Slisp: A Flexible Software Toolkit for Hybrid, Embedded and Distributed Applications

We describe Slisp (pronounced ‘Ess-Lisp’), a hybrid Lisp–C programming toolkit for the development of scriptable and distributed applications. Computationally expensive operations implemented as separate C-coded modules are selectively compiled into a small Xlisp interpreter, then called as Lisp functions in a Lisp-coded program. The resulting hybrid program may run in several modes: as a stand-alone executable, embedded in a different C program, as a networked server accessed from another Slisp client, or as a networked server accessed from a C-coded client. Five years of experience with Slisp, as well experience with other scripting languages such as Tcl and Perl, are summarized. These experiences suggest that Slisp will be most useful for mid-sized applications in which the kinds of scripting and embeddability features provided by Tcl and Perl can be extended in an efficient manner to larger applications, while maintaining a well-defined standard (Common Lisp) for these extensions. In addition, the generality of Lisp makes Lisp a good candidate for an application-level communication language in distributed environments

Applying Argumentation Analysis to Assess the Quality of University Oceanography Students' Scientific Writing

This article describes the methods and results of an assessment of students' scientific writing. The study was conducted in an introductory oceanography course in a large public university that used an interactive CD-ROM entitled, "Our Dynamic Planet." The CD provided students with geological data, which they used to build written arguments regarding plate tectonics. Twenty-four student papers from this course were analyzed for quality of written arguments by using both a grading rubric and an argumentation analysis model. Three implications were drawn from these initial studies. First, there is a clear need to help students understand how to use data representations as evidence for more theoretical arguments. Second, student writers need experiences receiving critiques of their own writing and analyzing others' scientific arguments. Third, the actual grading is dependent upon the socialization of the graders themselves (in this case, graduate students). Educational levels: Graduate or professional

Review of A Hobbit, A Wardrobe, and a Great War: How J.R.R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis Rediscovered Faith, Friendship, and Heroism in the Cataclysm of 1914-18

Review of Joseph Loconte, A Hobbit, A Wardrobe, and a Great War: How J.R.R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis Rediscovered Faith, Friendship, and Heroism in the Cataclysm of 1914-18 (Nashville, 2015). 256 pages. $14.90. ISBN: 9780718021764

Craig Nelson, Thomas Paine. Enlightenment, Revolution, and the Birth of Modern Nations, London: Profile Books, 2007

Thomas Paine’s lived through key periods in British, American and French history, and he was the most popular author of the eighteenth century. After thirty-seven not very successful years in Britain he came to America in 1774 just as the colonists were organising serious resistance to the British government. He plunged into journalism and his 1776 pamphlet Common Sense gained a huge sale. Its appearance transformed the situation, for hitherto American independence from Britain was hardly con..

Visualization-Based Mapping of Language Function in the Brain

Cortical language maps, obtained through intraoperative electrical stimulation studies, provide a rich source of information for research on language organization. Previous studies have shown interesting correlations between the distribution of essential language sites and such behavioral indicators as verbal IQ and have provided suggestive evidence for regarding human language cortex as an organization of multiple distributed systems. Noninvasive studies using ECoG, PET, and functional MR lend support to this model; however, there as yet are no studies that integrate these two forms of information. In this paper we describe a method for mapping the stimulation data onto a 3-D MRI-based neuroanatomic model of the individual patient. The mapping is done by comparing an intraoperative photograph of the exposed cortical surface with a computer-based MR visualization of the surface, interactively indicating corresponding stimulation sites, and recording 3-D MR machine coordinates of the indicated sites. Repeatability studies were performed to validate the accuracy of the mapping technique. Six observers—a neurosurgeon, a radiologist, and four computer scientists, independently mapped 218 stimulation sites from 12 patients. The mean distance of a mapping from the mean location of each site was 2.07 mm, with a standard deviation of 1.5 mm, or within 5.07 mm with 95% confidence. Since the surgical sites are accurate within approximately 1 cm, these results show that the visualization-based approach is accurate within the limits of the stimulation maps. When incorporated within the kind of information system envisioned by the Human Brain Project, this anatomically based method will not only provide a key link between noninvasive and invasive approaches to understanding language organization, but will also provide the basis for studying the relationship between language function and anatomical variability