OBJECTIVE: This study was aimed to understand the life and development of adolescents in North Korea. METHODS: The authors interviewed North Korean adolescent defectors on the past life history in North Korea, and also collected information by questionanire from North Korean adult defectors on their views about the life and development of North Korean adolescents. RESULTS: The lives of adolescents in North Korea seem to be poor, tough, dry, and monotonous. However, familial bonds seem to be strong, which is contrast to the general impression that family is not important anymore in a socialist nation. Social pressure seems to be strong enough to force adolescents to leave home at an early age. The school education seems to be focused on shaping them according to socialist ideology and national policy. The social atmosphere seems to be authoritative and of patriarchy, probably influenced by traditional confucian philosophy. In general, filial piety for the father figures(including a national father, the late president, Kim Il Sung and the current leader, Kim Jung Il) altruism, social contribution, patriotism, and a moral socialist personality are strongly emphasized in education. The effectiveness of teaching methods mainly based on a punishment system and public criticism seems to be very limited in being integrated to true mature personality development. Recently, the life view and behavior pattern of adolescents in North Korea seem to be changing according to the severe economic crisis and expanding knowledge about the outside world. Particularly, their interest in making money is increasing with a parallel increase of delinquent behavior. Physical development seems to be delayed along with a delay in psychosocial development. Their cognitivefunctioning looks also to be delayed due to the uniformity of education andlimitations in intellectual and psychosocial stimulation. In contrast to the literal equality in the rights of men and women in socialist countries, girls' rights are usually ignored by boys. Establishment of psychosexual identity seems delayed and theopportunity for relations with people of the opposite sex seems to be limited. Rather, peer relationships with the same sex and group loyalty are considered to be more valuable. This group orientation seems to lead to national loyalty, loyalty for the Communist Party and eventually its leader in adult life. Pervasive violent political oppression seems to be the dominating social power. Whole social authorities(father, teacher, Party, nation, leader)seem to be power-oriented figures. Adolescents have been programmed to bow down and resign to oppression rather than to protest against it. And this compliant behavior has become stereotyped. Identity crises, which so often characterize the adolescent period, seem not to be so turbulent, develop later and finish early with resignation because of the limitation mainly inposed by the political status of their family origin. Ideological morality seems to develope in unbalanced form, related with school education and repeated stereotyped self-criticism. However, their daily lives do not seem to be really moralistic. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that the life and development of adolescents in North Korea are different in many aspects from those in South Korea. However, compared with the individualism and egocentricism which are known to be personality characteristice of adolescents in South Korea, those of adolescents in North Korea, such as simple mindedness, compliant behavior, strong familial bond, group orientation and loyality and altruism, are considered to make a positive contribution along with a proper education for the future construction of the nation after reunification. These findings also suggest that mutual adaptation problem between people of South and North Korea after reunification will not be simple and both Koreans have to prepare themselves in advance for future problems through prior studies.
Adolescent* ; Adult ; Altruism ; Atmosphere ; Cooperative Behavior ; Democratic People's Republic of Korea* ; Education ; Family Characteristics ; Fathers ; Female ; Human Rights ; Humans ; Identity Crisis ; Korea ; Male ; Morals ; Personality Development ; Philosophy ; Power (Psychology) ; Punishment ; Self-Assessment ; Teaching

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatiory disease that mainly destroys cartilages or bones at the joints. This inflammatory disorder is initiated by self-attack using own immune system, but the detail of pathological mechanism is unclear. Features of autoantigens leading to autoimmune disease are also under veil although several candidates including type II collagen have been suggested to play a role in pathogenesis. In this report, we tried to identify proteins responding to antibodies purified from RA patients and screen proteins up-regulated or down-regulated in RA using proteomic approach. Fibronectin, semaphorin 7A precursor, growth factor binding protein 7 (GRB7), and immunoglobulin mu chain were specifically associated with antibodies isolated from RA synovial fluids. In addition, some metabolic proteins such as adipocyte fatty acid binding protein, galectin-1 and apolipoprotein A1 precursor were overexpressed in RA synovium. Also, expression of peroxiredoxin 2 was up-regulated in RA. On the contrary, expression of vimentin was severely suppressed in RA synoviocytes. Such findings might give some insights into understanding of pathological mechanism in RA.
Synovial Fluid/metabolism ; Sepharose/chemistry ; Proteomics/methods ; Middle Aged ; Male ; *Inflammation ; Humans ; *Gene Expression Regulation ; Female ; Collagen Type II/biosynthesis ; Autoantigens/metabolism ; Arthritis, Rheumatoid/*metabolism ; Aged ; Adult

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Vestibular evoked myogenic potential (VEMP) is muscle reflex caused by surface electrodes following repeated high-intensity auditory stimulation. The current study attempted to determine whether VEMP can be consistently evoked from the sternocleidomastoid muscle (SCM) by the 100 dB air-conducted and 50 dB bone-conducted 500 Hz-tone burst. SUBJECTS AND METHOD: Air-conducted and bone-conducted VEMPs in response to 500 Hz-tone burst were recorded from the SCM of 13 normal volunteers. Subjects were seated on their chairs and made to hold their heads turned up as far as possible towards the side, contralateral to the stimulated ear voluntarily. Two different sound durations (rise/fall time=2 msec, plateau time=2 msec[2/2] and rise/fall time=5 msec, plateau time=5 msec[5/5]) were presented through a insertphone or bone vibrators. Latencies and amplitudes of p13 and n23 responses were measured. RESULTS: All normal volunteers showed p13-n23 responses to 50 dB bone-conducted tone burst as well as to 100 dB air-conducted tone burst. The values of latency of p13 and n23 were the most reliable at 5/5 air-conducted in evaluation by coefficiency of variance. Mean p13 and N23 latencies by airconducted tone burst were significantly longer than those of bone-conducted. Mean p13-n23 amplitudes by air-conducted tone burst were significantly larger than those by bone-conducted at 2/2 sound duration. CONCLUSION: VEMP could be consis-tently evoked by the 100 dB air-conducted and 50 dB bone-conducted 500 Hz-tone burst, especially at 5/5 air-conducted.
Acoustic Stimulation ; Ear ; Electrodes ; Head ; Healthy Volunteers ; Reflex ; Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potentials*