An impulse to exploit: the behavioral turn in data-driven marketing

Industry advocates argue that by tailoring services and commercial solicitations to match media users’ personal interests, data-driven marketing benefits both consumers and businesses. This article shows, however, that advertisers and marketers who are taking up ideas and techniques from behavioral economics tell their clients a very different story about the aims and use of digital marketing and consumer surveillance. Listening in on this discourse demonstrates that some digital marketers conceptualize their own practices as forms of social control, appropriating concepts from behavioral economics to identify consumers’ cognitive and affective biases and target their vulnerabilities. Behavioral economics recognizes that economic decisions are not simply dictated by rational self-interest; rather, such choices depend on cognitive heuristics and habits, and can be manipulated through the design of “choice architecture.” This article discusses implications of the behavioral turn in data-driven marketing for critical advertising scholars, public advocates, and regulators.     

The Metamorphosis of Industrial Designers from Novices to Experts

Professional training for designers is crucial in the field of design studies. The characteristics of novices versus those of expert designers have been identified in the literature; however, studies exploring the issue of professional training processes in the actual workplace are not well developed. Our study addresses the topic by using qualitative research methods along with flexible design. Collected data from the interviewees with different work experience were analysed by open, axial and selective coding. Herein, we argue that the processes by which a designer transforms from a novice into an expert in the industry are constructed through the interaction of several complicated factors. The re‐learning inherent in design professions is implemented through knowledge transfer gained from participation in design projects, particularly regarding tacit knowledge. Also, the novice's process of learning and training yields the characteristics and skills that companies and firms require of designers; this process involves a series of disciplinary sub‐processes, from destructive to reconstructive, implemented by employers. In these sub‐processes, the subjectivity of designers is neglected, leading to the suppression of imaginative expression and feelings of alienation among these workers.     

Recent developments in microfluidic synthesis of artificial cell-like polymersomes and liposomes for functional bioreactors

Recent advances in droplet microfluidics have led to the fabrication of versatile vesicles with a structure that mimics the cellular membrane. These artificial cell-like vesicles including polymersomes and liposomes effectively enclose an aqueous core with well-defined size and composition from the surrounding environment to implement various biological reactions, serving as a diverse functional reactor. The advantage of realizing various biological phenomena within a compartment separated by a membrane that resembles a natural cell membrane is actively explored in the fields of synthetic biology as well as biomedical applications including drug delivery, biosensors, and bioreactors, to name a few. In this Perspective, we first summarize various methods utilized in producing these polymersomes and liposomes. Moreover, we will highlight some of the recent advances in the design of these artificial cell-like vesicles for functional bioreactors and discuss the current issues and future perspectives.     

Idea generation in biomedical engineering courses using Design Heuristics

ABSTRACT

With increasing demand for improved medical equipment and healthcare, next-generation biomedical engineers need strong design skills. Equipping biomedical engineering students with tools for idea generation and development can increase student design success. Design Heuristics are an ideation tool developed through empirical studies of product designs. While identified in the mechanical engineering space, Design Heuristics may be applicable in biomedical engineering design. In our study, we implemented a Design Heuristics session during upper-level undergraduate and first-year graduate biomedical engineering design courses. We examined the applicability of Design Heuristics within individual and team concept generation contexts. The findings demonstrated that biomedical engineering students were able to use Design Heuristics to generate multiple concepts, and that initial concepts produced using Design Heuristics were carried over into final team design. The results support the applicability of Design Heuristics to student idea generation in biomedical engineering design.     

二十世纪日本汉学界之荀子名学研究综述

在先秦时期,除了名家和墨家之外,在名学研究方面,其成就最大的当属荀子。荀子对于先秦名学之贡献主要是进一步批判和发展名家和墨辩之名学,使儒家之名学更加严谨。然而,历来有关荀子之研究多着眼于其心、性、天、礼等之探讨,而疏于抉发其名学之义蕴。直到近年来,由于大陆学界积极挖掘中国古代之逻辑思想,以免西方逻辑专美于前,于是有关中国逻辑史或逻辑思想之论着,如雨后春笋般出现。此等有关中国逻辑论者之研究对象主要为先秦时期讨论名实辩说之篇章,尤其是公孙龙、墨辩和荀子名学之研究。此外,由于一些国外学者之参与,使得中国古代逻辑之研究,尤其是关于荀子名学之研究,如今已成一较为普遍之现象。有关荀子之研究,日本汉学界已作出极为可喜之成绩。唯历来有关荀子之研究,日本汉学界多着重其心、性、天、礼或政治、伦理学说之阐述,而较疏于其名学之研究。然而,就目前已发表之论着而言,无论是在厘清荀子之哲学立场或对于名学之分析等,亦颇有其独到之处,值得吾人借镜。     

Explorations in promoting conceptual change in electrical concepts via ontological category shift

Chi (1992, 1993) Chi et al. (1994) suggests that many of the difficulties encountered by students in learning Physics concepts arise because they attribute the ontology of material substances to these concepts. These concepts are actually a special type of process - 'Constraint-Based Interactions' (CBI). Slotta and Chi (1996) reported on a study where a group of students explicitly trained in the CBI ontology showed significant gains over a control group in problem solving performance in eight simple electric circuit problems. This paper reports on a series of four studies which explore the usefulness of the ontological categorization framework in investigating students' alternative conceptions of electric circuits and in developing a teaching strategy for promoting conceptual change in the learning of basic electric circuitry concepts.     

洋务运动时期的外国语学堂与世界意识的开启

洋务运动时期的外国语学堂是西学传入中国的重要桥梁,开启了晚清中国人的世界意识。本文以翔实的史料为基础,系统梳理与归纳了官办外国语学堂在人才培养目标多元化、生源扩大、教师聘任和培养等方面的特点,历史性地呈现了中国近代外语教育从保守走向开放的进程;同时,教学过程中"中体西用"观的指导原则、西学课程的比重配置、翻译实践的优先推行,体现了本土意识和世界意识间彼进我退的复杂关系,对当下中国外语教学目标的设置与实现有一定的借鉴作用。     

中国省际能源利用效率的空间自相关研究

能源效率研究在能源可持续发展和能源环境问题上具有重要的理论和现实意义。结合地理信息系统的空间相关分析功能,对比分析了1995,2000和2003年我国31省市自治区的能源效率与经济发展关系,论证了能源效率不仅与经济发展水平具有明显的空间相关关系和空间集聚性,说明能源效率同样受周围省份影响作用,在区域经济调控和宏观政策制定中必须得考虑这一因素以更好的为能源安全服务。