A Simple Value-Distinction Approach Aids Transparency in Farm Animal Welfare Debate

Public debate on acceptable farm animal husbandry suffers from a confusion of tongues. To clarify positions of various stakeholder groups in their joint search for acceptable solutions, the concept of animal welfare was split up into three notions: no suffering, respect for intrinsic value, and non-appalling appearance of animals. This strategy was based on the hypothesis that multi-stakeholder solutions should be based on shared values rather than on compromises. The usefulness of such an artificial value distinction strategy was tested in a small series of experiments. The results demonstrate that the chosen concept to distinguish between values is effective in a stakeholder context. Farmers’ views on doing good to animals appeared to be largely based on their value to prevent suffering and predominantly focused on the provision of regular care. Their priority for this value is clearly shared with other stakeholders, providing a basis for joint solutions. The concept of intrinsic value does not play a discernable role in farmers’ considerations. Based on the varying views on welfare, it can be inferred that there is a gradual rather than a principal difference between government legislation and farmers’ values, whereas public perception and acceptance of farm practices remains complicated. Distinction between value groups and focusing on a selected notion (such as no suffering) proved to be effective in bringing representatives of stakeholder groups together, but is unlikely to bridge the emotional gap between commercial farm practices and public ideals.     

信息技术与高职英语教学整合应用探析

把信息技术融入高职英语教学已经成为高职院校英语教学的普遍现象。从高职英语教学现状分析入手,结合学习的联结理论和建构主义理论,论述了信息技术是高职英语教学改革的必然性。详细分析了信息技术在高职英语教学中具有的显著特点和优势,以及信息技术与高职英语教学的整合模式,即情景教学模式、学生主体模式和交互学习模式。在此基础上分别从教师、学生两个角度深入探讨了在英语教学中应用信息技术应该注意的一些问题。通过这些深入的探讨应该看到随着更先进的信息技术引入教育领域,高职英语课堂将更具有吸引力,教师的教学空间将更加开放和富有创意,学生的自主学习将更加宽广和富有弹性。     

Assessing agricultural vulnerability to climate change in the Nordic countries – an interactive geovisualization approach

Nordic agriculture must adapt to climate change to reduce vulnerability and exploit potential opportunities. Integrated assessments can identify and quantify vulnerability in order to recognize these adaptation needs. This study presents a geographic visualization approach to support the interactive assessment of agricultural vulnerability to climate change. We have identified requirements for increased transparency and reflexivity in vulnerability assessments, arguing that these can be met by geographic visualization. A conceptual framework to support the integration of geographic visualization for vulnerability assessments has been designed and applied for the development of AgroExplore, an interactive tool for assessing agricultural vulnerability to climate change in Sweden. To open up the black box of composite vulnerability indices, AgroExplore enables the user to select, weight, and classify relevant indicators into sub-indices of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. This enables the exploration of underlying indicators and factors determining vulnerability in Nordic agriculture.     

丁草胺对镉胁迫条件下水稻生长、镉积累及活性氧代谢的影响

以2个水稻品种(秀水110和秀水11)为材料,通过水培试验和土培试验研究了除草剂丁草胺对Cd2 胁迫条件下水稻植株生长、Cd2 积累和活性氧代谢的影响.研究结果表明.水培条件下,丁草胺浓度的增加显著地加剧了Cd2 胁迫条件下水稻生长抑制程度,进一步导致叶绿素含量显著下降,促进了2个品种水稻植株对Cd2 的吸收,引起水稻叶片的O-2产生速率、H202和MDA含量增加.且显著改变了SOD、CAT和G-POD活性;同条件下丁草胺浓度的增加使水稻叶片SOD/O-2、SOD/G-POD、SOD/CAT、CAT/H2O2和G-POD/H2O2的比值均发生了偏离;推测丁草胺加剧了水稻Cd2 胁迫时植株活性氧代谢不平衡过程.土培条件下,丁草胺对水稻糙米中Cd2 积累量也具有显著促进作用.     

京津冀城市群环境规制强度与城镇化质量的协调性分析

城镇化与生态环境之间存在复杂的非线性耦合关系,而环境规制作为人类对环境的主动调节行为,能够对城镇化与生态环境间的协调关系产生积极影响。论文以京津冀城市群13个地级以上城市为例,以成本-效益理论和效率-水平理论为基础,分别构建环境规制强度和城镇化质量评价指标体系,结果发现：京津冀城市群环境规制强度和城镇化质量在时空格局上呈现高度吻合,两者均以京津为双峰值点,并向南北两翼梯度递减。之后,采用象限图分类识别方法对京津冀城市群环境规制强度和城镇化质量协调类型进行划分,从而判断两者协调性状况及时空演变特征,结论如下：1）京津冀城市群环境规制在一定程度上促进了城镇化质量的提升,两者相关系数为0.82,但环境规制强度和城镇化质量不协调状态同样显著,两者基本协调的样本数仅占样本总数的13%,说明正处于初级协同阶段;2）京津冀城市群环境规制强度和城镇化质量整体水平偏低,达到高水平的城市仅有北京市和天津市,但两者整体水平增强态势显著,石家庄市、唐山市等次级中心城市,以及秦皇岛市、沧州市等经济较发达城市已由低水平步入中等水平;3）京津冀城市群环境规制强度和城镇化质量协调性呈现圈层状空间格局,主要分为核心圈层、中间圈层和外围圈层3个圈层,且核心圈层协调性优于中间圈层,再优于外围圈层。     

