The terrible gift: Museums and the possibility of hope without consolation

Public history is turned toward the future no less than the past. Little discussion exists as to how practices of public history might foster new ways to live with the presence of history. Museum exhibitions are one site where such discussions may take place. Particularly generative in this regard are exhibitions that present artifacts and documentation that reference state-sponsored violence. One such exhibition in development is discussed. While this exhibition presents evidence of past events, it also assembles traces of the past and bequeaths them as a testament, “a terrible gift” that places difficult demands on those to whom it has been given. In discussing the practices of inheritance initiated by such a gift implications are drawn for how museums might initiate a reconsideration of the force of history in social life.     

The Methodological Foundations of Standardization in the Field of Library and Information Support of Science

This paper characterizes the methodological foundations of national standardization in the Russian Federation, in particular in the library and information field. The activities of Technical Standardization Committee 191 Scientific and Technical Information, Librarianship, and Publishing are reported.     

An Analytical Review of Global Ecoinformatics Problems

Modern global eco-dynamics problems are discussed. It is noted that global changes are mostly characterized by several key features, such as their multicomponent nature, as well as interactivity and nonlinearity. These features challenge various forecast estimates in such a way that the concept of forecasting has been replaced over the last few years by a much more ambiguous concept of scenarios. The vagueness of scenarios is due to the problem of global climate change. A global climate–nature–society system model is outlined.     

Russian Science Citation Index: Areas for Development Identified by Active Users

The current state of the Russian Science Citation Index is analyzed. Several areas for its further development identified by long-standing active users, such as data searching, refinement, and storage; current user alerts; data input with the Science Index license; patent information; and the application programming interface (API) are investigated.     

Food attitudes in female athletes: association with menstrual cycle length

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between indicators of risk of disordered eating, body image and varied menstrual cycle lengths. Altogether, 151 female athletes were invited from 16 sports and 70 female non-athletic controls were recruited from a university lecture class. The participants completed several surveys, including demographics, menstrual cycle history, physical activity, Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI) and the Three Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ). Selected EDI subscales were summed to reflect eating disorder risk and body image. Menstrual cyclicity was based on self-reported cycle length for the last 6 months (normal cycles = 26-32 days, irregular cycles < or =26 or >32 days). Athletes overall had more irregular cycles (29.1%) than the non-athletes (15.7%) (P < 0.05). There were significant differences in scores for eating disorder risk, body dissatisfaction, drive for thinness, cognitive restraint (TFEQ) and disinhibition (TFEQ), only when athletes were divided based on menstrual cyclicity (i.e. irregularly cycling athletes had higher scores than athletes with normal menstrual cycle lengths). No differences in these scores were found between non-athletes with normal or irregular menstrual cycle lengths. In conclusion, irregularly short or long menstrual cycle length is associated with subtle indications of higher risk of disordered eating in female athletes.     

The effects of extraneous speech on visual vigilance performance of children

First-grade males performed a 30-min visual vigilance task under 5 conditions of auditory background stimulation. The 5 conditions consisted of (1) continuous conversation, in which subjects listened to a tape of conversation spliced so that there were no intervals of silence lasting longer than 3 sec; (2) continuous reverse, in which subjects heard the continuous conversation tape played in reverse; (3) intermittent conversation, in which subjects heard alternating segments of conversation and silence; (4) intermittent reverse, in which subjects heard alternating segments of reverse conversation and silence; and (5) silence control. Compared with silence or continuous stimulation, intermittent stimulation produced better detection regardless of whether or not it was meaningful. High achievers made more correct detections than low achievers, but only in the second and third time periods. Few subjects made errors of commission.     

The elimination of hypo from photographic images

It is very difficult, if not impossible, to remove the last traces of hypo from photographic papers by any known procedure of washing. The sulfur in the residual hypo ultimately, and especially under abnormal conditions of temperature and humidity, combines with the silver image to form yellowish brown silver sulfide. This phenomenon is known as sulfiding or “fading” of the image. The various factors which affect the rate of fading of images and the washing out of hypo from films and papers are outlined.Chemical methods of hypo elimination have been proposed from time to time but the majority of these have not been satisfactory because they tend to leave substances such as thionates in the photographic material, which are equally as difficult to wash out as hypo and which also tend to sulfide or fade the silver image. A new hypo eliminator is recommended consisting of two volatile chemicals, hydrogen peroxide and ammonia. This eliminator oxidizes the hypo to sodium sulfate, which is inert and soluble in water, while any excess eliminator evaporates on drying.Two formulas and treatments are proposed: (1) Complete elimination of hypo for use by the professional, advanced amateur, and photofinisher who demand the highest standard of photographic quality in their prints.(2) Almost complete elimination of hypo (less than o.oi milligram per square inch).Since the conditions to which prints will be subjected are rarely known in advance, use of the “complete elimination treatment” is advised in all cases.