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Purpose: This paper aims to explore the potential of implementing an action competence teaching model as a framework for achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs) in higher education. The paper seeks to draw insights from the students on the potential of this teaching model. Design/methodology/approach: The study adopted a quantitative research design in exploring the potential of an action competence teaching model. This study used self-report measures to obtain insights into the objective of the study. Findings: The action competence teaching model was seen as useful in equipping students with knowledge about a problem, confidence and willingness to act. However, some issues like the design of the projects, teamwork and instructional practices were identified and discussed. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is the first to implement an action competence teaching model to help draw insights from students on its potential. This paper documents certain aspects of action competence that require attention before being implemented in higher education. This information so far lacking in scientific literature contributes to ongoing discussions on SDGs while unveiling strengths and weaknesses to be considered.

The nanoLED, an electroluminescent device utilizing quantum dots (QDs), is expected to be a promising candidate for the next‐generation display. This paper presents a newly developed QD protection technology for cadmium‐free nanoLEDs that enables simultaneous achievement of high‐efficiency electroluminescence (EL) and long lifetime. The device which was prototyped by applying ZnSeTe blue QDs to an emissive layer demonstrated a maximum external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 21.0% and a luminance half‐lifetime (LT50) of 128,000 hours at 100 nits. These results indicate that cadmium‐free nanoLEDs can meet the requirements for display application in terms of both EL efficiency and reliability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across three pre-registered studies (n = 221 4-9-year olds, 51% female; 218 parents, 80% female; working- and middle-class backgrounds; data collected during 2019-2021) conducted in the United States (Studies 1-2; 74% White) and China (Study 3; 100% Asian), we document the emergence of a preference for "strivers." Beginning at age 7, strivers (who work really hard) were favored over naturals (who are really smart) in both cultures (R 2 ranging .03-.11). We explored several lay beliefs surrounding this preference. Beliefs about outcomes and the controllability of effort predicted the striver preference: Children who expected strivers to be more successful than naturals and believed effort was more controllable than talent preferred strivers more. Implications of the striver preference in education and beyond are discussed., (© 2023 The Authors. Child Development © 2023 Society for Research in Child Development.)

Emergency remote teaching of listening comprehension is a challenge requiring rethinking of the delivery methods and use of technologies. The paper presents an approach to teaching listening comprehension remotely to students of translating and interpreting for whom this skill will be crucial in their future profession. The aim of the study was to examine the impact of using YouTube videos with captions in listening comprehension lessons on the students' listening skills and their confidence in foreign language use. A standard questionnaire was used to record their learning experience. In spite of being taught remotely, students improved in listening comprehension and profited from being able to consider their individual needs during listening assignments. They used captions in comprehension difficulties similar to those in real life, such as strong accents, fast speech, and unknown words. Positive correlation was identified between the use of captions and students' performance in listening tests. It appears captions have a potential to help improve in listening, recognizing accents, segmenting connected speech, and acquiring new vocabulary.

Large-scale assessments are rich sources of data that can inform a diverse range of research questions related to educational policy and practice. For this reason, datasets from large-scale assessments are available to enable secondary analysts to replicate and extend published reports of assessment results. These datasets include multiple imputed values for proficiency, known as "plausible values." Plausible values enable the analysis of achievement in large-scale assessment data with complete-case statistical methods such as t-tests implemented in readily-available statistical software. However, researchers are often challenged by the complex and unfamiliar nature of plausible values, large-scale assessments, and their datasets. Misunderstandings and misuses of plausible values may therefore arise. The aims of this paper are to explain what plausible values are, why plausible values are used in large-scale assessments, and how plausible values should be used in secondary analysis of the data. Also provided are answers to secondary researchers' frequently asked questions about the use of plausible values in analysis gathered by the authors during their experience advising secondary users of these databases.

