A Study of a Comprehensive Career Services System in Chinese Universities

Since 1999, with the adoption of expansion policy in higher education by the Chinese government, enrollment and graduate numbers have been increasing at an unprecedented speed. Accustomed to a system in which university graduates were placed, many students are not trained in “selling themselves”, which exacerbates the situation leading to a skyrocketing unemployment rate among new graduates. The idea of emphasizing career services comes with increasing employment pressure among university graduates in recent years. The 1998 “Higher Education Act” made it a legislative requirement. Thereafter, the Ministry of Education issued a series of documents in order to promote the development of career services. All higher education institutions are required to set up special career service centers and to set a ratio of 1:500 between career staff and the total number of students. Related career management courses, especially career planning classes, are required to be clearly included as specific modules into the teaching plan with a requirement of no less than 38 sessions in one semester at all universities. Developing career services in higher education has thus become a hot issue. One of the more notable trends in higher education in recent years has been the transformation of university career service centers from merely being the coordinators of on-campus placement into full service centers for international career development. The traditional core of career services in higher education had been built around guidance, information and placements (Watts, 1997). This core was still in place, but the role of higher education career services has changed considerably in recent years and the nature of each part is being transformed (Watts, 1997). Most services are undertaking a range of additional activities, and the career guidance issue is emphasized much more than before. Career management courses, especially career planning classes, are given special focus in developing career services in the Chinese case. This links career services clearly and directly with the course provision function. In China, most career service centers are engaging in the transformation period from a “management-oriented” organization to a “service-oriented” organization. Besides guidance services, information services and placement activities, there is a need to blend them together with the new additional teaching function, which follows the general trend as regulated by the government. The role of career services has been expanding and this has brought more challenges to its development in Chinese higher education. Chinese universities still remain in the period of exploration and establishment in developing their own career services. In the face of the new situation, it is very important and meaningful to explore and establish a comprehensive career services system to address student needs in the universities. A key part in developing this system is the introduction of career courses and delivering related career management skills to the students. So there is the need to restructure the career service sectors within the Chinese universities in general. The career service centers will operate as a hub and function as a spoke in the wheel of this model system, providing support and information to staff located in individual teaching departments who are responsible for the delivery of career education, information, advice and guidance. The career service centers will also provide training and career planning classes. The purpose of establishing a comprehensive career services system is to provide a strong base for student career development. The students can prepare themselves well in psychology, ideology and ability before employment with the assistance of effective career services. To conclude, according to the different characteristics and needs of students, there will be appropriate services and guidance in different stages and different ways. In other words, related career services and career guidance activities would be started for newly enrolled freshmen and continue throughout their whole university process. For the operation of a comprehensive services system, there is a need for strong support by the government in the form of macro-control and policy guarantee, but support by the government in the form of macro-control and policy guarantee, but also a need for close cooperation with the academic administration and faculties to be actively involved in career planning and employment programs. As an integral function within the universities, career services must develop and maintain productive relationships with relevant campus offices and key stakeholders both within the universities and externally.

ONTIC: A Knowledge Representation System for Mathematics

Ontic is an interactive system for developing and verifying mathematics. Ontic's verification mechanism is capable of automatically finding and applying information from a library containing hundreds of mathematical facts. Starting with only the axioms of Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory, the Ontic system has been used to build a data base of definitions and lemmas leading to a proof of the Stone representation theorem for Boolean lattices. The Ontic system has been used to explore issues in knowledge representation, automated deduction, and the automatic use of large data bases.

Derivation of an Efficient Rule System Pattern Matcher

Formalizing algorithm derivations is a necessary prerequisite for developing automated algorithm design systems. This report describes a derivation of an algorithm for incrementally matching conjunctive patterns against a growing database. This algorithm, which is modeled on the Rete matcher used in the OPS5 production system, forms a basis for efficiently implementing a rule system. The highlights of this derivation are: (1) a formal specification for the rule system matching problem, (2) derivation of an algorithm for this task using a lattice-theoretic model of conjunctive and disjunctive variable substitutions, and (3) optimization of this algorithm, using finite differencing, for incrementally processing new data.

