History of Science, Technology, and Medicine Commons^™

Underground Fieldwork – A Cultural And Social History Of Cave Cartography And Surveying Instruments In The 19th And At The Beginning Of The 20th Century, Johannes Mattes

International Journal of Speleology

At the turn of the 20^th century, the practical examination of caves went through a radical change. Governmental organizations and private clubs were founded in an attempt to establish speleology as an independent academic subject. In contrast to earlier cave visitors, travelers began entering underground areas and attributing the names of “explorers” or “researchers” to themselves. Fieldwork—especially cave surveying and cartography—became common practice in speleology and such work provided important clues on speleogenesis, which was a controversial issue in the first half of the 20^th century. Due to the fact that speleologists began separating themselves from ordinary …

Oncolog, Volume 60, Number 07, July 2015, Kathryn L. Hale, Bryan Tutt, K. Stuyck

OncoLog MD Anderson's Report to Physicians (All issues) Archives

• Emergency Care for Cancer Patients: Medical problems that may seem routine in patients without cancer often mean something different or have a different cause in cancer patients and may be much more serious, requiring urgent treatment. Managing these problems promptly and effectively is a challenge faced by all cancer centers.
• Immunotherapy Trials Offer Hope to Patients with High-Risk or Metastatic Cancer: Although the cure rate for the breast cancer has risen steadily in recent decades, recurrent or metastatic disease remains difficult to control. To fight metastatic breast cancer and forestall the recurrence of high-risk primary disease, researchers at The University …

Ada News - 06/15/2015, American Dental Association, Publishing Division

ADA News

Established in 1970 as the official newspaper of the American Dental Association, the ADA News serves practicing dentists and others allied to the dental profession in the U.S. and internationally. It is the No. 1 source of news and information about the many benefits and services the ADA delivers to members daily as well as timely information on scientific, social, political and economic developments affecting dentistry and health care.

Health Sciences Library And Informatics Center 50th Anniversary Timeline, Laura J. Hall

Posters and Presentations

The Health Sciences Library and Informatics Center 50th Anniversary Timelineposter, designed by Laura J. Hall, MFA, commemorated the 50th anniversary of the University of New Mexico School of Medicine. The poster showcased key milestones in the history of the Health Sciences Library and Informatics Center (HSLIC), tracing its origins from the Bernalillo County Medical Society’s library to its role as a critical resource for the UNM Health Sciences Center and the state of New Mexico. Displayed during the UNM School of Medicine’s 50th-anniversary celebrations, the timeline illustrated the library’s growth and impact on education, research, and healthcare. A special …

Kathleen Mcnicholas, Kathleen Mcnicholas, Kelsey Duinkerken

First Women at Jefferson Oral Histories

Dr. McNicholas graduated from Chestnut Hill College and worked in Radiation Oncology at the Stein Center before coming to Jefferson Medical College in 1969. Dr. McNicholas had a passion for medicine from a young age, in part because her father was a doctor and Jefferson grad. She first discovered her interest in surgery after working closely with Dr. John Templeton while a student and taking a surgery elective at Chestnut Hill Hospital. Upon graduation Dr. McNicholas went to Columbia, where she completed her internship, residency, and fellowship in Cardiac Surgery. In addition to her career as a cardiac surgeon Dr. …

Ada News - 06/01/2015, American Dental Association, Publishing Division

ADA News

Established in 1970 as the official newspaper of the American Dental Association, the ADA News serves practicing dentists and others allied to the dental profession in the U.S. and internationally. It is the No. 1 source of news and information about the many benefits and services the ADA delivers to members daily as well as timely information on scientific, social, political and economic developments affecting dentistry and health care.

Nancy Szwec Czarnecki, Nancy Czarnecki, Kelsey Duinkerken

First Women at Jefferson Oral Histories

Dr. Czarnecki was both the first woman to matriculate to and the first woman to graduate from Jefferson Medical College. She first learned that Jefferson was accepting women students from a newspaper notice while still at Temple University. After graduating Alpha Omega Alpha she continued her training in family medicine at Nazareth Hospital in Philadelphia. She then went on to form a family practice with her husband in Port Richmond. Upon leaving private practice in the early 1990’s Dr. Czarnecki became the Senior Medical Director at Prudential Healthcare and later the Patient Management Medical Director for Aetna’s Northeast Region.

