Lafayette College Research Articles

Sociotechnical engineering is one facet of prismatic liberal education

The ideas of mutual integration of the liberal arts and engineering resonate powerfully with our institutional values and with many ongoing practices at Lafayette College, an undergraduate-only liberal arts college whose 35+ major options include 4 ABET-accredited BS engineering disciplines and 1 non-accredited AB in Engineering Studies. In addition to many course-level integration efforts, the College's program in Engineering Studies offers a model and a history that may be of interest to those designing new programs.

Professor's refusal to respond emasculates his suit

Case name: Kortyna v. Lafayette College, et al., No. 14‐2092 (E.D. Pa. 09/19/14).

Practical Applications of The Limitations of Diversification Return

There is no doubt rebalancing can increase portfolio value, but the drivers of this value are widely misunderstood, according to the research behind The Limitations of Diversification Return, in the Summer 2014 issue of The Journal of Portfolio Management. The value of rebalancing does not come from reduced volatility or increased diversification, as some prior research maintains, co-authors Don Chambers and John Zdanowicz explain. In this Practical Applications report, Chambers-the Walter E. Hanson KPMG Chair in Finance at Lafayette College, tells us why rebalancing increases portfolio value. Don’t bother with diversification return; rethink your view of portfolio rebalancing; mean reversion is the driver. These are the practical applications he discusses in this report.

Past or Portal? Enhancing Undergraduate Learning through Special Collections and Archives ed. by Eleanor Mitchell, Peggy Seiden, and Suzy Taraba (review)

Reviewed by: Past or Portal? Enhancing Undergraduate Learning through Special Collections and Archives ed. by Eleanor Mitchell, Peggy Seiden, and Suzy Taraba Anne Bahde Past or Portal? Enhancing Undergraduate Learning through Special Collections and Archives, ed. Eleanor Mitchell, Peggy Seiden, and Suzy Taraba. Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries, 2012. 320p. $60 (ISBN 978-083898610-3). Instruction in special collections and archives environments has been gaining attention in recent years, evidenced by a steady increase in the literature on instructional case studies using primary source materials, as well as increased activity within the ALA Connect community called Special Collections Teaching Strategies, and the Reference, Access, and Outreach Section of the Society of American Archivists. Despite this increased attention, the literature on instruction with original materials remains relatively limited, and compared to information literacy literature, only modestly offers best practices for pedagogy or programmatic models. With the publication of Past or Portal? Enhancing Undergraduate Learning through Special Collections and Archives, editors Eleanor Mitchell, Peggy Seiden, and Suzy Taraba have improved this environment dramatically, essentially doubling the literature on instruction in special collections and archives with this fantastically useful collection of case studies. The book includes nearly fifty case studies exploring the direct use of special collections and archives materials in undergraduate education. The work is divided into four complementary sections, which effectively categorize each contribution. Section one, The Artifact, presents case studies that focus on teaching the materiality of unique materials, either in single class sessions or full courses. With just one or two exceptions, the contributions in this section emphasize rare books or manuscripts, including two interesting projects integrating the book arts into undergraduate class sessions. Notable in this section is Michael Paulus’ essay, “What is Primary: Teaching Archival Epistemology and the Sources Continuum.” This continuum is an intriguing concept that “provides a framework for exploring and conceptualizing the primacy of sources,” and will be of enduring use to librarians, archivists, and historians teaching the complex issues that primary sources can raise. (p. 77) Section two, The Pedagogy, focuses on creative pedagogical methods for unique and original materials, in class sessions, course modules, or full courses. Several case studies in this section present inventive techniques for engaging disciplines that can be more challenging to attract and involve with special collections materials, such as creative writing, biochemistry, [End Page 423] microbiology, psychology, and music. One particularly compelling project from New York University asked computer science students to build an integrated digital archive site featuring a catalogue of digitized primary sources as well as a narrative exhibit element. A fine example of strong pedagogical collaboration between humanities teaching faculty, special collections librarians, and archivists, this adaptable project can yield both an original product for students’ capstone portfolio and a digital resource for the library. Section three, The Program, is a shorter section that includes wide-ranging, multidisciplinary programmatic models for integrating primary source-based curriculum at the institutional level; for example, book history programs (Oberlin College and University of Wyoming), and an undergraduate curriculum program based on the holdings of a digital library (University of California). An especially innovative contribution from Sarah Horowitz and Jamie Nelson at Augustana College describes a faculty stipend program to encourage use of primary source materials across the curriculum, an effort which has drastically increased both instruction sessions and student use of collections. The final section, The Work, demonstrates the integration of students into the fundamental description, access, or outreach work of special collections or archives departments. Examples of student-curated exhibitions, blogs, and even collections are featured in this section, along with ideas for student-led processing and digitization projects. The case study on undergraduate research partnerships at Lafayette College, described by Diane Shaw, showcases the remarkable range of internal projects accomplished by Lafayette’s Excel Scholars, academically talented students who gain real-world skills and knowledge through a program of experiential learning in the special collections department. Through this program, the department makes a meaningful contribution to the teaching and learning mission of the university, and generates products that improve access to holdings and enrich outreach efforts. The only negative aspect to the book is its organization scheme within the table of contents. Here...

