The overshadowed scientific endeavours of Berengario Da Carpi, a renaissance physician and the Forerunner of neurosurgery: a historical vignette

Jacopo Berengario da Carpi was Renaissance-era physician, surgeon, and anatomy lecturer who transformed medieval anatomy and surgery-which were, at the time, dominated mostly by religious dogma-into a modern science based on direct observation, experience, and cadaveric dissection. He was an accomplished and innovative neuroanatomist and educator, a prolific researcher and publisher, and a successful practicing surgeon who treated the head injuries of many renowned patients of that period. He published a landmark commentary on skull fractures that was the first printed book in history devoted to head injuries, which became a model of new medical understanding. Nonetheless, Berengario's achievements in anatomy, medicine, neuroanatomy, and what would later become neurotraumatology and neurosurgery, would have been more widely known had his work and research not been surpassed by Andreas Vesalius and Ambroise Paré, both of whom advanced anatomic and medical knowledge even further. In this historical vignette, we discuss the political conditions of sixteenth Century Italy and pay a homage to Berengario da Carpi, emphasizing his work in establishing neuroanatomy as a field of medicine that became a precursor to modern neuroscience. We also describe the improvements he made in neurotraumatology technique and instrumentation, and his explanations of skull fractures and other brain injuries outlined in ground-breaking clinical books he published. Finally, we try to elucidate possible reasons why his scientific and professional achievements-despite of their enormous impact-were overshadowed by the achievements of his more famous immediate successors.

A commentary on children's books about autism: What messages do they send about neurodiversity?

The past three decades have seen an exponential increase in the publication of children's books about autism. This increased availability of children's books is exciting because they have the power to promote understanding, acceptance, and appreciation of neurodiversity. However, growing concerns have been raised by both autistic and non-autistic people that some children's books about autism may work against neurodiversity, rather than promoting it. This Commentary discusses the strikingly different ways in which children's books about autism portray key concepts related to neurodiversity, including autistic differences, agency, abilities, and communication. We present concrete examples (including books by autistic authors); highlight the views of autistic and non-autistic parents of autistic children; and discuss how different books may leave readers with different impressions of autism and neurodiversity. Given the vastly different themes that emerge across different books, we conclude that it is important for educators, families, and other members of the autism community to make informed and individualized choices about what books they use for what purpose. We emphasize the need for systematic, high-quality research on children's books about autism, including content analyses and studies that determine what messages these books send to their intended audience: children. It is vital that autistic people continue to shape this conversation, contributing unique insights that inform research priorities and the methodological approaches used to investigate them.

Picturing Bravery: A Rapid Review of Needle Procedures Depicted in Children's Picture Books

Existing research has identified evidence-based strategies for mitigating fear and pain during needle procedures; yet, families often experience limited access to health professionals who deliver these interventions. Children may benefit from learning about such strategies in a developmentally appropriate and accessible format such as a picture book. This review aimed to summarize content related to needle procedures represented in picture books for 5- to 8-year-old children. Key terms were searched on Amazon, and the website was used to screen for relevant eligibility criteria. Three levels of screening and exclusions resulted in a final sample of 48 books. Quantitative content analysis was used to apply a coding scheme developed based on relevant Clinical Practice Guidelines and systematic reviews. Cohen's Kappa indicated strong reliability, and frequencies were calculated to summarize the content. The books were published between 1981 and 2022. All 48 books included at least one evidence-based coping strategy. Distressing aspects such as scary visuals were often included (27.1%), as well as specific expressions of fear (52.1%) and pain (16.7%). Overall, this study paves the way for researchers interested in evaluating the effectiveness of picture books on children's knowledge and self-efficacy, as well as creating interventions for coping.