Over …

Alton Ochsner, Md (1896-1981): Surgical Pioneer And Legacy Linking Smoking And Disease., Christina L. Costantino, Md, Jordan M. Winter, Md, Charles J. Yeo, Md, Scott W. Cowan, Md

Department of Surgery Gibbon Society Historical Profiles

Edward William Alton Ochsner kept a plain, metal card file in which he recorded close to 50 years worth of medical experiences, research, and insights. The most populated topics were filed as "Cancer, Lung" and "Cancer, Bronchogenic." These reflected his areas of greatest interest, for which he would go on to produce groundbreaking work. Of his many lifetime accomplishments, he is perhaps best known for being the first to report a link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer. This was just one of the many ways in which Ochsner worked to effect social change. The establishment of the Ochsner Health …

Oncolog, Volume 60, Number 06, June 2015, Bryan Tutt, Joe Munch, U. Arizor

OncoLog MD Anderson's Report to Physicians (All issues) Archives

• New Breast Imaging Modalities Show promise for Cancer Screening and Staging: New technology to supplement digital mammography may improve breast cancer screening and diagnosis. Although some of these new imaging modalities are still under development, others are already in clinical use as adjuncts to mammography for breast cancer screening and staging.
• Addressing Sexual Dysfunction in Cancer Survivors: Cancer treatments carry a host of side effects that can affect patients' ability to have and enjoy sex. The sexual dysfunction arising from these side effects, which include functional changes, can often be addressed, but uncovering sexual dysfunction can prove challenging.
• HOUSE CALL: …

Erika Dyck. Facing Eugenics: Reproduction, Sterilization, And The Politics Of Choice, Garland E. Allen

Biology Faculty Research

[Book review of Erika Dyck. Facing Eugenics: Reproduction, Sterilization, and the Politics of Choice. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013.]

Preserving, Interpreting, And Displaying Mental Health History: Establishing The Patton State Hospital Museum And Archive, Shannon Rene Long

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

There are few museums in the western half of the United States that provide an opportunity to educate the public about the history of mental health care. Recently, a mental health museum and archive of artifacts, photographs, and documents was established on the grounds of Patton State Hospital in Highland, California. The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the establishment of this museum and archive and to provide an account of the 125 year history of Patton State Hospital. Understanding the history of Patton provides an opportunity to understand the history of mental health care in the United …

Designing For Mistrust, Eric Gossett

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

The 2014 ACM North Central Region programming contest contained a problem about a group of v bandits who want to use multiple locks to seal their treasure and distribute keys in such a way that no group of less than m bandits can open all the locks. The problem asks for an algorithm that will determine the number of locks needed for any set of parameters (v, m). I will present an analytic solution that produces a minimum number of locks, a recurrence relation solution, and a constructive algorithm that can print out a table showing the …

The Mathematics Of Evolution, Steven R. Lay

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

Like many universities, Lee University has a non-major’s course for liberal arts students. The course typically includes a potpourri of topics: logical thinking, scientific notation, linear functions, estimation, and probability. At Lee, we have found a way to conclude the course that applies these varied topics to an issue designed to engage student interest and promote critical thinking. We have developed a series of three lessons on “The Mathematics of Evolution.” The first lesson is on radiometric dating. The second lesson is on the origin and progression of life. And the third lesson deals with the nature of the DNA …

A Triune Philosophy Of Mathematics, Dusty Wilson

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

What is mathematics and is it discovered or invented? The Humanist, Platonist, and Foundationalist each provide answers. But are the options within the philosophy of mathematics so limited? Rather than viewing and describing mathematics in a mutually exclusive manner, each of these approaches includes components of truth from a greater triune philosophy of mathematics. This talk will introduce this inclusive triune paradigm through which to explore fundamental questions about mathematics.

