Beloit College Research Articles

ADAPTIVE REUSE GUIDELINES ON WARENHUIS MEDANANDURBAN HERITAGE ENVIRONMENT

Heritage buildings indicate the rich history of Indonesian civilization by its relation to history, culture, politics, and economics. Warenhuis as a class A heritage building within Medan’s historic district, play an important role in trading commodity. It possesses immense historical and cultural significancedespite being poorly maintained and neglected. The building suffered serious damage due to a fire outbreakand has not been revitalized. Furthermore, the adaptive reuse approach provides development guidelines that preserve and optimize the historic building’s tangible and intangible qualities. Urban regeneration guidelinesfor the surrounding heritage environment also need to be maintained to maintain the spatial qualityof Warenhuis Medan. Adaptive reuse is implemented in the revitalization of historical architecture andtheregeneration of Medan’s Warenhuis environment. This qualitative study uses case studies research methodtoproduce revitalization guidelines on Medan’s Warenhuis and development guidelines on its historical urbanspaces. Theoretical foundations, such as building adaptation theory, heritage regulations, and tradingcityconcept are used to dissect case studies. Battersea Arts Centre and Beloit College Powerhouse. Objectives of this research are to formulate and to implement adaptive reuse concept in the revitalization of Warehuisarchitecture and the development of its historic environment. Theoretical reference in this study includesbuilding adaptation theory and heritage law that are used to analyse case studies Battersea Arts Centre andBeloit College Powerhouse. The objectives are to formulate and to adapt adaptive reuse in revitalizeWarenhuis and its surrounding environment. The objectives were achieved by identifying Warenhuis’ urbancontext and heritage characteristics based on four factors in adaptation building: legal & economy, culture&social, and built environment. Research findings generates 7 points of heritage revitalization guidelines onWarenhuis and 12 points of guidelines in its urban regeneration.
 Keywords : adaptive reuse, building adaptation, heritage, Medan’s Warenhuis

Use of the Little-Known Local Obsidian Source of Ojo Zarco at La Magdalena in Guanajuato, Mexico

Excavations conducted by Beloit College in 1958 and 1960 identified the site of La Magdalena in the Bajío of Mexico. Investigators have since highlighted three primary phases of occupation at La Magdalena, two of which were proposed to have been culturally influenced by Teotihuacan or Tula. Modern research in the Bajío mostly diverges from those postulations of distant connections, supplanting them with local patterns that hold much more explanatory power. Archaeometric studies are pivotal in this regard but have thus far been infrequently used. This research analyzes the obsidian assemblage from La Magdalena and finds a nearly ubiquitous utilization of a local obsidian source known as Ojo Zarco. These findings merit a reevaluation of obsidian in the eastern Bajío and argue for more archaeometric studies that elucidate local procurement patterns.

How (Not) to Evaluate U.S. Decline and the Emerging Great Power Rivalry

William С. Wohlforth is an American political scientist. Since 2000 he has been a Member of the Government Department’s faculty at Dartmouth College. William С. Wohlforth graduated with a degree in international relations from Beloit College, worked as a legislative aid in the U.S. House of Representatives, and did his graduate work at Yale University, earning an M.A. in international relations and PhD in Political Science. He taught at Princeton and Georgetown. William С. Wohlforth's expertise covers international security and foreign policy. His most recent books are “America Abroad: The United States’ Global Role in the 21st Century” (Oxford, 2018), with co-author Stephen G. Brooks, and “The Oxford Handbook of International Security” (Oxford 2018) co-edited with Alexandra Gheciu. He is currently working on a book on subversion among great powers.

The View From Here: Contemporary Perspectives from Senegal

The View From Here: Contemporary Perspectives from Senegal

Ray E. Hoff

Ray E. Hoff, 85, died on July 10, 2019, in Palatine, Illinois. “Ray Hoff was a very kind person who loved chemistry. After earning his PhD from the University of Utah, he joined BFGoodrich to conduct synthetic rubber research. In 1967 he joined a new polyethylene company, Chemplex Company (precursor of LyondellBasell Industries) to further develop the Phillips catalyst to produce high-density polyethylene. During his tenure, Ray published 29 US patents and many journal articles. He retired in 1993, but his passion for chemistry continued as a teacher at Roosevelt University. He also consulted for PQ Corporation in Pennsylvania. He edited a very successful book, Handbook of Transition Metal Polymerization Catalysts. The second edition of this book was published in 2018.”—Tom Pullakat, friend and colleague Most recent title: Research scientist, Quantum Chemical Education: BS, Beloit College, 1956; PhD, chemistry, University of Utah, 1964 Survivors: Wife, Susan; sons, Jonathan and David;