Ensuring Quality and Status: Peer Review Practices in Kriterium, A Portal for Quality-Marked Monographs and Edited Volumes in Swedish SSH

Although established forms of peer review are often criticized for being slow, secretive, and even unfair, they are repeatedly mentioned by academics as the most important indicator of quality in scholarly publishing. In many countries, the peer review of books is a less codified practice than that of journal articles or conference papers, and the processes and actors involved are far from uniform. In Sweden, the review process of books has seldom been formalized. However, more formal peer review of books has been identified as a response to the increasing importance placed on streamlined peer-reviewed publishing of journal articles in English, which has been described as a direct challenge to more pluralistic publication patterns found particularly in the humanities. In this study, we focus on a novel approach to book review, Kriterium, where an independent portal maintained by academic institutions oversees the reviewing of academic books. The portal administers peer reviews, providing a mark of quality through a process which involves reviewers, an academic coordinator, and an editorial board. The paper studies how this process functions in practice by exploring materials concerning 24 scholarly books reviewed within Kriterium. Our analysis specifically targets tensions identified in the process of reviewing books with a focus on three main themes, namely the intended audience, the edited volume, and the novel role of the academic coordinator. Moreover, we find that the two main aims of the portal–quality enhancement (making research better) and certification (displaying that research is of high quality)–are recurrent in deliberations made in the peer review process. Consequently, we argue that reviewing procedures and criteria of quality are negotiated within a broader discussion where more traditional forms of publishing are challenged by new standards and evaluation practices.

The Associations Between Media Use, Midpoint of Sleep, and Sleep Quality in German Preschoolers: A Mediation Analysis Based on the Ulm SPATZ Health Study

INTRODUCTION

The relation of electronic media use with sleep quality among preschoolers is a matter of ongoing debate. Longitudinal data are scarce and do not account for sleeping schedules.

METHODS

We used the German Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire to measure parent-reported child's sleep quality; its score is computed by the sum of 34 items defined by a 1-3 level Likert scale (score ranging 34-102), with higher values representing lower sleep quality. A causal mediation analysis of these relations using data from the Ulm SPATZ Health Study in Germany was conducted. Repeated data on electronic media use, book reading, sleep quality, sleep duration, and midpoint of sleep were prospectively collected yearly from ages 4 to 6 years (n=563) during parent's working days and free days.

RESULTS

We observed negative correlations of sleep quality with sleep duration and midpoint of sleep at ages 4-5 (R=-0.21 to -0.10), which attenuated with age 6 years. Sleep duration and midpoint of sleep were strongly positively correlated at all ages (R=0.55-0.95). We observed significant negative associations between total electronic media use and TV/DVD watching, while book reading did neither affect the sleep quality score nor sleep duration or midpoint of sleep. We found little evidence for an indirect negative effect of media use on sleep quality via sleep duration or midpoint of sleep, indicating that media use acts independently on sleep duration, midpoint of sleep, and sleep quality. Non-statistically significant associations of sleep duration and midpoint of sleep on sleep quality indicate that these are independent aspects of sleep adequacy. Evidence for this was stronger during free days.

CONCLUSION

Media use acted on sleep quality through a direct effect in a prospective fashion. Thus, we conclude that electronic media use increases the risk for sleep impairments in German preschoolers, while book reading seems to be a safe and healthy alternative.

How Could Children's Storybooks Promote Empathy? A Conceptual Framework Based on Developmental Psychology and Literary Theory

This conceptual paper proposes a framework for understanding the developmental mechanisms and literary characteristics that bind children's storybooks with empathy. The article begins with a taxonomy of empathy composed of three key continuous dimensions: cognitive/emotional empathy, empathy for in-group and out-group members and empathy with positive and negative consequences. Insights from developmental psychology and literary theory form the basis for an interdisciplinary framework based on three premises: (1) book-reading can support empathy if it fosters in-group/out-group identification and minimizes in-group/out-group bias; (2) identification with characters who are dissimilar from the readers is the most valuable contribution of children's storybooks to cognitive empathy; and (3) the quality of language positions children's storybooks as an exceptional, but not exclusive, empathy-building form of fictional narratives. Implications for future intervention and empirical work are provided.

