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投稿者 : ld-sylff

Combatting Sexual Violence in the Metaverse: A Comparative Legal Analysis

May 25, 2023
By 30587

Disturbing reports of sexual assault and harassment in the metaverse have raised questions about how users and society—particularly minors—can be better protected from exploitation and how offenders can be punished. To shed light on this issue, criminal law expert Sou Hee Yang (Waseda University, 2021) used an SRG grant to analyze how various jurisdictions are addressing the problem of sexual violence in the metaverse within the framework of their legal systems.

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The metaverse is “a virtual space that other users can create, explore, and meet without having to be in the same space in real life” (Setiawan et al. 2022). It provides a platform where individuals can adopt diverse personas through their avatars to interact with people from around the globe.

An image generated by using the prompt, "metaverse avatars hanging out together," by Sifted via Starryai (https://starryai.com/app/create).

I had no particular interest in the metaverse, which seemed like a digital realm frequented only by tech enthusiasts, until I came across an online news article recounting a researcher’s claim that her avatar had been sexually assaulted in a metaverse (Soon 2022). I was both intrigued and puzzled by this claim. How is it possible to be sexually assaulted in a virtual world?

So I did some research and discovered that sexual violence does take place on virtual platforms in various ways; examples include groping another person’s avatar, sending unwanted, explicit messages, and approaching minors with the purpose of sexual exploitation (Frenkel and Browning 2021). The range and seriousness of such acts vary, with certain types, such as grooming minors, warranting strict countermeasures (Hinduja 2023).

There are many challenges to punishing acts of virtual sexual violence, however. First, it can be difficult to identify and prosecute the perpetrators, given the borderless nature of the metaverse. Second, sexual violence in the metaverse usually does not involve physical contact and is thus not subject to the same kind and degree of criminal punishment as real-world transgressions. It is important to recognize, though, that cyber violence can cause great psychological harm, leading to depression, anxiety, stress, and post-traumatic stress disorders (Cripps and Stermac 2018).

Being a legal researcher specializing in sex crimes, I was intrigued by these findings and wanted to explore how various countries—namely, the United Kingdom, the United States, and South Korea—are addressing this problem within the framework of their legal systems and whether they had provisions to punish sexual violence in the metaverse. More specifically, I reviewed and compared the laws related to the three most frequent forms of violence: virtual groping, sending unsolicited sexual messages, and making sexual advances toward children. My findings, based on the study, are as follows.[*]

First, users with female avatars often experience virtual groping: that is, the sexual parts of their avatars are touched without consent by another user’s avatar. Punishing such acts can be challenging, though, since sex offenses under criminal law are premised on physical contact (Cho 2022). Virtual reality headsets and haptic gloves already give users a degree of sensory feedback from events in the metaverse (Kim et al. 2022). If technology is further developed to enhance such sensations to a level closely approximating real life, virtual groping may arguably constitute “touching” for the purpose of criminal punishment.

There are two shortcomings to this argument, however, namely, that virtual sensations are still not the same as physical contact and that users can immediately stop unwanted sensations by simply removing their gear. Concerning the latter, though, it is possible for users to experience “tonic immobility”—a state of involuntary paralysis during sexual assault thought to be a natural survival reaction (Kalaf et al. 2017). Further research will be required to elucidate whether victims of cybersex crimes can also experience tonic immobility and, even if so, whether virtual groping would be subject to criminal punishment under British, US, and South Korean law.

A man with a virtual reality headset and controllers by SHVETS Production via Pexels (https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-man-with-a-virtual-reality-headset-and-controllers-7562023/).

Second, a user can be punished for harassing another user in the metaverse by sending sexual messages. In South Korea, if it can be shown that the user made comments to “arouse or satisfy his/her own or the other person’s sexual urges” and may cause “a sense of sexual shame or aversion,” the user can be punished under Article 13 (Obscene Acts by Using Means of Communications) of the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes. In the United Kingdom, acts of harassing someone by sending sexual messages in the metaverse can be punished under Section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act, but only if it can be proven that the user sent “indecent or grossly offensive” messages with the purpose of causing “distress or anxiety” to the user on the receiving end.

In the United States, where freedom of speech is more strongly protected, the threshold for penalization is higher. For example, threatening sexual messages intended to place another user “in reasonable fear for his or her safety” is punishable under Section 653.2 of California’s Penal Code. However, to apply Section 653.2, it also needs to be proven that the user sent the threatening messages with the purpose of “imminently causing that other person unwanted physical contact, injury, or harassment.” This purpose is difficult to prove for most interactions in the metaverse, as they are generally anonymous. The laws demonstrate that making extremely offensive sexual comments in the metaverse may result in criminal sanctions, but the laws vary in their nature, requirements, and purpose.

Lastly, making sexual advances toward children in the metaverse is punishable in the United Kingdom, the United States, and South Korea. For example, a British user can be punished under Section 15A of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 for sending a sexual message to a user under 16 with the purpose of “obtaining sexual gratification.” Moreover, the Online Safety Bill, currently in the committee stage in the House of Lords, if passed, will provide more robust protection against child users in the metaverse (UK Parliament 2022).

Among many forms of making sexual advances to children in the metaverse, asking children to send sexual pictures of themselves is considered a serious offense. For example, in South Korea, a man was arrested on charges of sexually grooming minors when he asked child users to send sexual pictures of themselves upon befriending them through his “charming” avatar and gaining their trust by giving presents to their avatars (Kim 2022). As in this example, the acts of approaching children, building trust, and inducing reliance with the purpose of making sexual advances at them are called “grooming” (Lorenzo-Dus and Izura 2017). Online grooming is a serious problem, particularly in the metaverse, because adult users can use their avatars to make child users believe that they are speaking with a friend their own age and thereby lower their guard. While the laws of the United States vary by state, some form of online grooming is punishable in most states. For example, knowingly seducing or enticing a minor to engage in unlawful sexual conduct can be punished under Florida Statute § 847.0135(3). Approaching children online with intent to meet them or to engage in sexual conduct is considered a more serious crime because such acts put children at real risk of sexual exploitation.

