Measurement and analysis of soil nitrogen and organic matter content using near-infrared spectroscopy techniques

Near infrared reflectance （N1R） spectroscopy is as a rapid, convenient and simple nondestructive technique useful for quantifying several soil properties. This method was used to estimate nitrogen （N） and organic matter （OM） content in a soil of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou County. A total of 125 soil samples were taken from the field. Ninety-five samples spectra were used during the calibration and cross validation stage. Thirty samples spectra were used to predict N and OM concentration. NIR spectra of these samples were correlated using partial least square regression. The regression coefficients between measured and predicted values of N and OM was 0.92 and 0.93, and SEP （standard error of prediction） were 3.28 and 0.06, respectively, which showed that NIR method had potential to accurately predict these constituents in this soil. The results showed that NIR spectroscopy could be a good tool for precision farming application.     

基于混沌加密和HVS在数字水印算法中的应用

针对混沌系统和人类视觉特性改进一种鲁棒性数字水印算法。原始图像经过离散小波变换提取子带系数,二值灰度数字水印图像信号在嵌入时经过Logistic混沌映射预处理,结合人眼视觉特性,水印图像嵌入到重要的子带系数中,实验证明该方案对常见的图像处理如噪声、剪切、旋转等攻击具有很好的鲁棒性。     

创新是发展的根本动力

创新是一个复杂的价值创造过程,是经济发展的决定性力量。创新驱动发展涉及现代化建设的方方面面,包括科学技术创新、商业模式创新、制度创新、管理创新和社会创新以及人才培养机制创新。为实现创新驱动发展,需要完善国家创新生态系统,加速政府职能转变,着力营造良好的创新制度文化环境,激发创新主体的创新活力,强化创新基础条件平台建设,弘扬中华民族的创新文化和创新精神,形成全社会关心创新、参与创新的良好发展局面,加快建设创新型国家和全面建成小康社会。     

Impact in the school system of a strategy for identifying and selecting academically talented students: the experience of Program PENTA‐UC

The study explores the consequences, for participating schools, of the implementation of a system for the identification and selection of academically talented students, in the context of an extracurricular enrichment program operating at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. The participants were 73 students, 50 teachers, and seven members of the school administration, in seven schools. Data were collected through interviews and focus groups. The results indicated that the identification and selection processes have mostly positive effects on teachers and students. Some potentially negative effects were also detected for the classmates of the talented students, which relate mainly to the manner in which information was handled. Possible implications of these findings for this program for talented children and other similar programs are discussed.     

The Impact of an Erasmus Placement in Students’ Perception of their Intercultural Communicative Competence

Pre- and post-questionnaires answered by UK Nottingham Trent University (NTU) and Spain’s University of Salamanca (USAL) students on their placement abroad support a comparative analysis of its impact on their intercultural communicative competence, comprising the awareness, attitude, skills and knowledge dimensions. NTU students started their placements with better results in them all. Yet, while both groups completed their stay with a similarly increased awareness, the knowledge and skills of the USAL group matched the results of NTU students and, whereas the scores of the attitude dimension towards the host country of NTU students did not increase significantly, those of USAL students decreased.     

Constructivist Approaches in a Dual-Language Classroom

Dual-language programs are becoming increasingly popular among educators and the public in general. In these programs, students aim at attaining full proficiency in English and another language while reaching an academic achievement at or above grade level. This article describes a series of pedagogical practices in the context of dual-language classrooms. We set the discussion across three defining characteristics of our constructivist perspective: learning as collaboration, teachers as facilitators, and language and culture as intertwined elements in schools. In sum, we postulate that dual-language programs bring equity to schools.     

河北宋金剔花瓷器赏析

剔花是宋代出现的一种陶瓷装饰新工艺,主要用在一些需要使用化妆土的粗胎瓷器上。其工艺一般是先在胎体表面施一至两层白化妆土,趁化妆土未干时用尖锐的工具迅速划出花纹轮廓,紧接着用铲状工具将花纹以外的化妆土剔掉,最后施透明釉入窑焙烧。剔花装饰巧妙地利用白色化妆土与深色胎体之间的反差来突出纹饰,与传统的划花装饰相比,不仅花纹显得更加醒目,而且还具有一定的立体感。     

Cosmopolitical encounters: Prototyping at the National Zoo in Santiago,Chile

This article presents an empirical reflection on how the prototyping of an environmental enrichment device for chimpanzees at the National Zoo of Chile precipitates a cosmopolitical encounter. Using material produced by design students, zookeepers and the chimps Judy and Gombe, we describe how prototyping iterations establish open processes of dialogue and encounters among humans and nonhumans. The case will demonstrate how prototyping can go further than the generation of models of an original. On the contrary, the cosmopolitical encounter emerging from the prototyping process makes evident a truly ontological vocation, acknowledging humans and other-than-human beings as singular entities. Its provisional and malleable nature turns this device into a privileged locus for the exploration of interspecies entanglement. Although zoos are scientifically organized institutions, in this case we observe how its anthropocentric hierarchy was performatively reshuffled at certain moments of the prototyping process. The cosmopolitical qualities of the prototyping process analyzed derive from its capacity to deploy an ethics of attention and care between the agencies at play, that is, for unfold gestures of mutual vulnerability. Finally, we propose prototyping as a device for moving from cosmopolitics as a way of understanding the world to cosmopolitics as a matter of design.     

Demand for culture in Spain and the 2012 VAT rise

This paper analyzes the effects that the 2012 VAT rise in Spain had on household’ demand for cultural goods and services. Household’ demands are modeled as a two-stage QUAIDS. After estimating price and expenditure elasticities, and the pass-through parameter associated with the reform, our results show that the individual welfare loss and the increment in the tax bill increase, but less than proportionately, with income. Consequently, the reform can be considered as regressive. Relating the effects of the VAT reform to households’ incomes also implies a low quantitative effect, because of the low proportion of total household expenditure that cultural expenditure represents. From a social perspective, the size of the induced welfare loss would positively depend on society’s inequality aversion. Regardless of the latter, it cannot be concluded whether the reform would have increased or reduced inequality in the distribution of cultural spending. Our results prove qualitatively robust to alternative values of the pass-through parameter.     

Measuring allocative efficiency in Cultural Economics: the case of “Fundación Princesa de Asturias” (The Princess of Asturias Foundation)

The literature on Cultural Economics provides us with some examples for the measurement of technical efficiency. However, there are few case studies dedicated to the analysis of allocative efficiency. The aim of this paper is to fill this gap by incorporating a methodology that analyses both technical and allocative efficiency. We use the Shephard’s distance function, particularly suitable when affronted with non-profit-making firms or institutions that are not interested in cost minimization. As an empirical application, we analyse the efficiency of Fundación Princesa de Asturias (PAF), a Spanish non-governmental organization devoted to promoting the cultural, scientific and humanistic values of universal heritage, the period of study being 1988–2012. Our findings suggest that PAF could have used 7% less inputs to achieve the same level of output. On the other hand, we have found allocative inefficiency. Concretely, the input for other expenditures appears to have been over-utilized in relation to both the inputs for labour and current assets, with labour in turn being over-utilized in relation to current assets. Moreover, our results indicate that both technical and allocative efficiency have clearly improved during the period analysed. In summary, our empirical application shows how distance function methodology can be successfully implemented to measure allocative efficiency in cultural firms and institutions.