Use and abuse revisited: Response to Pluhar and Varner

In her recent Counter-Reply to my views, Evelyn Pluhar defends her use of literature on nutrition and restates her argument for moral vegetarianism. In his Vegan Ideal article, Gary Varner claims that the nutrition literature does not show sufficient differences among women, men, and children to warrant concern about discrimination. In this response I show how Professor Pluhar continues to draw fallacious inferences: she begs the question on equality, avoids the main issue in my ethical arguments, argues from irrelevancies, misquotes her sources, equivocates on context, confuses safety with morality, appeals to fear, confuses correlation with cause, fails to evaluate scientific studies, draws hasty conclusions from insufficient data, ignores a large amount of data which would call her views into question, does not follow good scientific or moral argumentation, objectionably exceeds the limits of her expertise, and resorts to scapegoating. I also argue that Professor Varner fails to make his case because he offers virtually no evidence from scientific studies on nutrition, relies on outdated and fallacious sources, makes unsupported claims, ignores evidence that would contravene his claims, draws hasty conclusions based on weakly supported hypotheses rather than facts, employs a double standard, appeals to ignorance, does not evaluate arguments from his sources, and makes anad hominem attack on a respected nutritionist when his focus should be on evaluating the evidence and arguments from the scientific studies themselves. Neither Varner nor Pluhar have responded sufficiently to the real issue in my arguments, that of discrimination and bias in the vegan ideal.     

西南地区生态文化旅游科技发展战略初探

西南地区旅游资源丰富多样,但经济发展水平相对落后.要实现西南地区经济社会的腾飞,必须实施生态文化旅游科技发展战略.在分析西南地区旅游资源特点的基础上,指出了旅游发展的战略目标及主要任务,并提出了相关建议.     

现代科技发展与科技期刊编辑

阐述了现代科学技术的发展特征，分析了现代科技对科技期刊的影响以及科技期刊在国家科技创新体系中的地位和作用，指出科技期刊要主动适应科学技术发展趋势，科技期刊编辑要及时了解科技发展，培养和树立信息意识，掌握电子编辑手段与技能，早作“转岗”的培训，只有这样，才能适应时代对编辑工作的要求。     

Food Safety and Ethics: The Interplay between Science and Values

The general public in Europe seems tohave lost its confidence in food safety. Theremedy for this, as proposed by the Commissionof the EU, is a scientific rearmament. Thequestion, however, is whether more science willbe able to overturn the public distrust.Present experience seems to suggest thecontrary, because there is widespread distrustin the science-based governmental controlsystems. The answer to this problem is thecreation of an independent scientificFood Authority. However, we argue thatindependent scientific advice alone is unlikelyto re-establish public confidence. It is muchmore important to make the scientific advicetransparent, i.e., to state explicitlythe factual and normative premises on which itis based. Risk assessments are based on arather narrow, but well-defined notion of risk.However, the public is concerned with a broadervalue context that comprises both benefits andrisks. Transparency and understanding of thepublic's perception of food risks is anecessary first step in establishing theurgently required public dialogue about thecomplex value questions involved in foodproduction.     

构建区域性安全科技支撑体系的探索

笔者针对特定区域安全生产的特点,提出了构建区域性安全科技支撑体系的宏观构架。其主要思路为根据地域、产业、经济、环境等条件的不同和各地安全生产形势、重大事故类型的特点,针对一个特定区域,尤以江苏省区域为背景,也可扩展至整个华东地区,在国家法律法规的框架内,探讨其区域性安全生产科技支撑体系,研究高危行业特别是危险化学品安全监测预警技术平台、安全生产监管的科技服务平台、重大危险源监控技术平台、应急救援技术支撑平台等四大平台的建设思路。     

城市用水量需求调查、预测及节水对策

目前在各地供水规划工作中，首先需要预测确定供水总量，并且根据供水规划中确定的供水总量决定供水设施规模和建设投资总额，合理地安排供水系统设计工作，同时规划节水的对策与措施。本文针对我国现行的城市供水规划工程规范的使用情况，进行国内外城市供水量现状比较，并结合秦皇岛市的城市供水及城市节水各项措施运用的实际情况，对预测确定供水总量及节水问题，提出讨论和商榷。     

Field‐Scale Application of Three Types of Neural Networks to Predict Ground‐Water Levels1

Abstract: In this paper, a field‐scale applicability of three forms of artificial neural network algorithms in forecasting short‐term ground‐water levels at specific control points is presented. These algorithms are the feed‐forward back propagation (FFBP), radial basis networks (RBN), and generalized regression networks (GRN). Ground‐water level predictions from these algorithms are in turn to be used in an Optimized Regional Operations Plan that prescribes scheduled wellfield production for the coming four weeks. These models are up against each other for their accuracy of ground‐water level predictions on lead times ranging from a week to four weeks, ease of implementation, and execution times (mainly training time). In total, 208 networks of each of the three algorithms were developed for the study. It is shown that although learning algorithms have emerged as a viable solution at field scale much larger than previously studied, no single algorithm performs consistently better than others on all the criteria. On average, FFBP networks are 20 and 26%, respectively, more accurate than RBN and GRN in forecasting one week ahead water levels and this advantage drops to 5 and 9% accuracy in forecasting four weeks ahead water levels, whereas GRN posted a training time that is only 5% of the training time taken by that of FFBP networks. This may suggest that in field‐scale applications one may have to trade between the type of algorithm to be used and the degree to which a given objective is honored.     

The circular economy in China

This article makes an attempt to answer the three questions of why China is devoting its full effort to promoting a circular economy, what a circular economy is, and how to implement a circular economy in China. The evolutionary process of a circular economy in China, from introduction of the concept and the relevant actions of national decision making to demonstration of the system nationwide, has taken only around 6 years, with strong encouragement from politicians and the urgent need to cope with environmental pollution and a severe shortage of natural resources. The circular economy in China is now being actively implemented at three levels: enterprises, eco-industrial parks, and regions. The consolidated theoretical bases of ecology and economics have helped the circular economy to define its position as a new economic model to effectively resolve the problems of resources and the environment. In this regard, material flow management is naturally a unique planning and management method for implementation of a circular economy, and eco-efficiency is a good indicator to measure circular economic activities. Of particular significance has been initiation of the legislative process for the Circular Economy Law, which is among a number of initiatives developing core policies for a circular economy in China. Stringent enforcement of a set of policies for energy saving and pollution abatement nowadays in China will certainly create an enabling environment for the development of a circular economy.     

构建科技创安系统 加强监狱安全防范

加快现代监狱“多媒体、数字化、全方位创安”建设,是提高现代监狱监管改造服刑人员工作、构建现代文明监狱的重要标志。监狱“科技创安”系统的建设应能充分利用视频监控技术、联动报警技术、出入口控制技术、信息安全技术、电子巡更技术等现代安全防范科学技术手段,并借助局域网技术平台来提高监狱对服刑人员教育改造工作的科技含量。预防服刑人员斗殴、自残、自杀、越狱、袭警等违法犯罪活动,及时准确地掌控和调阅监狱暴力现场、越狱行为等信息资料,构筑人防、物防、技防三位一体的安全防范体系,是变传统教育改造和管理服刑人员方法为利用现代科技信息手段进行管理的重要举措。     

对我院英语分级教学的进一步探索

我校从2005年开始在大一年级试实施分级教学，一个学期的教学实践证明我们的改革是可行的，我们的分级教学取得了初步的效果。