The results of this study indicate three key legal considerations. First, before considering penalization of acts of sexual violence in the metaverse, it is necessary to categorize different forms of sexual violence based on their nature and the severity of harm, both to victims and society. Secondly, it is desirable to enact laws that can at least punish some acts of sexual violence in the metaverse that causes serious harm to the victims, such as grooming of minors. Finally, there should be continued social debate on what kind of sexual conduct warrants punishment under criminal law. For example, in Japan, where I reside, there is an ongoing movement to amend sex crime laws, including the enactment of laws that punish acts of grooming and sharing of sexual images of a victim without consent. One amendment proposal was written with the participation of various stakeholders, including leaders of victim support groups, psychologists, and legal experts (Legislative Council, n.d.). Such active discussion involving various stakeholders is desirable as a means of reaching a social consensus on what the types of metaverse-based sexual violence that should be punished.

This study demonstrates how criminal laws of various countries address sexual violence in the metaverse. In addition to legislative efforts, tech companies are introducing policies to strengthen the safety of their virtual spaces. These are important measures in preventing and managing sexual violence in the metaverse. However, it should be remembered that sexual violence will inevitably manifest in virtual worlds as long as it persists in the real world. Only by addressing the problems of sexual violence in reality can they be resolved in the metaverse.

[*] This study was made possible by an SRG grant in 2022, which allowed me to access the court cases of different countries and to review academic and legal reports and articles related to sexual violence in the metaverse. I was also able to hire two competent research assistants to assist me with legal research in various languages.

References

Cho, S. 2022. “Sexual Assault in Immersive Virtual Reality: Criminal Law Must Keep Up with Technology.” Harvard Undergraduate Law Review, September 6, 2022. https://hulr.org/spring-2022/sexual-assault-in-immersive-vr.

Cripps, J., and L. Stermac. 2018. “Cyber-Sexual Violence and Negative Emotional States among Women in a Canadian University.” International Journal of Cyber Criminology, 12(1): 171. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1467891.

Crown Prosecution Service. 2023. Social Media and other Electronic Communications, March 17, 2023. https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/social-media-and-other-electronic-communications.

Frenkel, S., and K. Browning. 2021. “The Metaverse’s Dark Side: Here Come Harassment and Assaults.” New York Times, December 30. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/30/technology/metaverse-harassment-assaults.html.

Hinduja, S. 2023. Child grooming and the metaverse: Issues and solutions. Cyberbullying Research Center, March 21, 2023. Retrieved April 8, 2023, from https://cyberbullying.org/child-grooming-metaverse.

Kalaf, J., E. S. F. Coutinho, L. M. P. Vilete, M. P. Luz, W. Berger, M. V. Mendlowicz, E. Volchan, S. B. Andreoli, M. I. Quintana, J. De Jesus Mari, and I. Figueira. 2017. “Sexual trauma is more strongly associated with tonic immobility than other types of trauma: A population based study.” Journal of Affective Disorders, 215: 71–76. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2017.03.009.

Kim, D. 2022. 메타버스서 미성년자 11명 성착취물 만든 30대 남성 구속. The JoongAng, April 14, 2022. https://www.joongang.co.kr/article/25063475#home.

Kim, J., Y. Kim, and H. D. Cha. 2022. Study on the sexual crime and criminal regulation in metaverse: Focusing on the direction of revision of the act on promotion of information and communication network utilization and information protection, etc. Contemporary Review of Criminal Law, no.75, 1–33. https://doi.org/10.23026/crclps.2022..75.001.

Legislative Council, Subcommittee on Criminal Law (Sexual Offenses). n.d. Ministry of Justice of Japan. Retrieved April 7, 2023, from https://www.moj.go.jp/shingi1/housei02_003011.

Lorenzo-Dus, N., and C. Izura. 2017. “Cause ur special”: Understanding trust and complimenting behaviour in online grooming discourse. Journal of Pragmatics, 112, 68–82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2017.01.004.

Setiawan, K. D., A. Anthony, N. Meyliana, and N. Surjandy. 2022. “The Essential Factor of Metaverse for Business Based on 7 Layers of Metaverse – Systematic Literature Review.” 2022 International Conference on Information Management and Technology (ICIMTech). https://doi.org/10.1109/icimtech55957.2022.9915136.

Soon, W. 2022. A researcher’s avatar was sexually assaulted on a metaverse platform owned by Meta, making her the latest victim of sexual abuse on Meta’s platforms, watchdog says. Business Insider, June 1, 2022. https://www.businessinsider.com/researcher-claims-her-avatar-was-raped-on-metas-metaverse-platform-2022-5.

UK Parliament (Second Reading, Online Safety Bill). 2022. April 19, 2022. Retrieved April 24, 2023, from https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2022-04-19/debates/F88B42D3-BFC4-4612-B166-8D2C15FA3E4E/OnlineSafetyBill.

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投稿者 : ld-sylff

SRG and SLI 2023: Call for Applications

May 15, 2023

The Sylff Association secretariat is pleased to announce a call for applications for two Sylff Support Programs in fiscal 2023: Sylff Research Grant (SRG) and Sylff Leadership Initiatives (SLI). These two programs are intended to support the academic and social engagement activities of eligible fellows.

