Op. cit.: publishing in the humanities and social sciences

Do the humanities and social sciences have the same publishing requirements as the sciences? What can be done to counter perceptions that acquisition funds have migrated away from publications in the fields of the humanities and social sciences to meet the escalating cost of electronic and print journals in the natural and applied sciences? With university presses, non-profit publishers, and the academy itself under strain, we examine the problems, discuss the continuing requirements of scholarship, the implications for funding strategies, and the role of technology, and give examples of new ventures that suggest possible solutions to the problems. We conclude that the primary values that scholars in the humanities and social sciences hold are not dramatically different from those of other academic disciplines and make recommendations for building a broader base of support for scholarship in these areas.     

Problem-Based Learning for Engineering Students: An Evidence-Based Comparative Study

This paper describes two studies, one a pilot and the second, an enhanced study, that compare problem-based learning and lecture-based learning in library instruction for first-year engineering students. Two distinct assessment strategies were used to provide empirical evidence that supports the use of problem-based learning as an effective teaching method. Based on the results of the enhanced study, the authors conclude that problem-based learning leads to better outcomes for the learning styles of engineering students.     

Portfolio People: Teaching and Learning Dossiers and Innovation in Higher Education

As teaching portfolios have become more commonplace in higher education, interest has grown in student portfolios. Both innovations embody the same core process—reflection—and both have similar potential benefits and similar drawbacks. This paper commends portfolios as innovative in themselves and as a response to the new mandates that are confronting higher education. Accounts of the potential of and problems with portfolios are summarized, and attention is then given to key issues in successfully introducing them. The underlying position is that students can best gain from their years of study when the systemic reflection that is characteristic of portfolios engages them (through learning portfolios) and their teachers (through teaching portfolios). Embedding such thinking in practice is, itself, a powerful and innovative approach to re-framing the curriculum.     

Assessment matters—Research and learning intensive: Bowling Green State University commits to both

Ten years ago, BGSU pledged to become the premier learning community in Ohio and one of the best in the nation. With campuswide agreement and widespread assessment, the institution has made gains and has a clear sense of what it needs to do next.     

Clinical appraisal of spelling ability and its relationship to phonemic awareness (blending,segmenting, elision,and reversal), phonological memory,and reading in reading disabled,ADHD, and normal children

Seventy-eight 8-to-12-year-old children (34 ReadingDisabled; 31 Attention-Deficit-Hyperactivity-Disordered; and 13diagnosed normal controls) were given a battery oftests including cognitive, linguistic, academic,phonemic awareness, and memory tests. As part of theacademic battery an 8-point spelling rating scale wasdeveloped (Rating Scale) that resulted in threedifferent scores which reliably discriminated amongthe three groups. Relationships between phonemicawareness, phonological memory, reading and spellingwere explored. Zero-order and second-ordercorrelations were completed with indications thatphonemic awareness tasks (elision, blending, reversal,and segmenting) and phonological memory (WISC-IIIDigit Span) are significantly correlated with readingdecoding and spelling measures with slightly highercorrelations with the Rating Scale. Regressionanalyses resulted in a large proportion of thevariance on reading and spelling tasks accounted forby phonemic awareness (particularly elision andreversal) and phonological memory. The ReadingDisabled group was found to produce more errors thatwere phonetically inaccurate than the other twogroups. The demand of spelling ten ``error' wordsbeyond the RD students' achievement level appeared toelicit greater weaknesses in their phonologicalrecoding abilities than in those of the ADHD ornormally achieving students.     

凯特·麦克道威尔 不只是岁月静好

当人们看到艺术家凯特·麦克道威尔(Kate Macdowell)的作品时,脑海中会情不自禁地浮现出这样一段话——段来自英国学者、《纳尼亚王国传奇》作者C.S.Lewis的名言:"对于美,我们从不满足于远观。尽管上帝为证,美已是无上的恩典。我们希求无法诉诸语言的情感——我们想与所见的美产生关联,想将美据为己有,想周身沐浴其中,甚至——想成为美的一部分。"     

Model-based automatic tracking of articulated human movement

This study applied a vision-based tracking approach to the analysis of articulated, three-dimensional (3D) whole-body human movements. A 3D computer graphics model of the human body was constructed from ellipsoid solids and customized to two gymnasts for size and colour. The model was used in the generation of model images from multiple camera views with simulated environments based on measurements taken on each of three synchronized video cameras and the lighting sources present in the original recording environment. A hierarchical procedure was used whereby the torso was tracked initially to establish whole-body position and orientation and subsequently body segments were added successively to the model to establish body configuration. An iterative procedure was used at each stage to optimize each new set of variables using a score based on the RGB colour difference between the model images and video images at each stage. Tracking experiments were carried out on movement sequences using both synthetic and video image data. Promising qualitative results were obtained with consistent model matching in all sequences, including sequences involving whole-body rotational movements. Accurate tracking results were obtained for the synthetic image sequences. Automatic tracking results for the video images were also compared with kinematic estimates obtained via manual digitization and favourable comparisons were obtained. It is concluded that with further development this model-based approach using colour matching should provide the basis of a robust and accurate tracking system applicable to data collection for biomechanics studies.