A phenomenographic study of Greek primary school students’ representations concerning technology in daily life

The present research investigated and studied students’ representations about daily life technologies, in a prospect of studying technology in Greek primary education. In the research participated 60 Greek primary school students aged 9 to 12 years old. Research data were collected through semi-structured, personal, clinical-type interviews. Each interview investigated student’s conceptions and views about the following thematic areas: the concept of technology, daily life technologies, technological change, and the impact of technology use in everyday life. Data analysis revealed that the majority of students equated technology with modern tools and appliances, especially with computers, TV, mobile phones, satellites and other micro- and macro-technologies, whereas experience based technologies (de Vries, Technology education: Beyond the “technology is applied science” paradigm. J. Technol. Edu. 8 (1996), 7) have been hardly recognized by them as technology. Also students’ representations can be categorized either as technology-oriented representations, which focus on a collection of technical means without reference to humans, or as human-oriented representations, focused on technical means with substantial reference to human needs and activities. Depending on these types of representations, students seem to conceive differently the nature of the problems, which they recognize that the wide use of technology causes mainly to the environment and the responsibility of the user for these problems. Moreover, it seems that the concept of technological change is a quite difficult one for the students. In order to help students form adequate representations about daily life technology and technological change an appropriate teaching approach was designed on the basis of these students’ representations.     

How do stakeholder interactions influence national food security policy in the Caribbean? The case of Saint Lucia

Increasingly, multi-stakeholder processes have been recognized as being necessary to the development of public policies seeking to promote systemic innovation in response to complex and multidimensional challenges, such as household food security, rural development, and environmental change. Saint Lucia, a small island developing state located in the Caribbean, has been grappling with a wide range of agriculture, food and nutrition security challenges with varying degrees of policy success. Recognizing the significance of the challenge, this paper explores the nature of the stakeholder interactions surrounding the development of Saint Lucia’s 2009–2015 National Agricultural Policy and considers some of the implications for food and agriculture-related policy outcomes. Results reveal a general lack of supportive conditions for effective multi-stakeholder processes, including low stakeholder participation levels, conflicting roles of different forms of social capital in the interactions between stakeholders, and missing “boundary” organizations capable of facilitating a transition towards more flexible and adaptive institutions, enhanced knowledge exchange and learning, and greater trust among stakeholders in the policy network. Future avenues for research and development are subsequently identified.     

CMYKIR红外防伪图像技术

印刷油墨在近红外波长区域的响应是不同的,不能用CIELAB、sRGB或HSB这些基于可见光颜色理论建立的色彩系统参数来描述。用来描述人眼接收图像的RGB加色呈色系统与可以覆盖几乎全部可见光谱内印刷品的C0M0Y0色料减色呈色系统相对应。加入对红外波谱有着极佳响应的黑色油墨,配上CMY减色油墨,就可以使每一种色调有着无数种配比方法。CMYK印刷油墨的特性是得到独立图像两种外观表现响应算法的基础,一种是日光下的图像外观,一种是红外光下的图像外观。预设算法基于两个图像,即原始图像X0和在蒙版F基础上生成的印刷图像X。此举的目的是通过对红外图像检测实现文件防伪。在仪器帮助下,700～1000nm波长范围内的图像元素为可见,使只用原色油墨印刷图像进行信息选择成为可能。每个原色油墨的特性用于向为生成红外图像而进行的RGB/CMYK图像分离过程中引入新的标准。这种图像分离称为CMYKIR图像分离,并用其来设计红外响应图像的油墨用量,这种红外响应包括IR效果的产生和消除。CMYKIR印刷的目的在于,引入可见光谱下无法观察到的红外图像。     

企业社会责任与财务绩效的关联性研究综述

企业社会责任与财务绩效的关联性是国内外研究的一个热点问题。论文运用文献研究法对国内外企业社会责任与财务绩效相关研究进行了详细梳理,对二者相关性的研究结论进行了分类总结;同时分析了企业社会责任与财务绩效关联性研究结论不一致的原因,并为后续研究提出了建议。     

城市新就业职工住房保障问题实证研究——基于合肥市新就业职工的调查

调查表明,50％多的新就业职工住房困难.由于收入较低,新就业职工住房支付能力严重不足,30％多的新就业职工家庭缺乏租房支付能力;超过70％的新就业职工家庭缺乏购房支付能力.所以,要尽快将新就业职工纳入住房保障范围.首先,提高新就业职工收入水平,遏制住房价格过快上涨;其次,多渠道筹集住房保障资金;第三,积极创新相关配套政策,完善公共租赁住房准入和退出机制;第四,适时推出限价商品住房,利用优惠信贷政策,提高新就业职工住房支付能力.     

Unemployment duration and the interactions between unemployment insurance and social assistance

Existing studies suggest that reforms that reduce the generosity of the unemployment benefits should lower unemployment. Despite the large number of such reforms implemented in Europe in the past decades, evidence from various data sources shows very little correlation with the evolution of unemployment. This paper suggests that the scant success of these labour market reforms can be explained by the interactions between unemployment insurance and other social assistance programmes. Evidence from the European Community Household Panel shows that recipients of unemployment insurance who are also eligible for other welfare schemes are indeed less sensitive to changes in the level and the duration of their benefits.