An Integrated Unit

In this article, the author analyzes Arthur Efland's Art and Cognition, which advocates study of the visual arts for its cognitive benefits. The author argues that Efland's cognitive premises are largely sound but that his specific recommendations often belie the general principles he espouses. Efland focuses on the interpretation of baffling works that deliberately flout traditional views of what constitutes a work of art. He thereby ignores his own emphasis on the role of categorization in human cognition. Moreover, although he stresses the cognitive importance of individual goals and intentions, Efland favors sociopolitical interpretations. Such interpretations disregard contradictory evidence of the artist's likely intentions and downplay the personal value of art. The author views Efland's emphasis on visual metaphor as inconsistent with his recognition that the visual arts possess a distinctive immediacy and directness.     

Tusks and tools – Experiments in carving mammoth ivory

In the past, the author replicated several Stone Age art objects, preferentially those made from mammoth tusk, using authentic tools and techniques. This contribution describes the results of his research work and the experiences he collected during the experiments, not only in relation to the material and its properties but also concerning the use of flint tools and their technical aspects. In addition, the author gives a brief overview about his subsequent considerations regarding early artisans, their skills and their social position.     

Construction of biochemical computer models

This paper described methods for constructing (digital) computer models of biochemical systems when the main object is to investigate the system itself, and not to fit experimental data (e.g., from tracer kinetics) to a set of equations. The author describes model-building as an art which is difficult to communicate, but nevertheless gives valuable tips on the conceptual and practical aspects, from his own considerable experience.     

Psycho-social reflections on craniofacial morphogenesis

Psychologists are now increasingly involved in understanding the challenges faced by people who experience facial disfigurements from many causes (congenital, traumatic, oncological, iatrogenic, neurological, ophthalmological or dermatological). This article describes how the author has combined the lessons of his personal recovery after severe facial burns with the rigorous science of psychological research to enable improved psycho-social support and interventions to be developed, through a UK not-for-profit (Changing Faces) and in formal health care services. It suggests that against the background of a culture that is less-than-positive about disfigurement, anyone who experiences it needs access to a range of support, advice, counselling and social skills training to enable them to live full, confident lives.     

Some experiences in the estimation of parameters in non-linear differential equations

The author describes a procedure developed by himself and his colleagues for obtaining estimates of the parameters of rate equations, together with information about confidence regions for the estimates. The program has been used successfully for processing results from the chemical engineering industry, with highly non-linear model systems, particularly since temperature was a variable, and the "rate constants" were non-linear combinations of other constants. In biochemical situations, in which investigations are almost always at constant temperature, the non-linearity should not be so extreme, and the procedure may well be capable of dealing with more than 5 to 7 parameters for which it is recommended.     

Teaching bioethics as a new paradigm for health professionals

In The Clouds by Aristophanes, Strepsiades brings his son before Socrates so that he could learn Philosophy for he has heard that this science teaches how to overcome the most difficult causes with reasons. And Strepsiades wants his son to learn the art of failing to pay debts. Regarding medical education in our time, Edmund Pellegrino has noted that the educational philosophy of medical schools determines what a "good" physician is. Thus, teaching bioethics to future health professionals makes us face old problems now: What teaching method to choose among all the possible various ones? What should teaching aim at? Which will be our educational philosophy? Therefore I shall introduce here the epistemological basis of our Bioethics teaching program in Argentina and its implementing strategies in the undergraduate curriculum and the post-graduate level.     

Part-time employees in the research facility

As the "eyes and ears" of the biomedical research team, laboratory animal technicians perform functions essential to maintaining the health of the laboratory animals, and advocate their welfare. The author describes a program that allows part-time employees to perform some of the laboratory animal technician responsibilities when facilities are understaffed and low on funds.     

The origins of Michael Conrad's research programs (1964-1979).

This paper summarizes Michael Conrad's academic and professional career from the time he began his Ph.D. studies in 1964 to his appointment at Wayne State University in 1979. It describes the origins of several of his major research interests and presents a personal evaluation of how this early work continues to be of fundamental importance.     

