bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Sunscreens as a prevention of the photoaging
Authors: Kostrzewska Paulina , Mandera Amanda , Pawlikowska Anna , Szuster Ewa
Published: September 2020

Proper aging is genetically determined, progresses over time and cannot be stopped. External aging, on the other hand, is caused by factors affecting the organism from the outside, such as permanent exposure to the sun, stress, diet. This factors are modifiable. Exposure to UV radiation is one of the main factors responsible for skin aging. It causes also skin cancers like melanoma, basal cell cancer and sunburns. In this review, we have discussed the skin aging mechanisms and using sunscreens as a prevention of the photoaging and another serious effects like skin cancer. Sun Protection Factor (SPF) is used to describe the sun protection ability and it measures the fraction of sunburn-producing UV rays that reach the skin. Sunscreens with high SPF protect the skin by absorbing or reflection of harmful UV radiation from the sun. They minimize damaging effects and prevent sunburns, loss of elasticity and wrinkles.
Diabetes - diagnosis, treatment, complications and rehabilitation
Authors: Lipka Marta , Kończalska Karolina , Kędziora-Kornatowska Kornelia
Published: September 2020

Introduction: Diabetes mellitus is a disease that cannot be completely cured, but by following the recommendations of Healthcare professionals, it is possible to maintain good health for a long time. The most important thing during treatment is to normalize the glucose level and maintain a balanced diet. The aim of the study is to present the problem of diabetes, to present the causes and effects of the disease, and to describe rehabilitation after its complications.Results:In Poland, more than 2.9 million people are ill and the disease curve is constantly growing. Scientists predict that in a few dozen years there may be half a billion people in the world. Many people are not aware that this civilization disease also affects them. The reasons may be an inappropriate lifestyle, smoking, obesity, lack of physical activity. Early treatment initiation can prevent serious complications such as retinopathy, nephropathy, and peripheral neuropathy that result in DFU and, consequently, lead to limb amputation. Despite accompanying diabetes for several years, some patients report insufficient knowledge about their disease. Educating patients by doctors about the course of the disease and its treatment is an indispensable element during treatment. This improves the patients' quality of life.Conclusion: Diabetes mellitus is a disease that affects a large part of the population and the incidence continues to increase.To counteract disease, you need to measure your blood sugar regularly. Exercise and an appropriate diet will help prevent the disease.
Entropy of gas-discharge image correlates with the entropies of EEG, immunocytogram and leukocytogram but not HRV
Authors: Babelyuk Valeriy , Popadynets’ Oleksandr , Dubkova Galyna , Zukow Walery , Muszkieta Radosław , Gozhenko Anatoliy , Popovych Igor
Published: September 2020

Background. In implementing the project of verification gas discharge visualization (kirlianography, biophotonics) method, we documented the significant correlation of the gas discharge image parameters with the parameters of electroencephalogram, heart rate variability (HRV), dexterity and spasticity of brush, blood pressure, as well as blood levels of adaptive hormones. As part of a project to investigate the physiological nature of entropy, we have shown that EEG entropy is related to a number of its amplitude-frequency and spectral parameters, as well as to the parameters HRV, blood leukocytogram and immunocytogram and their entropies. The purpose of this study is to analyze the relationships between the entropies of the listed information systems. Material and research methods. The object of observation were 20 volunteers: 10 women and 10 men aged 33-76 years without clinical diagnose but with dysfunction of neuro-endocrine-immune complex and metabolism. We registered twice kirlianogram by the method of GDV by the device of “GDV Chamber” (“Biotechprogress”), EEG (“NeuroCom Standard”, KhAI Medica), HRV ("CardioLab+HRV", "KhAI-Medica"), Leukocytogram and Immunocytogram. Than we calculated the entropies of the listed information systems. Results. By stepwise exclusion, 5 variables were included in the canonical GDV root structure, and 6 variables were included in the root EEG structure. Overall, GDI entropy determines the SPD EEG entropy by 33%. The additional inclusion in the dependent set the parameters of HRV, LCG and ICG entropies gives a increase in determination to 48%. HRV entropy was found outside the model. Conclusion. We have documented the relationship between the entropy parameters of electroencephalogram, blood leukocytogram and immunocytogram but not HRV on the one hand, and gas-discharge images on the other. However, the question of the causal nature of this relationship remains open. What is primary: electrical activity of the brain, excretion of cytokines and hormones by immunocytes, or emission of photons and free electrons by acupuncture points (circulation of vital energy)?
Open elbow arthrolysis for post-traumatic elbow stiffness
Authors: Sun Ziyang , Liu Weixuan , Li Juehong , Fan Cunyi
Published: September 2020

Post-traumatic elbow stiffness is a disabling condition that remains challenging for upper limb surgeons. Open elbow arthrolysis is commonly used for the treatment of stiff elbow when conservative therapy has failed. Multiple questions commonly arise from surgeons who deal with this disease. These include whether the patient has post-traumatic stiff elbow, how to evaluate the problem, when surgery is appropriate, how to perform an excellent arthrolysis, what the optimal postoperative rehabilitation is, and how to prevent or reduce the incidence of complications. Following these questions, this review provides an update and overview of post-traumatic elbow stiffness with respect to the diagnosis, preoperative evaluation, arthrolysis strategies, postoperative rehabilitation, and prevention of complications, aiming to provide a complete diagnosis and treatment path.

