Woman Free of Habitually Lewd Acts?: Criminal Law, Postcoloniality, and Womens Sexuality, 1953-1960

This paper examines the relationship between Criminal Law, postcoloniality, and womens sexuality in postwar Korea by exploring the genealogy of the woman free from habitual debauchery. This category was specified in two provisions of the Criminal Law, the crime of mediating debauchery (Clause 242) and the crime of obtaining sex under false promises of marriage (Clause 304). The idea of the woman free from habitual debauchery first appeared in relation to the crime of suggesting debauchery in the Old Criminal Law of the colonial period (Clause 182), and it was succeeded by the Criminal Law of the newly born Republic of Korea. In this regard, the idea of the woman free from habitual debauchery is a useful clue to reveal the coloniality of both the Criminal Law and the Korean society that produced such a law. However, the Criminal Law did not provide the definition of woman free from habitual debauchery. This study explores who was actually referred to as such category by investigating precedents. On the trials concerning the crime of mediating debauchery, the accusers habitual debauchery was hardly contested. It was because this category was related to the minority—another category of the same provision—and overwhelmed by it, so the accusers were labeled as obviously vulnerable victims. On the contrary, in the case of the crime of obtaining sex under false promises of marriage, habitual debauchery was much more controversial. There was no consensus among lawyers about how to define debauchery and habit, so the accusers sexual histories, rather than the defendants fraud, were often debated. The so-called Park In-Soo Affair was such a case. Therefore, the trials regarding the crime of obtaining sex under false promises of marriage functioned as the public sphere to verify a sense of chastity of Korean women, to establish a new standard of it, and to socially punish the women who fell short of such a standard. In conclusion, the category of the woman free from habitual debauchery was not a nominal trace that legal scholars carelessly forgot to delete, but was a means of disciplining womens sexuality and rebuilding male-oriented gender order that had been destroyed by the war.Translated from the article published in Society and History, Vol. 94 (2012), with permission from the Korean Social History Association

Crystal structure of Cmr5 from Pyrococcus furiosus and its functional implications

AbstractThe bacterial acquired immune system consists of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPRs) and CRIPSR-associated (Cas) genes, which include Cas-module repeat-associated mysterious proteins (Cmr). The six Cmr proteins of Pyrococcus furiosus (pfCmr1–pfCmr6) form a Cmr effector complex that functions against exogenous nucleic acid. Among the Cmr proteins, the role of pfCmr5 and its involvement in the complex’s cleavage activity have been obscure. The elucidated pfCmr5 structure has two inserted α-helices compared with the other trimeric Cmr5 structure. However, pfCmr5 exists as a monomeric protein both in the crystalline state and in solution. In vitro assays indicate that pfCmr5 interacts with pfCmr4. These structural and biophysical data might help in understanding the complicated and ill-characterized Cmr effector complex.Structured summary of protein interactionspfCmr4 and pfCmr5 bind by molecular sieving (View interaction)pfCmr4 and pfCmr4 bind by molecular sieving (View interaction)pfCmr5 and pfCmr4 bind by ion exchange chromatography (View interaction

Synergistic Effect between Cryptotanshinone and Antibiotics against Clinic Methicillin and Vancomycin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus

Cryptotanshinone (CT), a major tanshinone of medicinal plant Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge, demonstrated strong antibacterial activity against clinic isolated methicillin and vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA and VRSA) in this experiment. The CT was determined against clinic isolated MRSA 1–16 with MIC and MBC values ranging from 4 to 32 and 8 to 128 μg/mL; for MSSA 1-2 from 16 to 32 μg/mL and 64 to 128 μg/mL; for VRSA 1-2 from 2 to 4 μg/mL and 4 to 16 μg/mL, respectively. The range of MIC50 and MIC90 of CT was 0.5–8 μg/mL and 4–64 μg/mL, respectively. The combination effects of CT with antibiotics were synergistic (FIC index <0.5) against most of tested clinic isolated MRSA, MSSA, and VRSA except additive, MRSA 4 and 16 in oxacillin, MRSA 6, 12, and 15 in ampicillin, and MRSA 6, 11, and 15 in vancomycin (FIC index < 0.75–1.0). Furthermore, a time-kill study showed that the growth of the tested bacteria was completely attenuated after 2–6 h of treatment with the 1/2 MIC of CT, regardless of whether it was administered alone or with ampicillin, oxacillin, or vancomycin. The results suggest that CT could be employed as a natural antibacterial agent against multidrug-resistant pathogens infection

Genotypic Characterization of Vibrio vulnificus Clinical Isolates in Korea

AbstractObjectivesVibrio vunificus is known to cause septicemia and severe wound infections in patients with chronic liver diseases or an immuno-compromised condition. We carried out the molecular characterization of V. vulnificus isolates from human Vibrio septicemia cases based on pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) using NotI and SfiI.Methods and ResultsPFGE was used to characterize a total of 78 strains from clinical cases after NotI or SfiI digestion. The geographical distribution of PFGE patterns for the strains from the southern part of Korea, a high-risk region for Vibrio septicemia, indicated that the isolates from southeastern Korea showed a comparatively higher degree of homology than those from southwestern Korea.ConclusionsWe report the genetic distribution of V. vulnficus isolated from Vibrio septicemia cases during 2000–2004 in Korea. This method has potential use as a subspecies-typing tool for V. vulnificus strains isolated from distant geographic regions

