Steady Hand Research Articles

The Fictions of Stephen Graham Jones: A Critical Companion ed. by Billy J. Stratton

Reviewed by: The Fictions of Stephen Graham Jones: A Critical Companion ed. by Billy J. Stratton Eric Gary Anderson Billy J. Stratton, ed., The Fictions of Stephen Graham Jones: A Critical Companion. Albuquerque: U of New Mexico P, 2016. 456 pp. Cloth, $65. This, the first collection of critical essays dedicated to the fictions of contemporary Blackfeet writer Stephen Graham Jones, considers a body of work both quite recent and so fast growing that the word "prolific" borders on understatement. "Can't seem to stop," [End Page 456] he writes on his website, Demon Theory. Guided by Billy Stratton's steady editorial hand, this volume maps that seemingly unstoppable force, throwing down markers that empower further work on stories and novels both known and (as yet) unknown. Neophytes to Jones's work and confirmed fans alike will find here a refreshingly enthusiastic and generally helpful gathering of starting points for thinking about his achievement—which, this book demonstrates convincingly, is significant and, particularly with regard to Native American and Indigenous studies, provocatively complex. I would want to own this book for its opening piece alone: Jones's "Letter to a Just-Starting-Out Indian Writer—And Maybe to Myself." His advice is on point, as in, "Go on, get out there, traffic in the genres typically denied to Indians" (xii) and "Don't be an elf" (xi), an injunction that goes to trenchant, challenging, and deeply useful larger points about coming to terms with the labels and categories that all too often burden Indian writers and their readers. For example, "just assume the Indianness. Of everything. Overwrite the world with us. Because we are everywhere. We're in the soil, yes, but we're in the future, too. Insist upon that" (xvi). The "Dialogues" between Jones and Stratton are terrific, too; these conversations open up space for Jones to reflect on the shadow selves "that could have been" him (21) and that haunt and drive his writing, as well as on how he gauges his success as a writer, how his fiction riffs on The Wizard of Oz, George W. Bush, Marty Robbins's song "El Paso," and much more. In addition to the above chapters, the volume includes an editor's introduction by Stratton, fourteen essays, a brief but nicely turned afterword by Paul Tremblay, and three linked appendices presented as "A Cartographic Note on the Archives of Stephen Graham Jones." The sampling of photographs of annotated manuscript pages culled from Jones's files and the preview of his forthcoming graphic novel, Demon Theory: A Very Graphic Novel, are intriguing, but this section of the book could be more fully annotated—more metatextual—in its own right. Some of the fourteen chapters are more fully fledged and more critically and theoretically up-to-date than others. Considering the "cartographic note" not only as an appendix but also as a methodology [End Page 457] and a goal for the book as a whole, though, I can say that each chapter contributes in some way to the project of mapping Jones's work. Some of the essays, inspired by the smooth, daring, agile, and subtle workings of Jones's own prose, refreshingly uncramp a variety of academic conventions. Stratton notes in his introduction a desire to be "free from the influence of, or even the dependency on, preconceived structures of meaning and interpretation that were never formulated to address how [Jones's] varied work intersects with the complex and interrelated processes central to Native American literature and contemporary writing" (3). To the extent that the book dynamites these "preconceived structures," it clears space for risk-taking as well as for good thinking about how Jones honors, wrangles, and inside-outs other kinds of preconceived structures whenever he builds on the bones of familiar western (and other) locations (the Dakotas, West Texas) and available genres (the zombie story, the werewolf story, the captivity narrative, and so on). As Stratton implies, it could also be time to develop entirely new methods. This all raises a question for me about the strong presence of Gerald Vizenor throughout much of the collection, an homage to Vizenor's enormously influential work as well as a strategy...

The astrophysicist

The astrophysicist Lenea Grace (bio) sings karaoke on the first date dances in freezeframes likes my haircalls me on a Thursday went to CalTechdoesn't read obsesses over dark matter makes bitter coffeemakes me laugh is a Warren Zevon songa Vancouver fog a misty reflectiona steady hand smarter than you bends me overfucks me in two and the universe expands [End Page 91] Lenea Grace Lenea Grace is the author of A Generous Latitude (ECW Press, 2018) and her work has appeared in The Walrus, Best New Poets, The Malahat Review, The Fiddlehead, and elsewhere. Lenea is the 2017 winner of The Walrus Poetry Prize Readers' Choice Award for her poem "Echo". She lives in Gibsons, British Columbia. Copyright © 2018 University of Wisconsin Board of Regents

