Navigating the ethical maze in disability research: ethical contestations in an African context

Despite changes in how disability is viewed, ethical requirements for disability research have hardly changed. Some ethical clearance procedures, processes and practices still consider persons with disabilities as not able, creating unease among researchers and research participants with disabilities themselves. This paper considers five ethical contestations arising from research in the area of disability in an African context: positionality, vulnerability, signed consent, anonymity, and research committee composition. We argue that ethical requirements in practice are still largely based on a medical model of disability and propose that culturally sensitive social and human rights models should influence disability research ethics.     

The effects of individually varying times of observations on growth parameter estimations in piecewise growth model

When using latent growth modeling (LGM), researchers often restrict the factor loadings, while the multilevel modeling (MLM) treats time as a metric variable. However, when individually varying times of observations are concerned in the longitudinal studies, the use of specified loadings would lead to inaccurate estimation. Based on piecewise growth modeling (PGM), this simulation study showed that (i) individually varying times of observations with larger boundaries got worse estimates and model fits when LGM was used; (ii) estimating the PGM across all the simulation situations was robust within MLM, whereas LGM got identically equal estimation with MLM only in the case of time boundaries of ±1 month or shorter; (iii) larger change of slope in piecewise modeling indicated better estimation.     

大学英语课程设置改革途径之一——增设特殊用途英语

本文旨在通过对我国大学英语教学现状和当今社会对高校人才培养需求现状的分析，提出大学英语课程设置改革的途径之一是增设特殊用途英语课程。特殊英语课程建设在于提高教师个人教学能力和某一特定专业基础理论和专业知识的素养，建立四有教学团队，制定四维的教学目标和展开突出四性的教材建设。     

互联网时代媒体融合发展的未来模式探索

以互联网技术为引领的新技术为传统媒体的发展带来了新的机遇与挑战.从历史的角度看,传播媒介的发展轨迹与技术变革的历史脉络相互印合.媒体融合的层次与内涵日渐丰富,产业实践中呈现出复杂的博弈与协作关系.传统媒体独特的版权资源与人才储备优势,与新兴媒体的传播渠道及传播效率优势相结合,互相推动,深入协作,通过媒介融合渠道,实现优秀的人才、优质的内容与优化的传播平台的整合,以形成迸发式的传播威力,推动传播层次的迭代发展.面向技术发展前景的媒体融合,应当秉承开放与共享的新思维、立体与互动的新路径,注重以用户为中心,充分利用技术的便捷性,实现媒介传播渠道的多层次性与互动性,超越阶段性的固有技术模式,以踏准未来的节拍.     

信息时代高校外语教师职业发展新模式

文章简要陈述了信息时代高校外语教师职业发展趋势和信息时代对高校外语教师职业发展的挑战，并再对信息时代高校外语教师职业发展新模式的实现途径进行了有效探究。     

需求分布规律变化情况下的报童订货策略

在需求分布规律变化情况下，报童在进行订货决策时会因为错误判断需求分布规律而导致期望库存成本增加。为了解决这一问题，本文集成传统历史需求信息和非传统需求信息以正确地认知需求分布规律，在此基础上决策订货量。假设需求服从均值不同、方差相同的两种类型的正态分布，每一种正态分布的概率已知。利用信号检测理论构建基于历史需求信息与需求分布概率的报童最优订货策略，并与只基于需求分布概率的直觉规则订货策略进行对比。结果表明：只要排除需求分布概率很大或很小两种极端情况，最优订货策略比直觉规则订货策略在控制期望库存成本方面的作用更明显，即利用历史需求信息可以有效修正报童对实际需求分布的检测结果，从而提高实际订货决策的准确性。研究结果对传统历史需求信息和非传统需求信息的集成以及需求信息交换等有一定的管理学启示和应用价值。     

鲍德里亚的消费经济批判及其艺术性变革

在鲍德里亚看来，当代社会在经济现象形态方面表现为消费经济的活跃，需要进行符号经济学批判。当代消费经济具有独特的运行机制，是将各种商品都转化为符号体系的过程，这既是资本的进一步扩展、资本增值的实然逻辑，又是技术理性的渗透、媒介信息的传播，还是物体系的形成、拜物教的深化。消费经济及其奢侈文化从大都市扩散到世界各地，推动了当代商业的发展。当代消费经济令人与人之间关系冷漠，围绕人的不再是实际物品，而是众多意义，需要用结构主义符号学分析其运行机制，采用艺术性变革的方式消除消费异化。艺术能够建构具有救赎作用的乌托邦，不应只为了满足感官刺激，而要通向真理之路，唤醒人的创造潜能，改造消费社会的不合理机制。     

Media Disaster Reporting Effects on Public Risk Perception and Response to Escalating Tornado Warnings: A Natural Experiment

Previous research has evaluated public risk perception and response to a natural hazards in various settings; however, most of these studies were conducted either with a single scenario or after a natural disaster struck. To better understand the dynamic relationships among affect, risk perception, and behavioral intentions related to natural disasters, the current study implements a simulation scenario with escalating weather intensity, and includes a natural experiment allowing comparison of public response before and after a severe tornado event with extensive coverage by the national media. The current study also manipulated the display of warning information, and investigated whether the warning system display format influences public response. Results indicate that (1) affect, risk perception, and behavioral intention escalated as weather conditions deteriorated, (2) responses at previous stages predicted responses at subsequent stages of storm progression, and (3) negative affect predicted risk perception. Moreover, risk perception and behavioral intention were heightened after exposure to the media coverage of an actual tornado disaster. However, the display format manipulation did not influence behavioral responses. The current study provides insight regarding public perception of predisaster warnings and the influence of exposure to media coverage of an actual disaster event.     

基于OBE教育理念的土木工程专业英语教学改革实践

为提高土木工程专业学生的英语应用能力和《土木工程专业英语》课程的教学效果，本次教改实践以OBE（成果导向教育）教育理念为教改指导思想，以土木工程专业英语教学为教改对象，设计了土木工程专业英语教学的教学内容、教学组织和教学评价等教学环节，在河北工程大学土木工程专业学生中进行了教改实践。教改实践结果表明，基于OBE的土木工程专业英语教学模式在提升土木工程专业学生英语应用能力方面具有很好的效果。本次教改实践的成果值得本校其他工科专业和其他兄弟院校借鉴。