As the application of visual-spatial skills in academic disciplines, vocational fields and daily life is becoming more and more prominent, it is of great theoretical and practical significance how to make use of big data and artificial intelligence technology to conduct research on the relationship between visual-spatial skills and students' grades. This paper explores and analyses from the perspective of artificial intelligence, combining students' visual-spatial skills and students' specific attribute characteristics to construct an expert system, which defines the prediction of academic performance as a classification problem corresponding to the five categories of excellent, good, moderate, passing, and weak, respectively, and based on which a deep neural network-based classification prediction model for students' performance is designed. The experimental results show that visual-spatial skills plays an important role in the professional learning of science and engineering students, while the classification model designed in this paper has high accuracy in the grade prediction process. This paper not only helps to fill the gaps in the current research field, but is also expected to provide scientific basis for educational practice and promote the development of the education field in a more intelligent and personalized direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The National Assessment Program for Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is intended to assess all Australian students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 to ensure equity and inclusion. This paper explores the extent to which equity and inclusion are achieved for students with disability through NAPLAN reporting. Document analysis of publicly accessible NAPLAN reports, technical reports, handbooks and protocols was conducted to evaluate how this cohort is represented in NAPLAN reports. This paper demonstrates the paucity of NAPLAN reporting about students with disability. It highlights opportunities for NAPLAN data from this cohort to be reported and used to inform educational decisions at all levels (teachers, schools, systems and parents) for students with disability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this introduction, we set the stage for a collection of papers from the Co-constructing Mathematics Motivation in Primary Education–A Longitudinal Study in Six European Countries Project (MATHMot for short), an international study aiming to identify the factors that shape the development of motivation in mathematics from a comparative perspective in primary education. Students' motivation, performance, academic emotions, and subject-related identity and agency are observed across six countries: Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Portugal, and Serbia. MATHMot builds on the belief that one of the main goals of mathematics teaching should be children's long-term motivation for learning the subject, which in turn supports students in striving for exemplary achievement in mathematics. This special section attempts to observe students' mathematics motivation in early grades and how different contributions from the classroom, home or the student's individual characteristics shed light on its development and adjacent concepts like academic emotions and math-related identity and agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society (JKNS), which has a history of over 50 years, has made great progress recently. In order to continue this progress in the future, we need to think about the strategies we will take and put them into practice. The progress of JKNS is an important opportunity to publicize the achievements of Korean neurosurgery to the world and for Korea to contribute further to global neurosurgery. We also need to think about and implement various measures to improve the inflow of papers of high quality from various countries and to establish an appropriate merit system for reviewers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to improve the efficiency and accuracy of the modeling and design work of the sluice gate project, this paper proposes an automatic generation template of the sluice gate project with customized semantics and project layout scheme, aiming at realizing the rapid assembling of all kinds of components of the sluice gate project. In the construction process, this paper first starts from basic parametric modeling and proposes constraints as the basis of modeling. Subsequently, a template library framework is developed based on the constraints to ensure that the generated templates have a high degree of standardization and consistency. Finally, an efficient and flexible template library is successfully constructed by using the customized classes and functions of Revit API, which provides powerful technical support for the modeling and design work of sluice gate engineering. This achievement helps to promote the informationization and intelligent development of the water conservancy engineering industry, and its versatility and scalability also make it have a wide range of application prospects in other water conservancy engineering fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes and defends the counter-hegemonic methods applied to the investigation of a high-profile national policy for Early Education and Care (ECCE) in Ireland. The policy, the Access and Inclusion Model (AIM) seeks to ensure the full inclusion and meaningful participation of children with disabilities in mainstream, state funded ECCE. It makes a significant contribution to data and debate on how research about inclusion can become inclusion in the context of policy evaluation. The design of the policy evaluation included surveys, in depth interviews and qualitative case studies of pre-schools and children supported by AIM which were deliberately