Forward,Ever Forward: a reading of Robert Harris,Photographic Album of South African Scenery,Port Elizabeth,c.1880–1886

Early copies of the Photographic Album of South African Scenery that was published between c.1880 and c.1888 by Robert Harris in Port Elizabeth consisted of 28 double-card pages with two, occasionally one, tipped-in photographs per page. During the near-decade of its production, the number of images increased, printed captions replaced handwritten captions and both the selection and arrangement of images became gradually more coherent and programmatic. The paper interprets these changes as Robert Harris’s attempt to construct a public identity for South Africa at the moment its economy and society were being transformed by the diamond mines at Kimberley and elsewhere that constitute the focus of the later form of the form Album. In the developed form of the Album, a narrative progression is suggested to move from Cape Town and the Western Province, to Port Elizabeth and the Eastern Province, to the Kimberley Diamond Fields, Natal, etc. In order to read this journey critically, the paper is arranged to demonstrate the constituent parts of this journey in the representation of cities and towns, laid out in grid plans on the African veld; the depiction of individual buildings with their expressive vocabulary of architectural style; and the idea of commerce – represented in street scenes, markets and seaports – and the facilitation of commerce through roads, bridges and mountain passes. The disproportionately large number of photographs of Kimberley, with both its mining operations and no less than three commercial markets, underlines the significance of commerce and industry in the new South African identity. The emphasis on commercial achievement in the Album leaves an obviously subordinate role for images of nature in both agriculture and landscape. Farming is represented through such exploitative practices as forest clearing and hunting, rather than the developed forms of agriculture of wine farming, sheep farming and wheat farming. And landscape in the Album is either a landscape subdued to the wants and needs of a settler population that would bludgeon its way through mountain passes or divert the course of rivers to facilitate commerce, or a landscape that is defined by the imported aesthetic conventions of the picturesque and sublime. Similarly, grouping the photographs of indigenous peoples that are scattered throughout the Album, one may see that their representation is entirely instrumental, divided crudely into roles of either war-like barbarians or pliant labourers. In these ways, the Photographic Album may be understood as a true mirror of the colonial achievement.     

南京中山植物园游憩功能满意度评价研究

随着植物园"旅游经济"的发展,植物园在承担植物科学研究及科普功能的同时,也成为公众日常休闲的重要绿地。本文选取南京中山植物园作为研究对象,建立评价体系并运用模糊综合评价法对游客满意度进行研究,探寻影响植物园游憩功能的显著因子,为未来植物园规划设计提供参考。结果表明:游客对南京中山植物园的游憩功能达到基本满意水平。其中,植物物种多样性、景区分布、建筑景观、声景观的满意度较高,滨水景观的满意度评价值较低。通过Pearson相关系数发现植物色彩丰富度、科普场所、科普内容是影响游客满意度的显著因子。运用IPA图对16项评价因子进行重要度-满意度分析,并对各象限内的因子提出改进方向。最后基于游憩功能满意度评价结果,提出改进策略:加大对植物园休息设施、卫生设施、娱乐设施和商业服务设施的投入;更新科普方式,增添特色游憩主题园区;完善现有道路体系,增强对北部专类园的可达性;增加色叶植物的种类、提高色彩丰富度等。以期为中山植物园游憩功能的优化及其他植物园的规划设计提供借鉴。     

平衡景观设计中的艺术性与科学性——中国的徒手绘画与密歇根计算机辅助视觉质量评估

景观设计是一个基于科学的解决规划和设计问题的艺术性行业。本文根据Jon Bryan Burley博士2007年秋在南京林业大学为规划与设计专业师生所作的第七次演讲的内容，阐述了科学与艺术之间的平衡。Burley博士通过展示和列举他在中国工作时个人手绘作品及在密歇根所做的计算机辅助视觉质量评估工作的案例，描述了艺术和科学之间的区别、标准化的理论和科学理论之间的区别。Burley博士认为，作为设计师，艺术和科学两种方法缺一不可。随着科技的发展变化，新方法和新技术终将完美结合并被专业所接受。     

古代文学中的竹林

竹子是中国古代文学最重要的植物题材之一，竹林又是竹子题材文学的重要表现对象。我国古代竹林资源丰富，相关文学创作源远流长，作品繁多，展现了古代文人丰富的观赏经验和审美情趣。竹林较为亲近人居，丛生竹林结丛而生，散生竹林上合下疏。不同季节、气候、环境条件下的竹林景象具有不同的美感。竹坞、竹坡、竹溪、竹径等意境幽雅，成了文人最乐于吟赏的风景。     

