How to Drink from the Pierian Spring: A Liberal Arts and Humanities Question about the Limits of Honors Education

Honors educators frequently engage in conversations about the decline of interest in and funding for the liberal arts and humanities. Larry Andrews’s essay “The Humanities are Dead! Long Live the Humanities!” is one of several that contributes to a metanarrative about the liberal arts and humanities, playing out along the following lines: workforce-minded politicians, short-sighted university administrators, STEM-related programs, and market-driven students no longer understand the true value of the liberal arts and humanities because they cannot be easily measured in dollars and cents; consequently, higher education today typically narrows students’ perspectives, facilitates short-term and uncritical thinking, and fails to adequately enable student growth and development—that is, growth and development of the fully formed person, of the well-rounded individual, and of the caring soul. (For other articles that tie honors education to this narrative, see Blaich and Ditzler; Dooley; Martino; Salas; and Wintrol.) This familiar narrative offers some truths, no doubt, but its simplicity is troubling. It quickly papers over many complexities related both to workplaces and to the liberal arts and humanities, and, followed to its logical conclusion, it becomes less a narrative about education and more a narrative about limits, about who and what provide limits as opposed to who and what provide freedoms, about who and what open minds and who and what close them. Those in higher education who focus too much on careers, as this narrative goes, are in the business of setting limits on what students receive from a college education, which stunts their personal, professional, and intellectual growth; conversely, proponents of the liberal arts and humanities are interested in developing fully formed minds, expanding horizons, and unshackling students from career-based chains that keep them from becoming critical thinkers, strong and empathetic communicators, and seekers of truth

High-Tech Tools for Teaching Physics: the Physics Education Technology Project

This article appeared in the Journal of Online Teaching and Learning September 15, 2006.This paper introduces a new suite of computer simulations from the Physics Education Technology (PhET) project, identifies features of these educational tools, and demonstrates their utility. We compare the use of PhET simulations to the use of more traditional educational resources in lecture, laboratory, recitation and informal settings of introductory college physics. In each case we demonstrate that simulations are as productive, or more productive, for developing student conceptual understanding as real equipment, reading resources, or chalk-talk lectures. We further identify six key characteristic features of these simulations that begin to delineate why these are productive tools. The simulations: support an interactive approach, employ dynamic feedback, follow a constructivist approach, provide a creative workplace, make explicit otherwise inaccessible models or phenomena, and constrain students productively

Courage, Psychological Well-being, and Somatic Symptoms

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between courage, psychological well-being (PWB), and somatic symptoms in an adult population. Courage is the ability to pursue goals or a purpose despite risk or fear. While courage has been shown to be associated with decreased mental health symptoms, little is known about health outcomes associated with courage. The hypotheses of this study were that higher reported levels of courage would predict lower reported somatic symptoms, and that PWB would account for significant variance in the relationship between courage and somatic symptoms. Participants, mean age 38, were given online surveys at three time points. At time point one, 202 participants completed a demographic questionnaire and measures of courage, PWB, and somatic symptoms. There were 142 and 125 participants who completed a subjective somatic symptoms measure at two and six weeks after baseline, respectively. Mediation analyses were conducted through the PROCESS bootstrapping method. At time point one, courage did not predict somatic symptoms (B = -.039; p = .063), however a significant indirect effect of courage on somatic symptoms through PWB was found (B = -.074; CI: -.100 to -.050). At time point two, courage was found to significantly predict lower somatic symptoms (B = -.054; p = .048), and the indirect effects analysis was also supported (B = -.101; CI: -.156 to -.065). Time point three yielded similar results, as courage was shown to predict somatic symptoms (B = - .052; p = .031), and the indirect effects model was also supported (B = -.085; CI: -.122 to -.056). Residual change analyses were also conducted. At both two weeks (B = -.031, CI: -.065 to -.007) and six weeks (B = -.026, CI: -.050 to -.006), indirect effects models were supported. Implications for mental health practice with patients who somaticize are discussed