Key beliefs influencing young drivers’ engagement with social interactive technology on their smartphones: A qualitative study

Objective: The main aim of this study was to identify young drivers’ underlying beliefs (i.e., behavioral, normative, and control) regarding initiating, monitoring/reading, and responding to social interactive technology (i.e., functions on a Smartphone that allow the user to communicate with other people).

Method: This qualitative study was a beliefs elicitation study in accordance with the theory of planned behavior and sought to elicit young drivers’ behavioral (i.e., advantages, disadvantages), normative (i.e., who approves, who disapproves), and control beliefs (i.e., barriers, facilitators) that underpin social interactive technology use while driving. Young drivers (N = 26) aged 17 to 25 years took part in an interview or focus group discussion.

Results: Though differences emerged between the 3 behaviors of initiating, monitoring/reading, and responding for each of the behavioral, normative, and control belief categories, the strongest distinction was within the behavioral beliefs category (e.g., communicating with the person that they were on the way to meet was an advantage of initiating; being able to determine whether to respond was an advantage of monitoring/reading; and communicating with important people was an advantage of responding). Normative beliefs were similar for initiating and responding behaviors (e.g., friends and peers more likely to approve than other groups) and differences emerged for monitoring/reading (e.g., parents were more likely to approve of this behavior than initiating and responding). For control beliefs, there were differences between the beliefs regarding facilitators of these behaviors (e.g., familiar roads and conditions facilitated initiating; having audible notifications of an incoming communication facilitated monitoring/reading; and receiving a communication of immediate importance facilitated responding); however, the control beliefs that presented barriers were consistent across the 3 behaviors (e.g., difficult traffic/road conditions).

Conclusion: The current study provides an important addition to the extant literature and supports emerging research that suggests that initiating, monitoring/reading, and responding may indeed be distinct behaviors with different underlying motivations.     

“新四化”协同发展倍增效用分析

在新的时代背景下,诠释了农业现代化、新型工业化、新型城镇化和信息化的基本内涵.基于循环累积因果关系理论论证了“新四化”之间的互动关系,构建了协同发展状态下的“新四化”互动关系模型,分析了“新四化”之间的协同发展对社会经济发展的倍增效应,指出政府部门在“新四化”协同发展中的重要性.     

长江经济带旅游生态效率时空演变及其与旅游经济互动响应

运用基于非期望产出的Super-SBM模型测度长江经济带旅游生态效率,综合运用标准差椭圆、重心模型等方法勾勒旅游生态效率时空演变轨迹,借助VAR模型探讨旅游生态效率与旅游经济发展水平间的互动响应关系。结果表明：长江经济带旅游生态效率整体处于中等效率阶段,呈动态上升趋势,且表现出“东部>西部>中部”的空间分布格局;旅游生态效率形成“低低集聚、高高集聚”式的“俱乐部收敛”型“双峰”格局,向西北方向移动趋势明显;东部和中部旅游生态效率与旅游经济发展水平的脉冲响应最终趋于平稳,西部地区响应程度偏弱;旅游经济发展水平对旅游生态效率的贡献率随时间发展趋于升高,旅游生态效率对旅游经济发展水平的贡献程度随时间发展逐步降低。     

Conceptual study on incorporating user information into forecasting systems

The purpose of improving weather forecast is to enhance the accuracy in weather prediction. An ideal forecasting system would incorporate user-end information. In recent years, the meteorological community has begun to realize that while general improvements to the physical characteristics of weather forecasting systems are becoming asymptotically limited, the improvement from the user end still has potential. The weather forecasting system should include user interaction because user needs may change with different weather. A study was conducted on the conceptual forecasting system that included a dynamic, user-oriented interactive component. This research took advantage of the recently implemented TIGGE (THORPEX interactive grand global ensemble) project in China, a case study that was conducted to test the new forecasting system with reservoir managers in Linyi City, Shandong Province, a region rich in rivers and reservoirs in eastern China. A self-improving forecast system was developed involving user feedback throughout a flood season, changing thresholds for flood-inducing rainfall that were responsive to previous weather and hydrological conditions, and dynamic user-oriented assessments of the skill and uncertainty inherent in weather prediction. This paper discusses ideas for developing interactive, user-oriented forecast systems.