City Rain

Martin J. Desht's photo-documentary exhibit Faces from an American Dream recorded the social impacts of America's transition from the industrial manufacturing economy to the service and information economy, particularly in Pennsylvania. City Rain was a minor project incidental to the work on American deindustrialization. Faces from an American Dream has been touring for more than twenty years. After early exhibits in Pennsylvania and a review in Pennsylvania History, the work traveled to Harvard University, Dartmouth College, New York University's Stern School of Business, the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. Senate, and many other colleges and universities, most recently Michigan State University's College of Law. It is currently scheduled for venues in New Mexico.In 2006 Desht was photographer-in-residence at Queens University, Belfast, Northern Ireland. The exhibit A Certain Peace: Acceptance and Defiance in Northern Ireland explores that city's transition from a postindustrial economy rife with sectarian conflict to a new peacetime economy based on tourism, finance, and higher education.Desht's work is represented in collections at Harvard University, the Center for Working-Class Studies at Youngstown State University, with significant collections archived at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, and at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.This is the third time Martin Desht has allowed us to publish his photographs to complement material in our journal. Examples of his work appear in “Work: With Selected Photographs from the Exhibit Faces from an American Dream” and “Staying Tuned” in Pennsylvania History 65, no. 3 (summer 1998): 368–81, and 66, no. 4 (fall 1999): 601–15, respectively. These can also be viewed on the journal's website.Pennsylvania History had intended to include the photographs here as part of the Fall 2012 environmental history special issue. For space limitations we could not, so we are happy to begin 2013 with these photographs supplementing this issue. Desht's photographs are an important reminder that the publicity cities generate about their accomplishments frequently overlook much of their landscape.For bookings and information about the exhibits, email mdsh4956@yahoo.com, or write to 11 Juego Road, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87508.—Editor

<em>Peace and Conflict in West Africa</em>

This issue’s multimedia contribution is from an event organized by the Cambridge Peace Commission (Cambridge, MA) and the West African Research Association’s West African Peace Initiative held on September 27, 2012, at the Cambridge Main Library (Cambridge, MA). The event, “Peace and Conflict in West Africa,” offered presentations by Professor Wendy Wilson Fall of Lafayette College, Professor Abu Bah of Northern Illinois University, and journalist Janet Johnson who was featured prominently in the documentary “Pray the Devil Back to Hell.” The presentations were followed by a roundtable involving more than 20 questions from audience members. The resulting discussion covers the causes of the Mano River conflicts, the role of ethnicity in African conflict, forms of indigenous conflict resolution, the legacy of historical events such as the transatlantic slave trade and colonialism, and the situation in Mali. The video is available in the online version of this edition of ACPR. Subscribers to the electronic and print/electronic editions of ACPR can find the video on our website at:

Burning the Mabanda: Incendiary Acts, Interpretive Frames, and Iconoclash in the Indian Ocean

September 01 2012 Burning the Mabanda: Incendiary Acts, Interpretive Frames, and Iconoclash in the Indian Ocean William Cunningham Bissell William Cunningham Bissell William Cunningham Bissell is an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology & Sociology, Lafayette College. His most recent book, Urban Design, Chaos, and Colonial Power in Zanzibar (2011), focuses on the irrationality and incoherence of modern planning. bissellw@lafayette.edu Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information William Cunningham Bissell William Cunningham Bissell is an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology & Sociology, Lafayette College. His most recent book, Urban Design, Chaos, and Colonial Power in Zanzibar (2011), focuses on the irrationality and incoherence of modern planning. bissellw@lafayette.edu Online ISSN: 1937-2108 Print ISSN: 0001-9933 © 2012 by the Regents of the University of California.2012 African Arts (2012) 45 (3): 70–83. https://doi.org/10.1162/AFAR_a_00012 Cite Icon Cite Permissions Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Search Site Citation William Cunningham Bissell; Burning the Mabanda: Incendiary Acts, Interpretive Frames, and Iconoclash in the Indian Ocean. African Arts 2012; 45 (3): 70–83. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/AFAR_a_00012 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentAll JournalsAfrican Arts Search Advanced Search This content is only available as a PDF. © 2012 by the Regents of the University of California.2012 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

J‐protein requirements of multiple [PSI+] prion variants in two distinct yeast strains

The objective of this study was to determine the importance of prion variant and yeast strain variation on prion chaperone requirements. The J‐protein Sis1 and the prion [PSI+] were used as a model system to explore the impact of amyloid conformation (prion variants) and yeast strain polymorphisms (yeast genetic background) on chaperone requirements. The primary method used in this study was complementation by plasmid‐shuffling in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae.Summary of ResultsYeast strain background had a small but noticeable effect on chaperone requirements; this effect is likely due primarily to altered chaperone protein levels between strains. While many prion variants shared similar chaperone requirements, some significant differences were found.ConclusionsJ‐protein chaperone requirements are significantly determined by the specific amyloid conformation of a yeast prion but relatively unaffected by yeast genetic background. Funding for this research was provided by Lafayette College in the form of the EXCEL Scholars program, Department of Chemistry research funds, and start‐up funds provided for JKH.

Autobiographical memory for spatial location is unaffected by delay

To examine recall of personal spatial location during a previously experienced event, Lafayette College students located themselves in a version of their incoming class photograph that was all black with each individual figure identified in white. They then subsequently identified themselves in the original version of the photograph. The distance between the initial choice in the obscured version and the individual's correct location was recorded. Participants were remarkably and equally accurate in identifying their location irrespective of whether the event occurred 2, 6, 18, 30, 38, or 42months earlier. Although non-spatial aspects of the cue and rehearsal did not influence accuracy, objective location in the photograph partially accounted for error rates. However, none of these factors was sufficient to explain the absence of delay effects. Unlike spatial memory, recall of temporal information showed a linear decrease in accuracy with delay, but with exceptionally accurate performance by senior-class students.

