bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Estimation of population parameters using sample extremes from nonconstant sample sizes
Authors: Kolba Tiffany N. , Bruno Alexander
Published: January 2023

We examine the accuracy and precision of parameter estimates for both the exponential and normal distributions when using only a collection of sample extremes. That is, we consider a collection of random variables, where each of the random variables is either the minimum or maximum of a sample of nj independent, identically distributed random variables drawn from a normal or exponential distribution with unknown parameters. Previous work derived estimators for the population parameters assuming the nj sample sizes are constant. Since sample sizes are often not constant in applications, we derive new unbiased estimators that take into account the varying sample sizes. We also perform simulations to assess how the previously derived estimators perform when the constant sample size is simply replaced with the average sample size. We explore how varying the mean, standard deviation, and probability distribution of the sample sizes affects the estimation error. Overall, our results demonstrate that using the average sample size in place of the constant sample size still results in reliable estimates for the population parameters, especially when the average sample size is large. Our estimation framework is applied to a biological example involving plant pollination.
Stability analysis of a multiscale model of cell cycle dynamics coupled with quiescent and proliferating cell populations
Authors: Batool Iqra , Bajcinca Naim
Published: January 2023

In this paper, we perform a mathematical analysis of our proposed nonlinear, multiscale mathematical model of physiologically structured quiescent and proliferating cell populations at the macroscale and cell-cycle proteins at the microscale. Cell cycle dynamics (microscale) are driven by growth factors derived from the total cell population of quiescent and proliferating cells. Cell-cycle protein concentrations, on the other hand, determine the rates of transition between the two subpopulations. Our model demonstrates the underlying impact of cell cycle dynamics on the evolution of cell population in a tissue. We study the model’s well-posedness, derive steady-state solutions, and find sufficient conditions for the stability of steady-state solutions using semigroup and spectral theory. Finally, we performed numerical simulations to see how the parameters affect the model’s nonlinear dynamics.
Effect of a social media-based health education program on postnatal care (PNC) knowledge among pregnant women using smartphones in Dhulikhel hospital: A randomized controlled trial
Authors: Chaudhary Kalpana , Nepal Jyoti , Shrestha Kusum , Karmacharya Manita , Khadka Dipesh , Shrestha Abha , Shakya Prabin Raj , Rawal Shristi , Shrestha Archana
Published: January 2023

Introduction

Postnatal care services helps in detecting and subsequently managing life threatening complications. With the ubiquitous use of the mobile phone in Nepal, social media based postpartum education has the potential to increase PNC knowledge among pregnant women. This study aimed to assess the effect of social media-based health education program on PNC knowledge among pregnant women attending Dhulikhel hospital, Nepal.

Materials and methods

We conducted a two-arm open-label randomized controlled trial among literate pregnant women visiting Dhulikhel hospital for ANC check-up from May to August, 2021. A computer-based program allocated 229 pregnant women owning smartphones with internet connectivity in a 1:1 ratio to either intervention (n = 109) or usual care (n = 120). We assessed PNC knowledge in the participants by interviewing in-person or via phone. The intervention group received a 16 minutes video on PNC and the participants were reminded to view the video every week via telephone for a month. Control group received usual care. The primary outcome of the study was change in PNC knowledge score. We utilized intent-to-treat analysis and measured the effect of the intervention on PNC knowledge score using simple linear regression analysis.

Results and discussion

The mean PNC knowledge score increased by additional 8.07 points among pregnant women in the intervention group compared to the control group (95% CI: 2.35: 13.80; p-value = 0.006). The maternal care attribute knowledge increased by 4.31 points (95% CI: 1.51–7.10, p-value = 0.03) and newborn care attribute knowledge increased by 3.39 points (95% CI: 0.41–6.37, p-value = 0.02) among pregnant women in the intervention compared to the control group.

Conclusion

A social media-based health education is effective in improving PNC knowledge score among pregnant women. Further research is needed to evaluate if this increased knowledge is translated into the increased utilization of PNC care.

Trial registration

ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT05132608.
Preoperative overweight and obesity do not cause inferior outcomes following open-wedge high tibial osteotomy: A retrospective cohort study of 123 patients
Authors: Wu Cheng-Yi , Huang Jen-Wei , Lin Chang-Hao , Chih Wei-Hsing
Published: January 2023

