Excentric Position Research Articles

‘Always half-and-half’: ‘Voyage in’ as halfness in Jean Rhys’s short fiction

From the initial years when criticism on the writer Jean Rhys largely circled around Wide Sargasso Sea to an interest in her other novels growing since then, Rhys’s short stories have evoked comparatively scant critical interest. Yet the thematic concerns in her short stories contribute as vitally to the writer’s continuing close scrutiny of coloniality as her novels do. In this article, it is the criss-cross traffic of imperialist voyages that is looked at through Rhys’s short stories. The thematics of contamination, bastardization and halfness that these stories probe complicate more utopian theorizations of cosmopolitanization. The voyage into the imperial capital is inseparable from the experience of creolized, stigmatized, ‘halfness’ in Rhys’s corpus and that makes for a contestatory understanding of the polyphony often ascribed to these increasingly porous cityscapes. This article looks at two stories from the writer, ‘Overture and Beginners Please’ and ‘On Not Shooting Sitting Birds’, both foregrounding the ex-centric position of the women protagonists who are specifically tied to a Caribbean background, to suggest how Rhys’s work haunts that writing of the trope of voyaging whereby the brutal abrasions of colonial history are retrospectively subsumed into the more pluralistic folds of hybridity. In these stories, the journey into the imperial metropolis sets up a probe into the limits and blindspots of cosmopolitan Europe in the early to mid-twentieth century. Rhys’s short fiction spectrally interrupts the modernist narrative of aesthetic border-crossings to tell another, more experiential, one, where boundary crossing is a haunted experience from the point of view of those voyaging in.

Lydia’s silence: Representation of trauma from an ex-centric position in Achmat Dangor’s Bitter Fruit

South Africa, a place long caught in the crosshairs of hegemonic violence and racism, provides a fitting case study for the imbalance and marginalization of the traumatized individuals who lived through the fascist apartheid regime. Achmat Dangor’s celebrated novel Bitter Fruit (2001) is a tragic story of the coloured family of Silas Ali set during 1998; when Nelson Mandela’s presidency was gaining momentum in South Africa. It was a period when the violent and discriminatory apartheid regime was coming to an end and a fledgling democracy was still testing its wings in South Africa. The narrative of Bitter Fruit is centred around the silenced memory of Lydia’s rape, Silas’s wife, by a white security policeman called Francois du Boise. The novel begins with Lydia’s suppressed traumatic past erupting into the post-apartheid present when Silas accidentally encounters his wife’s rapist at a mall in Johannesburg thereby bringing back the traumatic memories of the past. Nineteen-year-old Mikey Ali, who is a child conceived in shame and terror, is the figurative ‘bitter fruit’ in the novel born of miscegenation and apartheid abuse. Lydia’s trauma haunts the family in complex ways ultimately leading to the disintegration of familial bonds. These personal experiences of trauma take place against the backdrop of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), a famous but controversial reparative model of justice. The proposed research article aims to understand trauma from the ex-centric position of a coloured woman who refuses to allow her personal experiences of trauma to be undermined and defined as merely wartime ‘collateral damage’. Lydia resists the reductionist approach that the members of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) had adopted while dealing with cases related to violence and human rights abuses. In the beginning, dialogue and discourses on trauma centred mainly around extremely unusual events but now trauma theories have infiltrated co

Álvaro Menen Desleal’s Speculative Planetary Imagination

Science fiction has long held a marginalized status within the Latin American literary canon. This is due to myriad assumptions: its supposed inferior quality, sensationalist content, and disconnect from socio-historical reality. In this article, I argue for the recuperation of Salvadoran author Álvaro Menen Desleal as a foundational writer of Central American speculative fiction. I explore why Menen Desleal turns to sci-fi - abstracting his fictive worlds to far-off futures or other planets - at a moment when the writing of contemporaries of the Committed Generation was increasingly politicized and realist. I argue that Menen Desleal’s speculative planetary imagination toggles between scaling up localized concerns and evading them altogether to play with “universal” categories. By thinking with the categories of the human or the planet from an ex-centric position, Menen Desleal playfully appropriates generic convention, only to disrupt it from within.

