Ecological Planting Imperative: Functional Systems,Not Stylized Ecologies

The ability of landscape architectural projects to mitigate the worst effects of climate change will depend upon designed ecological systems. These systems will be built with plants. Despite the recognition of ecology as an essential driver of landscapes, the professionals of landscape architecture too often lack the knowledge and practical skills to create robust vegetative systems. New approaches and tools are required. This article outlines principles and methods for designing biodiverse plant systems for urban sites. Planting methods that increase species richness, functional diversity, and spatial complexity are emphasized as a way of developing more resilient plantings. Selecting species with similar evolutionary adaptions to stress, disturbance, and competition—as well as creating multi-layered compositions of diverse plant morphologies—allows designers to create compatible, long-lived plant mixes. To balance the increased visual complexity of diverse plant mixes, the article explores design techniques to make plantings more appealing to the public. The strategies explored here are based on the projects, experience, and research of Phyto Studio, a Washington, D.C. based studio. The methods build on work described in the author’s book, Planting in a Post-Wild World, an exploration of how to create designed plant communities.     

生态健康旅游袜产品的创意设计与开发

介绍生态健康旅游袜产品的创意设计思路及工艺设计,包括产品定位设计、功能设计、品质设计、外观设计、包装设计。阐述生态健康旅游袜产品的生产工艺流程,包括纤维生产工艺、短流程快速纺纱生产工艺、生态健康旅游袜生产工艺。详细分析生态健康旅游袜产品主体纤维材料的选择,并以生态健康旅途袜产品开发为例,介绍袜品研发过程,并对袜品进行性能测试。总结生态健康旅游袜的产品定位原则、创意设计思想及研发关键技术,对功能性袜品的设计开发具有借鉴意义。     

践行社会责任开展线上公益主题海报设计教育实践——苏州大学师生抗击疫情公益海报创作纪实

从践行社会责任的设计教育工作人才培养目标出发,在疫情期间,组织学生,深入了解社会生活的工艺诉求,通过线上线下的教学模式,指导学生创作抗击疫情公益海报。这种融入网络远程教学与实践教育的活动,不仅提升了学生的社会责任感,激活了假期课堂模式,而且提升了学生设计实践能力,实现了“立德树人”的人才培养目标。     

Evolving accuracy: A genetic algorithm to improve election night forecasts

In this paper, we apply genetic algorithms to the field of electoral studies. Forecasting election results is one of the most exciting and demanding tasks in the area of market research, especially due to the fact that decisions have to be made within seconds on live television. We show that the proposed method outperforms currently applied approaches and thereby provides an argument to tighten the intersection between computer science and social science, especially political science, further. We scrutinize the performance of our algorithm's runtime behavior to evaluate its applicability in the field. Numerical results with real data from a local election in the Austrian province of Styria from 2010 substantiate the applicability of the proposed approach.     

Barriers and facilitators to following the dietary guidelines for vegetable intake: Follow-up of an intervention to increase vegetable intake

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) stress the importance of a diet high in vegetables; however, intake remains low. Recently, we found that self-identified low vegetable consumers ate the recommended daily amounts of vegetables when they were provided gratis but returned to habitual intake when vegetables were no longer supplied. This follow-up study aimed to identify key barriers and facilitators to vegetable consumption and to assess if barriers and facilitators differ between adults who had been provided vegetables in recommended amounts (N = 18) and those who had acted as controls with no vegetables provided (N = 16) during a randomized, controlled trial. Nominal group technique (NGT) sessions were conducted to identify and prioritize perceived barriers and facilitators to following the DGA for vegetables. Responses from all NGT sessions were aggregated and grouped into major themes. Convenience, availability, cost, and knowledge were core facilitators in both groups, while motivation emerged as a facilitator only in the control group. Time, preference, and cost were core barriers in both groups, while availability emerged as a barrier only in the control group and social support a barrier only in the intervention group. The barriers and facilitators identified by the intervention group and the control group from the primary study differed in relative rankings, suggesting that the experience of consuming provided vegetables influenced the strength of the perceived barriers and facilitators. The multi-factorial nature of the identified barriers and facilitators underscores the importance of addressing individual, social, and environmental factors to increase vegetable consumption.     

Energy,exergy and ecological analysis and multiobjective optimization of the hydrogen-fueled Scimitar engine with fixed nozzle geometry

In this study, an energy, exergy and ecological analysis and multiobjective optimization of the Scimitar engine with fixed core nozzle outlet geometry are carried out at hypersonic cruise conditions. A single-objective optimization is performed first, which revealed that overall efficiency and coefficient of ecological performance are maximized with different optimum nozzle outlet areas, and it propounded the need for a multiobjective optimization. The single objective optimization also showed that decreasing the hydrogen fuel mass flow rate and cruise altitude together with increasing the air mass flow rate and cruise speed improve the performance of the engine. Then, the multiobjective optimization is performed with the utopia point method. It is concluded that for fuel and air mass flow rates of 3.99 kg/s and 178.6 kg/s, respectively, and cruise speed and altitude of Ma = 5.2 and 22 km, respectively, the optimum core nozzle outlet area is 4.00 m², when equal weight factors are used for overall efficiency and coefficient of ecological performance. A comparison with the base scenario results showed that the overall efficiency has increased from 55.1% to 57.3%, and the engine size is reduced from 5.38 m² to 4.00 m² with the multiobjective optimization.     

藏族风情自驾旅游区概念规划——以四川松潘县林坡村为例

四川省甘(孜)—阿(坝)民族地区自然环境优美,民族文化浓郁,旅游资源丰富,近年来吸引了大批自驾游客。甘(孜)—阿(坝)地区松潘县川主寺镇林坡村基于生态和少数民族特色村寨保护的理念,围绕区域"硬资源"(自然景观)和"软资源"(民族特色风情)来构建旅游发展格局,形成了民族特色鲜明、生态可持续发展的体验式自驾旅游区。     

土地利用规划的范式转变——基于生态伦理的横断面规划思想的引介

横断面规划的思想源于广阔的区域性议题及可持续发展理念,是应对生态环境问题的一种综合性的规划方法。横断面规划的基础是地理景观,地理景观反映了人与自然的关系,城乡横断面表现了人与自然关系的梯度。基于横断面的形态分类体现了人地关系的刻度,将发展目标转译为某一种形态实质是规定某一种具体的人地关系,是生态伦理价值的具体表现。以横断面分区取代功能分区,把规划调查、分析、设计和开发控制有效地整合在一起,实现了土地利用规划的范式转变。     

复合材料与工程专业实践教学体系的构建与实施简

专业实践教学是高等教育的重要组成部分,对于培养学生创新意识、创新精神和创新能力具有不可替代的作用。加强实践教学改革,必须要建立相对独立的实践教学体系。我们从专业实践教学体系的构建原则和运行保障出发,梳理复合材料与工程专业实践教学的理论和实践研究,并根据大学生创新实践能力的内涵要求,构建了以创新和实践能力培养为目标的高校一体化实践教学体系。