Softly, softly, mosquitoes outwit human victims

Stealth and haste are often at the heart of most successful raids, and the forays of famished female mosquitoes are no different. ‘Female mosquitoes need a blood meal to develop their eggs’, explains Florian Muijres, from Wageningen University, The Netherlands, adding that zipping in and out after a quick sip without attracting the attention of the unfortunate victim is essential if the insect is to survive. ‘One critical manoeuvre is the escape take-off after blood-feeding’, says Muijres. The fully loaded insect should push off quickly from the surface of its victim to get away swiftly, but a softer and gentler take-off would be less likely to arouse the attention of a disgruntled host. Knowing that humans are particularly vulnerable to mosquito bites, which can transmit deadly disease, Muijres, Jeroen Spitzen (Wageningen University) and Sofia Chang (University of California, Berkeley, USA) scrutinised the voracious insect's escape technique to find out how it manages to evade scrutiny when fully laden.‘The experimental setup was rather complex’, admits Muijres, describing how Chang had to ensure that the insects were well fed on human blood before take-off trials, in addition to coordinating three cameras trained on the insect's launch pad to capture every aspect of the departure in minute detail. ‘To get everything to work properly required a lot of preparation, precise work and a steady hand’, chuckles Muijres.As most insects simply hurl themselves into the air with a hefty push of the legs, Chang, Muijres and Wouter van Veen were surprised to find that the mosquitoes began beating their wings about 30 ms before the final push-off, using an extraordinarily high wingbeat frequency of ∼600 beats s–1 compared with ∼200 beats s–1 used by other similarly sized insects. And when the team calculated how hard the mosquitoes pushed down on their victim over the course of a take-off, they realised that the insects took advantage of their exceptionally long legs, extending them gently while pushing down slowly over the 30 ms take-off, leaving the unsuspecting injured party none the wiser of the departure. In addition, when Chang and Muijres calculated the wings’ contribution to the take-off, they were impressed that they contributed 60% of the force needed to lift a well-fed mosquito off its victim.Next, the team compared the mosquitoes’ take-off performance with that of more stocky fruit flies to find out whether the mosquitoes had compromised the speed of their evasive action for a light-footed getaway. Calculating the take-off force generated by a sturdy fruit fly, the team was surprised that the take-offs weighed in at almost four times the forces exerted by the nimble mosquitoes; sufficient to attract the attention of a human. However, when the team compared the two insects’ take-off speeds, the mosquitoes were every bit as speedy (∼0.24 m s−1) as their heavy-footed counterparts. Mosquitoes are not penalised by their softly-softly strategy, and are every bit as swift as less subtle insects. And when Bart Biemans compared the size of the mosquito and fruit fly leg muscles, the mosquito leg muscles were smaller, ‘because they need to produce a lower force at push-off’, says Muijres.Having discovered the secret behind the mosquito's stealthy departure, Muijres and his colleagues are keen to find out whether other blood-sucking pests use the same strategy to outwit their victims and whether the irritating insects’ landings are as graceful as their departures.

Posturedontics: Stressing on Strain Reduction

Dentistry is an exacting and physically demanding profession which requires absolute accuracy and precision on part of the dentist. In the pursuit to bring that perfect smile on the face of the patient, the dentist many a times is subjected to pain and discomfort. Most of the clinical time of a dentist’s life constitutes long durations of an awkward posture, steady hands and precise movements. It is, hence, a profession hounded by musculoskeletal disorders (MSD’s) since its very inception. Dentists are forced into unhealthy postures and strained positions according to their working conditions for long stretches. Muscular pain and soreness are usually slow to appear in dental professionals. However, if the detrimental postures or movements continue to be repeated, they may finally pave the way for crippling conditions affecting different parts of the body including joints, muscles, tendons and nerves. This in turn results in decreased working capacity and efficiency. Posturedontics is a way to work smarter not harder by designing tools, equipment, work stations, and tasks to fit the job to the worker. Most dentists are not adequately trained or educated about Posturedontics during their undergraduate programme, this can lead to costly investment in non-ergonomic dental equipments, poor positioning techniques, and generic exercises that can actually worsen their health. Hence, it is prerogative of every dentist to seek education and training on Musculoskeletal health, principles of ergonomics, exercises to avoid MSD’s, relaxation techniques and maintenance of healthy postures. Since the field of Posturedontics is not given much heed, the aim of this review is to highlight the need of ergonomics, positioning, postures and prevention of MSD's among dentists.

Editorial: Changes at the Proceedings

This issue of the Proceedings sees a changing of the editorial team, but one we are making by evolution, not revolution. Stewart Molyneux has been Principal Editor since 2003, and is stepping down after a long and fruitful run. Stepping down is the right phrase, rather than running away, because Stewart is retaining his editorial position to shepherd through those papers that he already has in hand. That is, he is keeping a steady hand in passing the editorial baton, all to the good of the Proceedings . This transition will take at least until 2018, when the papers from the Chalk Symposium will be published as a thematic set. Such a wealth of papers ‘in review’ and ‘in press’ is a positive statement as to the health of the Proceedings .

Navigation and Robotics in Spinal Surgery: Where Are We Now?

Spine surgery has experienced much technological innovation over the past several decades. The field has seen advancements in operative techniques, implants and biologics, and equipment such as computer-assisted navigation and surgical robotics. With the arrival of real-time image guidance and navigation capabilities along with the computing ability to process and reconstruct these data into an interactive three-dimensional spinal "map", so too have the applications of surgical robotic technology. While spinal robotics and navigation represent promising potential for improving modern spinal surgery, it remains paramount to demonstrate its superiority as compared to traditional techniques prior to assimilation of its use amongst surgeons.The applications for intraoperative navigation and image-guided robotics have expanded to surgical resection of spinal column and intradural tumors, revision procedures on arthrodesed spines, and deformity cases with distorted anatomy. Additionally, these platforms may mitigate much of the harmful radiation exposure in minimally invasive surgery to which the patient, surgeon, and ancillary operating room staff are subjected.Spine surgery relies upon meticulous fine motor skills to manipulate neural elements and a steady hand while doing so, often exploiting small working corridors utilizing exposures that minimize collateral damage. Additionally, the procedures may be long and arduous, predisposing the surgeon to both mental and physical fatigue. In light of these characteristics, spine surgery may actually be an ideal candidate for the integration of navigation and robotic-assisted procedures.With this paper, we aim to critically evaluate the current literature and explore the options available for intraoperative navigation and robotic-assisted spine surgery.

