Responding to Johnson, Saunders, and Lovano-Kerr

The papers presented by Johnson, Saunders, and Lovano-Kerr are varied in content, but united in the sense of originating within two linked dilemmas. The first dilemma asks whether art educators are to embrace and actively work towards incorporating one currently popular political stance into the education process, or whether we are to devise, as far as we can, a curriculum formed from a synthesis of positions. The second asked whether, in using words like “enculturation” and “social transmission, we mean to the world of the school,” or “to the world at large. These are well-worn dilemmas. Their continuing presence is evidence of past failure to address them successfully, and of their persistence as matters frustrating to the field

Conference as Ritual: Structures for the Unsavage Mind

Anthropologists like Victor Turner and Edward Bruner focus their attention on the experience of experiencing. Their approach is to make an initial distinction between behavior, which is noted in other people, and experience, which is personally felt. It is a germane distinction, for anthropologists of their persuasion are more inclined to describe how it felt to be there, rather than what went on. Their stance is closer to phenomenology than to ethnography, and their efforts are concentrated on what gave the occasion its special flavor, its extraordinary character. Their approach suits my present purpose admirably, since my question is, What makes an NAEA conference special

A Cross-Canada Study of High School Art Teachers

In A Place Called School (1984) Goodlad suggested that art teaching in American schools was characterized by make-work projects, lack of concern for individuality, and general fuzziness of goals. To determine whether the same could be said of art teaching in Canada, we studied 59 high schools across the country. We conclude that Canadian art teachers enjoy considerable autonomy in what they teach and how they teach it. Teachers' goals for the students, while often developed from personal experience rather than from identifiable prescriptive sources, nevertheless have sufficient commonality that their subject can be characterized as ``art.' Our study's profile of the Canadian high school art teacher is more complex than that in Goodlad's American research. Dans A Place Called School (1984), Goodlad avance que les cours d'arts plastiques dans les écoles américaines sont au fond des cours de remplissage dont les objectifs sont en général assez flous. Pour déterminer s'il en est de même au Canada, nous avons étudié 59 écoles secondaires d'un océan à l'autre. Nous sommes maintenant en mesure de conclure que les enseignants en arts plastiques jouissent d'une très grande autonomie quant à la matière enseignée et aux méthodes pédagogiques. Si les buts que fixent les enseignants à leurs élèves sont souvent dérivés de l'expérience personnelle plutôt que de sources normatives identifiables, ils sont suffisamment semblables pour que la matière à laquelle ils se rattachent soit identifiée sous la dénomination ``arts plastiques.' Le profil que trace notre étude de l'enseignant en arts plastiques au secondaire est plus complexe que celui qui ressort de la recherche menée par Goodlad aux États-Unis.

The Campbells: lordship, literature and liminality

The Campbells have the potential to offer much to the theme of literature and borders, given that the kindred’s astonishing political success in the late medieval and early modern period depended heavily upon the ability to negotiate multiple frontiers: between Highlands and Lowlands; between Gaelic Scotland and Ireland, and, especially after the Reformation, with England and the matter of Britain. This paper will explore the literary dimension to Campbell expansionism, from the Book of the Dean of Lismore in the earlier sixteenth century, to poetry addressed to dukes of Argyll in the earlier eighteenth century. Particular attention will be paid to the literary proclivities of the household of the Campbells of Glenorchy on either side of what appears to be a major watershed in 1550; and to the agenda of the Campbell protégé John Carswell, first post-Reformation bishop of the Isles, and author of the first printed book in Gaelic in either Scotland or Ireland, Foirm na n-Urrnuidheadh (‘The Form of Prayers’), published at Edinburgh in 1567

Meta-analysis of 542,934 subjects of European ancestry identifies new genes and mechanisms predisposing to refractive error and myopia.

Refractive errors, in particular myopia, are a leading cause of morbidity and disability worldwide. Genetic investigation can improve understanding of the molecular mechanisms that underlie abnormal eye development and impaired vision. We conducted a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) that involved 542,934 European participants and identified 336 novel genetic loci associated with refractive error. Collectively, all associated genetic variants explain 18.4% of heritability and improve the accuracy of myopia prediction (area under the curve (AUC) = 0.75). Our results suggest that refractive error is genetically heterogeneous, driven by genes that participate in the development of every anatomical component of the eye. In addition, our analyses suggest that genetic factors controlling circadian rhythm and pigmentation are also involved in the development of myopia and refractive error. These results may enable the prediction of refractive error and the development of personalized myopia prevention strategies in the future

Mild hypothermia delays the development of stone heart from untreated sustained ventricular fibrillation - a cardiovascular magnetic resonance study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>'Stone heart' resulting from ischemic contracture of the myocardium, precludes successful resuscitation from ventricular fibrillation (VF). We hypothesized that mild hypothermia might slow the progression to stone heart.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Fourteen swine (27 ± 1 kg) were randomized to normothermia (group I; n = 6) or hypothermia groups (group II; n = 8). Mild hypothermia (34 ± 2°C) was induced with ice packs prior to VF induction. The LV and right ventricular (RV) cross-sectional areas were followed by cardiovascular magnetic resonance until the development of stone heart. A commercial 1.5T GE Signa NV-CV/i scanner was used. Complete anatomic coverage of the heart was acquired using a steady-state free precession (SSFP) pulse sequence gated at baseline prior to VF onset. Un-gated SSFP images were obtained serially after VF induction. The ventricular endocardium was manually traced and LV and RV volumes were calculated at each time point.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In group I, the LV was dilated compared to baseline at 5 minutes after VF and this remained for 20 minutes. Stone heart, arbitrarily defined as LV volume <1/3 of baseline at the onset of VF, occurred at 29 ± 3 minutes. In group II, there was less early dilation of the LV (p < 0.05) and the development of stone heart was delayed to 52 ± 4 minutes after onset of VF (P < 0.001).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In this closed-chest swine model of prolonged untreated VF, hypothermia reduced the early LV dilatation and importantly, delayed the onset of stone heart thereby extending a known, morphologic limit of resuscitability.</p