Building a health communication brand for University of Texas System tobacco control

Objective: Despite declining cigarette smoking rates in the US, there is a continued need for tobacco prevention education campaigns to reach young adults. Recognizing the need for improved tobacco control messaging, the University of Texas (UT) System engaged The University of Texas at Austin Center for Health Communication to develop a brand and message that would strengthen tobacco control efforts at its 14 institutions. Methods: This article describes the iterative process involved in creating a brand for tobacco control, including an environmental scan, identifying potential message themes, and creating and refining logos. Results: This article highlights the process of developing a system-wide tobacco control brand. Specifically, the process included coordinating an interdisciplinary team with content and design experts, and presenting ideas to stakeholders for serial feedback and refinement, among others. Conclusions: Ultimately, this project offers a model for other systems of higher education interested in pursuing similar initiatives.     

Vegetation on and around large-scale buildings positively influences native tropical bird abundance and bird species richness

High population growth in the tropics is driving urbanisation, removing diverse natural ecosystems. This is causing native species to suffer while introduced synanthropes flourish. City planners are developing urban greenspace networks, in part trying to address this issue. Architects contribute to these greenspace networks by designing elevated and ground level green spaces on large-scale buildings. However, little evidence is available on whether building green spaces support native fauna. This is true for birds in tropical Singapore that support important ecosystem services and have existence value. Therefore, in this study, we conducted bird surveys and statistical analyses to determine, if and how vegetation on three building green space types (ground gardens, roof gardens and green walls) have a positive impact on native or introduced bird species. We found that elevated greenery (roof gardens and green walls) on large-scale buildings supported a higher richness of birds and abundance of urban native birds than control roofs and walls without vegetation. Ground gardens supported similar levels of native species as roof gardens but also a larger proportion of generalist synanthropes. However, we found no tropical forest habitat specialists across any space type. Therefore, we recommend roof gardens and ground gardens as a potential space for urban natives outside of a less competitive ground-level urban environment. Our study also found certain building design elements (height of elevated space, presence of specific plants) supported different species groups. Therefore, we suggest that these ecological requirements for different species groups are considered when designing a building’s green space.

     

An increase in song pitch of eastern great tits (Parus minor) in response to urban noise at Seoul,Korea

Urban Ecosystems - Anthropogenic noise may mask effective vocal signal transmission by birds, particularly in notes occurring in lower frequencies. Previous studies have shown a correlation of...     

Uncertainty,selective exposure,and message efficacy effects during life transitions

Drawing on informational utility, uncertainty management, and self-efficacy models, predictions were developed about how individuals select media messages when faced with the transition from college to postcollege life. Predictions were also made concerning how message exposure influences self-efficacy and behavior. Participants filled out a questionnaire and then browsed a university blog that contained alumni posts about transition success (high-efficacy messages) or failure (low-efficacy messages) in a variety of life domains, including the target domain, romance. Browsing was unobtrusively measured through hyperlink tracking. Results indicate that selective exposure to low-efficacy romance messages was predicted by romance outcome expectancies; romance uncertainty discrepancy had an indirect effect on selective exposure through outcome expectancies and self-efficacy’s impact on outcome expectancies. Thus, outcome expectancies and self-efficacy should be considered when predicting exposure to high- versus low-efficacy messages during a life transition.     

让民主造福中国——评俞可平的民主思想

为什么民主有益于中国?怎样才是中国民主化的最小成本和最佳途径?如果民主将会导致混乱,甚至国家的解体,中国领导人和民众就没有理由去追求它.如果国家的政治、经济和文化精英们认为民主将会损害而非促进他们的利益,在中国推进民主政治改革的共识就不复存在.因而,对中国知识分子来讲,最大的学术挑战便是如何提出一个有利于中国发展的民主概念和民主进程.本文详细分析俞可平的民主思想和其关于中国民主前景的途径探讨.同时还介绍俞的职业生涯、学术成就以及与其他著名中国学者在民主问题上的分歧.     

论高校协商民主管理模式的建构

由于民主涵义的复杂性和实际操作中的选择偏好,当前中国高校在民主管理模式上往往重视代议民主,而轻视或忽略协商民主.协商民主是代议民主的必要补充,它有助于解决代议民主在实际运作中存在的不足,对于维护广大师生合法权益、提高高校公共决策质量、培养师生公民人格和精神具有重要的实践意义.当前中国高校的协商民主管理模式建构,可以在参与主体的广泛性、参与事务的公开性、参与问题的价值性、参与过程的论辩性、参与行为的有效性等方面重点展开,从而为和谐校园的创建奠定政治基础.     

生态补偿问题研究

生态补偿问题是一个生态政治经济学问题,这是因为:首先,从生态补偿的目的来看,生态补偿终极的目的是保护"自然资本",而自然资本作为生命的支持价值,既包含经济学的内涵,又是一个事关人类生死存亡的政治问题,是国家可持续发展战略的重要组成部分.其次,从生态补偿问题的产生来看,这既是经济的外部性问题,也是整体的公共政治问题,必须依靠国家和政府的公共主体和市场主体两种方式来解决.再次,生态补偿是对社会生态合作所带来的收益与成本的政治经济学安排.     

上海银行公会与近代中国银行信用制度的演进

抗战前,上海银行公会十分重视银行信用制度的建设,不仅采取各种措施促进会员银行稳健经营,增强会员银行的信用意识,而且创建了一系列信用机构和信用工具,并在同业之间构建了一个信任与合作的平台,有力地提升了华商银行业的竞争力,对促进近代中国社会信用发展也有着重要意义。