In Search of Her

In Search of Her Katie James (bio) The Last of Her: A Forensic Memoir Kim Dana Kupperman Jaded Ibis Press www.jadedibispress.com/books/ 228Pages; Print, $17.95 Kim Dana Kupperman delves into the mystique of her mother’s past and probes the depths of truth in her latest book The Last of Her: A Forensic Memoir. This stunning new memoir is a feat of impressive storytelling based upon expansive research, excavated memories, and an inquisitive imagination. It directly confronts the artifice of life and the artifice of writing and tries with honest vigor to communicate a narrative that conveys the truth once and for all of the life—and death—of Dolores Buxton. Kupperman begins her memoir at the end—that is to say, in the aftermath of her mother’s suicide. She abstains from a linear, forward-moving plot structure and instead sets in motion a book composed in reverse chronological order, accounting for pivotal days in Dolores’s life. It begins with Dolores’s suicide and, running backward, describes the court order that removed Kupperman from her custody; her arrest for assaulting a pregnant woman; her own mother’s death of multiple sclerosis; and her birth to a mother whom she later abandons and a con man father to whom she acts as accomplice. Kupperman gives each of these moments to us in the form of individual stories that interact to tell a larger story of a life lived in earnest and in defeat. Her purpose is to uncover answers about who her mother truly was—the actual woman behind the elaborate make-up, disguises, false names, and criminal activity—and what led her to make the choices she made. Kupperman’s intent to “lay bare [Dolores’s] life and examine it” drives this books content, and Dolores is handed to us naked and raw despite her own efforts to keep her personal life heavily guarded and hidden, especially from those closest to her. While documented facts are the foundation of this narrative, Kupperman easily refrains from a book that reads like the reports she obtained during the research phase. This is not a book to sit amid the many newspaper articles; the court, law enforcement, and census records; and the coroner’s report from which she draws. This is a memoir at its core—a story (or stories) with a narrative arc, dialogue, conflict, and other elements of storytelling that enliven a recorded history so that it stands as not so much a document itself but a reimagining of that which already has been documented. It is as if she took a black and white photo and, with paints, a tiny brush, and a steady hand, added color to the captured memory, carefully filling in the details. With her artistic imagination, she overlays a story onto history—inserting fiction onto fact—in order to enlighten certain angles of Dolores’s life that had remained shrouded in the dark corners of mystery. Not every word spoken, action taken, motive premeditated is captured by the many reports and recollections upon which this memoir is based; storytelling is an inevitable departure for this book, as many details are unknown, and even that which is known from Dolores’s past is fragmented. “All that remains of my mother are the stories I tell about her,” Kupperman writes. “The instinct to cobble together a whole person of these pieces drives me to return, over and over again, to the narrative scraps with which I am familiar of Dolores’s life.” This memoir is written less so for Kupperman’s readership to come to know the true Dolores and more so that Kupperman might gather, through the act of writing, who Dolores was (beyond motherhood) and the pain she accumulated throughout her life, which requires an inquisitive and empathetic stance. The lens of a daughter, with its biases and familial turmoil, is more opaque than is the lens of a writer, yet Kupperman successfully transitions from daughter to writer and distances herself appropriately so that she can take in an entire life rather than a life lived only in a tumultuous mother-daughter relationship. Kupperman places herself...

"Fuzzy as a Georgia Peach": The Ford Campaign and the Challenge of Jimmy Carter's Southernness

"Fuzzy as a Georgia Peach"The Ford Campaign and the Challenge of Jimmy Carter's Southernness Zachary J. Lechner (bio) Click for larger view View full resolution With much on the line—but virtually nothing to lose—Ford undertook a halting, intermittently bold, and ultimately ill-fated campaign to undermine Carter's regional credibility. "Peanut Crusher" poster from the 1976 Republican National Convention, courtesy of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library & Museum. [End Page 62] America's bicentennial was supposed to be a year of triumphant celebration. Although the nation could look back proudly on its founding, the present looked grim. Americans, after all, were still reeling from the Watergate scandal and Richard Nixon's subsequent resignation from the presidency, and many were feeling beaten down by a dilapidated economy beset by the confusing problem of stagflation—high unemployment, high inflation, and weak consumer demand. 1976 was also an election year. Running as the incumbent, Nixon's replacement and pardoner, Gerald Ford, presented himself as a steady hand: not flashy, but competent, and capable of leading Americans out of their economic funk—at some point. His challenger, Democrat Jimmy Carter, suggested he would do more than offer competent leadership, regain Americans' trust, and fix the economy. He would also usher the nation out of its existential doldrums, and perhaps even move it beyond the racial and political divisions of the '60s. He would, in short, heal its wounds. These were bold claims made all the more remarkable by Carter's assertion that his southern background empowered him to cure the nation's ills. Sensing the American public's fascination with Carter's southernness during the 1976 presidential contest, Gerald Ford's Republican strategists turned to another southerner for advice. Their choice—Frances Kaye Pullen—perhaps revealed their desperation to combat a key part of the former Georgia governor's appeal. The Tennessee-born Pullen had crafted speeches for President Ford before she was transferred to Betty Ford's staff, where she performed the same duties for the First Lady; she was hardly a member of the Ford campaign's inner circle. Nevertheless, Pullen submitted a detailed and carefully crafted memo (more like "an essay," she joked). In it, she concluded that Carter successfully merged different versions of a fantasied South, enabling him to attract fellow southerners hoping to gain nonsouthern respect for their oft-maligned region and using his southernness to charm voters living outside of the region. "Carter," Pullen observed, "is playing upon two essentially conflicting myths—the 'good ole boy' rural South and the 'black and white together' new South." And his "use of the southern mystique" was nothing more than "hoke," a false picture of the region that the news media were all too eager to disseminate.1 Folksy insults aside, Pullen captured one of the central strengths of Carter's campaign: his ability to deploy captivating southern symbols that connected with voters both regionally and nationally. Carter hailed from rural southern Georgia, where he oversaw a prosperous peanut business. His presidential run occurred during a key moment: just after the Civil Rights Movement, when a racially progressive white southerner like himself could be seen as a mainstream figure well-suited to deal with the country's racial divides. He benefited from other accidents of circumstance, as well. For example, the Georgia constitution at the time prohibited the sitting governor from succeeding himself. This meant that when Carter's [End Page 63] single term as the state's chief executive ended in 1975, he was left with unlimited time to vie for the presidency. This last factor, coupled with Democratic Party rule changes on fundraising and delegate selection, made Carter's populist style of one-on-one campaigning incredibly effective. The Atlanta Constitution's editor had ridiculed him as a joke candidate when he first announced his presidential bid; by early 1976, he was a viable White House hopeful.2 In labeling Carter's southernness an asset, Pullen revealed that she had been paying attention to popular culture in addition to politics. By the mid-1970s, the white South had been, in some ways, rehabilitated on the screen and in print. Carter's campaign for the White...