designed to be counter-hegemonic through the recruitment of practitioners as co-researchers (as expert representatives within a feminised workforce), and the use of a participative method of elicitation that sough the perspectives and lived experiences of inclusion among fourteen children supported by AIM. This method was multi-modal mapping. With a focus on these counter-hegemonic elements, the paper poses questions about how the approach was counterhegemonic in terms of its theoretical underpinning, practical approach, and outcomes. Thematic analysis of the data collected by practitioner researchers for the child case studies showed that the approach did achieve counter-hegemony through the achievement of redistribution, representation, and recognition in both the enactment of the research, and in the reporting of children's lived experience in the study as a whole. However, the extent of counter-hegemony achieved was limited when practitioner researchers were unable to deploy the multi-modal mapping method because of limited time, or because the child was not a speaker of English or was as yet, non-speaking. In a context where policy makers have a preference for positivist and rationalist approaches to evaluating the impact of policies, we assert that research about policies for inclusion, should be enacted as inclusion and social justice through the deliberate deployment of participatory and counter-hegemonic methods. We also assert that multi-modal mapping holds particular promise for researching the lived experience of inclusion and participation from the perspective of children and argue that more work needs to be done on developing these methods so that they are effective with all children, including those who are non-speaking. Finally, we posit that Fraser's triune model of social justice can be applied as a benchmark for designing and evaluating counter-hegemonic modii and outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers an account of recognition and its relation to knowledge. One important observation is that while 'know' is a stative verb, 'recognize' is an achievement verb. A second is that 'recognize' is knowledge entailing, both when combined with a complementizer phrase and when combined with a noun phrase. The behavior of the latter kind of construction is particularly subtle and is the main focus of this paper. This paper ends with an interesting puzzle about object recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fractional reduced differential transform method is a finite iterative method based on infinite fractional expansions. The obtained result is the approximation of the real value. Currently, there are few reports on the approximate error and applicable condition. In this paper, we study the factors related to the approximate errors according to the fractional expansions. Our research shows that the approximate errors relate not only to fractional order but also to time t, and that they increase rapidly with time t. This method can only be applied within a certain time range, and the time range is relevant to fractional order and fractional expansions. We can ascertain this time range according to the absolute error and the relative error. Many obtained achievements may be incorrect if the applicable conditions are not satisfied. Some examples presented in this paper verify our analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender disparity in science and mathematics performance is being researched internationally. In a complex education system, like Pakistan, studying the difference in isolation may not generate holistic understanding. Therefore, this paper investigates changes in trends of performance in Science and Mathematics for both genders across public and private schools. Data were gathered from a nationwide sample of elementary grades students (n=15,391) using SATs/MATS. Independent t-test and two-way-ANOVA were employed to analyse data. Results revealed that girls outperformed boys in Science (p<0.01) while no gender differences in performance were observed in Mathematics. Gender and school systems demonstrated significant interaction effect only in mathematics, unveiling that girls perform better in public schools while this difference diminished in the private school system. The results show implications for employing gender-fair policies and practices in science and mathematics education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent primary development in criminology is a growing recognition that there has been Western domination in knowledge production and dissemination. The imbalance of knowledge in criminology is a significant weakness of the discipline. Prominent scholars have called for the decolonisation of criminological knowledge to correct this bias. Asian criminology and Southern criminology are the latest developments and promising forces in decolonising criminology (Liu 2018; Moosavi 2018). One of Asian criminology’s exceptional contributions to the current decolonisation movement is its significant theoretical achievements. This paper reviews theoretical efforts in Asian criminology and the theoretical innovation of the theoretical works, particularly those developed by Liu (Liu 2014; 2016; 2017; 2021a; 2022; 2023). It shows how theory development in criminology can gain insights from observations based on Asian contexts. The paper provides an update on these developments and their contributions to the reconstruction of criminology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reflects on an educational policy initiative taken by the New Labour Government in England in the 1990s-2000s to extend parental choice in publicly funded school education, and to widen social access to different educational approaches. As such, the policy which led to the opening of a Steiner Academy School in Herefordshire