Cite this article: Bone Joint Open 2020;1-9:576–584.
Carbon sequestration and growth of Anthocephalus cadamba plantation in North Kalimantan, Indonesia
Authors: SARJONO AGUS , LAHJIE ABUBAKAR M. , SIMARANGKIR B.D.A.S. , KRISTININGRUM R. , RUSLIM YOSEP
Published: September 2020

Sarjono A, Lahjie AM, Simarangkir BDAS, Kristiningrum R, Ruslim Y. 2017. Carbon sequestration and growth of Anthocephalus cadamba plantation in North Kalimantan, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 18: 1385-1393. Forest plantation of Jabon (Anthocephalus cadamba) plays many important roles for the primary source of timber production and also the carbon absorption for environmental amelioration. The growth of A. cadamba trees was measured using the formulas of MAI (Mean Annual Increment) and PAI (Periodic Annual Increment) as the basis of the increment measurement, while the analysis of biomass and carbon with simple linear regression (y = a + bx) was used, with the coefficient of R2 = 0.90. The annual increment of A. cadamba trees reached its maximum point or the intersection between MAI and PAI at the age of 8 years, showing the maximum production of A. cadamba trees. Forest plantation of A. cadamba produced biomass and carbon sequestration of 81.90 ton ha-1 and 39.31 ton ha-1, respectively at the age of 8 years. However, the amount of biomass and carbon in another plot of A. cadamba trees was 96.85 ton ha-1 and 46.49 ton ha-1, respectively. While the values of the third plot were 116.84 ton ha-1 and 56.08 ton ha-1, respectively. The correlation between the diameter and biomass production and the correlation between the age of stands and carbon production were very strong with R2 value was higher than 0.90. This indicated that Jabon (Anthocephalus cadamba) plantation had important roles in carbon sequestration and biomass production.
Evaluation of expression analysis of putrescine n-methyltransferase gene during different stages of growth in the medicinal plant Physalis divaricata (Solanaceae)
Authors: MOALLEM ELHAM , GHASEMIPIRBALOUTI ABDOLLAH , NEJADSATTARI TAHER , IRANBAKHSH ALIREZA , MEHREGAN IRAJ
Published: September 2020

Moallem E, Ghasemipirbalouti A, Nejadsattari T, Iranbakhsh A, Mehregan I. 2017. Evaluation of expression analysis of putrescine n-methyltransferase gene during different stages of growth in the medicinal plant Physalis divaricata (Solanaceae). Biodiversitas 18: 1430-1437. Physalis divaricata (Solanaceae) is one of the most prevalent weeds in summer crops. Putrescine Nmethyltransferase (PMT) is a key enzyme in the biosynthesis of nicotine, tropane alkaloids atropine, scopolamine, cocaine, and calystegines. The present study set to compare PMT gene expression during different growth stages of Ph. divaricata using RT-qPCR assay. RNA extraction was performed from root and leaf samples of a total number of 40 individuals Ph. divaricata at different growth stages (late vegetative and fruiting stages) collected from southwestern Iran. RT-qPCR of cDNA reversely synthesized from RNA was carried out using SYBRÂ®Premix Ex TaqTM II kit. PMT gene expression levels were analyzed using Î”Î”CT method. The results showed that expression level of PMT in late vegetative stage samples was significantly higher compared to fruiting stage samples. The expression level of PMT similarly changed in root and leaf samples. Direct visualization of alkaloids in different tissues using Wagner histochemical tests showed more concentrations of alkaloids in leaf idioblasts and root stele.
Couldn’t care less? A psychosocial analysis of contemporary cancer care policy as a case of borderline welfare
Authors: Gripsrud Birgitta Haga , Ramvi Ellen , Ribers Bjørn
Published: September 2020

This article engages with recent shifts in public healthcare policy in Norway through a psychosocial analysis of contemporary cancer care, which evokes the hope of cure and reparation in the psychosocial imaginary. With increasing incidence and prevalence, cancer is a persistent challenge for public health services. Policy makers therefore emphasise that resources must be prioritised while ensuring good-quality care for vulnerable citizens. In 2015, Norway implemented integrated patient pathways as national guidelines to standardise clinical assessment and medical treatment for patients with a suspected cancer diagnosis. In a text analysis of ‘the integrated breast cancer pathway’ as a framework for practice, we found the concept and practice of care absent. There were sparse descriptions of the relational responsibilities of health professionals, beyond informing and communicating. From a psychosocial care understanding, we problematise how the emphasis on information delivery presupposes a universally autonomous, competent, resilient and rational patient, rather than a particular human being with complex thoughts, feelings, needs and vulnerabilities in the face of a life-threatening illness. We refer to wider issues effected by neoliberal governance, which may profoundly impact on the relationship between professionals and patients. We raise the concern that integrated cancer care is a case of borderline welfare, characterised by a fear of feelings associated with mutual vulnerabilities and dependencies. We identify values and ethical pressures at stake in an emerging careless policy in Norwegian welfare, in light of the government’s stated ambition to become an international role model for good patient trajectories.
Unemployment and learning: the depoliticisation and taboos of work(lessness)
Authors: Hove Mikkel Bygum
Published: September 2020