Melville Among the Poets

LeviathanVolume 14, Issue 1 p. 124-129 Melville Among the Poets Chair: Christopher N. Phillips, Lafayette College First published: 27 March 2012 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1750-1849.2011.01552.xRead the full textAboutPDF ToolsExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume14, Issue1March 2012Pages 124-129 RelatedInformation

Measuring Soil-structure Interaction on Laterally Loaded Piles with Digital Image Correlation

A testing system to investigate soil-structure interaction on laterally loaded piles has been developed at Lafayette College. The two-piece soil box developed for this work allows the direct or indirect loading of single or multiple pile systems. Direct loading is accomplished by attaching hydraulic rams directly to the exposed area of the piles above the soil surface. Indirect loading is accomplished by loading the top section of the two-piece soil box, transferring the load from the ram to the side of the top section of the box and then to the pile through the surrounding soil.The interaction between the piles and the soil is monitored by a variety of sensors that range from common load cells, strain gages and displacement sensors to shape acceleration arrays, sheet pressure sensors and digital image correlation. The shape acceleration array measures the displacement of the pile along its length. Sheet pressure sensors are used to record the pressure distribution of the soil/soil box interaction in front of the directly loaded piles and behind indirectly loaded piles. Digital image correlation is used to measure surface soil movement. By combining the results from the various sensors the interaction of the soil and pile can be better understood.

Alborz College of Tehran, Dr. Samuel Martin Jordan and the American Faculty: Twentieth-Century Presbyterian Mission Education and Modernism in Iran (Persia)

The article addresses the twentieth-century social and cultural history of Alborz College (The American College of Tehran) in terms of its curricula, mission education, the faculty and Dr. Samuel Jordan, founder and president. The courses taught, from the natural sciences and humanities to business and journalism, shaped the lives and aspirations of so many of the graduates for decades. Of great importance were the academic training and personal lives of Dr. Jordan, Mary Park Jordan, and the American faculty, particularly those graduates from Lafayette College (Easton, Pennsylvania) who served as role models of modernity and generous public service that so enriched the lives of their young Iranian charges and won the hearts and minds of the Alborzi graduates. Our students imbibed liberal ideas, they agitated for reforms, they cooperated with other forward-looking patriots in transforming the medieval despotism of thirty years ago [in 1906] into the modern, progressive democracy today.1 1Samuel M. Jordan, “Constructive Revolutions in Iran,” The Moslem World, xxv (1935): 347. [Jordan] was a strong believer in physical fitness and outdoor sports in a day when a gentlemanly Persian was sedate rather than vigorous.2 2Herrick B. Young, Strange Lands and Wonderful People (New York, 1975), 89. In Iran, American missionaries have been educating Persians since 1830; many middle-aged Persians remember with nostalgia Dr. Jordan, the saintly American who ran a secondary school.3 3Harlan Cleveland, Gerard J. Mangone, and John Clarke Adams, Americans Overseas (New York, 1960), 23. Up in Teheran, the Americans have a factory, which makes men.4 4The expression, which was made by an anonymous Iranian parent, “became Dr. Samuel Jordan's favorite slogan for the work of the Tehran-based Presbyterian American Boys' School which he supervised as principal” (William N. Wysham, “Mr. Chips of Teheran,” Presbyterian Life, 1 November 1952, 13–14). In addition, see Herrick B. Young, Strange Lands and Wonderful People (New York, 1975 ); Yahya Armajani, “Sam Jordan and the Evangelical Ethic in Iran,” in Religious Ferment in Asia, ed. by Robert J. Miller (Lawrence, KS, 1974), 23–36; and Yahya Armajani, “Alborz College,” Encyclopedia Iranica, 1: 821–823. Wysham taught at Alborz College from 1920 to 1928, Young taught business and journalism at Alborz from 1925 to 1935, and Armajani taught ethics and was the Lincoln Hall resident headmaster at Alborz from 1933 to 1940.

