Investigating the quality of interactions and public engagement around scientific papers on Twitter

This study explores science communication on Twitter by investigating a sample of tweets referring to academic papers in five different scientific fields. The specifications of science communicators on Twitter, the characteristics of those who initiate actions (by tweeting), the extent and quality of reactions (retweeting), individual and group interactions, and the distribution of tweets across types of engagement in the process of science communication (i.e., dissemination, consultation, and evaluation) were explored. A broad array of actors is involved in the communication of science on Twitter, with individual citizens and individual researchers playing an important role. In principle, this is promising for creating direct interaction, which can be difficult through more traditional mass media. The vast majority of communication activities regarding academic papers is undigested dissemination with almost no sign of debate, contestation, or collective reflection. Another general finding of this study is that bot accounts play a major role in the science communication landscape on Twitter.     

The effect of the integration of students with special educational needs: Evidence from Chile

This paper studies the effect of the integration of students with Special Educational Needs (SEN) on the academic achievement of their peers without SEN. This achievement is measured using performance in standardized reading and mathematics tests. The study also evaluates the effect of a policy that recognizes and increases resources for special educational needs that had not yet been considered and improves education provision protocols for students with SEN. Using administrative data and standardized test scores, we constructed a panel that follows a cohort of students before and after the reform, determining for each individual and year whether the class to which he/she belongs has any students with SEN. Our identification strategy employs panel data with fixed effects at the school, individual, and time levels. Estimates show that, on average, having a peer with SEN in the classroom has a negative effect on the academic performance of students without SEN. However, these effects are small and decrease, or even vanish, once better inclusion policies are in place. These results suggest that the effect on peers is almost totally canceled when more resources are provided and when adequate treatment and support protocols are implemented.     

基于微信辅助下的成人本科阶段英语阅读能力提升实践

分析了成人本科阶段学生在英语阅读理解方面存在的问题,采用“微信打卡”小程序和“微信公众号”帮助学生每天坚持阅读技能训练。参与的学生可以进行文字、语音、图片等方式的打卡操作,分享自己完成该篇阅读的时长、答案、收获、困惑等,教师次日在“微信公众号”中发布阅读理解的答案、译文、解析、阅读技巧等,并根据学生的提问进行个别化的辅导。实践证明,基于微信辅助下的阅读方式能有效帮助成人学生坚持阅读训练,分享阅读心得,提高阅读技能,提升阅读兴趣。     

Prejudices Unshelved: Variation in Attitudes toward Controversial Public Library Materials in the General Social Survey, 1972–2014

Using the General Social Survey from 1972–2014, we examine variation in attitudes toward retaining controversial materials in libraries. Previously controversial topics have become much more widely accepted. We find that other controversies remain, showing how global conflicts become intertwined in local cultural controversies, and how the perceived threat from particular groups informs public concern with disseminating information from those groups. We find that more frequent library users are somewhat less likely to want to remove controversial books from the shelves, although some of these relationships are explained by variation in the respondent’s age, race, and other characteristics.     

The potential role of citizen conservation in re-shaping approaches to murals in an urban context

Public visual spaces, populated by a blend of community murals, unauthorised street art, and historic painted mercantile signs, are often the mark of an urban environment that is both progressive and eclectic. Changes in the aesthetic and cultural value of these urban mural forms have led to an increase in the appreciation and, in some instances, promotion of their artistic merit and cultural significance as examples of public art. However, examining the significance of these works, with a view to implementing a conservation approach is problematic. This is due to a number of practical and theoretical considerations that are primarily a result of the ephemeral existence of urban murals outside conventional exhibition spaces, and issues associated with their often fragmented ownership and uncertain authorship. Consequently, larger thinking on the interpretation, conservation assessment, and advocacy for the conservation of urban murals are required. Key to defining and implementing such strategies is contextualising the public visual spaces that these murals occupy and, as part of this, the local and wider communities’ perception of these murals as culturally significant objects as well as fostering awareness and understanding of appropriate measures aimed at their conservation. This paper examines the role of citizen science, or crowd-sourcing, of local community members in establishing a conservation dialogue and generating conservation- relevant data on urban murals. It looks specifically at a project involving a collection of in situ historic painted mercantile signs — also known as ghost signs — in the City of Port Phillip, Melbourne, Australia. The project fostered the establishment of an informed and open dialogue between conservation specialists and participants from the local community on the significance of local ghost signs whilst transferring knowledge on conservation processes and assessment methods. Working directly with community members, a programme was designed in which conservation and community knowledge of these urban art forms, could be collected and exchanged across digital platforms. This enabled researchers to examine how citizen science can be utilised as a research tool as well as a means to advocate for the conservation of collections of urban murals. It created the opportunity to consider the role of non-specialists and shared authorities in the collection and collation of conservation- relevant data and how information generated from what we call citizen conservation projects, can inform the way in which conservators evaluate and prioritize the conservation of urban cultural heritage. The data gathered and interpreted proved to be the most effective means of ‘conserving’ these often ephemeral forms of cultural material.     

Using Political Journalists’ Definitions of Public Opinion to Predict Source Use in Political News

This study examined political journalists’ definitions of public opinion and how these definitions influence the structure of political news stories. After considering prior conceptualizations of public opinion, a scale of two distinct definitions of public opinion was created, consisting of the optimist’s and the pessimist’s definitions. Using a survey of political journalists in the United States, these public opinion definitions were significant predictors of the use of particular sources in political news stories. Importantly, the two definitions had opposite influences on the use of opinion polls, shedding light on the discrepancy in use and perception of poll results in political news.     

推动公共图书馆事业“中部崛起”

“十二五”以来,公共图书馆事业发展出现了“中部洼地”现象。主要表现是:资源占有与服务人口不相称;发展速度相对趋慢;均等化水平低;可比服务成本上升。实现公共图书馆事业发展“中部崛起”,主要应从以下几方面着力:国家宏观政策的调整;强化地方政府主体责任;加快县域公共图书馆总分馆体系建设;拓展和深化“图书馆+”与“互联网+”;完善评价标准的导向作用;抓住促进贫困地区公共文化服务体系建设的历史机遇。表5。参考文献4。     

福建省青少年体育现状初探

为促进福建省青少年体育工作,运用文献资料法、实地调查法采集了福建省体育局青少处近几年工作总结文献资料,利用参与福建省后备人才基地评估机会开展实地调查,对全国青少年基础数据年度统计福建部分数据进行分析,研究发现福建省青少年体育近年来取得实质性进展,青少年体育公共服务体系初具雏形,后备人才在训规模基本稳定,并形成福建特色.研究提出了注重职能转变、有效动员社会力量以及推动体校转型发展等建议.     

浅析公共权力的异化与控制

文章从理论上分析了在公共管理过程中,公共权力的异化是如何导致腐败的。这其中,不仅有人的原因,更有制度的原因。针对当前腐败现象的严重危害,以及公众对腐败的不满,文章着重从人和制度方面提出了一些控制监督公共权力的建议。