Relationship between Morphometric Measurements and Leptin Levels of Horses Vary Among Breeds

Obesity in domestic horse populations is becoming more prevalent, manifesting in increased occurrences of metabolic issues. Currently, obesity in horses is determined by subjective visual assessment, which is not reliably standardized. Circulating leptin levels directly correlate with adipose tissue mass; therefore, leptin levels could potentially be used as an objective measure of obesity in horses. To determine the relationship between body mass, as defined by morphometric measurements, and plasma leptin levels, blood was collected via jugular vein from horses (n=35) from four different breeds with known varying risks of obesity and obesity‐related conditions (Saddlebreds, n = 7, draft/draft crosses, n=7, stock horses, n=11, and Welsh ponies, n=10), in southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois every 60 days for one year. Morphometric measurements included neck circumference, height, and girth. These measurements were used to calculate neck circumference to height ratio (NCHR) and girth to height ratio (G:H). For both NCHR and G:H calculations, a greater value indicates increased obesity. Plasma leptin levels (repeated measures MANOVA, F3,29=5.65, p=0.004), NCHR (repeated measures MANOVA, F3,31=26.64, p<0.0001), and G:H (repeated measures MANOVA, F3,31=23.00, p<0.0001) varied significantly among breeds. In addition, the relationship between leptin levels and NCHR (repeated measures MANOVA, F3,29=6.44, p=0.002) and leptin levels and G:H (repeated measures MANOVA, F3,29= 6.55, p=0.002) varied significantly among breeds. Among these results, post hoc analysis revealed Saddlebreds had the highest leptin levels (pairwise contrast, F1,29=10.51, p=0.003), lowest NCHR (pairwise contrast, F1,31=52.87, p<0.0001), and lowest G:H (pairwise contrast, F1,31=60.93, p<0.0001) compared to all other breeds. This suggests Saddlebreds have a different relationship between obesity and leptin levels compared to other breeds. Saddlebreds are known to have various metabolic issues, such as an increased risk of insulin resistance, even when visual inspection and exercise regimen would suggest normal insulin sensitivity. Therefore, unique relationships between leptin levels and obesity in some horse breeds may be associated with varying risks of obesity‐related conditions.Support or Funding InformationThis work was sponsored by the Biomedical Scholars Program at Beloit College.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.

Iconoclast in Ink: The Political Cartoons of Jay N. "Ding" Darling by Richard Samuel West