CYTOKINE AND EFFECTOR MOLECULE DYSREGULATION INPLASMODIUM FALCIPARUM MALARIA

Childhood malarial anemia (MA) remains a global health burden with the vast morbidity and mortality occurring mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. Although design and testing of malaria vaccines is currently underway, the pattern of inflammatory mediator production that predicts a protective immune response against severe malaria, which would dramatically enhance vaccine testing, is largely unknown. Protective malarial immunity is regulated in part by cytokines, such as interleukin (IL)-12, IL-10, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, and effector molecules, such as prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and nitric oxide (NO). Previous studies have illustrated that children with severe MA have lower levels of circulating IL-12p70 and PGE2, and increased plasma levels of IL-10, TNF-α, and NO relative to children with mild malaria, however, the mechanism(s) responsible for this pattern of immune production is unknown. Phagocytosis of parasitic products, such as hemozoin, by cultured peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) elicits dysregulation of inflammatory mediator production, therefore, the regulation and interactions of cytokines and effector molecules was investigated during acute childhood malaria and in cultured PBMC stimulated with Plasmodium falciparum-derived hemozoin. Children with high-density parasitemia had decreased IL-12p70 and increased levels of IL-10 and TNF-α. Experiments in cultured PBMC from malaria-naïve donors revealed that hemozoin suppressed IL-12p70 through induction of IL-10, but not over-expression of TNF-α transcripts and protein, which was independent of suppressor of cytokine signaling (SOCS)-3 induction. Hemozoinsuppressed cyclooxygenase (COX)-2-dependent PGE2 production through reductions in COX-2 transcript and protein formation, and inhibition of COX-2 enzymatic activity. Suppression of PGE2, which was independent of hemozoin-induced IL-10, resulted in over-production of TNF-α. The ratio of plasma PGE2/TNF-α was decreased in children with severe disease. Cultured PBMC from children with severe malaria had elevated nitric oxide synthase (NOS)2 enzyme activity, which occurred at least in part through PBMC ingestion of hemozoin. Thus, ingestion of hemozoin by PBMC elicits a similar pattern of inflammatory mediator production to that observed in children with severe MA. Results presented here are of significant public health relevance in that understanding the regulation of cytokine and effector molecule production during severe malaria will vastly improve vaccine design and testing

Planetary nebulae after common-envelope phases initiated by low-mass red giants

It is likely that at least some planetary nebulae are composed of matter which was ejected from a binary star system during common-envelope (CE) evolution. For these planetary nebulae the ionizing component is the hot and luminous remnant of a giant which had its envelope ejected by a companion in the process of spiralling-in to its current short-period orbit. A large fraction of CE phases which end with ejection of the envelope are thought to be initiated by low-mass red giants, giants with inert, degenerate helium cores. We discuss the possible end-of-CE structures of such stars and their subsequent evolution to investigate for which structures planetary nebulae are formed. We assume that a planetary nebula forms if the remnant reaches an effective temperature greater than 30 kK within 10^4 yr of ejecting its envelope. We assume that the composition profile is unchanged during the CE phase so that possible remnant structures are parametrized by the end-of-CE core mass, envelope mass and entropy profile. We find that planetary nebulae are expected in post-CE systems with core masses greater than about 0.3 solar masses if remnants end the CE phase in thermal equilibrium. We show that whether the remnant undergoes a pre-white dwarf plateau phase depends on the prescribed end-of-CE envelope mass. Thus, observing a young post-CE system would constrain the end-of CE envelope mass and post-CE evolution.Comment: Published in MNRAS. 12 pages, 12 figures. Minor changes to match published versio

Trends in unsolicited dermatologic opinions: A national survey

In dermatology, a particularly common ethical dilemma can arise when the skin lesions of bystanders are inadvertently viewed in public settings. Dermatology is a unique field, where a person’s organ of interest is readily visible to others. When lesions are suspicious for skin disease, unsolicited medical opinions may or may not be given depending on several factors. This study examined the actions and attitudes of dermatologists with different levels of experience through the use of case scenarios with various settings and skin lesions. © 2017, Dermatology Online Journal. All rights reserved

Constructing an advanced software tool for planetary atmospheric modeling

Scientific model building can be an intensive and painstaking process, often involving the development of large and complex computer programs. Despite the effort involved, scientific models cannot be easily distributed and shared with other scientists. In general, implemented scientific models are complex, idiosyncratic, and difficult for anyone but the original scientist/programmer to understand. We believe that advanced software techniques can facilitate both the model building and model sharing process. In this paper, we describe a prototype for a scientific modeling software tool that serves as an aid to the scientist in developing and using models. This tool includes an interactive intelligent graphical interface, a high level domain specific modeling language, a library of physics equations and experimental datasets, and a suite of data display facilities. Our prototype has been developed in the domain of planetary atmospheric modeling, and is being used to construct models of Titan's atmosphere

Berufswahl von Schülerinnen und Schülern mit Serious Games fördern. Das Spiel like2be und seine Wirksamkeit

Die Berufswahl ist ein facettenreicher und komplexer Prozess. Mit dem Serious Game like2be kann die Berufswahl von Jugendlichen unterstützt werden. like2be erweitert den Berufswahlhorizont der Jugendlichen und ermöglicht es ihnen, ein reflektiertes Verhältnis zu den eigenen Berufswünschen zu entwickeln