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This study showcases an International Learning Exchange (ILE) program between North Korean (NK) refugee students in South Korea and American university students from the US. ILE programs connect two or more linguistic/ cultural groups for intercultural awareness, which provide authentic communicative environments. However, the prevalent use of English and research focus mostly on non-native English-speaking students reflect the ideology of native-speakerism embedded in ILE programs. The purpose of this study was to develop an ILE program that resists native-speakerism and to investigate its influences on native as well as non-native English-speaking students. Adopting a case-study approach, data were collected from video-taping, fieldnotes, student documents, surveys, and interviews. Findings show how the authors designed and implemented a principle-based ILE program. The responses of NK students show their growing motivation and communication ability. The responses of American students show their critical reflections on their native-speaker identities. This study offers insights into designing ILE programs based on multilingualism and translanguaging.

The role of a resident assistant is complex and multi-faceted, requiring a unique blend of strong interpersonal skills and professional decorum. By contrast, little is known about the depth of self-care needed to mitigate the impact of the role on resident assistants' quality of life. This exploratory mixed-methods research project seeks to determine the Professional Quality of Life (ProQOL) for resident assistants. They were surveyed using a pre- (n = 106) and post-test (n = 115) across a spring semester. Findings suggest that resident assistants experienced significant ProQOL score changes across all three indicators: compassion satisfaction, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress. [Discussion questions developed by Tracey Mason-Innes.]

Background and Purpose: α‐Pyrrolidinobutiothiophenone (α‐PBT) is a chemical derivative of cathinone, a structural analogue of amphetamine. Until now, there have been a few previous neurochemical or neurobehavioural studies on the abuse potential of α‐PBT. Experimental Approach: We examined the abuse potential of α‐PBT by measuring psychomotor, rewarding, and reinforcing properties and methamphetamine‐like discriminative stimulus effects in rodents using locomotor activity, conditioned place preference, self‐administration, and drug discrimination studies. To clarify the underlying neuropharmacological mechanisms, we measured dopamine levels and neuronal activation in the dorsal striatum. In addition, we investigated the role of the dopamine D1 receptor or D2 receptors in α‐PBT‐induced hyperlocomotor activity, conditioned place preference, and the methamphetamine‐like discriminative stimulus effect of α‐PBT in rodents. Key Results: α‐PBT promoted hyperlocomotor activity in mice. α‐PBT induced drug‐paired place preference in mice and supported self‐administration in rats. In a drug discrimination experiment, α‐PBT fully substituted for the discriminative stimulus effects of methamphetamine in rats. Furthermore, α‐PBT increased dopamine levels and c‐Fos expression in the dorsal striatum of mice, which was associated with these behaviours. Finally, pretreatment with the D1 receptor antagonist SCH23390 or the D2 receptors antagonist eticlopride significantly attenuated acute or repeated α‐PBT‐induced hyperlocomotor activity, place preference, and the methamphetamine‐like discriminative stimulus effects in rodents. Conclusions and Implications: These findings suggest that α‐PBT has abuse potential at the highest dose tested via enhanced dopaminergic transmission in the dorsal striatum of rodents. The results provide scientific evidence for the legal restrictions of the recreational use of α‐PBT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Classifying diverse skin types is crucial for promoting skin health. However, efficiently identifying and analyzing relevant biomarkers from a vast array of available genetic data is challenging. Therefore, this study aimed to develop a precise and efficient platform for analyzing specific skin biomarkers using quantitative real‐time PCR (qRT‐PCR) with the minimal invasive skin sampling method (MISSM). Materials and methods: MISSM was used for RNA extraction from skin samples, followed by qRT‐PCR analysis to quantify the expression of 20 biomarkers associated with skin characteristics (four biomarkers each for five skin characteristics). Noninvasive measurements from 299 Korean participants were utilized to correlate biomarker expression with skin parameters. Statistical analyses were conducted between biomarker expression levels and noninvasive skin measurements to select the relatively best‐performing biomarker for each skin characteristic. Results: Collagen type 1 alpha 1 (COL1A1) and moesin (MSN) were identified as skin aging biomarkers. Krüppel‐like factor 4 (KLF4) and serine peptidase inhibitor Kazal type 5 (SPINK5) were identified as skin dryness biomarkers, whereas melan‐A (MLANA) was selected as a biomarker for understanding pigmentation dynamics. Myelin protein zero like 3 (MPZL3) and high mobility group box 2 (HMGB2) were identified as markers of oily skin and skin sensitivity, respectively. Statistically significant correlations were found between the biomarker expression levels and noninvasive skin characteristic measurements. Conclusion: This study successfully developed a platform for the precise evaluation of individual skin characteristics using MISSM and qRT‐PCR biomarker analysis. By selecting biomarkers that correlate with noninvasive measurements of skin characteristics, we demonstrated the platform's efficacy in assessing diverse skin conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the authors explored curricular practices of media education for North Korean refugee youths resettled in South Korea, and investigated the impacts of the media education program on their identity construction. Guided by third space theory and framed within a qualitative research paradigm, this media education program was developed by a group of North and South Korean teaching artists. Multimodal data collected throughout the first year were analyzed thematically with a focus on the discursive construction of identities of North Korean youth participants. The participants were invited to reconsider their identities and address multiple dimensions of lived challenges in a safe media education space.

