Search

There is an increasing interest of policies and projects to adapt boarding schools as a means to provide quality education for educationally disadvantaged students. However, little evidence is available for the effectiveness of boarding schools. The current study examined the boarding effect on primary and middle school student mathematics achievement using stratified analysis and propensity score matching approach. The boarding on campus showed a negative and insignificant effect on fourth-grade student mathematics achievement, but a significantly positive effect on eighth-grade student achievement. The mechanisms through which boarding on campus might affect boarders' achievement were also explored.

This study aimed to examine and track the transformations in the mathematics intended curriculum during the latest reform in China from a neutral and objective perspective. Following the document analysis used in TIMSS (the Third International Mathematics and Science Study), the results indicated that a more modern system of mathematics knowledge had been constructed after the reform and the curriculum standard emphasized more on its facilitating role. Compared to TIMSS top-achieving countries and regions, it found that the pattern of topics in curriculum guide in China exhibited a similar coherent pattern to those high achieving countries but more concentrated. Moreover, the decentralization in the curriculum standard was unable to figure out the pattern of topics on the intended curriculum level. Lastly, the influence of decentralization in the curriculum standard was discussed. (Contains 2 tables and 2 figures.)

Over the past century, lake degradation has increased around the world. Jiuzhaigou World Natural Heritage Site in southwestern China has been experiencing water nutrient enrichment, accelerated swamping, and algal biomass increases. These problems are likely associated with enhanced local anthropogenic activities over the past decades. In this study, radioactivities of 137Cs and 210Pb, diatoms, and nutrient accumulation rates in a lake sediment core from Tiger Lake in Jiuzhaigou World Natural Heritage Site were used as proxies to reconstruct a > 100-year record of environmental change to understand the extent and temporal variability of anthropogenic effects on lake water nutrients. Diatom communities reveal four distinct phases, relating to documented local human activities including (a) Primitive agriculture from 1871 to the mid-1930s, (b) Opium cultivation—logging from the mid-1930s to the mid-1970s, (c) Large-scale logging—the beginning of tourism from the mid-1970s to the early 1990s, and (d) Tourism development from the early 1990s to 2013. Nutrients in the lake (including total organic carbon, total nitrogen, and total phosphorus) steadily increased from 1871 until the late 1990s, declined from the late 1990s to the mid-2000s, and increased rapidly after the mid-2000s. Our data suggest that (a) Opium cultivation, deforestation, and tourism development led to the increase of lake nutrients and primary productivity, (b) Ecological protection measures taken from 1999 to 2004 effectively controlled water pollution, and (c) Post-2005 intensification of tourism further accelerated water quality deterioration. Additional monitoring and mitigation strategies are needed to further reduce nutrient input. Global studies suggest that while water quality of lakes in protected area is better than that of other lakes, care is still required to ensure that tourism activities do not inadvertently increase lake water nutrients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using measurements of in situ and meteoric 10 Be in fluvial sand to measure erosion rates, quantify soil loss, and trace sediment sources and sinks relies on the assumption that such sediment is well-mixed and representative of the upstream area. We test this assumption at 13 river junctions in three tributary watersheds (200–2500 km 2 ) to the Mekong River, Yunnan, China, where human alteration of the landscape is significant and widespread. We find that two of the three watersheds mix well for in situ 10 Be and none mix well for meteoric 10 Be when considering the concentration of 10 Be at the outlet compared to the area-weighted mean of headwater samples. We also assessed mixing at 13 river junctions by comparing the erosion rate-weighted isotopic concentration of sediment taken from tributaries upstream of a junction to the concentration in a sample taken downstream of the junction. With this metric, mixing is generally poor for both in situ and meteoric 10 Be but is better for in situ 10 Be than for meteoric 10 Be (p < 0.05). This is likely because in situ 10 Be is measured in quartz, which is resilient to physical and chemical breakdown in river systems whereas meteoric 10 Be is measured in grain coatings which can abrade and dissolve. Basins eroding faster (> 100 mm/kyr) tend to mix better than slowly eroding basins. We find no evidence that agricultural land use in sampled basins affects sediment mixing downstream. Mixing improves with increased basin area (particularly > 200 km 2 ), increased sampling distance downstream from an upstream junction (> 500 m), and increased difference in size between tributaries (one tributary > 3 times larger than the other). The most important factor affecting mixing efficacy for both in situ and meteoric 10 Be is the fraction of the basin area contributing to the downstream sample that does not contribute to the upstream samples. Junctions with > 2% of the basin area unsampled by upstream samples tend not to mix as well. Our data suggest specific sampling location strategies (such as amalgamation) likely to improve the outcome of fluvial network analysis using cosmogenic nuclides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Present-day landscapes are shaped by historical forces that combine natural change (generated by climate, geological processes etc.) with anthropogenic change (locally generated in interaction with larger political and economic forces). In the Jiuzhaigou region of Northern Sichuan, humans have shaped landscapes to their needs for at least 3,500 years. In recent centuries, landscape change has probably accelerated, particularly in response to changes in the political economy of the region since the late 19th century. At present, Amdo and Baima Tibetan communities in the region are faced with generally similar but locally differing political and economic pressures, including economic development, tourism, and policies of conservation and reforestation. The communities have reacted to these pressures in diverse ways that produce different landscape outcomes, demonstrating that neither local cultural landscape ideals alone nor policy prescriptions alone can explain current landscape configurations or predict the precise future impact of policies. However, constraints imposed by bureaucratic planning may lead to landscapes with diminished biodiversity and reduced adaptive capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report directly dated evidence from circa 1400 calibrated years (cal) B.C. for the early use of wheat, barley, and flax as staple crops on the borders of the Tibetan Plateau. During recent years, an increasing amount of data from the Tibetan Plateau and its margins shows that a transition from millets to wheat and barley agriculture took place during the second millennium B.C. Using thermal niche modeling, we refute previous assertions that the ecological characteristics of wheat and barley delayed their spread into East Asia. Rather, we demonstrate that the ability of these crops to tolerate frost and their low growing degree-day requirements facilitated their spread into the high-altitude margins of western China. Following their introduction to this region, these crops rapidly replaced Chinese millets and became the staple crops that still characterize agriculture in this area today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's tuigeng huanlin or “Returning Farmland to Forest” (RFFP) program has been widely praised as the world's largest and most successful payment for ecosystem services program, as well as a major contributor to China's dramatic increase in forest cover from perhaps as low as 8% in 1960 to about 21% today. By compensating rural households for the conversion of marginal farmland to forestland and financing the afforestation of barren mountainsides, the program, in addition to expanding forestland, aims to reduce soil erosion and alleviate poverty. This paper presents qualitative and quantitative studies conducted on the local implementation of RFFP in three diverse townships in Sichuan. We find the actual results to be more mixed than the official figures would indicate. Though there have been some positive results, we identify problems with site and species selection, compensation for land taken out of cultivation, shift of labor to off-farm activities, and monitoring of replanted sites, which challenge the ecological and economic impacts of these programs and reveal much of the effort of the program has been misdirected. We suggest that efforts are misplaced because of the top-down, panacea nature of the program, which in turn is a feature of Chinese bureaucratic management.Environmental Practice 15:350–366 (2013) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]