Teaching about thermal expansion: investigating the effectiveness of a cognitive bridging approach

Background: It is widely known that for many students it is very difficult to correctly predict how thermal expansion affects the appearance of a metal plate with a circular hole. Interviews with school teachers show that the source of this difficulty could stem from the fact that students’ internal visualizations of an arbitrary object’s thermal expansion often boil down to visualizing changes along one dimension only.

Purpose: In this study, we investigated how students’ mental models about one-dimensional expansion can be extended for purposes of running mental simulations about expansion along two dimensions.

Sample: To that end a pretest-posttest quasi-experiment has been conducted, with 100 students in the control group and 95 students in the experimental group.

Design and methods: Whereas control group students received traditional instruction with a focus on formal representations, in the experimental group the students were led to draw an analogy between heating of a straight rod and a circular rod of same length, whereby the internal structure of the rods was represented by springs.

Results: Eventually, it has been found that students from the experimental group were significantly more successful at predicting the effects of thermal expansion, especially within contexts of objects with holes.

Conclusion: Analogies and extreme case reasoning can be effectively used for helping the students to correctly transfer their mental models about one-dimensional expansion to situations that require reasoning about expansion along two dimensions.     

科技支撑我国生态文明建设的探索、实践与思考

建设生态文明,是关系人民福祉、民族未来的长远大计。科技创新作为人类文明发展的主要驱动力,将优化国土空间开发格局,促进经济发展方式转变,加速循环经济和绿色产业发展,推动生态环境保护,加快管理体制转换,在生态文明建设中发挥重要的支撑作用。广大科技工作者要把生态文明的建设任务作为我们科研工作的重要出发点,在相关领域要明确科技需求,瞄准核心问题,全面落实党的"十八大"对生态文明建设的总体要求和战略部署。     

Normalization effect of sports training on blood pressure in hypertensives

Abstract

In this study, we assessed the extent to which 2000-m rowing ergometer performance predicted final rankings at the World Junior Rowing Championship in a sample of 398 junior rowers competing in 13 events. The rowers' ergometer performance times were examined using a questionnaire, and in all 13 events they correlated (P ≤ 0.039) with the final rankings at the Championship. The strongest correlations were observed for ergometer performance times in junior women's single sculls (r = 0.92; P < 0.001), followed by junior men's single sculls (r = 0.80; P < 0.001) and junior women's double sculls (r = 0.79; P < 0.001). The observed correlations were higher for smaller boats – singles, doubles, and pairs (r = 0.64–0.92; P ≤ 0.025) – than for larger boats – quads, fours, and eights (r = 0.31–0.70; P ≤ 0.039). Linear regression analyses were used to construct regression equations to predict final rankings based on 2000-m rowing ergometer performance times for each event. Although correlations in 10 of the 13 events were above r = 0.5, the large standard errors of the estimate impaired the prediction of rankings in all of the studied events. Using these equations, the most probable rowing ergometer performance times required for a particular ranking in a given rowing event might easily be calculated.     

Higher growth through the Blue Ocean Strategy: Implications for economic policy

Higher growth is a key goal of companies, governments, and societies. Economic policies often attempt to attain this goal by targeting companies of certain sizes that operate in specific industries and focus on a specific business activity. This approach to policy making has considerable shortcomings and seems to be less than fully effective in increasing economic growth. We suggest a new approach to policy making that stems directly from the entrepreneurial perspective. This approach examines a successful business strategy framework - the Blue Ocean Strategy - to discover conditions for high growth. We test the propositions on empirical data for two cases of successful high-growth business, namely Slovenian gazelles and Amazon.com. The results reveal a gap between the macro level of economic policy making to achieve higher growth and the micro level of business growth. The findings call for a change in the focus of economic policies on specific size companies, industries, and business activities to intraindustry cooperation, collaboration between companies of different sizes, value innovation, and creation of uncontested markets.     

Market orientation in managing relationships with multiple constituencies of Croatian higher education

In this paper, market orientation in Croatian higher education (HE) is discussed within the context of stakeholder-oriented management. Drawing on existing studies, the ‘classical’ empirical model, describing the market orientation of generic nonprofit organisations, has been adapted to the contingencies of the Croatian HE sector. Empirical testing of the model, based on primary data drawn from the majority of public institutions of higher learning in the country, reveals inadequate market orientation toward the relevant stakeholders. Although social market orientation currently does not exist in Croatian HE institutions, the empirical results confirm that it might be possible to initiate a ‘virtuous circle’, in which relevant market orientation and stakeholder management practices, directed toward one or other of the stakeholders, simultaneously enhance orientation toward the other stakeholders. Unfortunately, the current situation in HE is not satisfactory, which could hinder the implementation of development of knowledge society in Croatia.

首期“商业票据印刷工艺及技能培训班”近日在我校举行

为提高商业票据印刷机操作员的生产技能与专业知识水准,由中国印刷技术协会商业票据印刷分会主办,上海新闵太阳机械有限公司、上海出版印刷高等专科学校(上海理工大学出版印刷学院、国家新闻出版总署出版印刷人才培养基地)等单位联合承办第一期"商业票据印刷工艺及技能培训班"于2006年6月11~17日在上海出版印刷高等专科学校(上海理工大学出版印刷学院)举行。中国印刷技术协会理事长武文祥、中国印刷技术协会商业票据印刷分会会长邢建民、原北京印刷学院院长、现大百科全书出版社社长田胜立及承办本次培训班的上海新闵太阳机械有限公司总经理祁和亮、上海出版印刷高等专科学校(上海理工大学出版印刷学院)党委书记朱南勤、副校长滕跃民及、中国印刷技术协会、上海市印刷技术协会、紫光机械有限公司、豹驰集团上海公司、北人富士印刷机械有限公司的代表、专业媒体及来自全国15个省市、35家企业的近70名学员约百人参加了2006年6月11日的开学典礼。上海理工大学副校长、上海出版印刷高等专科学校(上海理工大学出版印刷学院)校长陈敬良会见了印刷协会与企业的领导及代表。       

EFI公司隆重召开DSF新品发布会

作为数字服务器、超宽幅面喷墨打印机及印刷管理解决方案的供应商EFI公司,于2006年6月16日在2006中国国际全印展上举办了"EFIDSF工作流程解决方案的新品发布会",并首度向中国市场正式推出Digital StoreFront(DSF)网络作业递交系统。       

张小影女士受聘为上海理工大学兼职教授

2006年12月,中宣部新闻出版局局长张小影女士被上海理工大学正式聘请为兼职教授,指导上海理工大学出版印刷学院新媒体出版传播学科的建设。上海理工大学校长许晓明向张小影女士颁发了兼职教授证书。