Reverse Pygmalionism Art and Samuel Rogers’s Italy

Pictures are for use, for solace, for ornament, for parade;�as invested wealth, as an appendage of rank. Some people love pictures as they love friends; some, as they love music; some, as they love money. There are those who collect them for instruction, as a student collects grammars, dictionaries, and commentaries;�these are artists; such were the collections of Rubens, of Sir Peter Lely, of the President West, of Lawrence, of Sir Joshua Reynolds. There are those who collect pictures around them as a king assembles his court�as significant of state, as subservient to ornament or pride; such were Buckingham and Talleyrand. There are those who collect pictures as a man speculates in the funds;�picture-fanciers, like bird-fanciers, or flower-fanciers�amateur picture-dealers, who buy, sell, exchange, bargain; with whom a glorious Cuyp represents 800l. sterling, and a celebrated Claude is 3000l. securely invested�safe as in a bank; and his is not the right spirit, surely. Lastly, there are those who collect pictures for love, for companionship, for communion; to whom each picture, well-chosen at first, unfolds new beauties�becomes dearer every day; such a one was Sir George Beaumont�such a one is Mr. Roger

Progress of Congenital Heart Disease: The Team Approach as It Includes the Anesthesiologist

Advances in cardiac surgery have been great in the last 30 years, but further progress is anticipated, especially in infants. A cooperative effort involving referring physicians, pediatric cardiologists, physiologists, anesthesiologists, surgeons, and intensive care nurses is required to continue this trend

Models of collective cell spreading with variable cell aspect ration: a motivation for degenerate diffusion models

Continuum diffusion models are often used to represent the collective motion of cell populations. Most previous studies have simply used linear diffusion to represent collective cell spreading, while others found that degenerate nonlinear diffusion provides a better match to experimental cell density profiles. In the cell modeling literature there is no guidance available with regard to which approach is more appropriate for representing the spreading of cell populations. Furthermore, there is no knowledge of particular experimental measurements that can be made to distinguish between situations where these two models are appropriate. Here we provide a link between individual-based and continuum models using a multiscale approach in which we analyze the collective motion of a population of interacting agents in a generalized lattice-based exclusion process. For round agents that occupy a single lattice site, we find that the relevant continuum description of the system is a linear diffusion equation, whereas for elongated rod-shaped agents that occupy L adjacent lattice sites we find that the relevant continuum description is connected to the porous media equation (PME). The exponent in the nonlinear diffusivity function is related to the aspect ratio of the agents. Our work provides a physical connection between modeling collective cell spreading and the use of either the linear diffusion equation or the PME to represent cell density profiles. Results suggest that when using continuum models to represent cell population spreading, we should take care to account for variations in the cell aspect ratio because different aspect ratios lead to different continuum models

Learning middle school mathematics through student designed and constructed video games

Mathematics achievement is an area in which American precollege students are faltering. Emerging research suggests that making mathematics instruction relevant and applicable in the lives of youth may impact math achievement, especially when it capitalizes on high-interest technologies such as video games. Employing a quasi-experimental and descriptive approach, this study examined the mathematics (i.e., numbers and operations, algebra, geometry, measurement, and probability) that middle school students employed during their design and construction of video games. First, it examined the mathematics content learned by 19 sixth and seventh graders during their analysis, synthesis, and programming of three video game projects over 7 months. Second, it measured the ability of the student programmers to laterally transfer mathematics content from the technology context of game production to the traditional context of paper-and-pencil tests. Third, it evaluated student attitudes toward mathematics prior to and following video game design and construction. The performance of student programmers was compared with that of a control group of nonprogrammers on measures of transfer and affect. Results indicated that middle grade students successfully identified the events defining game play (e.g., motion, collisions, and scoring) of three, simple video game models. They successfully represented video game events in both mathematical and programming forms by writing and coding (a) boundary conditions using inequalities, (b) coordinate locations and identification of coordinate convergence, (c) directional headings, (d) uniform linear motion, (e) variable changes, and (f) probability-based consequences. They were also successful in writing programming code for their own functional video games, with a high percentage of relevant mathematics content incorporated therein. However, while treatment students transferred mathematical knowledge from the technology to the traditional context, it appeared that, without explicit bridging, the transfer was no better than comparison students. Treatment students also demonstrated no significant changes in attitude associated with designing and constructing video games. This study demonstrated that video game design and construction can be a viable - although not significantly different - method, cognitively and affectively, of instructing age-appropriate, standards-based mathematics content