Children's Learning From Interactive eBooks: Simple Irrelevant Features Are Not Necessarily Worse Than Relevant Ones

The purpose of this study was to investigate experimentally the extent to which children's novel word learning and story comprehension differs for non-interactive eBooks and interactive eBooks with simple relevant or irrelevant interactive features that advance the narrative. An original story with novel word-object pairs was read to preschoolers (3-5 years old, N = 103) using one of the three eBook formats: non-interactive control, interactive-relevant, interactive-irrelevant. The book formats differed only in the manner in which the story advanced from one page to the next: children observed the experimenter turn the page (non-interactive), children touched a relevant image on the screen (relevant-interactive), or children touched an irrelevant image on the screen (irrelevant-interactive). Novel word learning and story comprehension were assessed with post-tests in which children picked target objects from an array and sorted story events into their original sequence, respectively. Findings indicate that word learning and story comprehension were similar across all three books, suggesting that simple interactive features - whether relevant or irrelevant to the story - had little impact on preschoolers' learning in this controlled experiment. Thus, simple interactivity that does not disrupt the story also does not hinder ongoing story comprehension.

Sexual Minority Health: A Bibliography and Preliminary Study of the Book Literature

The literature on health in people who identify as sexual minorities is scattered in many types of resources and disciplines. To help address the need for relevant, well-organized information for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and health care providers, this study first identified books published in a ten-year period and then examined the topics, the number of books published per year, most prolific authors, and primary publishers. A wide range of publishers published a relatively small number of books (521). Most were about mental health or relationships and 24% were personal accounts. There were many subject deficiencies in the published book corpus.

Just Google It: Young Children's Preferences for Touchscreens versus Books in Hypothetical Learning Tasks

Children today regularly interact with touchscreen devices (Rideout, 2013) and thousands of “educational” mobile applications are marketed to them (Shuler, 2012). Understanding children’s own ideas about optimal learning has important implications for education, which is being transformed by electronic mobile devices, yet we know little about how children think about such devices, including what children think touchscreens are useful for. Based on a prior result that children prefer a book over a touchscreen for learning about dogs, the present study explored how children view touchscreens versus books for learning an array of different types of information. Seventy children ages 3–6 were presented with six different topics (cooking, today’s weather, trees, vacuums, Virginia, and yesterday’s football game) and chose whether a book or a touchscreen device would be best to use to learn about each topic. Some of this information was time-sensitive, like the current weather; we predicted that children would prefer a touchscreen for time-sensitive information. In addition, each child’s parent was surveyed about the child’s use of books and touchscreens for educational purposes, both at home and in school. Results indicated that younger children had no preference between books and touchscreen devices across learning tasks. However, 6-year-olds were significantly more likely to choose the touchscreen for several topics. Surprisingly, 6-year-olds chose a touchscreen device to learn about time-sensitive weather conditions, but not yesterday’s football. Children’s choices were not associated with their use of books and touchscreens at home and school.

Characteristics of Print in Books for Preschool Children

Children begin to learn about the characteristics of print well before formal literacy instruction begins. Reading to children can expose them to print and help them learn about its characteristics. This may be especially true if the print is visually salient, for studies suggest that prereaders pay more attention to such print than to print that is visually less salient. To shed light on the characteristics of the print that US children see in books, especially those characteristics that may contribute to visual salience, we report a quantitative analysis of 73 books that were chosen to be representative of those seen by preschoolers. We found that print that is visually salient due to color, variation, and other features tends to be more common on the covers of books than in the interiors. It also tends to be more common in recently published books than in older books. Even in recent books, however, the print is much less visually salient than the accompanying pictures. Many studies have examined the behavior of adults and children during shared reading, but little research has examined the characteristics of books themselves. Our results provide quantitative information about this topic for one set of characteristics in books for young US children.

Reach Out and Eat: Food and Beverages Depicted in Books for Preschoolers

OBJECTIVE

To examine food and beverage depictions in books for preschoolers.

METHODS

Books for preschoolers from Reach Out and Read (ROR; n = 42), public library (n = 27), and Publisher's Weekly booklists (n = 31) were examined for nutritive and empty-calorie food and beverage depictions.

