Promoting China-U.S.Arctic education cooperation:challenges,opportunities and recommendations

Arctic education refers not only to the teaching,but also to research,communication,dissemination as well as popularization of knowledge related to the Arctic.This article reviews joint efforts between Chinese and American educators and researchers to promote cooperation and understanding in Arctic education and research,and examines the facing challenges of China-U.S.Arctic education cooperation which include current political or economic tensions between the two countries,the differing perspectives and priorities on Arctic policy,the disproportion in Arctic scientific research,different research methodologies and discourse system in social science.This article also argues that there are opportunities for the two countries to cooperate in Arctic education.Common goals and interests in the Arctic,Arctic-dedicated institutions with significant Arctic research capabilities and partnerships around the world provide foundations for Arctic education cooperation.The implementation of a new science-based Arctic treaty of the Arctic Council is an opportunity for China-U.S.Arctic education cooperation.As for future cooperation,it suggests that in addition to promoting the direct bilateral cooperation,cooperation within international cooperation platforms and mechanisms,especially within the Arctic Council also needs to be further promoted.

Multi-fractal Behaviors of Relative Humidity over China

The multi-fractal ity over China are studied behaviors of relative humid using the multi-fractal de trended fluctuation analysis （DFA） method. Three multi fractal parameters （the spectrum width Aa, the asymmetry Aaas, and the long-range correlation exponent a0） of the singularity spectrum are introduced to quantify the multi-fractal behaviors. The results show that multi-frac tality exists in daily humidity records over most stations in China and is mainly due to the broad distribution of the probability density of the sequence values. Strong multi fractal behaviors over some stations in the Yunnan, Guangdong, and Inner Mongolia provinces are obvious. These behaviors are mainly caused by different long range correlations between large and small fluctuations. The asymmetry of the singularity of relative humidity records is weak, except for a small number of stations in the far east and west of China, where the singularity spec trum is left-skewed. Finally, the long-range correlations in North China are stronger than those in South China, which indicates better predictability in North China. By studying the parameters of the multi-fractal spectrum, various data of long-range power law correlations of the relative humidity records are obtained, which may pro vide theoretical support for climate prediction.

Relating mechanisms of higher education and research closely to the reality in the society for rural transformation in the <i>Amhara</i>region, Ethiopia

Higher education and research in Ethiopia is going through a decisive phase of reform and expansion. As a system it is increasingly required to respond and gear adequately to the development needs of the society and the country. This change is taking place through a government-led radical review of the system’s status and challenges, and by devising mechanisms of consensus building, as well as ownership and overcoming the resistance to change. Higher education and research institutions of Bahir Dar and Gondar Universities and ARARI, in Ethiopia are not satisfactorily responsive to rural transformation in addressing problems of small-scale farmers. This calls for responsive education and research that addresses farmers’ constraints. Thus, to survey the suitability/appropriateness of the current training programmes of higher education and research institutions to address the actual problems of farmers is of paramount importance. To this effect, tools such as interview guide, checklist and questionnaires were put to use for data collection. Primary data was collected from observation, focus group discussions and key informant interviews. Descriptive statistics for quantitative data and triangulation for qualitative data were the prime techniques for data analysis. The result of the study shows that university heads, instructors, students, research heads, researchers and employees rated the suggested mechanisms, namely “inviting speakers from industries and farming community”, “visiting guest lecturers” and “special entrepreneurial project”, as the top most important for ensuring training and research closely to the reality in the society of Amhara region in facilitating agricultural growth and rural transformation. Besides, employers and farmers responded that fresh graduates are deficient with relevant technical skills because of less emphasis on experiential learning on higher education. Therefore, the curriculum for the training should give much weight to incorporate these suggested mechanisms and the higher institutions curriculum should be arranged in such a way that the trainees could obtain appropriate technical know-how.