contained elements of educational diversity and inclusion, a degree of parental choice that had not been considered previously, and an extending of social access to different and distinctive educational approaches. For example, in the case of the Steiner Academy Hereford, the National Curriculum for schools in England was set aside in favour of the Steiner Waldorf curriculum framework. The paper seeks to set out the main features of the negotiation that led up to the state funding of Steiner education in England, along with an exploration of the processes, compromises, achievements and setbacks that were encountered along the way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exclusionary school discipline is one of the primary ways that schools address student behavior. Existing scholarship has focused on examining the implications of exclusionary school discipline for two sets of outcomes: academic achievement and future juvenile and criminal legal involvement. However, these two areas of scholarship are largely treated as separate. In this paper, we bridge these two research areas by drawing on scholarship examining the negative educational consequences of police contact for youth. Specifically, we formally test the proposition that the association between school suspension in childhood and adolescent academic achievement is mediated by police contact experienced in early adolescence. Using data from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study, we find support for this hypothesis: Early adolescent police contact explains approximately 30% of the association between school suspension in childhood and adolescent GPA. By relying on exclusionary school discipline, our results suggest that schools are setting the stage for youth to become involved in the criminal legal system, which, in turn, hinders future academic achievement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the current state of the Australian defence industry, highlighting its achievements, threats, and opportunities. Also discussed are the importance of having a robust national service scheme with regard to the manufacturing industry, and implications of the AUKUS (Australia United Kingdom United States) initiative on Australia's defence industry and national security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The learning process can be conceptualized as a dynamic system constantly evolving and adapting in response to a variety of stimuli and inputs. This paper presents a novel approach to competency-based assessment that integrates a dynamic assignment design of personalized activities with the aid of a 3D matrix array structure. This structure, named Topic, Activity, and Competency (TAC) cuboid, provides a detailed view of the student's progress, enabling the design of tailored curricular strategies to facilitate the development of competencies. Personalized activities serve as control inputs that adapt to each learner's state, driving a feedforward that promotes proactive improvement. An automation process becomes necessary to cope with the increased data volume from the TAC cuboid and the information complexity. The concept model registers TAC cuboid information, enabling a dynamic analysis to forward an adequate workload when required to facilitate students' achievement of their expected mathematical competencies. Additionally, the paper discusses the initial application of these models in an educational role-playing game, demonstrating their effectiveness in a gamified learning environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to describe the history of logical investigations at the University of Poznań. The organisational structures within the discipline as well as the outstanding logicians and their achievements are presented. Connections with the Lviv–Warsaw School are indicated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The size and number of global threats to humanity's at least cultural survival on the very small blue planet of Earth is growing. Exponential population growth and additionally exponential growth of all kinds of consumption have led to the planet's limits finally being exceeded in the final quarter of the last century. Meanwhile this growth has already probably generated irreversible changes in the world which have brought or will bring the climate very soon beyond "tipping points" leading to "runaway effects", endangering mankind or at least its cultural achievements. Science and education need to provide pathways for survival and the design of a sustainable future, and thereby replace having to deal with short-term and small problems by tackling these global threats. This paper discusses these issues, underlines the significance of global studies and outlines approaches to the design of a trans-disciplinary global sustainability science curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this journal, Sciffer et al. (Large-scale Assessments in Education 10:1–22, 2022), hereafter SP&M, conclude that school socioeconomic compositional (SEC) or school socioeconomic status (school-SES) effects in Australia are substantial and substantively important for research and policy. This paper demonstrates that these claims are unwarranted. Their SEC estimates are much larger than estimates from comparable studies and a metastudy. Despite plausible theoretical reasons and empirical evidence, SP&M do not consider that school academic composition is a significant predictor of student achievement independent of SEC. SEC effects are confounded by academic composition and are typically trivial when considering academic composition. The second part of this paper compares SP&M's estimates with analysis of the same data, from the Australian National Assessments in Performance—Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN). In a model corresponding to SP&M analyses comprising demographics, SES, school-SES, and student-level prior achievement, the effects of school-SES are small, with standardized effects mostly less than 0.10. With the addition of academic composition measured by school-level prior achievement, school-SES effects are effectively zero. In contrast, academic composition has significant, albeit small, impacts on student achievement. Therefore, contrary to SP&M's (2022) conclusion, school-SES effects on student achievement in NAPLAN are negligible, whereas school-level prior achievement has small effects. That is not to say that school-SES is always irrelevant, but any assessment of its importance must consider both student- and school-level prior achievement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

