Active Learning in Art History: A Review of Formal Literature

This article surveys the formal, academic literature on active learning in art history. It considers the history of active learning in art history and outlines the unique combination of approaches that art history takes towards active learning. A meta-analysis of the literature considers its relationship to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). This survey of literature indicates that although scholarly research on active learning in art history is a burgeoning field of scholarship, it also leaves many avenues open for additional research

Oncofertility program implementation increases access to fertility preservation options and assisted reproductive procedures for breast cancer patients

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136021/1/jso24418.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136021/2/jso24418_am.pd

Surgical perspectives from a prospective, nonrandomized, multicenter study of breast conserving surgery and adjuvant electronic brachytherapy for the treatment of breast cancer

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Accelerated partial breast irradiation (APBI) may be used to deliver radiation to the tumor bed post-lumpectomy in eligible patients with breast cancer. Patient and tumor characteristics as well as the lumpectomy technique can influence patient eligibility for APBI. This report describes a lumpectomy procedure and examines patient, tumor, and surgical characteristics from a prospective, multicenter study of electronic brachytherapy.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The study enrolled 65 patients of age 45-84 years with ductal carcinoma or ductal carcinoma in situ, and 44 patients, who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria, were treated with APBI using the Axxent^®electronic brachytherapy system following lumpectomy. The prescription dose was 34 Gy in 10 fractions over 5 days.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The lumpectomy technique as described herein varied by site and patient characteristics. The balloon applicator was implanted by the surgeon (91%) or a radiation oncologist (9%) during or up to 61 days post-lumpectomy (mean 22 days). A lateral approach was most commonly used (59%) for insertion of the applicator followed by an incision site approach in 27% of cases, a medial approach in 5%, and an inferior approach in 7%. A trocar was used during applicator insertion in 27% of cases. Local anesthetic, sedation, both or neither were administered in 45%, 2%, 41% and 11% of cases, respectively, during applicator placement. The prescription dose was delivered in 42 of 44 treated patients.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Early stage breast cancer can be treated with breast conserving surgery and APBI using electronic brachytherapy. Treatment was well tolerated, and these early outcomes were similar to the early outcomes with iridium-based balloon brachytherapy.</p

The Risk of Amenorrhea Is Related to Chemotherapy-Induced Leucopenia in Breast Cancer Patients Receiving Epirubicin and Taxane Based Chemotherapy

BACKGROUND: Chemotherapy-induced amenorrhea (CIA) is common in young breast cancer patients. The incidence of CIA associated with regimens involving epirubicin and taxane was not well known. Furthermore, previous studies suggested leucopenia and amenorrhea may reflect inter-individual variations in pharmacokinetics. The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between leucopenia after first cycle of chemotherapy and CIA in young breast cancer patients receiving epirubicin and taxane based chemotherapy. Furthermore, the incidence of CIA was also assessed. METHODOLOGY AND PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Between October 2008 and March 2010, 186 consecutive premenopausal patients, treated with epirubicin and taxane based chemotherapy, were recruited. Information about CIA was collected by telephone and out-patient clinic. Of these 186 patients, data from 165 patients were included and analyzed. Of all 165 patients, CIA occurred in 72 patients (43.64%). In multivariate analysis, age older than 40 y (OR: 16.10, 95% CI: 6.34-40.88, P<0.001) and previous childbearing (OR: 3.17, 95% CI: 1.06-9.47, P = 0.038) were significantly associated with probability of CIA. Compared to patients treated without taxane, patients treated with taxane-contained regimens did not have a significantly higher rate of CIA (P>0.05). The rate of CIA in leucopenia group (52.56%) was significantly higher than that in normal leukocyte group (34.62%) (P = 0.024). In patients treated with a FEC regimen (cyclophosphamide, epirubicin and 5-fluorouracil), the rate of CIA in leucopenia group (59.57%) was significantly higher than that in normal leukocyte group (36.84%) (P = 0.037). CONCLUSIONS: Age at diagnosis and previous childbearing were both found to significantly increase the risk of CIA, whereas additional taxane was not associated with increased rate of CIA. Importantly, leucopenia after first cycle of chemotherapy was associated with increased risk of CIA, which suggested that leucopenia may be an early predictor of chemotherapy-induced infertility