A beginner's guide to referencing books based on the Harvard system

An interactive tutorial on how to reference books correctly. It begins with an example, and interactively draws the student through the stages of accessing the relevant information through to how to include the final citation in the bibliography. It concludes with a ‘test your knowledge’ set of activities. When you view this object note that the panel on the left generated by the repository can be dragged sideways to view the learning object full screen.

Configuración de la interfaz discurso-gramática en el lenguaje del profesor de preescolar en el aula ILE : presentación de una red sistémica como herramienta para un análisis sistemático de las funciones reguladoras. Modelling the discourse-grammar interface of ELF pre-school teacher talk (native and non-native) : proposal of a system network enabling the systematic analysis of regulatory functions.

Esta investigación pretende alcanzar dos objetivos. Cubrir el vacío existente en los estudios de las funciones comunicativas del habla de profesores, en este caso de inglés como Lengua Extranjera (ILE) destinado a nivel preescolar, y configurar una interfaz discurso-gramática de las funciones reguladoras del lenguaje.. En primer lugar, para lograr un análisis discursivo-semántico, en este trabajo se diseña la Red Sistémica de Funciones Reguladoras, RSFR, una herramienta que resume las diferentes opciones discursivo-semánticas de los contextos de las funciones reguladoras. A continuación, se analizan los datos en el estrato léxico-gramatical para facilitar conclusiones sobre la relación función-realización formal. Por último se exponen las similitudes y diferencias en la producción lingüística de las funciones reguladoras entre profesores nativos y no nativos.. Las aportaciones más destacadas de esta investigación son cuatro: hacer posible un estudio sistemático del significado mediante el diseño de una herramienta; la propuesta de una taxonomía de funciones reguladoras; el análisis de la dependencia entre las funciones reguladoras, y sus realizaciones lingüísticas; y las diferencias encontradas en la comparación del discurso del profesor nativo y no-nativo..

An observing system simulation experiment for climate monitoring with GNSS radio occulation data: setup and testbed study

The long-term stability, high accuracy, all-weather capability, high vertical resolution, and global coverage of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) radio occultation (RO) suggests it as a promising tool for global monitoring of atmospheric temperature change. With the aim to investigate and quantify how well a GNSS RO observing system is able to detect climate trends, we are currently performing an (climate) observing system simulation experiment over the 25-year period 2001 to 2025, which involves quasi-realistic modeling of the neutral atmosphere and the ionosphere. We carried out two climate simulations with the general circulation model MAECHAM5 (Middle Atmosphere European Centre/Hamburg Model Version 5) of the MPI-M Hamburg, covering the period 2001–2025: One control run with natural variability only and one run also including anthropogenic forcings due to greenhouse gases, sulfate aerosols, and tropospheric ozone. On the basis of this, we perform quasi-realistic simulations of RO observables for a small GNSS receiver constellation (six satellites), state-of-the-art data processing for atmospheric profiles retrieval, and a statistical analysis of temperature trends in both the “observed” climatology and the “true” climatology. Here we describe the setup of the experiment and results from a test bed study conducted to obtain a basic set of realistic estimates of observational errors (instrument- and retrieval processing-related errors) and sampling errors (due to spatial-temporal undersampling). The test bed results, obtained for a typical summer season and compared to the climatic 2001–2025 trends from the MAECHAM5 simulation including anthropogenic forcing, were found encouraging for performing the full 25-year experiment. They indicated that observational and sampling errors (both contributing about 0.2 K) are consistent with recent estimates of these errors from real RO data and that they should be sufficiently small for monitoring expected temperature trends in the global atmosphere over the next 10 to 20 years in most regions of the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS). Inspection of the MAECHAM5 trends in different RO-accessible atmospheric parameters (microwave refractivity and pressure/geopotential height in addition to temperature) indicates complementary climate change sensitivity in different regions of the UTLS so that optimized climate monitoring shall combine information from all climatic key variables retrievable from GNSS RO data.

