Art museums and schools; four lectures delivered at the Metropolitan museum of art,

"The following lectures were delivered at the Metropolitan museum of art in the spring of last year as a course for teachers."--Pref.

Redefining Access: Embracing multimodality, memorability and shared experience in Museums

Disability access to museums, both physical and intellectual, is generally considered a minority issue. Whilst museums and cultural institutions acknowledge the moral and legal importance of equal access to their establishments, there is generally a conflict between the perceived number of potential visitors that will benefit and the cost implications. Set in the context of research on multisensory learning, this article discusses why disability access is, in fact, a majority issue. It discusses two case studies where an “access for all” museological approach has been applied to access to the collections, with differing success. The article considers how an “access for all” approach would potentially enhance learning, long-term memorability and the ‘cultural value’ of a museum experience for all visitors.

El papel de los museos en la sociedad actual: discurso institucional o museo participativo

Desde hace ya varias décadas se ha extendido un lema convertido en habitual año tras año: que los museos necesitan cambios y que, éstos, deben seguir produciéndose en el futuro para que estas instituciones sigan siendo significativas en la sociedad, es decir, para los ciudadanos a quienes representan y sirven. La cuestión de cómo afrontan los cambios es lo que verdaderamente ha dado lugar a reflexiones interesantes en el campo de la museología. No existe un enfoque único para una cuestión tan compleja, ya que está compuesta de múltiples capas que, en muchas ocasiones, son difícilmente acoplables. Sin embargo, en términos generales, podemos apuntar que va a ser en la exposición donde los nuevos planteamientos tendrán su desarrollo.

Desempenho de sementes de soja revestidas com biopolímeros

The use of biopolymers that help to fix pesticides efficiently and degrade easily without harming the environment, and still improve the physiological performance of field soybean seed may bring contributions to the soybean yield. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of cassava starch polymers (AM), sodium alginate (ALG) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH), in the concentrations 2, 4 and 6 g / 100 ml of solution, in the physiological attributes of seeds soy, seed speed soaking and performance of soybean seeds after three months of storage. The soybean variety used was the NK 7059 RR. The experimental design used for the three studies was a factorial with 48 experimental units: 3 polymers (AM, ALG and PVOH), 4 different concentrations (0%, 2%, 4% and 6%), with four replications, in a completely randomized design. It was observed the level of significance of the factors and their interactions, applying the test F. The polymers were evaluated by the Tukey test at 5% probability, and the concentrations were evaluated by polynomial regression. The witness obtained better results for most variables studied. Among the polymers, the best coating was observed PVOH because it was the less viscous polymer and visually not served as a substrate for microorganisms. However, also, satisfactory results were obtained for the AM and ALG polymers at a concentration of 2%. There was not interference of the polymers studied with regard to reduction of imbibition rate of soybean seeds. The hydrophilicity of polymers, mainly the AM and ALG accelerated soaking seeds harming germination at concentrations 4% and 6%. In general, the higher the concentration of polymers tended to worse results.

Emprego de forças aeromóveis : Uma perspetiva histórica

O presente Trabalho de Investigação Aplicada encontra-se subordinado ao tema “Emprego de Forças Aeromóveis – Uma Perspetiva Histórica”. Tendo este trabalho como objetivo principal explicar como é que a evolução do helicóptero, durante os conflitos em estudo, influenciou o emprego tático de forças aeromóveis. Para a realização deste trabalho de investigação seguimos as etapas do procedimento definidas por Raymond Quivy e Luc Van Campenhoudt, adotando o método indutivo, tendo abordado operações específicas para retirar conclusões gerais da guerra em estudo. Os dados foram recolhidos recorrendo sobretudo à análise documental e pesquisa bibliográfica. Como resultados mais significativos temos o facto de em ambos os conflitos em estudo, o emprego de forças aeromóveis se ter tornado decisivo no decorrer da operação, sendo este tipo de forças consideradas bastante eficazes e uma mais-valia para o comandante aumentando o leque de opções à disposição deste. A capacidade aeromóvel no Exército Português é inexistente, porém esta é uma capacidade dada como adquirida e frequentemente empregue nos mais recentes teatros de operações. É também uma capacidade essencial que um comandante tem à sua disposição, uma vez que aumenta o leque de opções à disposição do mesmo, tornando-se como tal importante estudá-la. Com a evolução dos meios aeromóveis o emprego tático das forças também evoluiu, acompanhando a mudança, o que veio a incrementar importância a este tipo de forças para o conflito em si.