Digression, Ethical Work, and Salinger's Postmodern Turn

Many contributors to Wisconsin Studies in Contemporary Literature’s 1963 special issue on J.D. Salinger found themselves dealing with the sticky fact that his writing after The Catcher in the Rye (1951) had grown increasingly unconventional and, for numerous readers, off-putting. In the lead essay, for example, Ihab Hassan focused on ‘‘certain peculiarities of form in these stories, a form that is so asymmetrical, so tolerant of chance and digression, as to warrant the name of antiform’’ (5). Salinger’s asymmetries and digressions were of interest to Hassan because they exemplified a ‘‘new conception of form, particularly suitable to their vision, which is becoming rife in current literature’’ (6). Although today any critical attention paid to Salinger is centered almost exclusively on The Catcher in the Rye, it is worth asking how his later work could be representative of a new antiform becoming ‘‘rife’’ in American literature. This later work is indeed significant because its digressive sensibility can be read as a response to the influence of New Critical attitudes toward narrative fiction, which held that to be successful, fiction must exhibit a unity (‘‘The sense of wholeness or oneness’’) which digression would disrupt (Brooks and Warren, Understanding Fiction 608). 1 Salinger’s aesthetic, on the other hand, emphasized that far from being a rhetorical device that merely distracts from the main point of the work, digression could be significant in and of itself. In fact, insofar as his highly digressive work disrupts the sense of unity described by the New Criticism, it encourages readers to re-evaluate how they assign meaning and significance in and for the work, a task that amounts to what I will term ethical work. In its interest in antiform more broadly and digression specifically, Salinger’s later work, dismissed though it has been by those critics working from New Critical standards of evaluation, actually anticipates the postmodern turn of the later 1960s and beyond. This essay first describes a New Critical Steven Belletto is assistant professor of English and chair of the American Studies program at Lafayette College. His essays on postwar American literature and culture have appeared in such journals as American Quarterly, ELH, Clio, and Criticism. His book, No Accident, Comrade: Chance and Design in Cold War American Narratives, is forthcoming from Oxford University Press.

Stellwagen: The Making and Unmaking of a National Marine Sanctuary. By Peter Borrelli. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 2009. xviii + 238 pp. Maps, notes, bibliography, appendices, and index. Cloth $29.95.

Previous articleNext article No AccessBOOK REVIEWSStellwagen: The Making and Unmaking of a National Marine Sanctuary. By Peter Borrelli. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 2009. xviii + 238 pp. Maps, notes, bibliography, appendices, and index. Cloth $29.95.David SollDavid Soll David Soll is a Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow in environmental studies at Lafayette College. He is currently revising his dissertation, an environmental history of the New York City water supply. Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Volume 15, Number 4October 2010 Published for the American Society for Environmental History and the Forest History Society Views: 4Total views on this site Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1093/envhis/emq111 Views: 4Total views on this site HistoryPublished online October 14, 2010 © 2010 The Author. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

A Tribute to Richard F. Edlich, MD, PhD

Richard F. Edlich was a Ford Foundation Scholar who gained early admission to Lafayette College at age 15. Three years later, he was accepted as an early admission student to New York University School of Medicine, where he received his medical degree. He completed a general surgery residency at the University of Minnesota Health Sciences Center under the guidance of his mentor, Dr. Owen H. Wangensteen, who is recognized as one of the twentieth century's greatest teachers of surgery.1 During his eight-year surgical residency, Dr. Edlich also received his PhD. He completed his plastic surgery residency at the University of Virginia Health Science Center in 1973. He commenced his teaching career at the University of Virginia in 1973, beginning as Assistant Professor and eventually becoming Distinguished Professor of Plastic Surgery and Professor of Biomedical Engineering.

Military Intelligence and the Arab Revolt: The First Modern Intelligence War (review)

