Knowledge management and communication in Brazilian agricultural research: An integrated procedural approach

The great contemporary organizational challenge for enterprises is to create a conceptual and methodological framework allows the management of knowledge by means of networks designed for social interaction. This statement is based on the premise that the competitive drive and sustainable success of the company depend on the introduction of new forms of production innovative processes, which can only be ensured through integrated approaches to knowledge management and the incorporation information technologies (IT). This is a reality that has already been accepted by the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa, its acronym in Portuguese), a Brazilian research, development, and innovation (RD&I) institution supporting agricultural sector. For some years now, Embrapa has been incorporating what it has learned about knowledge management into its strategic planning process. In this paper, we present a new approach to managing knowledge and information, and we analyze the need for research institutions to administer the knowledge they produce through an RD&I management model based multi- and inter-disciplinary teams, and multi-institutional research networks.     

Hearing dogs: a longitudinal study of social and psychological effects on deaf and hard-of-hearing recipients

The organization Hearing Dogs for Deaf People provides assistance dogs that alert their deaf or hard-of-hearing recipients to key sounds, thus increasing their independence and also providing companionship. Fifty-one recipients took part in a longitudinal study to monitor the dogs' working performance over time and to examine the social and psychological effects of having a Hearing Dog. The Profile of Mood State (POMS) questionnaire and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) were used together with a Hearing Dog Questionnaire (HDQ) specifically developed for this study. There were a number of significant differences in measures of well-being between the period prior to placing the Hearing Dog and the period after placement, but there were no comparable differences during the year-long waiting period prior to placement of the dog. Recipients reported significant reductions in hearing-related problems such as response to environmental sounds; significant reductions in measures of tension, anxiety, and depression; and significant improvements in social involvement and independence. The longitudinal nature of this study supports evidence that these improvements persist for some time after the placement of a dog, with significant differences being reported, in many cases, up to 18 months after acquiring a dog.     

键级和化合价的分子轨道理论

本文译自美国《Journal of chemical Education》1988年第8期.作者简介了密立根布居数分析法,并以此为基础讨论了键级和化合价,应用了别致的原子轨道线性组合分子轨道理论(LCAO—MO)的矩阵公式.最后给出了一些简单分子的计算结果,以说明这个理论的应用.     

Social work with service families

Our aim in this paper is twofold. We wish to describe the work done with families referred for various problems, including child abuse, to one Area Social Services Team (Section 2). We then offer (Section 3) some comparisons to indicate the extent of the problem. The second task in subsequent sections is to use data from various sources on child abuse (Section 4), and our own information (Section 5) to suggest that Army life has inherent features exacerbating risk of child abuse. We make various conclusions, and proposals for improvement (Section 6). We draw material from the Army Welfare Inquiry Committee Report, known as the Spencer Report. 1 We would argue that the welfare of Service families requires special concern.     

Pedagogy and possibility thinking in the early years

Connecting to current work in the area of creative pedagogies, this paper reports findings of an exploratory study that sought to identify what characterises possibility thinking in young children's learning experiences and how teachers’ pedagogical practice fosters this critical aspect of creativity. It focuses in particular on pedagogy, seeking to demonstrate how approaches adopted facilitated children's possibility thinking. Possibility thinking has been conceptualised as being central to creative learning although its role, as manifest in the learning engagement of children and the pedagogical strategies of practitioners has not been fully illuminated. The co-participative research team involved in this study comprised staff in an early childhood centre, in an infant and a primary school, working collaboratively with three university-based researchers. The 12-month long segment of a longer study employed various data collection methods including video-stimulated review (VSR) to facilitate reflection, critical conversations, classroom observation, interviews and examination of planning documents. The paper illuminates the perspectives and embedded values that the teachers expressed whilst reflecting upon their practice, and highlights common pedagogical themes, including the practice of ‘standing back’, profiling learner agency and creating time and space. Particular strategies were employed by each of the teachers. These approaches appeared to foster possibility thinking in young learners. In addition, the paper considers the development of the teachers’ thinking through the phases of the research process and presents a model for conceptualising a pedagogy of possibility thinking.     

The 2003 Benjamin Franklin medal in chemistry for pioneering the development of ultra-fast and multi-dimensional spectroscopies and their applications is presented to Robin M. Hochstrasser

Throughout his distinguished career of over 40 years, Robin Hochstrasser has made significant contributions to several areas of science in the fields of chemical and biochemical physics. He has been at the forefront and made fundamental contributions to the fields of photochemistry, solid-state chemistry, ultra-fast laser spectroscopies, and protein dynamics. He has been a prolific researcher, producing over 560 publications. His work has been characterized by experts in the fields as “a constant stream of experiments of lasting significance” (J. Phys. Chem. 100 (1996) 11791).Robin began his career in the 1960s using a variety of magnetic and electric field measurements to study crystals at low temperatures to understand spin quantization in solids and electron exchanged-mediated energy transfer. This work, described as a “classic contribution” (J. Phys. Chem. 100 (1996) 11791) was the basis for much of the subsequent experimental and theoretical work on the effect of magnetic fields on molecular spectra and on the measurements of dipole moments.In the late 1970s, Robin recognized the power of laser technology for the study of molecules and soon became a leader in the field investigating solid, gas phase, and condensed phase systems. He developed and applied various ultra-fast laser techniques to study the structure and dynamics of complex molecules in liquid phase, chemical, and biochemical reactions. He made seminal contributions to the development of two-dimensional infrared spectroscopy (2D IR) on a time scale of a picosecond or less. This 2D IR spectroscopy measures coupling between two functional groups in a large molecule and can thus be used to measure distances, as for example, two amide carbonyl groups in a peptide molecule. On the ultra-fast timescale, one application of 2D IR is to gain information on the rate of protein folding and unfolding in solution. Some of Robin's greatest contributions to understanding biomolecules are said to be in the experimental studies on the picosecond and femtosecond dynamics of heme proteins. Using techniques he developed he was able to observe the interactions of oxygen, carbon monoxide, and nitric oxide with hemoglobin inside the protein.     

The emotional design of everyday things: The 2006 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Computer and Cognitive Science presented to Donald A. Norman

Donald Norman changed and continues to change the way in which we live our technology-infused and technology-based lives. Norman was one of the founders of the field of cognitive science and based on that work, he went on to create the field of user-centered design. It is the latter work for which he was awarded the 2006 Benjamin Franklin award in Computer and Cognitive Science. When one works within the paradigm of user-centered design, technology is created so that it is based on human cognitive capabilities, and is therefore, usable.¹ When technology is not designed in this way, it is often experienced as unusable.In creating the field of user-centered design, Donald Norman works at a conceptual level; his influence is therefore both widespread and profound.     

龟兔赛跑

从前,有一只乌龟和一只兔子在争辩谁跑得快,争论得无休无止,于是它们决定来一场比赛分个高下。它们选定路线,便开始比赛;兔子闪电般地;中了出去,轻快地跑了一阵子,掉头一看,乌龟已经被远远甩在后面了．于是它心想,我何不在树下休息一会儿,放松一下,然后再继续比赛？于是兔子停下脚步,坐在树下,很快便进入了梦乡。一路上笨手笨脚的乌龟则在兔子睡觉的这会功夫超过它,不一会儿完成比赛,不容置疑地成为冠军、兔子一觉醒来,已经输掉比赛了。