Science Fiction: A Survey of Twelve Science Fiction Books Recommended for Junior and Senior High Students

The following pages contain a brief look at twelve science fiction books and their authors. All of these books are recommended for either junior or senior high students. As a prospective school media specialist, I wanted to know more about the literature that students from the ages twelve to eighteen read. Science fiction was one area in which I lacked background. Many of the students enjoy science fiction, especially the boys. So, I decided to read a sample of this type of literature to gain more knowledge in the field. After reading each book, I checked to see how many of the developmental tasks for this age group it contained. I listed the tasks that the book contained after a short annotation of that book. I then searched out a small amount of basic background information on each of the twelve authors to check their qualifications for writing science fiction. I now feel a little more informed about science fiction and some of its authors. I also feel more qualified to make subtle recommendations out of this type of literature

Children: How Their Literature Affects Them

There are three great parallels, if followed consistently, that will provide the kind of literature program that children need today. The first one is that the child needs a balance of the new and the old. Modern authors for children know what the inside of a child\u27s mind is like, and they write with a tempo, style, and spirit that is modern. But a child also needs to know that there were great stories before his time. The second great parallel is the balance between realistic and fanciful literature. The child loves the kind of stories that acquaint hime with his own world. He wants and needs stories about others that live like him and different from him in his own country and in others. But along with realistic experiences, the child also needs and wants the kind of literature that can take him out of his own world and into the world of the impossible, the fanciful, and the impossible. Children also need a balance of prose and poetry. In many schools today there seems little time for poetry. Children are given their heritage of poetry where they can read it and see it beautifully on a page or joyously hear it

An ecological model to understand the variety in undergraduate students’ personal information systems

A first-year undergraduate course in Information Systems in a South African university includes an opportunity for students to reflect on their own use of information and personal information systems. Their reflections provide data about the technologies and tools that they use to find and manage everyday life information, as well as academic information, and about the sources of information they draw on. This paper analyses data collected over three years and reports on the dominant technologies and information sources that students use. We then adapt the ecological model of information seeking and use developed by Williamson (1998) to make sense of the diversity of information sources and students’ choices in engaging with them. The results show that students rely to a very small degree on traditional university information sources. The study offers insights into the information contexts and behaviour of students and argues for the importance of a flexible range of information sources to support students in the complex process of managing information for academic success. The results will be of interest to those involved in designing and delivering undergraduate programmes, as well as those providing information services and infrastructures

Collecting Contemporary Ceramics

Exhibition and collection of Essays featuring artists that have work in the National Ceramics Collection in the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff

Plasma Carotenoids and Biomarkers of Oxidative Stress in Patients with prior Head and Neck Cancer

Diets high in fruits and vegetables are generally believed protective against several chronic diseases. One suggested mechanism is a reduction in oxidative stress. The carotenoids, nutrients found in colored fruits and vegetables, possess antioxidant properties in vitro, but their role in humans is less well documented. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to explore the relationships between the most abundant plasma carotenoids (alpha-carotene, beta-carotene, lycopene, lutein, zeaxanthin and beta-cryptoxanthin), as well as grouped carotenoids (total xanthophylls, carotenes and carotenoids), and urinary excretion of the F2-isoprostanes (F2-IsoPs), stable and specific biomarkers of oxidative damage to lipids. Two F2-IsoP measures were utilized: total F2-IsoPs and 8-iso-PGF2α. The study population (N = 52) was drawn from a study among patients curatively treated for early-stage head and neck cancer. Unadjusted linear regression analyses revealed significant inverse associations between plasma lutein, total xanthophylls and both F2-IsoP measures at baseline. After control for potential confounders, all individual and grouped xanthophylls remained inversely associated with the F2-IsoP measures, but none of these associations achieved significance. The carotenes were not inversely associated with total F2-IsoPs or 8-iso-PGF2a concentrations. The finding of consistent inverse associations between individual and grouped xanthophylls, but not individual and grouped carotenes, and F2-IsoPs is intriguing and warrants further investigation