Author：Zou, B;Li, H;Li, JY

Abstract:Mobile apps are broadly used by students in and after class to improve their language skills. This study aimed to investigate how a curriculum app and a social communication app can be integrated into English language teaching and learning and what sorts of tasks can be employed to enhance learners' EFL learning. A curriculum app was created by the researchers and integrated into English teaching and learning in and out of class. Meanwhile, a social communication app used on mobile phones was also established for communication between students and the teacher. Questionnaires and interviews were conducted so as to explore students' perceptions of these apps. The findings indicated that mobile learning can be adapted in EFL lessons and learners' self-study. The apps providing sources connected to lessons and opportunities for communication offered additional support to students to practice English in and after class. Participants provided positive comments on the two apps for mobile learning.

Author：Williams, A

Author：Verdini, G

Abstract:Urban regeneration in Western countries can count on a long-lasting tradition of experiences in which civil society has played a fundamental role in counterbalancing the system of power, resulting in profound urban governance readjustments. This has been the result of the increasing centrality of horizontal alliances between citizens and associations involved in urban affairs since the late 1960s in the West. Similar theoretical frameworks have been applied in China. However, these have frequently resulted in conceptual shortcuts that depict civil society as immature or lacking and the state as authoritarian. This paper will explore whether these categories are still entirely valid to urban regeneration in China. While the regime has traditionally prevented horizontal linkages of associations in urban governance (supporting their vertical integration to ensure a certain degree of soft control), there are signs of change. In particular, three cases of urban regeneration in historic areas will be used to discuss the changing role played by civil society in China. The ultimate goal is to examine whether horizontal linkages across groups of heterogeneous citizens are arising at the micro-level of urban governance. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Author：Chen, ZT;Cheung, M

Abstract:In this study, the under-examined area of privacy perception and protection on Chinese social media is investigated. The prevalence of digital technology shapes the social, political and cultural aspects of the lives of urban young adults. The influential Chinese social media platform WeChat is taken as a case study, and the ease of connection, communication and transaction combined with issues of commercialisation and surveillance are discussed in the framework of the privacy paradox. Protective behaviour and tactics are examined through different perceptions of privacy in the digital age. The findings of this study suggest that users possess certain amount of freedoms on WeChat. However, users' individual privacy attitudes and behaviour in practice suggest they have a declined sense of their own freedom and right to privacy. A privacy paradox exists when users, while holding a high level of concerns, in reality do little to further the protection of their personal information on WeChat. We argue that once a user has ingrained part of their social engagement within the WeChat system, the incentive for them to remain a part of the system outweighs their requirement to secure their privacy online as their decision-making is largely based on a simple cost-benefit analysis. The power and social capital yielded via WeChat is too valuable to give up as WeChat is widely used not only for private conversations, but also for study or work-related purposes. It further blurs the boundaries between the public, the professional and the private, which is a rather unique case compared with other social media around the world.

Author：Duggett, T

Author：Choi, HS;Reeve, A

Abstract:This article argues that many of those changes to the built environment brought about through economic and cultural globalization have resulted in a blurring of national identities expressed through city form, worldwide, including South East and Far East Asian countries. As a reaction to this, local identity has emerged as a central concern among both academics and many built environment professionals for setting the twenty-first century urban development agenda. The focus of this article is to explore place-making in relation to the role of different actors within the form-production process, and the implications of globalization for local identity using as a case the new multifunctional administrative city of Sejong in South Korea. Evidence was collected using a testing survey that aimed at gaining a clear insight into the role of local identity from the perspectives of different key actors involved in the Sejong project; the survey focused on building up a comprehensive narrative of their knowledge, experience, and sense of identity and sustainability in relation to place identity in new place construction. This survey and the findings from it illustrate the importance of user participation in the decision-making process, in achieving social sustainability and the incorporation of local cultural resources. The findings summarized in this article reveal the current poor level of understanding and the limitations in delivering inclusive local identity within the urban design policies of Sejong, and how local identity and the needs of local culture could be incorporated, sustained and developed in contemporary new town development in the South East/Far East Asian context.

Author：Herr, CM

Abstract:> Context . Structural design education in architecture is typically conceived as a scientific subject taught in a lecture format and based on a transactional view of learning. This approach misses opportunities to contribute to and integrate with design-studio-based architectural education. > Problem . How can radical constructivism inform a design-based pedagogy of structural design in the context of large cohorts of Chinese learners? > Method . The paper outlines how radical constructivist and second order cybernetic perspectives are reflected in an alternative educational approach to structural design. This approach encourages students' individual learning while negotiating constraints deriving from large cohorts as well as the educational expectations of Chinese learners. > Results . Teaching outcomes as well as students' comments show successes in engaging students in adopting a more personal and active attitude in their learning. Students appreciate and praise learning grounded in experience as well as collaborative, peer-led learning. Challenges remain in establishing a more dialogical learning situation and in supporting individual students' learning in large student cohorts. > Implications . Limitations arise from the constraints imposed by large cohorts, limited manpower and an institutional preference for teaching towards written examinations. The research and teaching development presented are ongoing. This paper may inform educators in the fields of architecture and engineering as well as, more generally, educators who seek to develop their teaching based on a radical constructivist epistemology in the context of large cohorts. > Constructivist content . The teaching approach presented links a radical constructivist perspective based on Ernst von Glasersfeld's work with second-order cybernetics in the context of design-based education. The paper discusses challenges and opportunities for this approach in the context of large cohorts of Chinese learners.