An Empirical Study Based on the Teaching Quality and Related Issues of Japanese Education in Colleges and Universities

China’s social and economic development has developed rapidly in recent years.International trade is getting closer and closer,trade and cultural exchanges with Japan have increased year by year.China’s foreign policy gradually develops towards internationalization.Japanese language plays a very important role in the process of friendly cooperation between China and Japan.At this juncture and circumstances,many universities have added Japanese language majors in order to improve the Japanese language communication skills among domestic college students and learn more about Japanese language and culture.Compared with English,Japanese is not a widely spoken language.Moreover,the Japanese language is used less frequently and has a smaller range of application.At present,Japanese has not become a major language communication tool for Chinese and as well as for foreign communication.Some universities still use the traditional teaching methods of the past to teach Japanese language.Teachers are not capable enough,it simply cannot meet the actual development needs of modern society,which requires us to pay enough attention to the teaching of Japanese in colleges and universities,in our work we summarize the problems existing in the teaching process of Japanese language today,and formulate corresponding perfect countermeasures.

Verifying the Effects of an Education Program Leveraging Information Technology to Promote Cervical Cancer Screening in Women Aged 20 - 29—A One-Year Longitudinal Study

The purpose of this research is to implement an IT-based education program in order to promote cervical cancer screenings for women aged 20 - 29 years, as well as to examine the results of said program. This is a longitudinal/comparative study of two groups, one for which the program was implemented (the intervention group), and the other for which it was not (the control group). The program consisted of attending a health lecture and encouragement to be screened one month, six months, and one year later sent through IT-based methods. The target was unmarried women aged 20 - 29 who had neither previously given birth nor had been screened for cervical cancer in a period one year prior. They were divided into two groups, the intervention group (n = 142) and control group (n = 145). The effectiveness of the program was assessed via an initial survey and further surveys six months and one year later. Results were based on the Japanese version of the Health Belief Model Scale for Cervical Cancer and the Pap Smear Test (HBMSCCPST), knowledge scores in the categories of Healthy Lifestyles, Cervical Cancer, Cervical Cancer Screening, and screening behavior. A two-way ANOVA of the HBMSCCPST subscales and knowledge scores in the initial, six-month, and one-year surveys was performed, showing interaction in Cervical Cancer (p = 0.00). Main effects were observed in Cervical Cancer Screening (p = 0.00) and Healthy Lifestyles (p = 0.00). Regarding the amount of change from the initial survey, knowledge scores in the Cervical Cancer (p = 0.027) and Cervical Cancer Screening (p = 0.016) categories were significantly higher in the intervention group than in the control group. There was no significant difference in cervical cancer screening rates (p = 0.26) between the two groups. However, a small-degree effect size was observed for Benefits, Seriousness, and Susceptibility subscales in both examinees and non-examinees. Although the educational program of this study was effective in improving the knowledge of women in their twenties, there was little improvement in HBMSCCPST and it did not lead to the promotion of cervical cancer screening. In order to raise interest in cervical cancer screening, it is necessary to consider useful content to guide women to consult with healthcare professionals, a long-term population approach, and organizational structure of consultation.

Study on the Value of ＂Education Involved by All Related People＂ in the Practice of the Socialist Core Values

The ideological and political education for students in institutions of higher learning is a complicated, systematic project. To unequivocally cultivate the socialist core values of these students and deeply influence their ideological understanding and behaviors, the concept of ＂education involved by all related people＂ is necessarily implemented in all aspects, and the joint force of ＂imparting knowledge and educating people＂ , ＂educating people by management＂ , and ＂educating people by service＂ is formed. As a result, the actual effectiveness of the ideological and political education is improved in institutions of higher learning.

U.S.’ Recognition, Evaluation of China-U.S. Educational Cooperation and Its Enlightenment to China--Analysis Based on the Survey Reports by U.S.’Policy Elites

Educational cooperation is one of the key factors to embody humanistic exchanges and promote the development of international relations.Through the analysis of four survey reports on China-U.S.educational cooperation,it is found that American policy elites generally attach importance to the distribution of power,the application of law,mutual benefit between the two countries in educational cooperation,and pay attention to the potential motivation and influence of China.China should rationally refer to the views and suggestions,strengthen the effectiveness of dialogue mechanism,enhance the credibility of international discourse,and at the same time encourage the negotiation and governance among cooperative universities,so as to promote the stable and sustainable development of education cooperation.