V. S. Naipaul's novel A House for Mr. Biswas depicts the peculiar phenomenon of the protagonist Biswas's lifelong pursuit of "a house". This paper uses the method of Ethical Literary Criticism to explore the reasons Biswas pursued "a house" throughout his entire life, which reveals the close relationship between Biswas's pursuit of "a house" and the exploration of "identity". This paper argues that Biswas tried to establish his ethical identity as a son, son-in-law, husband, and father by obtaining a house in order to realize his existential value and meaning in life. In this sense, the ethical significance of space is also revealed in the novel by revealing the relationship between "house" and "identity". By focusing on spatial ethics, this paper emphasizes that the "house" in the novel is not only a house, but also has the ethical values of "independence", "personal dignity", "life achievement", and "responsibility and obligation" in the essential sense. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is part of a larger study examining the effects of Computer- Assisted Language Learning (CALL) on secondary school students' achievement in learning English pronunciation, which was carried out in December 2016 in Kenya. The paper seeks to determine the difference in English language pronunciation achievement between two groups of secondary school students in Gucha subcounty, Kenya: those taught using CALL and those taught using the traditional method. The content taught was the same, and while the experimental group was exposed to CALL method, the control group was taught through the traditional method. The two groups were tested prior to the implementation of CALL treatment. The findings revealed that CALL positively affects students' achievement in English pronunciation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports a contrastive genre analysis of rhetorical structures of linguistic research articles written in English and Vietnamese. The quantitative method was employed with data from a corpus of 35 English and 35 Vietnamese research articles randomly selected from internationally and Vietnamese reputable journals of linguistics published in the five-year period from 2015 to 2019. The rhetorical model of research articles in Applied Linguistics, as suggested by Pho (2008), was applied as a framework to analyse the corpus of this study. Findings reveal some similarities and differences in the structure of English and Vietnamese research articles. Generally, the macro-structure of Vietnamese articles is basically similar to that of English articles. However, in English articles, there are often more parts than in Vietnamese ones, and the discussion tends to be separated into a single section. The findings of this study can shed some light on the path of graduate students and novice scholars, especially Vietnamese researchers, who strive to publish their scientific achievements in reputable journals so that they will be accepted as new dwellers of the linguistic community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers an alternative reading of the intellectual as a phenomenon that emerged in the context of fascination with colonial achievements, alongside a tendency to catch up with and be independent from it, all while being accompanied by a phenomenon based on the “worship of modernity,” which not only failed to critique it but also considered everything local as inherently backward. Since the intellectual regards their society as regressive and unworthy of being relied upon as a lever for advancement, but rather as the subject of change, they have no choice but to turn to power to present their modernist vision, ultimately becoming a part of the tools for its perpetuation and the reproduction of its domination and functionality. Based on the philosophy of “activation” and the attachment of theory to practice, this paper seeks to establish a conceptual framework for the “ practicing thinker, ” who is engaged with their community in producing change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the economic effects of a potential cut‐off of the German economy from Russian energy imports. We use a multi‐sector open‐economy model and a simplified approach based on an aggregate production function to estimate the effects of a shock to energy inputs. We show that the effects are likely to be substantial but manageable because of substitution of energy imports and reallocation along the production chain. In the short run, a stop of Russian energy imports would lead to an output loss relative to the baseline situation, without the energy cut‐off, in the range 0.5% to 3% of GDP. This paper is part of the Economica 100 Series. Economica, the LSE "house journal" is now 100 years old. To commemorate this achievement, we are publishing 100 papers by former students, as well as current and former faculty. Benjamin Moll is the Sir John Hicks Professor of Economics at the LSE. David Baqaee was an Asst. Prof. of Economics at the LSE. Moritz Schularick obtained his MSc from the LSE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the