This article analyses how the learning – understood as an aspect of individuals’ life-historical experiential processes – of long-term vulnerable unemployed individuals in a Danish context is affected by the neoliberal organisation of the employment system and back-to-work policies and practices. In doing so, a psychosocietal approach to the study of adults’ learning – in which learning processes are explored from the standpoint of the subject – is applied: an approach that is analytically sensitive to the dialectic interconnectedness of subjective and objective conditions of learning during unemployment, that is, of embodied and life-historical experience, conscious as well as unconscious, and the cultural and sociopolitical embeddedness of work(lessness). In seeking to understand the ambiguities related to learning during long-term unemployment, the article argues for the usefulness of applying a broader concept of adults’ learning in addition to a recognition of negative experience. Through the life history of Richard, the article demonstrates how the neoliberal organisation of back-to-work practices – emphasising the standardisation of methods, the maximisation of efficiency, self-reliance, social discipline, externally determined learning goals and the self-transparent subject – conditions the learning processes of vulnerable unemployed individuals in ways that lead to blockages of experience, differentiated forms of self-alienation and defensive, self-preserving psychodynamics: hence, constituting challenges to learning, solidarity and self-realisation while acting as a catalyst for a reproducing subjective embodiment of societal processes relating to the depoliticisation of work.
Evolution of the Bessel–Gaussian beam modeled by the fractional Schrödinger equation
Authors: Zhang Yagang , Wu Zhenkun , Ru Jingmin , Wen Feng , Gu Yuzong
Published: September 2020

We investigate the evolution of Bessel–Gaussian (BG) optical beams in using the fractional Schrödinger equation (FSE) without potential or with nonlocal nonlinear media, theoretically and numerically. We find that, as the propagation distance increases, the linear propagation dynamics of the 1D BG beams undergo an initial compression phase, after which each of the beams splits into two sub-beams; these sub-beams then separate from each other, forming a saddle shape as the propagation distance continues to increase; in addition, their interval also increases linearly with propagation distance. However, when the nonlocal nonlinear term is included in the FSE, 1D BG beams follow a zigzag trajectory in real space, which corresponds to a modulated anharmonic oscillation in momentum space. In the 2D case, the input chirped BG beam first evolves into a filament in real space and then into a ring structure; if the input is a superposed BG beam carrying orbital angular momentum, the rule fulfilled in evolution is similar to that for a single one, and it forms a funnel-like structure, with periodic inversion and variable rotation.
Two-photon X-ray ghost microscope
Authors: Smith Thomas A. , Wang Zhehui , Shih Yanhua
Published: September 2020

This article presents a non-classical imaging mechanism that produces a diffraction-limited and magnified ghost image of the internal structure of an object through the measurement of intensity fluctuation correlation formed by two-photon interference. In principle, the lensless X-ray ghost imaging mechanism may achieve a spatial resolution determined by the wavelength and the angular diameter of the X-ray source, ∼λ/Δθ
s
, with possible reduction caused by additional optics. In addition, it has the ability to image select “slices” deep within an object, which can be used for constructing 3D view of its internal structure.
Low dark current and high-performance hybrid perovskite photodetectors with a PBDB-T:IHIC ultrathin passivation layer
Authors: Pan Bowen , Wu Mengge , Yang Genjie , Zhao Dan , Yu Junsheng
Published: September 2020

In this Letter, the reduction of undesired high dark current caused by defect states in solution-processed perovskite for photodetectors is realized with the introduction of an ultrathin buffer layer of PBDB-T:IHIC bulk heterojunction (BHJ). By controlling the concentration of BHJ precisely during a solution process, a low dark current density (

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were achieved. It was found that low

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is attributed to the passivation effect of BHJ on defect states, where BHJ acts as a Lewis base and interacts with unbonded

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in perovskite. This Letter demonstrates that the application of ultrathin organic BHJ has significant potential for the manufacturing of high-performance optoelectronic devices.
Compensation of nonlinear distortion in coherent optical OFDM systems using a MIMO deep neural network-based equalizer
Authors: Aldaya Ivan , Giacoumidis Elias , Tsokanos Athanasios , Jarajreh Mutsam , Wen Yannuo , Wei Jinlong , Campuzano Gabriel , Abbade Marcelo L. F. , Barry Liam P.
Published: September 2020

A novel nonlinear equalizer based on a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) deep neural network (DNN) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated for compensation of inter-subcarrier nonlinearities in a 40 Gb/s coherent optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing system. Experimental results reveal that MIMO-DNN can extend the power margin by 4 dB at 2000 km of standard single-mode fiber transmission when compared to linear compensation or conventional single-input single-output DNN. It is also found that MIMO-DNN outperforms digital back propagation by increasing up to 1 dB the effective

