Perfluorinated alkylated substances (PFAS) have been extensively used in consumer products and humans are widely exposed to these persistent compounds. A recent study found no association between ...exposure to perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) and miscarriage, but no studies have examined adverse effect of the more recently introduced PFASs. We therefore conducted a case-control study within a population-based, prospective cohort during 2010-2012. Newly pregnant women residing in the Municipality of Odense, Denmark were invited to enroll in the Odense Child Cohort at their first antenatal visit before pregnancy week 12. Among a total of 2,874 participating women, 88 suffered a miscarriage and 59 had stored serum samples, of which 56 occurred before gestational week 12. They were compared to a random sample (N=336) of delivering women, who had also donated serum samples before week 12. Using a case-control design, 51 of the women suffering a miscarriage were matched on parity and gestational day of serum sampling with 204 delivering women. In a multiple logistic regression with adjustment for age, BMI, parity and gestational age at serum sampling, women with the highest tertile of exposure to perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA) and perfluorodecanoic acid (PFDA) in pregnancy had odds ratios for miscarriage of 16.5 (95% CI 7.4-36.6-36.5) and 2.67 (1.31-5.44), respectively, as compared to the lowest tertile. In the matched data set, the OR were 37.9 (9.9-145.2) and 3.71 (1.60-8.60), respectively. The association with perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS) was in the same direction, but not statistically significant, while no association was found with PFOA and PFOS. Our findings require confirmation due to the possible public health importance, given that all pregnant women are exposed to these widely used compounds.
The article explores the disabled female gaze through the titular character in Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale "The Little Mermaid" (1837), arguing that sight is a strategy of empowerment that ...challenges the able-bodied male gaze. Andersen's fairy tale-and its accompanying visual forms, including sculpture and illustration-is placed in dialogue with Literary Disability Studies, examining how the little mermaid is depicted as an objectified spectacle. Throughout the narrative, she contends with gendered constraints and bodily impairment as a result of her transition from mermaid to human. However, the article also suggests that the little mermaid's gaze is an implicit, interrogative device for female emancipation because she challenges the able-bodied male gaze. Existing scholarship has considered gender and disability in "The Little Mermaid," but the gaze is yet to be addressed in relation to these arguments. Examining the intersections between femininity, disability, and the gaze disrupts and reimagines critical traditions of the gaze, and Andersen's representation of the little mermaid character does in part uphold feminine and ableist norms. However, this representation also offers a tantalising glimpse into how new approaches toward the female disabled gaze (in contrast to the highly theorized male gaze) can be derived from nineteenth-century children's literature.
Fairy tales have been an essential ingredient in children's literature. Canonical fairy tales passed down from generation to generation not only enrich children's imagination but connote significant ...values typical of the community. However, as time passes, contemporary writers often challenge these traditional values when they work on the same topic. This changing face is evidenced by Emma Donoghue's rewriting of classical tales. Based on my teaching of Donoghue's story 'The Tale of the Bird' alongside Andersen's 'Thumbelina' at a university in Hong Kong, this paper discusses the ever-evolving cultural values and the benefit of reading Donoghue via Andersen or vice versa in the literature class and beyond.
"I considered myself to be an applied artist, trying to adjust to the ideas of the author. I had utmost respect for the text. But I was left with a lot of unrealized ideas. When I started writing, I ...could finally realize them. … Illustrations are often born in my mind before the text."
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