The purpose of this paper is to document dialogic reflections of two researchers (Shin Ji and Eun-Young) who had conducted collaborative projects on education for youth with North Korean refugee backgrounds. By employing duoethnography, conversations were conducted on the following questions: What are the experiences that impacted our researcher identities? What is the transformative learning emerged from our engagement in NK research? How do we become more holistic researchers through duoethnography? During a series of facilitated dialogues both within and between Shin Ji and Eun-Young, they learned that their personal experiences of marginalisation served as an experiential and emotional foundation for their increased critical awareness of North Korean refugee students: the disparities in position, power and access that the students experienced in the process of resettlement in South Korea. Participating in the duoethnogrphy, the authors also experienced qualitative transformation as they made sense of the ways their identities and NK research were feeding each other. The authors thus concluded that the duoethnography created a third space for them in that it was a personally therapeutic and professionally productive engagement that was able to secure transparency that represents unique insights from each researcher. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite an increasing number of children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds living in South Korea, their languages have not received sufficient attention in Korean schools and society. This article aims to identify the language ideologies operating in Korea by examining the ways languages are situated in multicultural research and practices. To present the background of the study, the author reviews the demographic complexity of the culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) populations in terms of language and ethnicity. Then, by examining multicultural research and policies regarding use and education of diverse languages in Korea, the author argues that three interrelated language ideologies (language stratification, double standards in multilingual education, and deficit and remedial paradigms towards multilinguals) underlie Korean multicultural education, supporting monolingualism rather than multilingualism. The article highlights the discrimination and inequity that minoritized students encounter when their languages are not considered cultural capital or a valued part of their identities. Then, the author offers the following suggestions for redesigning multicultural education in Korea: providing institutional support for multilingual teachers, integrating critical multilingualism in teacher education, and implementing translanguaging practices in language classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Current methods for evaluating efficacy of cosmetics have limitations because they cannot accurately measure changes in the dermis. Skin sampling using microneedles allows identification of skin‐type biomarkers, monitoring treatment for skin inflammatory diseases, and evaluating efficacy of anti‐aging and anti‐pigmentation products. Materials and methods: Two studies were conducted: First, 20 participants received anti‐aging treatment; second, 20 participants received anti‐pigmentation treatment. Non‐invasive devices measured skin aging (using high‐resolution 3D‐imaging in the anti‐aging study) or pigmentation (using spectrophotometry in the anti‐pigmentation study) at weeks 0 and 4, and adverse skin reactions were monitored. Skin samples were collected with biocompatible microneedle patches. Changes in expression of biomarkers for skin aging and pigmentation were analyzed using qRT‐PCR. Results: No adverse events were reported. In the anti‐aging study, after 4 weeks, skin roughness significantly improved in 17 out of 20 participants. qRT‐PCR showed significantly increased expression of skin‐aging related biomarkers: PINK1 in 16/20 participants, COL1A1 in 17/20 participants, and MSN in 16/20 participants. In the anti‐pigmentation study, after 4 weeks, skin lightness significantly improved in 16/20 participants. qRT‐PCR showed significantly increased expression of skin‐pigmentation‐related biomarkers: SOD1 in 15/20 participants and Vitamin D Receptor (VDR) in 15/20 participants. No significant change in TFAP2A was observed. Conclusion: Skin sampling and mRNA analysis for biomarkers provides a novel, objective, quantitative method for measuring changes in the dermis and evaluating the efficacy of cosmetics. This approach complements existing evaluation methods and has potential application in assessing the effectiveness of medical devices, medications, cosmeceuticals, healthy foods, and beauty devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, recruiting foreign professors (FPs) has become a noticeable trend at South Korean higher education institutions (HEIs) as they attempt to internationalize. However, little scholarly attention has been paid to the question of what is actually happening