A practical approach to making accurate 3D layouts of interesting cultural heritage sites through digital models

On many occasions, the graphic information handled by people working in the cultural heritage sector is still bidimensional. Layouts showing elevations and cross sections are the most widespread tools. However, there is an increased need for carefully detailing the complexity of valuable sites with an improved accuracy. This implies the measuring and handling of three-dimensional data, using both commercial and turn-key hardware and software solutions. Taking the usual traditional process as a reference, in the present paper a new effective methodology for carrying out computer assisted delineation of layouts from cultural heritage sites, using 3D digital models, is described. The proposed procedure has been tested in five intervention projects on representative churches within the “Merindad de Aguilar de Campoo” medieval area, in the north of Spain.¹ This area has the largest collection of Romanesque art in the world, and is currently under European Heritage Site and World Heritage Site declaration process by the UNESCO.     

Background Verbal and Physical Anger: A Comparison of Children's Responses to Adult-Adult and Adult-Child Arguments

Children's responses to adult-child conflict were examined and compared to their responses to adult-adult conflict. These responses were further analyzed in relation to 2 forms of anger expression: verbal and physical. 6–7- and 9–10-year-olds were interviewed after viewing videotaped segments of angry arguments. Although children were distressed by both adult-child and adult-adult conflict, the participants in conflict and form of anger expression moderated some of their responses. In adult-child conflict, children were more scared in response to physical versus verbal arguments. For verbal arguments, some children felt both more scared and mad during adult-adult conflict in comparison to adult-child conflict; however, the percentage of children reporting fear and anger was small. Intervention in conflict through siding with one party occurred more frequently in adult-child conflict versus adult-adult conflict. Responses were further moderated by the age and gender of the subject.     

Learning from human cadaveric prosections: Examining anxiety in speech therapy students

Human anatomy education often utilizes the essential practices of cadaver dissection and examination of prosected specimens. However, these exposures to human cadavers and confronting death can be stressful and anxiety‐inducing for students. This study aims to understand the attitudes, reactions, fears, and states of anxiety that speech therapy students experience in the dissection room. To that end, a before‐and‐after cross‐sectional analysis was conducted with speech therapy students undertaking a dissection course for the first time. An anonymous questionnaire was administered before and after the exercise to understand students' feelings and emotions. State‐Trait Anxiety Inventory questionnaires (STAI‐S and STAI‐T) were used to evaluate anxiety levels. The results of the study revealed that baseline anxiety levels measured using the STAI‐T remained stable and unchanged during the dissection room experience (P > 0.05). Levels of emotional anxiety measured using the STAI‐S decreased, from 15.3 to 11.1 points (P < 0.05). In the initial phase of the study, before any contact with the dissection room environment, 17% of students experienced anxiety, and this rate remained unchanged by end of the session (P > 0.05). A total of 63.4% of students described having thoughts about life and death. After the session, 100% of students recommended the dissection exercise, giving it a mean score of 9.1/10 points. Anatomy is an important subject for students in the health sciences, and dissection and prosection exercises frequently involve a series of uncomfortable and stressful experiences. Experiences in the dissection room may challenge some students' emotional equilibria. However, students consider the exercise to be very useful in their education and recommend it. Anat Sci Educ 10: 487–494. © 2017 American Association of Anatomists.     

Threats to the Survival of the Author-Pays-Journal to Publish Model

While many agree that society as a whole, the progress of science, education, health care, patients, and policy makers would benefit tremendously from making access to research publications and data freely available to students, researchers, physicians and even the public, particularly in the case of publicly funded research, many questions regarding the future of the author-pays journal model to publish in open access journals remain unanswered, especially since article processing charges (APCs) fund peer review and publishing costs. Unlike the subscriber-pays traditional publishing model, the inherent interest in charging authors APCs as publication costs to have their work peer reviewed by experts in their field raises many concerns including the potential abuse by predatory publishers who may spot opportunities for profit, the objectivity and credibility of peer review, and the viability of this model in the light of rapidly evolving publishing practices and venues. In this piece, we discuss some challenges that may threaten the survival of the author-pays journal publishing model, evolving the “publish or perish” into a “pay to publish or perish” model.     

Cast Aside

This paper examines the role of user-generated content in a traditional news organization during the coverage of the Boston marathon bombings. In-depth interviews were conducted with the journalists who made up the interactive team at the Boston Globe. The interactive team was in charge of the live blog during the week-long coverage of the marathon bombings. The study identifies the perceptions journalists hold of user-generated content during crisis reporting and the impact user-generated content had during the tense coverage. The findings suggest that user-generated content has a good way to go before being considered an integral part of breaking news content.     

Stings,Hoaxes and Irony Breach the Trust Inherent in Scientific Publishing

Trust has traditionally been a cornerstone of traditional science publishing. However, events over the past few years, an increase in the number of retractions and the fortification of the vigilant science movement, coupled with better tools to detect and report or publicize misconduct and/or errors in the literature, has revealed that this pillar of trust has in fact not always been present, or has been severely abused or compromised. Further disintegration in the integrity of academic publishing by no or almost non-existent peer review in so-called “predatory” open access publishers has given reason to increasingly distrust the accuracy of the published academic record. Finally, a topic that tends to invoke mixed reactions, but which we feel adds to the overall level of mistrust and erosion of ethical values in science publishing, is the use of stings, hoaxes and irony academic journals. We focus on six such cases, providing a rationale why such studies undermine trust and integrity and why such bogus publications are best left to blogs or non-academic forms of publishing science-related topics.     

‘Stuff from which legends are made’: Jack Trice Stadium and the politics of memory

This paper considers the politics involved in naming Iowa State University's football stadium after Jack Trice, the school's first African American athlete and its only athlete to die from injuries sustained in competition. This decision took place in the mid- to late-1990s, at nearly the same time administrators dedicated another site of memory on Iowa State's campus – Carrie Chapman Catt Hall. Catt, an esteemed alumna of the school, was an important lobbyist for women's rights in the early twentieth century who made several racist, classist and xenophobic remarks in her campaigns. By locating these two memorial efforts within the larger context of racialized relations in the US, this essay argues that the university memorialized Jack Trice in order to assert itself as a racially inclusive space during a moment that threatened to brand the institution deficient when it came to minority students and affairs.     

Service-Learning Projects in an Undergraduate Gerontology Course: A Six-Stage Model and Application

Service-learning opportunities are prominent on many college campuses. The process of designing and implementing service-learning experiences, especially for students of gerontology, however, has rarely been addressed. The current article briefly reviews the background and utility of service-learning in gerontology courses, describes our service-learning project, outlines a general six-stage model for developing service-learning projects in gerontology courses, and describes our process of integrating the service-learning project into an introductory gerontology course. Finally, we demonstrate that in conjunction with the promotion of evaluative practices, service-learning in the gerontology classroom presents a promising practice for creating healthier communities.