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Scientific papers and patents are reliable sources of knowledge carriers for measuring science and technology advances, predicting technological trends, and formulating technology strategies. Although the idea of entirely using the two knowledge carriers is rapidly emerging in academic discussion, a theoretical framing of the comparisons is still not present in literature. This study conducts bibliometrics on 2986 patent families and 4755 scientific papers related to silicon carbide metal–oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (SiC-MOSFET) to identify its technological trends and compare the similarities and differences in knowledge generation and diffusion in science and technology. Our methodological framework consists of a combination of geographic distribution (identifying the research developments and distribution), cooperation networks (analyzing organisation collaboration and individual research cooperation), noun phrase co-occurrence clusters (discovering hot research topics), and the global main path analyses of citation networks (tracking the trajectory of knowledge flows). Ultimately, our results contribute to recent bibliometric paradigms beyond discovering the role of scientific papers and patents in promoting science and technology integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The International Conference on Cognitive Modeling brings together researchers from around the world whose main goal is to build computational systems that reflect the internal processes of the mind. In this issue, we present the five best representative papers on this work from our 19th meeting, ICCM 2021, which was held virtually from July 3 to July 9, 2021. Three of these papers provide new techniques for refining computational models, giving better methods for taking empirical data and producing accurate computational models of the cognitive systems that produce them. The other two papers focus on explanation: using models to elucidate the underlying processes affecting cognition in such diverse domains as logical reasoning and the effects of caffeine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a model to map out embodied movement as a stratified semiotic mode, that is, a conventionalized set of resources for meaning making. The model describes movement structure as a system that realizes specific meanings activated by contexts of situation. The model establishes an explicit link between contextual meanings and textual patterning by theorizing connections between genre, metafunction, and structure. Drawing upon an empirical study of one teacher’s embodied movement in the classroom, this paper maps out movement structure as distinct choices and reveals how movement, gaze and speech function rhythmically to construe information prominence and information boundaries at different levels of discourse organization, which further contributes to coherence and periodicity for the information flow and semantic flow in the lesson. Additionally, the paper reveals that the synthesis of different modes can enact semantic convergence and divergence to aggregate knowledge in pedagogic contexts. The analysis contributes to a systematic understanding of the types of meaning that embodied movement can realize and of the ways in which they are realized together with speech and gaze. The intertwined nature of movement structures, meanings and contexts also indicates that pedagogy is an embodied and situated construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to (1) explore how notions about STEM in different contexts, times, scales and places affect STEM-practices in ECE and beyond, and (2) with this as a point of departure, highlight the need and potential of using feminist perspectives and a feminist pedagogy in STEM-related courses within ECTE (Early Childhood Teacher Education). To explore the aim, I experiment with diffractive readings of agential cuts made from the STEM-area; theoretical and empirical research papers, a popular-scientific book, reports, surveys and statistics and a field study in preschool. The findings highlight that feminist perspectives and a feminist pedagogy are important for all ECTE students, irrespective of earlier experiences of and feelings towards STEM (e.g. fun/difficult, insecure/confident). They are also of importance for all children since notions of what STEM is/is not and who is interested in STEM/not interested, risk to affect all children’s STEM-learning in narrowing ways irrespective of gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an evidence-based study that evaluates the attitudes of Panjabi speakers in the Panjab region towards the Panjabi language, exploring the underlying reasons shaping those attitudes. Panjabi language activists have expressed concerns about the challenges confronting the language and its vitality. However, due to a noticeable absence of any empirical data these concerns often become entangled in a discourse, questioning the authenticity and reliability of these concerns. This paper, therefore, aims to measure the realistic standing and situation of the language, by undertaking the first, empirical study across nine districts in Panjab, India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What might it mean to reimagine brown‐girl‐as‐failure to brown‐girl‐as‐success? This article draws on findings from an empirical research study of academically successful teenage girls from Aotearoa New Zealand. In this paper we focus on what it means to be an intelligent and successful young brown woman in the context of the contemporary white‐centering of meritocratic success, and the oppressive narrative that brown girls are not bright. Using a creative methodology, Laurel Richardson's collective storying and Patricia Leavy's fiction‐based research, the paper engages in forms of creative analytic practice and new knowledge representation, which prioritize authentic voice and understanding of the young women participants' lived experiences. Collective stories were used in the study to challenge existing public discourses of girls and success, including the white‐centering of such depictions, and to create narratives that participants could identify with, particularly those that were often unspoken but widely experienced. Using collective stories in the study offered a space of resonance with participants who could engage with the stories during the research process and contribute to their (re)storying. The interplay between the theoretics of methodological creativity and the symbolic violence of a colonial positioning of successful girlhood offers a novel contribution to girlhood studies. Through collective storying and a further interweaving of poetic voice, the disruption of the narrative of deficit offers remembering and revalidation of brown success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-tracking in general, and by women in