Spectacular bodies, unsettling objects: material performance as intervention in stereotypes of refugees

The body of Palestinian refugee puppetry artist Husam Abed co-exists in Dafa Puppet Theatre’s 'The Smooth Life' as spectator, puppeteer, and performer as he manipulates pieces of wood, cardboard, photographs, and grains of rice to construct his story of growing up in a refugee camp. Given the recent attention to how material and technological intersections with human bodies reconstruct stereotypes in liberatory ways in performance, this analysis explores the ways in which material performance practice can intervene in stereotyped media-driven representations of refugee bodies. Refugee bodies in such representations are fixed outside of agentive possibility: mediated, materially absent, unmournable. These stereotyped bodies circulate in multiple media narratives that represent the refugee body on a spectrum from threat/contamination to pitiable/victim, narratives that provoke affective responses while foreclosing meaningful intervention. Through analysing the puppetry/object theatre piece 'The Smooth Life', Purcell-Gates explores how these material performance practices unsettle and disrupt this spectrum of stereotypes

Spectrum of cerebral arteriopathies in children with arterial ischemic stroke.

ObjectiveTo determine that children with arterial ischemic stroke (AIS) due to an identifiable arteriopathy are distinct from those without arteriopathy and that each arteriopathy subtype has unique and recognizable clinical features.MethodsWe report a large, observational, multicenter cohort of children with AIS, age 1 month to 18 years, enrolled in the International Pediatric Stroke Study from 2003 to 2014. Clinical and demographic differences were compared by use of the Fisher exact test, with linear step-up permutation min-p adjustment for multiple comparisons. Exploratory analyses were conducted to evaluate differences between cases of AIS with and without arteriopathy and between arteriopathy subtypes.ResultsOf 2,127 children with AIS, 725 (34%) had arteriopathy (median age 7.45 years). Arteriopathy subtypes included dissection (27%), moyamoya (24.5%), focal cerebral arteriopathy-inflammatory subtype (FCA-i; 15%), diffuse cerebral vasculitis (15%), and nonspecific arteriopathy (18.5%). Children with arteriopathic AIS were more likely to present between 6 and 9 years of age (odds ratio [OR] 1.93, p = 0.029) with headache (OR 1.55, p = 0.023), multiple infarctions (OR 2.05, p < 0.001), sickle cell anemia (OR 2.9, p = 0.007), and head/neck trauma (OR 1.93, p = 0.018). Antithrombotic use and stroke recurrence were higher in children with arteriopathy. Among arteriopathy subtypes, dissection was associated with male sex, older age, headache, and anticoagulant use; FCA-i was associated with hemiparesis and single infarcts; moyamoya was associated with seizures and recurrent strokes; and vasculitis was associated with bilateral infarctions.ConclusionSpecific clinical profiles are associated with cerebral arteriopathies in children with AIS. These observations may be helpful indicators in guiding early diagnosis and defining subgroups who may benefit most from future therapeutic trials

Learning at the Interstices; Locating Practical Philosophies for Understanding Physical/virtual Inter-spaces

Virtual worlds are relatively recent developments, and so it is tempting to believe that they need to be understood through newly developed theories and philosophies. However, humans have long thought about the nature of reality and what it means to be “real.” This paper examines the three persistent philosophical concepts of Metaxis, Liminality and Space that have evolved across more than 2000 years of meditation, contemplation and reflection. Our particular focus here is on the nature of the interface between the virtual and the physical: at the interstices, and how the nature of transactions and transitions across those interfaces may impact upon learning. This may, at first, appear to be an esoteric pursuit, but we ground our arguments in primary and secondary data from research studies in higher education