Software Engineering I: Teaching Challenges, Paul C. Grabow

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

The term software engineering can be traced to the late 1960s in response to large-scale, software development problems. Since then it has evolved as a discipline, both within industry and the academy. There have been distinct educational successes: “Standard practice” has matured (and found its way into more textbooks),the ACM and IEEE Computer Society have published curriculum guidelines, computer science programs commonly offer at least one software engineering course, and software engineering degrees (undergraduate or graduate) are more common. However, software engineering still presents a challenge. The term itself has become contorted by companies (and society in general); software has …

Mystery Of The Infinite: Developing A Mathematically Based Summer Scholars Program, Christopher Micklewright

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

For the past two years, the Templeton Honors College, at Eastern University, has been conducting a Summer Scholars Program for high school students. The program, which has offered courses in a variety of topics, brings students to campus for an intensive residential program, coupled with pre-program and post-program work, for which students can earn college credit. In summer 2014, I helped to develop a mathematically based course, to include rigorous study of discrete mathematics, as well as a variety of lectures and extracurricular activities integrating faith and philosophy with mathematics. In this presentation, I will give an overview of the …

The Best Religious Calendar, Andrew Simoson

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

Many religions have deep roots in the rhythms of the moon. And ever since at least the fifth century BC man has known that the moon repeats itself every n = 19 years. Is this integer valuen the best of all choices?Easter follows such a calendar. We briefly show that 19 is second best. And then we run time backwards, and give a rationale as to why a certain species of cicada has a life cycle of 17 years. The answer involves the moon, the Farey series, and Kepler’s laws of motion.

Math, God And Politics—A Fight Over Geometry In 19th Century Italy, Donna Pierce

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

In 1839 a polemic, reminiscent of the Renaissance public challenges over mathematical problems, was issued by the leader of the synthetic school of geometry, Vincent Flauti, to the analytical school, headed by Fortunato Padula. Three geometric problems were proposed, all carefully chosen to guarantee a victory for the synthetic school. The judges were from the Royal Academy of Sciences, men also favorable to the synthetic method. Why then did the analytics take up this challenge, and who were the real victors? This was not just a fight over the ‘correct’ way to do geometry, it was a fight over politics, …

Experiencing A Paradigm Shift: Teaching Statistics Through Simulation-Based Inference, Dave Klanderman, Mandi Maxwell, Nathan Tintle

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

For decades, statistics has been taught as an application of formulas, making use of normal and other distributions, and relying heavily on algebraic skills of students, in short, emphasizing mathematical thinking. More recently, several textbook author teams have published statistics books that place an increased emphasis on simulation and randomization methods, and a corresponding decreased emphasis on the algebraic manipulation in formulas (e.g., Lock et al., 2012; Tintle et al., 2015) as a way to encourage better statistical thinking.This session describes simulation-based inference curricula more fully, reports on the necessary steps towards implementation of such an approach, and provides both …

On Random Numbers And God’S Nature, James Bradley

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

I start with mathematical Platonism, an ancient stream of thought that views numbers as transcending physical reality. I join this to recent insights into mathematical randomness from theoretical computer science. Joining these streams – one ancient, one recent – yields the surprising conclusion that randomness, defined in a particular way, is part of the nature of God. I then explore some of the implications of this conclusion for our understanding of the doctrine of God’s infinitude.

Parables To A Mathematician, Melvin Royer

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

Jesus frequently used parables in His ministry, usually short narratives illustrating the outcomes of people’s choices. In John 3:12 and Matthew 13:10-15, He explained that one reason was to be sure that people who genuinely wanted to understand His message would be able to do so. Since most of His audience was familiar with an agrarian economy, Jesus spoke extensively of wheat, fish, trees, wine, debt, tenants, lamps, etc. Many people have speculated on parables Jesus might have used had He lived in a different society. This non-scholarly (but hopefully thought-provoking) talk will propose parables targeted toward groups of mathematicians …

God: One, Daniel Kiteck

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

I see the most mathematically significant verse as Deut. 6:4 where God says He is ONE. (And I don’t believe that it is an accident that the greatest commandment to love God with all we are immediately follows.) What is the concept of “one” in relationship to God? Is God dependent on the concept of “one?” What if “one” is ultimately always a comparison going back to God? God is also commonly viewed as infinite. How is this connected to our understanding of the mathematical continuum? Could this help us see how God is foundational both to discrete and continuous …

The Math Olympian, By Richard Hoshino. A Review, Moriah Magcalas, Kyle Spyksma

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

This presentation will be a review of the novel The Math Olympian written by ACMS member Richard Hoshino.