Reviewed by: Iconoclast in Ink: The Political Cartoons of Jay N. "Ding" Darling by Richard Samuel West Paul V. Murphy Richard Samuel West, Iconoclast in Ink: The Political Cartoons of Jay N. "Ding" Darling. Columbus: The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, 2012. 194 pp. $24.95. Jay Norwood "Ding" Darling began his nearly fifty-year career as a cartoonist in 1900 when he joined the staff of the Sioux City Journal. Newspapers of that era were in transition, still at the center of partisan politics but also part of an emerging mass media that played an important role in integrating the towns and cities scattered across the country into a national popular culture. Darling contributed to both projects. He gained a national following, eventually earning two Pulitzer Prizes, while advancing a progressive political vision fostered by two prominent and gifted [End Page 179] Republican newspapermen. The first of these, George Perkins, initially hired Darling for the Journal. Gardner Cowles later lured him to the Des Moines Register and Leader in 1906, where Darling spent the bulk of his career. Darling perfected the gentle but biting single-panel, front-page political cartoon, using homey and charming images to bring public figures down to size and to translate complex issues into "everyday terms that anyone could understand" (5). He eventually gained a national audience through syndication by the New York Tribune. In collaboration with The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, Richard Samuel West has produced a handsome, large-format, and copiously illustrated volume attesting to Darling's abilities. West pairs a knowledgeable, well-illustrated eighty-page survey of Darling's art and politics with a selection of over one hundred cartoons, presented on a scale that almost matches the six-by-eight-inch format in which many originally appeared. Read together, they give a glimpse of a political world lost. Born in the tiny lakeshore village of Norwood (from which his middle name derived) in the upper stretches of Michigan's lower peninsula in 1876, Darling moved throughout Michigan and Indiana before his family settled in Sioux City, Iowa, in 1886. He was an energetic, irreverent youth, expelled from Yankton College in South Dakota for commandeering the president's horse and buggy and suspended from his next school, Beloit College, due to poor attendance and scholarship. At Beloit, he drew satirical drawings of his professors, signing himself as Ding, from "D'ing", a contraction that had become a habit with his father and brother. "Ding" Darling became the name by which he was known. He first attracted national notice as a cartoonist in 1907 with a fine panel featuring President Theodore Roosevelt sitting at the end of a makeshift diving board over a rural stream, splashing idly in the water, unsure what to do, while seven would-be rivals for the 1908 Republican presidential nomination—from William Howard Taft to Robert La Follette—lined up impatiently behind him. Darling exemplified a type of progressivism almost unknown in the Republican Party of today. He was skeptical of trusts and the business selfishness they embodied, optimistic regarding the regulatory power of government (to end child labor and regulate railroads, for example), and passionate in his belief in international government to prevent the scourge of war. He idolized Herbert Hoover and generally criticized Democratic policies, but he supported Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt when they advanced progressive aims, particularly in foreign affairs. He often [End Page 180] assumed the stance of a gentle prophet, skewering the inattentiveness, emotionalism, irrationality, hypocrisy, and alarmism that led to unjust and destructive policies. He hailed, instead, the enlightened, forward-thinking, disinterested, and fraternal impulses that promised a better future. In one wartime fantasy, Darling depicted a businessman and workingman becoming solicitous brothers in the trenches despite their mutual hatred in peacetime. Darling wrote a remarkably sober-minded assessment of the Soviet Union after a brief visit there in 1931. It revealed much about his temperament, condemning authoritarianism but issuing a biting warning as well. "If you are … afflicted with conservatism, one dose of Russia will make you well," Darling wrote. "Every American ought to make a trip to Russia at least once...

Scribleriana Transferred, Printed Materials for Sale, 2017–2018

Scribleriana Transferred, Printed Materials for Sale, 2017–2018 James E. May • This column attends often to unrecorded editions and issues on the market, and I begin with one. George Bayntun of Bath illustrates and describes John Haywood’s The Precious Blood of the Son of God (for Robert Gifford, in Old Bedlam, without Bishops Gate, 1706), 12mo (152 × 89 mm.): woodcut frt “with three biblical images”; pp. [vi], 114, in cont. sheep with blind double fillet borders, signed “Robert Beck His Book 1706” (c. $404). This “Eighteenth Edition” is not in ESTC, where seven editions are recorded 1696–1731, Gifford’s 10th edition appearing in 1699 and his 29th in 1717. (North American editions occurred in at least 1703 and 1712). [End Page 84] • Blackwell’s of Oxford lists Sir John Hartopp’s copy of John Owen’s Meditations and Discourses on the Glory of Christ, in his Person, Office, and Grace; with The Differences between Faith and Sight (by A. M. and R. R., for Benjamin Alsop, 1684); ESTC R32196; 8vo: portrait frt; pp. [xxxii], 247; cont. black morocco with gilt panels; with bookplate of nineteenth-century “evangelical activist” John Poynder (c. $675). Hartopp has signed the flyleaf, and probably he or the author was responsible for MS corrections in the text. Blackwell’s notes that “Hartopp worshipped at the Leadenhall Street congregation of the Independent minister Dr. John Owen . . . . [and] made shorthand notes of Owen’s sermons and as a result thirteen were published for the first time in 1756 (ODNB).” • Meyer Boswell offers a copy of George Meriton’s A Guide to Surveyors of the High-Way (Printed by W. Rawlins and S. Roycroft, for A. & J. Churchill, 1694), R23533, 8vo: pp. [24], 167, [1], which has appended an unrecorded catalogue for a substantial book-seller: Books Printed for, and sold by W. Crooke, at the Green-Dragon without Temple-Bar, 1693; 8 pp., with more than a hundred titles, the first being “The London Practice of Physick” (bottom edges trimmed with some text lost). ESTC records only two different Crooke catalogues: A Catalogue … Sold by William Crooke (Printed in the Year 1683), 8vo: pp. [2], 14; and Books Printed for William Crook [sic] at the Green Dragon without Temple Bar, no date, 4to: 8pp., with first entry for “Greek Testament.” • Robert S. Brooks on Abebooks lists Giles Jacobs’s An Historical Account of the Lives and Writings of the Most Eminent English Poets … Adorned with Cutts. The Second Edition [woodcut of eagle with wings up looking right] (“Printed for E. Curll, in Burghley-Street, in the Strand, 1733. Price 6s.”), 8vo: A8 a8 B-X8 Y8 (Y8 + 1, errata leaf): pp. [xxvi], [6], 326, [8 index] [2, errata leaf] + 6 plates; the listed copy, in full leather, has title page stamped with the seal of “Beloit College” and a frt. ($225). No 1733 edition is in the ESTC, though OCLC records a copy at the National Library of Art (LVA). This bio-bibliographical work is a reissue of the first Curll edition in 1720 (as revealed by photographs shared by Brooks). Though it is Curll’s first variant-title reissue, he might have miscalled it the fourth edition, for the edition had been reissued as Vol. 2 of Jacobs’s Poetical Register in 1723 (A. Bettesworth, et al.) and by itself as Historical Account in 1724 (by W. Mears). All these issues share such features as the misnumbering of p. xiii as “xii”; the British Library (BL) copies of earlier issues on ECCO have the errata list last, as well, but some copies place it after the contents and before p. [1]. Copies have survived with varying plates; this copy lacks the frt with multiple portraits but has inserted plates with portraits of Broome, Butler, Gay, Howard, Milton, and Montagu. By contrast, the BL copy of the 1719 issue has the frt with Chaucer at the center of five medallion portraits and then plates of Devonshire, Creech, Croxall, John Philips, Pope, Prior, and John Duke of Buckingham, most cut by J. Clark. The BL copy on ECCO of the 1723 reissue has the frt with Shakespeare in the center of seven medallion...