Radical Democratic Theatre

The aim of this article is to interrogate the emergence of a form of participatory theatre that I shall call ‘radical democratic theatre’. The term ‘radical democracy’ derives in the first instance from the political theory of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, but in terms of its application to theatre and performance practices, it might well be drawn in relation to Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed. Consequently, one useful starting point in grasping what is at stake when speaking of a radical democratic theatre is to trace the limits of Boalian thought by revisiting some of the theoretical assumptions upon which it stands. Two fundamental assumptions of specific concern have to do with (1) the nature of the theatre ‘subject’, as conceived by Boal, and (2) its relation to the political task of emancipation. Boal expresses this task in the following terms: ‘In order to understand the poetics of the oppressed one must keep in mind its main objective: to change the people – “spectators,” passive beings in the theatrical phenomenon – into subjects, into actors, transformers of the dramatic action’ (Boal, 2000: 122). To begin to approach the limits of this task, and probe what is implicated in its basic presuppositions, I want to focus on what will emerge as a significant theoretical difference over the way in which we might understand the nature and ambition of the strategy of ‘transformation’ – specifically, by drawing a distinction between the underlying aims of the Theatre of the Oppressed and the project of radical democratic theatre, as it might be conceived today. While Boal thinks the emancipatory potential of theatre predominantly in terms of freedom from oppression, by contrast, I will argue that the fundamental strategic aim of radical democratic theatre is not ‘liberation’ per se, but the destabilisation of the relational space in which political identities are first configured. Radical democratic theatre cannot ‘liberate’ anyone but it can destabilise the matrices of a given political distribution and in particular release thereby what politics has suppressed – first, antagonism and dissent, and second, forms of reciprocal action and empathic identification on which new forms of sociality might be based. The shift in perspective marked here can be thought as a move away from the classical focus of the left on emancipation from oppression to the problem of what Iris Marion Young calls ‘domination’, which suppresses, not freedom, but rather equality at the level of political engagement. Domination, she tells us, ‘consists in institutional conditions which inhibit or prevent people from participating in determining their actions or the conditions of their actions’ (Young, 1990: 38). Placing the emphasis on equality, rather than freedom, by no means entails the denial of oppression. Rather, it signals the attempt to think emancipation beyond the classical rhetoric of revolutionary praxis. I will describe the possibility for this kind of strategic intervention, with reference to Michel Foucault, as necessitating, instead, the practice of the arraignment of power. It is this kind of idea that Randy Martin has in mind when, defending Boal’s legislative theatre from its critics, he describes how Boal was able to awaken a recalcitrant public to a consciousness of itself as the primal scene of the political, in which the ‘law can be interrupted, reversed, challenged’ (Martin 2006: 28). It is also, however, precisely here, where oppositional politics encounters the law, that the limits of this form of participatory theatre are disclosed. This is because it is precisely at the point where opposition moves from resistance to direct engagement with the structures and institutions of power that the democratic moment is most at risk of assimilation and co-option by the forces of the status quo. The reasons for this are complex and unnerving – as Laclau and Mouffe have demonstrated through their astute critique of 20th century Marxism: ‘[there is] no subject’ they write, ‘which is absolutely radical and irrecuperable by the dominant order, and which constitutes an absolutely guaranteed point of departure for a total transformation’ (Laclau and Mouffe 2001: 169). I shall call this profound instability, which is constitutive of political identities, the ‘democratic limitation’. The democratic limitation refers to both the inherent volatility of political identities and to the impossibility of reconciling those social antagonisms, constitutive of the political field, according to a universal political settlement. Through this concept we will be able to discern, not just what makes radical democratic theatre and performance possible; we will also be able to specify in what sense it can be called radical insofar as it reveals the precariousness of every essentialist political discourse

Spectrum of cerebral arteriopathies in children with arterial ischemic stroke

OBJECTIVE: To determine that children with arterial ischemic stroke (AIS) due to an identifiable arteriopathy are distinct from those without arteriopathy and that each arteriopathy subtype has unique and recognizable clinical features. METHODS: We report a large, observational, multicenter cohort of children with AIS, age 1 month to 18 years, enrolled in the International Pediatric Stroke Study from 2003 to 2014. Clinical and demographic differences were compared by use of the Fisher exact test, with linear step-up permutation min-p adjustment for multiple comparisons. Exploratory analyses were conducted to evaluate differences between cases of AIS with and without arteriopathy and between arteriopathy subtypes. RESULTS: Of 2,127 children with AIS, 725 (34%) had arteriopathy (median age 7.45 years). Arteriopathy subtypes included dissection (27%), moyamoya (24.5%), focal cerebral arteriopathy-inflammatory subtype (FCA-i; 15%), diffuse cerebral vasculitis (15%), and nonspecific arteriopathy (18.5%). Children with arteriopathic AIS were more likely to present between 6 and 9 years of age (odds ratio [OR] 1.93, p = 0.029) with headache (OR 1.55, p = 0.023), multiple infarctions (OR 2.05, p < 0.001), sickle cell anemia (OR 2.9, p = 0.007), and head/neck trauma (OR 1.93, p = 0.018). Antithrombotic use and stroke recurrence were higher in children with arteriopathy. Among arteriopathy subtypes, dissection was associated with male sex, older age, headache, and anticoagulant use; FCA-i was associated with hemiparesis and single infarcts; moyamoya was associated with seizures and recurrent strokes; and vasculitis was associated with bilateral infarctions. CONCLUSION: Specific clinical profiles are associated with cerebral arteriopathies in children with AIS. These observations may be helpful indicators in guiding early diagnosis and defining subgroups who may benefit most from future therapeutic trials

Spectrum of cerebral arteriopathies in children with arterial ischemic stroke.

