Theoretical aspects of physical-chemical parameters for the correct conservation of mummies on display in museums and preserved in storage rooms

This study is aimed at evaluating physical and chemical parameters which are considered as the most appropriate for the long-term preservation of mummies, distinguishing between those which are on display in museums and those which are preserved in storage rooms. The objective of this study is also to compare and discuss differences among the most widely known guidelines and norms of the field and to highlight the single phenomena which affect the decay of this kind of cultural asset.     

Professional re-accreditation: constructing educational policy for career-long teacher professional learning

Competence as a measure of ‘fitness to practice’ and its evaluation through mechanisms of personal performance review, has led to the introduction of systems in a number of professions which link appraisal to the maintenance of professional registration (variously referred to as re-validation, re-certification, re-accreditation, etc.). This shift towards the requirement to actively maintain registration is becoming increasingly common in the teaching profession in many countries too. This paper presents an examination of the enactment of this global policy trend towards teacher re-accreditation at a national level. Here, we analyse the policy discourse and rhetoric around the introduction of professional re-accreditation of teachers in Scotland, where it is referred to as ‘Professional Update’, and track this through to the preparation of those carrying out interviews for re-accreditation in one of the three local authorities involved in piloting the initiative. In doing this we aim to show the ways in which policy serves to construct teacher subjectivities though processes of appraisal and how policy actors positions themselves and are positioned within these policy-making processes.     

Editorial

Ohne Zusammenfassung

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Editorial

     

Team teaching of the multidisciplinary approach

If the multidisciplinary approach is to be an important element in the care of abused/neglected children and their families, professionals and para-professionals will need to learn how to function within its context. This paper has described one innovative way of teaching this approach. The technique described seems to have been successful by several measurable standards. The elements which seem to have had a positive contribution to this success are: 1) the use of a multidisciplinary planning group and faculty which was a multidisciplinary task-oriented group itself; 2) a heterogeneous group of students; 3) the frequent presentation of multidisciplinary role models; 4) varied teaching techniques which stressed classroom interaction, roleplay, and field visits. The course approval has been renewed and will be offered again in the 1976–1977 academic year.     

Limits of dynamic object perception in pigeons: Dynamic stimulus presentation does not enhance perception and discrimination of complex shape

A go/no-go procedure was used to train pigeons to discriminate pictures of human faces differing only in shape, with either static images or movies of human faces dynamically rotating in depth. On the basis of experimental findings in humans and some earlier studies on three-dimensional object perception in pigeons, we expected dynamic stimulus presentation to support the pigeon’s perception of the complex morphology of a human face. However, the performance of the subjects presented with movies was either worse than (AVI format movies) or did not differ from (uncompressed dynamic presentation) that of the subjects trained with a single or with multiple static images of the faces. Furthermore, generalization tests to other presentation conditions and to novel static views revealed no promoting effect of dynamic training. Except for the subjects trained on multiple static views, performance dropped to chance level with views outside the training range. These results are in contrast to some prior reports from the literature, since they suggest that pigeons, unlike humans, have difficulty using the additional structural information provided by the dynamic presentation and integrating the multiple views into a three-dimensional object.     

Scenario planning: a tool for academic health sciences libraries

Objective: Review the International Campaign to Revitalise Academic Medicine (ICRAM) Future Scenarios as a potential starting point for developing scenarios to envisage plausible futures for health sciences libraries. Method: At an educational workshop, 15 groups, each composed of four to seven Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries (AAHSL) directors and AAHSL/NLM Fellows, created plausible stories using the five ICRAM scenarios. Results: Participants created 15 plausible stories regarding roles played by health sciences librarians, how libraries are used and their physical properties in response to technology, scholarly communication, learning environments and health care economic changes. Conclusions: Libraries are affected by many forces, including economic pressures, curriculum and changes in technology, health care delivery and scholarly communications business models. The future is likely to contain ICRAM scenario elements, although not all, and each, if they come to pass, will impact health sciences libraries. The AAHSL groups identified common features in their scenarios to learn lessons for now. The hope is that other groups find the scenarios useful in thinking about academic health science library futures.     

Designing a library: everyone on the same page?

Excerpts are presented from an interview by the Bulletin of the Medical Library Association buildings projects editor with four academic health sciences library directors: one who had recently completed a major library building project and three who were involved in various stages of new building projects. They share their experiences planning for and implementing library-building programs. The interview explores driving forces leading to new library buildings, identifies who should be involved, recalls the most difficult and exciting moments of the building projects, relates what they wished they had known before starting the project, assesses the impact of new library facilities on clients and services, reviews what they would change, and describes forces impacting libraries today and attributes of the twenty-first century library.     

Resistance to extinction as a function of percentage of reward: A reinforcement-level interpretation

Three experiments investigated the effects of percentage of reinforcement on the resistance to extinction of an instrumental running response. In Experiment 1, with N-length held constant, 47% reinforcement during acquisition generated greater resistance to extinction (R_n) than did 77%. In Experiment 2, this result was replicated with both functional N-length and number of N-R transitions held constant. In Experiment 3, R_n was shown to be a function of both N-length and percentage of reinforcement. The results of all three experiments were discussed in terms of Capaldi’s reinforcement level theory and possible alternative explanations.