history of the International Association of Geomorphologists (IAG), an organization formally established in 1989, but with the foundations laid at the First International Conference on Geomorphology in Manchester in 1985. It recreates the spirit of the 1980s, when the need for more efficient international cooperation on an equal basis was argued for, and outlines steps which led to its setting up. The model of operation of the IAG is presented, emphasizing membership by countries, followed by milestone institutional developments, listing of IAG officers and its Honorary Fellows. Key IAG activities are conferences, projects run by working groups, training and support programmes for early career geomorphologists, and publications. A summary of major achievements and challenges for the future concludes the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigate the generalized Langevin-Sturm-Liouville differential problems involving Caputo-Atangana-Baleanu fractional derivatives of higher orders with respect to another positive, increasing function denoted by ρ. The fixed point theorems in the framework of Kransnoselskii and Banach are utilized to discuss the existence and uniqueness of the results. In addition, the stability criteria of Ulam-Hyers, generalize Ulam-Hyers, Ulam-Hyers-Rassias, and generalize Ulam-Hyers-Rassias are investigated by non-linear analysis besides fractional calculus. Finally, illustrative examples are reinforced by tables and graphics to describe the main achievements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, an implementation of hierarchical clustering methods was conducted in schools' admission data. We aim to demonstrate that the hierarchical clustering method can be used to help analyze the membership changes of each cluster based on its achievement number of new students from different months period observations. This method can be used by decision-makers to make a strategy for each school which has decreasing achievement from the previous period. In this paper, we employ the hierarchical clustering method to cluster admission performance achievement from fifty Telkom Schools. Instead of clustering admission in one period directly, this paper tried to analyze the movement of clustering membership from one period to another. We observed the movement membership of the group from three categories period, such as monthly, quarterly, and semesterly. The experimental results demonstrate that the monthly scenario was the best clustering result. The monthly scenario achieves the best score for all metrics such as the Dunn index, Silhouette score, Davies-Bouldin index, and Calinski-Harabasz compared to the quarter and semester scenario. There are four schools which are consistent in the first cluster and seven schools which are consistent in the second cluster in all scenarios and all periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An emergent literature has shown that some students overcome adversities related to their low Socio-Economic Status (SES) by attaining high academic achievement. One of the aims of this literature is to identify the factors that explain the capacity of students from low SES backgrounds to attain high academic achievement. However, upon reviewing this literature, I observed that few studies have comparatively investigated the associations between the capacity of students from low SES backgrounds to attain high achievement in reading and school climate characteristics. Additionally, I found that not many studies have researched whether student SES moderates these associations. This paper contributes to fill these two gaps by estimating associations between high achievement in reading and school climate characteristics. Moreover, it examines whether student SES moderates these associations. To do this, this research estimated logit and heterogeneous choice models using representative samples of students from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Uruguay who participated in the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). The results show that high achievement in reading is positively correlated to certain teaching practices, such as perceived teacher enthusiasm during the instruction and adapting instruction to students' needs. Conversely, it is negatively correlated to teacher feedback and teacher-directed instruction. Furthermore, the findings indicate that high achievement in reading is negatively correlated to the scarcity and low quality of educational material. Interestingly, the results show that student SES does not moderate these associations. In conclusion, these findings indicate that interventions targeting these areas of school climate may help to increase students' probability of attaining high achievement in reading, regardless of their SES. Likewise, these results suggest that if these interventions are focused in low SES schools, they may contribute to bridge the gap in reading skills between students from low and middle or high socioeconomic backgrounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The North-South gap of China has widened in recent decades. • This paper focused on the North-South industrial transfer and its impact on emissions. • The North-South transfer aggravated the imbalance of carbon emissions across regions in China. • The spillover effect is the dominant path behind the impact of the transfer. In recent years, the gap between the north and the south of China has been expanding, showing a decreasing proportion of value-added and an increasing proportion of carbon emissions in the north of China, and vice versa in the south of China. Based on the most recent inter-provincial input-output table of China in 2012 and 2017, this paper focused on the North-South industrial transfer of manufacturing, quantified its impact on regional carbon emissions, and