快速城市化背景下广西典型城市景观空间格局动态比较研究

随着城市化的快速发展与城市规模日益扩张,城市景观空间结构不断地被人为改变着,不合理的景观空间格局既削弱了区域的经济和社会发展功能,影响着城市生态环境质量的不断提高,也进一步制约着城市的可持续发展进程。以广西3座典型中心城市——南宁、柳州和桂林市为研究对象,利用6景Landsat5 TM和Landsat8 OLI/TIRS影像数据,通过遥感影像分类技术提取研究区的土地利用景观信息,对典型城市1990—2015年的景观空间格局特征与生态过程进行对比分析,旨在揭示快速城市化阶段重点城市核心景观要素的时空演化规律。结果表明:(1)在城市化进程加快的背景下,广西各典型城市的景观空间格局均发生了剧烈的变化。受人为影响强烈的土地利用景观类型变动最为显著,建设用地景观的不断扩张与耕地、林地景观的缩减是城市化发展的基本特征。(2)在水平空间上,城市建筑景观逐渐由核心圈层向外围圈层扩展,外围区的自然景观受人工干扰强度加大,景观类型逐渐丰富,但破碎化程度加剧。(3)在垂直空间上,城市景观类型呈现较显著的海拔分异特征,中、低海拔区是城镇化最集中的地带,建设用地的景观优势度增长最为显著。高海拔区因但受城市扩张与农业开发活动的胁迫,自然景观的优势度与团聚性呈下降趋势。(4)从城市功能定位来看,南宁、柳州和桂林市作为广西3座不同功能类型的中心城市,它们在区域社会经济发展方面起到重要的辐射和引领作用。该研究为科学开展城市景观规划、实施城市生态环境管理和推进广西城市化健康有序发展提供参考依据。     

Del Istmo大学总体规划——第一期工程

Del Istmo大学的新校园坐落于危地马拉市边迅速发展的圣伊莎贝尔社区。这个49公顷的基地掩映在美丽的山坡与山谷中。大学希望扩招至6200名学生，计划在20年内分期实现。大学教学宗旨与目标包括对个人以及周边社区的高度关注。新校园的空间形式是大学对社会目标的回应，与推进现代学习关系的体现。考虑到影响基地的生态力与系统，新建筑充分考虑位置与朝向，促进自然通风与光线引入。校园是可持续策略的典范。     

Do fast food restaurants surrounding schools affect childhood obesity?

In this study, we estimate the effect of fast food environment surrounding schools on childhood body mass index (BMI). We use two methods that arrive at a similar conclusion, but with different implications. Using school distance from the nearest federal highway to instrument for restaurant location, we find the surrounding restaurants to only marginally affect a student’s BMI measure. The effect size also decreases with increasing radial distances from school, 0.016 standard deviations at one-third of a mile and 0.0032 standard deviations at a mile radial distance. This indicates the decreasing influence of restaurants on a child’s BMI as its distance from school increases. On a subset of students who were exogenously assigned to different school food environment, we find no effect of the fast food restaurants. An important contextual aspect is that nearly all schools in this sample observed closed campus policy, which does not allow students to leave campus during lunch hours.     

Characterization of Indoor Environmental Quality in Primary Schools in Maia: A Portuguese Case Study

Scientific evidence associates indoor environment pollutants with respiratory effects (asthma and allergies), and children constitute one of most sensitive groups. Indoor air quality (IAQ) in schools may indeed be a significant health factor for children, with effects on school attendance and performance. Our aim was to characterize IAQ of classrooms in Maia County (north of Portugal) for which there was no information available. The study was conducted in 21 of the 40 primary schools, selected by stratified random sampling. Depending on the dimension, one or two classrooms were tested at each school. Walkthrough surveys of school grounds, buildings, and individual classrooms were done. Continuous measurements were taken of temperature, relative humidity, airborne respirable particles, total volatile organic compounds, and carbon dioxide, whereas bioaerosols were counted on Plate Count Agar during regular school activities. The indoor arithmetic mean for PM₁₀, CO₂, TCOV, and bioaerosol concentrations were 0.14 mg/m³, 999 ppm, 0.41 mg/m³, and 4140 UCF/m³, respectively. The values of PM₁₀ and CO₂ were close to their acceptable maximum values, but bioaerosols were much higher. This study supports previous studies conducted in school environments and emphasizes the need for proactive indoor air quality audits in school buildings.     

建筑与庭院“共舞”—以清华大学八家附小建筑设计为例

建筑和庭院的关系一直以来是建筑学重要的研究课题之一。以清华大学八家附小建筑与庭院设计为例进行研究,提出建筑与庭院“共舞”的理念,总结了形成庭院格局的3种设计模式和庭院的3种设计模式。试图创造建筑和庭院“共舞”的校园环境,探寻其连续而整体的、丰富而多层次的美,是本设计与研究的努力目标。     

Smoking Experimentation among Elementary School Students in China: Influences from Peers,Families, and the School Environment

The aim of this study was to investigate experimentation with smoking among primary school students in China. Data were acquired from a recent survey of 4,073 students in grades 4 to 6 (ages 9–12) in 11 primary schools of Ningbo City. The questions were adapted from the Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS). Results suggest that although the Chinese Ministry of Education (MOE) encourages smoke-free schools, experimentation with cigarettes remains a serious problem among primary school students in China. Peers, family members, and the school environment play important roles in influencing smoking experimentation among students. Having a friend who smoked, seeing a family member smoke, and observing a teacher smoking on campus predicted a higher risk of experimentation with smoking; the exposure to anti-tobacco materials at school predicted a lower risk of experimentation with smoking. The evidence suggests that public health practitioners and policymakers should seek to ensure the implementation of smoke-free policies and that intervention should target young people, families, and communities to curb the commencement of smoking among children and adolescents in China.     

