Light on : the value of art & art education

As an international student, I have had the chance to view art education through the lenses of both the United States and Korean education systems. While Korea’s education system leans more on authoritarian institutions, rote memorization, and grades, art education in the US is equally as restrictive and teaches technical skill rather than fostering creativity. Technical skill does not an artist make. Because of my self-assumed lack of creativity, I began to go to museums and sketch masterworks in an effort to self direct creative learning. This experience ultimately led me to consider a future career as a teacher as I desired to help foster creativity in other aspiring artists. However, during my time in higher art education, I have continued encountering problems with the art education system. These problems include a lack of focus on creating future art consumers, a lack of attention paid to developing an understanding of valuing and managing art, and the same problem of over-standardization and focus on honed technical skills. Art education is important in its ability to bridge gaps and foster empathy and drive in students. Understanding art value is likewise important in that today’s students are tomorrow’s potential collectors and artists

ASIAN DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION: AN INSTRUMENTAL-VARIABLES PANEL APPROACH

We examine patterns in fertility during the demographic transition using a panel data set across 25 Asian countries for 1975-2003. The adult female literacy rate is used as an instrumental variable for the endogenous female labor force participation rate, which has been unsolved in the population literature. The preliminary panel data analysis suggests that relative cohort size is significant in explaining the decline in fertility before controlling for simultaneity bias. This result, however, may be spurious. After considering the instrumental variables estimation in the panel data structure, the age structure variable no longer plays a dominant role in explaining declining fertility rates in many Asian countries. Systematic differences were found between East and South Asia. A policy implication in South Asia is that development may reduce fertility directly through increasing income rather than indirectly through a change in female labor force participation or urbanization. In East Asia, the indirect effects dominate.Fertility, Easterlin hypothesis, Transition Economies, Relative Cohort Size, Age Structure

Fertility in Sub-Saharan African Countries with Consideration to Health and Poverty

Fertility has begun to fall in Sub-Saharan Africa but it remains high on average and particularly for a few countries. This paper examines African fertility using a panel data set of 47 Sub-Saharan countries between 1962 and 2003. Fixed and random country effect estimates are made in models where the explanatory variables are suggested by the theory of the demographic transition as modified by Caldwell. Special attention is paid to the economic status of women, urbanization, the poverty level, and the health of the population including total health expenditures and the prevalence of HIV/AIDS. The results support Caldwell’s hypothesis and are generally supportive of hypothesis that a fertility transition is occurring. HIV/AIDS is found to have a negative impact on fertility.Africa, infant mortality, fertility, poverty, health

Effect of kokumi taste-active γ-glutamyl peptides on amiloride-sensitive epithelial Na+ channels in rat fungiform taste cells

Kokumi taste-active compounds enhance salty taste perception. In animal models, sodium (salt) detection is mediated by the amiloride-sensitive epithelial sodium channel, ENaC. This ion channel works as a sodium receptor in the so-called sodium-taste cells. It is not known whether kokumi taste substances are able to affect the activity of functional ENaCs in these cells. Here, we use the patch-clamp technique to study the effect of kokumi-active tripeptides, glutathione (GSH) and γ-glutamyl-valyl-glycine (EVG), on the ENaC-mediated membrane current in rat fungiform sodium-taste cells. GSH and EVG reduced slightly this current and the effect disappeared in the presence of amiloride, a specific ENaC blocker. No effect on membrane current was detected in other taste cells (Type II and Type III cells) that do not express functional ENaC. Our findings suggest that the enhancing effect of kokumi taste-active γ-glutamyl peptides on salt reception is not explained by an increase in the activity of ENaC

Differential regulation of Purkinje cell dendritic spines in rolling mouse Nagoya (tgrol/tgrol), P/Q type calcium channel (α1A/Cav2.1) mutant