La figura del charnego en Últimas tardes con Teresa, de Juan Marsé: hacia un nuevo concepto de nación

ABSTRACT This article seeks to examine the different ways in which the Other is represented in the novel Últimas tardes con Teresa, by Juan Marsé. Published in 1966, the novel is one of the first literary references to the arrival in Catalonia of the figure of the charnego (a derogatory term that refers to the southern-Spanish migrants who arrived in Catalonia from 1960 to 1970 and came to account for more than 50% of Barcelona’s population, settling mainly on the periphery of the city). I will argue that the introduction of the migrant into the Catalan national landscape in this novel is the first step in Marsé’s construction of a postmodern concept of Catalan nationhood, which functions as a counter-narrative that erases the totalising boundaries imposing an essentialist identity onto a national community. This new idea of the nation, more open and diverse, entails a progressive blurring of boundaries between what is considered the Self and the Other. Marsé’s choice of Spanish—as opposed to Catalan—as his literary language is, I will argue, another key element in his construction of a broader definition of Catalan national identity. This choice situates Marsé in a liminal space: he places himself in an ex-centric position with regard to language, which is a key element of the discourse of Catalan national identity, with respect to this novel where the Self is Catalan.

INGENIO Y MUJER EN EL DISCURSO HEGEMÓNICO Y HETERÓNOMO DE LA TEMPRANA MODERNIDAD ESPAÑOLA

Durante el siglo XVI, una serie de dispositivos discursivos hegemónicos construyeron una representación de los sujetos y esos discursos tuvieron una amplia difusión e influencia en la centuria siguiente. El Examen de ingenios para las ciencias (1575) de Juan Huarte de San Juan fue uno de esos discursos performativos que delimitó las competencias y funciones de los hombres teniendo en cuenta el ingenio de cada quien. Si bien la mujer no fue el tema del tratado, no estuvo ausente de la mirada del médico navarro, quien ofreció su propia perspectiva. Por otro lado, y en franca disidencia con estas opiniones, dos mujeres, María de Zayas y Mariana de Carvajal, desde el campo literario y con una posición excéntrica, manifestaron en diferentes obras su resistencia a esos principios biológicos y universales a través de la voz de las enunciadoras de los paratextos y de la voz y accionar de los personajes.

Journeys through planetary urbanization: Decentering perspectives on the urban

In recent years, the concept of planetary urbanization has provoked a widespread debate. It is grounded upon a basic hypothesis: that the contemporary urbanizing world cannot be adequately understood without systematically revising inherited concepts and representations of the urban. It is therefore first and foremost an invitation to adopt a different perspective, one that decenters the focus of analysis and looks from an ex-centric position on the urban world. This article attempts to clarify some of the most pressing questions that have arisen thus far in the debate on planetary urbanization. It approaches the question of the power of the urban under conditions of planetary urbanization, and explores the nature and role of theory, in relation to urban practice as well as in relation to urban research. Through some reflections on the relationship between the abstract and the concrete in social theory, this paper discusses the much-debated question of “universalizing” and “totalizing” theoretical engagements, addresses the role of difference and specificity in urban research, and finally evaluates some first results of the various ongoing investigations of planetary urbanization.

The intersubjectivity of delusions.

The intersubjectivity of delusions.