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-factor and reducing by a factor of three the computational cost.
Electronically tunable picosecond pulse generation from Ho3+-doped fluoride fiber laser using frequency-shifted feedback
Authors: Pawliszewska Maria , Majewski Matthew R. , Jackson Stuart D.
Published: September 2020

In this Letter, we demonstrate electronically tunable picosecond (ps) pulse emission from the

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6

−
5

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7

transition of the

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+

ion by using an acousto-optic tunable filter. The holmium- and praseodymium-codoped ZBLAN fiber laser produced sub-50 ps pulses over a 100 nm tuning range, critically reaching a longest wavelength of 2.94 µm, which overlaps with the peak absorption of liquid water. Measured pulse energies of 8.1 nJ well exceed those expected from picosecond solitonic operation, suggesting possible application in ablative medicine. Furthermore, we present harmonically mode-locked operation of the oscillator, which indicates the possibility of expanding the capabilities of mid-infrared frequency shifted-feedback lasers through the ability to achieve higher pulse repetition rates.
La segregación sexual en los mamíferos
Authors: Pacheco Meneses Emma Carolina , Sánchez Rojas Gerardo , Gallina Tessaro Sonia
Published: September 2020

En muchas especies de vertebrados, especialmente los mamíferos con dimorfismo sexual, se presenta la segregación sexual, una característica ecológica y conductual, donde los machos y las hembras se separan espacial o temporalmente durante el año a excepción de la época de reproducción. Las hipótesis para explicar las causas son generalmente clasificadas en dos grupos, la segregación por hábitat y la segregación social, basadas en diferencias en los riesgos de depredación, la necesidad de alimento de diferente calidad, protección de las crías por parte de las madres e incluso diferencias en los tiempos de forrajeo de ambos sexos. Existen especies, como los del grupo Cetartiodactyla (que incluye ballenas, delfines, ciervos, cerdos, jirafas, borregos, entre otros) donde la segregación se ha estudiado ampliamente, mientras que, en otros grupos, como los mamíferos marinos, las investigaciones y la información disponible son pocas. La segregación sexual en las investigaciones ecológicas brinda información de gran importancia, que usualmente suele ser ignorada al considerar que las características biologicas y conductuales de hembras y de machos son similares, siendo que se comportan de manera diferente en el uso del hábitat.
What’s My Line?
Authors: Miley Mike
Published: September 2020

Round One explores works that use (and abuse) trivia to reveal how the hypermediated consumer culture of late capitalism traps individuals in a metaphorical isolation booth, unable to establish a stable sense of self. Just as the quiz-show scandals of the 1950s nearly killed the quiz show, works such as Quiz Show, Melvin and Howard,Slumdog Millionaire, and Chuck Barris’s “unauthorized autobiography” Confessions of a Dangerous Mind suggest that a rigged game presents an existential threat to the self. Amidst the pressure to conform to the norms of the community of television, individuals betray themselves to get ahead in America, often finding themselves trapped in the isolation booth of their social class. Further, Philip Roth’s novel Zuckerman Unbound,Kiese Laymon’s novel Long Division,and Robert Olen Butler’s story “The American Couple,” show how these questions of selfhood in the age of the game show can be exacerbated when the protagonist is an outsider to game-show culture.
Family Feud
Authors: Miley Mike
Published: September 2020

Round Three features a detailed study of three works by three major American authors who not only make game shows central plot devices but also create familial relationships among the game show producers and contestants, transforming all conflicts over the game show into family conflicts. These “quiz-show families” blend the most intimate relationship, the family, with the least intimate kind of human interaction, the game show, in order to interrogate how people connect with each other (or not) in an image culture. J. D. Salinger’s Glass Family saga, David Foster Wallace’s story “Little Expressionless Animals,” and Paul Thomas Anderson’s film Magnolia exploit the insincere nature of the game show to make sincere assertions about everyone’s similarities as wounded humans. Where one might expect these prophets of sincerity to find nothing but cynical grins and cheesy puns, they instead use game shows to affirm their commitment to radical authenticity by finding moments of compassion and transcendence in the emptiest of places, offering a glimpse of a new way of living in the Land of the Game Show.
Stories of Resistance and Oppression: Baby Doll and Dame Lorraine*
Authors: Henry Frances , Henry Jeff
Published: September 2020

This chapter deals with an important period in the history of the Carnival especially as it relates to the participation of women. During the 19th century and into the 20th two 'ole mas' female characters played important roles in the festivities.These characters, now called 'traditional', have largely disappeared from Carnival Tuesday but still play prominent roles in J'ouvay Monday and they are also remembered in the various theatricals that take place during the Carnival period.The role of gender inearlier periods of history and the development of what are now called 'traditional' characters playing the 'mas' will be explored.
Serializing the Self in the Space between Life and Art
Authors: Utell Janine
Published: September 2020

The Comics of Alison Bechdel is the first full-length volume dedicated to the comics art of Alison Bechdel, beginning with her early work on the long-running serial comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For and including original scholarship on her acclaimed memoirs Fun Home and Are You My Mother?. This introductory essay orients readers to Bechdel’s career—her childhood in Beech Creek, her involvement in LGBTQ activism and lesbian comix, her move inward towards life writing, and the mainstream cultural recognition prompted by the adaptation of Fun Home into a Tony Award-winning Broadway musical—as well as to current trends in Bechdel scholarship. The chapter focuses on the themes of intimacy and the self in Bechdel’s work.
Servants to What Cause
Authors: Galvan Margaret
Published: September 2020

