• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.287-295
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• 2022

Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is known to induce apoptosis of host immune cells and impair phagocytic clearance, thereby being pivotal in the pathogenesis of atopic dermatitis (AD). Adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) exert therapeutic effects against inflammatory and immune diseases. In the present study, we investigated whether systemic administration of ASCs restores the phagocytic activity of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and decolonizes cutaneous S. aureus under AD conditions. AD was induced by injecting capsaicin into neonatal rat pups. ASCs were extracted from the subcutaneous adipose tissues of naïve rats and administered to AD rats once a week for a month. Systemic administration of ASCs ameliorated AD-like symptoms, such as dermatitis scores, serum IgE, IFN-γ⁺/IL-4⁺ cell ratio, and skin colonization by S. aureus in AD rats. Increased FasL mRNA and annexin V⁺/7-AAD⁺ cells in the PBMCs obtained from AD rats were drastically reversed when co-cultured with ASCs. In contrast, both PBMCs and CD163⁺ cells bearing fluorescent zymosan particles significantly increased in AD rats treated with ASCs. Additionally, the administration of ASCs led to an increase in the mRNA levels of antimicrobial peptides, such as cathelicidin and β-defensin, in the skin of AD rats. Our results demonstrate that systemic administration of ASCs led to decolonization of S. aureus by attenuating apoptosis of immune cells in addition to restoring phagocytic activity. This contributes to the improvement of skin conditions in AD rats. Therefore, administration of ASCs may be helpful in the treatment of patients with intractable AD.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.597-618
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• 2009

Leslie Marmon Silko, in her novel Gardens in the Dunes, primarily focuses on revealing the white colonialists' plan to exterminate and destroy American Indians and their culture. In this regard, this novel is clearly an Indian counter narrative to interrogate and abrogate the authority of the oppressive and destructive discourse of the whites who are full of colonialist impulses to sterilize Indians and their culture. However, it should be noted that Silko is very careful not to insist on cultural exclusivism and reverse ethnocentrism, since these only mean a return to the violent colonialists' discourse based on dualism and cultural authenticity which, she believes, has led to the marginalization and eventual deterioration of Indians and their culture. White values and culture are something to recognize and tolerate as long as they are not the products of witchery, also known as the destroyer or evil for Silko, which promotes disruption and antagonism between races and classes. As she reveals in her interview, her major concern in the novel is to dismantle political and/or racial distinctions like Native Americans versus EuroAmericans and thus to enhance the idea of the reconciliation and coexistence of whites and Indians. Silko's Gardens in the Dunes can be regarded as an experiment in the possibility of the universal and homogeneous (at least in its roots) global culture which tolerates all forms of culture. Global culture does not mean a uniform totalitarian culture but a vision of a harmonious world characterized by hybridity and heterogeneity, in which different cultures associate freely without the notion of inferiority or superiority of any one culture. Silko's belief in syncretism emphasizes the spirit of tolerance and exchange between different cultures, dismantling the authority of exclusive ethnocentrism. The ultimate message implied in Gardens in the Dunes is that the syncretic spirit is not only an effective means to correct the white colonialists' hegemonic desire aimed at the extermination of Indians and their culture but also a source of energy for the life and prosperity of modern Indians and their societies.

• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.121-146
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• 2016

Defining key characteristics of Southeast Asia requires historical interpretation. Southeast Asia is a diverse and complicated region, but some of modern history's "grand narratives" serve to unify its historical experience. At a minimum, the modern history of the region involves decisive encounters with universal religions, the rise of Western colonialism, the experience of world wars, decolonization, and the end of the "cycle of violence". The ability of the region's peoples to adapt to these many challenges and successfully build new nations is a defining feature of Southeast Asia's place in the global stage. This paper will begin with a question: is it possible to develop a hermeneutic of "expedience" as a way to interpret the region's history? That is, rather than regard the region from a purely Western, nationalist, "internalist" point of view, it would be useful to identify a new series of interpretative contexts from which to begin scholarly analysis. In order to contextualize this discussion, the paper will draw upon the writings of figures who explored the region before knowledge about it was shaped by purely colonist or nationalist enterprises. To this end, particular attention will be devoted to exploring some of John Furnivall's ways of conceptualizing Southeast Asia. Investigating Furnivall, a critic of colonialism, will be done in relation to his historical situation. Because Furnivall's ideas have played a pivotal role in the interpretation of Southeast Asia, the paper will highlight the intellectual history of the region in order to ascertain the value of these concepts for subsequent historical interpretation. Ultimately, the task of interpreting the region's history requires a framework which will move beyond the essentializing orientalist categories produced by colonial scholarship and the reactionary nation-building narratives which followed. Instead, by beginning with a mode of historical interpretation that focuses on the many realities of expedience which have been necessary for the region's peoples, it may be possible to write a history which highlights the extraordinarily adaptive quality of Southeast Asia's populations, cultures, and nations. To tell this story, which would at once highlight key characteristics of the region while showing how they developed through historical encounters, would go a long way to capturing Southeast Asia's contribution's to global development.

• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.27-56
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• 2015

How should we conceptualize regions? What is the context in which new approaches to regional study take place? What is the role of historical change in the reconceptualization of regions or areas? This article addresses this issue by using two case studies to shed light on the history of regional study by comparing some of the ways in which the Middle East and Southeast Asia have been conceptualized. Accordingly, the discussion traces the ways in which these areas were understood in the 19th century by highlighting the ideas of a number of influential Victorian thinkers. The Victorians are useful because not only did British thinkers play critical roles in the shaping of modern patterns of knowledge, but their empire was global in scope, encompassing parts of both Southeast Asia and the Middle East. However, the Victorians regarded these places quite differently: Southeast Asia was frequently described as "Further India" and the Middle East was the home of the Ottoman Empire. Both of these places were at least partly understood in relation to the needs of British policy-makers, who tended to focus most of their efforts according to the needs of India-which was their most important colonial possession. The article exhibits the connections between the "Eastern Question" and end of the Ottoman Empire (and the political developments which followed) led to the creation of the concept of "Middle East". With respect to Southeast Asia, attention will be devoted to the works of Alfred Russell Wallace, Hugh Clifford, and others to see how "further India" was understood in the 19th century. In addition, it is clear that the successful deployment of the term "Southeast Asia" reflected the political needs of policy makers in wake of decolonization and the Cold War. Finally, by showing the constructive nature of regions, the article suggests one possible new path for students of Southeast Asia. If the characterization of the region is marked by arbitrary factors, it may actually point to a useful avenue of enquiry, a hermeneutic of expedience. Emphasis on the adaptive and integrative features of lived realities in Southeast Asia may well be a step beyond both the agendas of "colonial knowledge" and anti-colonial nationalism.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.44-58
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• 2006

This study of Shintoism is to inquire the relationships between social-political ideology and place of Shinto shrine(神社). In Korea, the Shinto shrine was a place of the center of Japanese colonial policy that symbolized the goal of Japanese Imperialism. This was one of the strategies of "Japan and Korea Are One". Before the China and Japan War in 1937, the number of shrines amounted to 51 sites, 12 of them were closely related to open ports, and the others were located at inland major cities. They also were associated with railroad transportation systems that tied coast and inland major cities. This spatial distribution of shrines was so called "Shrine Network" that was essential in tracing Japanese invasion into Korea. It was an imperial place where Japanese residence and colonial landscape were combined together to show the strength of Japanese Imperialism. Most of shrines were located at a hill with a view on the slope of a mountain and honored Goddess Amaterasu and the Meiji Emperor. I presume from these facts that Shinto Shrine was a supervisionary organization for strategic purpose. The Jeonju Shrine was located on a small hill, Dagasan(65m) where commanded a splendid view of Jeonju city and honored Goddess Amaterasu and the Meiji Emperor. It was a place which was adjacent to Japanese residence and colonial landscape. The Dagasan was changed as a symbolic site for Japanese Imperialism. But, after liberation in 1945, the social-political symbol of the hill was changed. By the strong will of civil, there was a monument to the loyal dead and the national poet, Yi Byeng-gi placed for national identity at the site of the demolished Jeonju Shrine. Dagasan as a place of national identity, shows the symbolic decolonization and the changing ideology. After all, this shows that political ideology is represented in a place with landscape.

• The Southeast Asian review
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.137-184
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• 2011

This article is aimed at understanding the political narratives represented in the National Museum of Indonesia. Starting initially as a colonial museum, the National Museum of Indonesia functioned as a useful tool for the Dutch colonial force to fuel its imaginations of the colonial territory and the people within it. The Dutch used the cultural display to advertize its benevolent colonial rule. All the while, the museum also inevitably reflected orientalism on the people and the culture of the colony. The republic of Indonesia inherited the colonial museum's practices and its display patterns. The business surrounding the museum also played a key role in the newly-born nation-state laying out a future for its redefined territory and people. Thus, what the colonial force imagined for the colonial territory through the study of museum displays was rather directly transferred to the republic without serious consideration of the decolonization process. Four main characteristics have been seen in the museum displays. The first is an emphasis on the glorious Hindu-Buddha history, from which numerous temples, statues, and jewelry have been found. Secondly, the Islamic period, which spanned between the Hindu-Buddha times to the colonial era, has almost completely been eliminated from the display. Third, the colonial era has been depicted as the time of Europe's exportation of scientific tools and adaption of sophisticated living patterns. Fourth, the images of ethnic groups were represented as being stagnant without reflecting any challenges and responses that these groups had faced throughout history. Looking at these display patterns, it can be concluded that all the dynamic internal developments and anti-colonial resistance that took place during the Islamic and Colonial Era have simply not been represented in the museum display. These display patterns do not reflect the real history or culture of the archipelago. Two considerations are thought to have influenced the neglecting of social realities in the display. The first of which is the Dutch's and Republic's apprehension over the possible political upheaval by the Islamic forces. Yet, more fundamentally, cultural displays themselves are distinct from historical education in that the former pays more attention to business ideas with an aim to attract tourists rather than to project objective historical knowledge. Thus, in cultural displays, objects which work to stimulate fantasies and spur curiosity on archipelagic culture tend to be selected and emphasized. In this process, historical objectivity is sometimes considered less vital. Cultural displays are set up to create more appealing narratives for viewers. Therefore, if a narrative loses its luster, it will be replaced by another flashy and newly-resurrected memory. This fact reveals that museums, as transmitters of historical knowledge, have a certain degree of limitation in playing their role.