Affect and the politics of testimony in Holocaust museums

In 2010, the Jewish Holocaust Centre (JHC) in Melbourne unveiled its new permanent exhibition, replacing one that had remained, mostly unchanged, for the past twenty years since a major redevelopment in 1990. The former exhibition had received many plaudits from visitors and reviewers for its homespun, intimate aesthetics and display techniques, largely based on photographs (Light, 2002). Central to the JHC’s role as a site of mourning and education, the exhibition included the use of personal testimony from Melbourne’s Holocaust survivors, both in the exhibition displays and through the survivors who ran the museum and shared their stories with individuals and groups. A continuing anxiety over the thirty-year history of the JHC has been the passing of Holocaust survivors. These survivor guides were central to the discourse of a “living museum,” seen as giving the organization its uniqueness compared to other Holocaust institutions as well as other museums generally. Oral survivor testimony was perceived as a key aspect of the museum’s pedagogic potential: The affective encounter with survivors telling their stories while the visitor was viewing the exhibition was identified as having a transformative function, particularly for school-age students who comprised the majority of the visitors. The exhibition redevelopment in 2010 was, in part, a manifestation of that anxiety, with the urgency to incorporate survivor video-testimony increasing as the survivors aged and their memories faded. However, replacing a much-loved exhibition was fraught with difficulties, as the survivors were still very much part of the museum decision-making process. As the JHC had gradually moved from a survivor-volunteer based place of mourning to a professionally run museum with paid employees, there was a need to preserve the voices of the survivors who had been guides at the museum since its opening. Approaching a time when the survivors are not bodily present to share their stories, how might their testimonies still have transformative potential and inform interpretive techniques?

Behavioral and molecular genetics of reading-related AM and FM detection thresholds

Auditory detection thresholds for certain frequencies of both amplitude modulated (AM) and frequency modulated (FM) dynamic auditory stimuli are associated with reading in typically developing and dyslexic readers. We present the first behavioral and molecular genetic characterization of these two auditory traits. Two extant extended family datasets were given reading tasks and psychoacoustic tasks to determine FM 2 Hz and AM 20 Hz sensitivity thresholds. Univariate heritabilities were significant for both AM (h2 = 0.20) and FM (h2 = 0.29). Bayesian posterior probability of linkage (PPL) analysis found loci for AM (12q, PPL = 81 %) and FM (10p, PPL = 32 %; 20q, PPL = 65 %). Bivariate heritability analyses revealed that FM is genetically correlated with reading, while AM was not. Bivariate PPL analysis indicates that FM loci (10p, 20q) are not also associated with reading.

Características y perfil microbiológico de pacientes con colecistitis moderada y severa en Mederi de 2014 a 2016

