Effectiveness of Challenge‐Based Instruction in Biomechanics

Studies were designed to determine the effectiveness of challenge‐based instruction (CBI) versus traditional lecture‐based instruction. Comparisons were made over a three‐year period between student performance on knowledge‐based questions in courses taught with taxonomy‐based and challenge‐based approaches to instruction. When performance on all questions was compared, CBI classes scored significantly better than control classes on 26 percent of the questions, while control classes outperformed CBI classes on eight percent of the questions, but there was no significant difference in overall performance. However, students in CBI classes performed significantly better than students in control classes on the more difficult questions (35 percent versus four percent). We attribute these differences to additional opportunities available in CBI classrooms for learners to examine their conceptual understanding. Student surveys indicate a slight preference for the challenge‐based approach. We believe that the challenge‐based approach is effective and has the potential to better prepare students for the workplace and for life‐long learning.     

Development of Cultural Ecosystem Services Contributes to a Plural Perspective for Human-Nature Studies—Interview With Tobias Plieninger

Tobias Plieninger has contributed to framing Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES) by his studies in Europe and Asia from forest to agricultural ecosystems. He introduced how the term of CES as a part of ecosystem services was raised by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment but largely neglected at the beginning. From his projects, he explored how to set up indicators and the development of a method Public Participation Geographic Information Systems to map cultural values in landscapes for CES assessment. Because of the limitation of CES, the new inclusive concepts like Nature’s Contributions to People arose. Plieninger gave us his perspective about the new tendency to use social media data to broaden the research scale, and shared his opinions about CES research in developing countries, like India and China. He suggested people should apply the methods not only in technocratic or purely in academic exercises, but to deal with real-world problems. He encouraged the young generation to further explore the frontier topics such as the role of CES in increasingly unstable times.     

Houses Like Water: Observations and Reflections on House Types of Kat O Fishing Village in Hong Kong

Liquid Homes: Building, Living and Other Stories of Hong Kong Fishing Villages is a research, curatorial, and design collaboration that explores the culture of Tanka people and their fluid state of living and building, presenting stories from a long overdue reading of the other Hong Kong. This essay, as an ongoing work, intends to reflect on our recent observations of the houses in Kat O fishing village by documenting the self-built additions in relation to the surrounding topography and water environment. These findings evoke an understanding of houses as „amphibious creatures” of hybrid qualities riding on the seams between land and water, and denote the notion of homes as „fluid entities”—physical yet elusive, subject to the floating identity of the community. The research intends to offer an ethnographic reading of Hong Kong coastal settlements and their building typologies, rethink building materialities by their temporal qualities and beyond the physical matter, and imagine a renewed reading on the dialectical relation between the built and the natural, and propose new ways to design sustainable architecture through the landscape.     

中国人民革命军事博物馆展览大楼加固改造工程扩建建筑结构设计

中国人民革命军事博物馆展览大楼加固改造工程扩建建筑主体结构采用钢筋混凝土框架-剪力墙体系,中央兵器大厅屋盖及环廊屋面采用钢结构。通过方案比选,确定了基础方案和结构体系;为确保结构地震作用下的安全性,进行了抗震性能分析设计,并采取专门措施,解决了大跨重载区域楼盖设计、钢结构屋盖设计、超长结构设计、贴近保留建筑的基础设计、地下室错层处理等关键问题。     

街道环境视觉无障碍设施建设的包容性趋势评述 ——基于美、英、日比较与启示

无障碍出行环境是社会文明的标尺, 随着社会老龄化,无障碍设施使用需求不断增 长,城市出行面临新的挑战,街道环境无障碍 建设有待提升。本文立足城市街道空间,从视 障人群类型与需求分析出发,以基于视障人群 需求的无障碍设施为研究对象,归纳出街道环 境中无障碍设施的三种类型,包括触觉补偿设 施、残余视觉补偿设施、听觉补偿设施。结合 美、英、日三国建设经验,通过对比三国街道环 境视觉无障碍设施建设理念及做法差异,提出 包容性设计理念引导下的设施建设更具动态性 与有效性。基于此,借助包容性设计的原则与流程,提出营造街道视觉无障碍环境建设的包容性设计框架。最后结合我国城市街道建设现状提 出若干发展启示。     

对我国节能法律的思考

一方面我国立法上有所欠缺,例如没有技术标准和配套措施、缺失法律责任、执法主体不清、社会认知不高等;另一方面就是对现行法律的执行不力。为了顺利推进节能工作,必须加强法律的主导作用,但法的可操作性是首先要关注的问题。     

企业管理者如何代表职工群众的根本利益

坚持科学发展观,促进企业又好又快发展,牢固树立职工群众是企业的主人的思想观念,全心全意依靠职工群众办企业,切实摆正管理者的公仆位置,把工作的着眼点和立足点放在面向群众、服务基层、解决实际问题上,切实做到有力为民、有心为民、真正为民是企业管理者学习贯彻"三个代表"重要思想、真正代表职工群众的根本利益的主要表现形式和基本途径。     

访谈:铁西区

关于铁西区的拆建,人们有许多不同的想法与见解。这个访谈试图呈现这些观点。     

浅谈如何加强核心员工资源开发管理工作

企业要在激烈的竞争中立于不败之地,就必须提升核心竞争力,做好核心员工的资源开发管理工作。在具体做法上一是要突出重点,注重实效,着力加强学科学带头人队伍建设,提高核心员工业务水平;二是要明确需求特点,创新激励机制,把企业与个人的发展前景结合起来,通过工作岗位成才和良好的企业文化氛围留住核心员工。     

改善老年人的住房与社区环境:规划设计如何应对衰弱与独居的挑战?

需要日常照料的老年人数量正在急速增长。即使老年人自理能力不断减弱并越来越趋向于独居,当代社会的主流选择与政策目标仍着重于协助他们在原先的居所度过晚年。然而现阶段,美国和其他很多国家的住房均未针对日益严峻的老龄化挑战采取应对措施,为居家老年人提供的公共服务与支持相当匮乏。本文基于满足老年人在衰弱过程中的各项需求,从空间和社会的视角系统地检视了社区和住房层面的创新模式,内容包括服务强化型社区、集中照料型社区、全龄型社区,为老人服务型住房组团,小规模代际融合居住型住房,以及交通、输送和通信等方面技术手段的创新。这些对策目前尚未得到广泛应用,但有理由相信这些手段有助于推进居家和社区养老战略目标的实现。规划与设计人员应认识到老年人在生理、感官、认知障碍和独居时面临的挑战,利用设计手段改善公共空间及其连接性。