Effective practice is informed by underlying theoretical models. Better awareness and understanding of such models can enhance reflection by practitioners on their current educational activities and so help drive the cycle of continuing improvement. In this article the author reflects on three ways in which a better understanding of social psychology gave insights into why some practices appear...

Background: A considerable part of human activity is devoted to work and profession, and engineering, especially architecture, is essential to the production of living and activities spaces. Wherever, we are in an environment designed by engineers, environmental designers and architects, and what we see and experience is the product and experience of their professional endeavors. These space pr...

It is proposed here that basic Farsi intonation structure consists of three levels, in increasing hierarchical order: the Accentual Phrase (AP), the intermediate phrase (ip), and the Intonation Phrase (IP). The end of the AP is often marked by a high tone, Ha, and rarely a low tone, La (La occurs vacuously utterance finally, marked by L-L%. In this paper, this type of La is not labeled). An AP ...

This thesis mainly focuses on visual-information based daily activity classification, anomaly detection, and video tracking through using visual sensors. The main reasons for adopting visual-information based methods are due to: (i) vision plays a major role in recognition/classification of activities which is a fundamental issue in a human-centric system; (ii) visual sensor-based analysis may ...

Two studies documented the American English usage frequencies for ninety-seven nouns that occur with sentence complements (e.g., "rumor," "The rumor that the student cheated..."). An established usage preference methodology was used (see Connine, Ferreira, Jones, Clifton, & Frazier, 1984; Kennison, 1999). In Study 1, participants completed short fragments that did not contain the overt compleme...

Whether or not mangroves function as buffers against tsunamis is the subject of in-depth research, the importance of which has been neglected or underestimated before the recent killer tsunami struck. Our preliminary post-tsunami surveys of Sri Lankan mangrove sites with different degrees of degradation indicate that human activity exacerbated the damage inflicted on the coastal zone by the tsu...

The BE microbiome is a naturally embedded biosensor in urban infrastructure that can be used to monitor environmental quality and human activity. There are many potential opportunities for leveraging BE microbial communities to guide urban design and public health policy.

Anthropogenic heat generated by human activity contributes to urban and regional climate warming. Due to the resolution and accuracy of existing anthropogenic heat data, it is difficult to analyze and simulate the corresponding effects. This study exploited a new method to estimate high spatial and temporal resolutions of anthropogenic heat based on long-term data of energy consumption and the ...

Farming is the basis of our civilization yet is more damaging to wild nature than any other sector of human activity. Here, we propose that in order to limit its impact into the future, conservation researchers and practitioners need to address several big topics--about the scale of future demand, about which crops and livestock to study, about whether low-yield or high-yield farming has the po...

Discoursing, the use of language in interaction with others, plays a part in almost every human activity. Indeed, some have argued that it is discoursing that has made possible the cumulative 5 development of culture over the course of our species’ history. Whether or not that is correct, there can be no question that the ability, with the aid of linguistic discourse, to coordinate action, and ...