in classrooms as a result of this rapid influx of FPs and the associated proliferation of English-only courses. The aim of this study is to understand internationalization's real impacts on teaching and learning by examining professor-student interactions and instructional practices in a so-called "internationalized" university course (i.e., an English-speaking Canadian professor's computer architecture course for domestic Korean students). I adopt the theoretical lens of sustainability framed within an ecological perspective and focus on languages and cultures in the HEI context, while resisting market-based HEI internationalization driven by economic considerations. This study finds that Prof. Dave's course was characterized by linguistic and cultural reciprocity and equitable relations among the participants, revealing its vast potential for sustainable internationalization. Further, the course acknowledged and empowered various funds of student knowledge, including content knowledge, English capability, and Korean capability, which led to fun and effective learning. Although this successful symbiosis suggests a promising future for sustainable internationalization in Korean HEIs, I also highlight the pressing need for institution-level programs or services to assist both FPs and domestic students in FP courses.

Studies on second language (L2) learners' strategies tended to characterize strategies as individual learners' cognitive predispositions or personality traits, leaving a critical question unanswered: Why do learners use different strategies in different contexts? From a sociocultural perspective, this article pursued this question by focusing on the impacts of the classroom context and the broader social context on the use of L2 learner strategies. The authors argue that the emergence, use, and distribution of L2 strategies cannot be fully understood without examining the specific social relationships and power relations in the language classroom. By highlighting the situated aspect of L2 learner strategy development, therefore, this article attempt to help educators construct a learning environment that can facilitate L2 learners' use of productive strategies to enhance their language learning. (Contains 2 notes.)

From a sociocultural perspective the concept of self-regulation is associated to voluntary control over higher and culturally organized mental functions such as, for example, focusing attention, planning a course of action, solving a problem, or deliberately remembering something. Thus, the ability to self-regulate is highly related to school success. The present article examines the ways by which two newly arrived immigrant Korean students, learning English as a second language while enrolled in a middle school in the United States, made use of old and new systems of signs (i.e., native and target languages) to (re)gain and maintain self-regulation in a new cultural and linguistic context. We conducted a microgenetic analysis of student-teacher and student-student interactions during two specific classroom writing practices that occurred regularly in the classroom. We found that the development (or activation) of self-regulation for the students was tightly intertwined with social and cultural contextual factors of the English-dominant classroom environment, which in turn afforded or constrained the use and acquisition of newly formed semiotic resources (e.g., hybrid sign systems) for the creation and expression of meaning. (Contains 1 footnote.)

For this article we aimed to understand the emergence of English as a second language for a newly immigrated Mexican student, a native speaker of Spanish, enrolled in a mainstream kindergarten classroom, who was undergoing the "silent period" (Krashen, 1981). Applying ecological approaches that emphasize learners in relationship with their environment, we analyzed three particular classroom practices and their respective mediational roles for the development of a second language (L2). Following Tomasello's (1999, 2003) recognition that the understanding of communicative intentions is an essential prerequisite for language development, we argue that certain characteristics of routine classroom practices (i.e., shared objects, infrastructural elements, and speech patterns) provided key interactional and contextual affordances for the understanding and internalization of a shared system of symbols (linguistic and nonlinguistic) and, thus, for the emergence of the L2. This research suggests that our focal student was intentionally and actively engaged in L2 learning during this period of silence. In addition, our findings suggest that although the understanding of communicative intentions contributed to the legitimization of a "student" identity for the learner during the silent period, it did not contribute to the learning of academic content. We argue that ambiguity and multiplicity of intentions conveyed in some classroom actions may be particularly challenging for L2 learners in mainstream classrooms. (Contains 1 figure and 5 footnotes.)

