The work of Ambroise Tardieu: the first definitive description of child abuse

The first important monograph describing the battered child syndrome was written in 1860 by Ambroise Tardieu, a French forensic physician. Here is a translation of his article, published in the Annales d'hygiene publique et de medecine legale, with the title "Etude medico-legale sur les sevices et mauvais traitements exerces sur des enfants." The first part of his article is entirely translated. A brief summary of the 32 cases report described by Tardieu in the second part of his article is presented.     

The interaction of conditioned taste aversions and schedule-induced polydipsia: Availability of alternative behaviors

Animals poisoned following exposure to saccharin subsequently avoided the schedule-induced consumption of saccharin. While this suppression was transient for subjects who had access only to the saccharin solution during the free-food presentations, recovery of schedule-induced saccharin consumption was significantly retarded for subjects who had concurrent access to saccharin and a running wheel. It has been suggested that the transient suppression of schedule-induced polydipsia by conditioned taste aversions results from the pellet-induced tendency to drink within the schedule-induced polydipsia procedure. That access to the running wheel reduces schedule-induced polydipsia in general and prolongs the suppression of schedule-induced polydipsia by taste aversions supports this view.     

Describing Changes in Undergraduate Students’ Preconceptions of Research Activities

Research has shown that students bring na?ve scientific conceptions to learning situations which are often incongruous with accepted scientific explanations. These preconceptions are frequently determined to be misconceptions; consequentially instructors spend time to remedy these beliefs and bring students' understanding of scientific concepts to acceptable levels. It is reasonable to assume that students also maintain preconceptions about the processes of authentic scientific research and its associated activities. This study describes the most commonly held preconceptions of authentic research activities among students with little or no previous research experience. Seventeen undergraduate science majors who participated in a ten week research program discussed, at various times during the program, their preconceptions of research and how these ideas changed as a result of direct participation in authentic research activities. The preconceptions included the belief that authentic research is a solitary activity which most closely resembles the type of activity associated with laboratory courses in the undergraduate curriculum. Participants' views showed slight maturation over the research program; they came to understand that authentic research is a detail-oriented activity which is rarely successfully completed alone. These findings and their implications for the teaching and research communities are discussed in the article.