Able to do things of which they have never dreamed : Shi Meiyu's vision of nursing in early twentieth century China

This essay explores the writings of Shi Meiyu, a Chinese woman medical missionary, concerning the nursing school she ran in Jiujiang, China from 1896 to 1920. During this period, in both the writings of Western missionaries and Chinese reformers, images of sick Chinese women were frequently used to condemn many aspects of Chinese society. My essay looks at the ways that Shi Meiyu, in her discussions of the health of Chinese women, shifted the focus to a vision of Chinese women as skilled healers. I also explore Shi's search for the funding to adapt her nursing school to the increasing emphasis on "scientific" medicine

The Vector Vortex Coronagraph: Laboratory Results and First Light at Palomar Observatory

High-contrast coronagraphy will be needed to image and characterize faint extra-solar planetary systems. Coronagraphy is a rapidly evolving field, and many enhanced alternatives to the classical Lyot coronagraph have been proposed in the past ten years. Here, we discuss the operation of the vector vortex coronagraph, which is one of the most efficient possible coronagraphs. We first present recent laboratory results, and then first light observations at the Palomar observatory. Our near-infrared H-band (centered at ~ 1.65 microns) and K-band (centered at ~ 2.2 microns) vector vortex devices demonstrated excellent contrast results in the lab, down to ~ 1e-6 at an angular separation of 3 lb/d. On sky, we detected a brown dwarf companion 3000 times fainter than its host star (HR 7672) in the Ks band (centered at ~2.15 microns), at an angular separation of ~ 2.5 lb/d. Current and next-generation high-contrast instruments can directly benefit from the demonstrated capabilities of such a vector vortex: simplicity, small inner working angle, high optical throughput (>90%), and maximal off-axis discovery space

Recent results of the second generation of vector vortex coronagraphs on the high-contrast imaging testbed at JPL

The Vector Vortex Coronagraph (VVC) is an attractive internal coronagraph solution to image and characterize exoplanets. It provides four key pillars on which efficient high contrast imaging instruments can be built for ground- and space-based telescopes: small inner working angle, high throughput, clear off-axis discovery space, and simple layout. We present the status of the VVC technology development supported by NASA. We will review recent results of the optical tests of the second-generation topological charge 4 VVC on the actively corrected High Contrast Imaging Testbed (HCIT) at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). New VVC contrast records have been established

Vector vortex coronagraph: first results in the visible

We report the status of JPL and JDSU ongoing technological developments and contrast results of the vector vortex coronagraph (VVC) made out of liquid crystal polymers (LCP). The first topological charge 4 VVC was tested on the high contrast imaging testbed (HCIT) around 800 nm, under vacuum and with active wavefront control (32x32 Xinetics deformable mirror). We measured the inner working angle or IWA (50% off-axis transmission) at ~ 1.8λ/d. A one-sided dark hole ranging from 3λ/d to 10λ/d was created in polarized light, showing a mean contrast of ~ 2 × 10^(-7) over a 10% bandwidth. This contrast was maintained very close in (3 λ/d) in a reduced 2% bandwidth. These tests begin to demonstrate the potential of the LCP technology in the most demanding application of a space-based telescope dedicated to extrasolar planet characterization. The main limitations were identified as coming from incoherent sources such as multiple reflections, and residual chromaticity. A second generation of improved masks tackling these issues is being manufactured and will be tested on the HCIT in the coming months

“‘Her Chinese Attended to Almost Everything’: Relationships of Power in the Hackett Medical College for Women, Guangzhou, China, 1901–1915”

This essay uses a 1915 crisis at the American Presbyterian Hackett Medical College for Women in Guangzhou, China as a lens to explore the level of control Chinese women, who were known as “assistants,” exercised at the school. Official literature of the Hackett portrays the American woman missionary physician Dr. Mary Fulton as controlling the college, but in fact its Chinese women graduates largely ran the institution for some years before 1915. Challenging images of American women missionary physicians either as heroines or imperialists, this article describes instead how Chinese women shaped the institution. Placing the Hackett into the broader context of American Presbyterian medical education for Chinese women since 1879, it argues that rather than only interpreting and adapting missionary ideologies, many of the Chinese women medical students in Guangzhou brought their own conceptions of women practicing medicine. In the case of medical education for women in Guangzhou before 1915, American missionaries were partially responding to Chinese traditions and demands. Ultimately, this essay presents a more complex view of cultural transfer in the women’s foreign mission movement of this period.</jats:p

Able to do things of which they have never dreamed : Shi Meiyu's vision of nursing in early twentieth century China

This essay explores the writings of Shi Meiyu, a Chinese woman medical missionary, concerning the nursing school she ran in Jiujiang, China from 1896 to 1920. During this period, in both the writings of Western missionaries and Chinese reformers, images of sick Chinese women were frequently used to condemn many aspects of Chinese society. My essay looks at the ways that Shi Meiyu, in her discussions of the health of Chinese women, shifted the focus to a vision of Chinese women as skilled healers. I also explore Shi's search for the funding to adapt her nursing school to the increasing emphasis on "scientific" medicine