Vygotsky's Nonclassical Psychology

Nonclassical psychology has laws that differ from those in classical psychology. Nonclassical psychology uncovers the specifically human course of development and views people as self-regulated individuals. Vygotsky's writings reveal his lifelong engagement with the psychology of art, which for him was the essence of the new nonclassical psychology. The author looks at "play" and "positioning" as two key units in understanding nonclassical psychology.     

Homer Wheelon, M.D., physiologist, artist, and poet: origins of the tailpieces in journals of the American Physiological Society

Since 1953, illustrations have been inserted as "tailpieces" at the ends of articles in The American Journal of Physiology and The Journal of Applied Physiology. The drawings were made by Homer Wheelon, a member of the American Physiological Society from 1919 until his death in 1960. Forty-five years after his death, Wheelon is unknown, but he contributed 32 publications to the medical literature and trained J. Earl Thomas, an important 20th century gastrointestinal physiologist. Wheelon was born into poverty in 1883 to itinerant Methodist preachers, circumstances that guided his education and career choices. Throughout his life, Wheelon exhibited a fondness and talent for art and photography and an unusual breadth of intellectual interests and knowledge. Wheelon received a bachelor's degree from the University of Washington, then studied at the University of Oregon, Northwestern University, and St. Louis University. Earning his M.D. from St. Louis University and assuming a faculty position there, Wheelon and his graduate student, Thomas, conducted widely recognized gastrointestinal research. Returning to Seattle in 1921, Wheelon became a highly respected physician and hospital administrator, but he also found time to indulge his interest in visual art and poetry. In 1933, inspired by observing a rabbit being used in a pregnancy test, Wheelon began to write and illustrate an epic, 322-page poem, Rabbit No. 202, illustrations from which became the journals' tailpieces. The present study traces Wheelon's personal life and scientific career in an attempt to understand this complex man and the origins of his unusual poem and its drawings.     

Personal reflections on the life and legacy of Alexander Hollaender

Mary Esther Gaulden presents a personal summary of the activities of Alexander Hollaender, from his days at the National Institutes of Health to his becoming Director of the Biology Division of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 1947. This appealing story deals with many of her reactions to his personality and organizational style. It reflects the atmosphere of science in those days, and her enthusiasm in this vibrant milieu. Next is a brief account by John Jagger of his first meeting with Dr. Hollaender, arrival in Oak Ridge in April 1956, and wedding to Mary Esther six months later at the house of the Hollaenders in Oak Ridge. The third section is an account by Virginia P. White of how she came to Oak Ridge in 1955 and became Dr. Hollaender's Laboratory Administrator. She gives a personal account of the many facets of his managerial style, as well as of the personality of his wife, Henrietta. She also describes one of Hollaender's many avocations, the collection of fossils on Sunday morning hikes in the Cumberland Mountains, accompanied by lab and visiting personnel, and finally comments on the annual research conferences in Gatlinburg TN, for which Hollaender and the lab became very well known, with some closing vignettes on his leadership style.     

Ethical aspects of statistical practice

This paper embodies a personal view of the ethical considerations that the author believes should be continuously in the mind of any applied statistician or biometrician whose work involves extensive collaboration with other persons and organizations. It looks particularly at the contribution of the International Statistical Institute to the codification of principles, the duties of the statistician in relation to data and the interests of his employer or client, his responsibilities to his professional colleagues and towards society as a whole, and, by no means least; the responsibility of the client towards the statistician who works with him.     

Early studies on human chromosomes

The author describes his introduction to the field of cytogenetics, with his first viewing of himself, cytogenetically, down the microscope, and the progression of human cytogenetics as an area of study up to its modern integration with molecular genetics and computer technology.     

A little bit of Africa in Brazil: ethnobiology experiences in the field of Afro-Brazilian religions

This essay, which is the fourth in the series “Recollections, Reflections, and Revelations: Ethnobiologists and Their First Time in the Field”, is a personal reflection by the researcher on his first field experience with ethnobiology of so called Afro-brazilian cults. The author recounts his feelings and concerns associated with initial fieldwork.     

Magician in a White Coat

In this article, the author describes integrated science and mathematics activities developed for fourthgrade students to explore and investigate three-dimensional geometric shapes, Bernoulli's principle, estimation, and art with and through bubbles. Students were engaged in thinking and reflection on the questions their teachers asked and were also encouraged to use prior knowledge to make conjectures about what they believed would happen at each center with the materials provided and to record their ideas, conjectures, and findings in a journal.     