Introducción: Las guías de Tokyo de 2013 lograron un consenso respecto al manejo antibiótico de la infección biliar. Sus recomendaciones están sustentadas en estudios internacionales de la epidemiología bacteriana, pero también recalcan la importancia de conocer la microbiología local para ajustar las guías de manejo. Materiales y métodos: Se diseñó un estudio descriptivo tipo serie de casos de pacientes tratados por colecistitis aguda moderada y severa en Méderi Hospital Universitario Mayor (HUM), describiendo los aislamientos microbiológicos y perfiles de resistencia de los cultivos de bilis tomados durante la cirugía. Resultados: Se analizaron 131 pacientes con una edad promedio de 63 años, la mayoría sin comorbilidades médicas. Se encontró un 48% de positividad en los cultivos, predominantemente enterobacterias siendo la más frecuente Escherichia coli, seguida de especies de Klebsiella y de Enterococcus. Los perfiles de resistencia evidenciaron un 93% de multisensibilidad antibiótica y se aislaron 4 microorganismos multirresistentes. No se encontraron diferencias en comorbilidades, alteraciones paraclínicas, presencia de síndrome biliar obstrutivo, pancreatitis o instrumentación previa de la vía biliar entre los pacientes con cultivo positivo y negativo. Conclusiones: Los resultados concuerdan con los reportes internacionales en cuanto a la flora bacteriana aislada, pero los perfiles de resistencia evidenciados en esta serie son diferentes a los que sustentan las guías de manejo de Tokio revisadas en 2013. Este hallazgo obliga a ajustar las guías de manejo institucionales con base en la epidemiología local.

Prevalencia de síntomas relacionados con desórdenes musculo esqueléticos en trabajadores de una empresa dedicada a la venta y distribución de medicamentos y equipos médicos - Colombia, 2015.

Introducción: Los Desórdenes Musculo-Esqueléticos (DME) tienen origen multifactorial. En Colombia corresponden al principal grupo diagnóstico en procesos relacionados con la determinación de origen y pérdida de capacidad laboral. Objetivo: Determinar la relación entre síntomas musculo-esqueléticos y factores relacionados con la carga física en trabajadores de una empresa dedicada a la venta y distribución de medicamentos y equipos médicos, Bogotá (Colombia), en el año 2015. Materiales y Métodos: Estudio de corte transversal en 235 trabajadores. Se incluyeron variables sociodemográficas, ocupacionales y las relacionadas con los síntomas musculoesqueléticos y carga física. Se utilizó en cuestionario ERGOPAR. Para el análisis se utilizó la Prueba Exacta de Fisher, el Odds Ratio (OR) con el Intervalo de Confianza (IC) del 95%. Se realizó el análisis Multivariado con Regresión Logística Binaria. Resultados: La prevalencia de síntomas relacionados con DME fue de 79,2%, siendo más prevalente en cuello, hombros y columna dorsal (48,1%), seguido por columna lumbar (35,3%). Se encontró una asociación entre síntomas en cuello, hombros y/o columna dorsal con el sexo femenino (p=0,005, OR=2,33, 95%IC: 1,2-4,2); adoptar postura bípeda menos de 30 minutos (p=0,004, OR=3,34, 95%IC: 1,4-7,6); adoptar postura cabeza/cuello inclinado hacia delante entre 30 minutos y 2 horas (p=0,007, OR=3,25, 95%IC :1,3-7,7) y en columna lumbar con adoptar postura espalda/tronco hacia delante entre 30 minutos y 2 horas (p=0,001, OR=4,27, 95%IC: 1,7-10,3); y la antigüedad en el cargo entre 1 y 5 años (p=0,009, OR=3,47, 95%IC: 1,3-8,8). Conclusión: Las posturas bípedas con y sin desplazamiento, inclinaciones de tronco y cabeza, transporte manual de cargas, sexo femenino, antigüedad en el cargo y edad están asociadas conjuntamente al riesgo para presentar DME.

Etapas de cambio comportamental frente al consumo de drogas ilegales, tabaco y alcohol en escolares de 9 a 17 años de Bogotá – Colombia

