Water productivity and water footprint: misguided concepts or useful tools in water management and policy?

Water productivity (WP) and water footprint (WFP) are popular concepts in research and discourses on water management. Yet there are concerns about their theoretical validity and practical value. This paper shows that the water production function, the concept with a sound theoretical foundation, is the basis for WP. Total WFP is the reciprocal of WP. The practical value of WP and WFP depends on the context of water use and stress. Maximizing WP, not a panacea to all water problems, mainly suits arid rainfed areas. In other regions, economic and marginal WP for increasing overall production should take precedence in water management and policy decisions.     

高校房产使用管理中存在的问题及对策

为了提高高校房产使用效益,剖析了目前高校房产使用管理中普遍存在的低配高用功能欠缺、高配低用功能浪费、虚设部门长期闲置、调配不畅供需错位、巧立名目公房私用以及管理缺位不当损毁等共性问题,对构建科学规范的高校房产使用管理体系提出了完善机制科学管理、科学规划物尽其用、交叉配给资源共享、加强协调保障供给、审核监督有限租赁和规范管理损毁问责等具有针对性的对策建议。     

陆战场空域指挥控制系统建设问题初探

从陆战场空域指挥控制系统建设基本概念出发,探讨了陆战场空域指挥控制与空军空管、海军空管及民航空管之间的关系,分析了作战空间多维、战场态势多变、参战对象多元及指挥方式多样对于陆战场空域指挥控制所提出的需求,最后提出了陆战场空域指挥控制系统应具备的基本功能以及建设的基本途径。     

河南省农业水土资源空间匹配格局对产能的影响

通过对河南省农业水资源与耕地资源的利用态势进行模拟分析,构建区域水土资源匹配测算模型,将匹配结果与产能分布情况做相关性分析,探讨河南省农业水土资源匹配格局对粮食产能的影响．结果表明,河南省耕地资源优势明显,水资源匮乏,水土资源匹配较差;水土资源匹配程度与耕地产能的空间分布呈现出明显的错位现象,这是由于产能高产区垦殖率高,灌溉条件好,过度利用水资源引起的．     

Toxicity of waters from the St. Lawrence River at Massena Area-of-Concern to the plankton species Selenastrum capricornutum and Ceriodaphnia dubia

In 1972, the US and Canada committed to restore the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Great Lakes Ecosystem under the first Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. During subsequent amendments, part of the St. Lawrence River at Massena NY, and segments of three tributaries, were designated as one Area of Concern (AOC) due to various beneficial use impairments (BUIs). Plankton beneficial use was designated impaired within this AOC because phytoplankton and zooplankton population data were unavailable or needed “further assessment”. Contaminated sediments from industrial waste disposal have been largely remediated, thus, the plankton BUI may currently be obsolete. The St. Lawrence River at Massena AOC remedial action plan established two criteria which may be used to assess the plankton BUI; the second states that, “in the absence of community structure data, plankton bioassays confirm no toxicity impact in ambient waters”. This study was implemented during 2011 to determine whether this criterion was achieved. Acute toxicity and chronic toxicity of local waters were quantified seasonally using standardized bioassays with green alga Selenastrum capricornutum and water flea Ceriodaphnia dubia to test the hypothesis that waters from sites within the AOC were no more toxic than were waters from adjacent reference sites. The results of univariate and multivariate analyses confirm that ambient waters from most AOC sites (and seasons) were not toxic to both species. Assuming both test species represent natural plankton assemblages, the quality of surface waters throughout most of this AOC should not seriously impair the health of resident plankton communities.     

应用根系层水质模型分析冬小麦-夏玉米轮作体系的农田水氮利用效率Ⅱ：模型的验证与情景分析

在就禹城试验站对根系层水质模型（RZWQM）的参数进行灵敏度分析和标定的基础上,模拟了1960—2005年该试验站冬小麦- 夏玉米轮作条件下的冬小麦和夏玉米产量、水分利用效率及氮肥偏生产力,并将模拟的冬小麦和夏玉米产量与禹城市农业统计年鉴显示的 1985—2005年的产量进行了对比。结果表明：经过标定后的RZ?WQM能够较好地模拟夏玉米产量（平均相对误差为-13.3%）,可以模拟冬小麦产量在年际间的变化趋势（平均相对误差-54.2%）。针对所设计的9 种节水省氮的灌溉与施氮方案开展了多组情景模拟分析,结果显示较好的情景是：冬小麦在播前、拔节和开花期各灌溉75mm的水;夏玉米当平水年和丰水年时在播前灌溉一次56mm的水,当枯水年时在播前和抽穗期各灌溉84mm的水,当特枯水年时在播前和抽穗期各灌溉111mm的水。冬小麦在播前和拔节期分别施氮77.7kg/hm2 155.3kg /hm2,整个生育期施氮量为233kg/hm2;夏玉米在苗期（播后5d）和大喇叭口期各施氮70.7kg/ m2和141.3kg/hm2,整个生育期施氮量为212kg/hm2。这样优化的灌溉与施氮方案能够取得较好的增产效果和较高的水氮利用效率,即：冬小麦- 夏玉米轮作体系的粮食产量为10302kg/hm2、水分利用效率为1.40kg/m3、氮肥偏生产力为23.2kg/kg。     

Using ICT for school purposes: Is there a student-school disconnect?

Today's students are often portrayed in the literature as enthusiastic and wholehearted users of the Internet for school purposes, in contrast with today's schools, in which the situation is of high ICT access and low use. Via interviews with 25 post-primary students, this study examined student attitudes toward using the Internet for school purposes, revealing the reasoning behind patterns of after school ICT use and underlying perceptions of learning, the teacher's role and the desired role of ICT in schooling. Students were revealed to be ambivalent: they considered the Internet to be easy to use, reducing workload and “fun”, but at the same time “unreliable”, not “serious” enough, and not containing what they “need to know”. Thus, they primarily used it for “unimportant” assignments such as routine homework. Students described their learning goal as getting required “material” into their heads and saw the teachers as an (almost) exclusive authority regarding this required body of information, in line with schooling's information-focused agenda and teacher-centered practices. They were also less than enthusiastic about the integration of ICT into their curriculum. Although there is no apparent disconnect between school and students, it is argued that school should change in order to capitalize on the affordances of ICT and to better prepare students for life in the knowledge age.     

Computer mediated communication for social and academic purposes: Profiles of use and University students’ gratifications

The present study approaches the Internet as a social space, where university students make use of computer mediated communication (CMC) applications, i.e. e-mail, instant messaging and social network sites, in order to satisfy social and academic needs. We focus on university students, because they represent one of the most avid groups of CMC users and additionally, because they are expected to carry their perceptions of media with them into the work place and their social life. In order to investigate this issue, we conducted an empirical research using, as a target group, a sample of students from a specific Greek University. Grounded in the “uses and gratifications” perspective, we investigated the various profiles of CMC use by students along with (a) the students’ perceptions about social and academic usefulness of CMC applications, (b) the extent up to which these perceptions are correlated with students’ prior experience with the use of CMC applications, and (c) how both of these factors can predict the frequency of present use of CMC for social or academic purposes respectively. The results reveal that although these three CMC applications constitute “functional alternatives” (media that satisfy similar needs) they are different to the degree of their “functionality” for the gratification of social and academic needs. Furthermore, the degree of CMC use by students is not correlated with the years of CMC experience, but with the profile of use that students dynamically adopt according to their daily needs and preferences. The results provide evidence for the current CMC use by university students and can be useful for the implementation of further academic policies regarding CMC use in Higher Education settings.     

Exploring pre-service teachers' beliefs about using Web 2.0 technologies in K-12 classroom

This qualitative study explored pre-service teachers' behavioral, normative, and control beliefs regarding their intentions to use Web 2.0 technologies in their future classrooms. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was used as the theoretical framework (Ajzen, 1991) to understand these beliefs and pre-service teachers' intentions for why they want to use Web 2.0 technologies. According to Ajzen's TPB, the behavioral beliefs are based on attitude toward outcomes or consequences of using Web 2.0, the normative beliefs depend on social support and social pressure to use Web 2.0, and the control beliefs lay the foundation of perceived behavioral control over using Web 2.0 in a classroom. Data were collected from open-ended survey questions (n = 190), semi-structured interviews (n = 12) and end of semester reflections (n = 12). Findings suggest that pre-service teachers' intentions to use Web 2.0 technologies are related to their beliefs about the value of these technologies for improving student learning and engagement, its ease of use (behavioral beliefs), its ability to meet the needs/expectations of digital age students (normative beliefs), the participants' high self-efficacy in use, and its potential for affording students anytime/anywhere access to learning and interaction (control beliefs). From these results, we recommend that teacher educators should target these beliefs within teacher development programs to prepare pre-service teachers for successful use of Web 2.0 technologies in their future K-12 classrooms.