Challenges of engineering higher education in a transitional economy: a Russian experience

Education and training serve as critical elements of advancement of a nation’s economy in transition. The restructuring of the power engineering industry in Russia has called for a fast implementation of new management system in electric power engineering and radical training of professional managers at different levels in organizations. Management training in electric power engineering in Russia has been implemented by (1) preparing highly professional managers in higher education institutions and technical universities and by (2) improving the management skills of practicing managers in technical universities and educational centers of different power energy companies. This article reports the experience of introducing a new discipline ‘Management in Electrical Engineering’ at the Moscow Power Engineering Institute (Technical University) and reflects on training managers in electric power engineering at higher education and corporate educational centers.     

Socio-political factors and the failure of innovation policy in Croatia as a country in transition

This paper discusses the roles of socio-political factors and related public policies in the economic growth of Croatia, as well as their influence on its transition to a knowledge economy (KE). The Croatian experience might help to understand transition processes in other Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs). This paper argues that Croatia has failed to capitalize on its inherited science base, which could have been used as a starting point in the transition towards a KE, because it has not made the shift from an obsolete socialist-style science policy to a modern innovation policy (IP); the latter is seen as the new policy paradigm necessary for structural adjustment to a KE.Covert socio-political growth factors shaped by the country-specific historical heritage of Croatia have prevented the recognition of the need for structural adjustment to the new technology regime, and have led to the belief that the IP is not only irrelevant but is also a relict of the state interventionism inherited from socialism, which was the most serious obstacle to policy reform.Examples drawn from the development of the IP and the National System of Innovation (NSI) in Croatia, which shares the socialist model of science policy and the socio-political context of the transition towards a market economy with other CEECs, can help to explain the failure of the IP. In the Croatian case, the decisive factors were the social state of so-called “semi-modernism” and the governance of the so-called “de-industrializing elite”.This paper concludes that the transition of a CEEC from a market economy to a KE requires a serious re-design of development policy, the effectiveness of which depends on social change determined by the political recognition and social assimilation of the new technological regime. In this sense, the current paper contributes to the understanding of the roles of social capital and governance in the economic growth of post-socialist countries.     

过渡农业、成长经济与中国现代农业道路选择

中国正处于过渡农业阶段,是一种二元农业结构;农业经济实际上是一种成长经济,不能片面追求技术投入和规模化经营。中国现代农业道路选择应从过渡农业现状和农业成长经济理论出发,走"中国式"和"世界式"农业现代化的双重道路模式。     

论篮球运动攻防转换的实效性

运用矛盾的双方是对立又统一的观点,通过对篮球运动中攻防转换的规律性及特殊性进行分析,旨在提高攻守转换中的合理性和实效性。     

The transition to secondary school geometry: can there be a “chain of school mathematics”?

Students mainly perceive the transition to secondary school as an opportunity to start their school career anew. Reality often proves them wrong, especially in the case of mathematics. In our paper, we briefly discuss children’s transition to secondary school as both an opportunity and a problem, with reference to the Greek context. In discussions about the transition to secondary school and its effect on the teaching and learning of mathematics, primary and secondary school teachers in Greece often depict school mathematics as a “chain” of concepts and procedures. With this metaphor as our reference point, we discuss how ideologies about the teaching of mathematics are enacted in both school levels. We will base our discussion on the analysis of extracts taken from dialogues in primary and secondary school mathematics classrooms in Greece. In our analysis, we employ a Peircean view of semiotics in an attempt to conceptualize students’ rushed introduction to rigor in justifying mathematical statements in secondary school. These extracts are part of a longitudinal study that aimed, on the one hand, to pinpoint discontinuities and continuities in the teaching of geometry between primary and secondary schools and, on the other, to investigate whether a set of curriculum material that we designed could serve as a link in the teaching of geometry between the two school levels.     

A tracer study of Lebanese upper secondary school students

This paper presents data arising from a tracer study of 90 terminating Beirut upper secondary school students. Nearly all the students intended to transit to university, about half of them to science and technology programmes, and subsequently did so. Median anticipated earnings upon graduation were realistic, but a lack of information or guidance about higher education and career options was noted by a considerable proportion. The results of the study are discussed with reference to the as yet poorly elucidated dynamics of schooling with regard to attrition and transition to higher education and employment in Lebanon.     

Proposals for improving the transition process of young people with intellectual disabilities in Spain: insights from focus groups of professionals,young people and their families

This research aims to present proposals that can improve the transition to adulthood of young people with intellectual disabilities (ID). Four focus groups were set up in three different cities in Spain, each comprising education and social work professionals, people with ID and family members. In total, 32 participants were included in the study. The discussions were recorded, transcribed and analysed using thematic content analysis. Improvements proposed by participants were organised into six themes: coordination between services and professionals; curricular approaches; participation by young people with ID; peer-relationship networks; family and administration. Participants highlighted the need to make the curriculum more flexible and foster curricular experiences related to social and workplace inclusion, as well as establish more continuity in guidance processes throughout the different stages of education and especially at the end of secondary education. Participants also suggested the need for young people with ID to have a more prominent role in their educational process, and strengthening their social networks by promoting their participation in community activities.     

信息服务的趋同与转型

随着数字信息技术的普及,信息服务开始向数字化、网络化和综合化转型。信息服务机构之间不再以信息生产、存储和传播技术为边界,而以不同的用户和市场为边界,跨行业竞争与合作,为各自的用户提供多媒体信息服务和综合信息服务。     

An efficient method for parallel CRC automatic generation

The State Transition Equation (STE) based method to automatically generate the parallel CRC circuits for any generator polynomial or required amount of parallelism is presented. The parallel CRC circuit so generated is partially optimized before being fed to synthesis tools and works properly in our LAN transceiver. Compared with the cascading method, the proposed method gives better timing results and significantly reduces the synthesis time, in particular. Project (No. 60271010) supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China