Factors Influencing Students Decisions to Enrollment in Sudanese Higher Education Institutions

There is a growing body of literature that recognizes the importance of data mining in educational systems. This recognition makes educational data mining a new growing research community. One way to achieve the highest level of quality in a higher education system is by discovering knowledge from educational data such as students’ enrollment data. Many mining tools that aim to discover exciting correlations, frequent patterns, associations, or casual structures among sets of items in educational data sets have been proposed. One of the widely used tools is association rules. In this paper, the Apriori algorithm is used to generate association rules to discover the importance and correlation between factors that influence student’s decision to enroll in higher education institutions in Sudan. The algorithm is applied using a student’s enrollment data set that was created using a questionnaire and 800 students enrolled in governmental and private sector universities as a sample. This paper classifies factors that influence enrollment into: student’s demographic factors and four categories of enrollment related factors (Student and Society, Educational Institution, Admission, and Employment related factors), and determines the most influential factors in determining student’s decision to enroll in Sudanese universities. The analysis result shows that the Educational Institution related factors (50%) and Admission related factors (40%) are strongly influencing students’ enrollment decision, while the Employment related factors (10%) and Student and Society related factors (0%) have weak influence. The factors out of the 14 Educational Institution related factors that have a high impact are: reputation, diversity of study, quality of education, education facilities, and feasibility.

Potential Toxicological and Cardiopulmonary Effects of PM2,5 Exposure and Related Mortality:Findings of Recent Studies Published during 2003-2013

Air pollution has environmental issue owing become a serious to its diverse harmful effects on the physical and biological environment. According to the Environmental Protection Agency （EPA） and the World Health Organization （WHO）, air pollution affects millions of people worldwide. Hundreds of thousands of deaths each year and a range of diseases, particularly among vulnerable groups （i.e., children, the elderly, and people with special medical conditions）, are attributed to air pollution. These effects are not always caused by single pollutant in the air; rather, they are considered consequences of the multi-pollutants to which people are simultaneously exposed.

The effects of relative density of metal foams on the stresses and deformation of beam under bending

The exact analytic solution of the pure bending beam of metallic foams is given. The effects of relative density of the material on stresses and deformation are revealed with the Triantafillou and Gibson constitutive law （TG model） taken as the analysis basis. Several examples for individual foams are discussed, showing the importance of compressibility of the cellular materials. One of the objects of this study is to generalize Hill＇s solution for incompressible plasticity to the case of compressible plasticity, and a kinematics parameter is brought into the analysis so that the velocity field can be determined.

Energy Balance-related Behaviors Are Related to Cardiometabolic Parameters and Predict Adiposity in 8-14-year-old Overweight Chinese Children One Year Later

To identify target energy balance-related behaviors（ERBs）,baseline data from 141overweight or obese schoolchildren（aged 8-14years old）was used to predict adiposity[body mass index（BMI）and fat percentage]one year later.The ERBs included a modified Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension diet score（DASH score）,leisure-time physical activity（PA,days/week）,and leisure screen time（minutes/day）.Several cardiometabolic variables were measured in the fasting state, including systolic blood pressure （SBP）, diastolic blood pressure （DBP）, blood glucose （GLU）, total cholesterol （TC）, triglycerides （TG）, low-density lipoprotein （LDL-C）, and high-density lipoprotein （HDL-C）.

