(Dis)ability by design: Narratives of bodily perfectionism

Much academic research into disability sport has been accused of reinforcing ableist attitudes, treating disability as a homogenous construct, suffers from theoretical impoverishment, and has failed to listen to the voices of disabled people themselves in providing critical insight (e.g. Brittain, 2004; Moola and Norman, 2012). Excluding a few notable exceptions (Huang and Brittain, 2006; Berger, 2009; Lindemann, 2010; LeClair, 2011; Peers, 2012) there is still a dearth of empirically based research in understanding how disabled athletes construct and negotiate senses of embodied identity. Taking this into consideration, we draw on data generated from a four year ethnographic study into wheelchair sport in England to examine the ways in which disabled athletes engage in self-reflexive “body projects” (Shilling, 1993) in making strong personal statements about their identity amongst contemporary somatic cultures that idealise and “relentlessly promote the body beautiful” (Thomas, 2007: 132). A structural narrative analysis of the ‘big’ and ‘small’ stories (Bamberg, 2006) told by the disabled athletes in the field revealed three dominant ‘body projects’ in action: 1) in developing malleable bodies participants either altered the comportment of their bodies conservatively by building muscle and losing body fat in attempting to become ‘perfectly disabled’ in relation to able-bodied ideologies of body perfectionism, or more radically through desiring amputation of impaired body parts in ways that contest these dominant beliefs 2) in engaging in tattooing and piercing practices that transform the appearance of the skin, participants artfully constructed modified bodies, affording them a sense of control and expression over their identities in a number of ways and 3) cyborg bodies were imagined where participants played with the possibilities of evolving technologies on their senses of corporeality. Taking an inter-disciplinary approach to interpretation, findings suggest that additional significance is held amongst participants living these bodies than exclusively as forming part of a ‘body project’ alone. Indeed, the identities that disabled athletes embodied and performed should not be thought of as singular, homogeneous, passive, and static but should be better seen as plural, heterogeneous, active, and evolving. We provide reflections that question if identity construction in disability sport is policed by medicalising and ableist discourses with the expectation that disabled athletes should reject their own ‘flawed’ bodies and align themselves to the carnal norms of non-disabled people (Hughes and Paterson, 1999), or if wheelchair athletes are able to demonstrate agency in relation to these norms and express empowering and proud senses of disabled identity that subvert the “non-disabled gaze” (Hughes, 1999) offering a challenge to contemporary tyrannies of bodily perfectionism

(Dis)abled athletes as the “Ambassadors of transhumanism”

Drawing on data generated from a four year ethnographic study into wheelchair sport in England we examine how (dis)abled athletes come to understand themselves as a “complex hybridisation” between (Wo)Man and machine (Haraway, 1991). A structural narrative analysis of the ‘big’ and ‘small’ stories (Bamberg, 2006) told by the (dis)abled athletes in the field revealed three ideal types in action. Techno-survival stories and techno-rehabilitation stories were entrenched in, and sanctioned by the medical discourses of restoration and normalisation that informed the way participants made sense of their bodies and constructed their identities over time. In contrast, using cyborg embodiment stories some participants demonstrated a sense of agency in creating new ways of relating to technology which allowed them to challenge and reject various dualisms (e.g., able/disabled, normal/abnormal), and instead construct ‘proud’ (dis)abled identities that imagine different kinds of humanity in relation to various technological fields. Some reflections are offered on the ways in which these cyborg embodiment stories transgress established dualisms and offer what Haraway (1991) calls “dangerous possibilities” for the empowerment of (dis)abled athletes. In this process we suggest that in the future (dis)abled athletes have the potential to become “ambassadors of transhumanism” as described by Miah (2003)

Book Review: Consumerism and the Emergence of the Middle Class in Colonial America, by Christina J. Hodge

Consumerism and the Emergence of the Middle Class in Colonial America, by Christina J. Hodge, 2014, Cambridge University Press, 247 pages, black and white figures, references, index, $95.00 (cloth),$88.00 (eBook)