Note from the Editor

Note from the Editor Sem Vermeersch, Editor-in-chief As of this issue, I will be taking over as editor-in-chief from Milan Hejtmanek, who is retiring from Seoul National University (SNU) this summer. Prof. Hejtmanek became editor in 2010, and his wisdom and steady hand have ensured that the journal has continued to flourish. I would like to thank him for his efforts, and wish him a happy and productive retirement. This year also marks the 30th volume already of the Seoul Journal of Korean Studies. It started in the Olympic year of 1988, and initially was dedicated especially to introducing the research achievements of SNU professors to an English-language audience. Published by the Institute of Korean Studies at SNU, it provided translations of original research articles that were representative of the latest research trends in the humanities in Korea, and as such provided an invaluable service to the international academic community. Following the merger of the Institute of Korean Studies and Kyujanggak in 2006, the journal was reorganized under the editorship of Cho Eun-su. Henceforth it was published twice a year, and invited contributions from Korean Studies scholars from across the globe. While most of the authors who contribute to the journal are now based outside of Korea, we continue our efforts to serve as a bridge between scholars in Korea and abroad. We continue to actively seek contributions from Korean scholars at SNU and beyond, while many foreign scholars who have spent a period of research at the Kyujanggak Institute of Korean Studies publish the outcome of their research with us. In the constantly shifting and evolving world of academic journal publishing, we try to maintain the highest possible standards of scholarship. Also, we aim to provide a platform for detailed, source-based forays in archives and libraries that are often longer and more substantial than the average academic article. At the same time, we continue to emphasize the importance of an interdisciplinary spirit, in that articles should appeal to and be accessible to Korean Studies scholars across various [End Page 1] disciplines. The contributions in this issue attest to that. Although one of the slimmest volumes published so far, this is the outcome of a strict review process and the fact that some research needs more gestation than the quick “turnover cycle” of academic publishing these days allows for. The articles in this issue are diverse in their approach and subject matter, but have in common that they explore previously underutilized sources. Michael Kim’s article delves into the world of colonial ginseng production and consumption, and by mining a wide variety of media from the colonial period uncovers the fascinating links between pharmaceutical research and creative entrepreneurs. The article by Vladimír Hlásny and Jung Byung Joon is a detailed exploration of the interlocking fates of eleven Korean activists who tried to make it to North Korea via Czechoslovakia in the post-war period. Finally, Luis Botella and Antonio Doménech reconstruct how archeology as an academic discipline and a profession was built virtually from scratch in the same post-war period. The careful reader will notice interesting links between the articles; for example there is the link between the European-trained archeologists Kim Chaewŏn and Han Hŭngsu, the former contributing to the development of archeology as a discipline in the south, the latter making initial forays in the north before his purge in the 1950s. Although the former appears in the context of a review of the field of archeology and the later as a key figure for political activism, they show the merit of reading outside one’s own discipline to discover new perspectives. [End Page 2] Copyright © 2017 Kyujanggak Institute for Korean Studies

