-γ/LPS was also observed. When AD293 cells were treated by SNP, DNA strand breaks were induced and MFs were increased in a dose-dependent manner.Conclusion: These results provide important clues to how dose and dosing rate of introducing NO• may contribute to potential genotoxicity resulting from NO• formation in vivo.Keywords: AD293 cells, Delivery method, Genotoxicity, Nitric oxide, supF Gene of pSP189 shuttle vecto

Effect of fiber distributions on the mechanical performance of CMC materials: Virtual manufacturing and testing approach

Ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) exhibit superior thermal stability in an elevated temperature environment and thus are considered as a promising candidate material for gas turbine applications in the field of power generation industry. CMCs also have a higher fracture resistance than conventional technical ceramics owing to the coated ceramic fibers embedded in the matrix. However, the complex heterogeneous microstructure results in complicated damage and failure behavior at the fiber length scale, which appears non-linear stress-strain response at the macro length scale. When a crack is initiated in the matrix phase, the crack grows very rapidly since the ceramic matrix is a brittle material. However, the rapid crack propagation is restrained when the crack tip reaches the ductile coating interface. This fracture process occurring inside the CMC material results in a highly complicated post-peak response and makes its fracture toughness comparable to that of metals. The post-peak response is greatly influenced by local topology of fibers situated inside the composite material and thus the fracture toughness of a CMC may vary locally due to the irregular distribution of fibers. In the present study, the effect of fiber distributions on the post-peak response and the corresponding mechanical performance of a CMC material is closely investigated by utilizing representative volume elements (RVEs) with various fiber distributions. Two-dimensional square RVE enclosing randomly distributed circular fibers with coating layers is considered to represent the microstructure of a long-fiber-reinforced CMC material. Random, yet realistic distribution of fibers is achieved through the virtual force dispersion (VFD) algorithm. The present VFD algorithm arranges fibers with coating layers after the fibers are randomly seeded into a square RVE. Fibers should be rearranged after the random seed, since overlapped regions between fibers are unavoidable during the initial distribution process. The VFD algorithm assumes that fibers are connected through virtual springs, which provide repulsive forces between them. The VFD algorithm finds an equilibrium state in which the springs are completely relaxed and there exists no repulsive force in the system. In this manner, various RVEs with different fiber distributions are easily created for the next step of analysis. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract