Internationalists and locals: international research collaboration in a resource-poor system

Higher education plays a significant role in economic growth and social development. However, the uneven development of higher education in China has become an important factor restricting its overall progress. Traditional data envelopment analysis (DEA) models used by previous studies are deterministic and susceptible to the impacts of measurement errors and the omission of unobserved but potentially relevant variables, which we referred to as environmental variables latter. To address both of these drawbacks, we develop and implement a three-stage DEA model to examine the efficiency of China’s mainland 31 provinces’ Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in 2016, which fills the gap in the efficiency evaluation of HEIs in all provinces of China. The “real” efficiency about management performance of each province’s HEIs is obtained and decomposed after the impacts of environmental variables and random errors are eliminated. Lastly, relevant policy suggestions are given on how to improve the efficiency of each province’s HEIs.

     

A materialist conception of the lifeworld: Enzo Paci's social phenomenology of technology and the environment

Enzo Paci offers a critical phenomenology of the human-technology-environment interface. Revisiting Paci makes two contributions: (1) a critical social phenomenology of technology and (2) a conception of the lifeworld as environment-dependent. Birthed from a conversation between Husserl and Marx, his theory of the lifeworld as need and the satisfaction of need directs attention to humanity's necessary interaction with the environment as well as an understanding of techniques as means to satisfy needs in historically specific social contexts. “Technistic alienation” occurs when these techniques dominate their authors, from the atomic bomb to industrial labor, and their consciousness - for instance, when misplaced science is used to justify unjust social conditions. “Intentional technology” refers to the potential of “returning” technology to its authors to formulate a rational society.     

基于通感效应下的包装设计研究

社会、经济、全球科学技术飞速发展,生活条件的富足使得人们对于丰富精神世界的需求与日俱增,大量的人开始追求审美的提高和艺术方面的修养。在日常生活中,随处可见的商品包装当然也要顺应时代需求与其他学科有机结合,创造出新的包装设计形式。近年来,设计领域许多以“通感”作为对象的学术研究和实践探索如雨后春笋般出现。本文在分析通感含义的基础上,将通感理念引入到包装设计中,调动消费者五感之间的互动,使消费者有更好的购买体验。     

Handling “Dont Know” Survey Responses: The Case of Japanese Voters on Party Support

The problem of false negatives, people who really have attitudes but refrain from expressing them, could seriously bias the analysis, but has largely been neglected. Using a survey data including a number of “Don’t know” responses, this paper examined whether “Don’t know” respondents had underlying attitudes. We treated these nonresponses as nonignorably missing, in the sense that “Don’t know” responses are related to the answer of the question in some partially unknown way. We proposed a method to estimate parameters in a logit model when the covariates are nonignorably missing. The method simultaneously employed two generalized linear models: the proportional odds model for the response variable “Party-Support”, and the multinomial logit model for the nonresponse. We found that “Don’t know” responses to the Cabinet support question depended on whether the respondents supported the Cabinet, indicating the existence of false negatives. We also found that determining which party to support was based on voters’ ideology, city size and stance toward the Cabinet, even with the false negatives.

     

Analyzing Behavioral Big Data: Methodological,practical, ethical,and moral issues

ABSTRACT

The term “big data” evokes emotions ranging from excitement to exasperation in the statistics community. Looking beyond these emotions reveals several important changes that affect us as statisticians and as humans. I focus on Behavioral Big Data (BBD), or very large and rich multidimensional datasets on human behaviors, actions, and interactions, which have become available to companies, governments, and researchers. This article describes the BBD landscape and examines opportunities and critical issues that arise when applying statistical and data mining approaches to Behavioral Big Data, including the move from macro- to micro-decisioning and its implications.     

Mines,mountains, and the making of a vertical consciousness in Germany ca. 1800

The insight that scientific theories are “practice-laden” has animated scholarship in the history of science for nearly three decades. This article examines a style of geographical thought that was, I argue, movement-laden. The thought-style in question has been described as a “vertical consciousness that engulfed science in the early nineteenth century,” and is closely associated with the geographical vision of Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859). Humboldt’s science spanned nature’s horizontal and vertical axes, from Saxon mines to Andean summits, and from the currents of the ocean to those of the aerial ocean. In probing the origins of Humboldt’s vertical thinking, this article opens up a broader history about the industrial practices and travel cultures that originally animated it. Humboldt’s “global physics” first emerged within a context of vertical travel, up mountains and into mines and caverns. Rhythms of the body—lethal for some, “sublime” for others—became rhythms of the mind. A view of nature as set of vertically complementary spaces rippled through mining culture, Romantic art, and the geographical sciences. To trace the earliest routes of Humboldt’s science is to acknowledge the many actors—some celebrated, most unsung—who took part in the making of a vertical consciousness.     

环境设计的方法及其多维分析

目的以信息可视化的方式考察环境设计方法,从设计方法的视角反思环境设计的内涵。方法首先,运用文献法,梳理了从“环境艺术”、“环境艺术设计”到“环境设计”的发展脉络,基于对不同时期中外学者的定义的比较,揭示出了环境设计的内涵。其次,采集并筛选了一百一十八种与环境设计相关的设计方法,从方法属性、设计流程、设计对象三个维度进行方法分类。然后,通过信息可视化和比较法,对上述方法分别进行了一维方法分析、二维关联分析和三维综合分析。结论从“环境艺术”到“环境艺术设计”再到“环境设计”的概念更迭,不仅是我国不同发展阶段对环境设计的认知的差异,而且更加反映出了时代背景、现实需求的变化,也必然带来相应设计方法的变化。当前,环境设计正在从关注环境中物质对象的设计,转向关注环境中人和人、人和物、物和物的关系等非物质对象的设计。     

Contesting the Visualization of Gaza

During July?August 2014 it is estimated that Israel dropped 18?20,000 tons of explosives on Gaza, which led to the deaths of over 2,100 people, with homes, hospitals, schools and whole districts obliterated to rubble. Photographs played a crucial role in mediating this devastation within corporate media, social media as well as in street protests and pickets. Through an analysis of imagery used in BBC news reports for the first day of the bombing, this paper explores the dominant visual discourses in the mainstream media, which through both regulatory frameworks as well as political positioning supported Israeli PR agendas, to normalize Israeli perspectives and reinscribe Palestinians as both political and social “other”. It then considers the success with which citizens both within Gaza and outside — as protestors and journalists — acted to challenge the corporate media’s control over the visual mediation of the bombing. While recognizing that photographs of abject suffering can operate to simply consolidate an image of Palestinians as “other” and different from ourselves, the article argues that through employing Ariella Azoulay’s notion of a “citizenry of photography” and reflecting on the wider communication ecologies in which photographs operated (on social media and in street protests), we can identify the ways in which images of suffering, placed in personal narratives and within a wider visual discursive field did play a role in influencing the public’s understanding of the Palestinian plight, turning despair to indignation to demand action.     

Global trends in sediment-related research in earth science during 1992–2011: a bibliometric analysis

An effective bibliometric analysis based on the Science Citation Index-Expanded database was conducted to evaluate earth science sediment-related research from different perspectives from 1992 to 2011. The geographical influences of the authors were subsequently visualized. Sediment-related research experienced notable growth in the past two decades. Multidisciplinary geosciences and environmental sciences were the two major categories, and Environmental Science and Technology was the most active journal. Damsté JSS and Schouten S were the two most prolific authors with the most high-quality articles and the greatest geographic influences. The major spatial clusters of authors overlapped quite well with regions with high economic growth in the USA, Western Europe, and Eastern Asia. The USA was the largest contributor in global sediment research with the most independent and collaborative papers, and the dominance of the USA was also confirmed in the national collaboration network. National academic output was positively associated with its economic capability. The Chinese Academy of Sciences, the US Geological Survey and the Russian Academy of Sciences were the three major contributing institutions. A keywords analysis determined that “evolution”, “water”, “soil(s)”, and “model” were consistent hotspots in sediment research. Several keywords such as “organic-matter”, “Holocene”, “dynamics”, “erosion”, “sediment transport”, “climate”, and “heavy-metal” received dramatically increased attention during the study period. Through co-word analysis, significant differences were observed between environmental and multidisciplinary geosciences in terms of the most frequently used keywords, and the prevalent research topic patterns were ascertained.     

Theories of Social Media: Philosophical Foundations

Although many different views of social media coexist in the field of information systems (IS), such theories are usually not introduced in a consistent framework based on philosophical foundations. This paper introduces the dimensions of lifeworld and consideration of others. The concept of lifeworld includes Descartes’ rationality and Heidegger’s historicity, and consideration of others is based on instrumentalism and Heidegger’s “being-with.” These philosophical foundations elaborate a framework where different archetypal theories applied to social media may be compared: Goffman’s presentation of self, Bourdieu’s social capital, Sartre’s existential project, and Heidegger’s “shared-world.” While Goffman has become a frequent reference in social media, the three other references are innovative in IS research. The concepts of these four theories of social media are compared with empirical findings in IS literature. While some of these concepts match the empirical findings, some other concepts have not yet been investigated in the use of social media, suggesting future research directions.     

Human-centric,sustainability-driven approach to ranking smart cities worldwide

As cities worldwide adopt various high-tech solutions to solve emerging urban problems, transition toward greater smartness becomes a global trend. The question, however, remains how the cities’ progress towards greater smartness can be monitored and measured. Although different smart city (SC) classifications exist, these classifications are not always balanced, with some of them placing an emphasis on ICTs and infrastructure, while others prioritize social performance of cities and their physical environment. In this study, we suggest a relatively simple SC ranking system, based on two basic principles – direct relevance to human welfare and equal representation of key dimensions of sustainability. The proposed assessment system, composed of nine quantitative metrics, is applied to 100+ major cities worldwide, helping us to identify the best and the worst SC performers. As the study also reveals, there are clear regional differences in the interpretation components and underlying dimensions of SCs with an emphasis on “economy and technology” in North America, “the environment” in Europe, and “society” in Asia.     

Wissen und Umwelt in der „partizipatorischen Diktatur“

The GDR was an ecological failed state in 1989/90. But while public input and critical environmental groups protested more openly against environmental problems during the 1980s, the established sciences remained strangely mute and appeared unable to develop appropriate approaches to solving the environmental crisis. Almost 20 years earlier, however, an environmental policy departure that was largely supported by scientific reform initiatives had begun in the GDR. The inclusion of the concept of conserving nature and the environment in the 1968 constitution and the adoption of the land improvement law two years later were the expression of a socio-political consensus on the environmental issue.How can this sharp discrepancy be explained? The article investigates the influence of scientific environmental concepts on the departure in environmental policy in the GDR. The example of scientific nature conservation, which had been institutionally anchored in the German Academy of Agricultural Sciences since 1951, shows that conservationists underwent a period of “normalization” in the 1950s, which was an essential prerequisite for giving their concerns political legitimacy. This forced adaptation process not only influenced the concepts and goals of East German nature conservation, rather also opened up participatory opportunities for its protagonists.The essay argues for a reassessment of East German environmental history, which so far has only been considered from the perspective of how it ended. Furthermore, it is argued that the conceptual concept of the “participatory dictatorship” (Fulbrook) should be applied to the history of science in the GDR in order to expand existing approaches.     

Can artificially intelligent agents really be conscious?

Mind and intelligence are closely related with the consciousness. Indeed, artificial intelligence (AI) is the most promising avenue towards artificial consciousness (AC). However, in literature, consciousness has been considered as the least amenable to being understood or replicated by AI. Further, computational theories of mind (CTMs) render the mind as a computational system and it is treated as a substantial hypothesis within the purview of AI. However, the consciousness, which is a phenomenon of mind, is partially tackled by this theory and it seems that the CTM is not corroborated considerably in this pursuit. Many valuable contributions have been incorporated by the researchers working strenuously in this domain. However, there is still scarcity of globally accepted computational models of consciousness that can be used to design conscious intelligent machines. The contributions of the researchers entail consciousness as a vague, incomplete and human-centred entity. In this paper, attempt has been made to analyse different theoretical and intricate issues pertaining to mind, intelligence and AC. Moreover, this paper discusses different computational models of the consciousness and critically analyses the possibility of generating the machine consciousness as well as identifying the characteristics of conscious machine. Further, different inquisitive questions, e.g., “Is it possible to devise, project and build a conscious machine?”, “Will artificially conscious machines be able to surpass the functioning of artificially intelligent machines?” and “Does consciousness reflect a peculiar way of information processing?” are analysed.     

Stereoselective Release Behaviors of Imprinted Bead Matrices

ABSTRACT

In this work, the stereoselective release behaviors of “low”-swelling molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) bead matrices in pressed-coat tablet type were studied. Either R-propranolol selective MIP or S-propranolol selective MIP was combined with excipients and racemic propranolol and fabricated into the matrix. Subsequently, the release of different propranolol enantiomers from the matrices was examined. Also, the microscopic structure of the hydrated “low”-swelling MIP matrix was determined using a cryogenic scanning electron microscope in order to compare with that of the hydrated “high”-swelling MIP matrix. In vitro release profiles of the “low”-swelling matrices showed a difference in the release of enantiomers, in that the non-template isomer was released faster than the template isomer. However, in the last phase of dissolution this difference reduced and later reversed, resulting at last in the type of specificity being similar to that obtained previously with “high”-swelling MIP matrices.

n summary, MIP beads can be fashioned into matrices and incorporated into different formulations to regulate the resultant stereoselectivity. From the behaviors of stereoselective release observed in MIP matrices, we can conclude that the enantioselective-controlled delivery mechanism of MIPs via formulations depends on the relative affinity of the enantiomer for the template sites, as well as the nature of the polymer, such as hydrophobicity and swellability.     

Impact assessment: tiering approaches for sustainable development planning and decision-making of a large infrastructure project

ABSTRACT

The objective of this paper is to analyze a tiering scoping approach developed to identify critical multidimensional sustainability issues and impacts of a large infrastructure project: the land transport project linking northern Brazil with a new port on Guyana’s coast. The Inter-American Development Bank awarded a technical assignment to develop the terms of reference of a country environmental assessment, a strategic environmental and social assessment and an environmental and social impact assessment of the project(s). The complexity of the issues at stake lead to the design of a tiered assessment process supported by wide-ranging participative sessions involving 170 individuals from Guyana and Brazil and from diverse sectors. The process identified ex ante conditionalities, critical factors for decision-making and valued socioenvironmental and governance components. Such complex and determinant planning initiatives for the future of a country need to be supported by comprehensive, well-sequenced scoping processes.     

On the Scales of Photographic Abstraction

This article explores three key ways in which questions of abstraction have been and continue to be closely associated with photography: the tradition of photographs that desire to “be” abstract; the invisible but determining forms of abstraction central to capitalism and shaping of photography as a technical-historical form; and the technical-conceptual abstractions embedded in and structuring of photographic apparatuses. The exploration of these themes is pursued through analysis of Vilém Flusser’s philosophy of photography, Lambert Wiesing’s analysis of abstract photography and Allan Sekula’s critique of capitalist modes of equivalence and exchange as these impact on the photographic. These analyses are pursued through exploration of the issues, processes and operations of “scale”, “scaling” and “scalability” entailed in these three modes of abstraction and in their critical and theoretical reflection. The aim of this strategy is to outline and to analyse the complex web of abstractions that are central to photography and the modes of scale that are crucial to abstraction in this context. The article suggests that to encounter or to think about abstraction photographically is to operate within some modulation of scale and that this may in fact be the closest one can get to envisioning the complexity of abstraction in the photographic context.     

Harvard’s Composite “Class” Pictures

At first glance, John L. Lovell’s Harvard class portraits appear to represent one man and one woman. But instead, these composite photographs personify the “average” appearance of the entire classes of 1887 at Harvard University and the “Annex,” or Boston’s Protestant Brahmin elite. Composite photographs such as these, which held scientific gravity as part of the Harvard-entrenched Positive Eugenics movement, were composed of an incomplete data set. Thus, they offer a revised view of Allan Sekula’s ideas about composite photography’s requisite statistical potency. In addition, the Harvard composites call for a more nuanced articulation of their indexical functions, within the context of late nineteenth-century trends in the production of visual statistics and knowledge.     

Technical and economical/financial feasibility analyses of flared gas recovery in Egypt from oil and gas industry from international/national oil companies’ perspectives

Egypt is an importer of energy, yet 5.7 MMSCM (200 MMSCF) of natural gas is flared every day and causes a negative environmental impact. Recovery of such significant amount is crucial and accordingly there are three alternative solutions to recover these gases, namely LPG/condensate extraction, recycling, or power generation. These alternatives were studied technically, financially, and economically, and results indicate that investors’ orientation and vision play a vital role in decision making especially when production sharing agreement is applied. The conflict of interest among investors was tackled and applied on a case study from different perspectives. Results indicate that the added value itself differs from one investor to another. In the case studied, international oil companies “IOCs” prefer recycling to achieve reasonable net present value “NPV” up to $40 million. National oil companies “NOCs” prefer generating power to achieve maximum net value added “NVA” up to $58 million, to maximize the environmental and social added value. The least feasible option is extracting LPG/condensate from the flared gas although Egypt is LPG importer. The conflict of interest and current oil prices are the reasons behind postponing such projects. So, Egyptian government should impose policies to reduce flared gas emissions and maximize benefits through these projects and this can be done by compromising with “IOCs” to ensure maximum financial/social benefits.