Rekonstruktion des Humeruskopfdrehpunktes in Abhängigkeit vom Prothesendesign

The displacement of the rotation centre of the humeral head in relation to the axis of the shaft varies strongly between individuals. The Affinis shoulder endoprosthesis has a double excentric adjustment possibility that permits us to adapt the head to the medial and dorsal offset. So far, such examinations have taken place exclusively on anatomic preparations. This raises the question of whether the need for such a prosthetic system can be derived from the anatomic variation of the pivot points. In 49 patients with an implanted Affinis shoulder prostheses, we calculated the individual rotation centres of the head from the position of the relocatable prosthetic cone and the excentric position of the head. In addition, we used the Constant score to record the clinical function. In the examined case material, we needed the entire setting range of 12 mm mediolateral and 6 mm dorsoventral of the prosthesis, as it presented a great variation of the rotational centres of the head. The majority of the head centres were displaced in a posterior-lateral direction. The examination showed that none of the found anatomic head centres could have been reconstructed exactly with a conventional prosthesis. Prostheses with a single excentricity would allow correct adjustment in only 9 cases, as the adjustable rotational centres of the head are situated in an orbit, which limits the setting possibilities. In 20 of the 49 patients humeral head prosthesis were implanted in cases of primary osteoarthritis. The Constant score of this group improved from 18 points preoperatively to 76 points after 24.1 months in the mean. The high variation of the head centres indicates the necessity of a freely adjustable system, such as in a double excentric bearing. This is a way that permits an optimal reconstruction of the anatomic conditions. Therefore all technical chances for bony balancing should be used to adapt the prosthesis to the bone and not the bone to the prosthesis.

Anatomical considerations regarding the "bare spot" of the glenoid cavity.

The "bare spot" of the glenoid cavity has recently been described as a constant reference point to quantify the amount of bone loss from the inferior portion of the glenoid cavity. In shoulder surgery this spot should help the surgeon to determine the width of the inferior portion of the glenoid cavity arthroscopically. The aim of this study was to determine the localization of the bare spot within the glenoid cavity and to prove its usefulness in shoulder surgery by means of a macroscopic study using embalmed glenohumeral joints ( n=20; 12 left, 8 right). Each glenoid cavity was photographed and transferred to a commercial AutoCAD software program. The bare spot was marked and the mean distances between the center of the bare spot and the inferior ( a), anterior ( b(1)) and posterior ( b(2)) inner margins of the glenoid labrum as well as its relationship ( c) to the mid-point of a virtual circle formed by the inferior portion of the glenoid cavity were measured (mean values : a=9.70, b(1)=10.88, b(2)=13.71, c=3.2 mm). In most cases, the bare spot showed a significantly excentric position within the inferior part of the glenoid cavity ( p<0.05). Due to the great variability in the shape of the glenoid cavity, an inferior circle according to previous descriptions could only be observed in half the specimens. From the results of our study the bare spot seems to be an unreliable landmark for the determination of the center of the inferior portion of the glenoid cavity, although it has a constant appearance and is probably expressed as the result of cartilaginous distribution due to dynamic shoulder activity.

Morphologic properties of neoplastic mast cells: delineation of stages of maturation and implication for cytological grading of mastocytosis

In the present study, cytological properties of bone marrow mast cells (MC) were analyzed and correlated with clinical parameters in 69 patients with systemic mastocytosis (SM). Based on cytomorphological features, four distinct cell types were recorded: (i) typical tissue MC (round cells, well granulated, round central nuclei); (ii) atypical MC exhibiting elongated cytoplasmic extensions, oval nuclei with excentric position, and a hypogranulated cytoplasm with focal granule accumulation (‘atypical MC type I’); (iii) atypical MC with bi- or multilobed nuclei (‘atypical MC type II’); and (iv) metachromatically granulated blast-like cells. In the majority of cases with SM, the percentage of MC in bone marrow (bm) smears was less than 5% (of all nucleated bm cells), and the predominant types were typical MC or atypical MC type I. In a smaller group of patients, the percentage of MC was greater than 5% and a significant subset of MC (≥10%) were classified as ‘metachromatic blasts’ and/or atypical MC type II. These patients had a significantly shorter survival ( P<0.05) and most of them were found to lack UP-like skin lesions. A percentage of MC≥20% was invariably associated with the diagnosis ‘mast cell leukemia’. Multivariate analysis confirmed the prognostic value of the cytology in SM and identified the percentage of MC (of all nucleated bm cells) as an independent prognostic variable. These data suggest that cytomorphological assessment of bm MC in SM is an important diagnostic approach that may help to delineate between variants of the disease.