A Regulatory Scheme for the Dawn of Space Tourism

Today, companies like Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic have successfully launched paying customers into space, forging the future of the space tourism industry. While a growing space tourism industry promotes scientific advancement and opens an activity once reserved for trained astronauts to the public, the industry generates new issues and reveals the vulnerabilities of international space law. This Note explores the history of commercial spaceflight and the international agreements that comprise the current legal regime. It argues that space tourism presents a need for a new international agreement to address three vulnerabilities in the current international regime: environmental protections, protections for space tourists, and regulations for commercial spaceflight companies. This Note draws on the examples of the Antarctic Treaty System, the Treaty for Amazonian Cooperation, and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea to show how this new international agreement can successfully balance promoting the growth of commercial spaceflight while ensuring the environment and passengers are adequately protected

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction to Decrease Burnout in Emergency Nurses: A Quality Improvement Project at an Academic Medical Center

Nursing burnout, categorized by increased emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalization (DE), or decreased personal achievement (PA), is rising in the United States. Emergency Department (ED) nurses at an academic medical center in the western United States experience burnout related to workplace violence and trauma exposure exacerbated by a global pandemic. Burnout can lead to adverse health impacts for nurses, increased institutional costs, and adverse patient outcomes. Improving mindfulness or awareness of the present can reduce burnout in ED nurses. A mindfulness pilot project was conducted with staff nurses (n=20) and nurse leaders (n=4) in the ED. Participants attended Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) classes for eight weeks and practiced mindfulness outside of class. The impact of MBSR was measured before and after the pilot using the Five-Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire Short Form and Maslach Burnout Inventory for Medical Personnel. Overall, ED staff nurses experienced an 11% improvement in mindfulness, a 1% decrease in EE, a 6% decrease in DE, and a 10% increase in PA. ED nurse leaders experienced a 7% improvement in mindfulness, 14% reduction in EE, 36% decrease in DE, and 4% improvement in PA. This pilot project suggests that MBSR is an effective way to increase mindfulness and reduce burnout. Engagement with MBSR classes and participation in mindfulness activities outside of class improved mindfulness and reduced burnout among participants. Due to the promising outcome, this work is recommended to be repeated in the ED setting and expanded to other high-stress environments

Application of a continuum theory to vertical vibrations of a layer of granular material

Many interesting phenomena have been observed in layers of granular materials subjected to vertical oscillations; these include the formation of a variety of standing wave patterns, and the occurrence of isolated features called oscillons, which alternately form conical heaps and craters oscillating at one-half of the forcing frequency. No continuum-based explanation of these phenomena has previously been proposed. We apply a continuum theory, termed the double-shearing theory, which has had success in analyzing various problems in the flow of granular materials, to the problem of a layer of granular material on a vertically vibrating rigid base undergoing vertical oscillations in plane strain. There exists a trivial solution in which the layer moves as a rigid body. By investigating linear perturbations of this solution, we find that at certain amplitudes and frequencies this trivial solution can bifurcate. The time dependence of the perturbed solution is governed by Mathieu’s equation, which allows stable, unstable and periodic solutions, and the observed period-doubling behaviour. Several solutions for the spatial velocity distribution are obtained; these include one in which the surface undergoes vertical velocities that have sinusoidal dependence on the horizontal space dimension, which corresponds to the formation of striped standing waves, and is one of the observed patterns. An alternative continuum theory of granular material mechanics, in which the principal axes of stress and rate-of-deformation are coincident, is shown to be incapable of giving rise to similar instabilities