Open-wedge high tibial osteotomy (OWHTO) is effective in treating medial compartment osteoarthritis. The association between body mass index (BMI) and outcomes following OWHTO is being debated. This study compared radiographic and clinical outcomes between patients with preoperative overweight, obesity, and normal BMI following OWHTO for medial compartment osteoarthritis. In total, 123 patients (123 knees) who underwent OWHTO for medial compartment osteoarthritis were enrolled and were divided into normal-BMI (18.5−24.9 kg/m2), overweight (25−29.9 kg/m2), and obese (>30 kg/m2) groups based on body mass index. The numeric rating scale for pain, mechanical tibiofemoral angle (mTFA), tibia tilting angle (TTA), and Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) for function were evaluated preoperatively and at postoperative follow-ups. The improvements of clinical and radiological outcomes in normal-BMI, overweight, and obese groups were not significantly different. The incidence of soft tissue irritation, wound infection, nonunion, and conversion to total knee arthroplasty were not significantly different between groups.The clinical and radiological outcomes in patients with preoperative overweight, obesity, and normal-BMI were not significantly different. Preoperative overweight and obesity thus has no effect on outcomes following OWHTO during the two years follow-up period. These findings cannot be generalized to patients with morbid obesity.
Ribosomal DNA gene copies are increased in blood and brain of Japanese schizophrenia patients
Authors: Li Sen , Otsuka Ikuo , Tanifuji Takaki , Okazaki Satoshi , Horai Tadasu , Takahashi Motonori , Kondo Takeshi , Ueno Yasuhiro , Hishimoto Akitoyo
Published: January 2023

Past evidence has indicated increased ribosomal DNA (rDNA) content in the blood of patients with schizophrenia (SCZ) among European populations. Here, for the first time, we investigated the rDNA copy number (rDNAcn) of SCZ in East Asian populations as well as in blood and brain tissues. In this study, we measured 18S/28S rDNAcn in the peripheral blood of live participants (81 patients with SCZ and 98 healthy controls) and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortices (DLPFCs) of postmortem individuals (10 patients with SCZ and 23 non-psychiatric controls) in the Japanese population. Patients with SCZ had significantly increased 18S/28S rDNAcn in the blood compared to controls (p < 0.05). 18S rDNAcn was significantly increased in the brain of patients with SCZ compared to controls (p < 0.05). In conclusion, regarding the increased rDNAcn in the blood of patients with SCZ that was previously reported in Europeans, we successfully replicated this by using a different, ethnically East Asian, cohort. Additionally, we provide the first evidence of increased rDNAcn in the brain of patients with SCZ. These findings may help to elucidate the molecular underpinnings of SCZ pathophysiology related to ribosomal DNA abnormalities.
Complications of biliary stenting versus T-tube insertion after common bile duct exploration: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Authors: Rudiman Reno , Hanafi Ricarhdo Valentino , Almawijaya  , Halim Freda
Published: January 2023

Background

Complications following the insertion T-tube or stent after common bile duct exploration (CBDE) remain problematic in nowadays surgical era. Based on our knowledge, we did not find any meta-analysis intentionally evaluating the complications between both groups. At this moment, we aimed to analyze and compare both procedures’ complications, efficacy, efficiency, and feasibility.

Methods

We searched literature from four databases (EuroPMC, PubMed, Scopus, and ClinicalTrials.gov) up to June 2022 to compile the randomized controlled trials and pro-/retrospective cohort studies. Review Manager 5.4 was used to statistically analyze each outcome measured between biliary stenting and T-tube insertion.

Results

Sixteen studies with 1,080 patients (534 biliary stents and 546 T-tube) were included for qualitative and quantitative analysis. The pooled risk ratio (RR) of the overall postoperative complications rate was significantly lower in the biliary stent group compared to the T-tube group 0.43 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.23–0.80, p = 0.007]. In terms of the operation time, length of hospital stay, and readmission rate was also decreased in stenting as biliary drainage over T-tube placement 1.02 minutes [95% CI -1.53, -0.52, p < 0.0001], 1.96 days [95% CI -2.63, -1.29, p < 0.00001], and RR 0.39 [95% CI 0.15–0.97, p = 0.04], respectively.

Conclusions

Stenting as biliary drainage after CBDE was superior to T-tube insertion. A shorter operation time and hospital stay in biliary drainage resulted in a lower overall postoperative complication rate. Other influences, including the complexity and shorter learning curve, might also affect the superiority of biliary stenting.
Editorial
Authors: Allern Tor-Helge , Baorong Gong , Cziboly Adam
Published: January 2023

Cooperation between Shanghai Theatre Academy (STA) and Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL) has a nearly twenty-year history. The current project between STA and HVL, which began in 2018, is financed by the Norwegian Government. The partners seek to strengthen the quality of education and research within applied theatre, especially the fields of process drama and theatre in education (TiE). The current project between STA and HVL, which began in 2018, seeks to strengthen the quality of education and research within applied theatre, especially the fields of process drama and theatre in education (TiE). This issue presents some important contributions made by the project to the international field of applied theatre.
What can the translation of key terms reveal about understandings of drama education in China?
Authors: Zheng Sisi , Cziboly Adam
Published: January 2023

Based on the authors’ previous academic exchange and observations, translation of terms related to drama and theatre from English to Chinese and vice versa is likely to cause misunderstandings. This research investigated what the translation of key terms may reveal about the understandings of drama education in China. Through a desk research, we collected key terms primarily related to drama and theatre from 26 seminal English and Norwegian books in the field of drama education and their Chinese translations, sorting out and comparing the English/Norwegian originals and the Chinese translations of each term. Findings confirmed that the same Chinese expressions had been used for completely different drama-related terms, while applied theatre-related terms may be misleading as the translation may refer to theatre architectures. Elaborating on the understanding of drama and theatre in China and the new drama praxis, the Drama Etudes, this study discusses what the term ‘drama education’ may refer to in the Chinese context. The overall aim of this study is to contribute to an extended understanding of drama education and its relevant praxis in a global context.
Educational drama in Norway: From cultural expression to curriculum element
Authors: Eriksson Stig A. , Allern Tor-Helge
Published: January 2023