Through these characters and the broad range of The Advocate’s intended audience, Bechdel is able to reflect on subjects of relevance to the gay community at large—like AIDS and associated activism—that often don’t make it into the strips of the fairly idyllic world of DTWOF. By analyzing Servants to the Cause, the chapter not only unravels its narrative structure and grassroots contexts, but also examines the production of the strip itself through drafts of the comic and letters that Bechdel exchanged with her editor at The Advocate. In this analysis and in research across the essay, the chapter draws upon grant-funded archival research of Alison Bechdel’s papers held in the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College, Firebrand Book Records held in the Human Sexuality Collection at Cornell University, and periodicals collections at the Lesbian Herstory Archives and the ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives. To connect Bechdel to the larger world of queer comics culture, the chapter considers the significance of The Advocate’s support of the field of queer comics, juxtaposed against large feminist publications like Ms., which often spurned women’s comics. This positive attitude creates a set of conditions through which not only Bechdel but other queer cartoonists flourish, particularly in the 90s, allowing them to make a living outside of the more conservative comics publishing world through self-syndication in queer periodicals.
Framing Community from Inside Out
Authors: Latham Don L. , Hollister Jonathan M.
Published: September 2020

Alison Bechdel’s groundbreaking comic strip Dykes To Watch Out For, which ran from 1983 to 2008 in mostly independent, alternative newspapers as well as online, had an important effect on representing and shaping the LGBTQ, and especially the lesbian, community in the latter decades of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st century, a time of great change for the LGBTQ community. Within the world of the comic strip, information, information behavior, and the exchange of information play a key role in helping build and maintain community among the (mostly lesbian) characters. In turn, the identities of the individual members of that community are shaped by that evolving community. This essay will use Jaeger and Burnett’s theory of information worlds as a framework for examining how information and information behaviors help to form and maintain the information world of the lesbian community depicted in Dykes To Watch Out For. It will demonstrate that, as an insider in a marginalized community, Bechdel framed the information world of that community through her art and exported it to other communities outside of her world, thus helping to shape the information worlds of “real-world” lesbian communities over the quarter century that the strip was published.
On Copying
Authors: Kalir Ebony Flowers
Published: September 2020

An autobiographical comic by Ebony Flowers Kalir examines the importance of copying to teach making comics. This chapter shares narratives of teaching a graduate course where students worked with preschoolers as co-researchers through drawing, storytelling, play, and pretend as well as a comics production course. This chapter explores how copying incites a physical response that is related to working with images and necessary for making comics.
The Uncanny Power of Comic Books: Achieving Interdisciplinary Learning through Superhero Comic Books
Authors: Kelley James
Published: September 2020

This chapter sets out to examine how superhero comic books can be used to teach students science literacies and concepts such as genetics, along with ELA content such as creative fiction writing in an after-school comic book club. In reviewing existing literature on the subject of interdisciplinary teaching and Vygotsky’s Theory of Mediated Action, this chapter utilizes a qualitative approach to studying STEM-focused comics production. By exploring how students made, analyzed, and integrated science literacies, this chapter offers key insights for teachers.
Animating with the Primordial Pen
Authors: Khajavi M. Javad
Published: September 2020

Calligraphic animations are contemporary expressions of the Islamic visual culture. Letters, words, and other calligraphic elements featured in these animations are charged with extra-linguistic connotations, holding esoteric meanings that are originally rooted in Gnostic and Sufi interpretations. In these animations, letters, words and calligraphic elements are not simply linguistic signs but hold culturally coded-meanings that need to be interpreted. The essay studies two short calligraphic animations, Creation (2008) by Ghasem Hashemi and the award-winning Amentü Gemisi Nasil Yürüdü (1970) by Tonguç Yaşar, with regard to their use of mystic symbolism and gnostic metaphoric language. The author argues that calligraphic animations like these make meanings through interactions between various levels of signification, which include visual qualities of calligraphy, semantic content, and extra-linguistic connotations rooted in Islamic mysticism. The author also introduces his artistic creation, The Third Script (2017), educating the reader about the deeper meanings of the calligraphic elements presented and the symbolism they behold.
Eudora Welty and the Problem of Crusading
Authors: Dominy Jordan J.
Published: September 2020

This chapter considers Eudora Welty’s essay, “Must the Novelist Crusade?” and her story “Where Is the Voice Coming From?” together. In the former, Welty claims that writers cannot and should not through their work get involved in political activism, such as the Civil Rights Movement. Yet the latter is a quickly written and published fictional account of the assassination of Medgar Evers told from the first-person perspective of the killer, which has unavoidable political content. The chapter contextualizes Welty’s story with details regarding Evers’s mandated Jackson, Mississippi television appearance to show the immediate, real world sociopolitical engagement of literature. Hence, Welty’s story marks a return of racial politics to southern literature that are no longer avoidable, despite Welty’s own pleas to refrain from political crusading.
Suburbs, Civil Rights, and Southern Identities
Authors: Dominy Jordan J.
Published: September 2020

