Study on the Improvement of Teaching Quality Management System for Higher Engineering Institutes

Based on the analysis of its establishment and implementation of controlling scheme of the teaching quality management system (TQMS) for advanced institutes of technologies domestic and overseas, from the inspect of the management principles of TQM and 6σas well as the process method of ISO9000 family standards, in combination with the evolution scheme of teaching quality of undergraduate courses in ordinary universities, applying the running principles of PDCA ,this paper has probed into the objectives of the establishment and improvement of the management system on teaching quality, put forward its basic procedures. We believe that its establishment and maintenance should have four stages, namely, plan, do, check and action, as well as eight steps, which includes decision-making, programming, analysis, design, running, assessing, improvement and perfection, which, lays a solid foundation on concrete teaching quality assurance programs for its improvement. Key words: quality management system, procedure improvement, implementation and maintenance, continual improvement, institutes of technology. Résumé: Basé sur l’analyse de l’établissement et de l’application du plan de contrôle du système de gestion de la qualité d’enseignement pour les instituts de technologie supérieurs tant nationaux qu’ étrangers, à partir de l’examination des principes de gestion de ce système et de 6σainsi que la méthode de traitement des standards familial ISO9000, en combinaison avec l’évolution du système de la qualité d’enseignement des cours universitaires dans les universités ordinaires, en applicant les principes de PDCA, cet essai explore les objectifs de l’établissement et de l’amélioration du système de gestion de la qualité d’enseignement et met en avant ses procédures de base. On croit que son établissement et maintenance devrait comporter quatre étapes, soit plan, application, révision et action, et huit pas qui comprennent prise de décision, programmation, analyse, design, application, évaluation, amélioration et perfection, qui, jette une base solide avec des programmes concrets d’assurance de la qualité d’enseignement pour son amélioration. Mots-Clés: système de gestion de la qualité, procédure d’amélioration, application et maintenance, amélioration continuelle, instituts de technologi

An Innovative Approach for Gob-Side Entry Retaining With Thick and Hard Roof: A Case Study

An innovative roadway layout in a Chinese colliery based on gob-side entry retaining (GER) with thick and hard roof (THR) was introduced. Suspended roof is left with a large area in GER with THR, which leads to large area roof weighting (LARW). LARW for GER with THR and mechanism of shallow-hole blasting to force roof caving in GER were expounded. Key parameters of shallow-hole blasting to force roof caving are proposed. LS-DYNA3D was used to validate the rationality of those key parameters, and UDEC was used to discuss and validate shallow-hole blasting to force roof-caving effect by contrast to the model without blasting and the model with shallow-hole blasting. Moreover, shallow-hole blasting technology to force roof caving for GER with THR was carried out in the Chinese colliery as a case study. Field test indicates that shallow-hole blasting technology effectively controls ground deformation of GER with THR and prevents LARW

Light effects on seedling growth in simulated forest canopy gaps vary across species from different successional stages

Tropical forests continue to suffer from various kinds of disturbances in the Anthropocene. An immediate impact of disturbances on forest ecosystems is the creation of numerous large and small canopy gaps, which dramatically affect forest structure and function. Yet, we know little about the effect of canopy gaps on forest successional trajectory. More specifically, the responses of seedlings from different successional stages to increased light intensity under large and small canopy gaps in understory remain unclear. In this study, dominant tree seedlings from early-, mid-, and late-successional stages were selected, respectively from a tropical montane forest in Hainan Island, China to study their growth rate, biomass and traits. Our results showed that the light condition under small canopy gaps (SG, 10–15% of full sunlight) and large canopy gaps (LG, 40–50% of full sunlight) induced greater increment of relative growth rates for seedlings from early- and mid-successional stages relative to that in late-successional stage. Both SG and LG also significantly increased photosynthesis rate, leaf area (LA), light saturation point (LSP), root mass ratio (RMR) and root: shoot ratio, but decreased specific leaf area (SLA) of seedlings across successional stages. Tree seedlings from the earlysuccessional stage displayed the greatest decrease in leaf mass ratio, increase in LA, LSP, and RMR, in comparison to those from mid- and late- successional stages. Light condition and SLA were the most important factors for seedlings’ relative growth rate across successional stages. SLA connected the interaction between the light condition and successional stage on seedlings’ growth, thereby jointly explaining the 93% variation of seedlings’ growth, combining with area-based light saturated rate of CO2 assimilation. Our study highlights the distinct effect of disturbance-induced canopy gaps on seedling regeneration in the understory in tropical forest due to the variation of light intensity. We suspect that the seedlings from late-successional stage will recover relatively slow after disturbances causing canopy losses, which can have detrimental impacts on structure feature an

Remote sensing and social sensing data reveal scale-dependent and system-specific strengths of urban heat island determinants

Urban natural surfaces and non-surface human activities are key factors determining the urban heat island (UHI), but their relative importance remains highly controversial and may vary at different spatial scales and focal urban systems. However, systematic studies on the scale-dependency system-specificity remain largely lacking. Here, we selected 32 major Chinese cities as cases and used Landsat 8 images to retrieve land surface temperature (LST) and quantify natural surface variables using point of interest (POI) data as a measure of the human activity variable and using multiple regression and relative weight analysis to study the contribution and relative importance of these factors to LST at a range of grain sizes (0.25–5 km) and spatial extents (20–60 km). We revealed that the contributions and relative importance of natural surfaces and human activities are largely scale-dependent and system-specific. Natural surfaces, especially vegetation cover, are often the most important UHI determinants for a majority of scales, but the importance of non-surface human activities is increasingly pronounced at a coarser spatial scale with respect to both grain and spatial extent. The scaling relations of the UHI determinants and their relative importance were mostly linear-like at the city-collective level, but highly diverse across individual cities, so reducing non-surface heat emissions could be the most effective measure in particular cases, especially at relatively large spatial scales. This study advances the understanding of UHI formation mechanisms and highlights the complexity of the scale issue underpinning the UHI effect