Future Directions of Civil Engineering Education

This paper briefly surveys the new trends of the research and development in the field of civil engineering and suggests that educators should adapt their curricula accordingly to produce civil engineers capable of coping with the professional needs of the coming century.     

Guest Editors' Introduction

The Ch'ao-yang Agricultural Institute is located in two valleys several li from the town of Ch'ao-yang. In this institute we have specialties in agronomy, pomiculture, animal husbandry and veterinary science, irrigation and water conservancy, and so forth. Guided by Chairman Mao's proletarian line in education, we run the school in the countryside and persistently enroll students who "come from the commune and go back to the commune," training new peasants who have socialist awareness as well as knowledge of modern science and agricultural technology. Since the founding of the institute in 1970, we have trained through short-term courses nearly 10,000 agricultural production technicians for communes and brigades. We have also turned out 167 graduates from our regular course, most of whom have returned to their respective communes and brigades to be peasants. Our schooling has won approval from the poor and lower-middle peasants. They say, "Graduates from the Agricultural Institute return to be peasants, which is what we desire."     

Left ventricular morphology and function in endurance-trained female athletes

In this study,we investigated resting left ventricular dimensions and function in trained female rowers, canoeists and cyclists. In male populations, such athletes have demonstrated the largest left ventricular wall thicknesses and cavity dimensions. Echocardiograms were analysed from 24 athletes (rowers and canoeists, n=12; cyclists, n=12) and 21 age-matched controls to measure left ventricular end-diastolic dimension and volume, and septal (ST) and posterior wall (PWT) thicknesses. Left ventricular mass was calculated from M-mode data. Systolic and diastolic function were calculated from M-mode and Doppler echocardiography, respectively. Height, body mass, body surface area and fat-free mass were determined anthropometrically. The athletes were well matched with the controls for all anthropometric variables except fat-free mass (rowers and canoeists 49.7 3.6 kg, cyclists 48.0?+\- 3.8 kg, controls 45.0?+\- 5.4 kg; P < 0.05). The left ventricular end-diastolic dimension, mass and volume, and septal and posterior wall thicknesses, were all significantly greater in the athletes than the controls (P < 0.05). These differences persisted (except for left ventricular end-diastolic dimension) even after allometric adjustment for group differences in fat-free mass. Stroke volume was larger (rowers and canoeists 102?+\- 13 ml, cyclists 103?+\0 16 ml, controls 80?+\- 15 ml; P < 0.05) in both groups of athletes but all other functional data were similar between groups. As in male athletes, female rowers, canoeists and cyclists displayed significantly larger left ventricular cavity dimensions and wall thicknesses than controls.