DAH Theatre: A Sourcebook ed. by Dennis Barnett

Reviewed by: DAH Theatre: A Sourcebook ed. by Dennis Barnett C. Drew Vidal DAH Theatre: A Sourcebook. Edited by Dennis Barnett. Foreword by Eugenio Barba. Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2016. xvi + 231 pp. $90.00 cloth. In his foreword to this collection of mostly new essays, Eugenio Barba, a significant mentor to the DAH, declares that the group "doesn't fight uncertainty, it manages it" (ix). Considering DAH is a Serbian word for the process of breathing, I was struck how encountering uncertainties in life and art does indeed shift our breath, with a quickening or deepening, a catching of itself, or a laboring forward; fighting this need for breath is futile. The DAH, a group founded and maintained by a core group of women theatre artists, grew up surrounded by the uncertainties brought on by continued civil war, leaving them with a keen sense of social responsibility in their art. While the DAH's artistic lineage links them to Grotowski and Lecoq as well, it is Barba's Odin Teatret in Denmark that left the most indelible mark, so his words are a fitting introduction to this important trove. As editor Dennis Barnett points out in his introduction, the recent twenty-five-year anniversary of the group marks an ideal time to scrutinize and celebrate their achievements and longevity, especially amid the backdrop of war. Readers are afforded the opportunity to witness "what began as a street theatre … turn into an internationally recognized organization dedicated to using their performances to change the world, one audience, one student at a time" (xi). The Sourcebook contains fifteen essays, thirteen new and two revised, authored by an impressive and varied list of contributors from all over the world: an eminent Yugoslavian dramaturg and playwright, one of Serbia's most esteemed critics, professors from Brown, Knox, and the University of Edinburgh, artistic directors from the United States and Germany, and an internationally recognized poet, playwright, and musician, to name a few. Much on the content employs an investigation of a specific DAH performance as a jumping-off point (there currently are twenty-six performances in total, from 1992 to 2015). The collection is organized into three sections, first exploring DAH Theatre's work in Serbia, next their reach worldwide, and, finally, multiple accounts from artists who have worked closely with them. In his introduction, Barnett shares not only a brief synopsis of each essay but also its leaning, be it theoretical, historical, practical, or personal. He is correct to point out that a healthy dose of sociopolitical context and cognizance is necessary to discuss or analyze the work of the DAH. Founded in the former Yugoslavia in 1991 by directors Dijana [End Page 349] Milošević and Jadranka Anđelić, then existing with a home base in Belgrade, their evolution weathered the chaos, destruction, and stigma brought on by the Balkan Wars, while their art constantly addressed and challenged the atrocities around them. The running order of the contributions is orchestrated with care and intent by Barnett. The first two essays, the first by an early artistic associate of the DAH and the next through the lens of the political scientist, offer the reader the necessary history and background to fully engage with the content to follow. Beloit College associate professor Amy Sarno investigates the DAH's three site-specific "Angel" plays, reflecting on how the unearthing of personal and community-based memory can offer societal, healing mechanisms. Speaking to the audience experience, she shares that "socializing was expected… . [A] dialogic process evolved that helped people make sense of the world while strengthening communal bonds" (41). In the sixth essay, choreographer and Colorado College professor Shawn Womack tackles one of the DAH's most popular sitespecific performances, In/Visible City. This performance was staged in the very cramped quarters of commuter buses, literally in motion, and sought to "build a momentary community of traveling citizens, to honor the different ethnicities that shaped the modern city" (84). Later, US director/scholar Elizabeth Carlin Metz shares a fascinating account of the DAH's contribution to a student production of Sam Shepard's A Lie of the Mind at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. Her interest in...