Hades the New Testament Equivalent of Sheol

The object of this paper is to show the relationship between the Old Testament word Sheol and its New Testament equivalent. The burden of this paper lies in the question: Is Hades the New Testament equivalent of Sheol? This paper then is a study of the words Sheol and Hades to see whether Hades in the New Testament is used in the same way and for the same meaning or meanings that Sheol is used in the Old Testament. This study will point out, besides the relations between Sheol, and its equivalent, the unity in the teaching concerning Sheol and its New Testament equivalent. This latter object is of course secondary to the former and main object; It is really a resultant object of the former

Disabled sporting bodies as sexual beings: Reflections and challenges

In general, disabled people’s sexualities have been ignored, controlled, denied and treated (Shakespeare et al, 1996). Disabled bodies have been conceptualised as asexual, unruly, monstrous and unattractive to such an extent that such bodies constitute a sexually challenging idea (Goodley, 2011). According to Shuttleworth and Grove (2008),where sexuality and disability have been focused upon the tendency has been to over-emphasise psychosexual (mal) functioning; explore men’s sexuality rather than women’s; place a lot of store on medical rehabilitation and therapeutic interventions; and implicitly assume heterosexual encounters. Shildrick (2007: 27) notes, however, that in recent years , disability studies, particularly those working with queer and feminist theory, “have increasingly problematized the conventional parameters of sexuality, in order to explore non-normative constructions of sexual identities, pleasures and agency that more adequately encompass multifarious forms of embodied difference.” Set against this backdrop, in this chapter we explore the complex dynamics of disability, sexuality, and gender in sport by providing vignettes of individual narratives in wheelchair sport. These are used to illustrate (1) how the experiences of each are framed by heteronormativity, compulsory heterosexuality and able-bodiness, and (2) how the very ‘queerness’ of their bodies provides a corporeal resource for subverting disabled sexualities in sport. Finally, some reflections are offered regarding future research in terms an embodied sociology that draws on Disability Studies, Feminist Theory, and Queer Theory

Ximelagatran: Direct Thrombin Inhibitor

Warfarin sodium is an effective oral anticoagulant drug. However, warfarin has a narrow therapeutic window with significant risks of hemorrhage at therapeutic concentrations. Dosing is difficult and requires frequent monitoring. New oral anticoagulant agents are required to improve current anticoagulant therapy. Furthermore, while warfarin is effective in venous disease, it does not provide more than 60% risk reduction compared with placebo in venous thrombosis prophylaxis and considerably lower risk reduction in terms of arterial thrombosis. Ximelagatran is an oral pro-drug of melagatran, a synthetic small peptidomimetic with direct thrombin inhibitory actions and anticoagulant activity. As an oral agent, ximelagatran has a number of desirable properties including a rapid onset of action, fixed dosing, stable absorption, apparent low potential for medication interactions, and no requirement for monitoring of drug levels or dose adjustment. It has a short plasma elimination half-life of about 4 hours in cases of unexpected hemorrhage or need for reversal. Its main toxicity relates to the development of abnormal liver biochemistry and/or liver dysfunction with “long-term” use of the drug. This usually occurs within the first 6 months of commencing therapy, with a small percentage of patients developing jaundice. The biochemical abnormality usually resolves despite continuation of the drug. The cause of this toxicity remains unknown. Clinical studies to date have shown that ximelagatran is noninferior to warfarin in stroke prevention in patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation, noninferior to standard therapy as acute and extended therapy of deep vein thrombosis (DVT), and superior to warfarin for the prevention of venous thromboembolism post-major orthopedic surgery. It has also been shown to be more effective than aspirin alone for prevention of recurrent major cardiovascular events in patients with recent myocardial infarction

‘It's a part of me’: An ethnographic exploration of becoming a disabled sporting cyborg following spinal cord injury.