The article is conceived as a survey exploration of significant historic developmental stages of the Norwegian educational drama field. The article first engages in an historical consideration of educational dramatics from traces of performed education in old Norse culture, via school drama organized by the church in the Middle Ages, to a decline of drama and theatre after Pietism in the eighteenth century, with a succeeding narrower view of knowledge and teaching in the following century and scarce information about drama as education. The focus then turns to deliberation of educational reforms in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, offering new possibilities for drama pedagogy through the Progressive Education movement, followed by identifying the position of drama in the six national curriculum reforms from 1939 to 2020 and the changing role of the subject area resulting from policy accentuations underlying curriculum revisions.
Interview with Li Yingning
Authors: Allern Tor-Helge , Zheng Sisi , Eriksson Stig A.
Published: January 2023

In this interview, the Chinese playwright and drama education pioneer Li Yingning (b. 1942) talks about her life and way into educational drama. Li and her family’s life is to a remarkably large extent connected to modern Chinese history. Li’s plays focus on women’s issues, social problems and historical productions. Her life seems to include much of China’s modern history – and drama – in many levels of meaning of this word.
Auto-experimentation in wave piloting and celestial navigation: Vaeakau-Taumako, Solomon Islands
Authors: Feinberg Richard
Published: January 2023

This report involves what I term ‘auto-experimentation’, or experimenting on myself, to learn and assess the arts of seafaring and navigation as practised in the south-eastern Solomon Islands. From 2007 to 2008, I spent nine months with people of the Polynesian island of Taumako, exploring local seafaring techniques. My objective was to study non-instrument navigation as a participant observer, combining verbal instruction with a 70-mile voyage in a large outrigger canoe, without the aid of navigational instruments, from Taumako to the Outer Reef or Vaeakau islands. However, no voyaging canoes were operational during my time in the field. Therefore, instead of watching navigators as they plied their trade, I spoke with them at length and tried to test my own ability to implement what I had learned from my instructors. Here I recount my efforts, while travelling aboard a cargo ship in the Solomon Islands’ Temotu Province, to estimate my heading and location by tracking the movements of stars, the sun, and wind and wave patterns. I then consider my own level of success and what it might suggest about the effectiveness of methods imparted to me by my interlocutors.
Sea People: In Search of the Ancient Navigators of the Pacific, Christina Thompson ([2019] 2020)
Authors: MacLean Malcolm
Published: January 2023

Review of: Sea People: In Search of the Ancient Navigators of the Pacific, Christina Thompson ([2019] 2020)

London: William Collins, 384 pp.,

ISBN 978 0 00833 905 0 (pbk), £9.99

 

Voyagers: The Settlement of the Pacific, Nicholas Thomas (2021)

New York: Basic Books, 224 pp.,

ISBN 978 1 54161 983 8 (hbk), US$25.00
Whāriki: The Growth of Māori Community Entrepreneurship, Merata Kawharu and Paul Tapsell (2019)
Authors: McClutchie Abigail
Published: January 2023

Review of: Whāriki: The Growth of Māori Community Entrepreneurship, Merata Kawharu and Paul Tapsell (2019)

Auckland: Oratia Books, 198 pp.,

ISBN 978 0 94750 663 6 (pbk), NZ$39.99
Not in Narrow Seas: The Economic History of Aotearoa New Zealand, Brian Easton (2020)
Authors: Brett André
Published: January 2023

Review of: Not in Narrow Seas: The Economic History of Aotearoa New Zealand, Brian Easton (2020)

Wellington: Victoria University of Wellington Press, 688 pp.,

ISBN 978 1 77656 304 3 (pbk), NZ$60.00
Australien, Ozeanien, Neuseeland, Hermann Mückler (2020)
Authors: Walda-Mandel Stephanie
Published: January 2023

Review of: Australien, Ozeanien, Neuseeland, Hermann Mückler (2020)

Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer Verlag, 640 pp.,

ISBN 978 3 10010 845 6 (hbk), €78.00
Ocean Passages: Navigating Pacific Islander and Asian American Literatures, Erin Suzuki (2021)
Authors: Lansdown Richard
Published: January 2023

Review of: Ocean Passages: Navigating Pacific Islander and Asian American Literatures, Erin Suzuki (2021)

Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 268 pp.,

ISBN 978 1 43992 094 7 (pbk), US$39.95
Carl Schmitt and Chinese political thought: Relevance for Papua New Guinea and the Pacific
Authors: Lea David
Published: January 2023