Adaptive project planning and management based on best practices - COBRA system

Planning a project with proper considerations of all necessary factors and managing a project to ensure its successful implementation will face a lot of challenges. Initial stage in planning a project for bidding a project is costly, time consuming and usually with poor accuracy on cost and effort predictions. On the other hand, detailed information for previous projects may be buried in piles of archived documents which can be increasingly difficult to learn from the previous experiences. Project portfolio has been brought into this field aiming to improve the information sharing and management among different projects. However, the amount of information that could be shared is still limited to generic information. This paper, we report a recently developed software system COBRA to automatically generate a project plan with effort estimation of time and cost based on data collected from previous completed projects. To maximise the data sharing and management among different projects, we proposed a method of using product based planning from PRINCE2 methodology. (Automated Project Information Sharing and Management System -�COBRA) Keywords: project management, product based planning, best practice, PRINCE2

Design, implementation and characterisation of a contactless power transfer system for rotating applications

This paper describes the design, implementation and characterisation of a contactless power transfer system for rotating applications. The power transfer system is based upon a zero-voltage-switched, full-bridge, DC-DC converter, but utilises a non-standard transformer. This transformer allows power transfer between its primary and secondary windings while also allowing free rotation between these windings. The aim of this research is to develop a solution that could replace mechanical slip-rings in certain applications where a non-contacting system would be advantageous. Based upon the design method presented in this paper, a 2 kW prototype system is constructed. Results obtained from testing the 2 kW prototype are presented and discussed. This discussion considers how the performance of the transformer varies with rotation and also the overall efficiency of the system

The impact of a closed-loop electronic prescribing and administration system on prescribing errors, administration errors and staff time: a before-and-after study

Objectives: To assess the impact of a closed-loop electronic prescribing, automated dispensing, barcode patient identification and electronic medication administration record (EMAR) system on prescribing and administration errors, confirmation of patient identity before administration, and staff time. Design, setting and participants: Before-and-after study in a surgical ward of a teaching hospital, involving patients and staff of that ward. Intervention: Closed-loop electronic prescribing, automated dispensing, barcode patient identification and EMAR system. Main outcome measures: Percentage of new medication orders with a prescribing error, percentage of doses with medication administration errors (MAEs) and percentage given without checking patient identity. Time spent prescribing and providing a ward pharmacy service. Nursing time on medication tasks. Results: Prescribing errors were identified in 3.8% of 2450 medication orders pre-intervention and 2.0% of 2353 orders afterwards (p<0.001; χ2 test). MAEs occurred in 7.0% of 1473 non-intravenous doses pre-intervention and 4.3% of 1139 afterwards (p = 0.005; χ2 test). Patient identity was not checked for 82.6% of 1344 doses pre-intervention and 18.9% of 1291 afterwards (p<0.001; χ2 test). Medical staff required 15 s to prescribe a regular inpatient drug pre-intervention and 39 s afterwards (p = 0.03; t test). Time spent providing a ward pharmacy service increased from 68 min to 98 min each weekday (p = 0.001; t test); 22% of drug charts were unavailable pre-intervention. Time per drug administration round decreased from 50 min to 40 min (p = 0.006; t test); nursing time on medication tasks outside of drug rounds increased from 21.1% to 28.7% (p = 0.006; χ2 test). Conclusions: A closed-loop electronic prescribing, dispensing and barcode patient identification system reduced prescribing errors and MAEs, and increased confirmation of patient identity before administration. Time spent on medication-related tasks increased.

Recent oppositely directed trends in solar climate forcings and the global mean surface air temperature. II. Different reconstructions of the total solar irradiance variation and dependence on response time scale

We have previously placed the solar contribution to recent global warming in context using observations and without recourse to climate models. It was shown that all solar forcings of climate have declined since 1987. The present paper extends that analysis to include the effects of the various time constants with which the Earth’s climate system might react to solar forcing. The solar input waveform over the past 100 years is defined using observed and inferred galactic cosmic ray fluxes, valid for either a direct effect of cosmic rays on climate or an effect via their known correlation with total solar irradiance (TSI), or for a combination of the two. The implications, and the relative merits, of the various TSI composite data series are discussed and independent tests reveal that the PMOD composite used in our previous paper is the most realistic. Use of the ACRIM composite, which shows a rise in TSI over recent decades, is shown to be inconsistent with most published evidence for solar influences on pre-industrial climate. The conclusions of our previous paper, that solar forcing has declined over the past 20 years while surface air temperatures have continued to rise, are shown to apply for the full range of potential time constants for the climate response to the variations in the solar forcings.