particular is increasingly researched. In the literature, however, women's interactions with selftracking technologies in menopause—a change that (almost) every woman will go through—is largely taken for granted. This paper addresses this lacuna by asking whether and how menopausal women use self-tracking technologies, and how this (non-) usage mediates their self-experiences. In doing so, it elaborates on another understudied phenomenon: the constitutive significance of "un-tracking"—that is, of various shades and levels of not using self-tracking technologies—in menopause. Most of the 13 interviewed women in this study reported that they stopped, drastically reduced, or resisted self-tracking in menopause. By framing the discussion of these accounts of "un-tracking" within the tradition of post-phenomenology and a phenomenology of situated bodily self-awareness, we show that these women experience their bodies as (1) wise and eu-appearing, (2) unmoldable and dysappearing, and (3) longing for disappearance. Herein, their experientially mediating un-tracking practices are temporally and socio-culturally contextualized in complex ways and bear substantial existential significance. This study establishes the potential harmful ways in which self-tracking mediates self-experiences, as well as the fruitful ways in which un-tracking may do so. Against the background of this observation, this paper makes an appeal to take a step back from uncritically celebrating self-tracking in healthcare contexts, and critically evaluates whether (the promotion of) using (more) self-tracking technologies in these contexts is desirable to begin with. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information from the fifth wave of the Quality-of-Life Survey conducted by the Gauteng City-Region Observatory was used in this paper to investigate the relationship between living in informal dwellings and fear of crime. This examination is based on existing theories, including victimization/vulnerability, neighborhood disorder, and diffuse anxiety theories. Given the prominence of informal dwellings in most urban areas in South Africa, including Gauteng Province, this study examines whether living in informal dwellings determines fear of crime or feelings of unsafety. Multilevel cumulative logistic models were therefore estimated to account for similarities between individuals in the same wards while at the same time modeling for differences between wards. The results indicate that an individual residing in an informal dwelling is less likely to feel safe than one who resides in a formal dwelling in Gauteng Province. By focusing on informal dwellings as the predictor of interest, the present paper attempts to extend the panoply of predictors that can be used in empirical research when testing the above-mentioned theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis paper introduces the concept of polyphonic relational epistemology, an extension of relational epistemology that emphasizes knowledge as a dialogic and multivocal process. Drawing on Mikhail Bakhtin's theory of polyphony, the paper argues that the act of knowing emerges from the interaction of multiple, irreducible voices. This approach challenges traditional epistemological frameworks that prioritize individual coherence and logical consistency, proposing instead a view of truth as a dynamic interplay of diverse perspectives. The paper examines the contributions of key scholars in relational epistemology, such as Kenneth Gergen, Barbara Thayer-Bacon, and Lorraine Code, and builds upon their insights to develop a polyphonic understanding of knowledge. The practical implications of polyphonic relational epistemology are explored in the context of education, highlighting its potential to foster inclusive and collaborative learning environments. By embracing the complexity and multiplicity of human experience, polyphonic relational epistemology offers a rich framework for rethinking the nature of knowledge and its role in our lives. The paper concludes by outlining avenues for future scholarship, including empirical research, interdisciplinary approaches, and the integration of technology, to further refine and apply this conceptual framework in educational practice and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Death Café is a not-for-profit international social franchise founded in 2011 in London. This paper is based on the most extensive empirical research of Death Cafés to date, examining the content of Death Café conversations. I interrogate the finding that, alongside talking directly about death and dying, people at a Death Café consistently talk about the value of being at a Death Café and about the value of talking about death. I introduce three main ways that talking about the value of conversations about death appears in a Death Café and, most importantly, I argue that talking about the value of conversations about death is an enjoyable part of the conversation in its own right. I use neo-tribal theory and its concept of aesthetics as ‘a way of feeling in common’ and ‘a means of recognising ourselves’ to examine this further. When talking about the value of conversations about death, Death Café participants reflexively consider the activity they are engaging in= together, which strengthens the feeling of collectivity, and bonds them into a neo-tribe. This paper demonstrates that Death Café is a valued form of social interaction, moving it away from the current academic attempts to discover Death Café’s instrumental utility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both political theorists and scholars working on populism with an ideational approach have frequently noted that populists are averse to compromise. However, the negative relationship between populism and compromise has not been analyzed in detail. In this paper, we offer a comprehensive account of the reasons behind this oft-repeated conflict between populist narratives and the practice of compromise, disentangling the various dimensions of such incompatibility and exploring their connections. We rely on theoretical and empirical research on populism, supplemented by illustrative examples and references to political theory with an anti-pluralist coloration and the opponents thereof. We compare populist objections with Baume and Papadopoulos’s typology of objections to political compromises. We demonstrate that populist objections only partly overlap with those inventoried in the typology, notably along the moral and antagonistic dimensions, while the populist claim that compromises denature the unmediated expression of the popular will has not been considered before. Through an exploratory case study, we further reflect on how populists justify compromises when they are in power, notwithstanding their ideological reluctances. Our paper enriches the study of the ideational elements of populism while advancing research on the perception of