Raven Hair

Raven Hair Julie C. Day (bio) Spring You were the wolf, the witch, the unnamed monster in the woods. Instead of blood offerings, the townspeople left you woven baskets full of waxy red fruit. I left myself: red cape and fiery virgin blood. I was the one who lifted my hand and knocked. I had black hair, dark as a raven, and the dress my mother had sewn for me. You saw me just the same: my already curving hips, my waiting breasts. My wolf, my witch, my monster: you had yellowed teeth, crooked, with one pointed canine peeking out over your lip. Your clothes were white, crusty, and full of angry stains. You were pretty even so with your salt-and-pepper hair, the sunrise of wrinkles radiating from both eyes. Gray eyes, of course, except on your soulless days when your stare was as blue as an ice-bound ocean. On those days you begged me to be silent, breathless, mute. Trapped with all my unspoken words, I never felt quiet when I was with you. Summer Our bedroom was on the second floor. Next to it was your den, carpeted in gray with carefully whitened walls and a scratched closet door you told me not to open. "It's mine," you said. "A closed door means keep out." Some days the door's metal handle shook like a cornered snake. Other days it was silent. On your ice-blue days you roamed the woods while I watched from our bedroom window. Step after step, you bent to examine the forest's undergrowth, searching for the waxy white stalks and scaly leaves of your favorite corpse flower, the Indian pipe. Your favorite was just as elusive as you. I watched until your bent back disappeared into the trees, and then if the closet handle was silent, I stole into your den. You kept unspooled rolls of 8 mm film in dark green garbage bags stacked against the wall. Your film lacked the black glossy sheen of store-bought. Orangish-brown and subtly dimpled, each length contained a string of tangled images: a felt puppet on a twig broom, a seemingly unending line of girls with freckles or milky-tea skin and sharp-toothed smiles. And that one repeated image—a woman with wolf-grey hair—not you. Words were printed in precise block letters on the bottom of each frame of film, so small I couldn't yet read them. The lettering, I could tell, [End Page 41] took hours, a magnifying glass, a steady hand. It was fairytale time. I pretended the lettering, not the film, was your daytime passion. Your evening passions were easier to ken. Your evenings were spent with me. ________ I took my time, silent, lips soft against your stomach. Tangled sheets. My hands clutched your narrow hips, then slipped higher until I felt the outer edges of your breasts. I tasted the dampness trickling from between your thighs, salt and musk. Like 8 mm film, my movements took sixteen frames one slow second at a time. Afterwards, you held pieces of your special brown-orange film up to our bedside light, sharing your work. Each cell was marked, scratched, the original image buried somewhere underneath. Your art, you told me, was about transformation. Even then I made mistakes. Pointed out a slash mark, an odd corner of red. Left the ghost of a fingerprint behind. "Love me," I cried, finally deciphering the film's tiny words. The long L and five smaller letters suddenly clear. Yet another transformation: your gray eyes glared, now ice-bound blue. Head bowed, I whispered my own special words: sorry and sorry again while your head nodded its agreement. I was never as sorry as when I lived with you. ________ My fairytale monster. My lover. My witch. As with all witches, the kitchen was your domain: bones and gristle, amber syrup clinging to your lips, green herbs disfigured across the chopping board. On late afternoons heat and flames rose up against the slaughtered flesh. I never asked you where our meat came from, the brown-and-pink flesh so tender as it fell from the bone...

Dona Aúrea, and: The Midwives, and: Dona Terezinha’s Oriole, and: Dona Orínia’s Hyacinth Macaw

Dona Aúrea, and: The Midwives, and: Dona Terezinha’s Oriole, and: Dona Orínia’s Hyacinth Macaw Eleanor Stanford (bio) Dona Aúrea I was midwife to fear. Its crowning. Its bloody show. Midwife to sun opening the cervix of the valley, slipping through the narrow pass to Angêlica Falls. I was midwife to spirit and to form. To the smooth egg still warm from the chicken. Midwife to death, too. The wind astonishing the canyon. Shaking that overtakes a body in transition. There was no other. When they called me I came. [End Page 166] The Midwives Bahia, Brazil The secrets of philosophy are the secrets of the body. You think because we’re old and wear headscarves and lay our hands on pregnant bellies we don’t know how the baby got in there? You think we didn’t once, or many times, slink into the thicket at the edge of town with a man, or even by ourselves? The secrets of the body are deeper. You think we didn’t once or twice invite the delivery boy in for a quick fuck? Dona Terezinha’s Oriole The cage swings above cow pasture. Wind through the tree branches, and bars of light and dark shifting on the hard-trod ground. Even the beams of your own body are meant to open. You don’t believe me? Terezinha’s seen: ribs unhinge. Hips [End Page 167] pivot: the same frame that contains us sometimes lets us go. Are you surprised? But it’s the midwife’s job to bring suffering into the world as well as beauty. Sofrê, they call me. Do you think that these sweet syllables mean grief? She reaches her bent finger through the bars to touch my bright cupped flame. Dona Orínia’s Hyacinth Macaw Baxíos, Sergipe How tenderly she’d pinion me: my heart a small throb beneath her thumb. For years this went on: the Spanish came and went, bought up the coastline, paid in empty promises. Their fancy hotels ill- conceived, part-built, like the son she never stopped mourning, the boy born still half-fish. One can live an entire life in the shallows. The ocean murky-eyed like us; like us, sharp-tongued and flightless, spreading its gray wing. With firm and steady hands, she’d apply the styptic powder to stanch the blood. [End Page 168] Eleanor Stanford Eleanor Stanford is the author of two books of poetry, Bartram’s Garden and The Book of Sleep. Her poems and essays have appeared in Ploughshares, the Iowa Review, Kenyon Review, and other journals. She was a 2014–2016 Fulbright fellow to Brazil, where she researched and wrote about traditional midwifery. She lives in the Philadelphia area. Copyright © 2017 University of Nebraska Press