This article considers the relevance of the theories of German jurist Carl Schmitt for understanding Papua New Guinea (PNG) politics and international relations, with a focus on relations with China. In pursuing this analysis, the text gives particular emphasis to Schmitt’s friend–enemy distinction. In order to understand the regional context in which China has a growing presence, this article initially highlights the preoccupation of Chinese intellectuals with the ideas of Schmitt. It proceeds to mention the use of Schmitt’s ideas in supporting the particular ideological positions of Chinese liberals, the New Leftists, those who articulate the China Path and even the Chinese state. Through a comparative analysis I both compare how Schmittian ideas have been used by Chinese intellectuals to critique the economic inequality in Chinese society and alternatively the relevance of such critiques to the issues of social inequality in PNG. The discussion subsequently focuses on PNG’s international relations and China’s increasing economic and political influence. While the United States and its regional partner Australia appear to be alarmed by an expanding Chinese presence, others do not necessarily believe that Beijing has overreaching ambitions of global dominance. The article considers the suggestion that Chinese thinking on international relations has been influenced by Schmitt’s concept of the Großraum, an alternative to the Westphalian system, in which international relations are marked by a dominant hegemon and self-contained regional blocks consisting of constellated nations. As PNG finds itself in a critical position and subject to pressures from both the West and China, the text considers PNG sovereignty within a possible regional system in which China serves as the dominant hegemon.
Making Waves: Traveling Musics in Hawai‘i, Asia, and the Pacific, Frederick Lau and Christine R. Yano (eds) (2018)
Authors: Lodge Martin
Published: January 2023

Review of: Making Waves: Traveling Musics in Hawai‘i, Asia, and the Pacific, Frederick Lau and Christine R. Yano (eds) (2018)

Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai‘i Press, 228 pp.,

ISBN 978 0 82487 376 9 (hbk), US$80.00
The Spanish contribution to the exploration and charting of the South Pacific (1770–75): Knowledge exchange in the South Sea
Authors: Altic Mirela
Published: January 2023

This article analyses the Spanish contribution to the exploration and charting of the South Pacific at the time of Captain James Cook. The article focuses on three expeditions conducted in the Age of Enlightenment, reflecting certain changes in the discourse of exploration and dissemination of knowledge. Captain Don Felipe González de Ahedo arrived on Easter Island in 1770, claimed it in the name of the Spanish crown and, with the help of his navigator Juan Hervé, conducted detailed charting of the island. Hervé would play a key role in the next two expeditions sent to the South Pacific by the Viceroy of Peru, Manuel de Amat y Junyent. The two expeditions led by Domingo de Bonechea Andonaegui in 1772–73 and 1774–75 explored and charted Tahiti and the Tuamotu Archipelago. As a result of the expeditions, apart from comprehensive travel logs, a series of some ninety charts appeared, documenting the achievements of Spanish maritime cartography of the South Pacific. In this article, interaction between Spanish and other explorative cartographers will be considered, giving special regard to the influence of Cook. The article presents the Spanish manuscript charts of the South Pacific that are kept in the State Library of New South Wales (Somaglia Collection), the Real Academia de la Historia (Madrid), the Archivo General de Indias (Seville), the Museo Naval de Madrid and Biblioteca Nacional de Chile.
Editorial
Authors: Conrich Ian
Published: January 2023

This issue of the Journal of New Zealand & Pacific Studies brings together four articles and one report. These are a foretaste of the types of discussions expected at the 27th annual conference of the New Zealand Studies Association, which will take place in June 2023 and will be co-hosted by Stockholm University and the University of Turku. The conference theme, Between Nations/Across Seas: The Transnational and Transcultural Pacific, is reflected in the contributions to this issue which explore questions of voyaging, navigation and exploration, early Indigenous encounters and colonial powers, Pacific activism and decolonization and the contemporary geopolitical situation in the Pacific.
Criticism as punctuation in the riot grrrl backlash
Authors: Newton Elizabeth
Published: January 2023

This article argues that music criticism from the early 1990s was central to media backlash against feminism in this period. As Daphne A. Brooks has noted, music criticism remains widely untheorized, despite being so entangled with the sustainability of popular music. In this article, I give focused attention to a small body of critical writing, exploring the relationship between recordings and the reviews that describe and evaluate the music. I present a reading of backlash against the riot grrrl band Bratmobile from 1993 to 1994, including reviews from the zines Cake, Snipe Hunt, trust kill and Genetic Disorder as well as from Artforum, SPIN and Option. I apply Janice A. Radway’s concept of ‘rhetorical containment’ to this set of criticism, highlighting shared critical manoeuvres evident in the reviews. This builds on Peter Szendy’s idea of ‘punctuation’ as that which shapes phrasing in a dialogue; on one level, criticism of Bratmobile punctuated the musical releases by legitimizing them and by reinforcing key themes in the music. But the critics also undermined the band in ways both subtle and explicit. I conclude by suggesting that critical backlash against riot grrrl can be understood as a matter of power and solidarity, with every critical utterance containing elements of both.
Comunicação e Unidades de Saúde Familiar: que papel?
Authors: Garcia Ana Andreia Alves , Eiró-Gomes Mafalda
Published: January 2023