Dose-Injury Relation as a Model for Uncertainty Propagation from Input Dose to Target Dose

We study a general framework for assessing the injury probability corresponding to an input dose quantity. In many applications, the true value of input dose may not be directly measurable. Instead, the input dose is estimated from measurable/controllable quantities via numerical simulations using assumed representative parameter values. We aim at developing a simple modeling framework for accommodating all uncertainties, including the discrepancy between the estimated input dose and the true input dose. We first interpret the widely used logistic dose-injury model as the result of dose propagation uncertainty from input dose to target dose at the active site for injury where the binary outcome is completely determined by the target dose. We specify the symmetric logistic dose-injury function using two shape parameters: the median injury dose and the 10 - 90 percentile width. We relate the two shape parameters of injury function to the mean and standard deviation of the dose propagation uncertainty. We find 1) a larger total uncertainty will spread more the dose-response function, increasing the 10 - 90 percentile width and 2) a systematic over-estimate of the input dose will shift the injury probability toward the right along the estimated input dose. This framework provides a way of revising an established injury model for a particular test population to predict the injury model for a new population with different distributions of parameters that affect the dose propagation and dose estimation. In addition to modeling dose propagation uncertainty, we propose a new 3-parameter model to include the skewness of injury function. The proposed 3-parameter function form is based on shifted log-normal distribution of dose propagation uncertainty and is approximately invariant when other uncertainties are added. The proposed 3-parameter function form provides a framework for extending skewed injury model from a test population to a target population in application.

Unequal Education, Unequal Citizen？ A Comparative Perspective on Equality in Education

Education has enormous influence on individual prospects for a flourishing life, thus, the justice of an education system is a key indicator of the justice in a society. Normally, the debate over educational justice refers to two fundamental questions： the conception of justice and the aims and purposes of education. We may agree about the meaning of justice, but disagree about the aim of education, and vice versa, and thus come to very different perspective about what educational policies should entail. However, what does justice look like when it comes to the distribution of educational goods？ Should we ensure that all children have equal educational resources and opportunities or should we rather concentrate on equal educational attachment？ Recently, there is a debate on educational justice which mainly focuses on the status and role of comparatively considerations within a just distribution of educational benefits. According to the adequacy approach, the state is required to ensure all children have enough or adequate education. Once the adequate threshold of educational resources is obtained, there is no injustice in the fact that some children have better education than others. In contrast with adequacy approach, proponents of what can be called educational equality approach have instead argued that justice requires prospects for educational achievement to be dependent upon a child＇s ability and willingness to learn, and not on factors outside of her control. Therefore, the state is required to ensure that an individual＇s prospects for educational achievement should be a function only of that individual＇s effort and talent, not of his or her social class background or other factors outside of her control. It seems that the debate between proponents of adequacy and proponents of equality in educational opportunity reflects very different ways to think about just educational policy and practice. This paper is trying to address this debate. It proceeds as follows. In the next section, I will outline the Equality vs. Adequacy debate. Then, in section III, I would like to take issue with these approaches. I will argue that both approaches have negative effects on equality and justice in education. Finally, inspired by Harvard political philosopher Danielle Allen＇s work on education and equality, I will propose an alternative conception of educational equality. I believe it is a better way of understanding the meaning of educational justice for a democratic society.

From G. W. F. Hegel to J. Keating： An Introduction to G. Gentile＇s Philosophy of （Political） Education

In this paper, I will try to highlight some features of Giovanni Gentile＇s idealistic philosophy of education while showing how and why his educational approach is based on the assumption that the teacher/student separation needs to be overcome. Main points of interest of this research will therefore be the comparison between Fichte, Hegel, von Humboldt, and Gentile with regard to the theory of Bildung, leading to some conclusive reflections about the way education, freedom and John Keating＇s earpe diem from the Dead Poets Society film are deeply linked.

Impact of Education on Productivity:A Model in China

Improving the quality of human resources through edu-cation and training is of great strategic significance.However, few people have done in depth and systematicstudies on the relationship between education and pro-ducttvity in China. This study developed an educationproductivity transform model and empirically tested themodel using data on the most districts of China. The ba-sic notion is that the effect depends both on the capabilityresulted from education, and on the environment inwhich this capability can be exercised, the effect is a re-sult of two factors combined.

