No abstract

This study examines two aspects of teaching with a project-based learning (PBL) model in higher education settings: faculty definitions of PBL and faculty PBL practices, as evidenced by their self-described successes and challenges in implementation. Faculty participants took "a leap of faith" in their teaching practices to redefine what it means to teach and learn using PBL as an instructional methodology. The findings provide insight into how faculty conceptualization of PBL drives implementation; how the PBL approach challenges college-level teachers; and how instructors' perceptions of their own role in the PBL process impacts how they implement PBL.

We examined two ways in which art-making may function to elevate mood-venting (expressing negative feelings) and distraction (expressing something unrelated to the negative feelings). In Study 1 we induced a negative mood in participants by showing them a sad film clip and then assigned them to one of two conditions. In the venting condition they were asked to draw something related to the film; in the distraction condition they were asked to draw an image unrelated to the film (a house). In Study 2 we induced a negative mood by asking participants to think of the saddest event they had experienced and then assigned them to one of three conditions: venting, distraction, and sitting-a new condition in which participants just sat quietly. This latter condition allowed us to assess the effect of passage of time. In both studies, positive and negative affect were measured before and after the assigned activity. In both studies, mood improved significantly more in the distraction than in the venting or sitting condition. We argue that the mood elevating effects of art-making are stronger when art is used to distract than when used to vent.

Five years after the Institute of Medicine (IOM) called for a redesigned U.S. health care system, relatively little was known about the extent to which hospitals had undertaken quality improvement (QI) efforts to address deficiencies in patient care. To examine the state of hospital QI activities in 2006, the authors designed and conducted a survey of short-term, general hospitals with 25 or more beds. In a sample of 470 hospitals, they found that many were actively engaged in improvement efforts but that these activities varied in method and impact. Hospitals with high levels of perceived quality, as reflected in assessments by their quality managers, were more likely to have embraced QI as a strategic priority, employed quality practices and processes consistent with IOM aims, fostered staff training and involvement in QI methods, engaged in an array of QI activities and clinical QI strategies, and maintained staffing levels favoring fewer patients per nurse.

The question of whether and how visual artists see the world differently than non-artists has long engaged researchers and scholars in the arts, sciences, and humanities. Yet as evidence regarding this issue accumulates, it has become clear that the answers to these questions are by no means straightforward. With a view to advancing ongoing debate in this field, the current study aimed to replicate and extend previous research by exploring the differences in visual-spatial ability between art students (n = 42) and non-art students (n = 37), using a comprehensive battery of visual-spatial and drawing tasks. Art students outperformed non-art students on drawing measures and some (but not all) visual-spatial tasks. This nuanced pattern of results broadly supports the notion that art students differ from non-art students in their ability to exert top-down control over attentional processing, but not in the phenomenology of low-level visual processing. Implications for theories of artistic expertise are discussed.

We examined two ways in which drawing may function to elevate mood in children-venting (expressing negative feelings) and distraction (expressing something unrelated to the negative feelings). We examined the effectiveness of drawing as an emotion regulator when drawing is used to vent versus distract (Study 1) and tested whether the effects found are specific to the activity of creating one's own drawing or generalisable to a drawing activity in which children had to copy another's drawing (Study 2). To induce a negative mood, we asked children to think of a disappointing event. Mood was assessed before and after the assigned activity. In both studies, mood improved significantly more in the distract than in the vent or copy condition. Study 1 demonstrates that drawing improves mood in children via distraction and not via venting. Study 2 demonstrates that this effect is specific to a drawing task in which an image is freely constructed. When a copying task is used, the effect disappears.

1. Vertical profiles of pH were measured at nine shallow water (<5m) locations in Esthwaite Water. These indicate strong gradients of pH near the sediment-water interface suggesting a marked buffering capacity of the sediments.2. Thirteen littoral sediment cores were horizontally sectioned and sequentially extracted (O.SMNaHCO^, O.lMNaOH, IMHCI) and analysed for soluble reactive phosphorus. The core sections were also analysed for total phosphorus and per cent organic content to determine the vertical and areal variability of phosphorus within the littoral sediments of Esthwaite Water.3. The rate of release of phosphorus from intact sediment cores was measured in the laboratory as a function of the pH of overlying water, yielding the relationship log K=0.54pH-3.94, K=mgPm"^day"'. The maximum release rate measured was 75mgPm"^ day"' at pH = 10.5.4. Experiments on sediment slurries indicate that the release of phosphorus at pH 10 is rapid with approximately 50% of the total NaHCO^+NaOH extractable phosphorus being released within 3 h. 5. Phosphorus release from the littoral sediments may equal or exceed external sources plus hypolimnetic inputs during periods of high pH associated with times of maximum algal biomass.

We investigated whether typically-developing children with a gift for drawing realistically show the local processing bias seen in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Twenty-seven 6-12 year-olds made an observational drawing (scored for level of realism) and completed three local processing tasks, and parents completed the Childhood Asperger Syndrome Test (CAST). Drawing score predicted local processing performance on all tasks independently of verbal IQ, age, and years of art lessons. Drawing score also predicted more frequent repetitive behaviors as assessed by the CAST. Thus, skill in realistic drawing is associated with a strong local processing bias and a tendency towards repetitive behaviors, showing that traits found in individuals with ASD irrespective of artistic talent are also found in typically developing children with artistic talent.