This paper explores how a group of Korean born, Korean-American high school students came to understand race and racism in the US through social interactions and conversations, with particular attention paid to the locality of time, space and people engaged. Therefore, we explore not only how race and racism are socially constructed in the lives of the participants, but also how social interactions and daily conversations play a critical role for the students to develop and locate their voices in relation to understanding how race and racism effect their lives. It is worth emphasizing that the participants' understanding on the concepts of race and racism were refined in dialogic and emergent fashion in the course of dialogue. In other words, it was not like a new learning or sudden enlightenment. Rather, it was rediscovery of their own experiences, which they had but were not able to explicate or find appropriate languages with which to identify their experiences until they were provided an opportunity to discuss their thoughts around the concepts of race and racism.

Summary: The ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic has spurred rapid development of vaccines as part of the public health response. However, the general strategy used to construct recombinant trimeric severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) spike (S) proteins in mammalian cells is not completely adaptive to molecular farming. Therefore, we generated several constructs of recombinant S proteins for high expression in Nicotiana benthamiana. Intramuscular injection of N. benthamiana‐expressed Sct vaccine (NSctVac) into Balb/c mice elicited both humoral and cellular immune responses, and booster doses increased neutralizing antibody titres. In human angiotensin‐converting enzyme knock‐in mice, two doses of NSctVac induced anti‐S and neutralizing antibodies, which cross‐neutralized Alpha, Beta, Delta and Omicron variants. Survival rates after lethal challenge with SARS‐CoV‐2 were up to 80%, without significant body weight loss, and viral titres in lung tissue fell rapidly, with no infectious virus detectable at 7‐day post‐infection. Thus, plant‐derived NSctVac could be a candidate COVID‐19 vaccine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Nicotine increases reinforcing effects of cigarette smoking by upregulating glutamate and dopamine releases via stimulation of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) in the dorsal striatum (CPu). The present study was conducted to evaluate whether non-nicotine substances in cigarette smoke potentiate nicotine-induced behaviors by increasing glutamate and dopamine concentrations in the CPu.Aims and Methods: Changes in the levels of glutamate and dopamine in the CPu were analyzed using a glutamate colorimetric assay and dopamine enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, respectively, after repeated administration of nicotine or whole cigarette smoke condensate (WCSC) in male Sprague-Dawley rats. Changes in locomotion and drug-taking behavior were analyzed using the measurements of locomotor activity and self-administration under a fixed ratio 1 schedule in response to repeated administration of nicotine or WCSC.Results: Repeated subcutaneous (s.c.) injections of nicotine (0.25 mg/kg/day) for 7 consecutive days significantly increased the levels of glutamate and dopamine in the CPu. Similar results were obtained from repeated injections of WCSC (0.25 mg/kg nicotine/day, s.c.) extracted from 3R4F Kentucky reference cigarettes. Parallel with the increases in the neurotransmitter levels in the CPu, both nicotine and WCSC increased locomotor activity and self-administration (0.03 mg/kg nicotine/infusion). However, repeated injections of WCSC did not change the nicotine-induced increases in neurotransmitter levels, locomotor activity, and self-administration.Conclusions: Nicotine rather than non-nicotine substances in WCSC play a major role in potentiating behavioral sensitization and drug-taking behavior via elevation of glutamate and dopamine concentrations in the CPu of rats.Implications: WCSC does not augment the nicotine-induced increases in behavioral sensitization, drug-taking behavior, and glutamate and dopamine concentrations, suggesting that non-nicotine substances do not potentiate the nicotine-induced behaviors by increasing the concentrations of the neurotransmitters in the CPu. These findings imply that nicotine, but not non-nicotine substances in WCSC, may be a major contributor that induces tobacco dependence in rats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Dopamine neuron firing in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens have been implicated in reward learning. Ethanol is known to increase both dopamine neuron firing in the VTA and dopamine levels in the nucleus accumbens. Despite this, some discrepancies exist between the dose of ethanol required to enhance firing in vivo and ex vivo. In the present study we investigated the effects of peripheral dopamine 2 subtype receptor antagonism on ethanol's effects on dopamine neurotransmission. Methods: Plasma catecholamine levels were assessed following ethanol administration across four different doses of EtOH. Microdialysis and voltammetry were used to assess the effects of domperidone pretreatment on ethanol‐mediated increases in dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens. A