Religious Education for Effective Ministry： Confronting Leadership Challenges in One Beloved Community

Rev. Smith has been appointed to be the pastor of First United Methodist Church （FUMC）. With the appointment, it comes a specific instruction that the church must be ＂turned around,＂ and it was Rev. Smith＇s responsibility to make it happen. FUMC has been in decline for many years under the leadership of several pastors. Rev. Smith is black and the congregation is predominately Caucasian and elderly, with longtime members who have stayed on because ＂this is their church.＂ Rev. Smith comes to the church bringing her experience, energy, and vision. This appointment is a cross-racial cross-cultural appointment, which is part of her denomination＇s mandate for the future, as it places pastors that reflect the diversity of the surrounding community in churches that do not currently look like the community around them. Currently FUMC does not interact with the community--it does ministry ＂to＂ the community but not ＂with it.＂ Therefore, from the beginning, Rev. Smith knew that her job would not be easy. She accepted the appointment believing that a ＂new wind＂ must blow through the church bringing forth spiritual revival. She now faces a crucial issue in the church, which she feels is in a make or break situation. First United Methodist is located in an urban environment. FUMC has been in this city for 133 years but has been at this site for 83 years. Originally, the neighborhood consisted of predominately white, blue-collar workers, but has since transitioned into a neighborhood community of mostly African Americans, Caribbean Blacks, and Hispanics. When the church was fwst built in this neighborhood and for many years after that, both consisted of white blue-collar workers. As the neighborhood began to change, no efforts were made to develop new programs or a more inclusive worship to include the growing diversity. The lines are drawn; Rev. Smith knows it but she is determined to turn First Church United around. As she has said before in conversations with the church, ＂God called me into ministry and the Bishop sent me here. No one is going to stop me from serving God and the church.＂ For a brief moment, she felt terribly alone, but then she remembered that she did have some support at FUMC. Rev. Smith took a deep breath, ＂I am going back to the drawing board. There is much work yet to be done, and I will not give up. But what is the next step？＂ This paper is based on a case scenario for a religious education program and as a response to Cooling of the ＂Spirits＂ by Marjorie Nunes of the Summerfield United Methodist Church Bridgeport, Connecticut. The author of this response paper analyzing the problems from the case study provides suggestions for a Religious Education ministry as a program for the church, and data on effective church growth and leadership.1

3-D Animation as Applied to the Solving of Coupling Relations in the 6-DOF Parallel Robot

How to solve the coupling relations in a 6 - DOF parallel robot quickly and accurately within the limits of realtime control is a critical problem. In traditional analytic method, the complicated mathemtical model must first be constructed and then solved by programming.Obviously, this method is not very practical. This paper,therefore, proposes a new way of approach with a new method using 3- D animation for the solving of coupling relations in the 6 - DOF parallel robot. This method is much simpler and its solving accuracy approaches that of the more complicated analytic method.

The Characteristics of 30-60 Day Oscillation and Its Relations to the Interannual Oscillations

The characteristics of 30-60 day oscillation (hereafter called LFO ) of the outgoing longwave radiation data (OLR) and its relations to the interannual oscillations of the sea surface temperature (SST) are investigated by using the daily OLR data for the period from January, 1979 to December, 1987 and the corresponding monthly SST data. It is found that the LFO the band the interannual oscillations of the SST monthly anomaly (SSTA) interact each other and they all relate to the occurrence and development of El Nino events closely. Before El Nino event happens, it contributes to the SST's wanning up and to the SST's quasi-biennial oscillation (called QBO for brevity) and three and half years oscillation (called SO for short) being in warm water phase in the equatorial central and eastern Pacific (ECP and EEP) that the LFO in the equatorial western Pacific (EWP) enhances and propagates eastward; When El Nino event takes place, the LFO, SSTA and SSTA's QBO and SO in the EEP interact and strengthen each other; But the warmer SST and the SSTA's QBO and SO in the warm water phase in the EEP contribute to the LFO's weakening in the equatorial Pacific. Moreover, these contribute to the SST in the EEP becoming cold and the SSTA's QBO and SO in the EWP being in cold water phase and then impel the El Nino event to end.