Donald J. Reis, MD: Research Mentor Extraordinaire

Donald J. Reis, M.D., the late internationally reknowned neuroscientist, had a special talent for mentoring researchers early in their academic careers. His hands-on approach to laboratory investigation, his extraoridinary patience with novice researchers, his commitment to the scientific method, and his enthusiastic approach to the art of neuroscience all combined to make him the ideal mentor for many budding academics over the past four decades. The beauty of his scientific legacy is that he loved to each research. The following tribute is personal from one whose career was changed by a great mentor.     

Making Illuminated Parchments

The author describes how contemporary music education at the secondary level has fallen short of Dr. Charles Leonhard's vision for developing musical understanding and musical responsiveness in all students and cites several historical events as pivotal in promoting the profession's current path. The author then challenges this generalization by describing the professional practices of a forward-thinking high school band director who epitomizes Leonhard's ideal of a music teacher and serves as a model for professional dispositions. The author also offers social interaction theory as a promising foundation on which to assemble a music teacher education program capable of producing teachers with dispositions that serve the highest goals of the music education profession.     

Emergency Health Planning

This paper outlines the development of emergency health planning as a function of government. Ten provinces have the basic responsibility for the organization, preparation and operation of medical, nursing, hospital and public health services in an emergency. The Department of National Health and Welfare is responsible for the provision of advice and assistance to the provincial and municipal governments in such matters. Eight provinces have now hired full-time planning staffs to co-ordinate the health planning of the Provincial Departments of Health and Provincial Emergency Measures Organization.Four major programs have been established. The first program provides for the continuity of leadership and guidance by health authorities at the federal, provincial and municipal level. Essential records have been developed and emergency legislation prepared. This program, however, will be of little use unless health services are organized at the municipal level. In this organizational program, advice and assistance have been provided to existing hospitals and departments of health in the conduct of disaster planning. The efforts of these agencies are co-ordinated by municipal health authorities into a community disaster plan. The third program deals with information and education of the general public and the health workers. This program is designed to make the family unit self-sufficient for up to seven days and the health worker prepared to undertake his emergency role. The first three programs are directed to the organization and training of manpower; the fourth program provides the necessary supplies. From the national medical stockpile of $18,000,000, some $12,000,000 has been received, packaged for long-term storage and distributed to regional depots across the country. To ensure their ready availability in time of emergency an agreement has been reached with seven provinces for the release of hospital disaster kits.     

Circle of healing: traditional storytelling, part one

The session began with three presenters - LouAnn Benson, Walter Porter, and Lisa Dolchok - all of whom are or have been affiliated with the Circle of Healing Program at Southcentral Foundation in Anchorage, Alaska. The Southcentral Foundation is a Native Health Corporation that administers what used to be the Indian Health Service Hospital and Medical Center. In the Circle of Healing Program, the Southcentral Foundation has designed and implemented an approach to health care that allows its patients simultaneously to access Western medicine, traditional Native healing, and other alternative approaches to health care, such as acupuncture. An important figure in this effort is Dr. Robert Morgan, a psychologist who has worked with the program for several years, and who helped suggest presenters for this part of the program. Originally, Bob planned to be present in Quebec City, but family priorities meant a change in plans. Bob's absence had a silver lining, however, because in his stead he sent LouAnn Benson, one of his able colleagues, who talked about the program from the perspective of an insider.     

Healthy Exercise

Persons at any age can substantially improve their fitness for work and play through appropriate exercise training. Considerable evidence indicates that physical activity is valuable for weight control, modifying lipids and improving carbohydrate tolerance. Less rigorous scientific data are available for associated long-term blood pressure and psychological changes with habitual exercise. Strenuous physical activity most likely reduces the incidence of coronary heart disease and the detrimental impact of certain chronic diseases on health. Adverse effects may result from a training program, but the major concern is the susceptibility to cardiovascular events during and immediately after exertion. To achieve optimal benefits with minimal risk, exercise must be carefully prescribed within the context of overall health and training objectives. Taken altogether, a distinct rationale exists for regular vigorous exercise as an integral part of a personal health maintenance program.