For what purpose the arts? An analysis of the mission statements of urban arts high schools in Canada and the United States

While general arts programs have declined in many schools across the United States and Canada, the number of specialized art programs in public secondary schools has swelled since the 1980s. While this increase is often celebrated by arts educators, questions about the justification of specialized arts programs are rarely raised, and their value is often taken for granted. In this article, we examine the mission statements of eighty-four specialized arts programs across two countries to examine the ideas, values, and commitments that are expressed in these public statements. In addition to a close thematic analysis, we describe how these mission statements reflect different conceptions of the role of the arts in education and consider the ways in which arguments that seek to broaden access to the arts are combined with the goal of serving a narrow subset of the student population. We argue that analyzing mission statements provides a clearer picture of the ideas that shape these programs, and that in order to foster an informed public conversation about the purpose and value of an education in the arts, educators committed to the arts must engage in this serious discussion.     

文化景观作为区域景观研究概念——德国图林根州文化景观研究、教学与规划实践

近20 年来,对风景园林的文化阐释成为埃尔夫特应用科技大学文化景观研究组持续以来的关注焦点。期间,该研究组系统地分析了决定图林根州文化景观的各种文化因素和要素,深入了解文化和自然环境中的复杂相互作用,以此来表述和研究图林根州的区域景观系统。首先,阐述了当下德国风景园林学术语境中“文化景观”的含义,强调文化对于景观质量的价值。继而,论述了对景观进行优化、保护和设计中无法否定和回避的文化与经济因素。这样既要发展经济又要保护文化的矛盾性质,是文化景观概念所理解的人类生存的重要性质所在。文化景观研究能够在看似统一的地理区域中,形成和发展为具有可识别性的、差异化的动态结构。此外,文化景观研究还涉及其他因素,诸如生物多样性与文化多样性的丧失、生态系统服务功能滞后、经济价值的低估、国土空间连接性以及缺少实质性评价的人文特征。对历史性文化景观价值的认知给风景园林学带来了机遇,对历史景观不仅要保护,而且要创造并提供各种富有成效的展示,以参与文化景观的未来发展。维护和整合风景园林规划设计中文化景观遗产的研究实践,可以通过基础设施项目的环境影响评估到建成区的景观设计整体过程中得以贯彻。更好地理解文化景观,有助于在空间规划和发展中对其更加谨慎地进行处理,以提高文化景观研究的科学和策略意识。     

基于景观感知的自然教育环境设计策略与要素研究

景观感知作为自然教育非常重要的组成部分,其研究内容受到广泛关注,但现有研究仍处于初步阶段,未对自然教育环境设计起到应有的支撑作用。从景观感知角度,综合环境教育学、环境心理学及行为心理学等相关理论,对基于景观感知的自然教育环境的营建提出了针对性原则及策略,并着重探讨影响景观感知的设计要素。首次从景观感知角度对自然教育环境设计进行探讨,对自然教育环境的营建具有指导意义。 关键词：风景园林;自然教育;景观感知     

新医改背景下医疗设备信息化管理存在的问题及解决对策探究

医疗设备是医院的重要资产,可在一定程度上反映医院的诊断能力以及现代化程度。新医改政策出台后,各地均大力推进医药卫生信息化建设,随着医疗设备种类的增加,给医院设备管理带来一定的困难,医疗设备信息化管理已成为医院不可或缺的一部分。我国的医疗设备信息化管理起步较晚,尚处于初级研究阶段,从而导致现阶段医疗设备信息化管理问题较多。本文简短叙述了医疗设备信息化管理现状,以及当前医疗设备信息化管理所存在的问题,并对所描述问题提出针对性的解决方案。     

知识宣教辅助饮食指导对老年T2DM患者的影响

为了探讨饮食指导联合知识宣教对老年T2DM患者血糖波动的影响,本研究选取在本院治疗的136例老年T2DM患者并随机分组,对照组患者给予常规护理,试验组患者实施知识宣教辅助饮食指导。通过观察比较比较两组患者血糖达标时间、血糖波动次数、平均血糖漂移幅度、空腹血糖、餐后2 h血糖、糖化血红蛋白和血脂水平差异,本研究发现治疗后试验组患者血糖达标时间为(19.06±2.70) h、血糖波动次数为(2.01±0.94)次/d、平均血糖漂移幅度为(3.12±1.04) mmol/L,较对照组均明显改善(p<0.05);试验组患者空腹血糖为(6.01±0.18) mmol/L、餐后2 h血糖(8.31±0.32) mmol/L、糖化血红蛋白(6.39±0.65)%,明显低于对照组(p<0.05);试验组患者LDL-C为(2.49±0.02) mmol/L、TG为(1.12±0.02) mmol/L同对照组比较明显下降(p<0.05)。研究表明,针对老年T2DM患者给予饮食指导联合知识宣教可控制患者血糖和血脂水平,避免血糖波动,值得推广应用。     