Voltage dependent calcium channels (VDCC) participate in regulation of neuronal Ca2+. The Rolling mouse Nagoya (Cacna1atg-rol) is a spontaneous P/Q type VDCC mutant, which has been suggested as an animal model for some human neurological diseases such as autosomal dominant cerebellar ataxia (SCA6), familial hemiplegic migraine and episodic ataxia type-2. Morphology of Purkinje cell (PC) dendritic spine is suggested to be regulated by signal molecules such as Ca2+ and by interactions with afferent inputs. The amplitude of excitatory postsynaptic current was decreased in parallel fiber (PF) to PC synapses, whereas apparently increased in climbing fiber (CF) to PC synapses in rolling mice Nagoya. We have studied synaptic morphology changes in cerebella of this mutant strain. We previously found altered synapses between PF varicosity and PC dendritic spines. To study dendritic spine plasticity of PC in the condition of insufficient P/Q type VDCC function, we used high voltage electron microscopy (HVEM). We measured the density and length of PC dendritic spines at tertiary braches. We observed statistically a significant decrease in spine density as well as shorter spine length in rolling mice compared to wild type mice at tertiary dendritic braches. In proximal PC dendrites, however, there were more numerous dendritic spines in rolling mice Nagoya. The differential regulation of rolling PC spines at tertiary and proximal dendrites in rolling mice Nagoya suggests that two major excitatory afferent systems may be regulated reciprocally in the cerebellum of rolling mouse Nagoya

Increase of radical in rats with adenine-induced renal failure is suppressed by Wen-Pi-Tang

We analyzed the free radical reaction in the body in vivo under the conditions of renal failure, using an L-band electron spin resonance apparatus. In rats with adenine-induced renal failure, the attenuation velocity of 3-carbamoyl-2,2,5,5-tetramethylpyrrolidine-N-oxyl was lowered in comparison with normal rats, indicating that they were in a state of augmented oxidation. In contrast, the attenuation velocity was higher in rats given Wen-Pi-Tang, showing a shift toward reduction. In the kidney of rats given Wen-Pi-Tang, we also found that a significant decrease in glutathione disulfide (GSSG) level caused an increase in the glutathione/GSSG ratio. In addition, there were significant reductions of increased thiobarbituric acid-reactive substance level and decreased superoxide dismutase and increased glutathione peroxidase activities, suggesting a decreased hydrogen peroxide production, which presumably drove the glutathione redox cycle toward reduction. The results of the present study suggest the possibility that Wen-Pi-Tang exerts an antioxidant effect through regulation of the redox cycle. L-バンドESR(生体計測用ESR)装置を用い,腎不全における生体内フリーラジカル反応を解析した。アデニン誘発腎不全ラット腎では,正常ラットより3-carbamoyl-2,2,5,5-tetramethylpyrrolidine-N-oxylの減衰速度が遅延し,酸化亢進状態にあった。これに対し,温脾湯投与群では減衰速度が速やかとなり,還元方向に変換していた。一方,温脾湯投与群の腎臓では増加したグルタチオンジスルフィドレベルの有意な低下からグルタチオン/グルタチオンジスルフィド比の上昇が認められ,また増加したチオバルビツール酸反応物質レベル,低下したスーパーオキシドジスムターゼと上昇したグルタチオンレダクターゼ活性の有意な低下から,過酸化水素の産生低下が示唆され,グルタチオン酸化還元サイクルを還元方向に作動しているものと考えられた。以上より,温脾湯は酸化還元サイクル調節を介して抗酸化作用を発揮する可能性が示唆された

The Limitation of the Korea-Japan Normalization Talks on the Issue of the Restitution of Cultural Properties

My study investigates how Japan nationalized the cultural assets from their colonies and foreign countries when the Cultural Assets Preservation Act was legislated in 1950. It also analyzes how Japan enforced the nationalization and restitution of the cultural properties to Korea during the Korea-Japan Normalization Talks in the 1950s and 1960s. During the fourteen years of Korea-Japan Normalization Talks, the cultural properties, which were excavated out of the Korean Peninsula and redefined as Japanese properties, were only partly restituted to Korea. Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, however, proceeded with it in secret. The Diet and Japanese people only learned of the event from Korean or Japanese newspapers after the fact. Although Japan restituted the cultural properties to Korea, it still treated them as national properties of Japan. This fact revealed the limitation of the Korea-Japan Normalization Talks and the legacy of the Japanese colonial rule, which resulted in the Korea-Japan agreement that the Korean cultural properties are the private properties of the Japanese people or the belongings of the Japanese people