The Sound of Things to Come

Although Panorama offers no answers, its dignity and artistry fulfill an implicit contract—that the heightening and condensation which accompany masterful narrative transformation can be part of a process that, somehow, redeems. By participating as readers, the author at least grants us observer status, in this finally quite-focused collage, on a great unfolding shift underway in the security and movement of a large swath of humanity. What we do with this knowledge is up to us. Andrew Singer Trafika Europe Kate Howard. The Ornatrix. New York. Overlook Press. 2016. 300 pages. Despite being ever-evolving, the culture of beauty is one that looks similar across the ages. The details change from century to century, yet throughout time women have plucked, painted, and preened themselves to reach an ever-shifting idea of physical perfection. In so doing women have also engaged in highly risky behavior that leaves their bodies and faces permanently damaged, feeding a cycle of abuse in the name of pleasing the gaze of others. This juxtaposition of ugly consequences in the hunt for beauty has long been a dark mark on cultures, a largely open secret that women have sought to overcome or ignore for generations. In her debut historical novel set in Italy, author Kate Howard explores the dangerous business of beauty and the consequences of women pitting themselves against one another to achieve a romanticized ideal image. Flavia is the daughter of a dyer, living in rural isolation with her family and chafing against the restrictions such a life has put on her. Born with a disfiguring scar on her cheek in the shape of a bird, Flavia’s mother keeps her hidden away, and the young woman is certain she will never enjoy a normal life. This rage manifests on her sister’s wedding day, when Flavia uses deeply shaded dye to paint her birthmark onto every piece of cloth her sister owns— including her wedding dress. In response, her family sends her to live in a convent, a punishment that Flavia resents but which offers her a window to the outside world. While there she meets Ghostanza, the widow of a wealthy patriarch from a nearby city and a woman known for her beauty. Ghostanza quickly takes Flavia under her wing, calling her an ornatrix, or an assistant who helps women apply their makeup. Ghostanza’s process is complex but rests on a foundation of Venetian cerussa, a white face paint that poisons the skin. In her new role as right-hand woman to Ghostanza, Flavia begins venturing into the city to replenish her jars of makeup and soon becomes interested in using the stuff herself. To do so, and to break free of the constraints her family has put her under, Flavia hatches a plan that makes her a threat to Ghostanza and thrusts her into the high-stakes world of aristocratic beauty, where Flavia’s steady and skilled hands make her a pawn in the games of those trying to outwit each other while altering their faces. The dangers posed by centuries-old makeup and beauty practices are well documented and known—from the damage caused by applying poisonous pastes to the skin to long-lasting threats like the loss of teeth. Howard brings those threats to life in a way that history books often struggle to do, making clear the cost women were willing to pay to make themselves stark white and carefully painted. There is a desperation to her female characters—and a willing ignorance in the men—that feeds tension throughout the story, creating a sense of building danger and consequence that chases Flavia from the very early pages of the book. Where the book shines, however, is in its subtle examination of the way women compete with one another. Flavia, Ghostanza, and the other women engaged in the high art of beauty see each other as rivals or necessary tools to be used in their own search for flawless makeup. The effect is chilling, like snakes crawling over each other trying to escape a pit. That only two of the men in the novel—one of them a dealer in makeup and the other a doctor— are...

Interview with 2017 SPE President Janeen Judah

What will be your main goals as SPE president? I have four goals in mind. Guiding SPE through rough seas. My No. 1 goal is to keep SPE on an even keel. It sounds boring and un-ambitious, but we are sailing through rough seas right now. I’ve had people laugh and tell me I picked a great year to be president. I didn’t exactly pick it, but I am one of the best qualified to lead SPE in hard times because I have been so involved in leadership for such a long time. I was vice president of finance on the SPE Board of Directors, director representative of the Gulf Coast North America Region, and chaired both the Gulf Coast and Permian Basin sections. That experience brings a lot to the table when it comes time to make difficult decisions. For a steady hand on the wheel, I am a good person for managing in difficult times. Developing engineers. During my term, you will see an emphasis on people capabilities as part of the Big Crew Change, particularly in developing countries. There is a significant push from governments for operators to develop local staff, and SPE can be part of the solution. I also have a personal soft spot for Latin America, and I am going to try to spend quality time there. Reaching out to women. Another obvious outreach will be to women. I am the first female SPE president in more than a decade, so the latest generation has not seen a woman at the top. Young women in SPE look to me to be an example, so I will make myself accessible and visible to them. I realized years ago that I am an example whether I want to be or not, so I might as well step into those shoes. There are still very few women engineers in the industry—most women in leadership have a geoscience background. Protecting the environment. I also want to emphasize environmental protection through responsible operations. I previously ran Chevron’s Environmental Management Company. We did offshore decommissioning, pipeline removal, handled all the Superfund sites for the company, orphan gas stations, any kind of end-of-life reclamation and dealing with regulators. The issue is doing things right as you operate and setting up your operation with the knowledge that someday you may have to leave there. I have a JPT column already planned for environmental stewardship, so look forward to more on that.