Use the links below to check the respective eligibility requirements, application procedures, and deadlines:

SRG: https://www.sylff.org/support_programs/srg/

SLI: https://www.sylff.org/support_programs/sli/

There will be a pre-screening phase for both programs (preliminary registration for SRG and a concept paper for SLI) to determine the eligibility of applicants. The secretariat will NOT respond to individual inquiries concerning eligibility. Please visit the above pages to confirm your eligibility BEFORE applying. Applications from ineligible fellows will NOT be reviewed.

For SRG, please submit a preliminary registration form (powered by Google) from the link at the bottom of the SRG page. For SLI, please submit a concept paper via e-mail to the Sylff Association secretariat (sylff[a]tkfd.or.jp*)
*replace [a] with @).

We look forward to receiving your submissions!

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投稿者 : ld-sylff

Sylff@Tokyo: Athens Fellow Visits the Foundation

May 8, 2023

Apostolos Latsonas, a 2021–22 Sylff fellowship recipient at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, visited the Sylff Association secretariat on April 20, 2023. He received an LLA and LLM in legal theory at Athens and is now a practicing M&A lawyer.

(From left) Program officer Konatsu Furuya, director Keita Sugai, Sylff fellow Apostolos Latsonas, executive director Mari Suzuki, and program officer Maki Shimada.

Latsonas, whose expertise lies in jurisprudence, legal history, and artificial intelligence ethics, shared news about his professional and research activities on his visit to the Foundation.

Originally from Greece, he described his hopes of contributing to global society. He has been an exchange student at the Bucerius Law School in Hamburg, Germany, and Keio University in Japan, and he also aspires to study in the United States and to work across the EU.

He was not able to conduct his studies on campus at Keio due to the pandemic, so this visit was his first to Japan, enabling him to finally greet his professors and classmates in person. He has been intrigued by people’s lifestyles in the Japanese cities he has visited, including Tokyo, Nagoya, and Kyoto.

We thank Latsonas for visiting the Foundation and wish him continued success in his academic and professional career.

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投稿者 : ld-sylff

Powering Up: How Electric Buses are Paving the Way for a Greener Tomorrow

April 17, 2023
By 27797

Bus fleets are increasingly transitioning from diesel to electric. Jônatas Augusto Manzolli, a 2019 Sylff fellow who conducts research on “Adaptive Energy Management Strategies for Electric Bus Fleets” with a Sylff Research Grant (SRG), discusses the challenges of electric bus fleets and ways to mitigate them, as well as their possibilities for a more sustainable future.

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“The answer to these problems is not less transport—it is sustainable transport. We need more systems that are environmentally friendly, affordable, and accessible.” —Ban Ki-Moon, former UN secretary-general, when asked about transportation solutions for the future

The era of diesel-spewing buses congesting our streets is a thing of the past. The future of public transportation lies in electric buses, which are no longer just a pipe dream. Reports indicate that by 2040, most buses on the road could be electric.[1] But transitioning to more sustainable and efficient buses is not an overnight process. It poses significant challenges that must be overcome to achieve a sustainable future.

A sizable electric bus fleet in Bogotá, Colombia. (Photo: BYD Colombia)

As a researcher, I focus on enhancing the implementation of electric buses in our communities to create healthier urban environments for everyone. In this article, I will address the four major obstacles in the electrification process of bus transit and share the strategies I am implementing to mitigate them.

Grid Resilience

To truly grasp the magnitude of integrating large fleets of buses into the grid, we can examine the city of Shenzhen in China as an example. Shenzhen phased out all of its diesel-bus fleets and replaced them with electric ones, which has resulted in a massive demand for charging energy.[2] The new fleet requires 2,000 megawatt hours, equivalent to the energy needed to power 1.2 million homes for one hour. This staggering figure underscores the urgent need for improved planning and operation of electric bus fleets to prevent grid disruptions. Upgrading the grid or adopting smart charging techniques are viable solutions, but decision-makers must explore all alternatives to establish dependable and secure electric bus networks.

An electric bus fleet in Shenzhen, China. (Photo: Green Energy Futures, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0, via Flickr)

Electricity Market

The transition from diesel to electric bus fleets for public transportation operators presents challenges and opportunities, particularly regarding the electricity market. By synchronizing charging times with bus operation schedules, smart charging techniques can potentially exploit better electricity prices during the day, reducing operational costs and improving efficiency. Furthermore, electric bus fleets can act as virtual power plants and provide ancillary services to the grid. A prime example is the BUS2GRID project launched in London, where 28 state-of-the-art double-decker buses are equipped with technology to generate over 1 megawatt of power for the grid.[3] But for buses to become reliable grid auxiliaries in the future, their operation must meet the energy requirements of the grid.

A BUS2GRID trial site in London, UK. (Photo: SSE Energy Solutions)

Operation under Uncertainty

Waiting for a delayed bus can be frustrating. This unfortunate situation happens due to the stochastic nature of bus fleet operations—different driving conditions, uncertain traffic, and unpredictable weather. While this can pose challenges for diesel fleets, it becomes even more complex when dealing with electric bus fleets. The stochastic behavior of electric buses can lead to unpredictable charging patterns and unexpected disruptions in operation, causing grid issues and buses running out of energy mid-route. To tackle these issues, it is essential to develop robust operation and planning systems using advanced planning tools, control algorithms, and real-time data analysis. Accurately forecasting energy needs, reducing operational costs, and ensuring a reliable and efficient electric bus service can be achieved by implementing these systems while minimizing the risk of unforeseen disruptions.

