Confocal XRF depth profiling non-destructively reveals the original blue pigments in a Renaissance painting by Caroto

Recent restoration of The Rest on the Flight into Egypt by Giovanni Francesco Caroto, from the Louvre collections, included a technical examination of the Virgin's blue robe that aimed to characterize the original materials and later additions. The painting was examined using light microscopy and ultraviolet and infrared imaging, and one cross section was taken. None of these methods showed a clear distinction between the layers that were artist applied or modifications made by another hand. To gain information about the paint stratigraphy without taking additional samples, non-invasive confocal X-ray fluorescence (CXRF) analysis was carried out to examine several areas of the Virgin's robe. Using this technique, it was possible to identify the pigments and order of application of paint by the artist. All the pigments identified were considered to be artist applied, and on this basis no further cleaning was carried out and conservation proceeded with retouching of minor areas of loss or damage. This study highlights the advantages of CXRF analysis for the technical study of paintings, used in combination with classical methods for making informed conservation treatment decisions.     

High intensity and reduced volume training attenuates stress and recovery levels in elite swimmers

This study investigated the effect of increased high-intensity interval training (HIT) at the expense of total training volume on the stress and recovery levels of elite swimmers. Forty-one elite swimmers participated in the study and were randomly assigned to either a HIT or a control group (CON). Eleven swimmers did not complete the questionnaires. For 12 weeks both groups trained ~12 h per week. The amount of HIT was ~5 h vs. 1 h, and total distance was ~17 km vs. ~35 km per week for HIT and CON, respectively. HIT was performed as 6–10 × 10–30 s maximal effort interspersed by 2–4 min of rest. The Recovery Stress Questionnaire – Sport was used to measure the swimmers’ stress and recovery levels. After the 12 week intervention, the general stress level was 16.6% (2.6–30.7%; mean and 95% CI) lower and the general recovery level was 6.5% (0.7–12.4%) higher in HIT compared to the CON, after adjusting for baseline values. No significant effects could be observed in sports-specific stress or sports-specific recovery. The results indicate that increasing training intensity and reducing training volume for 12 weeks can reduce general stress and increase general recovery levels in competitive swimmers.     

The Selfie Study: Archetypes and Motivations in Modern Self-Photography

Photographic self-portraits have existed since the mid-19th century, but the emergence of digital photography and social media as tools that facilitate rapid visual communication have contributed to a surge of self-photographs, or selfies, and the practice has become a ubiquitous part of today's culture. This exploratory research employed a Q-method analysis to quantitatively and qualitatively identify what archetypal motivations exist among individuals who take and share selfies. The findings largely validated past scholarship on the uses and gratifications of photography, new media, and visual rhetoric individually, but also identified that the motivation to take and share selfies is a complex balance of preservation, communication, and entertainment for most individuals who engage in the practice.     

Causal Mediation Analysis With a Binary Outcome and Multiple Continuous or Ordinal Mediators: Simulations and Application to an Alcohol Intervention

We investigate a method to estimate the combined effect of multiple continuous/ordinal mediators on a binary outcome: (a) fit a structural equation model with probit link for the outcome and identity/probit link for continuous/ordinal mediators, (b) predict potential outcome probabilities, and (c) compute natural direct and indirect effects. Step 2 involves rescaling the latent continuous variable underlying the outcome to address residual mediator variance and covariance. We evaluate the estimation of risk-difference- and risk-ratio-based effects (RDs, RRs) using the maximum likelihood (ML), mean-and-variance-adjusted weighted least squares (WLSMV) and Bayes estimators in Mplus. Across most variations in path-coefficient and mediator-residual-correlation signs and strengths, and confounding situations investigated, the method performs well with all estimators, but favors ML/WLSMV for RDs with continuous mediators, and Bayes for RRs with ordinal mediators. Bayes outperforms ML/WLSMV regardless of mediator type when estimating RRs with small potential outcome probabilities and in two other special cases. An adolescent alcohol prevention study is used for illustration.     