Klinische Ergebnisse weicher intraokularer Linsen aus Poly-HEMA

In a prospective study 28 patients were unilaterally implanted with a flexible posterior chamber lens made of poly-HEMA. Clinical results of 18 months follow up is reported. Implantation of the one-piece lens was more difficult in some patients according to the elastic property of the lens in comparison to PMMA-lenses. This is expressed in 8 patients in which a asymmetric sulcus-bag fixation of the lens was found. Postoperative visual acuity of better than 20/40 was found in 21 patients, which is rather the same as with hard intraocular implants. According to a lower refraction index of poly-HEMA the refractive power had to be chosen about 1 dpt higher than in PMMA-lenses. Early observation of the soft intraocular implants revealed 3 decentered lenses, in later follow up 5 implants were in an excentric position. One lens removal was performed due to diplopia. 16 of 28 patients revealed capsular fibrosis after 18 months follow up, in 8 patients a YAG-capsulotomy was performed. As an advantage of soft intraocular implants of poly-HEMA a good biocompatibility can be ruled out which is demonstrated in poor cell deposits on the lens surface and no synechias. The minor tendency to adheresis seems to favour on the other hand a destable fixation of the lens, which is expressed in the number of decentered lenses, possibly also in the observed capsular fibrosis.

Effects on the vestibulo- and opto-oculomotor system in rats by lesions of the commissural vestibular fibres.

Eye movements were recorded from rats with a magnetic search coil system before and after sectioning of the midline commissural pathways in the brain stem at the level of the vestibular nuclei. After lesion, the findings were as follows: 1) During sinusoidal vestibular stimulation the eyes moved in a sinusoidal way similar to the head movement without any regular saccades. There was a reduced gain and a phase lead. 2) During optokinetic stimulation the eyes moved in the stimulus direction to an excentric position and stayed there until stimulation ceased. 3) During acceleratory/deceleratory rotation in the light there was a drift of the eyes in the direction of the expected slow phase movement to an excentric position. In some animals there was a directional asymmetry. The findings may be explained by a failure of the central neural integrator for horizontal eye movements. The results support the hypothesis that vestibular commissural fibres are of crucial importance for the function of this integrator system.

Chemical thinning of III?V compound semiconductors for transmission electron microscopy

A vapour jet etching method and suitable equipment are tested in order to thin monocrystalline and polycrystalline material of GaAs, InP and InAs for transmission electron microscopy. The reactive vapour jet consists of air, bromine and methanol. The thinning procedure is monitored by an optical microscope. Large thin areas could be obtained using a bubbler temperature of 60° C, 20% bromine in methanol, a distance between nozzle and sample surface of 1.5 mm and a nozzle mouth diameter of 0.7 mm. During pre-etching the vapour flow rate was 0.71 min−1, and 0.31 min−1 was realized during final etching up to perforation. The etching times ranged between 1 to 2 min with an initial sample thickness of 350 to 365 μm. Large thin areas have only been obtained using an excentric position of the nozzle with respect to the sample centre in combination with a manual rotation of the specimen holder.

DEVELOPMENTAL MORPHOLOGY AND CYTOLOGY OF THE YOUNG MAIZE EMBRYO (ZEA MAYS L.)

SUMMARY Young embryos of maize were analyzed with light and electron microscopical techniques to determine the sequence of morphological, anatomical and cytological events resulting in the onset and initial development of the embryo axis and the scutellum. The proembryo stage ends at 5 days after pollination (DAP). The radial symmetry of the proembryo changes into a bilateral symmetry, probably caused by the excentric position of the embryo apex within the endosperm. Scutellum formation starts at the apex and posterior side of the embryo proper and is characterized cytologically by different types of cell growth and multiplication in epidermis and mesophyl. From anatomical observations it is concluded that the coleoptile arises as a protuberance of the scutellum. Shoot meristem formation initiates in the protoderm at the anterior side of the embryo and is characterized cytologically by decreasing cell sizes, by vacuolation and by an increase of cytoplasm. The lateral orientation of the shoot meristem is likely caused by the failure of a second cotyledon to develop. Root meristem formation is somewhat retarded. Only vacuolized cells at the base of the embryo proper were detected at 5 DAP but at 7 to 8 DAP the root meristem was identified as a group of dividing cells with few vacuoles and much cytoplasm. The meristem is not located at the exterior of the embryo but at the base of the embryo proper, in direct line with the suspensor. The coleorhiza is formed adjacent to the seminal root. Its exogenous character was not established. The new axis from root to shoot meristem deviates from the axis of the proembryo as a result of the lateral position of the shoot meristem. Lateral outgrowth of the shoot is, however, restricted by mechanical forces from outside and growth of tissues inside the embryo. In the determination of the location of the meristems next to morphological, also physiological and genetical factors are important. Metabolic gradients and physiological sinks are established already before the zygote divides and expression of polarity is present in all cormophyta.

