On the fabric of the human body in seven text-iles:The multimodality of learning anatomy

In this Multimodal Sensations essay, I move beyond the often written about art of anatomy (e.g. Kemp and Wallace, 2000), to expand upon another aspect of anatomy and its education, written in Vesalius’ own series title – the fabric of the body. I draw on my, and my research team’s work, on the materials and artefacts of teaching sensory skills to medical students. Our field-sites were medical schools in Central and Western Europe and West Africa and our methods were ethnographic and historical, something I expand on further in the following section. This long-term project, called Making Clinical Sense, took sharing sensory knowledge as its driving methodology as well as one of its core research questions. It is one of the first cross-cultural and ethnographic-historical studies of medical education to date. By focusing in this essay principally on the textures and textiles of anatomical education, I consider the findings of this study on medical education through fabric – that is, the fabrics of the body

Tangled, tangy, microbial threads:Textural methods for rendering past, present and future microbial sensory memories

How to render sensory memory? In this article, I speculate on the possibilities of textural methods which attend closely to textile forms, specifically embroidery, as a way to explore this enduring question in multimodal research. To open up concerns about bodily relations between humans, as well as the more-than-human bodies we share worlds with, this article focuses on sensory memory fragments of encounters with the microbial conglomerations of sourdough bread starter. I offer three bubbling, sour-sweet texts: 1) an archived auto-ethnographic account of learning how to make a sourdough starter; 2) a social-media inspired piece on the sticky home archives of quarantine; and 3) a future speculative citizen science project. These fragments co-exist with microbes I have embroidered on ancient linens. From the tangy strings of sourdough histories, and the tangled threads in cloth I draw concrete methodological suggestions for new directions in textural research projects, such as material fieldnotes and crafted data. In doing so, I join other authors in this special issue in the call for multimodal forms of ethnographic storytelling about sensory memory, in this case one that attends not only to messy entanglements with bodies but also their textural, material, layered histories extending into the depth of their surfaces

Impacts of Forest Management and Timber Harvest Practices on Karst Critical Zone Processes in Tongass National Forest, Alaska

This study characterizes the throughfall, hydrogeochemistry, dissolution rates, and carbon sources of two proximate temperate rainforest cave systems within the Tongass National Forest in Southeast Alaska (Tongass). Study sites include: an old-growth forest, characterized by having never been logged (containing Walkabout Cave system); and a previously logged – within thirty years, second-growth forest (containing Zina Cave system). Precipitation data were recorded over a five-month period at 10-minute intervals, to understand the effects of throughfall between the altering old and second-growth canopies. At each major spring for the two cave systems, high-resolution data were collected from June 29 through November 21, 2019. The following parameters were measured: water level, pH, temperature, and specific conductivity (SpC), at 10-minute intervals. Grab samples for cations (Ca2+ and Mg2+) and alkalinity (HCO3-) were collected to statistically develop a relationship with geochemical parameters and calculate dissolution rates within each cave system at high-resolution. Limestone wafers were deployed in each cave system and both old and second-growth forests to confirm high-resolution dissolution rates. Carbon isotopes were sampled to provide carbon sourcing data related to seasonal and vegetation changes between the different cave systems. These data show the impacts of land management practices, specifically timber harvest, on the physical characteristics of the study area cave systems. Given the societal and scientific value of the study area, the scarcity of karst research in the Pacific Northwest, and the co-sponsorship of the US Forest Service, this study is a valuable contribution to a growing body of data with relevant practical applications. The Tongass is home to a dynamic and vulnerable karst ecosystem, characteristic of earth’s Critical Zone (CZ), where solar energy, precipitation, and tree canopy interact with biota and rock mass to create processes and contribute to the hydrologic cycle. Karst in the Tongass is distinct, supporting significant micro and macro regional ecosystems, including pristine well-developed old-growth forest, prodigious salmon streams, and muskeg peat. This critical ecosystem’s existence is governed by the nexus of timber harvesting, climate change, and US Forest Service land management practices. While anthropogenic impacts on karst terrains are well-studied, few studies have been conducted regarding the implications of deforestation on karst, and the impact of these practices on the speleogenesis of karst systems, specifically on heavily managed landscapes in a high-latitude, remote, temperate rainforest