place conditioning paradigm was used to assess conditioned preference for ethanol and whether domperidone pretreatment altered this preference. Open‐field and loss‐of‐righting reflex paradigms were used to assess the effects of domperidone on ethanol‐induced sedation. A rotarod apparatus was used to assess the effects of domperidone on ethanol‐induced motor impairment. Results: Domperidone attenuated ethanol's enhancement of mesolimbic dopamine release under non‐physiological conditions at intermediate (1.0 and 2.0 g/kg) doses of ethanol. Domperidone also decreased EtOH‐induced sedation at 2.0 g/kg. Domperidone did not alter ethanol conditioned place preference nor did it affect ethanol‐induced motor impairment. Conclusions: These results show that peripheral dopamine 2 receptors mediate some of the effects of ethanol on nonphysiological dopamine neurotransmission, although these effects are not related to the rewarding properties of ethanol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies indicate that moderate‐to‐high ethanol (EtOH) concentrations enhance dopamine (DA) neurotransmission in the mesolimbic DA system from the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and projecting to the nucleus accumbens core (NAc). However, voltammetry studies demonstrate that moderate‐to‐high EtOH concentrations decrease evoked DA release at NAc terminals. The involvement of γ‐aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptors (GABAARs), glycine (GLY) receptors (GLYRs) and cholinergic interneurons (CINs) in mediating EtOH inhibition of evoked NAc DA release were examined. Fast scan cyclic voltammetry, electrophysiology, optogenetics and immunohistochemistry techniques were used to evaluate the effects of acute and chronic EtOH exposure on DA release and CIN activity in C57/BL6, CD‐1, transgenic mice and δ‐subunit knockout (KO) mice (δ−/−). Ethanol decreased DA release in mice with an IC50 of 80 mM ex vivo and 2.0 g/kg in vivo. GABA and GLY decreased evoked DA release at 1–10 mM. Typical GABAAR agonists inhibited DA release at high concentrations. Typical GABAAR antagonists had minimal effects on EtOH inhibition of evoked DA release. However, EtOH inhibition of DA release was blocked by the α4β3δ GABAAR antagonist Ro15‐4513, the GLYR antagonist strychnine and by the GABA ρ1 (Rho‐1) antagonist TPMPA (10 μM) and reduced significantly in GABAAR δ−/− mice. Rho‐1 expression was observed in CINs. Ethanol inhibited GABAergic synaptic input to CINs from the VTA and enhanced firing rate, both of which were blocked by TPMPA. Results herein suggest that EtOH inhibition of DA release in the NAc is modulated by GLYRs and atypical GABAARs on CINs containing δ‐ and Rho‐subunits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mee-Soo was a good student in North Korea. She came to South Korea in her early teens, and South Korean state policy for North Korean defectors enabled her to gain entry into a decent university in Seoul. She majored in Business Management and, when she had to choose her sub-major, she chose Accounting over Marketing and Human Resources because she thought she could avoid English. Achieving CPA (Certified Public Accountant) status was the goal for Accounting majors. Passing a score of 700 in the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) was a requirement to take the CPA exam. Mee-Soo worked hard studying for TOEIC and took the test ten times. Her score rose from the 400s to the 600s, but she could not pass the 700 threshold and was left behind while other South Korean students passed the English requirement. She could not even begin to study for the CPA exam itself. She once sighed and told me (one of the authors), 'I wish I could have a life without English.' I responded, 'I didn't think English would be so important to North Koreans in South Korea.' To this, Mee-Soo exclaimed, 'It is a matter of survival.' Given there have now been over 70 years of separation between North and South Korea since the Korean War, it is unquestionable that North Korean migrants face and struggle with a variety of troubles in their attempts to settle into South Korean society. In this context, why does English constitute a 'matter of survival' for North Koreans when there are so many other critical issues for these individuals, who crossed several borders at the risk of their lives? This phenomena, that 'English' represents a major difficulty for North Korean defectors in their process of settling in South Korea (Jung & Lim, 2009), constitutes an interesting linguistic phenomena in an intra-ethnic contact. However, by itself, this statement somewhat simplifies how English actually affects the migrant group. Instead, its influence works in a surprisingly diverse number of ways across different ranges and layers within the North Korean population, depending on their regional and social background, age, time of migration, and possibly many other factors. A meaningful pattern we discuss here is the changing relations between English and North Korean migrants according to age; it is the North Korean young adults who seem to be particularly affected by English and disproportionately in need of English teaching. We also note, though, that this pattern itself is changing, as we are seeing the recent increase of children of North Korean migrants born and educated in South Korea or in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]