decomposed the path of impacts. The results suggest that the North-South industrial transfers of China during 2012-2017 indeed aggravated the imbalance of carbon emissions in the north and the south of China. Further explorations of path decompositions show that the spillover effect through production linkages is the major path where industrial transfer influences regional carbon emissions, particularly in the north of China. The results provide insightful policy implications for the achievement of carbon emissions reduction targets in China as well as the globe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this scientific paper is to identify and test some of the factors that affect the proper management of microfinance institutions in Kosovo. The management of Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) in the modern economy is very important and for this reason, special attention is paid, as the results of MFIs depend on the way they are managed and on the performance they have. The analysis period in this study includes the time from 2014 to 2019, while the source of data was: AMIK, CBK, and KSA. For the realization of this scientific study, we have used a comprehensive methodology, which includes the narrative method, the method of analysis, as well as the econometric method, through the multivariate regression model. In the framework of this paper, importance has been paid to staff empowerment and capacity building, which we have addressed as an important factor in achieving the success of MFIs. The results of the study clearly show that the empowerment of staff's staff has a positive impact on the achievement of results and the success of MFIs because it helps staff make more flexible decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although women account for about half of the users in the digital games market, people still consider the gaming world predominantly male. In the literature, we found studies that report on game features that are relevant for this audience; however, we did not identify works that relate game aspects to values that are relevant for women. This paper presents values considered relevant to them and attributes (features of a game) that allow women to achieve these values. To do this, we conducted 20 semi-structured interviews with women between 18 and 35 through the laddering technique. We used Means-End Theory and found and discussed nine main routes. The chains identified represent possible paths between a given attribute and a given value. The two values that mostly stand out were 'Achievement' and 'Happiness'. The results reflect the participants' experience and can be used to develop games with adaptations to the female audience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzing education does not only involve years of schooling, quality matters! This paper aims at providing better data on schooling with a focus on learning outcomes. It provides the largest dataset on learning outcomes, years of schooling and learning-adjusted year of schooling (LAYS) with comparable data between 1970 and 2020. The quantity dimension is measured by years of schooling and uses the latest data from Barro and Lee (J Dev Econ 104:184–198, 2013), while the quality dimension is taken from linking standardized, psychometrically robust international achievement tests and hybrid tests. The data are available for more than 120 countries between 1970 and 2020. Several findings can be highlighted. A global convergence on both learning outcomes and enrollment has occurred since 1970, but a breakdown can be found after 1990. A very low number of countries perform better after 2000 regarding the quality of schooling, while most countries have a stable level of learning outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Talent development as a framework for services for advanced learners has gained traction within schools, but there are challenges that remain. In this paper, we address some of these, including identification systems that are consistent with a domain focus and geared towards the stage of talent development; exceptional abilities that are often ignored by schools but could be identified and cultivated; programming that is continuous, articulated with the school curriculum, with defined outcomes for growth and performance; better understanding and use of data for identification and monitoring of progress; and policies that support acceleration and advanced learning options. The major challenge for schools is the potential to bifurcate services into talent development for underserved learners versus gifted services for high achieving students, rather than providing multiple pathways for learners with different needs that lead to high achievement for all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the group consensus problem of second-order multi-agent systems (MAS) under asynchronous denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. Asynchronous DoS attacks involve the interruption of certain communication links, allowing the MAS to be reimagined as a switching system with a persistent dwell time (PDT). The agents in each group can be divided into three types, which are inter-act agents, intra-act agents with zero in-degree, and other agents. Then, according to the properties of the different agents, suitable agents are pinned. By leveraging the concepts of switching topology and the PDT, a suitable event-triggered control protocol is designed, along with the establishment of conditions to ensure the group consensus of the MAS. Moreover, through the construction of topology-dependent Lyapunov functions, the achievement of group consensus within the MAS under asynchronous DoS attacks is demonstrated. Subsequently, a numerical example is presented to validate the effectiveness of the proposed results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1950s, invasive