The Intergrated Museum: A Meaningful Role in Society?

Abstract This article describes a process initiated in 1983, at the Canadian Museum of Nature (CMN), which was based on the premise that a responsible natural history museum should assist society in shaping its collective future. The museum predicted that if it were able to help people understand themselves and their relationship to the natural world, the museum would again be seen as valuable to society, and thus would be supported in its efforts. The CMN therefore began to integrate its collections, scholarship, discovery, public programming, and public exhibits into broad, institution‐wide programs focused on the needs and interests of society. These programs enabled the museum to engage its visitors in “guided conversations” in which the museum provided the content, drawing on the research and communication strengths of the museum, while the audience, representing society, set the context. This guided conversation empowered the public to make informed decisions and to influence the museum and its work. CMN also designed exhibit formats that allowed the visiting public to contact industry and government decision‐makers with their opinions. The article describes the museum's evolution through several stages of increasing internal and external integration, ultimately using a managerial matrix to form project teams, with discipline‐based professionals focused on the interests and needs of society. Drawing on audience participation, the CMN reset its programming and offered advice and counsel to government and industry. The museum also took the first steps to include the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples as an additional source of wisdom about the natural world. Financial and other support grew rapidly, effectively demonstrating a successful programmatic feedback loop helping society to shape its future using the museum as an information source and communication tool. The effort was terminated before the integration was completed, but nonetheless, CMN demonstrated that is possible to achieve a programmatic feedback loop that includes collections, science, exhibits, the general public and both government and industry decision‐makers.     

The relationship between hostile attributional bias and aggressive behavior in preschoolers

Previously, K.A. Dodge and colleagues found an association between hostile attributional bias and aggressive behaviors among school aged children. The present study explored such an association among preschool aged children. Sixty-eight children (38 girls and 30 boys) with a mean age of 4.76 years participated in the study. Videotaped vignettes of children's social interactions were developed specifically for this age group to examine their attributional bias. Children's aggressive behaviors were assessed by teachers, using the Preschool Behavior Questionnaire. Results indicated that hostile/aggressive children were significantly more likely to possess a hostile attributional bias (p < .05) than less aggressive children. Results also indicated that preschoolers were capable of distinguishing between intentional and unintentional actions when stimulus materials used were concrete and familiar to them.     

Statistical methods for analysing discrete and categorical data recorded in performance analysis

In this paper, we identify appropriate statistical methods for analysing categorical differences in discrete variables or 'performance indicators' resulting from performance analysis. The random mechanisms associated with discrete events do not follow a normal distribution; that is, the normal distribution is a continuous not a discrete probability distribution. We propose appropriate statistical methods based on two key discrete probability distributions, the Poisson and binomial distributions. Two approaches are proposed and compared using examples from notational analysis. The first approach is based on the classic chi-square test of significance (both the goodness-of-fit test and the test of independence). The second approach adopts a more contemporary method based on log-linear and logit models fitted using the statistical software GLIM. Provided relatively simple one-way and two-way comparisons in categorical data are required, both of these approaches result in very similar conclusions. However, as soon as more complex models or higher-order comparisons are required, the approach based on log-linear and logit models is shown to be more effective. Indeed, when investigating those factors and categorical differences associated with binomial or binary response variables, such as the proportion of winners when attempting decisive shots in squash or the proportion of goals scored from all shots in association football, logit models become the only realistic method available. By applying log-linear and logit models to discrete events resulting from notational analysis, greater insight into the underlying mechanisms associated with sport performance can be achieved.     

图书馆资源共享的目标

<正> 引言图书资源共享意味着由若干个图书馆共同发挥作用的一种工作方式。它的目标是为了提供有益的网络效果:1)能够为用户提供更多的资料或服务;2)保证图书馆以较低的费用维持一定水平的服务,或者在不增加费用的情况下增加服务,或者用较少的费用来提供更多的服务。所有这些,如果单独由一个图书馆来做,那花销要大得多。为了实现这些目标,必须对各个参加馆的工作方式加以调整,但是不能影响他们原来的工作职责。这些目标的实现,同样也离不开读者对自身的阅读习惯做些调整。     

Reflections on Communicating Science through Art

If science can inspire art, can art inspire interest and learning about science? There is widespread experimentation in using the arts as tools for communicating science in science museums and other settings. When the arts work well in communicating important aspects of science, they can be powerful tools. Three artworks are discussed: Particle Fever, a film in development about particle physicists and the hunt for the mysterious Higgs Boson; The Great Immensity, a National Science Foundation‐supported musical about climate change: and Guardians, a ballet co‐produced by and performed in an aquarium. These three art‐and‐science hybrids have given this writer some understanding of at least one way to sift the successful from the unsuccessful ventures.     

Eysenck's BIG THREE and communication traits: Communication traits as manifestations of temperament

Two studies are reported which sought to determine the possible limitations of the proposition that “temperament is manifest through communication.”; The results of earlier studies suggest that many communication related traits indeed are correlated with one or more temperament variables. In the present study Willingness to Communicate, Singing Apprehension, and Innovativeness were found to be associated with one or more of the BIG THREE temperament variables. Writing apprehension was found to have no meaningful relationship with any of the temperament variables. It is concluded that, while most important oral communication traits probably are correlated with one or more temperament traits, some other communication traits, like writing apprehension, may not be.     

General Motion Pictures

Dana H. Hodgdon and Stuart M. Kaminsky BASIC FILMMAKING (New York: Arco Publishing, 1982—$12.95/$7.95)

Stewart Bronfeld WRITING FOR FILM AND TELEVISION (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1981—$11.95)

Leonard Maltin TV MOVIES (New York: New American Library, 1982— $4.95)

Alan Frank THE HORROR FILM HANDBOOK (Totowa, NJ: Barnes E. Noble Books, 1982—$24.95)

Richard Dyer MacCann and Jack C. Ellis CINEMA EXAMINED: SELECTIONS FROM CINEMA JOURNAL (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1982—$9.95 paper)     

Establishing a practical treadmill sprint as an alternative to the Wingate anaerobic test

This study examined the validity and reliability of a 30-second running sprint test using two non-motorized treadmills compared to the established Wingate Anaerobic Test. Twenty-four participants completed three sessions in a randomized order on a: (1) manual mode treadmill (Woodway); (2) specialized interval training treadmill (HiTrainer); and (3) Wingate cycle ergometer. In a subset of 15 participants, 2 additional sessions were completed on both treadmills to establish the test–retest reliability. Peak (Woodway: r = .68; HiTrainer: r = .58; p < .003), average (Woodway: r = .82; HiTrainer: r = .72, p < .001), and minimum (Woodway: r = .64; HiTrainer: r = .42, p < .043) speed indices were moderately to very strongly correlated with corresponding Wingate Anaerobic Test outputs and had excellent test–retest reliability (all intraclass correlation coefficients > .75). Fatigue index during the Wingate Anaerobic Test (51.20 ± 7.14%) was moderately correlated with the Woodway (32.9 ± 10.9%, r = .55, p = .005) only. This 30-second running sprint test may be a valid and reliable mode-specific alternative to the Wingate Anaerobic Test.