Simulating Emotional Responses in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: An fMRI Study

This study tested the extent to which coached participants can simulate the neural responses of participants with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) when they are presented with signals of fear. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to study blood oxygenation level-dependent signal during the presentations of fearful and neutral faces under both conscious and nonconscious (masked) conditions. Participants comprised 12 patients with PTSD and 12 trauma-exposed controls who were instructed to simulate PTSD. During conscious fear processing, simulators showed greater activation in the left amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) than PTSD participants. By contrast, during nonconscious processing, PTSD participants had greater MPFC activation than simulators. These findings suggest that coached simulators produce a profile of ‘over-responding’ to fear when controlled conscious processing is possible, but are not able to simulate the exaggerated medial prefrontal responses observed in PTSD participants under conditions of nonconscious processing.     

Performing Social Reparation: “Comfort Women” And The Path To Political Forgiveness

During WWII, 200,000 girls and young women from across Asia were sexually enslaved by Japan—a tragic history unearthed less than 20 years ago and still inadequately addressed by the Japanese government. This paper examines, from an interdisciplinary perspective, the legacy of this “comfort women” history, problematizing its attendant rituals of apology, “political forgiveness,” and reparation. The author analyzes the meaning of apology and forgiveness, and develops a typology of “reparation,“ concluding that what surviving “comfort women” have articulated is a model of “social reparation,” or a holistic goal of mending the past and restoring an international human community.     

Korean population genetic data for eleven STR loci.

Allele frequency and forensic parameters for eleven STR loci were surveyed in a random sample from the Korean population.     

The Identification of Ingested Dandelion Juice in Gastric Contents of a Deceased Person by Direct Sequencing and GC–MS Methods*

Abstract: DNA and chemical analysis of gastric contents of a deceased person were handled in this work. The body of the victim was discovered in his car, submerged in a lake. We were asked to determine whether or not the gastric contents of the victim harbored drugs and dandelion material. It was suspected that the victim had been murdered by poisoning with an excess amount of sleeping medication (doxylamine), which had been homogenized with dandelion. The concentrations of 11.4 and 27.5 mg/kg of doxylamine detected from spleen and liver of the victim were far higher than the assumed therapeutic concentration. Via gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) analysis and direct sequencing analysis of plant genetic markers such as intergenic transcribed spacer, 18S ribosomal RNA (rRNA), rbcL and trnLF, it was confirmed that the gastric contents of the victim contained taraxasterol, which is one of the marker compounds for dandelion and contained dandelion species‐specific rbcL and trnL‐trnF IGS (trnLF) sequences. The initial PCR of the genomic DNA isolated from the gastric contents showed insufficient quantity, and the second PCR, of which the template was a portion of the initial PCR products, exhibited a sufficient quantity for direct sequencing. rbcL and trnLF located in the cpDNA resulted in the successful determination of dandelion DNA in a decedent’s stomach contents. GC–MS identifies the actual presence of a taraxasterol at 28.4 min. Raw dandelion was assumed to be used as a masking vehicle for excess sleeping drug (doxylamine).     

American elites' strategic thinking towards Korea: From Kennan to Brzezinski

America's foreign policy elites have made different assessments of South Korea's value as an alliance partner, largely depending on their strategic beliefs and visions. Balance-of-power realists like George Kennan have tended to let the regional problems be taken care of by the regional major powers, thus attaching less strategic value to such peripheral states as Korea. On the other hand, globalists like Paul Nitze have emphasized America's preponderant role in maintaining global stability, attaching greater importance to the US-Korean alliance. This article investigates the American foreign policy elites' strategic thinking toward Korea by reviewing the thoughts of Kennan, Nitze, Kissinger and Brzezinski. It then draws out implications for the future US defence commitment to Korea.     

Cannabis sales and immigrant youth gangs in Denmark – An exploratory study of market structure and youth gang evolution

Cannabis sales by youth gangs consisting of male descendants of immigrants from Middle Eastern countries are subject of much public debate in Denmark and Scandinavia. Only little research has explored the intersection between the wider social context of the drug market and the criminal engagements of these groups using qualitative methods. Using eleven semi-structured interviews with youth, police and experts, collected between 2011 and 2013, this study examines how the overall structure of the cannabis market in Copenhagen affects the opportunities to engage in cannabis sales for immigrant youth gangs. The study rests on an assumption that increased deterrence in specific geographic areas will displace buyers and shift market shares between competing groups. The result was that increased cannabis dealing furthered gang evolution even at the lowest organizational steps, from neighbourhood groups to more delinquent collectives. A key finding is that neighbourhood youth clubs play a central role in the lives of the interviewees. Youth clubs served as social spaces but also functioned as a form of turf to be conquered from city officials.