A bus stop in Curitiba, Brazil. (Photo by Sasha Aickin)

Battery Degradation

Battery degradation is a significant challenge when implementing electric bus fleets, with electric buses having a lifespan of only 10 to 12 years due to battery aging.[4] Charging strategies must consider such factors as charging speed, frequency, and temperature to minimize battery aging, while public transportation operators must assess the impact of ancillary services on battery degradation. Developing strategies to mitigate battery degradation is crucial for decision-makers to ensure the reliability and longevity of their electric bus fleets.

Solutions

At INESC Coimbra of the University of Coimbra (Portugal), we are currently developing an intelligent charging model for electric bus fleets that aims to reduce operational costs by 30–40% while simultaneously increasing the battery life cycle of the buses.[5] Our model considers vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology for energy trading and battery degradation, allowing for a comprehensive analysis of the batteries’ lifespan and ensuring an extended battery life cycle. By optimizing the charging process, we can significantly reduce operational costs.

The electric bus fleet used as our case study in Coimbra, Portugal. (Photo by Paulo Amaral)

Through sensitivity analysis tests, we have discovered that energy trading is not currently advantageous but could become economically profitable soon. To improve battery lifespan and the operation time of bus fleets in cities, we conducted laboratory tests at the e-TESC Laboratory, University of Sherbrooke (Canada), to study the battery degradation behavior of buses under shallow temperatures. We have published a paper detailing our preliminary results in this regard.[6]

Battery laboratory tests in Sherbrooke, Canada.

Our ultimate goal is to provide a tool to assist public transportation operators in making informed decisions regarding the electrification of their bus systems. Through our research, we hope to drive the transition toward a more sustainable and environmentally friendly future.

Final Remarks

In summary, adopting electric buses in our communities is a significant milestone in our journey toward sustainability. However, we must acknowledge that this transition is not without its hurdles, and we must overcome them by employing cutting-edge technologies and inventive strategies. By using smart charging techniques, for instance, we can optimize the operational efficiency of electric bus fleets and reduce operating costs while ensuring that charging patterns are predictable and stable, thereby minimizing disruptions to the grid. We can also leverage V2G technology to trade energy with the grid and extend the battery life cycle of buses. Furthermore, we must invest in research and development efforts, such as those that we are undertaking at INESC Coimbra and the e-TESC Laboratory, to improve battery degradation behavior under extreme conditions and ensure that electric buses have a long and sustainable lifespan. Ultimately, our goal should be to provide public transportation operators with decision-making tools and resources to electrify their bus systems successfully and move toward a greener and more eco-friendly future.

[1] E. Mulholland and F. Rodríguez, “The Rapid Deployment of Zero-Emission Buses in Europe,” The International Council on Clean Transportation, September 19, 2022, https://theicct.org/publication/the-rapid-deployment-of-zero-emission-buses-in-europe/.

[2] B. Crothers, “This Chinese City Has 16,000 Electric Buses and 22,000 Electric Taxis. ” Forbes, February 14, 2021, https://www.forbes.com/sites/brookecrothers/2021/02/14/this-chinese-city-has-16000-electric-buses-and-22000-electric-taxis/.

[3] SSE Energy Solutions, “BUS2GRID Project: Smart Electrification for Electric Bus Fleets,” https://www.sseenergysolutions.co.uk/file/bus2grid-brochure.

[4] T. McGrath, L. Blades, J. Early, and A. Harris, “UK Battery Electric Bus Operation: Examining Battery Degradation, Carbon Emissions and Cost,” Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment 109 (August 2022), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trd.2022.103373.

[5] J. A. Manzolli, J. P. F. Trovão, and C. Henggeler Antunes, “Electric Bus Coordinated Charging Strategy Considering V2G and Battery Degradation,” Energy 254, Part A (September 2022), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2022.124252.

[6] Manzolli, Trovão, and Henggeler Antunes, “Optimisation of an Electric Bus Charging Strategy Considering a Semi-Empirical Battery Degradation Model and Weather Conditions,” 2022 11th International Conference on Control, Automation and Information Sciences (ICCAIS), Hanoi, Vietnam (2022): 298–303, https://doi.org/10.1109/ICCAIS56082.2022.9990180.

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投稿者 : ld-sylff

Applications for SRG and SLI to be Accepted from May 2023

April 7, 2023

The Sylff Association secretariat is pleased to announce that eligible fellows will be able to apply for two Sylff Support Programs beginning in May 2023.

Sylff Research Grant (SRG) provides financial assistance to help doctoral students and postdoc researchers advance their academic careers, while Sylff Leaders Initiatives (SLI) supports fellows seeking to contribute to the betterment of society by organizing social projects and forums.

The start of these two programs in fiscal 2023 is intended to broaden fellows’ opportunities for both academic advancement and social engagement.

The official call for applications will be made in May, but information about the two programs is available now on their respective web pages:

SRG: https://www.sylff.org/support_programs/srg/
SLI: https://www.sylff.org/support_programs/sli/

Be sure to check the Sylff website and newsletter for the official announcement of the program’s launch.

Please note that the Sylff Association secretariat is unable to answer questions about eligibility, application procedures, application documents, and other details of SRG and SLI until their official launch in May 2023.

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投稿者 : ld-sylff

Breathing Practices and Mental Health

March 23, 2023
By 29992

A 2021 Sylff fellow, Guy Fincham is a researcher and teacher of breathwork. While interest in breathing techniques has surged, Fincham cautions that there may be a mismatch between hype and evidence. He thus conducted a meta-analysis examining the effect of breathwork on stress, anxiety, and depression and hopes that the preliminary evidence paves the way for further research. Fincham also discusses the “Train over Plane” travel fund that he used to attend a conference in the Netherlands.