Objetivo: El propósito del estudio fue describir estadísticamente las etapas de cambio comportamental frente al consumo de sustancias psicoactivas –SPA– (alcohol, tabaco y drogas ilegales) en escolares entre 9 y 17 años de Bogotá- Colombia, pertenecientes al estudio FUPRECOL. Método: Se trata de un estudio descriptivo y transversal en 6.965 niños y adolescentes entre 9 y 17 años, pertenecientes a 24 instituciones educativas oficiales de Bogotá - Colombia. La medición de los procesos de cambio propuestos por el Modelo Transteórico (MTT), aplicados al consumo de drogas, tabaco y alcohol se aplicaron de manera auto-diligenciada mediante un cuestionario estructurado. Resultados: De la muestra evaluada, el 58,4% fueron mujeres con un promedio de edad 12,74 ± 2.38 años. En la población en general, frente al consumo de drogas, el 6% de los escolares se encontraban en etapa de pre-contemplación, 44 % en contemplación; 30% en preparación/acción, 20% en mantenimiento. Con relación al consumo de alcohol, el 5% de los niños y adolescentes se encontraban en etapa de pre-contemplación, 36 % en contemplación; 12% en preparación/acción, 46% en mantenimiento. Frente al tabaco, el 4% de los niños y adolescentes se encontraban en etapa de pre-contemplación, 33 % en contemplación; 12% en preparación/acción, 51% en mantenimiento. Conclusiones: En los escolares evaluados, un importante porcentaje se ubica en la etapa de mantenimiento frente a la intención de consumo de tabaco y alcohol. Frente al consumo de drogas ilegales los niños y adolescentes están en la etapa de contemplación. Se requieren esfuerzos mayores para fomentar programas preventivos que enseñen sobre el riesgo del abuso/dependencia de este tipo de sustancias psicoactiva sobre la salud; dándole prioridad en las agendas y políticas públicas dentro del ámbito escolar.

AITPM Email Newsletter Volume 0910, October 2009 : Presidents Message

President’s Message Hello fellow AITPM members, Well I can’t believe it’s already October! My office is already organising its end of year function and looking to plan for 2010. Our whole School is moving to a different building next year, with the lovely L block eventually making way for a new shiny one. Those of you who have entered the Brisbane CBD from the south side, across the Captain Cook Bridge, would know L block as the big 9 storey brick and concrete Lego block ode to 1970’s functional architecture, which greets you on the right hand side. Onto traffic matters: an issue that has been tossing around in my mind of late is that of speed. I know I am growing older and may be prematurely becoming a “grumpy old man”, but everyone around me locally seems to be accelerating off from the stop line much faster than I was taught to for economical driving, both here and in the United States (yes they made my wife and me resit our written and practical driving tests when we lived there). People here in Australia also seem to be driving right on top of the posted speed limit, on whichever part of the Road Hierarchy, whether urban or rural. I was also taught on both sides of the planet that the posted speed limit is a maximum legal speed, not the recommended driving speed. This message did seem to sink in to the American drivers around me when we lived in Oregon - where people did appear to drive more cautiously. Further, posted speed limits in Oregon were, and I presume still are, set more conservative by about 5mph or 10km/h than Australian limits, for any given part of the Road Hierarchy. Another excellent speed limit treatment used in Oregon was in school zones, where reduced speed limits applied “when children are present” rather than during prescribed hours on school days. This would be especially useful here in Australia, where a lot of extra-curricular activities take place around schools outside of the prescribed speed limit hours. Before and after hours school care is on the increase (with parents dropping and collecting children near dawn and dusk in the winter), and many childcentred land uses are located adjacent to schools, such as Scouts/Guides halls, swimming pools and parks. Consequentially, I believe there needs to be some consideration towards more public campaigning about economical driving and the real purpose of the speed limit = or perhaps even a rethink of the speed limit concept, if people really are driving on top of it and it’s not just me becoming grumpier (our industrial psychology friends at the research centres may be able to assist us here). The Queensland organising committee is now in full swing organising the 2010 AITPM National Conference, What’s New?, so please keep a lookout for related content. Best regards to all, Jon Bunker PS A Cartoonists view of traffic engineers I thought you might enjoy this. http://xkcd.com/277/