Cultivating the liberally educated mind through a signature program

ABSTRACTIn this article, the authors describe the Miller Upton Programs launched by the Beloit College Department of Economics in 2008. The programs aim to advance student understanding of the nature and causes of wealth and well-being. After describing the programs’ core elements, the authors discuss ways in which they leverage economic discourse as a means to advance liberal learning. They argue that programs of this kind advance liberal learning by cultivating skills required to engage the great questions of human flourishing, by fostering development of students’ economic imagination and by enhancing students’ ability to engage in genuine intellectual discovery. Details on the history and resource commitments for various program aspects are provided, allowing readers to identify program elements appropriate for replication at their home institutions.

Assessing the impact of curricular collections use at a liberal arts college

ABSTRACTResearch suggests that object-based, active learning enhances student experiences and learning outcomes. The Logan Museum of Anthropology has devoted significant resources to student-centered, inquiry-based learning. To determine if and how collections use was associated with enhanced learning across the curriculum of Beloit College, the museum’s parent institution, we conducted two surveys of instructors and students. The purposes were (1) to define how deeply and intensely engaged students were with collections and (2) to evaluate the correlation of self-reported student learning outcomes with collections use in general and with deeply engaged collections use in particular. We found that enhanced student learning was associated with collections use across the liberal arts curriculum. Further, we found that positive learning outcomes positively correlated with deeper collections engagement. We also gathered qualitative student observations that provide examples of how collections use helped students understand course concepts, connect concepts between courses, and apply concepts beyond the classroom.

The Long and Winding Road (Apologies to the Beatles).

The Long and Winding Road (Apologies to the Beatles).

Capsian mortuary practices at Site 12 (Aïn Berriche), Aïn Beïda region, eastern Algeria

Site 12, a Capsian escargotière in eastern Algeria, was excavated in 1930 by a joint expedition from the Logan Museum of Beloit College led by Alonzo W. Pond and the University of Minnesota led by Albert E. Jenks, assisted by a number of undergraduate and graduate students. Among the finds recovered were a large number of human skeletons, some of which undoubtedly date to the Capsian use of the site in the early and middle Holocene. Several of these display unusual mortuary practices and there is evidence for removal of bones, some of which were then modified for either utilitarian or ritual/symbolic purposes.