This chapter argues Walker Percy’s Love in the Ruins (1971) and Alice Walker’s Meridian (1976) portray a post-South in which “southern” is not defined by geography but by sensibilities appropriated by the Cold War thinkers and the culture industry. Walker’s Meridian reveals the interconnectedness between characters’ regional backgrounds, racial identities, and roles as activists within Civil Rights movement. These connections are mediated by television, as it broadcasted for the entire US the struggles for equality that occurred mainly in the US South. Love in the Ruins is a satire about suburban American and its politics in the wake of the Civil Rights Movement, as well as a plea for political moderation. Percy’s novel also forecasts the further fracturing of America through the culture wars into red states and blue states. Walker’s and Percy’s visions of the US South show communities measured by how their values measure up against Cold War visions of American-style democracy.
Excerpts from “The Functions of Dramatis Personae”1
Authors: Propp Vladimir
Published: September 2020

Magneto, the Master of Metal, perhaps the most compelling villain in comics, asks a great deal of us as readers: how do we proceed when the means justify the end? Is Magneto morally justified when he intends to kill humans in exchange for killing and hurting mutants? He does not see his actions as evil nor view himself as a villain.
Vivisecting the Villain
Authors: Soberon Lennart
Published: September 2020

The supervillain is not unique to the superhero genre and predates comic literature. There are five types of supervillains: the monster, the enemy commander, mad scientist, criminal mastermind, and the inverted-superhero supervillain. These types of villains are non-exclusive. The supervillain’s main goal is often destructive, selfish, and anti-social. Villains are proactive while heroes are reactive.
Sorting Out Villainy
Authors: Rosenberg Robin S.
Published: September 2020

Throughout its history, the cinematic medium has shown great potential as an instrument of dehumanization and demonization. In this chapter, enemy image construction is investigated as both a discursive construct and a set of textual practices in popular film. Hoping to create effective villains for their stories, filmmakers accentuate such characters’ dangerousness and deviance to the social norm. The author provides a framework for the analysis of enemy image construction in cinema by offering an introduction into how villain-characters get formally articulated as enemies, and how such practices can be subjected to further scholarly analysis.
Milton’s Satan1
Authors: Carey John
Published: September 2020

In Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, Caius Maritus Coriolanus is a superhuman Roman warrior who conquers an army of enemy Volsces in Corioles, and then returns to Rome a hero but also a potential tyrant whom the people then exile. Proud and vengeful, Coriolanus travels to Antium to join the Volsces with the promise of conquering Rome, but on campaign Coriolanus strangely metamorphoses into a dragon-like creature, until at last his mother Volumnia enters the camp as emissary and reverses his metamorphosis by speech alone, reducing her son to tears and terror in front of the Volsces, who ultimately execute him for treason. While Coriolanus has never been one of Shakespeare's more popular plays, the character of Coriolanus seems to metamorphose yet again, this time within the world of DC Comics, to become one of the most popular superheroes of all time: Superman.
The Bat, the Cat … and the Eagle?
Authors: Heldenfels Richard D.
Published: September 2020

This essay views Melville’s Captain Ahab from Moby Dickas a gothic villain. The standard, eighteenth-century Gothic apparatus – blood bonds with evil, haunted castles, a reliance on supernatural terror – evolved to tell a more complicated story, focusing on the profoundly tragic imperfections inherent in man and his institutions. Ahab’s obsessions parallel those in earlier gothic novels, such as Mathew Lewis’ The Monk and Horace Walpole’s Castle of Otranto.
Vilifications
Authors: Ryan Hannah
Published: September 2020

Much the way Sherlock Holmes was one of the inspirations for Batman, so Catwoman may also have roots in the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Irene Adler, famous as “the woman” in the Holmes saga, appears to be a model for the Cat (as she was first known). The connection includes comparable personalities and the parallels between the Holmes/Adler and Batman/Catwoman relationships, as well as the way both Adler and Catwoman defy gender stereotypes in taking power in cultures where men have dominated. Although Adler’s fame rests on a single Holmes story, “A Scandal in Bohemia,” and Catwoman was banished from Batman’s world for more than a decade, both have long fascinated readers, leading to new interpretations and renditions which continue to underscore the originals’ connections.
Voldemort’s “Unusual Evil”
Authors: Davidson-Harden Adam
Published: September 2020

This essay takes readers from the 15th to the 21st century, and shows how midwives, “these educated and trusted, yet non-conforming women were uniquely imperiled by their learnedness and vocation, one critical to the survival, health, and well-being of their communities,” and how this conflation of knowledge, gender, and persecution continues (and is sometimes contested) in contemporary pop culture representations. Midwifes were often the targets of hysterical claims of witchcraft, which some argue has been blown out of proportion. Widows and unmarried women were also targeted. Midwives were often highly trained and skillful medical practitioners.
Harley Quinn, Villain, Vixen, Victim
Authors: Cruzand Joe , Stoltzfus-Brown Lars
Published: September 2020