As Unidades de Saúde Familiar (USF) abrangem mais de 60% do total de utentes inscritos nos cuidados de saúde primários, em Portugal. Além da prestação de cuidados de saúde têm como missão a promoção da saúde e a prevenção da doença. Defende-se, neste artigo, que a comunicação, enquanto processo intencional e planificado, contribui para o alcance dos objetivos de uma organização e para o cumprimento da sua missão. No entanto, até à data desta investigação, nada se sabe, sobre o papel desempenhado ou sobre a relevância da comunicação nas Unidades de Saúde Familiar (USF). Deste modo, a nossa pergunta de partida é: “De que forma a comunicação desenvolvida pelas USF está a contribuir para o cumprimento da sua missão, no que respeita à promoção da saúde e prevenção da doença?”. As fontes dos nossos dados foram os questionários efetuados junto dos coordenadores das unidades de saúde familiar. Pelos dados obtidos, observou-se que as Unidades de Saúde Familiar valorizam o papel da comunicação para a saúde, mas não dispõem dos recursos humanos habilitados para implementar uma estratégia de comunicação eficaz que lhes permita cumprir com os seus propósitos.
Avaliação da consistência em ambientes informacionais digitais no contexto de ecologias informacionais complexas
Authors: Silva Oliveira Camila Adrianni , Vechiato Fernando Luiz
Published: January 2023

A Arquitetura da Informação Pervasiva enfatiza o projeto e a avaliação de ecologias informacionais complexas. Uma de suas heurísticas é a Consistência que, quando aplicada, proporciona diálogo lógico entre os diferentes ambientes informacionais digitais pertencentes a uma ecologia informacional complexa, no que diz respeito à organização, à rotulagem, à representação, à navegação e à busca e recuperação da informação disponível. A partir dessas premissas, objetivou-se propor um checklist para avaliação da consistência de ecologias informacionais complexas, a partir de recomendações advindas da literatura científica, com utilização de pesquisa bibliográfica.
Documentação das práticas administrativas
Authors: Silva Letícia Felix da , Pereira Ana Maria
Published: January 2023

Este artigo tem como objetivo apresentar interações entre as áreas da museologia e, biblioteconomia, propondo-se a traçar diálogos entre a documentação museológica das práticas administrativas e a documentação que compõe a área administrativa da biblioteca. Pretende-se com ele, primordialmente, trazer contribuições conceituais sobre a área da documentação e seu desenvolvimento, e, de maneira sequencial apresentar as documentações administrativas do museu, assim como a documentação administrativa da biblioteca definidas na política de desenvolvimento de coleções (PDC), de maneira enfática aos documentos que firmam a aquisição de acervo em ambas as unidades de informação, buscando apresentar os aspectos que contribuem no tratamento destes documentos, destacando a atuação da padronização. A metodologia utilizada nessa pesquisa é de abordagem qualitativa, documental, descritiva e exploratória. Como resultados obtidos, destaca-se que a documentação destinada a termos de aquisição - ou documentação das práticas administrativas, como podem também ser denominadas -, definidas por meio da política de gestão de acervo e do PDC, contribui tanto para o domínio, por parte dos profissionais que atuam nas unidades de informação, de seus acervos (tanto museológicos quanto bibliográficos), quanto para a funcionalidade dos procedimentos de aquisição, sendo ferramentas extremamente necessárias que atribuempara maior segurança em ações de aquisições. Assim, como conclusão o presente artigo pressupõe que a adoção de padronização dos documentos administrativos tanto em museus, quanto em bibliotecas deve ser um procedimento basilar que auxilia no entendimento do documento em questão e também na recuperação informacional do mesmo.
Facing the Unknown: Idiopathic Giant Cell Hepatitis
Authors: McGoldrick Meaghan , Castrodad-Rodríguez Carlos A. , Huang Yan , Tow Clara
Published: January 2023

Giant cell hepatitis is a rare infiltrative disease associated with several viruses, drugs, malignancies, and autoimmune conditions. To date, treatment aims at controlling the underlying etiology, and there are limited data on the clinical course and treatment of idiopathic cases. We present a case of idiopathic giant cell hepatitis in an otherwise healthy adult man and review the literature regarding treatment and outcomes in this population.
Sexy Like Us
Authors: Milbrodt Teresa
Published: January 2023