compromises in democratic politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Instructional videos constitute a pivotal component in flipped learning. Despite their significance, there is a dearth of research specifically dedicated to instructional videos within the context of flipped classrooms. This paucity has led to an empirical void in verifying the efficacy of instructional videos in flipped learning environments. Objectives: The present study endeavours to contribute to the extant literature on flipped pedagogical practices by providing empirical evidence regarding the effectiveness of instructional videos in flipped learning environments. Methods: This study employs a convergent mixed‐methods design. Forty‐five instructional videos in three subtypes were administered in two classes over a 15‐week semester. Data, both quantitative (log data from the learning management system) and qualitative (from focus group discussions at two time points), were concurrently collected from a flipped class (n = 25) and a blended class (n = 28) with the aim of gauging student engagement and learning outcomes in the flipped class and understanding video‐viewing features typical of the flipped class. Results: Both datasets corroborated that participants in the flipped class outperformed their counterparts in the blended class in terms of video‐watching, peer interaction, knowledge retention, and transfer skills. Conclusions: The instructional videos within the flipped classroom setting serve to enhance student engagement in the learning process and improve learning outcomes. The efficacy of these instructional videos in flipped learning can be further augmented through strategic approaches in both their design and implementation. Lay Description: What is currently known about this topic: The flipping pedagogy is conducive to learning.Videos play a crucial role in flipped learning.Videos prepared students for classroom activities.However, engaging students with pre‐class videos presents a challenge. What this paper adds: This paper furnishes direct empirical evidence supporting the effectiveness of instructional videos in flipped learning.It uncovers factors affecting student engagement with videos in flipped learning.It offers insights into the design and implementation of videos in flipped learning. Implications for practice: Considering facilitating conditions and affective factors when creating videos.Acknowledging learner characteristics when designing videos.Utilizing instructional strategies when implementing videos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines teachers' understandings of affective indoctrination in a conflict-affected society, focusing on how teachers' political orientations are entangled with these understandings. The exploration is conducted through a qualitative study of Greek-Cypriot primary and secondary school teachers who are identified as either conservative or progressive. The findings highlight that regardless of political orientation, teachers interpret the term indoctrination through a negative lens. However, teachers of progressive orientation view affective indoctrination as a part of everyday educational practices, whereas teachers of conservative orientation understand affective indoctrination as an exceptional case. The paper discusses the implications for teaching and teacher education. The relevance of teachers' political orientation makes it all the more necessary that teachers and teacher educators delve deeper into the political and pedagogical implications of the entanglement between political orientations and understandings of affective indoctrination in schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept and influence of untraded inter‐dependencies are under‐explored in the industrial cluster and informal economy literature. In this paper, we attempt to bridge this gap by extending the conventional Cobb‐Douglas production function to operationalising and testing the moderating effects of two forms of untraded inter‐dependencies in informal production. Based on the diffusion theory, we argue that knowledge‐sharing would favour informal production, as opposed to tool‐sharing. Using quantitative methods, 334 informal artisans were randomly sampled from three clusters in the Kumasi Metropolis of Ghana and analysed data obtained with moderating models and simple slopes plots. The tested models and fuzzy set configurations confirmed that knowledge‐sharing, but not tool‐sharing, has significant interaction effects on informal production. The optimal model derived would be one in which capital interacts with incremental knowledge‐sharing at the existing level of tool‐sharing among the artisans. This paper serves as an extension of new economic geography with an additional factor of untraded inter‐dependencies. As part of post‐COVID restoration and enhancement of informal production processes, we recommend city officials to deliberately plan and space clustered enterprises that enable the observed rates of interactions between production factors and untraded inter‐dependencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study the efficacy of several mathematical programming formulations for the single-source shortest path problem, the negative cost cycle detection problem, and the shortest negative cost cycle problem in arc-dependent networks. In an arc-dependent network, the cost of an arc a depends upon the arc preceding a. These networks differ from traditional networks in which the cost associated with an arc is a fixed constant and part of the input. Arc-dependent networks are useful for modeling a number of real-world problems, such as the turn-penalty shortest path problem, which cannot be captured in the traditional network setting. We present new integer and non-linear programming formulations for each problem. We also perform the first known empirical study for arc-dependent networks to contrast the execution times of the two formulations on a set of graphs with varying families and sizes. Our experiments indicate that although non-linear programming formulations are more compact, integer programming formulations are more efficient for the problems studied in this paper. Additionally, we introduce a number of cuts for each integer programming formulation and examine their effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immersive technology plays an increasingly important role in design education, supporting digital literacy and experiential learning in higher education, particularly in the post-COVID-19 context. Many design disciplines, such as Architecture and Landscape Design, which used to rely heavily on physical field trips, and dialogic studios as signature pedagogies, had to adapt to the proliferation of innovative educational technologies due to the suspension of face-to-face teaching and learning. Augmented reality and virtual reality are now extensively used in technology and design education