Morning and Afternoon Bouts of Exercise Result in the Same Physiological Stress Response

Circulating cortisol levels increase in response to physiological stress beyond levels observed in normal diurnal patterns. To compare the physiological stress response after a signal bout of exercise in the morning versus the afternoon, participants were assigned to three groups: morning exercise (n=8), afternoon exercise (n=7), or no exercise (n=7). Morning and afternoon exercise groups participated in 15 minutes of training, alternating resistance and cardiovascular activities, at 07:00 or 15:00 hours, respectively. Salivary cortisol samples were taken from all participants throughout the day. Pulse and blood pressure were recorded to ensure consistency of exertion during exercise bouts. Mean peak cortisol concentrations following exercise occurred 30–45 minutes after completion of exercise (1.16 ± 0.237 μg/dL and 0.651 ± 0.177 μg/dL, morning and afternoon exercise groups, respectively). There was a significant increase in salivary cortisol levels, as indicated by increase in area under the curve (AUC), between the no exercise and the morning exercise groups (p=0.0009), with cortisol levels reaching values almost twice the magnitude in the morning exercise group. Time of day did not affect the physiological stress response to exercise, as there was no significant difference in salivary cortisol AUC. V. Dautermann and N. Mantina were supported by the Beloit College Biomedical Scholars Program.

Previous day's exercise does not affect indicators of physiological stress measured during practice in male collegiate soccer players

Exercise, including participation in athletics, induces physiological stress. To determine if previous bouts of exercise alter physiological stress induced by a strenuous soccer practice, healthy male collegiate soccer players (n = 14) participated in two identical practices, one following a game day and the other after a rest day. After a 30‐minute baseline period, subjects participated in a 90‐minute practice, which included warm‐ups, ball drills, sprints, and scrimmage. Salivary cortisol levels were measured twice during baseline, thrice during practice, and once after practice. Blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) were measured in a subset of participants (n =6). Fifty‐meter timed sprints, used to compare athletic performance of participants between practices, were the same on both days (7.28 ± 0.13 and 7.26 ± 0.17 sec, after rest and after game, respectively). Although exercise induced an increase in all measured parameters, there was no difference in salivary cortisol levels (0.252 ± 0.023 and 0.235 ± 0.016 μg/dL), HR (107 ± 5 and 99 ± 3 beats/min), or diastolic BP (80 ± 1 and 77 ± 2 mmHg) between practices; however, systolic BP was significantly different (141 ± 5 and 133 ± 4 mmHg; p < 0.01). Therefore, the physiological stress induced during a practice is not different the day after a game compared to the day after a rest day. V. Dautermann was supported by the Beloit College Biomedical Scholars Program.

Introduction to Multimedia

As I begin my tenure as multimedia review editor at the JSAH, I am keenly aware that this is a passing of the baton more than a beginning. My two predecessors—Edward Dimendberg and Beatriz Colomina—have long since established multimedia as worthy of the JSAH readership's attention. Indeed, such attention was overdue. Media have long had a symbiotic relationship with architecture.1 After all, where would modernism be without the Gesamtkunstwerk, the term Richard Wagner coined to signal the absorption of architecture, music, and theater into a total multimedia sensory assault?2While the JSAH's recent attention to this topic must in part be prompted by the impact of the development of new media on our consumption, new media are hardly new anymore. Beloit College's Mindset List for the Class of 2015, which sums up the cultural attitudes and assumptions of incoming college freshmen, reminds us that these students,

Elucidating the mechanism of glucagon‐like peptide‐1 for glucose utilization during periods of fasting

Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), an insulinotropic hormone, is a target for novel therapies for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Insulin resistance is a characteristic of T2DM and is evident, to a lesser extent, under fasted conditions. We have previously shown that intraportal infusion of GLP-1, in combination with intraportal glucose infusion, increases whole body glucose uptake without changing pancreatic hormone levels in 42-hour fasted dogs. To evaluate GLP-1's effect under various conditions of insulin sensitivity, we infused GLP-1 and glucose intraportally into 18-hour fasted dogs. Under these conditions, there was no change in glucose uptake in the presence of GLP-1, compared to glucose infusion alone. Receptor expression could be a contributing factor to the increase in glucose utilization after longer periods of fasting. To evaluate this mechanism, GLP-1 receptor expression was examined in murine pancreatic, liver, heart, small intestine, and skeletal muscle tissue using a Western blot to quantify the differences in GLP-1 receptor expression in these tissues under fasted conditions. Preliminary results indicate that GLP-1 receptor expression changes over the course of a prolonged fast (24 hours), suggesting a possible mechanism for our in vivo findings. This study was supported by the NIH, Grant R01 DK-43706, and the Beloit College Biomedical Research Fellows Program.