Mathematics Without Apologies: A Portrait Of A Problematic Vocation By Michael Harris. A Review, Jeremy Case

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

The subtitle of Mathematics without Apologies by Michael Harris is a “Portrait of a Problematic Vocation,”and that problematic vocation involves pure mathematics. What do pure mathematicians do, and why should they do it? Harris critiques the usual answers of truth, beauty, and potential applications as he gives a contemporary revision of G.H. Hardys’ A Mathematicians Apology. Described as a post-post-modern book, Mathematics without Apologies provides a cultural, sociological, philosophical and psychological landscape of the profession and the life of a mathematician. We will explore whether a romantic view of the profession satisfactorily answers the questions and how it might …

The Remarkable Mrs. Somerville, Richard Stout

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

As a woman growing up in the late eighteenth century, Mary Somerville (1780-1872) was denied access to most formal education and getting a university education was completely out of the question. Yet her interests in nature, science, and mathematics, coupled with an intense curiosity and tenacious desire to learn led her to eventually be known and respected by scientists, mathematicians, and intellectuals in both Britain and France. She is one of the important woman in the history of mathematics, even though she did not publish original work. However, she was a talented writer, producing several significant works, including Mechanism of …

Ten Mathematicians Who Recognized God’S Hand In Their Work, Dale L. Mcintyre

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

Scottish philosopher David Hume (1711-1776) once observed that

“Whoever is moved by faith to assent to [the Christian religion], is conscious of a continued miracle in his own person, which subverts all the principles of his understanding, and gives him a determination to believe what is most contrary to custom and experience.” [Hume]

Evidently Humes cynical pronouncement did not apply to Euler, Cauchy, Cantor, and other profound thinkers who believed God had commissioned and equipped them to glorify Him in their pursuit of truth through mathematics And based on their extraordinary achievements the principles of their understanding do not appear …

Home Primes And Foreign Primes, Nicholas Zoller

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

Home primes and foreign primes are produced by a simple recipe that blends prime factorizations with recursion. The home prime of a positive integer n is formed by concatenating the prime factors of n in non-decreasing order. If the resulting integer is prime, then we have found the home prime of n. If not, then we repeat the process as many times as needed to obtain a prime. For instance, 35 = 5·7. After concatenation, we have 57 = 3·19, which is followed by 319 = 11·29, which is followed by 1129, which is prime. Thus, the home prime …

Physical Activity In A Theory Of Computing Class, Nancy Lynn Tinkham

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

Physical activity breaks, sometimes called brain breaks, are beginning to gain attention among K-12 teachers as a way to keep their students alert and engaged in the classroom. In the Fall 2014 semester, faced with the task of teaching an introductory course in Theory of Computing in a once-a-week, 2 1/2-hour format, I decided to try incorporating physical activity into my own classroom. Time is precious in the college classroom, so any physical activities have to be directly related to the course material. I will describe some physically active exercises that I used in the classroom to teach students about …

Preparing Students To Read A Calculus Textbook, Douglas Phillippy

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

Consider the exercise of reading the textbook before class. While most educators agree that this practice leads to better learning, too often students enrolled in a calculus class do not find pre-class reading a valuable use of their time, and their commitment to doing so fades. Why is this? As instructors, we hope that these students will be well-versed in the fundamental concepts of the subject by the time they prepare for their final exam, but as they progress through the course and encounter new concepts, they may not be ready for the technical language of the standard calculus textbook. …

Pressure And Impulse In Student Learning: What I Learned From Teaching Physics, Kim Jongerius

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2015

In the fall of 2014, a one-semester gap between the departure of one physics professor and the arrival of the next afforded me the opportunity(?) to teach a first-semester, calculus-based physics class. The thirty-year gap between the last (of three) physics courses I had taken myself and this course I was to teach, combined with a two-week notice prior to the start of the semester, placed me in the interesting position of learning alongside my students. Wading through an unfamiliar text, trying to understand publisher-produced lecture slides, learning from and getting frustrated with online homework, entering review sessions fearful of …