to support a more interactive, collaborative, and student-centred approach to learning. This paper expands on a pilot research study on the transition from traditional signature pedagogies of studio-based design education to technology-enhanced collaborative learning to support experiential learning. Based on Kolb's experiential learning framework concerning four learning modes, namely, concrete experience (CE), reflective observation (RO), abstract conceptualisation (AC), and active experimentation (AE), this paper analyses data from 75 undergraduate students across four cohorts in three different higher education institutions in Hong Kong. They were surveyed on their experiences of synchronous hybrid virtual experiential learning with design and technology curricula. Furthermore, six students were interviewed about their experiences. The research findings confirm two research hypotheses showing that immersive experiential learning could constructively align RO and AE, thus bringing an overall positive impact on the experiential learning process, but shows no conclusive influence on promoting CE, especially AC. The quantitative findings and qualitative results gave new insights into the discussion of the theoretical and practical implications of the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing studies on language learner emotions mainly focus on Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA) and Foreign Language Enjoyment (FLE). They are primarily conducted in offline learning settings. This paper reports the empirical findings of an exploratory investigation conducted in a fully synchronous online learning environment for ab initio Korean. Through an Achievement Emotions Questionnaire administered to 117 students in an Australian university, this study measures learners' pride as well as their enjoyment and anxiety during four teaching weeks. In addition, this paper examines how learner emotions correlate with academic achievement as well as crucial learner and teacher variables. The study confirms many patterns of learner emotions in offline teaching environments, such as the association of positive emotions with positive outcomes and with some teacher characteristics, and the association of anxiety with negative outcomes. However, it also reveals patterns that appear to be new, warranting further empirical studies. The pedagogical implications of results for L2 teaching and learning are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on data from creative and visual group interviews undertaken in 2018 with five LGBTQ+ young people aged 15–18 years old in the South Wales valleys, this paper explores the gendered experiences of the body online. In line with wider research, participants illustrated that commodified gendered and sexualized norms were intensified online through the everyday forceful intrusion of idealized bodies and abusive body-shaming comments. However, they also pointed to the role of food and pet content in experiences of embodied pleasure and feeling good online. Inspired by feminist posthuman and new materialist scholarship, this paper examines how food and pet photography plugs into masculinizing and feminizing bodily assemblages. In so doing, it not only makes an empirical contribution to the field of gender studies, but also offers a contribution to the methodological literature by developing a theoretically informed approach, which expands the boundaries of what a gendered body may be, do and become online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we empirically demonstrate emerging material-discursive entanglements of different bodies in Swedish outdoor education, and thereby provoke openings for questioning some aspects of the conceptualization of a nature/culture divide. Outdoor and environmental education have been criticized for upholding this divide by not paying attention to the power structures through which bodies become sedimented as either human or nature. By discussing entanglements, and how educators might attend to them as a pedagogical tool, our paper responds to this line of thinking. Vital materialism and agential realism were put to work in a post-qualitative study at a Swedish folk high school. Through engagement with a group of outdoor students, empirical material was created and examples of material-discursive entanglements analyzed. We conclude that outdoor educators can create possibilities for attending to the entanglements of different bodies, thereby making possible a learning with them. This may open alternative ways to conduct outdoor education that challenge the conceptualization of a nature/culture divide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a special issue of Housing, Theory and Society entitled "Behavioural biases in the housing market". First, we provide a brief overview of theoretical considerations and empirical research applying the behavioural economics approach to housing market studies. Second, we summarize the topics of the papers included in the special issue and, finally, point out directions for future analyses involving behavioural economics and the housing market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) on China's political influence in international affairs, as mediated by Chinese economic integration with the BRI countries. We propose that the BRI plays a role in influencing partner countries to support China's presence in the international community, and the economic integration of the BRI positively mediates the willingness of partner countries to align with China in international affairs. This paper uses panel data from 147 BRI countries collected between 2009 and 2020, and the difference-in-differences method, to estimate the political influence of the BRI. The results suggest that the BRI motivates partner countries to support the growth of China's influence in international affairs. The results of the causal mechanism analysis indicate that a significant and positive association between the implementation of the BRI and China's influence is mediated by promoting Chinese contracts, trade overseas, and outward FDI. The examinations of heterogeneity demonstrate that BRI countries that are developing, non-landlocked, non-neighboring, having signed the memorandum of understanding or cooperation memorandum of understanding, or lacking a Chinese investment guide are more likely to support China's political presence. This paper concludes with insights into how China implements the BRI to enhance its political ascent in the global order by facilitating economic integration of the BRI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emergency management bears the important responsibility of preventing and resolving security risks and responding to disasters and accidents in time. At the same time, it shoulders the important mission of protecting people's lives and property and maintaining social stability. However, there is little research on