Compelled to Listen: The Making of an Ethnographer

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] At seven years old I knew it wasn't the time or place to throw off my light-yellow gingham and go charging into the stream, but the swift water looked irresistible on a hot Sunday in the mountains. My shoes were long deposited under a pew somewhere. I perched on a rock and slid my feet into the current, feeling the rush of ice-cold water send a shock up my legs. Momentarily blinded from the reflection of the midday sun, I blocked my face with the back of my hand, looked up the hill toward the white clapboard church, and saw my grandfather leading a line of people down through the grass toward the water. This is how my first memory of being an ethnographer begins. It was the first time I remember seeing through the glaze and straight into the wilderness of my southern home. Many years after that hot mountain Sunday, I was visiting my grandmother as she doddered in the fog of advanced dementia. It was impossible to talk to her about what she ate for breakfast but she could fill the room with detailed stories of Alabama in the 1940s. In a lucid moment, she turned to me and said, Don't wait to write out your life in order as it came. There's a reason people make a pie before putting a chicken in the oven. I could rarely untangle those metaphors, but what follows is an entry in my out-of-order memoir. For much of his career, my grandfather was the pastor of a large, wealthy First Baptist church. Sundays when he preached there swirled in chaos for a little kid weaving through the throngs--the massive crowds gliding across deep red carpet, the perfectly coifed Sunday-go-to-meet air of the ladies with their puffy hair and perfumed snowy skin, and the other kids darting about with smocked dresses or crisp jon-jons. Church seemed like a fancy play everyone put on--an activity, not a practice. After the service, a line would slowly stream out of the large double doors, each congregant shaking my grandfather's hand and thanking him for the message that morning. Sometimes I would stand very close and, as a game, I'd record each face in my mind. A pat on the head or pinch of the cheek, and those swanky men and women would stream out into their workweeks, rematerializing on Wednesday night or Sunday morning. I started to catalog people, crossing them through networks with imaginary strings tied to the thumbtacks of my mind. At retirement, my grandfather began to serve interim shifts to flocks in need--landing him stints at that one-room, North Carolina church with the deep stream out front. The building still sits atop a grassy hill framed by leafy deciduous trees fading up the mountain. That hot day when I sat with my feet in the water, he wore long, black preacher's robes. I squinted through the simmering heat, turning my face up from the water and saw him walking near the creek's bridge and right into the rush, getting the lush velvety edges of his robes all sopping wet. A man in brown dress slacks and a short-sleeved dress shirt walked right in too, with the small crowd bustling on the bank. A woman joined them, her eyes closed and palms lifted toward the one fluffy white cloud perched in the sky above. They both had this anticipation in their eyes; it almost looked like fear. One by one, my grandfather's steady hands submerged their bodies. He held them there for just a bit longer than I expected--momentarily sealed away until he pulled their soaked forms up again. Each rose out vibrant, a look of release shocked out of their system by the wild-cold. They looked shot-through with energy, with some sort of holy spirit. Perhaps their hearts had been changed. I could see the man's undershirt clinging beneath his button-up; the nylons on the woman's legs made the water run in funny paths toward her feet. The memory is too muted to remember much of what was said. But I still see the brilliantly green trees framing the white church, I hear sopranos in cat-eye glasses belting out On Jordan's Stormy Banks, and I smell fried chicken in overflowing Pyrex, perched next to shaky Jell-O molds suspending apple bits and mini-marshmallows. …

慢性期脳虚血性病変に対して安全確実にSTA-MCAバイパス術を完遂するための外科的治療戦略

Extracranial-intracranial (EC-IC) bypass is one of the most fundamental techniques for cerebrovascular surgery. We describe our surgical results and strategy for performing the EC-IC bypass safely and precisely in patients with chronic stage ischemia. Surgical indications were decided for symptomatic internal carotid or middle cerebral artery occlusive disease with misery perfusion detected using quantitative single-photon emission computed tomography. Antiplatelet medications were continued, and intravenous hyperosmotic colloid infusion was started 1 week before operation. Target recipient M4 arteries were superimposed on the superficial temporal artery and cranial bone. Preparation of the superficial temporal artery was performed by using an ultrasound instrument (Harmonic Scalpel®). The craniotomy site was located under the supratemporal line. Various anastomotic techniques were adopted, including continuous, running, and intermittent suturing methods. The second target recipient artery was confirmed using intra-arterial indocyanine green videoangiography. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy was performed for wound problems. Forty patients (43 sides) underwent EC-IC bypass between September 2010 and March 2015 (mean age, 64.5 years; 28 men and 12 women; double bypass in 35 patients and single bypass in eight). Postoperative complications were chronic subdural hematomas and skin problems in five patients each. None of the patients had permanent deficit. Well-drained operative field and steady hand movements are necessary to perform safe and secure bypass procedures. The various technical tips and surgical strategies that we have suggested can contribute to improving surgical results.

The practice of surgery.

The Practice of Surgery Karen Devon There’s no one on the snowy road driving beside me. It’s Christmas Eve, the night the newest attending surgeon on staff gets to be on call. Tonight feels like an anniversary of sorts. The first time I performed an appendectomy “alone” was on Christmas Eve. I can’t recall if it was snowing back then since I hadn’t left the hospital in days. I had assumed that while I was operating on that 26–year–old woman with new abdominal pain that moved towards the left lower quadrant, my attending staff on call was sleeping soundly. I didn’t even know where he lived, or how long it would take if something catastrophic were to happen. I phoned the white–haired man to get his blessing just before midnight. “Have you done this operation before?” he asked. “Yes, several, but not completely alone” I confessed. “Go for it and call me when you are done. Oh, and be safe!” Click. Gulp. As I drive in tonight, again past midnight, I reflect upon that night. Was it practice? A right of passage? The most appropriate treatment for the patient? Perhaps it was even safer this way since my attending really had never done this operation the way it is now done—laparoscopically—by residents. I clearly recall telling the patient and her mother, “We do this all the time! The staff surgeon on call will come in if I need him, but the chief residents always do this operation and I feel comfortable taking care of you.” Sign on the dotted line and make sure you read the part where you are told this is a teaching hospital. Not only was independence an expectation, but I was also supposed to teach the more junior house staff how to emulate what I was so expertly performing. That night I took out the rotting appendix without incident and called the grey haired surgeon in the wee hours. “Merry Christmas Doctor. Sorry to bother you. I just wanted to let you know that the patient is awake and doing well.” “Yes I know. Good work” he replied. “I was in my office. Just in case.” As a resident, I was often torn between the need to gain independence in order to learn and grow as a surgeon, and the idea that I was practicing. As most budding surgeons do, I wanted to be the person doing the surgery. Working on my technical skills was clearly an important part of expertise. Surgery is inherently different than other types of medicine. It seemed slightly more difficult for someone to stop my cutting, than to catch the error in a prescription, before some damage is done. Perhaps a little more like driving a car, than learning to use a calculator. Recently a more modern surgical education is evolving, whereby students practice by simulations on machines. Yet educators know that ultimately many “firsts” need to occur with real patients. That proficiency and expertise are more than a diagnosis, a steady hand, or even the two combined. If the experience of operating as the primary surgeon without immediate supervision, on a patient with acute appendicitis never occurred until we passed licensing exams wouldn’t that be more harmful? I may have been the least legally responsible for outcomes, that night of my own first, when the grey–haired surgeon took the [End Page E1] responsibility of trusting me. But in fact, the obligation I felt was enormous. We cannot simulate the weight of responsibility that comes when responsible for another human being, who you have met and who provides their trust in you. Furthermore, as the teachers of this art and science, we need to balance our obligations to each individual patient with our obligation to society to train competent and caring future surgeons. Surgery would have no history if the “practice” of surgery had nothing to do with practice, defined in its simplest form, yet how do we cover all of this during the late night conversation that is called informed consent. Interestingly since that December evening and for the next 200 laparoscopic appendectomies before my graduation in to...

Prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders in dental surgeons of Mumbai

Introduction: Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are very common in dental professionals. Dentists spend their workdays in an awkward, static position, performing extremely precise procedures. However, maintaining a steady hand and posture comes at the cost of pain in various body parts of the dentist. Occasional pain from irregular stances or positions is to be expected while the dentists are performing static work. Irrespective of whether dentists work in an institutionalized setup or a private setup, they all are at risk. Hence, this study aims to identify their common musculoskeletal problems. Objectives: To identify various musculoskeletal problems of dental surgeons. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study carried out in Navi Mumbai and Mumbai, Maharashtra, India among 250 dental surgeons. A questionnaire was developed to incorporate basic information on job profiles and musculoskeletal issues. The data collected were analyzed using an appropriate statistical analysis method. Results: Our study found that the most commonly affected area among male subjects was the neck in institutional practitioners and the lower back in private practitioners. In females, the neck was the maximum area of pain followed by the wrist and hand in institutional as well as private practitioners. This investigation of this study revealed that almost all the participants reported musculoskeletal pain. Conclusion: The study showed that there was a significant association between the work posture, lifestyle, environmental factors, and MSDs.

Use of smartphones and portable media devices for quantifying human movement characteristics of gait, tendon reflex response, and Parkinson's disease hand tremor.

Smartphones and portable media devices are both equipped with sensor components, such as accelerometers. A software application enables these devices to function as a robust wireless accelerometer platform. The recorded accelerometer waveform can be transmitted wireless as an e-mail attachment through connectivity to the Internet. The implication of such devices as a wireless accelerometer platform is the experimental and post-processing locations can be placed anywhere in the world. Gait was quantified by mounting a smartphone or portable media device proximal to the lateral malleolus of the ankle joint. Attributes of the gait cycle were quantified with a considerable accuracy and reliability. The patellar tendon reflex response was quantified by using the device in tandem with a potential energy impact pendulum to evoke the patellar tendon reflex. The acceleration waveform maximum acceleration feature of the reflex response displayed considerable accuracy and reliability. By mounting the smartphone or portable media device to the dorsum of the hand through a glove, Parkinson's disease hand tremor was quantified and contrasted with significance to a non-Parkinson's disease steady hand control. With the methods advocated in this chapter, any aspect of human movement may be quantified through smartphones or portable media devices and post-processed anywhere in the world. These wearable devices are anticipated to substantially impact the biomedical and healthcare industry.

Obituary.

Obituary.

Laser therapy two decades on: the phoenix flourishes.

As we approach the end of the third quarter of 2014, I look back over the last 2 decades and I am amazed, but proud and highly and gratified, at what Laser Therapy has accomplished in these 20 years. Of course, up till the first couple of years of the New Millennium we had a tremendous record, first under the steady hand of John Wiley and Sons of Chichester, UK, and then from Volume 6 with LT Publishers of Rishworth, Yorkshire as the publishing company and The University of Hokkaido Press as the printers. Then we had a small hiatus when the journal appeared to have disappeared, as it were. However, in 2004 I decided that it was time for the journal to ride again under its original masthead, and we put together the Laser Therapy Pilot Issue 2 which was sent out in 2004 as a sign that life was returning, and the Phoenix arose from its own ashes. During this past decade we have seen prompt and on-time quarterly publication of the journal from 14:1 in March 2005 all the way through till this issue. We have gone from a page count of 48 to 76 and occasionally 80 pages per issue. We became associated with the Japan Scientific and Technology Information Enumerator-Electronic (J-STAGE), and now every single issue of the journal from the first Pilot Issue in 1988 has been stored by J-STAGE in a digital format, and on-line searching is possible by author name or by keyword with free full-text PDF results available for every article older than 6 months under the free access credo (https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/browse/islsm). The journal contents have achieved scientific recognition and are now indexed by both EmBase in Europe and PubMed Central in the USA. We are in communication with the Thomson-Reuter Web of Science, which will be the final step in the long task of getting an impact factor established for Laser Therapy. In these 20 years, we have never missed our deadline for a single issue, so I'd like sincerely and humbly to thank you, our dear and faithful readers, contributors and subscribers, because without your papers to publish the journal, and subscriptions to the journal to provide the income to keep Laser Therapy going, we would not have been able to accomplish what we have. I'd also like to thank the hard-working Editorial Team here at JMLL, whose hard work and dedication have helped keep the journal to its deadlines.