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Recent Publication

I am very pleased to share that the first paper from my PhD work (wholly funded by Sylff) has been published in the Nature Portfolio journal Scientific Reports. The paper is titled “Effect of Breathwork on Stress and Mental Health: A Meta-Analysis of Randomised-Controlled Trials” (nature.com/articles/s41598-022-27247-y).

Our publication in Nature’s Sci Rep.

Our meta-analysis on breathwork and mental health has received huge public interest so far, with nearly one million views of my tweet sharing it! According to Almetric, a platform that measures the attention that research outputs receive, our paper has done particularly well among the over 23 million research outputs across all sources that it has tracked to date, placing in the 99th percentile. In other words, it is in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric. Dr. Andrew D. Huberman, professor of neurobiology at Stanford School of Medicine and an inspiration of mine, even congratulated us on our work, though I had to reply saying that I am not a doctor just yet (currently being in my second year)!

Exposure of our publication on social media.(1)

Exposure of our publication on social media.(2)

Breathwork has received an unprecedented surge in public interest, and breathing practices may improve mental health. Breathwork techniques have emerged worldwide with complex historical roots from various traditions including, but certainly not limited to, Hinduism (Yoga and pranayama—where prana means “vital energy” or “life force” and ayama means “regulation” or “control”), Buddhism, Sufism, Shamanism, and psychedelic communities, along with scientific and medical researchers and practitioners.

More accessible approaches are needed to reduce or build resilience to stress worldwide, made even more evident by the COVID-19 pandemic. But while breathwork has become increasingly popular in the West owing to its therapeutic potential, there also remains the possibility of a mismatch between hype and evidence.

Accordingly, we examined whether breathwork interventions were associated with lower levels of self‐reported or subjective stress (classed as our primary outcome) and anxiety and depression (classed as secondary outcomes) compared to non-breathwork control groups. We searched seven databases, including two trial registers. The primary outcome of subjective stress included 12 randomized‐controlled trials (RCTs). Most studies were deemed to be at moderate risk of bias. The secondary outcomes of subjective anxiety and depressive symptoms comprised 20 and 18 RCTs, respectively.

The meta-analyses yielded significant small to medium mean effect sizes, showing that breathwork was associated with lower levels of subjective stress, anxiety, and depression than non-breathwork control groups. Our results thus showed that breathwork may have efficacy for improving stress and mental health. We urge caution, however, and advocate for nuanced research approaches with low risk‐of‐bias study designs to avoid a miscalibration between hype and evidence.

A key limitation of our meta-analysis was that, given the small sample size—likely due to the relative recency of the phenomenon of breathwork in the West—paired with a moderate risk of bias across included RCTs, the results should be interpreted very cautiously and not be extrapolated. Breathwork may help some but not others.

Nonetheless, breathwork could at least be part of the solution to meeting the need for more accessible therapeutic behavioral approaches to improving mental health. But again, more robust, well-designed studies are now needed to ensure that such recommendations are grounded in research evidence.

Public interest in and research on meditation has surged over recent decades. We may be at a similar cusp with breathwork and anticipate considerable growth in the field. Given the close ties of breathwork to psychedelic research, this could further accelerate growth. The scientific research community can build on the preliminary evidence provided here and thus potentially pave the way for effective integration of breathwork into public health.

The vast majority of my time spent as a first-year PhD candidate was devoted to this research project. I would like to thank my colleagues and collaborators at the University of Sussex and University of Oxford, along with the editor and reviewers at Scientific Reports for improving our work. Lastly, this research would not have been possible if it was not for the Sylff Association. I hope that this is only the beginning.

I am launching some of my own empirical breathwork studies soon with the Psychology and Medical Schools here at Sussex and with the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). I am also writing a physiologically oriented review with the Brighton and Sussex Medical School, and I am a co-investigator on The Breathwork Survey, launched by the Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London.

Train over Plane, Psychedelic Breathwork, and ICPR 2022

In late 2022 I traveled to Amsterdam and Haarlem in the Netherlands for ICPR 2022 (Interdisciplinary Conference on Psychedelic Research), primarily for a workshop the day before on breathwork, my research focus (Breathwork as Psychedelic Therapy).

As part of its green commitment, the University of Sussex School of Psychology has launched a new “Train over Plane” travel fund, which supports travel to conferences by train instead of plane. As a doctoral researcher I was fortunately one of the first to try it out, so I share my thoughts below on my experience with the trip I made to the Netherlands.

I had a profound experience that I could never have imagined or expected from breathwork (and so much more). I have undergone a personal paradigm shift and have gained an newfound respect for the therapeutic potential of breathwork as and for psychedelic therapy. The experience was invaluable and has made me view psychedelic breathwork under a new lens, which will benefit my future research and work.

Moreover, I connected with researchers and clinicians, some of whom were very interested in The Breathwork Survey that I am working on with the Psychedelic Research Group at Imperial College London. I had a lot of fun and had some lovely down regulation time the day after it had all finished.

Brussels after riding the Eurostar for my first time.

I wanted to use the Train over Plane fund because train is my favorite form of transport by far and is fortunately more eco-friendly than flying, saving up to 90% in carbon emissions. I had never been on Eurostar before so was glad to find out that it travels to Amsterdam. For the first journey I changed trains at Brussels, and the return leg was direct. Another great thing is that trains between Brighton and London St. Pancras International are direct.