Modelling and execution of asset management process via workflow automation

An Asset Management (AM) life-cycle constitutes a set of processes that align with the development, operation and maintenance of assets, in order to meet the desired requirements and objectives of the stake holders of the business. The scope of AM is often broad within an organization due to the interactions between its internal elements such as human resources, finance, technology, engineering operation, information technology and management, as well as external elements such as governance and environment. Due to the complexity of the AM processes, it has been proposed that in order to optimize asset management activities, process modelling initiatives should be adopted. Although organisations adopt AM principles and carry out AM initiatives, most do not document or model their AM processes, let alone enacting their processes (semi-) automatically using a computer-supported system. There is currently a lack of knowledge describing how to model AM processes through a methodical and suitable manner so that the processes are streamlines and optimized and are ready for deployment in a computerised way. This research aims to overcome this deficiency by developing an approach that will aid organisations in constructing AM process models quickly and systematically whilst using the most appropriate techniques, such as workflow technology. Currently, there is a wealth of information within the individual domains of AM and workflow. Both fields are gaining significant popularity in many industries thus fuelling the need for research in exploring the possible benefits of their cross-disciplinary applications. This research is thus inspired to investigate these two domains to exploit the application of workflow to modelling and execution of AM processes. Specifically, it will investigate appropriate methodologies in applying workflow techniques to AM frameworks. One of the benefits of applying workflow models to AM processes is to adapt and enable both ad-hoc and evolutionary changes over time. In addition, this can automate an AM process as well as to support the coordination and collaboration of people that are involved in carrying out the process. A workflow management system (WFMS) can be used to support the design and enactment (i.e. execution) of processes and cope with changes that occur to the process during the enactment. So far few literatures can be found in documenting a systematic approach to modelling the characteristics of AM processes. In order to obtain a workflow model for AM processes commonalities and differences between different AM processes need to be identified. This is the fundamental step in developing a conscientious workflow model for AM processes. Therefore, the first stage of this research focuses on identifying the characteristics of AM processes, especially AM decision making processes. The second stage is to review a number of contemporary workflow techniques and choose a suitable technique for application to AM decision making processes. The third stage is to develop an intermediate ameliorated AM decision process definition that improves the current process description and is ready for modelling using the workflow language selected in the previous stage. All these lead to the fourth stage where a workflow model for an AM decision making process is developed. The process model is then deployed (semi-) automatically in a state-of-the-art WFMS demonstrating the benefits of applying workflow technology to the domain of AM. Given that the information in the AM decision making process is captured at an abstract level within the scope of this work, the deployed process model can be used as an executable guideline for carrying out an AM decision process in practice. Moreover, it can be used as a vanilla system that, once being incorporated with rich information from a specific AM decision making process (e.g. in the case of a building construction or a power plant maintenance), is able to support the automation of such a process in a more elaborated way.

Entrepreneurship : from denial to discovery in nonprofit art museums?

This research explores the function of entrepreneurship in nonprofit art museums. Traditionally, entrepreneurship literature features debates on customer orientation and innovation. This paper reviews a tension in entrepreneurship: the relationship between limited funding and the need to innovate in nonprofit art museums. The paper develops a construct by which to explain the structure of entrepreneurship in nonprofit art museums in Australia and New Zealand since 1975. From this discussion, different strategies and tensions are highlighted that nonprofit art museum directors have used. The dynamics are explored in ten large art museums and the managerial implications are developed.

Aromatic l-amino acid decarboxylase : histochemical localization in rat kidney and lack of effect of dietary potassium or sodium loading on enzyme distribution

Utilizing a mono-specific antiserum produced in rabbits to hog kidney aromatic L-amino acid decarboxylase (AADC), the enzyme was localized in rat kidney by immunoperoxidase staining. AADC was located predominantly in the proximal convoluted tubules; there was also weak staining in the distal convoluted tubules and collecting ducts. An increase in dietary potassium or sodium intake produced no change in density or distribution of AADC staining in kidney. An assay of AADC enzyme activity showed no difference in cortex or medulla with chronic potassium loading. A change in distribution or activity of renal AADC does not explain the postulated dopaminergic modulation of renal function that occurs with potassium or sodium loading.

APT7 : highs and lows

A critical assessment of the 7th Asia Pacific Triennial (APT7) in terms of how it is realizing its ambition, where it is succeeding and where it is falling short.