Cytological Findings in Medullary Carcinoma of the Thyroid

In six cases of medullary carcinoma of the thyroid rather characteristic findings were seen in cytological specimens obtained by aspiration or imprint. The roundish-polygonal or spindle-shaped cells were predominantly disseminated, but occasionally arranged in small groups. The nuclei were frequently found in an excentric position; binuclear cells were sometimes encountered. In addition, five of the six cases showed intranuclear cytoplasmic inclusions which were also investigated by electron microscopy in specimens of two cases. Such inclusions in aspiration biopsies of the thyroid have so far been regarded, as characteristic for papillary carcinoma. In smears as well as in histological sections amyloid and calcitonin could be demonstrated by congo red staining and by immunocytochemistry, respectively. The cytomorphology of the tumor cells, their pattern of arrangement, and the peculiar nuclear inclusions make up a combination of findings that may justify the diagnosis of medullary carcinoma in aspiration biopsies. In smears the diagnosis can already be confirmed when (immuno-) cytochemical methods are applied to smear preparations.

WALL MORPHOGENESIS INCOSCINODISCUS WAILESIIGRAN AND ANGST. I. VALVE MORPHOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT OF ITS ARCHITECTURE1

ABSTRACTThe morphology of the valve ofCoscinodiscus wailesiiand the development of its siliceous architecture, studied in the SEM and TEM, is compared with valve formation inThalassiosira eccentrica(Ehrenberg.) Cleve. Though the areolae‐architecture of these two species differs in such that the cribrum is proximal and the foramen distal inT. eccentrica, and inC. wailesiithe cribrum is distal and the foramen proximal, the formation of their complex loculate system is similar, displacing a centrifugal growth pattern with respect to the valve, and a proximal to distal, sequentially. During base layer formation a hitherto undescribed rib system outlines the prospective areolae. The vertical differentiation is in principle the same as inT. eccentricaand also the cribra are formed centripetally in relation to the areolae in both species. The location of the cribra at the proximal or distal side, therefore, seems to be of minor importance for the sequence of silica deposition. Variation in girdle bands is discussed with respect to cell division. The prophasic nuclear migration from the interphase position to the girdle bands, where mitosis is performed, seems to be necessary for triggering the formation of the unilateral cleavage furrow that later forms a cleavage ring with excentric position. The divided nuclei migrate with the ingrowing cleavage furrow to the center of the newly created protoplasmic surfaces to initiate valve formation.

Elektronenmikroskopische Untersuchungen der Enzystierung von Vahlkampfia trilaminata n.sp.

No pecularities could be revealed in the trophozoite, but of the investigated ultrastructural changes during encystment the following seem to be valuable for species characterization: a) the early appearance cf a single and very electron-dense granule inside the nucleolus in excentric position, b) the respectively loose fibrillar or dense fibrilar structure of the two layers of the cyst wall, their close apposition one to the other, and the close apposition of the inner one to the cell membrane, c) the intracellular appearance of an electron-dense aggregation immediately beneath the cell membrane.The presence of this aggregation together with the two extracellular layers led to the choice of the species designation “trilaminata”.