Although the journeys took around two working days (one there and one back), I particularly enjoyed the comfort of traveling by train compared with flying, feeling much less restricted and freer. I also made friends with a lecturer at Kings College London on their way to a conference in Utrecht. I would encourage everyone at the Sussex School of Psychology to use the Train over Plane fund if traveling within the UK or mainland Europe.

I am now looking forward to ICPR 2024 . Hopefully there will be some research being presented on breathwork next time (my meta-analysis)! I would like to thank the Open Foundation and Open Up for organizing the ICPR conference and (breath)workshop, respectively; Sylff once again for funding me and making all this possible; my supervisors Kate Cavanagh and Clara Strauss for giving me their advice; Charlotte Rae and Harry Lewis for setting up the Train over Plane fund; and Mitzi Tahsin and Fran Barnard for assisting me when booking through the Key Travel platform.

Yes, that is me in the photos here (including my brain while doing breathwork in the MRI scanner at Sussex)!

Most importantly, thank YOU for reading (and breathing)!

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投稿者 : ld-sylff

Sylff@Tokyo: Colmex Fellow Analyzing the Zainichi Experience

February 8, 2023

Andrea Chapela, a writer and 2021–22 Sylff fellowship recipient at El Colegio de Mexico, visited the Sylff Association secretariat in Tokyo on December 14, 2022. She is currently enrolled in a master’s degree program in Japanese studies to explore the Zainichi experience in the novels of the Japanese-Korean writer, Lee Yangji.

Andrea Chapela (second from right), flanked by (from left) program officer Yue Zhang, director Keita Sugai, and program officer Maki Shimada.

Chapela has a unique background, having studied chemistry at the National Autonomous University of Mexico before earning an MFA in creative writing from the University of Iowa. She is multilingual, being conversant in Spanish, English, German, and French, and is also an award-winning writer, having published several books in the categories of fantasy and science fiction.

She received the Gilberto Owen National Literature Prize in 2018, the National Juan José Arreola Literature Prize in 2019, and the National Joven José Luis Martínez Essay Prize in 2019.

She was in Tokyo in December 2022 to conduct research on the work of Lee Yangji, who won the 100th Akutagawa Prize for her novel, Yuhi (Sunset). Chapela is analyzing 4 of Lee’s 10 novels on the topic of conflict of identity as a second-generation Zainichi (literally, “foreign residents” but usually referring to ethnic Koreans remaining in Japan after World War II and their descendants). Her research looks not only at the history of the Zainichi but also their literary works and the inclusion of Korean linguistic elements into the Japanese language.

We thank Chapela for visiting the Foundation during her stay in Tokyo and sharing news of her research. We wish her continued success in her academic and literary endeavors.

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投稿者 : ld-sylff

Early Compensatory Basic Concepts Intervention Needed for All Grade R Learners

January 27, 2023
By 25517

Louis Benjamin (University of the Western Cape, 2001) received a Sylff Project Grant (SPG) to disseminate the Basic Concepts Program in Northern Cape Province, one of the poorest regions of South Africa. The program he developed is designed as a cognitive intervention for preschool children to enhance their preparedness for early school education and beyond. Despite the challenges posed by COVID-19, the SPG program, implemented from 2019 to 2022, has succeeded in promoting learning and thinking in young children. The following article is reprinted from the website of Basic Concept Unlimited, an NGO led by Benjamin to promote the Basic Concepts Program in South Africa.

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The Basic Concepts Programme (BCP) is considered the first compensatory cognitive intervention programme for young learners (5-9yr olds) that has been implemented extensively in South Africa. The BCP is currently being scaled throughout the Northern Cape and has been implemented extensively in the Western Cape as well. It is our contention that a compensatory cognitive intervention programme like the BCP needs to be implemented on a national scale in South Africa.

But why should there be a need for such an intervention programme in the first place? Should we not rely on the national curriculum (CAPS) or other validated and established general education programmes to address the educational needs of young learners?

We incorrectly assume that merely attending a pre-school or school would adequately address the educational needs of most children. However, through our research at the Basic Concepts Foundation over the past 18 years, we have consistently found that 70% of school starters are not school prepared. In addition, researchers have found that 78% of Grade 4 children in South Africa were not able to read for meaning. Why is school attendance not a good predictor of learning? It might be a good start but it certainly is no guarantee that children will learn. What then would guarantee that all children learn?

We incorrectly assume that children would automatically ‘hook into’ the curriculum as if the curriculum would mould itself towards the needs of every child. The curriculum provides only the content to be taught to all children and does not concern itself with pedagogy. Many children have never even experienced the inside of a classroom or encountered a formal instructional situation, yet inside the classroom we expect them to respond in vastly different and ‘schooled’ ways that emphasize logic and scientific reason over trial and error guessing. Thus lack of exposure to this school reasoning is an important cause of failing to learn.

And so starts the tragic mismatch between the teacher, curriculum, and learner. These are the critical aspects that define the dynamics of learning and often they never align. We know that learners who are not engaged in learning find it difficult to thrive at school, and yet faulty assumptions about the automaticity of learning abound. Teachers are required to follow the curriculum, and often very rigidly, as this forms a central part of how they are monitored and evaluated. Yet, there is a need for a developmental and humanistic approach to connect learners to the curriculum content through a caring adult inside the classroom.

Another aspect is that learners often start school with enormous foundational deficiencies which if not addressed in the curriculum, might be exacerbated and even stymie learning. The problem is that merely trying to plaster the gaps with content does not help, particularly if that content is not presented at the right time in the right way. Furthermore, some concepts are developmentally more important than others. Through our work at the Basic Concepts Foundation, we have become increasingly aware of the importance of establishing the fundamental conceptual systems of colour, shape, size, position, number, and letter to support future learning.