Reimagining policy: Power,problems, and public stories

The authors of various practitioner and scholarly documents suggest markedly contrasting understandings about the nature of “policy.” These divergent conceptions raise the question: What is at stake by understanding the nature of policy in one way as opposed to another? The purpose of this philosophical inquiry is to interrogate the nature of “policy” as it relates to music education and to question the values that do and might underlie and propagate through contrasting understandings of “policy.” Subsequently, I examine two aspects of policy, problem identification and meaning-making, that have gone largely unexplored in the arts education literature.

Using Foucault's writings, I argue that power-laden policy texts often have the greatest impact, not when they are mandated, but when they go misrecognized as common sense. I also advocate for the consistent use of the terms “policy texts” and “policy actions,” including as an alternative to the imbalanced designations of “soft policies” and “hard policies.” Drawing on Dewey arts educators might form “publics” around problems having consequences that they deem far-reaching, recurrent, and irreparable. Individual and collective political narratives, including what Ganz explains as “stories of self,” “stories of us,” and “stories of now,” can foster the meaningful connections necessary for forming “publics” who address pressing problems in arts education.     

Interactive Visualization and Industrial Ecology: Applications,Challenges, and Opportunities

The emergence of increasingly complex data in industrial ecology (IE) has caused scholarly interest in interactive visualization (IV). IV allows users to interact with data, aiding in processing and interpreting complex datasets, processes, and simulations. Consequently, IV can help IE practitioners communicate the complexities of their methods and results, shed light on the underlying research assumptions, and enable more transparent monitoring of data quality and error. This can significantly increase the reach and impact of research, promote transparency, reproducibility, and open science, as well as improve the clarity and presentation of IE research. A review of current IV applications reveals that, while data exploration has received some attention among IE practitioners, IV applications in scientific communication are clearly lacking. With the help of a working example, we explore the value of IV, discuss its operationalization, and highlight challenges that the IE community must face during IV uptake. Such challenges include technical and knowledge limitations, limits on user interaction, and implementation strategies. With these challenges in mind, we outline key aspects needed to lift the IE field to the forefront of scientific communication in the coming years. Among these, we draft the basic principles of a “Hub for Interactive Visualization in Industrial Ecology” (HIVE), a point of encounter where IE practitioners could find an array of data visualization tools that are geared toward IE datasets. IV is here to stay, and its inceptive stage presents many opportunities to IE practitioners to shape its operationalization and benefit from early adoption.     

公众对园林绿地功能的认知及其对环境教育的启示——以广州市为例

以网络问卷和现场问卷、访谈的形式,分析公众对广州市园林绿地功能的认知情况,以期为环境教育场地的建设提供参考。结果显示,公众对于物种多样性和景观多样性的各项具体描述的认知情况都趋于一致,绝大多数公众认为绿地植被能发挥重要的生态功能,且公众的学历越高,其认知园林植物的欲望越强烈。在休息时,大多数公众会选择植物比较茂密的半开敞空间;在园林设计中通过增强科普信息获取的便利性和趣味性,能更好地发挥绿地的环境教育功能。     

Adiposity, physical activity, and physical fitness among children from Aragón, Spain

Objective: The main purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between physical activity (PA) levels and adiposity. The secondary purpose was to assess the effect of physical fitness and living area on adiposity. Research Methods and Procedures: A cross‐sectional study was carried out in a regional representative sample of 1068 children 7 to 12 years of age. Anthropometric and physical fitness values (including BMI, aerobic capacity, strength levels, velocity assessment, and flexibility) were measured in all children. Results: The prevalence of being overweight and obese in the entire sample was 31% and 6%, respectively. No difference between urban and rural children was found. The proportion of boys who were classified as overweight and obese was similar in physically active and sedentary (non‐physically active) groups. However, physically active girls tended to show lower obesity prevalence compared with their sedentary counterparts (p = 0.06). In girls, the sum of the 6 skinfolds thickness (SSF) measurements was lower in the physically active group when compared with the non‐physically active group (p < 0.05); however, this effect was not observed in boys. Multiple regression analysis revealed that the level of physical activity (PA) had a significant effect on BMI and SSF in boys but not in girls, while maximal oxygen uptake (Vo _2max) was significantly related to adiposity in both sexes. Discussion: Regular participation in at least 2 hours per week of sports activities on top of the compulsory education program is associated with better physical fitness and lower whole body adiposity. In the children included in our study, among all physical fitness variables, Vo _2max showed the strongest relationship with BMI and fat mass assessed by means of skinfold measurements.