scholarly journals Ageing Effects in Mounting Media of Microscope Slide Samples from Natural History Collections: A Case Study with Canada Balsam and PermountTM

Polymers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 2112
Author(s):  
Thomas Schmid ◽  
Julia Hidde ◽  
Sophie Grünier ◽  
Robert Jungnickel ◽  
Petra Dariz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Museum Collections ◽  
Microscope Slide ◽  
Research Material ◽  
Physical Deterioration ◽  
Vis Spectroscopy ◽  
Ageing Processes ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Chemical Ageing

Microscope slide collections represent extremely valuable depositories of research material in a natural history, forensic, veterinary, and medical context. Unfortunately, most mounting media of these slides deteriorate over time, with the reason for this not yet understood at all. In this study, Raman spectroscopy, ultraviolet–visible (UV–Vis) spectroscopy, and different types of light microscopy were used to investigate the ageing behaviour of naturally aged slides from museum collections and the experimentally aged media of Canada balsam and PermountTM, representing a natural and a synthetic resin, respectively, with both being based on mixtures of various terpenes. Whereas Canada balsam clearly revealed chemical ageing processes, visible as increasing colouration, PermountTM showed physical deterioration recognisable by the increasing number of cracks, which even often impacted a mounted specimen. Noticeable changes to the chemical and physical properties of these mounting media take decades in the case of Canada balsam but just a few years in the case of PermountTM. Our results question whether or not Canada balsam should really be regarded as a mounting medium that lasts for centuries, if its increasing degree of polymerisation can lead to a mount which is no longer restorable.

scholarly journals Environmental enrichment for primates in laboratories

2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. M. Buchanan-Smith
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Environmental Enrichment ◽  
Critical Component ◽  
Study Protocols ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Need To Evaluate ◽  
And Control ◽  
Special Case

Abstract. Environmental enrichment is a critical component of Refinement, one of the 3Rs underlying humane experimentation on animals. In this paper I discuss why primates housed in laboratories, which often have constraints of space and study protocols, are a special case for enrichment. I outline a framework for categorising the different types of enrichment, using the marmoset as a case study, and summarise the methods used to determine what animals want/prefer. I briefly review the arguments that enrichment does not negatively affect experimental outcomes. Finally I focus on complexity and novelty, choice and control, the underlying features of enrichment that makes it successful, and how combined with a thorough understanding of natural history we can put effective enrichment into practice in laboratories. Throughout the paper I emphasise the need to evaluate enrichment to ensure it is having the desired effect.

scholarly journals Tactile Taxidermy: The Revival of Animal Skins in the Early Twentieth Century Museum

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Would
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Natural History ◽  
British Empire ◽  
Organic Material ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Museum Collections ◽  
Animal Remains ◽  
Animal Skin ◽  
Human Hands

Taxidermy specimens are cloaked in animal skin; organic material that can decay or be eaten by insects. This essay examines the tactile relationship between this changeable skin-creature, and the figures of the taxidermist and the natural history curator in the turn of the twentieth century museum. Using Bristol Museum as a case study, it argues that specimens were not inert or stilled within museum collections. It explores how taxidermy specimens were meeting places between animal remains and human bodies, as natural history curators sought to remount existing specimens, and prevent them from deteriorating further. Taking a material approach, it examines how animal skins were physically shaped by human hands, and figuratively woven into stories of science, the British Empire and the natural world.

Approaching Archaeological Museum Collections through the Concept of Assemblage: The Case Study of the Jesuit Mission San Ignacio Miní (1610–1631)

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 615-631
Author(s):  
Evelyn R. Nimmo
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Museum Studies ◽  
Museum Collections ◽  
Natural History Museums ◽  
Initial Formation ◽  
Archaeological Material ◽  
History Museums ◽  
Museum Archives

In Brazil, as in most countries, history and natural history museums are the repositories of rich collections of excavated archaeological material. One of the major challenges in working with these collections is the paucity of information available regarding the original excavations, which raises important questions that archaeologists and museum studies professionals have been grappling with for several decades: what interpretive value do these collections have without any contextual information, and are they worth maintaining in museum archives that are facing continuing crises in space and resources? This article uses the concepts of entanglement and assemblage to discuss a collection of ceramics excavated from one of the first Spanish Jesuit missions in colonial Paraguay, San Ignacio Miní (1610–1631), and housed at the Museu Paranaense in Curitiba, Brazil. Despite the lack of contextual information from the 1963 excavation, we can begin to explore the entangled pasts, present, and future of these objects by tracing the trajectory of the collection from the initial formation through excavation and contemporary analysis. Innovative approaches are needed to address methodological and theoretical concerns in analyzing archaeological museum collections to ensure that the knowledge and potential insights entangled in these collections are not lost.

William Smyth (1838–1913), a commercial taxidermist of Dunedin, New Zealand

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 292-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosi Crane ◽  
B. J. GILL
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Museum Collections ◽  
Professional Interaction ◽  
New Zealand Birds ◽  
Public Museum

William Smyth, unable to get work in a New Zealand museum, ran a commercial taxidermy business at Caversham, Dunedin, from about 1873 to 1911 or 1912. His two decades of correspondence with Thomas Frederic Cheeseman at the Auckland Museum provide a case study of Smyth's professional interaction with one of New Zealand's main museums. We have used this and other sources to paint a picture of Smyth's activities and achievements during a time when there was great interest in New Zealand birds but few local taxidermists to preserve their bodies. Besides the Auckland Museum, Smyth supplied specimens to various people with museum connections, including Georg Thilenius (Germany) and Walter Lawry Buller (New Zealand). Smyth was probably self-taught, and his standards of preparation and labelling were variable, but he left a legacy for the historical documentation of New Zealand ornithology by the large number of his bird specimens that now reside in public museum collections in New Zealand and elsewhere.

