高职商务英语专业内容依托型教学模式初探

内容依托教学(CBI)是融语言学习与内容学习为一体的教学方式。在高职商务英语专业采用CBI教学模式,以真实的商务活动为背景,使语言学习和专业技能的培养与商务实践相结合,有助于形成"懂商务、会英语"的复合型应用人才培养模式。但目前CBI的实施还面临着教师素质、教学效果以及评估体系等方面的问题,可通过培养专业师资、制定合理教学进度等方法逐步完善。     

The Challenge of Bridging Science and Policy in the Baltic Sea Eutrophication Governance in Finland: The perspective of Science

This article examines the views of scientists on intricacies of scientific knowledge that affect science–policy interface in the Baltic Sea eutrophication governance in Finland. The analysis demonstrates that these intricacies can be divided into five categories: (1) uncertainty of knowledge concerning ecological processes, (2) heterogeneity of knowledge, (3) societal and political call for (certain) knowledge, (4) contingency of the knowledge that ends up taken as a baseline for decision making and further research, and (5) linkages of knowledge production, processing, and communication to particular characteristics of individual researchers and research societies. By explicating these aspects, this article illustrates the ways in which scientific knowledge concerning eutrophication is human-bound and susceptible to interpretation, thus adding on to the uncertainty of the Baltic Sea environmental governance. The aim is, then, to open up perspectives on how ambiguities related to science–policy interface could be coped with.     

Land Degradation on Barren Hills: A Case Study in Northeast Vietnam

The term "barren hills" has been a keyword for land degradation in the uplands of Vietnam for over a decade. Nevertheless, the "barren" land is still not adequately ecologically characterized. In this work, we analyze land use-induced changes in vegetation and soil properties along a sequence of barren hills types formed on one physiotope. The study is undertaken in the Bac Kan province, one of the poorest upland regions where livestock plays an important role. A transition from an old-growth laurel forest to a sparse manmade grassland is characterized by a total of 177 species, rapid species turnover, and discrete dominants, and an overwhelming effect of disturbance history on both soil and vegetation patterning. Land degradation is most apparent in land use-induced maintenance of arrested successions, and the regeneration course is shifted towards drier formations. We hypothesize a conceptual model as an aid to understanding the process of early fallow differentiation in response to the patterned, fine-scale disturbances. The larger-scale implications of the observed trends in regeneration potentials deviation, and, in particular, the effect of water buffaloes in halting fallow successions, are discussed.     

Estimating the potential of greenhouse gas mitigation in Kazakhstan

As part of the studies related to the obligations of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Republic of Kazakhstan started activities to inventory greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and assess of GHG mitigation options. The objective of this paper is to present an estimate of the possibility of mitigating GHG emissions and determine the mitigation priorities. It presents a compilation of the possible options and their assessment in terms of major criteria and implementation feasibility. Taking into account the structure of GHG emissions in Kazakhstan in 1990, preliminary estimates of the potential for mitigation are presented for eight options for the energy sector and agriculture and forestry sector. The reference scenario prepared by expert assessments assumes a reduction of CO₂ emissions in 1996–1998 by about 26% from the 1990 level due to general economic decline, but then emissions increase. It is estimated that the total potential for the mitigation of CO₂ emissions for the year 2000 is 3% of the CO₂ emissions in the reference scenario. The annual reduction in methane emissions due to the estimated options can amount to 5%–6% of the 1990 level.

     

Municipalities’ ambitions and practices: At risk of hypocritical sustainability transitions?

In contemporary planning discourse and practice, different planning ideas co-exists. How this affects the transition towards a sustainable development is an important question for both research and practice. The aim of this study is to explore potential conflicts between planning goals caught between growth-led planning and sustainability commitments in a case study of Fredericia, Denmark. The paper discusses the underlying, framing and controlling conditions for transition dynamics. The analysis builds largely on the formulated policies, strategies or national goal achievements towards sustainable futures. These are put in the context of planning and political practices, which are interpreted from a sustainability rationale. Here this study introduces hypocrisy as a theoretical-analytical perspective to dispute actual sustainability practices to respond to continuous ambivalent planning measures. The author concludes that disregarding the inherently different internal logics of growths and sustainability leads to planning paradoxes and impedes sustainable transitions pursued.     