The assessment of benchmarks executed on bare-metal and using para-virtualization

A full assessment of para-­virtualization is important, because without knowledge about the various overheads, users can not understand whether using virtualization is a good idea or not. In this paper we are very interested in assessing the overheads of running various benchmarks on bare-­‐metal, as well as on para-­‐virtualization. The idea is to see what the overheads of para-­‐ virtualization are, as well as looking at the overheads of turning on monitoring and logging. The knowledge from assessing various benchmarks on these different systems will help a range of users understand the use of virtualization systems. In this paper we assess the overheads of using Xen, VMware, KVM and Citrix, see Table 1. These different virtualization systems are used extensively by cloud-­‐users. We are using various Netlib1 benchmarks, which have been developed by the University of Tennessee at Knoxville (UTK), and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). In order to assess these virtualization systems, we run the benchmarks on bare-­‐metal, then on the para-­‐virtualization, and finally we turn on monitoring and logging. The later is important as users are interested in Service Level Agreements (SLAs) used by the Cloud providers, and the use of logging is a means of assessing the services bought and used from commercial providers. In this paper we assess the virtualization systems on three different systems. We use the Thamesblue supercomputer, the Hactar cluster and IBM JS20 blade server (see Table 2), which are all servers available at the University of Reading. A functional virtualization system is multi-­‐layered and is driven by the privileged components. Virtualization systems can host multiple guest operating systems, which run on its own domain, and the system schedules virtual CPUs and memory within each Virtual Machines (VM) to make the best use of the available resources. The guest-­‐operating system schedules each application accordingly. You can deploy virtualization as full virtualization or para-­‐virtualization. Full virtualization provides a total abstraction of the underlying physical system and creates a new virtual system, where the guest operating systems can run. No modifications are needed in the guest OS or application, e.g. the guest OS or application is not aware of the virtualized environment and runs normally. Para-­‐virualization requires user modification of the guest operating systems, which runs on the virtual machines, e.g. these guest operating systems are aware that they are running on a virtual machine, and provide near-­‐native performance. You can deploy both para-­‐virtualization and full virtualization across various virtualized systems. Para-­‐virtualization is an OS-­‐assisted virtualization; where some modifications are made in the guest operating system to enable better performance. In this kind of virtualization, the guest operating system is aware of the fact that it is running on the virtualized hardware and not on the bare hardware. In para-­‐virtualization, the device drivers in the guest operating system coordinate the device drivers of host operating system and reduce the performance overheads. The use of para-­‐virtualization [0] is intended to avoid the bottleneck associated with slow hardware interrupts that exist when full virtualization is employed. It has revealed [0] that para-­‐ virtualization does not impose significant performance overhead in high performance computing, and this in turn this has implications for the use of cloud computing for hosting HPC applications. The “apparent” improvement in virtualization has led us to formulate the hypothesis that certain classes of HPC applications should be able to execute in a cloud environment, with minimal performance degradation. In order to support this hypothesis, first it is necessary to define exactly what is meant by a “class” of application, and secondly it will be necessary to observe application performance, both within a virtual machine and when executing on bare hardware. A further potential complication is associated with the need for Cloud service providers to support Service Level Agreements (SLA), so that system utilisation can be audited.

Effects of cultural system (organic and conventional) on growth, photosynthesis and yield components of sweet corn (zea mays L.) under semi-arid environment