the forecast of the huge gap and demand for talent. To strengthen the emergency management ability and modernization, improve the ability of emergency management personnel training and solve the shortage of emergency management personnel at this stage, this paper studied the positioning of emergency management personnel in China and the demand for various emergency management personnel. By means of field interviews, questionnaire surveys, participatory research and expert meetings, this research analyzed the characteristics of emergency management talents in China, defined its classification and forecasted its demand. The results showed that emergency management talents in China could be divided into four categories: administrative management talents, practical talents, expert talents and support talents. According to the data calculation results of five representative provinces, Guangdong Province (area with relatively developed economy), Beijing (administrative centre and economically developed area), Sichuan Province (natural disaster‐prone area), Shanxi Province (developed area of energy industry such as coal) and Jiangsu Province (industrially developed areas), it is concluded that the total demand for emergency management talents in China at this stage is about 794,900, and the gap is about 411,200. At present, China's emergency management talents are in short supply. The research results of this paper can provide sufficient data support for the training of emergency management talents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to discern, clarify, criticise, and advocate some uses of phenomenology in sociological research. Phenomenology is increasingly evoked or implicitly employed in sociological endeavours. Little attention, however, is paid to what is entailed in taking a phenomenological approach, and whether it is employed to advance empirical or theoretical knowledge. I build an analytic typology of different empirical and theoretical uses of phenomenology, criticise a range of these uses, and argue that other uses bear significant potential for the advancement of theoretical and empirical knowledge. The paper's main contribution lies in comparing and contrasting the many invocations of phenomenology in contemporary social scientific research to discern their benefits and shortcomings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Architectural education shares much in common with engineering, including the use of a culminating capstone experience in the final year. The form of this experience varies, with the research-based thesis and final-year project being most common. This paper explores the literature on traditions of enquiry and the meaning of research in various fields and the evolution of the 'thesis' and 'final year project' approaches over time. It then briefly summarises empirical research conducted on a case study institution struggling to bridge gaps in understandings of these distinct forms of learning and teaching. Throughout, the paper presents a comprehensive set of diagrams to explain various paradigms and positions on research and design education. These diagrams depict processes used in architecture, engineering, and natural sciences to conduct research and generate designs. A new model is proffered to help unify competing conceptions of the final year project and thesis, for the case study institution and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The awareness that museums must be inclusive and participatory led to practices adapted to visitors' requirements and co-creative experiences, encouraging interaction with exhibitions, and thus fostering memorable experiences. Yet, constraints remain for people with disabilities, reducing their satisfaction and desire to return. Despite the high number of people with visual impairments worldwide, there is a lack of research on factors that may impact their co-creation in museums. This paper aims to identify factors influencing the co-creation of people with visual impairments experiences in museums, either facilitating or constraining it. Based on focus groups discussion, the results of the study conducted suggest that the co-creation of people with visual impairments in museums is influenced both by aspects related to visitors, as well as by disabling features of the museums' physical, communicational, and attitudinal environments. Conclusions and implications drawn are critical to improve the experience of people with visual impairments in museums. This article highlights that despite the high number of people with visual impairments worldwide, many still face constraints when visiting museums. The article reveals that several museums offer opportunities for interacting with the whole museum environment and co-creating value, to trigger memorable experiences. This paper fills a research gap by analysing how a set of factors influence people with visual impairments to get involved in co-creation in museums, either facilitating or constraining it. The research found that the factors that influence co-creation of experiences of people with visual impairments in museums can be related to the visitors or to the museums, including physical, communicational and attitudinal aspects. The article provides guidelines to improve the co-creation in museums of people with visual impairments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amidst ongoing global debate about reproductive rights, questions have emerged about the role of language in reinforcing stigma around termination. Amongst some 'pro-choice' groups, the use of pro-life is discouraged, and anti-abortion is recommended. In UK official documents, termination of pregnancy is generally used, and abortion is avoided. Lack of empirical research focused on lexis means it is difficult to draw conclusions about the role language plays in this polarized debate, however. This paper, therefore, explores whether the stigma associated with abortion may reflect negative semantic prosody. Synthesizing quantitative corpus linguistic methods and qualitative discourse analysis, it presents findings that indicate that abortion has unfavourable semantic prosody in a corpus of contemporary internet English. These findings are considered in relation to discursive salience, offering a theoretical framework and operationalization of this theory. Through this lens, the paper considers whether the discursive salience of extreme anti-abortion discourses may strengthen the negative semantic prosody of abortion. It, therefore, combines a contribution to theory around semantic prosody with a caution to those using abortion whilst unaware of its possibly unfavourable semantic prosody. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polyploid organisms are common and can be found across the tree of life. A key question is to understand how and why these polyploid lineages become established and persist in populations, particularly since they are predicted to have a low probability of success. While the collection of papers in this special issue addresses broad questions on the evolutionary ecology of polyploids, ultimately, these studies also highlight the myriad ways that we are examining what drives the success of polyploid lineages. In this paper we consider where we've been and the challenges that we face, and then propose several directions that will allow us to continue to propel the field towards our ultimate goal of understanding the rules that govern the establishment and persistence of polyploid populations. We conclude that developing this rule set will require a combination of model systems for which we have detailed knowledge of the phylogenetic and population genetic history, expanding our perspective beyond plants to include greater taxonomic breadth, and conducting studies in ecologically relevant settings. Additionally, we argue that future research on the evolutionary ecology of polyploidy should focus on integrating theory and empirical research, providing mechanistic linkages between the effects of whole genome duplication and population demography, and build a predictive framework to understand how anthropogenic change will impact polyploid organisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to cope with severe environmental crises such as pollution and climate, the Chinese government has put forward the strategic goal of "double carbon" and vigorously developed green emerging industries such as cultural industry. Based on the super efficiency model and the input oriented Malmquist index model, this paper comprehensively measures the innovation efficiency of cultural industry, and selects the panel data of the Yangtze River economic belt from 2015 to 2021 for empirical analysis. In addition, the spatial econometric model is introduced to explore the driving factors affecting the innovation efficiency of cultural industry from the perspective of time and space. The results show that: (1) the overall innovation efficiency of the cultural industry in the Yangtze River economic belt is high, but there is significant spatial heterogeneity. (2) The average Malmquist index of the innovation efficiency of the cultural industry in the Yangtze River economic belt is 1.123, which reflects the continuous improvement of the level of industrial innovation. Environmental factors such as sulfur dioxide emissions in waste gas, investment in industrial pollution control, and per capita GDP have a significant impact on the innovation efficiency of cultural industry in the Yangtze River economic belt. Finally, the paper puts forward policy suggestions to promote the high-quality development of cultural industry from the perspective of technology, policy and environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, Game-Based Learning (GBL) has been widely adopted in various educational settings. This paper aims to review empirical studies that adopt GBL in the field of AI education and explore its future research perspectives. After a systematic keyword search in the online database and a snowballing approach, a total of 125 empirical papers with 133 studies were targeted as samples. Results indicated that the games in AI education are mainly fell into five categories: Puzzle games are the most used in the curriculum (27.07%), followed by Reasoning strategy games (23.31%), Robot games (18.05%), Role-playing games (9.02%) and Simulation games (6.77%). Among them, 22.39% of games were with real characters, 11.94% were with virtual characters and 64.18% were with no characters. Besides, games were used in three main forms in AI education: games as teaching tools (78.95%), games as student works (12.03%), and games as a competing mechanism (9.02%). Researchers mainly paid attention to the effect of GBL on students' Opinions and Attitude (52.96%) and Learning achievement (24.04%), while the other three categories such as Skills and ability, Interaction, and Cognition were not extensively measured. The cross-sectional analysis, research gaps, and potential directions for future research were also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a university's information resource center, the library has always provided services for teachers and students. However, there is a lack of in-depth research on the relationship between the allocation of library resources and the competitiveness of universities in innovation and entrepreneurship (CUIE). Clarifying that relationship could help optimize library resources to enhance CUIE and enrich the empirical research system of library science. Based on clarifying the composition of library resources, correlation and regression analyses were used to verify the effect of library resource allocation on CUIE. The results show that human, academic, and spatial resources of the library can improve CUIE. The quality of human resources is more important than quantity for CUIE. For academic resources, electronic resources play a greater role than paper resources in CUIE, and spatial resources have the least effect. To maximize CUIE, the university library must optimize its resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper applies a scoping review of k = 16 empirical studies from nine countries and three continents that aim at an empirical investigation of teachers' ICT integration in lesson plans as part of their professional competence. We summarise the results into four sections: conceptualisations, study design, measurement instruments, and key findings of studies. Although most studies predominantly relate their conceptualisations on the TPACK model, they go beyond in addressing ICT integration in lesson plans as a skill, using various measurement instruments. We therefore link key findings of studies to the teacher competence discourse, highlighting ICT integration in lesson plans as a situation-specific skill of teachers, being predicted by teacher knowledge and beliefs and predicting observable teacher performance in class. Moreover, intervention studies inform about the change of ICT integration in lesson plans effected by learning opportunities both in initial teacher education and in teacher professional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although scholars have discussed in depth about the evaluation content and the construction of evaluation index system of emergency management and crisis management, a unified and standardized interpretation of system construction concepts and empirical research on the performance evaluation of urban emergency management is still lacking. In view of this, this paper is based on the theory of the crisis life cycle, with the four phases of urban emergency management and the content of the task as a clue, constructed a performance evaluation index system containing 12 primary indicators and 44 secondary indicators, and centered on the emergency management work situation of S city. The study reveals