Correction to: Documenting lemming population change in the Arctic: Can we detect trends?

Ambio - In the original published article, some of the symbols in figure 1A were modified incorrectly during the typesetting and publication process. The correct version of the figure is provided...     

Metabolic enzymes activity and histomorphology in the liver of whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus L.) and pike (Esox lucius L.) inhabiting a mineral contaminated lake

The effects of wastewater from a mining and ore-dressing mill on fish in Lake Kostomukshskoe, which is used as a cesspool of circulating water and for storage of industrial wastes produced by the Kostomuksha mining and ore-dressing mill in northwest Russia, were studied. The lake is characterized by heavy mineralization, high pH, elevated levels of K⁺, Li⁺, SO₄ ^2?, NO^2?, Cl^?, Li, Mn, and Ni, and the presence of a fine-dispersed mechanical suspension. To assess the impact of contamination on fish and determine the mechanisms of their adaptation, we investigated the biochemical indices and histology of the liver of whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus L.) and pike (Esox lucius L.) inhabiting Lake Kostomukshskoe, downstream Lake Koyvas (64° 47′ 30° 59′), and Lake Kamennoe, which is located in a nature preserve and has not been affected by anthropogenic activity (64° 28′ 30° 13′). Changes were detected in the activity of metabolic enzymes (cytochrome c oxidase (COX), lactate dehydrogenase, and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase) in the liver. Specifically, the COX activity in the liver of both fish species from the contaminated lake decreased, indicating a low level of aerobic metabolism. Lipid infiltration was the most visible and widespread change observed in the liver of both fish species; therefore, it can be considered a marker of such long-term contamination. Lesions in pike liver demonstrated a wider range of severity than in those of whitefish. In summary, metabolic enzyme activity and histomorphology of the liver of whitefish and pike differed among lakes in a species-specific manner. The changes in enzyme activity and histomorphological alterations in fish that were observed can be applied for evaluation of freshwater systems that may be subjected to mineral pollution.     

Co-evolution of wetland landscapes,flooding, and human settlement in the Mississippi River Delta Plain