RESULTS

It was found that 66% of books depicted at least 1 food or beverage. More books depicted nutritive items than empty-calorie items (87.5% vs 54.7%, P < .001). There was a trend toward fewer empty-calorie depictions in ROR books than in other booklists. Yet nearly half of ROR books depicted at least 1 empty-calorie item. ROR books also accounted for 5 of 10 books with the most empty-calorie item depictions and 3 of 4 books with branding. With regard to messaging, approximately a third of books with the most empty-calorie depictions promoted unhealthy foods.

CONCLUSIONS

When selecting books for ROR, it may be important to consider food and beverage depictions and messages.

Book clubs--outreach opportunities for hospital libraries

Book clubs and discussion groups provide opportunities for hospital librarians to reach out to staff from all areas of their facilities while introducing them to literature reflecting participants' personal and professional interests. Librarians presenting these case studies have coordinated local book clubs where topics ranged from titles about the nature of healing, to leadership development, and patient-centered care. Some also included contemporary novels of interest to participants. No matter the setting or scope of material discussed, each group has provided unique networking opportunities for staff to meet others working in various departments of their facilities.

Vital lines drawn from books: difficult feelings in Alison Bechdel's Fun Home and Are You My Mother?

This article examines the representation of a transnational archive of queer books in Alison Bechdel's graphic memoirs Fun Home and Are You My Mother? for the insights it provides into the role of reading in making sense of the often difficult "felt experiences" of lesbian life. In both memoirs, books serve an important narrative function in the portrayal of Alison's lesbian identification and its complex emotional entanglements with the lives of parents who are trapped-killed even, in the case of the father-in the wastelands of patriarchy and heterosexual expectation. The article argues that in this complex family dynamic in which "sexual identity" itself is a problem and emotions remain largely unspoken, books act as fragile conduits of feelings, shaping familial relationships even as they allow Alison to contextualize her life in relation to historical events and social norms. Reading books allows her to understand the apparently U.S.-specific history of her family in relation to a wider queer history in the West.

Read anything mean lately? associations between reading aggression in books and aggressive behavior in adolescents

Although there have been hundreds of studies on media violence, few have focused on literature, with none examining novels. Accordingly, the aim of the current study was to examine whether reading physical and relational aggression in books was associated with aggressive behavior in adolescents. Participants consisted of 223 adolescents who completed a variety of measures detailing their media use and aggressive behavior. A non-recursive structural equation model revealed that reading aggression in books was positively associated with aggressive behavior, even after controlling for exposure to aggression in other forms of media. Associations were only found for congruent forms of aggression. Implications regarding books as a form of media are discussed.

"What's wrong with grandma?": depictions of Alzheimer's disease in children's storybooks

Alzheimer's disease (AD) affects the entire family system, including young children. Yet there are few resources to help children understand AD. Storybooks are used to educate children about other diseases and may be useful in AD as well. In this study, we examined the depiction of AD in 33 English-language children's storybooks written specifically about AD. As a group, storybooks present AD as a brain disease, but provide little information about the diagnostic process or treatments. Clinical presentations are diverse among characters with AD, and no single book presents a comprehensive depiction of the cognitive, behavioral, affective, and functional symptoms of the disease. In fact, the prevalence of some symptoms in this "population" of storybook characters diverges substantially from epidemiological reports. Books designed to familiarize children about AD should be comprehensive and accurate. Current resources, while useful, could be improved to ensure health literacy about AD in young children.

Media exposure and marijuana and alcohol use among adolescents

We aimed to determine which media exposures are most strongly associated with marijuana and alcohol use among adolescents. In 2004, we surveyed 1,211 students at a large high school in suburban Pittsburgh regarding substance use, exposure to entertainment media, and covariates. Of the respondents, 52% were female, 8% were non-White, 27% reported smoking marijuana, and 60% reported using alcohol. They reported average exposure to 8.6 hr of media daily. In adjusted models, exposure to music was independently associated with marijuana use, but exposure to movies was independently associated with alcohol use. Implications, limitations, and suggestions for further research are discussed.