This book explores the nexus of disability, humor, and sexuality. Based on personal interviews, online ethnographies, and analyses of comedy and theater performances, the book argues that people in disability communities employ joking to shape political disability identities and pride. Joking calls attention to social inequalities, pokes back at ableist cultural norms, and offers new perspectives on disabled bodies through revealing the many ways that disability is a construction. Jokes can be read in a myriad of ways, so the ambivalent nature of comedy has led to debates within disability communities about when it is acceptable to joke, who has permission, and which jokes should be used inside and outside a community's inner circle.
The text also explores how humor can be used for harmful or emancipatory purposes, since jokes may be employed to reflect horizontal hostilities and evoke hierarchies within disability communities. Joking may be difficult when we consider aspects of disability that involve physical or emotional pain, struggles to adapt to new forms of embodiment, and ways that intersectional identities affect how people with disabilities are interpreted in mainstream and disability cultures. The book also interrogates how joking can be used to experiment with the possibilities of embodiment and sexual practice. Through joking, people with disabilities can expand the definitions of disability and sexuality, and help others with disabilities assert themselves as sexual. Adding humor to these conversations opens ways of being not only for individuals who consider themselves disabled, but for all people.
The Funny, the Fraught, and Forms of Foreplay
Authors: Milbrodt Teresa
Published: January 2023

This chapter discusses how disability has been employed as a political identity in recent years, yet there are still elements of stigma attached. Not all disabled people wish to claim disability as a positive identity, yet a growing number of those in disability communities have found ways to use humor to ease social tensions and poke back at dominant society. At the same time, this kind of humor must be performed by people with disabilities so it is not interpreted as derogatory. Not all topics can be joked about, and not all people with disabilities are able to joke with disability, due to the ambivalent nature of humor. The chapter discusses how humor is inherently flexible and may be employed within disability communities as a form of horizontal hostility, or to joke about sexuality and push back against the desexualization of people with disabilities in dominant culture.
Sexy Like US
Authors: Milbrodt Teresa
Published: January 2023

This chapter analyzes how media representations have repeated the stereotype of the “brave” disabled person in the guise of the burlesque performer, and how performers with disabilities have employed burlesque to enact a comic political critique against mainstream notions of disability and sexuality. The second half of this chapter examines a cabaret-style community theater performance titled Sexy Voices, which features disabled actors exploring disability and sexuality in both poignant and humorous ways. This art form presents an opportunity for people with disabilities to expand the notion of disabled sexuality through humor. The chapter employs Jose Munoz’s idea of disidentification to demonstrate the myriad of ways that disabled people can queer sexual practice and open the definition of what it means to be a sexual being.
The Cautious Druggist
Authors: Young Simon
Published: January 2023

A legend concerning the folklore of crime and medicine. A druggist suspecting bad intentions from a customer only pretends to give him or her poison. The result is that an attempted murder, or sometimes suicide, fails.
Dressing the Workhouse Corpse
Authors: Young Simon
Published: January 2023

This legend concerns the folklore of death and poverty. A workhouse inmate is imprisoned in the morgue and dresses as a corpse to frighten the management.
The Eagle and the Baby
Authors: Young Simon
Published: January 2023

This legend concerns the folklore of birds and natural history. An eagle swoops down and takes a baby back to its eyrie. The baby is then sometimes rescued by a villager or eaten by the eagle and its chicks. In Britain the story is particularly associated with Scotland.
Ghost Wager
Authors: Young Simon
Published: January 2023

This legend concerns the folklore of crime and the supernatural. A group of aristocrats wager that one of their number will not be able to pass as a ghost without getting caught. The story is associated particularly with the figure of Spring-Heeled Jack
Harem Prisoner
Authors: Young Simon
Published: January 2023

This legend concerns the folklore of Empire, colonialism, and sex. A girl believed to have been killed during the Indian Mutiny is found many years later to be trapped in an Indian harem.
Hero Survives
Authors: Young Simon
Published: January 2023

This legend concerns the folklore of the supernatural and death. An important individual is not dead but in hiding waiting to re-emerge. The story is particularly associated with royalty.
I Lost the Ring Here
Authors: Young Simon
Published: January 2023

This legend concerns the folklore of coincidence. A poor boy loses a valuable ring in his care. After years away he returns (wealthy) to the place he lost it and finds the ring immediately.
Immured Lovers
Authors: Young Simon
Published: January 2023

This legend concerns the folklore of crime, love, and death. A pair of skeleton lovers are discovered walled up many years after their death.
The Long Pack
Authors: Young Simon
Published: January 2023

This legend concerns the folklore of crime. A thief is brought into a house in a ‘long pack’ (a backpack). A bullet into the pack finishes the plans of a local band to raid the house during the night. The story is associated with the Scottish Borders and North-East England.
One Little Piggy
Authors: Young Simon
Published: January 2023

This legend concerns the folklore of family and death. Three children are left alone and one slaughters another in imitation of his father killing pigs. The story probably originates in Germany or German-speaking Europe.
The Pickpocket’s Ring
Authors: Young Simon
Published: January 2023

This legend concerns the folklore of crime and is often told with humour. A pickpocket accidentally leaves a valuable ring in his victim's pocket. The victim makes a substantial profit.
Poison Duel
Authors: Young Simon
Published: January 2023

This legend concerns the folklore of death. Two men duel to the death using poison as a weapon.
The Tell-Tale Eye
Authors: Young Simon
Published: January 2023

This legend concerns the folklore of crime and new technology (the ophthalmoscope and the camera). A murder victim's eye catches an image of the murderer on the retina allowing for justice to be done. Using cameras, the image is retrieved.
Wild Thing
Authors: Young Simon
Published: January 2023