Author：Fischer, T;Richards, LD

Abstract:This article traces the changing notions of constraints in design and of systems since the mid-20th century in the intersection of design theory and systems theory. Taking a second-order cybernetic perspective, the article develops constraints as observer dependent and it analyzes conditions under which constraints tend to be beneficial or detrimental. Ethical implications of constraints in design processes are established with reference to system boundaries. Constraint-oriented design is discussed as an alternative to goal-oriented design, and a method called constraint reversal is introduced as a strategy of deliberate defiance of constraints to support design exploration.

Author：Williams, A

Author：Moss, P;Mackenzie, L;Ulm, S;Sloss, C;Rosendahl, D;Petherick, L;Steinberger, L;Wallis, L;Heijnis, H;Petchey, F;Jacobsen, G

Abstract:A 2400 year record of environmental change is reported from a wetland on Bentinck Island in the southern Gulf of Carpentaria, northern Australia. Three phases of wetland development are identified, with a protected coastal setting from ca. 2400 to 500 years ago, transitioning into an estuarine mangrove forest from ca. 500 years ago to the 1940s, and finally to a freshwater swamp over the past +60 years. This sequence reflects the influence of falling sea-levels, development of a coastal dune barrier system, prograding shorelines, and an extreme storm (cyclone) event. In addition, there is clear evidence of the impacts that human abandonment and resettlement have on the island's fire regimes and vegetation. A dramatic increase in burning and vegetation thickening was observed after the cessation of traditional Indigenous Kaiadilt fire management practices in the 1940s, and was then reversed when people returned to the island in the 1980s. In terms of the longer context for human occupation of the South Wellesley Archipelago, it is apparent that the mangrove phase provided a stable and productive environment that was conducive for human settlement of this region over the past 1000 years. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.

Author：Williams, A

Author：Herr, CM

Abstract:> Upshot center dot Based on Sweeting's central question of what design can bring to cybernetics, this commentary extends and adds further depth to the target article. Aspects discussed include the nature of practice in relation to design, the introduction of designerly ways of acting and thinking through acting to cybernetics, and the re-introduction of material experimentation typical of early cybernetics.

Author：Benson, MTS

Author：Duggett, T

Author：Yang, J;Hale, J;Blackman, T

Abstract:The Venice Architecture Biennale in 2010, curated by Japanese architect Kazuyo Sejima, co-founder of Tokyo-based practice SANAA, included a remarkable twenty-four-minute 3D film by the German director Wim Wenders depicting the practice's Rolex Learning Centre in Switzerland. Entitled If Buildings Could Talk, the film ran in a continuous loop, without a tangible beginning or end, much like the building itself. Invited by SANAA to develop the film, Wenders found himself confronted with a new type of space that he had no prior experience of, and no vocabulary to describe: 'The Rolex Learning Centre', said Wenders during a talk given at the Biennale, 'is more landscape than building.'

Author：Ruan, ZL

Abstract:This paper reports on an investigation into metacognitive awareness of Chinese English as a foreign language (EFL) student writers, under a threefold metacognition framework - person, task, and strategy variables, and within the broader domain of cognitive writing theories. Data were collected in a Chinese tertiary English language teaching (ELT) context through small-group interviews with 51 English-major students prior to an English writing course. Findings show that motivation, self-efficacy, and writing anxiety constitute students' awareness of person variables influencing their EFL writing, whereas their task awareness involves task purposes, task constraints, and cross-language task interference. Strategy awareness of planning, text generating, and revising was found typical of novice EFL student writers. The paper proposes an interactional model of EFL student writers' metacognitive awareness that intends to describe and explain the intertwining nature of the complex process underlying their EFL writing.

Author：Duggett, T

Author：Williams, A

Author：Frahm, E;Martirosyan-Olshansky, K;Sherriff, JE;Wilkinson, KN;Glauberman, P;Raczynski-Henk, Y;Gasparyan, B;Adler, DS

Abstract:Most descriptions of obsidian-bearing rhyolitic lava flows and domes are largely based on relatively simple cases of tectonic plate subduction in North America, but Armenian geologists proposed since the 1960s that these models are less suitable for describing rhyolitic volcanism in their research area. Obsidian-producing volcanoes that lie in the Armenian Highlands, they argued, are more complex in form and stratification. Hatis volcano in central Armenia is one such example. As we document, Hatis is highly unusual, perhaps unique, in that its obsidian changes in composition with elevation. Prior studies of Hatis obsidian recognized the existence of two different chemical types. Here, though, we report a series of four obsidian chemical types and their spatial distributions across the slopes. Our findings were enabled by the use of portable XRF during our field surveys of Hatis. Additionally, we recognized each of these four chemical types of Hatis obsidian at the Lower Palaeolithic site of Nor Geghi 1, where thousands of obsidian artifacts reflect Pleistocene hominin behaviors from Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 11 (similar to 424-374 ka) to 9 (similar to 337-300 ka). Thus, all four types of Hatis obsidian are archaeologically significant despite the fact that their outcrops span more than 500 m (from <1600 to greater than 2100 m asl) in elevation on the volcanic slopes, thereby enabling future studies on links between altitude and hominin toolstone acquisition behaviors over hundreds of millennia.

Author：Williams, A