River deltas all over the world are sinking beneath sea-level rise, causing significant threats to natural and social systems. This is due to the combined effects of anthropogenic changes to sediment supply and river flow, subsidence, and sea-level rise, posing an immediate threat to the 500–1,000 million residents, many in megacities that live on deltaic coasts. The Mississippi River Deltaic Plain (MRDP) provides examples for many of the functions and feedbacks, regarding how human river management has impacted source-sink processes in coastal deltaic basins, resulting in human settlements more at risk to coastal storms. The survival of human settlement on the MRDP is arguably coupled to a shifting mass balance between a deltaic landscape occupied by either land built by the Mississippi River or water occupied by the Gulf of Mexico. We developed an approach to compare 50 % L:W isopleths (L:W is ratio of land to water) across the Atchafalaya and Terrebonne Basins to test landscape behavior over the last six decades to measure delta instability in coastal deltaic basins as a function of reduced sediment supply from river flooding. The Atchafalaya Basin, with continued sediment delivery, compared to Terrebonne Basin, with reduced river inputs, allow us to test assumptions of how coastal deltaic basins respond to river management over the last 75 years by analyzing landward migration rate of 50 % L:W isopleths between 1932 and 2010. The average landward migration for Terrebonne Basin was nearly 17,000 m (17 km) compared to only 22 m in Atchafalaya Basin over the last 78 years (p < 0.001), resulting in migration rates of 218 m/year (0.22 km/year) and <0.5 m/year, respectively. In addition, freshwater vegetation expanded in Atchafalaya Basin since 1949 compared to migration of intermediate and brackish marshes landward in the Terrebonne Basin. Changes in salt marsh vegetation patterns were very distinct in these two basins with gain of 25 % in the Terrebonne Basin compared to 90 % decrease in the Atchafalaya Basin since 1949. These shifts in vegetation types as L:W ratio decreases with reduced sediment input and increase in salinity also coincide with an increase in wind fetch in Terrebonne Bay. In the upper Terrebonne Bay, where the largest landward migration of the 50 % L:W ratio isopleth occurred, we estimate that the wave power has increased by 50–100 % from 1932 to 2010, as the bathymetric and topographic conditions changed, and increase in maximum storm-surge height also increased owing to the landward migration of the L:W ratio isopleth. We argue that this balance of land relative to water in this delta provides a much clearer understanding of increased flood risk from tropical cyclones rather than just estimates of areal land loss. We describe how coastal deltaic basins of the MRDP can be used as experimental landscapes to provide insights into how varying degrees of sediment delivery to coastal deltaic floodplains change flooding risks of a sinking delta using landward migrations of 50 % L:W isopleths. The nonlinear response of migrating L:W isopleths as wind fetch increases is a critical feedback effect that should influence human river-management decisions in deltaic coast. Changes in land area alone do not capture how corresponding landscape degradation and increased water area can lead to exponential increase in flood risk to human populations in low-lying coastal regions. Reduced land formation in coastal deltaic basins (measured by changes in the land:water ratio) can contribute significantly to increasing flood risks by removing the negative feedback of wetlands on wave and storm-surge that occur during extreme weather events. Increased flood risks will promote population migration as human risks associated with living in a deltaic landscape increase, as land is submerged and coastal inundation threats rise. These system linkages in dynamic deltaic coasts define a balance of river management and human settlement dependent on a certain level of land area within coastal deltaic basins (L).     

Perspectives on area-based conservation and its meaning for future biodiversity policy

During 2021, Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) are expected to meet in Kunming, China, to agree on a new global biodiversity framework aimed at halting and reversing biodiversity loss, encouraging the sustainable use of biodiversity, and ensuring the equitable sharing of its benefits. As the post-2020 global biodiversity framework evolves, parties to the convention are being exposed to a range of perspectives on the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, relating to the future framework as a whole or to aspects of it. Area-based conservation measures are one such aspect, and there are diverse perspectives on how new targets might be framed in relation to these measures. These perspectives represent different outlooks on the relationship between human and nonhuman life on Earth. However, in most cases there is a lack of clarity on how they would be implemented in practice, the implications this would have for biodiversity and human well-being, and how they would contribute to achieving the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity of “living in harmony with nature.” We sought to clarify these issues by summarizing some of these perspectives in relation to the future of area-based biodiversity conservation. We identified these perspectives through a review of the literature and expert consultation workshops and compiled them into 4 main groups: Aichi+, ambitious area-based conservation perspectives, new conservation, and whole-earth conservation. We found that although the perspectives Aichi+ and whole earth are in some cases at odds with one another, they also have commonalities, and all perspectives have elements that can contribute to developing and implementing the post-2020 global biodiversity framework and achieving the longer term CBD 2050 Vision.     

Advertising to the enemy: enhanced floral fragrance increases beetle attraction and reduces plant reproduction

Many organisms face challenges in avoiding predation while searching for mates. For plants, emitting floral fragrances to advertise reproductive structures could increase the attraction of detrimental insects along with pollinators. Very few studies have experimentally evaluated the costs and benefits of fragrance emission with explicit consideration of how plant fitness is affected by both pollinators and florivores. To determine the reproductive consequences of increasing the apparency of reproductive parts, we manipulated fragrance, pollination, and florivores in the wild Texas gourd, Cucurbita pepo var. texana. With enhanced fragrance we found an increase in the attraction of florivores, rather than pollinators, and a decrease in seed production. This study is the first to demonstrate that enhanced floral fragrance can increase the attraction of detrimental florivores and decrease plant reproduction, suggesting that florivory as well as pollination has shaped the evolution of floral scent.