This legend concerns the folklore of the wilderness and is the predecessor of the sasquatch complex of tales. A man lives in the wild, often taking on animal characteristics.
The Wrong Bed
Authors: Young Simon
Published: January 2023

This legend concerns the folklore of love and sex and is often told with humour. Someone (often a newly-wed) accidentally gets in the wrong bed, usually with an attractive member of the opposite sex.
A New Dawn
Authors: Ashford Evan Howard
Published: January 2023

The chapter examines Attala County during the Civil War era and the first years of emancipation. The chapter captures the liberation mindset of the enslaved class and how the mindset carried over into emancipation. The chapter explores the actions taken by former slaves via the Freedmen Bureau, labor contracts, court system, and politics to assert themselves as societal equals.
Taking Flight
Authors: Ashford Evan Howard
Published: January 2023

The chapter examines how African American daily life reflected the benefits of the past decade's hard work. The chapter focuses on individual households, the church, and schools to demonstrate how liberation continued its upward trajectory in the decade following the Reconstruction experiment. The chapter explores: how Black women such as Ceele Johnson, Jeanette Evans, and Harriet Adams shaped the color line; how African American student enrollment and attendance outpaced white students; and the rise of prominent church leaders such as Alice Alston and Charles Buchanan. The chapter also examines individual and collective White citizen's responses to demonstrate the redemption struggle that included the murder of Jordan and Dora Teague and the racialization of the state's teaching certification system.
United We Stand
Authors: Ashford Evan Howard
Published: January 2023

The chapter examines the spread of the Jim Crow mentality at the local and state level and the cementing of anti-Black apparatuses to halt Black progression. The chapter continues to show how landowning, community building, and education paved the way for the county's Black citizens to collectively subvert redemption efforts stemming from Mississippi's 1890 Constitutional Convention and the continued assault on Black education through equitable teacher's pay between the races. The chapter also highlights the individual tensions and collaborations between the races to bring subtle nuances to race relations within a period typically associated with racial animosity. Organizations such as the Women's General Baptist Missionary Society, the Colored Inter-State Press Association, Central Mississippi College, and the Attala County Colored Teacher's Institute and individuals such as William A. Singleton, Alice Alston, and Albert Poston are detailed to examine how individuals operated, either individually or within organizations, during the decade of attempted efforts to create a national organization for African American civil rights.
Syllabus on the Syllabus: Teaching Lynda Barry in the College Writing Classroom
Authors: Prescott-Johnson Tara Lynn
Published: January 2023

This chapter tackles how Lynda Barry's Syllabus had been taught in the college writing classroom. It starts with the creative personification of the writer's block of three known artists that have been felt by college students. The pedagogy of the Syllabus pushes students to think carefully about genres and their expectations as readers. The chapter covers a case study of using the Syllabus in UCLA's composition classroom, which involved experiments of simultaneously removing and constructing restraints with life drawings. Moreover, the visual bombardment and fragmented pedagogical diary format of the Syllabus helped students understand the form and graphic aspects of comics easier. Barry's work also aided students to understand that writing is a process instead of a gift.
Big Ideas: Ursula Murray Husted
Authors: Willmott Glenn
Published: January 2023

This chapter presents an introspection of Lynda Barry's Big Idea in comic form. It highlights the compelling aspect of Barry's narrative despite exuding a sense of clandestine adult dread through distinctly unlovely and scratchy pictures and drawings. Good art has been understood as contextual, while style remains to be relative instead of absolute. As abstraction is a meaningful and conscious choice, the words and images of a narrative must work together. The intentionality of Barry's works underscores and reinforces her content. The chapter clarifies that no art is truly original, so it is best to learn from everyone to find oneself. It mentions appreciation of Barry's teaching to look back and discover great value in discarded works.
Lât Bâ Dlo , the Other Side of the Water
Authors: White Joyce
Published: January 2023

This essay argues that, through storytelling, The Farming of Bones textualizes the symbolic ideography and principles of the Kongo cosmogram and places Amabelle, the African subject, at the center of reconstructing the historical narrative of 1937. This novel not only “farms” the bones but reconstructs the form and structure of the narrative bodies omitted from a particularly brutal time in Hispaniola history.  Employing water as conduit, the novel creates narrative passageways that allow characters to simultaneously exist in the physical and spiritual realms, as well as traverse beyond the boundaries of both sides of the water. Expanding the notion of twinning, doubling, and the marassa by doubling the double, Farming constructs a textual crossroads and reflects the four stages that lead, anyone at the crossroads, to the highest point being or to full consciousness.
Collecting and Releasing Embodied Memories
Authors: Jackson Akia
Published: January 2023