Reviewed by: Military Intelligence and the Arab Revolt: The First Modern Intelligence War Ryan Gingeras Military Intelligence and the Arab Revolt: The First Modern Intelligence War. By Polly A. Mohs. New York: Routledge, 2007. ISBN 978-0-415-37280-0. Map. Glossary. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xvii, 238. $37.95. Film and television in recent years has conditioned scholars and the general public alike into thinking about “ghost wars” in the greater Middle East. Stories of lone British, American, or French officers fighting clandestine battles in desperate and exotic lands now abound in both fiction and non-fiction. This trend, as exemplified by the TV series 24 or Steve Coll’s study of the CIA in Afghanistan (Ghost Wars), seems to confirm that this kind of highly specialized and seemingly precise manner of warfare represents the mainstream of present and future Western armies. If shadowy “intelligence wars” are to be understood as a vital part of our contemporary reality, what is their history? Polly Mohs puts forth a provocative answer to this question in her book, Military Intelligence and the Arab Revolt. Through her rather exhaustive use of British archival sources, she convincingly depicts the organization of Sharif Hussein’s revolt during the First World War as the first truly modern intelligence war. She portrays this revolt, which engulfed much of the Ottoman Hijaz between 1915 and 1918, as the first military campaign that paired the latest techniques in intelligence gathering with the employment of a small, highly specialized expeditionary force tasked with organizing and leading local fighters. Much of her discussion of the revolt centers on the creation and ascendancy of the Arab Bureau, the subdivision of the British Foreign Office that was specifically invented to coordinate imperial operations in the Ottoman Arab lands. The Arab Bureau combined resources drawn from various [End Page 1354] wings of the colonial administration, the military and the academy in its effort to bring Sharif Hussein’s rebellion to life. Able hands such as the famed T.E. Lawrence embodied the Arab Bureau’s unique mandate and origins. As a collective, Mohs argues, the Bureau’s men in Cairo and in the field demonstrated great flexibility and foresight as administrators, intelligence officers, and battlefield commanders. Although couched within the narrowly defined field of intelligence studies, Mohs’s work possesses a much broader series of implications. For scholars of the First World War and the modern Middle East, we see in this account of the Arab Bureau an important contribution to our understanding of Great Britain’s policy towards the Arab world. Doctor Mohs emphasizes that British decision makers were far from united in implementing a common, let alone winning, strategy in the Ottoman Arab lands. Bureaucratic and territorial infighting between officers based in Egypt, India, the Sudan, and London nearly prevented the creation of the Arab Bureau and repeatedly threatened to undo British support for Sharif Hussein. Mohs’s intimate rendering of British exploits in the Hijaz provides interesting insights into the complexities of employing and reacting to multiple sources of intelligence. Operationally speaking, British involvement in the Arab Revolt represents a historical coup that would be mimicked time and again throughout the twentieth century and beyond. While this book admittedly speaks to the narrow field of intelligence studies, one is still left to wonder where the Arab Revolt fits in the history of British intelligence practices and operations. There is a much broader history Doctor Mohs could have addressed, such as the origins of intelligence practices in India, the rivalry between the India Office and the other sectors of the imperial administration and the longer story of British involvement in domestic Ottoman affairs. One could also take issue with the seeming assuredness with which a British victory against the Ottoman Empire was viewed during the Great War or the conflation of the multi-ethnic Ottoman government with the “Turks”. All this aside, Mohs’s work is still to be admired as an expert contribution on the operational innovation and evolution of British intelligence practices during the First World War. Ryan Gingeras Lafayette College Easton, Pennsylvania Copyright © 2009 The Society for Military History

Evolution of Cardiopulmonary Bypass

At the end of the Second World War, the devastation of many cities in Europe, combined with the problems of reconstruction and loss of financial support, had brought European medical research to a halt. On the other hand, in the United States the war brought about an enormous amount of scientific research through the development of nuclear weapons, the mass production of penicillin, early computers, and a variety of other technological advances, some of which were eventually put to use by medical investigators. In the immediate postwar years, Congress began 3 decades of generous funding for medical research and education through the National Institutes of Health and the Public Health Service. In the 1920s and 1930s, medical research money had been scarce, but after the war there was a flood of money. The National Institutes of Health budget for medical research in 1945 was $180 000. By 1947, it was increased to $4 000 000, in 1950 to $46 000 000, and in 1974 to $1 billion.1 By 2008, the total budget just for the Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute was almost $3 billion. Since colonial times, it had been customary for young American physicians to spend postgraduate time in Vienna, Berlin, London, or Paris. Now the opposite was true. It became important for a young European physician to have worked for a year or so in a US medical center. The world center for medical education and research had shifted from Europe to the United States. Postwar medical progress was also stimulated by several other programs. The Hill-Burton act of 1946 provided funds for community hospital upgrades and construction. Initially this bill provided $75 million per year for 5 years. It was a matching plan in which local hospitals were required to raise two thirds of the new …

