Introduction to this Special Issue

In 2001, for the first time in the history of the International Association for Counselling, International Conference was held in a developing Asian country–India, with the theme Families in Transition–Counselling in Transition–Meeting the Challenges Ahead. This special issue contains some of the presentations made by Indian participants during this conference which best reflect the challenges and diversities of counseling efforts with families in India. The first article was specially written for this issue in order to give an international relationship of this journal an in depth contextual understanding of Indian families in transition and the challenges they pose to the contemporary Indian counselor. Two articles are reflected to counseling families affected by socio-politial and economic changes. Five authors have written on counseling related to physical and mental disability/addiction and last two articles are reflected to authors experiences as family counselors.     

A success story: A large urban district offers a working model for implementing multisensory teaching into the resource and regular classroom

A large urban school district contracted with a private nonprofit educational foundation to train 126 special education resource teachers in the last three years in an Orton-Gillingham-based program. These teachers are currently teaching learning-disabled students in groups of 8–10 at the elementary level and 10–13 students at the secondary level. Learning-disabled students who qualify for Special Education, either in reading or spelling, or both, are receiving the instruction. The teachers took a Basic Introductory Class (90 hours of Advanced Academic Credit offered by the Texas Education Agency, or six hours of graduate credit at a local university) in order to teach the program in the resource setting. A two year Advanced Training included annual on-site observations, two half-day workshops each fall and spring, and a two-day advanced workshop in the second summer. First grade teachers, one selected from each of the 164 campuses, supervisors, and principals attended a 25-hour course on “Recognizing Dyslexia: Using Multisensory Teaching and Discovery Techniques.” The first grade teachers and special education resource teachers collaborated to provide inservice training for their colleagues. Research, conducted by the district’s Research Department, reveals statistically significant gains in reading and spelling ability for the learning-disabled resource students as measured by the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test-Revised, and the Test of Written Spelling.     

Kinetics study on biomass pyrolysis for fuel gas production

Kinetic knowledge is of great importance in achieving good control of the pyrolysis and gasification process and optimising system design. An overall kinetic pyrolysis scheme is therefore addressed here. The kinetic modelling incorporates the following basic steps: the degradation of the virgin biomass materials into primary products (tar, gas and semi-char), the decomposition of primary tar into secondary products and the continuous interaction between primary gas and char. The last step is disregarded completely by models in the literature. Analysis and comparison of predicted results from different kinetic schemes and experimental data on our fixed bed pyrolyser yielded very positive evidence to support our kinetic scheme. Project (No. 2001CB409600) Supported by the National Key Basic Research Program (973) of China     

普通话二字组词语的动态声调

普通话二字组词语不同的声调组合方式 ,使前后位声调产生不同的动态变化形式。前位声调的动态变化明显表现在上声调变为低降调和中升调上 ;后位声调的动态变化则表现在调值的明显改变上。后位声调的动态变化更为普遍 ,应该引起足够的重视     

说不尽的“女子进城”——论香港爱情传奇中女性与城市的亲和悖离

富有传奇色彩的香港,是港岛内外女作家们敷衍爱情传奇的绝佳场所,在一个个故事背后,隐藏着女作家们对女性命运的疑问和思考。本文以张爱玲、王安忆的文本为主,兼及其他女作家的香港传奇,对现代城市与女性命运的关系作一考察。首先通过文本分析,指出故事中“女子进城”的内在模式,“女子进城”,这里喻指女性在城市中自我肯定与追求欲望满足的行为。第二部分展开对女性与城市关系的两面——亲和性与悖离性的具体评述。第三部分通过追溯神化原型,寻求女性与城市矛盾关系的历史源流     

建国以来我国公民科学素质建设的基本特征

本文将我国公民科学素质建设的历史放在整个中国社会变革的大背景中加以审视，在其基础上描述和讨论了建国以来我国公民科学素质建设的九大历史特征，以期为新形势下的公民科学素质建设提供借鉴。