Litigating Labor Rights Across a Demilitarized Zone: The South Korean Constitutional Court as a Forum to Address Labor Violations in North Korea\u27s Kaesong Special Economic Zone

South Korea heralds North Korea’s Kaesong Special Economic Zone as a shining example of inter-Korean cooperation. South Korean corporations at Kaesong combine South Korean expertise with North Korean labor. However, Kaesong operations violate the North Korean workers’ labor rights. This Comment explores the legal mechanisms available in South Korea to hold violative South Korean Kaesong corporations accountable. The South Korean Constitutional Court should entertain a constitutional petition from the North Korean workers. Such petition will compel the South Korean government to recognize the North Korean workers’ rights under the South Korean Constitution and hold violative South Korean corporations at Kaesong accountable through stricter regulations and sanctions. Practical and procedural obstacles hinder Kaesong workers from pursuing relief in the South Korean Constitutional Court. First, the North Korean government bars the workers from leaving North Korea. Second, the South Korean Constitutional Court bars third parties in South Korea from filing a petition on behalf of the workers. Third, the court has no clear jurisdiction over constitutional claims brought by North Korean workers in North Korea. Fourth, the court bars suit under pseudonyms, leaving potential petitioners vulnerable to retaliatory employment action. Given these impediments, the Constitutional Court and the South Korean legislature should look to international developments in procedural law that facilitate transnational rights litigation. The court and legislature should adopt new court procedures that permit foreign petitioners physically absent in the jurisdiction to file in the Constitutional Court. Further, the South Korean government and South Korean shareholders of Kaesong corporations should take measures outside the courts to hold the corporations accountable

A bizarre complication of shoulder arthroscopy

A case is presented of an unusual complication of shoulder arthroscopy, which was caused by incorrect location of the posterior portal, inducing neurapraxia of both the axillary and radial nerves, with significant clinical and functional sequelae. A subsequent open surgical neurolysis was required to restore normal nerve function. This type of lesion has not been reported previously

Effectiveness of extracorporeal shock wave therapy in bone marrow edema syndrome of the hip

There is no gold standard for treatment of bone marrow edema syndrome of the hip (BMESH). Usually, treatment is conservative, owing to the favorable and self-limiting prognosis. In musculoskeletal disorders, the effectiveness of extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) has been widely recognized and recent research supports its use in the treatment of the first stages of avascular osteonecrosis of the proximal femur and in other conditions where bone marrow edema is present. On this basis, we performed a prospective study to evaluate the effectiveness of ESWT in normalizing the symptoms and imaging features of BMESH. Twenty consecutive symptomatic patients underwent two treatments of high-energy ESWT and were followed-up at 2, 3 and 6 months, with a final clinical follow-up at mean 15.52 +/- A 1.91 months. Patients underwent magnetic resonance imaging of the hip and were evaluated according to the Harris hip score. The mean improvement in HHS over the course of the study was of 58.5 +/- A 14.9 points (p < 0.0001), and the mean edema area reduced from 981.9 +/- A 453.2 mm(2) pre-treatment to 107.8 +/- A 248.1 mm(2) at 6 months. ESWT seems to be a powerful, non-pharmacological tool that produces rapid pain relief and functional improvement and aids the normalization of the vascular and metabolic impairments which characterize BMESH

Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapy in Musculoskeletal Disorders : a Review

Regenerative therapy is one of the most challenging and intriguing branches of modern medicine. Basic research has demonstrated the effectiveness of extracorporeal shockwaves (ESWT) in stimulating biological activities that involve intra-cell and cell-matrix interactions. These interactions are at the basis of the current clinical applications, and open the horizons to new applications in tissue regeneration. It is also feasible that shock waves could be used to treat various orthopaedic pathologies, removing the need for surgery. However, suitable translational studies need to be performed before ESWT can become a valid alternative to surger

Creative entrepreneurship and urban space

Academic scholarship has scrutinised the triangle connecting creativity, locality and economic activity in three ways. First, the clustering of firms has been found to promote creativity in an urban environment (cf. clustering theories). Second, and indicating an inverse course of action, creative individuals have been found to foster the economic growth of cities by attracting employers to places where the former want to reside (cf. creative class theory). Third, the specific attributes of a location, in particular urban environments, have been shown to have a positive impact on individual creativity. Our study adds to this fascinating liaison by exploring: the economic and non-economic features that lead to designers establishing their businesses in Athens’ city centre; and the perceived direct and indirect benefits of these locational factors in relation to the creative labour of these entrepreneurs. In this way, we merge micro and macro perspectives on the relationship between creative entrepreneurship and place, but in a potentially experimental setting, given that the urban fabric in Athens had to be reconstructed after it experienced economic and social turbulence following the 2008/2009 economic crisis and the austerity measures that were the resul

Towards a New Paradigm of the Creative City or the Same Devil in Disguise?