Postovulatory aging of human ova: I. Light microscopic observations

AbstractThe morphologic changes undergone by the human secondary oocyte following ovulation were assessed by light microscopy in 57 specimens recovered from the Fallopian tube and endometrial cavity between 24 and 144 hr after the luteinizing hormone peak in plasma. Ovarecovered shortly after ovulation were surrounded by a large cumulus mass comprising approximately 20,000 follicular cells. Whenever it was possible to perform a detailed observation of the perivitelline space in these ova, the presence of a polar body was recognized. The oocyte usually occupied an excentric position within the cumulus. Ovum denudation appeared to proceed by breakdown of the cumulus into fragments and release of the oocyte with a small number of cells attached to the zona. As a consequence of this process the oocyte surrounded by a few layers of cells frequently coexisted with large fragments of the cumulus. Progress of ovum denudation was time dependent and proceeded at a relatively slow pace. Some uterine ova still had cells attached to the zona. At 96 hr after the LH peak 40% of the ova underwent fragmentation of the cytoplasm giving rise to anucleated pieces of varying sizes. The dimensions of the zona pellucida and ooplasm presented wide individual variations as well as some time related changes. The mean external diameter of the zona ± SD of 43 ova was 161.6 ± 14.6 μm.The occurrence of denudation and cytoplasmic fragmentation were more clearly related to the postovulatory age of the ovum than to the site of recovery. The rate of denudation of human oocytes seems to proceed at a much lower speed in comparison with small mammals currently used as laboratory animals.

Factors in the cytological diagnosis of alveolar cell carcinoma.

Cytologic specimens of 23 patients suffering from histologically confirmed alveolar cell carcinoma (bronchiolo-alveolar carcinoma) were examined with respect to 47 objective and subjective criteria by two independent cytologists. The following characteristics were found: typical clustering of tumor cells (concretion = tightly packed cells, often finger-like packing or rosette-formation), hyperchromasia of the nucleus, size of tumor cells like or larger than alveolar macrophages, narrow ranges of nucleus-cytoplasm ratios (mean: 0.675; SD: 0.100) despite polymorphism of tumor cells, folding of the nuclear membrane, and signs of phagocytic activity (vacuolation, excentric position of the nucleus, erythrophagocytosis). A factor analysis of the results of examinations revealed six underlying factors of diagnosis. These factors are considered to be especially important for the validity of the diagnosis of a alveolar cell carcinoma and the occurrence of misinterpretations: yield of tumor cells in the specimen, type of clustering of the tumor cells degree of preservation, qualitative attributes of the nucleus, qualitative attributes of the cytoplasm, and quantitative measurements of the size of tumor cells.

Embryological studies inCyperus alopecuroides rottb

Development of microsporangium, male gametophyte, megasporangium, megagametophyte, endosperm, embryo, pericarp and seed coat inCyperus alopecuroides has been investigated. The anther wall consists of the epidermis, fibrous endothecium, a middle layer and glandular tapetum whose cells remain uninucleate throughout. The four nuclei formed after meiosis take an excentric position near the inner end of the microspore mother cell. One of the four nuclei increases in size and moves towards the center of the microspore mother cell and functions further, while the other three remain small and degenerate later. A simultaneous type of cytokinesis results in the formation of a thin cell wall separating the functional nucleus from the non-functional nuclei and similar walls separate the latter from each other. The pollen grains are shed at the three-celled stage. The gynoecium is bicarpellary, syncarpous and the ovary is unilocular with a single, basal, anatropous, bitegminal and crassinucellar ovule. The micropyle is formed by the inner integument only. Some of the funicular cells near the micropyle elongate and function as an obturator. After fertilization, a well-developed hypostase becomes differentiated at the chalazal region of the ovule just above the funicular vascular strand. The development of the megagametophyte conforms to the Polygonum type. The endosperm is of the Nuclear type and the embryo development corresponds to the Juncus variation of the Onagrad type (Johansen, 1950). Pericarp is four-layered. All the four layers become thick-walled in the mature fruit. Seed coat is two-layered and is formed by both the inner and the outer integuments. Seed coat is free from pericarp.