Introduction

Introduction

Study Abroad and the City: Bringing the Lessons Back Home

In 2005, Beloit College launched its Cities in Transition project, intended to strengthen learning outcomes for students studying abroad at several of its exchange partner universities. The College greatly valued its exchange partner relationships. However, a variety of factors, including living in foreign student dormitories and taking classes for foreigners, made it difficult for students to achieve hoped-for language gains and increased country knowledge. This article discusses the obstacles to learning that students face when studying abroad and how faculty development initiatives have helped Beloit College develop curricular interventions to improve study abroad learning outcomes. Furthermore, these interventions, which have involved experiential learning in the cities in which the students study, have led to curricular innovations in Beloit that have the potential to positively impact both students who study abroad and those who remain in Beloit throughout their undergraduate studies.

Cell biology education: where’s the math?

The Bio2010 Report from the National Research Council prompted college and university educators to consider effective ways to integrate quantitative thinking and practice into their biology curricula. None questions the need for training cell biology students who can do the quantitative analysis required for substantive discoveries. Quantitation is an essential feature of biological thinking, and thus math is used on a daily basis in the cell biology lab. In this Minisymposium, biologists from various levels of experience proffered philosophy and assorted tools to infuse quantitative analyses into biology classes and laboratories. The take- home lessons are as follows: 1) The time factor in biology curriculum development can be especially daunting and frequently becomes a justification for inertia. Minisymposium speakers belied this justification by presenting many resources in websites and people willing to help. Examples are listed later in this review (Marsteller, 2010 ; BioQUEST Curriculum Consortium, n.d.). 2) Mathematicians and cell biologists seldom talk to each other, remaining comfortably siloed in their respective departments. Yet experts at quantitative modeling can be the best resource to help biologists select among hypotheses generated by experimental data or to design experiments that are better able to clearly test their hypotheses (Berro et al., 2010 ; Sirotkin et al., 2010 ). Biologists could invite mathematicians into the laboratory to do experiments or analyze data; mathematicians could invite biologists to try modeling experimental data to see whether a model predicts things that might never have occurred to the cell biologist. So take a mathematician to lunch! 3) Undergraduates can drive quantitative curriculum development, especially in the laboratory. Under faculty supervision, a student team can generate new knowledge while developing lab exercises, work out the bugs of presentation (talking with peers before and during the course), gain comfort in quantitative approaches, and get course credit simultaneously. Undergraduates thus engage in research and teaching, and faculty have a built-in team of collaborators more enthusiastic about the process of science. John Jungck (Beloit College) and Pat Marsteller (Emory University) focused on resources for faculty, including ready-to-use curricular material and faculty pedagogical development opportunities (Marsteller, 2010 ; BioQUEST Curriculum Consortium, n.d.). Omar Quintero (Pennsylvania State University Medical School) reported on development of a “semiwet lab” approach that utilizes short video clips to introduce the students to advanced research approaches that might be prohibitively expensive or technically difficult. The students get exposure to some wet-lab techniques in a larger context, but the major goal of the project is to shift the students’ time and focus toward quantitative data analysis in context and away from cookbook lab methods without context. Postdoctoral fellow Julien Berro (Yale University) provided a specific example of how a mathematical model suggests experiments and how the experimental results lead to model revision—much like the course of science (Berro et al., 2010 ; Sirotkin et al., 2010 ). Graduate student Julia Philip (University of Notre Dame) described a protein binding simulation that reinforces why thermodynamics and kinetics both describe the regulation of microtubule binding parameters. This tool is freely accessible and useful in upper division coursework and research (Philip et al., 2010 ). Finally, undergraduate Samantha Lindemann (University of Minnesota, Duluth) reported on her development of learning modules using statistics to evaluate Mendelian genetics of zebrafish and to demystify the statistical approach for her peers; this effort allowed her undergraduate research to couple the science and the math. Cell biology education: where’s the math? The math is here and always has been. Its use has become more critical and even more fun as the complexities of cellular processes continue to be explained in an ever more quantitative manner. From the research lab to the classroom, mathematics is part and parcel of how scientists describe how biology works. Contact information for speakers: Julien Berro (ude.elay@orreb.neiluj), John Jungck (egelloc.tioleb@kcgnuj), Samantha Lindemann (ude.nmu.d@453ednil), Pat Marsteller (ude.yrome.knilnrael@sramp), Julia Philip (ude.dn@pilihpj), and Omar Quintero (ude.usp@001qao).