Participatory Mapping in Browns Canyon National Monument, Colorado (USA)

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
John Harner ◽  
Lee Cerveny ◽  
Rebecca Gronewold
Keyword(s):  
Land Management ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Management Plan ◽  
Bureau Of Land Management ◽  
National Monument ◽  
Resource Managers ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Us Forest Service ◽  
Natural Resource Managers

Natural resource managers need up-to-date information about how people interact with public lands and the meanings these places hold for use in planning and decision-making. This case study explains the use of public participatory Geographic Information System (GIS) to generate and analyze spatial patterns of the uses and values people hold for the Browns Canyon National Monument in Colorado. Participants drew on maps and answered questions at both live community meetings and online sessions to develop a series of maps showing detailed responses to different types of resource uses and landscape values. Results can be disaggregated by interaction types, different meaningful values, respondent characteristics, seasonality, or frequency of visit. The study was a test for the Bureau of Land Management and US Forest Service, who jointly manage the monument as they prepare their land management plan. If the information generated is as helpful throughout the entire planning process as initial responses seem, this protocol could become a component of the Bureau’s planning tool kit.

The Role of Evaluative Tools in the Creation of the Memorial Media Portrait of Jacques Chirac (1932—2019)

2020 ◽  
pp. 97-110
Author(s):  
E. N. Mikhailova ◽  
V. A. Telegina
Keyword(s):  
Print Media ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Systematic Analysis ◽  
Research Material ◽  
Political Orientations ◽  
Different Types ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Entire Text

The article is devoted to the study of evaluative tools used in modern French media in order to form the media image of a representative of the political elite. The techniques used in the creation of a memorial media portrait of Jacques Chirac (1932—2019), President of France from 1995 to 2007 are considered. The research material was the most prestigious French print media of various political orientations, published in late September — early October 2019 in connection with the death of the ex-President of the French Republic. The relevance of the research topic is dictated by the close attention of modern linguistics to axiological phenomena, differently presented in different types of discursive practices. The novelty of the study is due to the appeal to the analysis of the complex of evaluation tools used in the French print media when characterizing the former leader of the state during the nation’s farewell period. The estimated potential of the title of the article and its influence on the formation of the estimated vector of the entire text of the publication are shown. A systematic analysis of the assessment expression means, reflected in the memorial media portrait of the politician, is given. The factors that influenced the peculiarities of their use in this type of media portrait are revealed.

Effective Altruism

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Poverty Alleviation ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Global Poverty ◽  
Global Community ◽  
Helping Others ◽  
The World ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Effective Altruism

The effective altruism movement consists of a growing global community of people who organize significant parts of their lives around two key ideas, represented in its name. Altruism: If we use a significant portion of the resources in our possession—whether money, time, or talents—with a view to helping others, we can improve the world considerably. Effectiveness: When we do put such resources to altruistic use, it is crucial to focus on how much good this or that intervention is reasonably expected to do per unit of resource expended (for example, per dollar donated). While global poverty is a widely used case study in introducing and motivating effective altruism, if the ultimate aim is to do the most good one can with the resources expended, it is far from obvious that global poverty alleviation is highest priority cause area. In addition to ranking possible poverty-alleviation interventions against one another, we can also try to rank interventions aimed at very different types of outcome against one another. This includes, for example, interventions focusing on animal welfare or future generations. The scale and organization of the effective altruism movement encourage careful dialogue on questions that have perhaps long been there, throwing them into new and sharper relief, and giving rise to previously unnoticed questions. In the present volume, the first of its kind, a group of internationally recognized philosophers, economists, and political theorists contribute in-depth explorations of issues that arise once one takes seriously the twin ideas of altruistic commitment and effectiveness.

Transdiagnostic Approaches With Children

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea B. Temkin ◽  
Mina Yadegar ◽  
Christine Cho ◽  
Brian C. Chu
Keyword(s):  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Externalizing Symptoms ◽  
Case Conceptualization ◽  
Common Elements ◽  
Transdiagnostic Treatment ◽  
Treatment Models ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Internalizing And Externalizing ◽  
Internalizing And Externalizing Symptoms

In recent years, the field of clinical psychology has seen a growing movement toward the research and development of transdiagnostic treatments. Transdiagnostic approaches have the potential to address numerous issues related to the development and treatment of mental disorders. Among these are the high rates of comorbidity across disorders, the increasing need for efficient protocols, and the call for treatments that can be more easily disseminated. This chapter provides a review of the current transdiagnostic treatment approaches for the treatment of youth mental disorders. Three different types of transdiagnostic protocols are examined: mechanism-based protocols, common elements treatments, and general treatment models that originated from single-disorder approaches to have broader reach. A case study illuminates how a mechanism-based approach would inform case conceptualization for a client presenting with internalizing and externalizing symptoms and how a transdiagnostic framework translates into practice.

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