Macroinvertebrate Community Composition, Food Web Structure, and Emergence Rate in Neotropical Cloud-Forest Streams in Mindo, Ecuador

Tropical cloud forest streams are one of the most threatened and understudied ecosystems in the world. Understanding how these ecosystems function is essential for effective conservation. In this study, macroinvertebrate community composition, functional feeding group analysis, ecosystem attributes, and physicochemical parameters were used to evaluate biophysical stream conditions of 3 low-order Neotropical cloud forest streams at Reserva Las Gralarias in Mindo, Ecuador. Additionally, food web structure was analyzed via stable isotope analysis and aquatic insect emergence rate was also examined. As stream size increased from 1st to 3rd order, the macroinvertebrate communities shifted from being collector-gatherer dominated (65.2 to 29.8%, respectively) to being scraper dominated (17.9 to 56.3%, respectively). Shredders were poorly represented in all streams (2.7, 3.3, and 2.0% for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd order streams, respectively) similar to reports from other tropical systems. The analyses used in this and other tropical stream studies are based on temperate-based theories, which have been found to be inapplicable to tropical systems. Until tropical-based theoretical predictions are established, however, conservation efforts based on temperate theories should be implemented. Stable isotope analysis revealed a typical food web structure with basal resources having the lowest δ13C and δ15N signatures and these values increasing up the food web. Generally, δ15N signatures in our systems were depleted when compared to other tropical studies. Lastly, aquatic insect emergence was not correlated with rain or the moon cycle. Results from this study provide base-line physical, chemical, and biological data on these streams that can be effectively used to track environmental changes in land-use via long-term monitoring. Furthermore, results from this study provide basic data on tropical stream ecosystem function that will be valuable as stream theories with specific predictions for the tropics are created, which will lead to better 5 monitoring efforts and more effective restoration and protection of these threatened and disappearing systems

A Sensory Education

A Sensory Education takes a close look at how sensory awareness is learned and taught in expert and everyday settings around the world. Anna Harris shows that our sensing is not innate or acquired, but in fact evolves through learning that is shaped by social and material relations. The chapters feature diverse sources of sensory education, including field manuals, mannequins, cookbooks and flavour charts. The examples range from medical training and forest bathing to culinary and perfumery classes. Offering a valuable guide to the uncanny and taken-for-granted ways in which adults are trained to improve their senses, this book will be of interest to disciplines including anthropology and sociology as well as food studies and sensory studies

Teaching the normal and the pathological:Educational technologies and the material reproduction of medicine

That pathology and normality exist on a complex spectrum of bodily manifestation is an enduring problem at the heart of the philosophy, anthropology and history of medicine. As the primary locus for the reproduction of medicine, medical schools are important sites for cultivating knowledge of what is normal and what is not. Here students come to engage with the slippery concepts of normality and pathology in collaboration with a wide range of educational technologies - the cadavers, plastic models, illustrations and diagnostic tools which corral student knowledge of the body in both health and disease. These technologies are not universally employed across medical faculties, and variations in their use contributes to various constructions of pathology and normality. Ethnographic observation and historical research in medical faculties in Hungary, the Netherlands and Ghana, shows that educational practices are shaped by the epistemic traditions which manifest in the material environment of the medical school, and that these different sociomaterial settings contribute to inconsistent notions of normalcy. Although educational technologies often tend towards fixity in their representations of the body in health and disease, medical school practice in the north of Ghana resists the imposition of the often alien standards typically found in teaching materials imported from Europe or North America. By teaching around and beyond these materials, Ghanaian educators also challenge their assuredness and the intellectual history of contemporary medicine

Tonight

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/6557/thumbnail.jp

OBCS: The Ontology of Biological and Clinical Statistics

Statistics play a critical role in biological and clinical research. To promote logically consistent representation and classification of statistical entities, we have developed the Ontology of Biological and Clinical Statistics (OBCS). OBCS extends the Ontology of Biomedical Investigations (OBI), an OBO Foundry ontology supported by some 20 communities. Currently, OBCS contains 686 terms, including 381 classes imported from OBI and 147 classes specific to OBCS. The goal of this paper is to present OBCS for community critique and to describe a number of use cases designed to illustrate its potential applications. The OBCS project and source code are available at http://obcs.googlecode.com