Development of children with autism spectrum disorders in special needs education schools in the Netherlands: a three-year follow-up study

The purpose of the study was to investigate the development of symptomatology and academic growth of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) attending a special needs education school in the Netherlands as well as to explore the relationship between academic achievement and symptom reduction of those children. To this end a three-year follow up study was conducted by using multiple informants. The group of children with autism was compared with a group of children having other diagnoses but attending the same school. Results showed that teachers’ and parents’ perceptions about children’s symptomatology development differed significantly. Even though teachers reported a significant symptom reduction of ASD symptoms after two years of school attendance the parents of the same children did not. Furthermore, it was found that both groups of children had gains in different aspects of school-based cognitive skills; however, no association was found between symptom reduction and academic growth of the children. Implications of the study are discussed.     

Biology Education Research: Lessons and Future Directions

This feature draws on a 2012 National Research Council report to highlight some of the insights that discipline-based education research in general—and biology education research in particular—have provided into the challenges of undergraduate science education. It identifies strategies for overcoming those challenges and future directions for biology education research.Biologists have long been concerned about the quality of undergraduate biology education. Indeed, some biology education journals, such as the American Biology Teacher, have been in existence since the 1930s. Early contributors to these journals addressed broad questions about science learning, such as whether collaborative or individual learning was more effective and the value of conceptualization over memorization. Over time, however, biology faculty members have begun to study increasingly sophisticated questions about teaching and learning in the discipline. These scholars, often called biology education researchers, are part of a growing field of inquiry called discipline-based education research (DBER).DBER investigates both fundamental and applied aspects of teaching and learning in a given discipline; our emphasis here is on several science disciplines and engineering. The distinguishing feature of DBER is deep disciplinary knowledge of what constitutes expertise and expert-like understanding in a discipline. This knowledge has the potential to guide research focused on the most important concepts in a discipline and offers a framework for interpreting findings about students’ learning and understanding in that discipline. While DBER investigates teaching and learning in a given discipline, it is informed by and complementary to general research on human learning and cognition and can build on findings from K–12 science education research.DBER is emerging as a field of inquiry from programs of research that have developed somewhat independently in various disciplines in the sciences and engineering. Although biology education research (BER) has emerged more recently than similar efforts in physics, chemistry, or engineering education research, it is making contributions to the understanding of how students learn and gain expertise in biology. These contributions, together with those that DBER has made in physics and astronomy, chemistry, engineering, and the geosciences, are the focus of a 2012 report by the National Research Council (NRC, 2012 ).1 For biologists who are interested in education research, the report is a useful reference, because it offers the first comprehensive synthesis of the emerging body of BER and highlights the ways in which BER findings are similar to those in other disciplines. In this essay, we draw on the NRC report to highlight some of the insights that DBER in general and BER in particular have provided into effective instructional practices and undergraduate learning, and to point to some directions for the future. The views in this essay are ours as editors of the report and do not represent the official views of the Committee on the Status, Contributions, and Future Directions of Discipline-Based Education Research; the NRC; or the National Science Foundation (NSF).     

Scientific Communication and the Nature of Science

Communication is an important part of scientific practice and, arguably, may be seen as constitutive to scientific knowledge. Yet, often scientific communication gets cursory treatment in science studies as well as in science education. In Nature of Science (NOS), for example, communication is rarely mentioned explicitly, even though, as will be argued in this paper, scientific communication could be treated as a central component of NOS. Like other forms of communication, scientific communication is socially and symbolically differentiated. Among other things, it encompasses technical language and grammar, lab communications, and peer reviews, all of which will be treated in this paper in an attempt to engage on an empirical and theoretical level with science as communication. Seeing science as a form of communicative action supplements the epistemological view of science that is standard to both NOS and the philosophy of science. Additions to the seven NOS aspects on Lederman’s (Handbook of research on science education. Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah, pp. 831–879, 2007) list are put forward as well as preliminary thoughts on the inclusion of scientific communication into NOS instruction.     

Exploration of teaching strategies that stimulate the growth of academic skills of children with ASD in special education school

The cognitive growth of children with developmental disorders, like autism, can be seriously impaired due to the disorder. If so, in the Netherlands, these children can attend special schools where they are treated to ameliorate disorder symptoms and to stimulate cognitive growth. The aim of this paper was to identify teaching strategies that stimulate the growth of academic skills in children diagnosed with autism, attending a special needs education school in the Netherlands. Findings showed that the strongest underlying teaching strategy that predicted the academic growth of the children on the autism spectrum in the short and long term was the provision of structure in place, time and activities. It was further found that long-term academic gains were partly predicted by the emotional support from their teachers. The implications of the findings are discussed.