Malta: Language,Literacy and Identity in a Mediterranean Island Society

Available documentation for the early modern period indicates that the Malta harbour towns achieved literacy earlier than the countryside. The Maltese townsmen lived on a trading route, and it was necessary for them to learn the lingua franca, as the language of trade in the Mediterranean. The educated élite were able to acquire fluent speaking knowledge, as well as the ability to write, Tuscan (a dialect then in the process of becoming standard Italian), while continuing to employ their local Maltese 'dialect' on numerous occasions. By and large, the erosion of the position of Maltese as the subordinate language was an inevitable by-product of this development. The Maltese language was able to attain the function of a literary language in the nineteenth century but it had no standard orthography until 1931 and was only adopted as Malta's official language in 1964.     

信息化、新媒体与景观装置艺术

高度信息化的都市综合了多元媒介与意识形态集流，以信息传媒、实时通讯、网络平台、高速交通以及贸易、金融、权利、习俗、情感集于一体，这些隐藏于游牧与流通中的公共性“结构”，正促使都市公共空间趋向信息化、多元化、非物质化、开放性等方式存在：交互、极速与暂存已成为信息空间之关键词，它不再局限于众多个体集结、流动的“现实性”场所，而是转向一个可以拓展人们综合感知、境遇体验和虚拟沉浸的“真实性”空间。     

怀疑和批判精神:推动科学进步的关键因素——诺贝尔奖颁奖100周年有感

哲学是科学诞生和发展的基质,是文化的核心;"文化基因"则决定了科学的所有本质特征.因此,科学与哲学和文化是三位一体的.西方科学之所以能够持续地向前发展,与西方文化中的怀疑和批判传统、理性主义传统等是密不可分的.因此,我们要想在科学上赶超西方世界,就必须有意识有目的地加强西方文化,尤其是西方哲学的学习和熏陶,就必须首先具有对科学的怀疑和批判精神.     

Urban forest cover of the Chicago region and its relation to household density and income

Urban forests and herbaceous open space play a vital role in the environmental and aesthetic health of cities, yet they are rarely identified in land-use inventories of urban areas. To provide information on urban forests and other vegetative land cover in Illinois cities, Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) data from June 27, 1988, were classified for the Chicago metropolitan region (9,717 km²). Ten land-cover classes were identified, including two types of forestland (occupying 5.8% of the total area), residential land with trees (14.6%) or without trees (7.8%), cropland (37.5%), two types of grassland (7.7%), urban with impervious surfaces (23.1%), water (1.6%), and miscellaneous vegetation (2.1%). Correlation analyses indicated that household income and household density are strongly related to land covers in the region, particularly those with tree cover and urbanized land. Population changes for 1980–1985 and 1985–2010 (projected) show a pattern of increasing density in the urbanized zone concurrent with continued urban sprawl, primarily into current cropland.     

Effects of the Mechanism of Receptor-Mediated Gene Expression on the Shape of the Dose-Response Curve

A mathematical model of receptor-mediated gene expression that includes receptor binding of natural and xenobiotic ligands, protein synthesis and degradation, and metabolism of the xenobiotic ligand was created to identify the determinants of the shape of the dose-response profile. Values of the model's parameters were varied to reflect alternative mechanisms of expression of the protein. These assumptions had dramatic effects on the computed response to a bolus dose of the xenobiotic ligand. If all processes in the model exhibit hyperbolic kinetics, the dose-response curves can appear sigmoidal but actually be linear with a positive slope at low doses. The slope of the curve only approached zero at low dose, indicative of a threshold for response, if binding of the xenobiotic ligand to the receptor exhibited positive cooperativity (ligand binding at one site increases the affinity for ligand at another binding site on the receptor). Positive cooperativity in the rate-limiting step of protein synthesis produced dose-response curves which were "U-shaped" at low doses, also indicative of a threshold. Positive cooperativity in the metabolism of the xenobiotic ligand produced dose-response curves that increased more rapidly than linearly with increasing dose. The model illustrates the fact that response cannot be predicted from qualitative mechanistic arguments alone; any assessment of risk to health from xenobiotic chemicals must be based on a detailed quantitative examination of the kinetic behavior of each chemical species individually.     

社会生物学视野中的人

本文简要论述了作为达尔文主义新发展的社会生物学在基因水平上力图恢复人的自然本质的努力,这种把人向基因的还原对人在自然界中的地位的影响,以及这种对人自身认识的还原将在何种程度上冲击社会科学有关人本性的传统观念。