Breath, Eyes, Memory explores the incommunicable weight of generational shame. Framing her novel from the perspective of working-class Haitian nationals living in North America, Danticat utilizes institutionalized history to show the violent upheavals that textured Haitian politics, emphasizing why women suffered so deeply from the macro-trauma of the country. The author traces the mixed legacy of shame in this text, exploring the interrelationship between productive shame and debilitating shame for the transnational matriarch-dominated family. The author defines shame not in the pejorative but repurposes the term to show it is beneficial in reshaping Black female characters’ embodied feelings, investigating how and why shame intertwines with collective memory of Danticat’s characters: Sophie, Tante Atie, Martine, and Grandmè Ifé. Through this affective literary perspective, the author illustrates that although the main characters experience both productive and debilitating shame, they move to reclaim shame as resistance for their survival both in Haiti and in America.
Home Exile, Language, and the Paratext in Anacaona: Golden Flower and Mama’s Nightingale: A Story of Immigration and Separation
Authors: Accilien Cécile
Published: January 2023

Through her children book Mama’s Nightingale: A Story of Immigration and Separation (2015) as well as her young adult novel Anacaona: Golden Flower, 1490 (2005) Danticat introduces children to the complex reality of immigration and separation, loss, and fear. This chapter analyzes the themes of exile, home, place, belonging, citizenship, and language in Anacaona: Golden Flowerand Mama’s Nightingale: A Story of Immigration and Separation primarily through the paratextual elements, which reinforce the veracity of the stories and contribute to the authority and visibility that Danticat provides not only to Haiti but also to two groups that are often marginalized: women and children. The paratext also allows Danticat to insert her own history and that of her family.
Frankenstein Was a Vegetarian
Authors: Jones Michael Owen
Published: January 2023

This book explores topics that have been overlooked or insufficiently examined by others in food studies. The book explains how people communicate through what they eat, the connection between food choice and who a person is or wants to appear to be, ways that people treat moods with foods, and the nature of disgust including moral implications of being repulsed by other people's food habits. It presents fascinating case studies of religious bigotry and political machinations triggered by rumored bans on pork, the last meal requests of prisoners about to be executed, and the Utopian vision of Percy Shelley, one of England's greatest poets, that was based on a vegetable diet similar to the meals consumed by the creature in Mary Shelley's novel about Frankenstein. The book also presents a new conception of foodways in folklore studies, scrutinizes the uses and abuses of food on the campaign trail, gender issues, and how eating preferences reflect the personalities and values of politicians one of whom was elected president and then impeached twice. Throughout the book, the author deals with food as symbol as well as the link between food choice and multiple identities. Aesthetics, morality, and politics likewise loom large in the analyses. The final two chapters apply these concepts to overhauling penal policy and practice that currently make food part of the pains of imprisonment, and to transforming the counseling of diabetes patients who number in the millions.
Eating What You Are, Were, or Want to Be
Authors: Jones Michael Owen
Published: January 2023

This chapter examines the interrelationship of food choice and who a person is, was, or wants to be. Identities consist of ethnicity, religion, class, occupation, peer group, family, gender, and more. There is also an individual's self-concept, body image, values, and temperament. As elements in a personal food system, the type of food preferred as well as its quantity, status, and manner of consumption reflect or influence who or what one is. Sometimes you eat what others think you are, conveyed by what they serve you; or your hosts prepare food for you based on who they think you think they are. You might also at times eat what you wish you were. Regardless of the situation and messages, alimentation and identity are solidly linked.
“Stressed” Spelled Backward is “Desserts”
Authors: Jones Michael Owen
Published: January 2023

When feeling out of sorts, nostalgic, or in need of a hug, most of us turn to comfort food. One frequently mentioned item tied to memorable occasions, emotional eating, thoughts of others, sensory experiences, and perhaps physiological processes is chocolate, which is the most commonly craved food in North America. This chapter focuses on various reasons why we yearn for particular fare, along with the allure of the “food of the gods,” why indulgence sometimes causes discomfort, and the impact of popular culture and folklore on eating patterns that provide feelings of comfort.
Last Meals and the Crutch of Ritual
Authors: Jones Michael Owen
Published: January 2023

More than two million individuals in the U.S. are forcibly separated from society behind bars, as indicated in this chapter. Many of the incarcerated contend that, whether by design, neglect, or indifference, their food contributes greatly to “the pains of imprisonment.” Sometimes disgusting, it often is monochromatic, bland, and monotonous. Long deprived of food's sensory appeal, the role of commensality in eating, and personal autonomy, what do those in isolation on death row choose as their final repast? How does race, class, ethnicity, gender, regionalism, or other identity affect their requests? What are the origins of the last meal ritual, and why is it perpetuated? Ultimately, what does the offer of a last meal before dying symbolize about public attitudes, the power of the state, and our humanity?
What the Two Presidential Finalists Ate in 2016, and Why it’s Important
Authors: Jones Michael Owen
Published: January 2023

As it did in Percy Shelley's time and place, discussed in chapter 7, the interrelationship of eating and politics continues in the US, which is discussed in this chapter. Of special concern is how candidates' culinary choices relate to their personality and values. Principal among the politicians are two finalists in contention for the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Donald J. Trump. Both used food in efforts to express character and to manipulate food symbolism for political gain, albeit in significantly different ways.