No matter if inhuman, nonhuman, or superhuman, villains continue to inspire directors and viewers to think in new dimensions. I argue that they also represent a broader cultural symptom of problems growing on a global scale and becoming increasingly difficult to grasp. In this context, gigantic villains provide a space for the safe (and often unconscious) engagement with both these larger than life problems and what I call, in reference to Julia Kristeva, the abject-posthuman. Using the example of both the original 1954 and 2014 movie, the article explores how Godzilla, by now a veritable pop culture icon, represents a variety of approaches to the topic of scale, monstrosity, villainy, and posthumanism. It traces what, if anything, has changed in our imagination during the 60 years of Godzilla’s existence and what the continued success of giant heroes and villains can teach us about ourselves.
TV Serial Killers
Authors: Hernández-Santaolalla VÍctor , Hermida Alberto
Published: September 2020

Darth Vader is one of the most iconic supervillains in popular culture. As an evil archetype, Vader’s unequivocal villainy is predicated upon the enigma of his origin and the good versus evil polarity that arguably underpins the Star Wars franchise. However, the Star Wars prequel trilogy complicates the oversimplified dualism of this thematic premise by revealing Vader’s past as Anakin Skywalker: the once heroic “Chosen One” turned corrupted Jedi Knight then Sith Lord. Considering Vader’s various depictions across movies, comic books, and television, this chapter examines the sequential complexity of Vader’s villainy with a focus on how the prequel trilogy complicates notions of temporality, memory, and continuity. In occupying both the before and after, the prequel trilogy presents Vader as a liminal villain who is simultaneously Jedi and Sith, thus contributing a temporal perspective to Vader’s role as villain to re-work the themes of heroism, villainy, and ‘destiny’ in the Star Wars franchise.
Comics Codes and Parameters for Villain Construction in Sequential Art
Authors: Weiner Robert G.
Published: September 2020

There are many types of villains in society and popular culture. There is the villain that is pure evil. There is the villain that is motivated by revenge. There is also at times the hero turned villain. However, one of the most interesting villains is the villain that is a catalyst for political or social change, a necessary evil. This type of villain has a certain brutal honesty of character. They recognize that through their actions, no matter the cost to morality or humanity, that society may become a better place. In many ways they could be a misguided hero. The best example of this is the Kingpin. He is the pinnacle of the villain who understands his role as an agent of change, a villain who believes the ends justify the means, which in a sense makes him good.
Excerpt from “The Sun God and the Dark Knight”1
Authors: Morrison Grant
Published: September 2020

This essay reprints the Code of the Comics Magazine Association of America (1954), otherwise known as the “Comics Code,” because it directly impacts the characterization of villains in comics for generations. Fredric Wertham and his 1954 book Seduction of the Innocentvilified comics as being the cause of juvenile delinquency. As a result of outcry from parents and other civic groups, congressional hearings were held to talk about the content in horror and crime comics. Rather than wait for government intervention, the comics’ industry created the Comics Code to make sure that comics were published with non-offensive content.
Art Imitates Life
Authors: Hall Richard
Published: September 2020

This chapter examines the key role played by disability in shaping the origins, motivation, self-perception, appearance, and reception of Silver Age supervillains. Taking the Marvel villains Mole Man and Dr. Doom as case studies, the chapter charts the characters’ first appearances and early depictions as paradigmatic models for how Stan Lee and Jack Kirby redefined villainy in the 1960s (though significantly, they redefined them to a lesser extent than they did superheroes). In particular, the essay examines physical deformity and the terror/anxiety it inspires in the supervillain’s psychological profile.
The Outing of Superman; or, How I Learned to Love Bizarro as a Trans Monster
Authors: Vena Dan
Published: September 2020

This chapter prosecutes a cogent and detailed analysis of 1980s GI Joe Comics villain Cobra Commander, whose organization, upon closer examination, bears “more resemblance to the neoliberal ethos of the Reagan Administration itself than to its clandestine non-state opponents. The chapter explores Marvel Comics’ framing of the Joe and Cobra teams, which appears to present a striking critique of neoliberalism as an ideology – one which enshrines itself in Americana while actually undermining the values and tenets of 20th Century American values.
Real Men Don’t Wear Shirts
Authors: Mazer Sharon
Published: September 2020

Professional wrestling’s play of masculinity is profoundly carnivalesque as it affirms and mocks, celebrates and critiques prevailing definitions of what it is to be a “real” man in contemporary American culture. Because it is centered on, and always returns to, the display of male bodies, and because the action is both a simulation and a parody of violence between men, the performance is always highly ambivalent and profoundly transgressive, at once hypervisible and hypermasculine. As professional wrestlers mask their profound dependence upon and cooperation with each other in the ring, so too they perform a denial of intimacy, even as their performances are exceptionally, provocatively intimate. Despite its apparent social subversiveness, in the end, professional wrestling affirms the dominant culture; it is always a performance by men, for men, about men. Both its ethos and its aesthetics are explicitly centered on the idea of masculinity at once essential and performed.
Postscript
Authors: Mazer Sharon
Published: September 2020