Fungal biodiversity in indoor environments in Havana, Cuba

A study was made of the indoor mycobiota in a range of public and private buildings (libraries, museums, laboratories and offices, warehouses, homes and a school) in the city of Havana (Cuba). Culturable airborne fungi were sampled using a slit-to-agar impactor (Chirana aeroscope). High levels of contamination were recorded, with more than 700 colony-forming units per cubic metre of air in 85% of the buildings sampled, and more than 1,000 in 55% of buildings. Of the 28 genera and 31 species identified, the most common were Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus niger, Penicillium citrinum, Cladosporium cladosporioides and Cladosporium sphaerospermum. Genus and species diversity was analysed, and new findings were obtained regarding Cuba’s atmospheric ecosystem.     

Effect of fee-for-service air-conditioning management in balancing thermal comfort and energy usage

Balancing thermal comfort with the requirement of energy conservation presents a challenge in hot and humid areas where air-conditioning (AC) is frequently used in cooling indoor air. A field survey was conducted in Taiwan to demonstrate the adaptive behaviors of occupants in relation to the use of fans and AC in a school building employing mixed-mode ventilation where AC use was managed under a fee-for-service mechanism. The patterns of using windows, fans, and AC as well as the perceptions of students toward the thermal environment were examined. The results of thermal perception evaluation in relation to the indoor thermal conditions were compared to the levels of thermal comfort predicted by the adaptive models described in the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers Standard 55 and EN 15251 and to that of a local model for evaluating thermal adaption in naturally ventilated buildings. A thermal comfort-driven adaptive behavior model was established to illustrate the probability of fans/AC use at specific temperature and compared to the temperature threshold approach to illustrate the potential energy saving the fee-for-service mechanism provided. The findings of this study may be applied as a reference for regulating the operation of AC in school buildings of subtropical regions.     

Dean Milton C. Winternitz at Yale

Milton Winternitz led Yale Medical School as its Dean from 1920 to 1935. An innovative, even maverick leader, he not only kept the school from going under, but turned it into a first-class research institution. Dedicated to the new scientific medicine established in Germany, he was equally fervent about "social medicine" and the study of humans in their culture and environment. He established the "Yale System" of teaching, with few lectures and fewer exams, and strengthened the full-time faculty system; he also created the graduate-level Yale School of Nursing and the Psychiatry Department, built numerous new buildings, and much more. It is a loss to 21st-century medicine that his dream of an Institute of Human Relations, envisioned as a refuge where social scientists would collaborate with biological scientists in a holistic study of humankind, lasted for only a few years, before falling victim to the more obvious triumphs of medical science and technology. It is sad, too, that he is remembered largely as a Jew presiding over a medical school that, like most others, restricted the number of Jewish students, rather than for his contributions to American medicine.     

Meritocracy dismissed

Undergraduates at elite universities in the US and UK are, according to Dr Warikoo, conflicted about the relation of racial diversity to meritocracy. In the US, white students view racial minorities as academically less qualified but as providing a diversity benefit; UK students view minorities as equal members of a meritocracy but turn a blind eye to racial disparities on and off campus. What Warikoo’s narrative overlooks is the role played by differences between the US and the UK in the educational paths and testing regimes that produce these disparate mentalities. Although 40 per cent of America’s colleges offer test-optional admissions, some like Harvard still require SAT/ACT scores. The SAT/ACT are predictively weak and biased, stigmatizing minorities as underperformers. Test biases and the predictive superiority of high school grades are not widely understood. Warikoo’s proposal to blow up meritocracy with an admissions lottery is to be applauded.     

Sowing density effects and patterns of colonization in a prairie restoration

A cost‐effective approach in plant restorations could be to increase sowing density for species known to be challenging to establish, while reducing sowing density for species that easily colonize on their own. Sowing need not occur evenly across the site for rapidly dispersing species. We explored these issues using a prairie restoration experiment on a high‐school campus with three treatments: plots sown only to grasses (G plots), to grasses and forbs (GF1), and to grasses and forbs with forbs sown at twice the density (GF2). In year 2, GF1 and GF2 plots had higher diversity than G plots, as expected, but GF2 treatments did not have twice the sown forb cover. However, high forb sowing density increased forb richness, probably by reducing stochastic factors in establishment. Cover of nonsown species was highest in G plots and lowest in GF2 plots, suggesting suppressive effects of native forbs on weedy species. Colonization of G plots by two sown forbs (Coreopsis tinctoria and Rudbeckia hirta) was apparent after 2.5 years, providing evidence that these species are self‐sustaining. Colonization was greater in edges than in the central areas of G plots. Through construction of establishment kernels, we infer that the mean establishment distance was shorter for R. hirta (6.7 m) compared to C. tinctoria (21.1 m). Our results lead us to advocate for restoration practices that consider not only seed sowing but also subsequent dispersal of sown species. Furthermore, we conclude that restoration research is particularly amenable for outdoor education and university‐high school collaborations.