Teaching the core conceptual content, however, is a delicate process that requires an enormous amount of sensitivity from the teacher. One might compare the level of knowledge and skill needed to delicately guide the child to that of a gardener who needs to know exactly how much sun or water to give to his/her plants for them to thrive. The BCP attunes teachers to this complex human process by providing them with the tools (methods and approaches) to get a better understanding of the learning needs of their children so that they can thrive.

Finally, we find that children who become positively connected to their teachers will also start to trust them. Such children find that being schooled (which includes learning how to reason, think, develop ideas and communicate) helps them to make sense of the world and in fact, enlarges their world as they start to develop the confidence to expand their actions and thinking. Children who are self-initiating and become more self-regulating are driven to learn for the sake of learning. The opposite is true for dependent and passive children who wait for their teachers to teach them the curriculum and who will most likely not flourish or thrive.

Thus we have uncovered some surprising truths about learning:

Going to school does not equate to learning.
School reasoning differs significantly from everyday reasoning.
Learning involves much more than a curriculum.
Learning is based on the primacy of ideas, basic concepts and language.
Teaching is more than science; it is part art, compassion, and interaction.
Confident and self-assured children are better suited to learning.

The Basic Concepts Programme (BCP) incorporates all 6 of these areas. We cannot assume that all children are hard-wired for school learning; nor are all educational settings prepared for the challenges that we find in the South African context. We should also not expect the education system (schools, curriculums, or teachers) to automatically accommodate the complexity of difficulties that children experience. We, therefore, propose that programmes like the BCP be extended across the country into more pre-schools and primary schools alongside the curriculum, not only to jump-start learning but to enrich teaching and learning, helping children to thrive and learn. We need to be sure that the intervention programmes used to produce change are based on valid theoretical models of learning and cognitive development. The BCP has been particularly thorough in establishing its scientific validity through an extensive doctoral study and action-based fieldwork over the past 18 years. It is urgent that we start to address the actual reasons that so many of our children continue to fail to learn through the universal introduction of an early years cognitive intervention programme that has been shown to promote learning, thinking and language in young children.

Reprinted from the website of Basic Concepts Unlimited.

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投稿者 : ld-sylff

Teaching Myself to Be a Teacher, Learning How to Be a Student, Educating Others to Educate Themselves

January 23, 2023
By 24051

Rui Caria, a PhD candidate and teacher at the University of Coimbra, describes his personal journey to becoming the teacher that he wished he had had. The journey has led him to create a YouTube channel as well as a new course at the university that addresses the questions of why study and how to study. He draws on literature as a means of bringing to life the concepts that he teaches.

* * *

In 2019 I became a teacher and a PhD candidate at the same time. Becoming a teacher didn’t make me jump to the other side of the classroom, it only put me on both sides.

I thought of myself as someone familiar with the side of the student. Not because, at that point, I had six years of university education behind me, but because of the challenges I faced during those years as a student.

Law school had been challenging for me. I entered one of the most demanding faculties in Portugal very unprepared. As a high school student who only studied on the evening before his exams, I suddenly found myself faced with thousands of pages of reading material, hours of lectures by people who didn’t captivate me, and studying things that, as it turned out, I didn’t find that interesting. On top of that, there was no certainty that I could afford the next tuition.

These challenges made me pose many questions regarding education. What is the value of education? What does it mean to be a student? How would this education aid myself and others around me? How could I truly educate myself?

Talking with many of my fellow students throughout, I quickly learned that I wasn’t the only one posing those questions. Many students didn’t know why they were studying. They had to make a choice at 18 years old, did it as best they could, and now found themselves asking if they had made the right one.

These questions never left me. Not after I graduated, not after I did my master’s degree, and not when I became a teacher and PhD candidate. On the contrary, now more than ever, I felt the weight of their importance. I was on the receiving end of the questions and felt the need to be able to give answers. If I didn’t, I felt that I didn’t deserve to be a teacher and couldn’t keep being a student.

From early on, I saw being a teacher as an opportunity to do good; to have a positive influence on the lives of young people. Perhaps it was because, as a young student, I wished someone had done that for me. I wanted to be a teacher capable of offering young students a “why” that would drive them to keep chasing their education to its fullest potential.

Whatever the outcome of my journey might be, I had to better myself and take action: become an agent, rather than a subject, of education.

I decided that I should be able to teach my students beyond the subjects of my lectures. This meant finding ways in which these subjects related to the world and to individuals themselves. I needed a connection between these realities that was appealing, accessible, and enriching.

Thinking about this, I realized how I had come into contact with a variety of subjects through literature. Stories had made me more interested in philosophy, psychology, history, sociology, and even physics. They did it either by allowing myself to suffer like a character whom chance would never allow me to be or by plunging me into an immersive world that the currents of time would never allow me to swim to.

Why simply write a concept on a blackboard and point at a textbook when you can bring it to life through the words of some of the most eloquent, imaginative, and wise people in the history of the world?

I saw the potential of stories to enrich the way I taught law and the way my students learned. But I also knew it would be difficult to tell students, “Read the subject’s textbook, your notes. . . . Oh! And also, this 400-page novel.” People have smartphones with high-speed Internet and infinite scroll; one must know what he is competing against. Innovation was the answer.

I created a YouTube channel where I read small portions of classical works of literature that touched on topics of law. The videos were small and gave a short explanation of how the specific portion related to a specific concept. Videos were uploaded monthly during the semester and, at the end of each month, students who participated in the project were invited to discuss the ideas of the book and relate them to what was taught in class.