ObjectiveTo determine that children with arterial ischemic stroke (AIS) due to an identifiable arteriopathy are distinct from those without arteriopathy and that each arteriopathy subtype has unique and recognizable clinical features.MethodsWe report a large, observational, multicenter cohort of children with AIS, age 1 month to 18 years, enrolled in the International Pediatric Stroke Study from 2003 to 2014. Clinical and demographic differences were compared by use of the Fisher exact test, with linear step-up permutation min-p adjustment for multiple comparisons. Exploratory analyses were conducted to evaluate differences between cases of AIS with and without arteriopathy and between arteriopathy subtypes.ResultsOf 2,127 children with AIS, 725 (34%) had arteriopathy (median age 7.45 years). Arteriopathy subtypes included dissection (27%), moyamoya (24.5%), focal cerebral arteriopathy-inflammatory subtype (FCA-i; 15%), diffuse cerebral vasculitis (15%), and nonspecific arteriopathy (18.5%). Children with arteriopathic AIS were more likely to present between 6 and 9 years of age (odds ratio [OR] 1.93, p = 0.029) with headache (OR 1.55, p = 0.023), multiple infarctions (OR 2.05, p &lt; 0.001), sickle cell anemia (OR 2.9, p = 0.007), and head/neck trauma (OR 1.93, p = 0.018). Antithrombotic use and stroke recurrence were higher in children with arteriopathy. Among arteriopathy subtypes, dissection was associated with male sex, older age, headache, and anticoagulant use; FCA-i was associated with hemiparesis and single infarcts; moyamoya was associated with seizures and recurrent strokes; and vasculitis was associated with bilateral infarctions.ConclusionSpecific clinical profiles are associated with cerebral arteriopathies in children with AIS. These observations may be helpful indicators in guiding early diagnosis and defining subgroups who may benefit most from future therapeutic trials

Stroke Prevalence, Mortality and Disability-Adjusted Life Years in Children and Youth Aged 0-19 Years: Data from the Global and Regional Burden of Stroke 2013

Background: There is increasing recognition of stroke as an important contributor to childhood morbidity and mortality. Current estimates of global childhood stroke burden and its temporal trends are sparse. Accurate and up-to-date estimates of childhood stroke burden are important for planning research and the resulting evidence-based strategies for stroke prevention and management. Objectives: To estimate the prevalence, mortality and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) for ischemic stroke (IS), hemorrhagic stroke (HS) and all stroke types combined globally from 1990 to 2013. Methodology: Stroke prevalence, mortality and DALYs were estimated using the Global Burden of Disease 2013 methods. All available data on stroke-related incidence, prevalence, excess mortality and deaths were collected. Statistical models and country-level covariates were employed to produce comprehensive and consistent estimates of prevalence and mortality. Stroke-specific disability weights were used to estimate years lived with disability and DALYs. Means and 95% uncertainty intervals (UIs) were calculated for prevalence, mortality and DALYs. The median of the percent change and 95% UI were determined for the period from 1990 to 2013. Results: In 2013, there were 97,792 (95% UI 90,564-106,016) prevalent cases of childhood IS and 67,621 (95% UI 62,899-72,214) prevalent cases of childhood HS, reflecting an increase of approximately 35% in the absolute numbers of prevalent childhood strokes since 1990. There were 33,069 (95% UI 28,627-38,998) deaths and 2,615,118 (95% UI 2,265,801-3,090,822) DALYs due to childhood stroke in 2013 globally, reflecting an approximately 200% decrease in the absolute numbers of death and DALYs in childhood stroke since 1990. Between 1990 and 2013, there were significant increases in the global prevalence rates of childhood IS, as well as significant decreases in the global death rate and DALYs rate of all strokes in those of age 0-19 years. While prevalence rates for childhood IS and HS decreased significantly in developed countries, a decline was seen only in HS, with no change in prevalence rates of IS, in developing countries. The childhood stroke DALY rates in 2013 were 13.3 (95% UI 10.6-17.1) for IS and 92.7 (95% UI 80.5-109.7) for HS per 100,000. While the prevalence of childhood IS compared to childhood HS was similar globally, the death rate and DALY rate of HS was 6- to 7-fold higher than that of IS. In 2013, the prevalence rate of both childhood IS and HS was significantly higher in developed countries than in developing countries. Conversely, both death and DALY rates for all stroke types were significantly lower in developed countries than in developing countries in 2013. Men showed a trend toward higher childhood stroke death rates (1.5 (1.3-1.8) per 100,000) than women (1.1 (0.9-1.5) per 100,000) and higher childhood stroke DALY rates (120.1 (100.8-143.4) per 100,000) than women (90.9 (74.6-122.4) per 100,000) globally in 2013. Conclusions: Globally, between 1990 and 2013, there was a significant increase in the absolute number of prevalent childhood strokes, while absolute numbers and rates of both deaths and DALYs declined significantly. The gap in childhood stroke burden between developed and developing countries is closing; however, in 2013, childhood stroke burden in terms of absolute numbers of prevalent strokes, deaths and DALYs remained much higher in developing countries. There is an urgent need to address these disparities with both global and country-level initiatives targeting prevention as well as improved access to acute and chronic stroke care