Injury Prevention and Safety

<P>Injury is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in childhood in the United States. Worldwide, childhood injuries are ubiquitous and deadly, especially the injuries that result from armed conflict and violence. The impact of injuries on children ought not be news to today’s pediatricians, experts in child development and health. Prevention of injuries is a major topic for anticipatory guidance.</P><h4>ABOUT THE GUEST EDITOR</h4><P>Robert R. Tanz, MD is Professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and an attending physician in the Division of General Academic Pediatrics at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago. He received his undergraduate degree in biology from Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, in 1972 and his MD from the Chicago Medical School in 1976. He was a resident in pediatrics at Children’s Memorial Hospital from 1976 to 1979 and joined the faculty of the Department of Pediatrics at Northwestern University Medical School in 1980. From 1982 to 2000 he was Director of Continuity Clinic. He was Associate Chair for Education from 1997 to 1999 and the Director of Medical Education in the Department of Pediatrics from 1999 to 2004. He is a five-time recipient of the Faculty Excellence in Education Award, voted by the pediatric house staff.</P><P>Dr. Tanz was a member of the Executive Committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Section on Injury and Poison Prevention from 1996 to 2007, serving as Chair of the Section from 1999 to 2003. He was a co-organizer of the Handgun Epidemic Lower Plan (HELP) Network in 1993 and subsequently served on several HELP committees and the Board of Directors. Since 1999 he has been a member of the Board of Directors of Kids in Danger, Inc., an advocacy organization focused on improving the safety of childhood products. He received the 2007 Kids in Danger Best Friend Award.</P><P>Dr. Tanz has conducted research and published in the areas of child and adolescent injuries, including firearm injuries, motor vehicle pedestrian and passenger injuries, cycling-related injuries, and product-related injuries. He has testified in regulatory and legislative hearings on child passenger safety, motorcycle helmet laws, firearm regulation and legislation, and child product safety. He is also engaged in research related to streptococcal infections.</P><P>Dr. Tanz visited all 30 major league baseball parks in 2006, in the process raising more than $30,000 for Chicago Youth Programs Inc., a comprehensive inner city youth support organization. He was a youth baseball, softball, and basketball coach for many years, and he is currently the assistant varsity girls’ softball coach at the Latin School of Chicago.</P>

Experience With the CADAPPLETS Project

The CADAPPLETS Project provides Web-based animations (implemented as applets) of very large scale integration (VLSI) computer-aided design (CAD) algorithms as a learning resource for electrical and computer engineering students, designers, and CAD tool developers. Concepts from software algorithm animation are adapted to illustrate the problem formulation and the operation of physical design algorithms for placement and routing. This paper surveys these animations and describes how they have been used in the classroom at Lafayette College, Easton, PA, by users over the Internet, and in courses at other universities worldwide.

With Mathematica and J

Computational exercises and demonstrations appear frequently in the classes that I teach at Lafayette College. The software that I use for in-class demonstrations is usually Mathematica [4] or J [3]. I focus on one language or the other throughout the course when I expect the students to develop the ability to make substantial explorations and do independent experimentation. There is an ongoing expectation at Lafayette that Mathematica be used in Calculus Classes [2]; I also use Mathematica for my Numerical Analysis and Techniques of Math Modeling classes. I use J for teaching Number Theory and Linear Algebra and it is central to my mathematical visualization course that follows the text [6]. However, I always have interest in how the explorations that I do in one language would be done in the other.