Embodying labor, then and now

In her introduction to the new edition of Women on the Line, first published in 1982, Miriam Glucksmann notes that it had been written well before the body and embodiment had become an explicit focus of studies of work and employment. However, rereading Women on the Line reminds us that ethnographers have long paid attention to the embodied aspects of work, although few of them have written about them as eloquently as Glucksmann. In the original volume she was able to articulate how it felt to experience herself in relation to her environment, a phenomenological perspective made possible by her adoption of an autoethnographic writing style (a strategy linked to her rejection both of a narrowly academic approach and, in consequence, of the disembodied authorial voice that tended to go with it). Perhaps another reason why Glucksmann was able to write about her working on the line with such sensitivity to the embodiment of the experience is that she was new to assembly line work, so the embodied routines of factory life had not yet been submerged below the level of conscious articulation. It is useful therefore to summarize what she had to say and to think about how we can build on it

Observation on the effect of 200mL/L alcohol pretreatment on the pterygium operation

AIM: To observe the effect and clinical significance of alcohol pretreatment during the pterygium surgery.<p>METHODS: Totally 300 eyes with pterygium were randomly divided into two groups. Control group: 142 eyes with pterygium were peeled under local anethesia and their degenerative organization of pterygium was cleaned up followed by a transplantation of corneal limbus with an autologous conjunctival flap. Experimental group: 158 eyes with pterygium were placed with a special metal ring used in LASEK on the head of pterygium to isolate the treatment area under local anesthesis, then, the treatment area within the ring was filled with the alcohol with a concentration of 200mL/L for 40-60s, followed by an adequate flushing with saline. Subsequent surgical procedure was the same as control group. <p>RESULTS: Follow-up for all patients ranged from 1 month to 3 years. Postoperatively, 158 eyes of experimental group had better operative effect than control group. Experimental group had better would healing, complete tissue construction, and improved visual quality. The break-up time of tear film for experimental group was significantly prolonged than that for control group. The average corneal astigmatism and total higher-order aberrations of experimental group were significantly lower than that of control group. The recurrence rate of experimental group was also significantly lower than control group. There's no significant difference in the incidence of complications.<p>CONCLUSION: Alcohol pretreatment during the pterygium surgery is a safe and effective method

Experimental analysis for the effect of dynamic capillarity on stress transformation in porous silicon

The evolution of real-time stress in porous silicon(PS) during drying is investigated using micro-Raman spectroscopy. The results show that the PS sample underwent non-negligible stress when immersed in liquid and suffered a stress impulsion during drying. Such nonlinear transformation and nonhomogeneneous distribution of stress are regarded as the coupling effects of several physical phenomena attributable to the intricate topological structure of PS. The effect of dynamic capillarity can induce microcracks and even collapse in PSstructures during manufacture and storage.This work is funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China Contract Nos. 10732080 and 10502014

Evaluation of agricultural ecosystem services in fallowing land based on farmers' participation and model simulation

Fallowing with green fertilizer can benefit agricultural ecosystem services (AES). Farmers in Taiwan do not implement fallow practices and plant green fertilizer because the current subsidy level (46,000 NT$per ha) is too low to manage fallowing. This paper defines the objective of government agriculture policy or the farmer’s objective as maximization of farm productivity, approximated to the value of social welfare and AES. Farms, which do not follow proper fallowing practices, often have poorly maintained fallow land or left farmland abandoned. This results in negative environmental consequences such as cutworm infestations in abandoned land, which in turn can affect crops in adjacent farmlands. The objectives of this study are twofold. First, it determines the proper fallowing subsidy based on the concept of payment for ecosystem services to entice more farmers to participate in fallowing. Second, it simulates the benefit of planting green manure in fallow land to the supply of AES based on the rate of farmers who are willing to participate in fallow land practices and essential parameters that can affect soil fertility change. The approach involves a series of interviews and a developed empirical model. The value of AES when the rate of farmer participation is 100$perha)istoolowtomanagefallowingThispaperdefinestheobjectiveofgovernmentagriculturepolicyorthefarmer’sobjectiveasmaximizationoffarmproductivityapproximatedtothevalueofsocialwelfareandAESFarmswhichdonotfollowproperfallowingpracticesoftenhavepoorlymaintainedfallowlandorleftfarmlandabandonedThisresultsinnegativeenvironmentalconsequencessuchascutworminfestationsinabandonedlandwhichinturncanaffectcropsinadjacentfarmlandsTheobjectivesofthisstudyaretwofoldFirstitdeterminestheproperfallowingsubsidybasedontheconceptofpaymentforecosystemservicestoenticemorefarmerstoparticipateinfallowingSeconditsimulatesthebenefitofplantinggreenmanureinfallowlandtothesupplyofAESbasedontherateoffarmerswhoarewillingtoparticipateinfallowlandpracticesandessentialparametersthatcanaffectsoilfertilitychangeTheapproachinvolvesaseriesofinterviewsandadevelopedempiricalmodelThevalueofAESwhentherateoffarmerparticipationis100 ) over the value at the current participation rate of 14%. This study further concludes that the appropriate fallowing subsidy has a large positive impact on AES and social welfare (e.g., benefit from food and biofuel supplies) and is seen as a basis of ecological governance for sustainable agro-ecosystems

Second-harmonic generation in vortex-induced waveguides

We study the second-harmonic generation and localization of light in a reconfigurable waveguide induced by an optical vortex soliton in a defocusing Kerr medium. We show that the vortex-induced waveguide greatly improves conversion efficiency from the fundamental to the second harmonic field.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Optics Letter