Improving Environmental Conditions in the Tomb of Tutankhamen

ABSTRACT

The tomb of Tutankhamen in the Valley of the Kings, Egypt, one of the major attractions of the World Heritage Site of Ancient Thebes and its Necropolis on the West Bank of modern day Luxor, is today a destination for mass tourism. Visitors to the tomb increase relative humidity, elevate carbon dioxide levels, and encourage natural ventilation which facilitates entry of dust into the tomb. These conditions negatively impact the wall paintings and remaining artifacts in the tomb and create an uncomfortable environment for visitors. The deposition of dust inside the tomb collects on uneven wall painting surfaces, obscures their legibility and necessitates cycles of cleaning, which in turn leads to further damage. Developing environmental management strategies in the tomb to counter the effects of visitors and mitigate dust entry is an important component of the collaborative project between the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) and Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities (MoA) to conserve the tomb. These included implementation of a filtered-air supply and exhaust ventilation system to stabilize the interior microclimate and reduce dust in order to improve visitor comfort and contribute to the long-term preservation of the tomb.     

Pavlovian conditioning with ingested saline solution as the US

Experience with 2% saline as the sole available fluid for drinking produced a decrement in preference for .9% saline in a two-bottle test with water as the alternative. This outcome was interpreted as a consequence of Pavlovian conditioning, with the taste of salt acting as the conditioned stimulus and postingestive consequences of saline ingestion acting as the unconditioned stimulus. An overshadowing group experienced salt mixed with vanilla as its sole fluid during the conditioning phase. This group showed an attenuated saline aversion relative to a group that drank 2% saline solution during the conditioning phase. In addition, a vanilla aversion developed in the former group. In the second experiment, conditioning of the aversion to the taste of vanilla mixed with 2% saline was attenuated by preexposing the vanilla. The results support a Pavlovian analysis of the modification of salt preference through experience with the postingestive consequences of saline ingestion.     

A study of student participation and nonparticipation in prelecture electronic surveys

Student nonparticipation in electronic surveys represents a challenge to educators as it may impact significantly on the implementation or evaluation of the associated teaching activities. We here study the student evaluation of a pedagogical project consisting of prelecture online polling followed by linked revision lectures. This investigation involves studying the responses from 43 undergraduate students following a course in accounting at a British university. With regard to the students' views on the use of prelecture polling, our study shows that there are no statistically significant differences between those who did not participate in the online polling and those who did. Both groups of students were generally positive about the use of (1) polling results in structuring the revision lecture, (2) online survey in helping them prepare for the examination and (3) online polling as a teaching platform in other courses. Our findings therefore suggest that prelecture electronic surveys can help engage students with follow‐up lectures, including those who did not participate in the prelecture survey.     

A model for using a concept inventory as a tool for students' assessment and faculty professional development

This essay describes how the use of a concept inventory has enhanced professional development and curriculum reform efforts of a faculty teaching community. The Host Pathogen Interactions (HPI) teaching team is composed of research and teaching faculty with expertise in HPI who share the goal of improving the learning experience of students in nine linked undergraduate microbiology courses. To support evidence-based curriculum reform, we administered our HPI Concept Inventory as a pre- and postsurvey to approximately 400 students each year since 2006. The resulting data include student scores as well as their open-ended explanations for distractor choices. The data have enabled us to address curriculum reform goals of 1) reconciling student learning with our expectations, 2) correlating student learning with background variables, 3) understanding student learning across institutions, 4) measuring the effect of teaching techniques on student learning, and 5) demonstrating how our courses collectively form a learning progression. The analysis of the concept inventory data has anchored and deepened the team's discussions of student learning. Reading and discussing students' responses revealed the gap between our understanding and the students' understanding. We provide evidence to support the concept inventory as a tool for assessing student understanding of HPI concepts and faculty development.     

Impact ‘fingerprints’ and preliminary implications for an ‘intelligent mouthguard’ head impact dosimeter

An in vivo head impact dosimeter, termed the ??intelligent mouthguard??, is under development at the Cleveland Clinic. The intelligent mouthguard facilitates correlation of acute and accumulative impact dosage with injury risk. As part of intelligent mouthguard dosimetry development for boxing and mixed martial arts participants, head and neck impact dosage was quantified in the laboratory for seven (7) punch types. Impact dosage data for punches were collected, which generated unique ??fingerprints?? for use with the intelligent mouthguard computational algorithm. Additional calculations were made on parameters based on each punch ??fingerprint?? and injury risk. Each of the punches had a unique ??fingerprint??. The hook imparted the most severe impact dosage, with the cross and oblique hook inducing the next most severe impact dosages, respectively. The impact dosage ??fingerprints?? determined here will be used to identify punch types during intelligent mouthguard human trials in 2012. Intelligent mouthguard dosimetry will be available soon for other contact sports (American Football, Ice Hockey, Lacrosse) to monitor head?Cneck impact dosage for correlation to acute or accumulative injury risk.