that emergency management underperforms in S city, with a score of 5.948, qualifying as the "defined level". The "prevention and preparedness stage" receives poor evaluation, indicating a significant bias for crisis response instead of prevention. The report suggests the improvement of emergency material stockpile planning, the formation of grassroots emergency response teams, the emergency management publicity, and special emergency drill plans, etc., with a view to providing reference for city managers to comprehensively review and evaluate the emergency management system, and to promote the construction of a more systematic, complete and scientific urban emergency management system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Homeless families include children whose experiences of homelessness and extreme poverty can have long-term negative impacts over the life course. This paper proposes a resource-orientated causal explanation of the mechanisms of family homelessness in Australia. Given the critical role of poverty in housing insecurity, the model explains why some families living in extreme poverty and disadvantage become homeless and others do not. The research is positioned within a critical realist approach to theoretical causal explanation. It is influenced by interdisciplinary literature and psychologist Hobfoll's Conservation of Resources theory. Previously published empirical analysis informs and supports the development of this theoretical model. Families use their resources to mitigate challenges to their housing security. However, disadvantage limits their accumulation of resources, contributes to accelerating resource loss, and constrains their capacity to act. An acute lack of affordable housing and insufficient welfare payments to secure private rental accommodation severely impacts a family's capacity to navigate crises and avoid homelessness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the excess mortality P-score has gained prominence as a measure of pandemic burden. The P-score indicates the percentage by which observed deaths deviate from expected deaths. As the P-score is regularly used to compare excess mortality between countries, questions arise regarding the age dependency of the measure. In this paper we present formal and empirical results on the population structure bias of the P-score with a special focus on cross-country comparisons during the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe. Methods: P-scores were calculated for European countries for 2021, 2022, and 2023 using data from the 2024 revision of the United Nations' World Population Prospects and the HMDs Short Term Mortality Fluctuations data series. The expected deaths for 2021, 2022, and 2023 were estimated using a Lee–Carter forecast model assuming pre-pandemic conditions. P-score differences between countries were decomposed using a Kitagawa-type decomposition into excess-mortality and structural components. To investigate the sensitivity of P-score cross-country rankings to differences in population structure we calculated the rank-correlation between age-standardized and classical P-scores. Results: The P-score is an average of age-specific percent excess deaths weighted by the age-distribution of expected deaths. It can be shown that the effect of differences in the distribution of deaths only plays a marginal role in a European comparison. In most cases, the excess mortality effect is the dominant effect. P-score rankings among European countries during the COVID-19 pandemic are similar under both age-standardized and classical P-scores. Conclusions: Although the P-score formally depends on the age-distribution of expected deaths, this structural component only plays a minor role in a European comparison, as the distribution of deaths across the continent is similar. Thus, the P-score is suitable as a measure of excess mortality in a European comparison, as it mainly reflects the differences in excess mortality. However, this finding should not be extrapolated to global comparisons, where countries could have very different death distributions. In situations were P-score comparisons are biased age-standardization can be applied as a solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The housing sector in Sweden, as elsewhere, faces major transitions to meet far-reaching sustainability targets. Eco-efficiency has tended to dominate the sustainability discourse, with a reliance on incremental improvements. This paper explores what is needed to reach a system-level framing of sustainability transformations in housing and home-related structures and practices. Based on previous research and empirical insights from workshops with diverse actors in the Swedish housing sector, we explore different narratives of what needs to change and perspectives on agency and collective action. Shifting the narrative from efficiency to sufficiency, and from a focus on technology and behaviour to complex interactions between actors and systems, offers opportunities as well as tensions in the sector. While the current paradigm offers limited space for action, the emergence of perspectives, policies, and practices concerning, for example, living smaller, simpler, and sharing posits the housing sector as an arena for socio-ecological transformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a novel approach to formulate efficient ratio estimator of the population variance using a transformed auxiliary variable. The impact of transformation on auxiliary information has also been discussed. It is observed that incorporating a transformed auxiliary variable result in a high gain in efficiency. Theoretical properties of the newly developed estimators have been derived. The empirical and simulation studies show that the suggested estimators outperformed the existing estimators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Paper Objectives Methods Results and Conclusions Takeaways Personalised and timely feedback in massive open online courses (MOOCs) is hindered due to the large scale and diverse needs of learners. Learning analytics (LA) can support scalable interventions, however they often lack pedagogical and contextual grounding. Previous research claimed that a human‐centred approach in the design of LA solutions can be beneficial. Yet, there is a scarcity of empirical studies discussing participatory approaches addressing LA for feedback in MOOCs.We report a human‐centred design, where an instructor and a tool developer employed a conceptual framework, named FeeD4Mi, to shape personalised LA‐informed feedback in a MOOC.The current study follows a qualitative interpretative approach to understand how the proposed conceptual framework FeeD4Mi served the MOOC instructor and the tool developer to design feedback interventions and re‐design an existing LA tool, respectively.The results showed that FeeD4Mi helped the tool developer to create a contextualised LA