Recent attempts have been made by scholars and policy makers to include culture in the sustainability discourse. However, there is a general lack of empirical studies that provide enough insights to understand why culture matters for sustainability. By taking the case of De Ceuvel—a planned workplace for creative and social enterprises in a heavy polluted area in Amsterdam, this chapter aims at answering the question why do cultural and creative entrepreneurs engage in sustainability and in particular in a circular economy model. KEYWORDS: Urban cultural policy, Sustainable development, Entrepreneurs, Amsterdam, Regeneratio

Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapy is effective in the treatment of bone marrow edema of the medial compartment of the knee: a comparative study

Objective: To test the hypothesis that shock wave therapy can produce a statistically significant improvement in symp- toms and imaging features of the knee bone marrow edema syndrome (BMES) within 6 months of treatment. Subjects and Methods: Eighty-six consecutive patients suffering from BMES of the medial compartment of the knee were pre- scribed a course of high-energy extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) and clinically followed up at 3 and 6 months and finally from 14 to approximately 18 months after treat- ment. Thirty-one patients were unable to undergo ESWT but returned for the 6-month and final follow-up; these were re- ferred to as the conservative (control) group, while the other 55 patients constituted the ESWT group. The Western On- tario and McMaster Universities Arthritis Index (WOMAC) and Visual Analog Scale (VAS) score of each patient were cal- culated at every follow-up. The BME area was assessed using magnetic resonance imaging before treatment and at the 6-month follow-up. Results: Statistically significant improve- ments were observed in clinical scores and in the BME area for both the ESWT and the control group (p &lt; 0.05). The im- provements in the ESWT group were statistically better in all parameters compared with the control group: the ESWT group had a reduction in the BME area of 86% versus 41% in the control group, the VAS pain score improved by 88% in the ESWT group versus 42% in the control group, and the WOMAC score improved by 65% in the ESWT group versus 22% in the control group. Clinical scores were significantly better for patients with medial tibial lesions in the ESWT group. Conclusion: In this study, ESWT reduced pain and the BME area in the knee, with significant clinical improvement noticed 3 months after treatment

Simple &#8220;Do it yourself&#8221; system for patients database

Objectives: To Illustrate An EasyToUse Tool For Collection Of Clinical Follow-up Data. To Obtain An Effective And Reliable System For The Collection And Management Of Clinical Records In FollowUp Studies. To Obtain AutomaticallyUpdated, Anonymous Records Charting The Evolution Of Symptoms After Surgery. Methods: We Designed A \u201cDo It Yourself\u201d Web Survey Using Google Forms And Alerted Patients Via SMS (Short Message System) To Complete It. We Developed An EasyToUse System To Investigate Follow-up Results, And Tested It On A Series Of Patients Treated Surgically For Degenerative Lumbar Disc Disease. Our Methodological Approach Is Based On Fast And Do It Yourself (DIY) Web Based Tools. Considering Our Past Experience Of Collecting FollowUp Data With Traditional HardCopy Documents, Our System Proved To Be More Agile And TimeEfficient. Results: Data Collection Lasted 40 Days, Differing In Average Among The Age Groups. Overall Compliance Reached 100% Conclusions: Our method proved to be highly effective, requiring little effort from the investigators. Collected data could be combined to achieve greater sample sizes for longitudinal webbased studies

L-arginine, asymmetric dimethylarginine, and symmetric dimethylarginine in plasma and synovial fluid of patients with knee osteoarthritis

Background The aim of this study was to investigate the involvement of the nitric oxide (NO) pathway in osteoarthritis (OA). Material and Methods The study groups consisted of 32 patients with knee OA and 31 healthy controls. In peripheral venous blood samples (from the OA patients and the controls) and in synovial fluid samples (from the OA patients), the concentrations of L-arginine (ARN), asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA), and symmetric dimethylarginine (SDMA) were evaluated. In plasma samples, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) were also measured. Results Plasma ARN concentrations were lower in the OA patients than in controls (53.55\ub116.37 vs. 70.20\ub125.68 \ub5mol/l) (P<0.05), while plasma ADMA concentrations were similar. Accordingly, the ARN/ADMA ratio was lower in the OA patients than in the control group (80.85\ub129.58 vs. 110.51\ub130.48, P<0.05). Plasma SDMA and TBARS concentrations were higher in the OA patients than in controls (0.69\ub10.15 vs. 0.60\ub10.10 \ub5mol/l, P<0.05 and 1.21\ub10.29 vs. 0.55\ub10.12, respectively) (P<0.001). In the OA patients, ADMA concentrations were significantly higher in the synovial fluid than in plasma (0.75\ub10.09 vs. 0.69\ub10.14 \ub5mol/l, P<0.05), as were ARN concentrations (76.96\ub116.73 vs. 53.55\ub116.73 \ub5mol/l) (P<0.00001). Conclusions These results indicate a poor availability of NO in the synovial fluid of the OA patients, which may contribute to the progression of OA. The decreased ARN/ADMA ratio and the increased SDMA and TBARS in the plasma of the OA patients suggest an impairment of endothelial function in these subjects