Using the Arts to Raise Awareness and Communicate Environmental Information in the Extension Context

Abstract

Extension services face an increasing challenge as the state of Australia's environment declines. It is, therefore, opportune to explore some innovations in the way extension is traditionally delivered. This paper introduces the concept of the visual and performing arts being useful in extension of natural resources management issues such as land water degradation, biodiversity conservation, catchment protection and vegetation management. The paper surveys how the arts and science have met historically and contemporaneously, focusing on examples from ecology such as wildlife and botanical art. It then examines how extension practitioners view the arts, through an analysis of interviews with 26 extensionists working in natural resources management. Extensionists identified five areas that the arts might be utilized to help increase understanding and knowledge of natural resources issues: improving presentations; improving public campaigns and general awareness-raising; aiding facilitation and community development; reinforcing values and beliefs; and helping build a culture that is environmentally sustainable. Despite the potential value of arts in extension, few practitioners in extension use the arts to any great extent to assist in the communication of their messages. The research points to new opportunities for natural resources agencies and conservation organizations to improve their reach into the community. By building a relationship with the arts community they will be able to improve the efficacy of their extension.     

情感计算在网络远程教育系统中的应用：功能、研究现状及关键问题

情感能力是人类智能的重要标志,情感的缺失会影响网络远程教育的教学质量和学习者的学习效果。情感计算是和谐人机交互与人工智能领域中新的研究方向。在网络远程教育系统中应用情感计算理论与技术,可以进一步优化网络远程教育的功能,帮助教师监测远程学习者的情感变化,调整教学策略和方法,实时给予学习者情感反馈,使教学质量达到最佳。目前国内外情感计算在远程教育方面的应用研究还处于起步与探索阶段,所构建的远程教学系统对远程教学中师生情感生理特征与心理特征、多模情感信息融合机制及网络虚拟人机情感交互特性等考虑不足,系统原型在情感合成与表达、智能人机情感交互实现上存在着很大的难度。因此,构建与人类情感系统相吻合的、自然和谐的、人性化和智能化的网络远程教育系统,需要有效解决师生面部表情、语音情感特征信号的准确识别与提取,师生多模情感信息融合机制与和谐人机情感交互技术等关键问题。     

Domesticated Animals on Exhibit at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 1900–1928

In 1905 the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University began planning for a new domesticated animals exhibition in honor of the 100th anniversary of the birth of its founder Louis Agassiz. The resulting displays of variation and heredity in poultry, pigeons, rabbits, mice, and guinea pigs proved surprisingly popular to museumgoers. Some of these specimens still exist in the museum’s storage facilities, namely a series of poultry donated by the biologist Charles B. Davenport and an elaborate set of guinea pigs from the experimental evolutionist William E. Castle. Situating these domesticated animal displays within academic and popular cultures of poultry fancying, animal breeding, and evolutionary science reveals how a nineteenth-century museum known for its ties to anti-evolutionary principles attempted to modernize its public exhibits.     

Word sense disambiguation based on context selection using knowledge-based word similarity

In this paper, we introduce a novel knowledge-based word-sense disambiguation (WSD) system. In particular, the main goal of our research is to find an effective way to filter out unnecessary information by using word similarity. For this, we adopt two methods in our WSD system. First, we propose a novel encoding method for word vector representation by considering the graphical semantic relationships from the lexical knowledge bases, and the word vector representation is utilized to determine the word similarity in our WSD system. Second, we present an effective method for extracting the contextual words from a text for analyzing an ambiguous word based on word similarity. The results demonstrate that the suggested methods significantly enhance the baseline WSD performance in all corpora. In particular, the performance on nouns is similar to those of the state-of-the-art knowledge-based WSD models, and the performance on verbs surpasses that of the existing knowledge-based WSD models.     

Interval exercise induces milder respiratory responses compared to continuous exercise

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to explore the respiratory response of acute interval and continuous exercise (CE) of low and high intensity. Fourteen recreational athletes (7 men and 7 women; VO₂max = 35.7 ± 6.1 mlkg^–1min^–1) performed a bout of continuous and a bout of interval exercise (IE) both consisted of 5-min cycling at low intensity [80% of the power output (W) of the predetermined gas exchange threshold (GET) (80%W_GET)] and 5-min cycling at high intensity {W_GET plus the work rate corresponding to 50% of the difference between peak power output (PPO) at oxygen uptake (VO₂max) test and the W_GET [W_GET + 0.50 Δ(PPO – W_GET)]}. CE compared to IE induced significant higher heart rate and ventilation as well as significant higher levels of mouth occlusion pressure for 0.1 s (P_0.1) (P < 0.05) during low and high intensities. Our results indicate that CE stimulates respiration more than IE when the exercise is performed at the same relative intensity.     

汶川地震对档案馆建筑安全设计的启示

四川省汶川县发生的强烈地震灾害．给人民群众的生命财产造成严重损失。这给档案馆建筑安全设计带来了启示：档案馆防灾必须坚持一定的原则．在重视应急预案的同时．还要从建筑本身入手。从提高抗震标准、进行科学选址、加大开放空间和优化设计方案等方面入手．利用建筑本身的防灾能力防止或减弱灾害对档案馆的威胁．从建筑设计上尽最大可能保证档案的完整与安全．     

夏热冬暖地区教学办公建筑节能设计实践探索——以福建工程学院新校区某建筑设计为例

根据建筑功能要求和当地气候特点,在总体规划和单体设计中,科学合理地确定建筑朝向、平面形状、空间布局、外观体型、间距,选用节能型建筑材料,保证建筑外维护结构的保温隔热等热工特性,应用节能技术措施,尽可能减少建筑物能耗,获得理想的节能效果.     

通代文法研究

探讨了通代文法描述语言的语法;给出了通代文法的分析算法;通过实例解析这种算法的特点。     

论哈代的宗教观

在19世纪后半期,哈代以艺术的形式探讨了对传统基督教进行改造的问题,认为基督教应该别除对上帝的神秘主义阐释,重视理性在宗教信仰中不可忽视的地位,上帝即爱,此与西方启蒙运动哲学中的自然宗教思想暗合。哈代的宗教观是一种倡导人性完美的哲学,体现了其作为理想主义者的社会进化思想。     

自然陶养 自我化育——论生态美育

生态危机说到底是人性的危机，改善生态环境，化解生态危机，关键是解决人的问题。生态美育以培养生态审美的人为根本任务，以自然陶养为基本途径，唤醒人们的生态意识，树立正确的生态审美观、生态价值观和生态伦理观，使人性向善、向美提升，以生态文明促进物质文明和精神文明，构建和谐社会。