Material reenactment: The missing and replaced paintings of Malevich’s 1929 retrospective

In 1927, Russian avant-garde artist Kazimir Malevich was recalled by Soviet authorities from Berlin, where he had received critical acclaim during a journey abroad. He returned to Moscow, leaving behind in Germany the paintings with which he had travelled. It was a cache that represented his entire painterly career. In 1929, Malevich found himself granted a retrospective exhibition at the foremost museum of Russian art in the Soviet capital, the Tretiakov Gallery. With the bulk of the material evidence of his career now missing, the artist responded by producing forty new canvases. In this article, I propose that Malevich’s exhibition of 1929 represented an attempt to materially reenact his own career, producing a counterfeit simulation of what might have happened. Furthermore, I explain how an exhibition of his work held in 2000 signifi cantly altered the scholarly discussion of the works displayed in 1929.Nel 1927, le autorità sovietiche richiamarono l’artista dell’avanguardia russa Kazimir Malevich da Berlino, dove si era recato per un viaggio all’estero e dove aveva ricevuto un’accoglienza critica. Malevich tornò a Mosca lasciando in Germania le opere con le quali aveva viaggiato, una serie che documentava interamente la sua carriera pittorica. Nella capitale sovietica gli fu dedicata, due anni dopo, una mostra retrospettiva, ospitata dal principale museo di arte russa di Mosca, la Galleria Tretiakov. Sebbene buona parte delle prove materiali del suo lavoro fosse andata perduta, l’artista rispose producendo quaranta nuove tele. Scopo di questo articolo è dimostrare come la mostra del 1929 costituisca un tentativo, da parte di Malevich, di ricostruire la sua carriera per produrre una simulazione di quello che avrebbe potuto essere. Inoltre si documenta come una mostra dedicata nel 2000 all’artista ha contribuito all’analisi critica della esposizione del 1929.

Malevich’s Post-Suprematist Paintings and the Construction of History

This dissertation discusses Kazimir Malevich’s post-abstract, post-suprematist figurative work by drawing upon semiotic and post-structuralist theories, addressing questions such as: Why did Malevich return to painting figures after adamantly abandoning them for pure abstraction? How do these figures re-figure or resist abstraction? Why did he paint inexact replicas of his own pre-Suprematist works, and why did he give them dates that were similar, or even prior, to the dates of their prototypes? How did he manage to put on an exhibition of his intellectually challenging, subversive works in 1929, at the first moments of sustained state support for proto-socialist realism, at one of the most important museums of Russian art in the Soviet Union, the Tretiakov Gallery in Moscow? How are contemporaneously contested identities of the artist, the Russian peasant, and the Soviet citizen reflected and refracted in the paintings displayed at this exhibition? The first chapter comprises an introductory survey of pertinent scholarly literature, and discusses methodological grounding within both Russian and Western sources. The second chapter concerns a semiotic reading of the circumstances and documents surrounding the 1929 “retrospective” exhibition, which for the most part displayed paintings composed in the eighteen months prior to the exhibition, but inscribed with dates from the 1900’s and 1910’s. This chapter includes a close reading of Alexei Fedorov-Davidov’s pamphlet-catalogue accompanying the exhibition, particularly within the context of early Stalinist Marxist discourse, and it discusses how the artist’s images of peasants confounded contemporary systems of representation and disrupted attempts to secure a sense of Soviet identity. Chapter three proposes that postmodern discourses, as opposed to the discourses of modernity within which Malevich’s works are most often examined, might be fruitfully employed to frame the artist’s circa-1929 work. The fourth chapter considers the ways in which certain paintings from the 1929 exhibition explicitly duplicate works from earlier in Malevich’s career, many of which had been destroyed, lost, or otherwise rendered inaccessible. Attention is given to how these paintings participated in contemporaneous and more recent discourses of originality, the copy, and conventionality