Organic sweet maize consists of a new industrial crop product. Field experiment was conducted to determine the effects of cultural systems on growth, photosynthesis and yield components of sweet maize crop (Zea mays L. F-1 hybrid 'Midas'). A randomized complete block design was employed with four replicates per treatment (organic fertilization: cow manure (5, 10 and 20 t ha(-1)), poultry manure (5, 10 and 20 t ha(-1)) and barley mulch (5, 10 and 20 t ha(-1)), synthetic fertilizer (240 kg N ha(-1)): 21-0-0 and control). The lowest dry weight, height and leaf area index and sod organic matter were measured in the control treatment. Organic matter content was proportionate to the amount of manure applied. The control plots had the lowest yield (1593 kg ha(-1)) and the double rate cow manure plots the had,greatest one. (6104 kg ha(-1)). High correlation between sweet corn yield and organic matter was registered. Moreover, the lowest values of 1000-grain weight were obtained with control plot. The fertilizer plot gave values which were similar to the full rate cow manure treatment. The photosynthetic race of the untreated control was significantly lower than that of the other treatments. The phorosynthetic rate increased as poultry manure and barley mulch ram decreased and as cow manure increased. Furthermore the untreated control had the lowest stomatal conductance and chlorophyll content. Our results indicated that sweet corn growth and yield in the organic plots was significantly higher than those in the conventional plots.

Liquid ultraviolet matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization - mass spectrometry for automated proteomic analysis

We have combined several key sample preparation steps for the use of a liquid matrix system to provide high analytical sensitivity in automated ultraviolet -- matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation -- mass spectrometry (UV-MALDI-MS). This new sample preparation protocol employs a matrix-mixture which is based on the glycerol matrix-mixture described by Sze et al. The low-femtomole sensitivity that is achievable with this new preparation protocol enables proteomic analysis of protein digests comparable to solid-state matrix systems. For automated data acquisition and analysis, the MALDI performance of this liquid matrix surpasses the conventional solid-state MALDI matrices. Besides the inherent general advantages of liquid samples for automated sample preparation and data acquisition the use of the presented liquid matrix significantly reduces the extent of unspecific ion signals in peptide mass fingerprints compared to typically used solid matrices, such as 2,5-dihydroxybenzoic acid (DHB) or alpha-cyano-hydroxycinnamic acid (CHCA). In particular, matrix and low-mass ion signals and ion signals resulting from cation adduct formation are dramatically reduced. Consequently, the confidence level of protein identification by peptide mass mapping of in-solution and in-gel digests is generally higher.

Liquid ultraviolet matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry for automated proteomic analysis

We have combined several key sample preparation steps for the use of a liquid matrix system to provide high analytical sensitivity in automated ultraviolet - matrix-assisted laser desorption/ ionisation - mass spectrometry (UV-MALDI-MS). This new sample preparation protocol employs a matrix-mixture which is based on the glycerol matrix-mixture described by Sze et al. U. Am. Soc. Mass Spectrom. 1998, 9, 166-174). The low-ferntomole sensitivity that is achievable with this new preparation protocol enables proteomic analysis of protein digests comparable to solid-state matrix systems. For automated data acquisition and analysis, the MALDI performance of this liquid matrix surpasses the conventional solid-state MALDI matrices. Besides the inherent general advantages of liquid samples for automated sample preparation and data acquisition the use of the presented liquid matrix significantly reduces the extent of unspecific ion signals in peptide mass fingerprints compared to typically used solid matrices, such as 2,5-dihydrox-ybenzoic acid (DHB) or alpha-cyano-hydroxycinnamic acid (CHCA). In particular, matrix and lowmass ion signals and ion signals resulting from cation adduct formation are dramatically reduced. Consequently, the confidence level of protein identification by peptide mass mapping of in-solution and in-gel digests is generally higher.

The Spanish system of food controls - its administration and enforcement

Following a number of major food safety problems in Europe, including in particular the issues of BSE and dioxin, consumers have become increasingly concerned about food safety. This has led authorities in Europe to revise their systems of food control. The establishment of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is one of the main structural changes made at the moment within the European Union, and similar action at national level has been or is being taken by many EU member states. In Spain a law creating the Spanish Agency of Food Safety has been approved. This has general objectives that include the promotion of food security and offering guarantees and the provision of objective information to consumers and food businesses in the Spanish agrifood sector. This paper reviews the general structure of the current food control system in Spain. At a national level this involves three different Ministries. Spain however also has a devolved system involving Autonomous Communities the paper considers Castilla y Leon as an example. In conclusion the paper recognises that Spain has a complex system for food control. and considers that it will take time before a full evaluation of the new system is possible. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.