In much research dealing with sport technologies and the process of cyborgification there is a significant lack of attention given to the experiences of athletes themselves. This is particularly so for disabled athletes. Against this backdrop of neglect, we draw on data generated from a 4-year ethnographic study that explored the experiences and meanings of disability sport for those who became involved in it following a spinal cord injury, and here we focus specifically on the process of becoming a disabled sporting cyborg. Our analysis reveals the following phases in this process: from taken-forgranted to techno-survival cyborgs; rehabilitation centres and becoming a technically competent cyborg; everyday life as an embodied cyborg; becoming a disabled sporting cyborg. The dynamics of each phase, how they relate to each other, and how they shape body-self-technology relationships over time are considered in detail. In closing we offer some reflections on the consequences of cyborgification and the implications of this process for constructions of ability and disability. We also raise questions regarding the structural and ethical implications of cyborgification, particularly in terms of the validation of certain kinds of bodies at the expense of others and therole of technology in reproducing social inequalities

Neurodevelopmental Outcomes at 2 and 3.5 Years for Very Preterm Babies Enrolled in a Randomized Trial of Milking the Umbilical Cord versus Delayed Cord Clamping

Background: Guidelines published by the International Liaison Committee for Resuscitation and by the World Health Organization recommend delaying cord clamping at birth as part of routine care for infants. Objective: To study the use of milking of the cord 4 times as an alternative to enhance the redistribution of placental blood into the baby. Methods: This is a prospective cohort study of neurodevelopmental assessment by the Bayley III method of very preterm infants who had participated in a trial of delayed cord clamping versus cord milking at birth that was conducted in a neonatal tertiary care hospital. The primary outcomes were differences in cognitive, motor and language development at 2 and 3.5 years. Two-tailed analyses were performed with the χ2 test, Fisher's exact test, t test, Mann-Whitney U test and ANCOVA. Results: Out of the 58 infants enrolled in the original study, 39 infants (67%) were assessed at 2 years and 29 (50%) at 3.5 years of age. Neurodevelopmental outcomes at 2 and 3.5 years did not significantly differ between the two groups for the three Bayley III composite scores. At 3.5 years there was a trend towards higher scores for girls in the language composite scores (girls: mean = 121.6, SD = 15.22; boys: mean = 101.07, SD = 19.84) and on the motor scale (girls: mean = 124.60, SD = 18.15; boys: mean = 97.86, SD = 17.23). Conclusions: In this small number of participants followed up at 2 and 3.5 years of age, milking of the cord 4 times did not have any long-term adverse effect on neurodevelopmental outcome, suggesting that cord milking could be used as an alternative to delayed cord clamping

The evaluation and calibration of pressure mapping system for the measurement of the pressure distribution of agricultural tyres

The accuracy of a commercial pressure mapping system was evaluated and a number of techniques for the improvement of pressure measurements were developed. These were required in order to use the pressure mapping system in a tyre/surface interaction study which involved determination of the tyre contact pressure distribution on, both, hard and soil surfaces. In the evaluation of the system, the effect of sensor calibration procedures on the accuracy of the system in measuring pressure was investigated. A purpose built pressure calibration chamber was used to calibrate the sensors, which enabled the proprietary built-in calibration system to be evaluated along with a novel calibration procedure employing, both, an individual and multi-point calibration of each sensing element and the rejection of sensing elements that did not conform to the sensitivity of the majority of the sensing elements. These measures reduced the uncertainty in pressure measurements from ±30% to ±4%. Further, evaluation of the compliance of the material was also conducted to enable the sensors to be used for interface pressure measurements between two different surface materials other than those used during sensor calibration. As a result, a procedure for normalising the recorded pressure by adjusting the recorded load output to equal the applied load was established. The improvement of the accuracy of the sensors made it possible for the system to be used to determine the pressure distribution resulting from a range of tyres on a hard surface and in the soil profile