Distribution and selection of experts in the intergovernmental science-policy platform on biodiversity and ecosystem services (IPBES): the case of the regional assessment for Africa

In 2013, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) agreed to carry out a regional assessment for Africa. Since then, roughly 100 authors have been working to deliver, in 2018, a document that not only synthesises existing knowledge on biodiversity and ecosystem services for the African region but to distil from it knowledge that is relevant, credible, and legitimate for both societal and scientific practise. This requires, firstly, to carefully constituting the group of authors and, secondly, to design an assessment process that allows for deriving at an integrated perspective amongst these experts. Such a joint process of knowledge production that encompasses both interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaboration can be framed as co-creation. In this contribution, we analyse whether the IPBES African assessment accounts for these two prerequisites for an effective assessment process. Our particular interest lays in the question whether scholars from social sciences and the humanities are sufficiently involved. Our analysis is based on the curriculum vitae of 97 members of the expert group, and reads quite straightforward: there is an overall lack of non-natural science perspectives and expertise that might lead to essential knowledge and data gaps when wishing to understand the effects of the diverse human concepts of and activities on biodiversity and ecosystem services. In order to address these gaps and to derive at an assessment report truly relevant for policy makers as well as other social and scientific actors, IPBES needs to widen its outreach to networks of scholars from the social sciences and the humanities and to inform them appropriately about the specific roles they could play within IPBES processes, particularly assessments.     

Research report: a software solution for rapid policy assessment with reimbursed SMS and mobile cash

In this report, we introduce a system for running reimbursed surveys via text messages and mobile cash. The key advantage of this approach is the ability to conduct rapid surveys at an extremely low cost. After reviewing existing literature, we describe an automated system for conducting such surveys and demonstrate its merits in a proof-of-principle application in India. We obtain substantive insights on the effectiveness of a policy trial that are in line with expert assessments. This application suggests that our approach can be applied to a wide range of problems including impact assessment for policy or developmental aid, and monitoring of public sentiment, and possibly monitoring of conflict dynamics.     

Quantitative Risk Assessment of Norovirus Transmission in Food Establishments: Evaluating the Impact of Intervention Strategies and Food Employee Behavior on the Risk Associated with Norovirus in Foods

We developed a quantitative risk assessment model using a discrete event framework to quantify and study the risk associated with norovirus transmission to consumers through food contaminated by infected food employees in a retail food setting. This study focused on the impact of ill food workers experiencing symptoms of diarrhea and vomiting and potential control measures for the transmission of norovirus to foods. The model examined the behavior of food employees regarding exclusion from work while ill and after symptom resolution and preventive measures limiting food contamination during preparation. The mean numbers of infected customers estimated for 21 scenarios were compared to the estimate for a baseline scenario representing current practices. Results show that prevention strategies examined could not prevent norovirus transmission to food when a symptomatic employee was present in the food establishment. Compliance with exclusion from work of symptomatic food employees is thus critical, with an estimated range of 75–226% of the baseline mean for full to no compliance, respectively. Results also suggest that efficient handwashing, handwashing frequency associated with gloving compliance, and elimination of contact between hands, faucets, and door handles in restrooms reduced the mean number of infected customers to 58%, 62%, and 75% of the baseline, respectively. This study provides quantitative data to evaluate the relative efficacy of policy and practices at retail to reduce norovirus illnesses and provides new insights into the interactions and interplay of prevention strategies and compliance in reducing transmission of foodborne norovirus.     

学生标准化病人在临床专业学位研究生培养中的应用

认识标准化病人（SP）和学生标准化病人（SSP）的内涵,阐述SSP的优点和培训的方案、方法,进而说明SSP较SP具有经济、实用和操作性强等优点,这些预示着SSP的应用对我国医学高等教育产生深远的影响。     

绩效工资改革探讨

绩效工资是依据员工个人绩效而增发,是通过对员工绩效的有效考评为基础,实现将工资与考评结果挂钩的工资制度.它的理论基础就是:"你的报酬是你应该得到的".对业绩进行考评,然后以之为基础计算薪酬,既体现了客观公正,又推动了员工之间的竞争,从而推动事业单位提升业绩.     

Shaping the societal impacts of engineering sciences: a reflection on the role of public funding agencies

There is a growing public policy interest in responsible innovation, which implies an enforcement of interdisciplinary communication between the engineering sciences and the social sciences or humanities anticipating and assessing the societal impacts of engineering research. This article focuses on an innovative brand of ethical technology assessment (TA), which offers (1) an initial interpretive framework for understanding what “societal impacts” are within a good life perspective to ethics and (2) a broad guideline for constituting a realistic conception of the future impacts of a technology that is still under research. Both aspects are employed to formulate ethical recommendations intended to influence the shape of technological products by means of modulating techno-scientific research activities. In this article, attention is drawn to an obstacle faced by this type of TA using a specific case study. In this case, the scientific engineers accepted the reasons offered by this ethical TA as good reasons, ones that were relevant to them, but they decided not to act on them because that would have meant breaking a commitment to the institution subsidizing their research. In this article, it is argued that public research funding agencies concerned with the societal impacts of the technologies resulting from the research they fund should reconsider their role to make it easier for scientific engineers to accommodate recommendations provided by ethical TA, e.g. by creating a feedback loop from the ethicist to the funding agency.     

美国科学基金会课题遴选的评价体系述要

价值评审是美国科学基金会在课题遴选过程中的一项很重要的操作实践。文章着眼于价值评审的过程,收集和整理了与价值评审的各个环节相关的资料数据,在此基础上对这一工作作了多方面的总结与概括。     

浅谈大学英语教改之转变与实践——网络和计算机辅助下的大学英语教改之我见

随着大学英语教改工作的推进,新的教学模式提出了新的要求。本文从三个方面分别探讨了大学英语教改工作应该实现的转变:教师角色、教学手段、语言测试。同时结合自身的教改实践,以具体真实的教学活动为例,提出了在网络和计算机辅助下的新教学模式的实践和探索思路。     

江西城市化发展水平的聚类分析与评估

采用聚类分析方法,选取城市化率、城市人均GDP、城镇居民人均可支配收入、城市人均GDP年均增长率、城市二三产业产值占总产值比率、城市二三产业从业人员占总从业人员比率、人均城乡居民储蓄存款、人均城镇新增固定资产等指标,对江西省各主要城市的城市化发展水平加以分析评估,其结果是南昌名列第一,其它依次为新余、景德镇、萍乡、鹰潭、九江、宜春、抚州、赣州、吉安、上饶。     

在数学概念学习过程中的形成性评价

通过中外数学概念学习过程的心理学研究,将APOS理论的四个阶段划分作为评价指标生成的平台,而后概述了形成性评价的相关研究,如基本概念、目的与宗旨、教学观念准备、模式、表现特征等。在此基础之上给出了数学概念学习的形成性评价操作性指导,如评价指标体系的构建、形成性题组的设计、教学和学习信息的收集与处理等。