An Expert Surveys the Assessment Landscape – Student Affairs – The Chronicle of Higher Education.

 This week, the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment, released “More Than You Think, Less Than We Need: Learning Outcomes Assessment in American Higher Education,” a report that describes how more than 1,500 colleges measure what students learn.

Hot Type: Psychological Association Offers to Replace Error-Ridden Copies of Style Guide

The Chronicla of Higher Education reports that the American Psychological Association is now offering to replace the flawed first printing of the APA 6th edition.

“The cumulative outrage finally carried the day. The association has just announced that it will “recycle” remaining softcover copies of the sixth edition. Anyone who gets in touch with the association between November 2 and December 15 and asks for a replacement will receive a free copy of the emended second printing, according to Rhea Faberman, director of communications. (She recommends that people contact the APA’s service center to submit those requests.)”

Source: http://chronicle.com/article/Style-Guides-Errors-Prompt-a/48947/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

Contact information for the APA Service Center:

APA Main Contact
Mailing address: American Psychological Association, 750 First Street, NE, Washington, DC 20002-4242
Telephone: (800) 374-2721 or (202) 336-5500M

Contact the Service Center Monday through Friday, between the hours of 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on any matter pertaining to your membership, or your print and /or electronic journal subscription or to place an order for an APA book or other APA publication or to check the status of an order or obtain pricing information on books journal and other products.

Source:  http://www.apa.org/about/contact.html

Twitter could provide ‘innovative solutions’ for long-term conditions

Andy Pulman stated, “Twitter has evolved beyond its basic functionality to provide a variety of alternate uses, some of which are health-related and which might offer opportunities in relation to improving health.”

Twitter is a social networking software that allows users to post messages of less than 140 characters. Messages automatically get a time and date stamp when posted.

This is old but perhaps may be relevant to some of you.

Grad Students do have a higher incidence of depression than does the general public

Originally from the Chronicle of Higher Education.

1 Million Spiders Make Golden Silk for Rare Cloth

I’m not crazy about spiders but this is interesting. An 11 ft x 4 ft cloth was produced from only the silk from golden orb spiders. Over one million large spiders were collected from telephone poles in Madagascar.

“We had to find people who were willing to work with spiders,” Godley said, “because they bite.”

Guess that wouldn’t be my second job.

This is a particularly good article explaining why leaves change color.

Rainbow on the Bough Outdoor Indiana Magazine, September 2005.

All the press about influenza, H1N1, and public health right now talks about using antibiotic ointments to protect yourself and others from the flu.

I haven’t seen anything yet, but I’m waiting for articles to start appearing about the potential dangers of overuse of antibiotic drugs and materials and their part in encouraging the growth of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and organisms.  In the laboratory, that’s how we produce drug-resistant bacteria–grow bacteria in the presence of the antibiotic; whatever survives will be resistant. The scientific literature has been warning about overuse of antibiotics for years.

There is also the issue that influenza is caused by a virus, not by a bacteria. The active ingredients in some antibiotic ointments don’t kill viruses. If alcohol is the active ingredient, then it can kill viruses. Does alcohol kill all viruses and bacteria? See the previous paragraph.

http://acrlog.org/2007/09/14/peer-review-problems-in-medicine/ 

Even peer review is subject to the temptations of greed, competition, vanity, and jealousy. Peer review is a way to screen information, but it still doesn’t release you from the responsibility of thinking for yourself.

JAMA — Abstract: Online Posting of Unprofessional Content by Medical Students, September 23/30, 2009, Chretien et al. 302 (12): 1309.

Sixty percent (47/78) of US medical schools reported incidents of medical students posting unprofessional online content.

HHS guts health-care breach notification law, groups warn

Privacy and civil rights advocates accused the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services of trying to neuter a landmark data breach notification law for health care organizations that is scheduled to go into effect next week. Original wording required patients be notified if their record is compromised. However, a recent ruling allows companies to notify only if they think the breach “will cause financial or reputational harm to those whose data was compromised.”