Necrotizing granulomatous inflammation in an ipsilateral axillary lymph node in a patient with invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast

AbstractA patient presented with flu-like symptoms and a warm, tender area in the left axilla after working with an ancient piece of Cyprus wood. Antibiotics prescribed failed to improve symptoms. Followup physical examination and subsequent ultrasound found suspicious left-breast mass and an enlarged lymph node in the left axilla. Biopsy and lumpectomy of the left-breast mass revealed invasive ductal carcinoma. Biopsy and excision of the enlarged lymph node in the left axilla revealed necrotizing granulomatous inflammation without evidence of metastatic breast carcinoma. To our knowledge, this is the first case report to show the coexistence of breast cancer with necrotizing granulomatous inflammation in the ipsilateral axillary lymph node, likely due to exposure to ancient wood

A lab-on-a-disc platform enables serial monitoring of individual CTCs associated with tumor progression during EGFR-targeted therapy for patients with NSCLC

Rationale: Unlike traditional biopsy, liquid biopsy, which is a largely non-invasive diagnostic and monitoring tool, can be performed more frequently to better track tumors and mutations over time and to validate the efficiency of a cancer treatment. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are considered promising liquid biopsy biomarkers; however, their use in clinical settings is limited by high costs and a low throughput of standard platforms for CTC enumeration and analysis. In this study, we used a label-free, high-throughput method for CTC isolation directly from whole blood of patients using a standalone, clinical setting-friendly platform. Methods: A CTC-based liquid biopsy approach was used to examine the efficacy of therapy and emergent drug resistance via longitudinal monitoring of CTC counts, DNA mutations, and single-cell-level gene expression in a prospective cohort of 40 patients with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-mutant non-small cell lung cancer. Results: The change ratio of the CTC counts was associated with tumor response, detected by CT scan, while the baseline CTC counts did not show association with progression-free survival or overall survival. We achieved a 100% concordance rate for the detection of EGFR mutation, including emergence of T790M, between tumor tissue and CTCs. More importantly, our data revealed the importance of the analysis of the epithelial/mesenchymal signature of individual pretreatment CTCs to predict drug responsiveness in patients. Conclusion: The fluid-assisted separation technology disc platform enables serial monitoring of CTC counts, DNA mutations, as well as unbiased molecular characterization of individual CTCs associated with tumor progression during targeted therapy

Investigation of Cation Exchange Behaviors of FA\u3csub\u3ex\u3c/sub\u3eMA\u3csub\u3e1-x\u3c/sub\u3ePBl\u3csub\u3e3\u3c/sub\u3e Films Using Dynamic Spin Coating

In this study, we fabricated and characterized uniform multi-cation perovskite FAxMA1−xPbI3 films. We used the dynamic spin-coating method to control the cation ratio of the film by gradually increasing the FA+, which replaced the MA+ in the films. When the FA+ concentration was lower than xFA ~0.415 in the films, the stability of the multi-cation perovskite improved. Above this concentration, the film exhibited δ-phase FAPbI3 in the FAxMA1−xPbI3 films. The formation of δ-phase FAPbI3 disturbed the homogeneity of the photoluminescence spatial distribution and suppressed the absorption spectral bandwidth with the increasing bandgap. The precise control of the cation ratio of multi-cation perovskite films is necessary to optimize the energy-harvesting performance

Understanding the Nature of Medication Errors in an ICU with a Computerized Physician Order Entry System

Objectives: We investigated incidence rates to understand the nature of medication errors potentially introduced by utilizing a computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system in the three clinical phases of the medication process: prescription, administration, and documentation. Methods: Overt observations and chart reviews were employed at two surgical intensive care units of a 950-bed tertiary teaching hospital. Ten categories of high-risk drugs prescribed over a four-month period were noted and reviewed. Error definition and classifications were adapted from previous studies for use in the present research. Incidences of medication errors in the three phases of the medication process were analyzed. In addition, nurses' responses to prescription errors were also assessed. Results: Of the 534 prescriptions issued, 286 (53.6%) included at least one error. The proportion of errors was 19.0% (58) of the 306 drug administrations, of which two-thirds were verbal orders classified as errors due to incorrectly entered prescriptions. Documentation errors occurred in 205 (82.7%) of 248 correctly performed administrations. When tracking incorrectly entered prescriptions, 93% of the errors were intercepted by nurses, but two-thirds of them were recorded as prescribed rather than administered. Conclusion: The number of errors occurring at each phase of the medication process was relatively high, despite long experience with a CPOE system. The main causes of administration errors and documentation errors were prescription errors and verbal order processes. To reduce these errors, hospital-level and unit-level efforts toward a better system are needed