It gave a new depth and life to what we talked about in class. Suddenly, the concept of justice wasn’t just something you read on a textbook but a difficult problem that Aeschylus, the father of tragedy in Ancient Greek theater, posed against the judgment of Athena herself in one of his plays. The death penalty wasn’t just a remote idea, it came to be seen through the eyes of Albert Camus’s character Meursault as he ponders the meaning of truth waiting for the guillotine.

For this project, I was awarded the 2021 Prize for Pedagogical Innovation by the University of Coimbra.

The author holds the plaque of the Prize for Pedagogical Innovation that he received in 2021.

III

I wasn’t completely satisfied after receiving the prize. I had thought carefully about the project and decided it was worthy of pursuit, otherwise I wouldn’t have done it; and it proved to be useful and innovative, otherwise it wouldn’t have been awarded. Still, I came to find its scope limited. I was teaching my students beyond law and pointing them to literature and its ocean of ideas, but there were many more things that I wanted to teach them and couldn’t inside the confines of my lectures on law.

I still saw many of them struggling with their role as university students. I saw lack of motivation born from a sense of uncertainty about the future. I understood that many wanted to learn more and efficiently but didn’t know how to study. For many, as was the case for myself during my graduate years, everything was a question.

I took it upon myself to provide answers as best as I could. I decided to create a full course, for free, open to all the students at the university, designed to answer two big questions: Why study? How to study? I pitched the idea to the vice dean responsible for the development of undergraduate students and got the approval to create and teach the course.

For months, apart from everything else I was doing, I devoted myself to research and thinking, as honestly and as well as I could, about the answers I would give.

I went after the “why.” My approach to the importance of education had always been grounded in the literature that helped me through tough times. Existentialist philosophy had come to frame much of my world view, especially the work of Albert Camus.[1] The idea of gathering strength within yourself in the face of a world that was indifferent to your existence was dear to me. The intuition in me came to be that, in some way, education should serve to make you stronger. On the other hand, the works of Dostoyevsky had made me believe that there was tremendous value in the good acts one can do for people and that the memory of good could sustain you for a lifetime. Education wasn’t only about making you stronger but about making you stronger so you can be good and help other people.

As I read beyond my literary interests and started to look at how models of development relate to education, I came across the notion of the human capabilities approach in the work of Martha Nussbaum, which resonated with my intuition. Education could in fact be conceptualized as a means of developing capacities in individuals that, in turn, would help them raise other individuals and eventually their own society.

The new challenges posed by the demands of writing a PhD thesis had already put me into contact with the “how” of studying. As I read more about it, it became clearer that studying should be done in a way that was both effective and efficient. The tools necessary to study in this way overlapped with the methods of peak performance that were applicable in several other fields. They lead to the best results. But to perform at your peak, changes in your environment and in yourself were required. Habits must be changed, attention must be sharpened, mindsets must be reinforced. And a vision of the future must be kept vivid and clear: that you can forever learn, forever grow stronger, forever be better, for yourself and for others.

I learned about all of these things and taught them all, for the first time, to the several students that attended the first edition of the “Why Study, How to Study” course at the University of Coimbra.

Creating and teaching a course to students at the university where I studied and now teach was, without a doubt, something I never thought I would be able to do. But it’s one of the most meaningful things I have ever had the honor of doing. Now, I’m glad I had all those doubts as a young man arriving at university. I’m thankful for the suffering that brought them. With time, they transformed from ghosts to guides. I stopped running away from them to start running toward them, and in doing so, I found myself having a journey that I deem worthy of dedicating these words to. One where I had to teach myself to be a teacher, because I wanted to be the one I never had and the one my students deserved. One where I learned how to be a student by never ceasing to ask questions, by not giving up on the hard journey to find the answers. One where I educated others to educate themselves, because I believed there are few greater gifts.

[1] I previously wrote about him in another article for Sylff Voices (https://www.sylff.org/news_voices/28458/).

A video of the author talking about the project can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d54F2XdZC4w&ab_channel=UniversidadedeCoimbra

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投稿者 : ld-sylff

Sylff@Tokyo: Integrating Disaster Management into Tourism Development

January 19, 2023

Imran, center

The Sylff Association secretariat was pleased to welcome Sarojini Imran, a 1999–2001 fellowship recipient at the University of Indonesia, on January 13, 2023, as our first visitor of the new year. It has been over 10 years since we last met her at the BABA (Building A Better Asia) retreat in the city of Nara in 2011. This time, she was visiting Japan as a member of a research team on public-private partnerships in disaster management in tourist areas.

Imran is currently teaching in the Faculty of Tourism at the University of Pancasila in Indonesia and heads the faculty’s Research and Community Service Unit. An expert of urban planning, she has extensive knowledge that can be applied to tourism development and enjoys working in the field.

Rural areas in Indonesia have high tourism potential because of their cultural assets and natural beauty. But steps must also be taken, Imran says, to manage the natural disasters that often strike those areas. Her research team, comprising university colleagues and a government official, chose to study Japan because the country, like Indonesia, also experiences many earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis. Her team visited Nagoya, Sendai, and Fukushima to gain insights into disaster management through interviews with government officials, hotel managers, and transport operators.

In addition to describing her current research activities, Imran shared her views on how the Sylff community can enrich fellows’ career development. As longstanding chair of the University of Indonesia’s Fellows Association, her current challenge is to attract new Association members in the post-COVID era. She hopes to draw on her academic experience to strengthen cooperation among members of the global Sylff community.

We want to thank Imran deeply for choosing to visit us on her only free day during her Japan visit and for sharing her valuable observations on ways to make the Sylff network more useful for fellows. We wish her continued success in her future endeavors.