On my penultimate visit to Gleason’s Gym (16 July 1994) before moving to New Zealand, Larry asked me if I considered myself a fan. Genuinely stumped, I thought for a minute before responding that I was no longer sure, but I didn’t really think so. After another silence, he said that he didn’t think he was either. At least, we agreed, we knew that most of the time we were not, although at moments we had to admit to being as much marks as anyone else. Now, having written this book, I would answer the question differently. Yes, of course I am a fan. How could I have spent years in and out of the gym, attending performances and collecting materials as well as conversations, if I were not, on some level, as deeply engaged as the most hard-core fan? While there have been many times in the researching when I, like the fans, have wanted to stand up, chant “Bor-ring” and wait for the action to pick up, I also have experienced moments of genuine exhilaration, both during workouts and at performances. Like the hard-core fans and the wrestlers themselves, I have been rewarded for my patient presence with instances of breathtaking flight, incidents of fierce fighting, genuine intimacies, and a sense of community that I might not have otherwise experienced....
Last Words (For Now)
Authors: Mazer Sharon
Published: September 2020

The move to Aotearoa New Zealand was transformative in ways I could not have imagined when I left New York City “temporarily” in 1994. From the cheap seats at Madison Square Garden to the VIP tent at Te Matatini National Māori Performing Arts Festival, I continue to embrace the excitement (and terror) of entering into theatre and performance arenas that are emphatically not mine, and to be touched, always, by the generosity of performers and audiences no matter where I find myself. It is tempting to picture Johnny, Larry, and the others frozen in time and space, still at Gleason’s right where I left them. And indeed, Johnny is still there, still teaching youngsters the game and maintaining his claim to fame. He has a website: the ...
Classroom Heroes
Authors: Landis Winona
Published: September 2020

This chapter explores the use of comics as pedagogical tools in interdisciplinary courses such as Gender Studies and Ethnic Studies. Specifically, the chapter investigates the ways in which the superhero comic Ms. Marvel is an important example of feminist and anti-racist pedagogy for these courses. By framing the textual analysis of the comic through gender and critical race theorists such as Sara Ahmed and Shireen Roshanravan, the chapter demonstrates the ways in which Kamala Khan, the protagonist, grapples with villains and difficulties that reflect the societal issues of sexism, racism, and Islamophobia. Kamala Khan’s battle against injustice resonates with many readers’ everyday experiences, and disrupts both genre-based and hegemonic structures of oppression and heroism. By teaching Ms. Marvel through the lens of gender studies and critical ethnic studies, this text enables students to gain a new perspective on race, justice, and “terror,” which allows them to be more just, empathetic learners.
More than a Mask, Burkini, and Tights
Authors: Peterson Kristin M.
Published: September 2020

This chapter explores how the intersections of Kamala Khan’s identity are presented in her appearance, and how Ms. Marvel’s costume visually contests misrepresentations of Muslim women. Through an examination of scholarship on fashion and aesthetic practices as political action, this chapter argues that the character of Ms. Marvel does important political work to shift public perceptions of Muslims and to display pride in Khan’s background as a Muslim, daughter of Pakistani immigrants, superhero, and nerdy teenager. The creators visually portray her as a character who seamlessly moves between various categories, allowing fans to connect to this multifaceted identity. This chapter focuses on the transformation of Ms. Marvel’s costume as these changes connect to Khan’s larger identity issues. Furthermore, the chapter addresses how fans have engaged with the image of Ms. Marvel through online artwork, creating and wearing Ms. Marvel cosplay outfits, and using Ms. Marvel’s image to counter hate.
“Wow. Many Hero. Much Super. Such Girl”
Authors: Kashtan Aaron
Published: September 2020

After thirty years of domination by straight, white, adult and male fans, comics fandom is becoming a diverse hobby again. Thanks in part to the popularity of superhero comics on Tumblr and other female-dominated Internet fan spaces, female readers have recently emerged as a central constituency of superhero comics fandom. Marvel has sought to capitalize on this trend by producing comics that appeal to Internet-savvy female fans. Kamala Khan is notable because she self-identifies as a fan and participates in activities such as fanfic writing. This chapter explores the rhetorical strategies Ms. Marvel has used to court a largely female Internet fanbase, the subsequent backlash to these efforts, and what Ms. Marvel’s success implies about the future of superhero comics.
“This Thing We Have Done Together”
Authors: Wales Freedman Eden
Published: September 2020

This chapter analyzes Toni Morrison’s Beloved (1987) alongside Jesmyn Ward’s Salvage the Bones (2011) and Sing, Unburied, Sing (2017) to investigate how contemporary African American literature witnesses the aftermath of slavery alongside the intersecting jeopardies of blackness, womanhood, and poverty. Both authors’ novels prompt readers to engage the trauma of American slavery. Ward’s books also treat other racially-charged traumas, such as the devastation of Hurricane Katrina (2005) and the incarceration of African Americans as a contemporary form of slavery. Both authors’ novels employ ghosts to symbolize the need for American trauma to be witnessed. In contrast to Morrison’s Beloved, however, Ward’s ghosts do not need to be exorcized in order for communities to heal. Instead, Ward’s ghosts resurrect to witness testimonies cut short and to impel even reluctant readers to confront, through fiction, America’s painful histories.