prenatal diagnostics have played an integral role in perinatal management. However, its significance extends beyond detecting genetic abnormalities. This paper comprehensively reviews the indications for amniocentesis and chorionic villus sampling. Additionally, it examines various methods of genomic, infectious, and biochemical analysis, with a particular emphasis on the achievements of the last decade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Addressing the formidable challenges in spatial infrared dim target detection, this paper introduces an advanced detection approach based on the refinement of the YOLOv8 algorithm. In contrast to the conventional YOLOv8, our method achieves remarkable improvements in detection accuracy through several novel strategies. Notably, by incorporating a deformable convolutional module into the YOLOv8 backbone network, our method effectively captures more intricate image features, laying a solid foundation for subsequent feature fusion and detection head predictions. Furthermore, a dedicated small target detection layer, built upon the original model, significantly enhances the model's capability in recognizing infrared small targets, thereby boosting overall detection performance. Additionally, we utilize the WIoU-v3 as the localization regression loss function, effectively reducing sensitivity to positional errors and leveraging the advantages of multi-attention mechanisms. To enrich the quantity and quality of the spatial infrared dim target dataset, we employ image enhancement techniques to augment the original dataset. Extensive experiments demonstrate the exceptional performance of our method. Specifically, our approach achieves a precision of 95.6%, a recall rate of 94.7%, and a mean average precision (mAP) exceeding 97.4%, representing substantial improvements over the traditional YOLOv8 algorithm. Moreover, our detection speed reaches 59 frames/s, satisfying the requirements for real-time detection. This achievement not only validates the efficacy and superiority of our algorithm in spatial infrared dim target detection, but also offers novel insights and methodologies for research and applications in related fields, holding immense potential for future applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, public procurement goals have expanded from obtaining free competition and lowest prices to achieving objectives of “horizontal” policies that take into account ecological and social aspects. However, the Tinbergen Rule states that one instrument should be matched with one goal, while using one instrument for achieving multiple goals would undermine its effectiveness. In this paper, we will examine whether implementation of “horizontal” public procurement policies related to green public procurement, socially responsible public procurement and the promotion of micro, small and medium enterprises ’ participation affect achievement of the “primary” public procurement goal of free competition. Our study is based on empirical data on more than 65,000 public procurements carried out in Slovenia during the period 2016-2019. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of organisational culture in supporting organisational outcomes is well documented in the further education (FE) sector within the UK. The benefits of a strong and unifying culture are recognised as having a positive impact on staff and students. However, a cultural institutional dichotomy has been acknowledged between the business and educational needs of colleges within the FE sector since the advent of incorporation in 1993. This paper utilised an interpretive, hermeneutical approach to analyse the perceptions of principals, middle leaders and teachers, within three general further education colleges (GFECs) in England to determine if that dichotomy exists in their current operating environment. The paper concludes that while there are elements of a clash of business and education ideals, general further education college (GFEC) culture has moved beyond the narrative of being corporate and driven solely by the concept of performativity. The article contributes to the ongoing debate on FE purpose and establishes the importance of aligning macro and subcultures into a set of professional working practices within GFECs to support positive student outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper sought to delineate how English media frame Kazakhstan. We employed co-occurrence network and sentiment analysis across 130 newspaper pieces published in 2022 and 2023. The results showed that the news in the UK and Qatar often associated Kazakhstan with Russia and China, and also referred to it as a Muslim country, which until the events of January 2022 was considered a peaceful and quiet country. Among the prevailing terms, there were "Kazakhstan," "country," "Tokayev," "Russia," and "protest". Kazakhstan was represented as a country ruled by an influential leader (Tokayev), maintaining diplomatic relations with countries in Europe and Asia. Kazakhstan's image suffered due to the violent crackdown on protests during the January events and accusations of supporting Russia to circumvent sanctions, which the government denies. However, the January events awakened a wave of foreign media interest in Kazakhstan, which gradually subsided over time. The sentiment analysis unearthed that the peak of positive sentiment coincided with events such as scientific achievements, cultural successes and progressive changes, while the decline was characterized by coverage of problems within the country facing serious challenges, including worker safety issues, political suppression, economic instability and questions about the legitimacy of elections. Resultantly, a rather ambivalent portrayal emerged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]