tool, named edX‐LIMS+. edX‐LIMS+ allowed the instructor to monitor and assist struggling MOOC learners in a timely manner. Additionally, FeeD4Mi successfully guided the course instructor in designing and delivering personalised interventions. Yet, the feedback design process was perceived as time‐demanding, an issue we plan to address in our future work.The current study extends the existing empirical research about employing human‐centred approaches for the design of LA‐driven interventions. Moreover, this study advances the theory of scalable feedback tactics, through a conceptual framework that aims to guide MOOC instructors during the definition of feedback interventions. We envision that this research contributes to promoting participatory approaches for designing, delivering, and evaluating LA‐informed feedback interventions in authentic contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we focus on weighting methods within multi-attribute utility/value theory (MAUT/MAVT). In these methods, the decision maker (DM) provides ordinal information about the relative importance of criteria, but also additional information concerning the strength of the differences between the ranked criteria, which can be expressed in different forms, including precise/imprecise cardinal information, ratio-based methods, a ranking of differences, a semantic scale, or preference statements. Although many comparison analyses of weighting methods based on ordinal information have been carried out in the literature, these analyses do not cover all of the available methods, and it is not possible to identify the best one depending on the information provided by the DM. We review the analyses comparing the performance of these weighting methods based on empirical and simulated data using different quality measures. The aim is to identify weighting methods that could be recommended for use in each situation (depending on the available information) or the missing comparison analyses that should be carried out to arrive at a recommendation. We conclude that in the case of additional information in the form of a semantic scale, the cardinal sum reciprocal method can definitively be recommended. However, when only ordinal information is provided by the DM and in cases where additional information is provided in the form of precise/imprecise cardinal information or a ranking of differences, although there are some outstanding methods, further comparison analysis should be carried out to recommend a weighting method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to defend the emerging conceptualization of healthy sexuality (Bianchi in Figurations of Human Subjectivity: A Contribution to Second-Order Psychology. Springer, Berlin, 2020) against the traditional authoritative concept of sexual health as defined by the WHO. Becoming a sexual subject means following a sexual trajectory with episodes of one's own bodily experiences, genital satisfaction, intimate attachment, acceptance of sexual identity, sexual pleasure, mutual sexual satisfaction and planned parenthood. In each of these episodes, the individual may experience feelings of pressure, fear, shame, pain and/or joy and pleasure. The extent to which the subject has a healthy sexuality depends on whether these feelings/emotions facilitate or inhibit healthy sexuality. The concept of healthy sexuality runs counter not only to quantitative statistical demographic measures of sexual health, but also to the existing arsenal of sexology questionnaires. Qualitative empirical research is being conducted into the facilitators and inhibitors of a healthy sexuality (in the first author's PhD research). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A goodness-of-fit test for the Functional Linear Model with Scalar Response (FLMSR) with responses Missing at Random (MAR) is proposed in this paper. The test statistic relies on a marked empirical process indexed by the projected functional covariate and its distribution under the null hypothesis is calibrated using a wild bootstrap procedure. The computation and performance of the test rely on having an accurate estimator of the functional slope of the FLMSR when the sample has MAR responses. Three estimation methods based on the Functional Principal Components (FPCs) of the covariate are considered. First, the simplified method estimates the functional slope by simply discarding observations with missing responses. Second, the imputed method estimates the functional slope by imputing the missing responses using the simplified estimator. Third, the inverse probability weighted method incorporates the missing response generation mechanism when imputing. Furthermore, both cross-validation and LASSO regression are used to select the FPCs used by each estimator. Several Monte Carlo experiments are conducted to analyze the behavior of the testing procedure in combination with the functional slope estimators. Results indicate that estimators performing missing-response imputation achieve the highest power. The testing procedure is applied to check for linear dependence between the average number of sunny days per year and the mean curve of daily temperatures at weather stations in Spain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether intended by education policy (e.g., via school entrance examinations) or unintended (e.g., via social stratification), selection effects in education (who goes where, gets what, and how much) shape educational opportunities – influencing the life chances of individuals and groups, and the structure of societies. However, within the quantitative approach to educational research, current statistical methods can struggle to simultaneously evaluate both the presence and impacts of these effects. In turn, this methodological limitation impedes efforts to facilitate equality of educational opportunity. This paper responds with a critical overview of types of selection effects in education, their consequences for educational opportunity, and the statistical methods used for their identification. Two empirical illustrations show how a new statistical method ("airbag moderation") can enable better detection and evaluation of selection effects in education and help direct future research into selection effects in education with a focus on opportunities for equality of educational opportunity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I argue that the attempts by science studies to identify epistemic effects of new governance instruments have largely failed. I suggest two main reasons for this failure. The first reason is that neither quantitative nor qualitative studies of effects of governance instruments meet the respective methodological standards for establishing causality. While much of this could be repaired, the second reason is more severe: given the complex causal web between governance and knowledge production and the multi-level nature of causation, a strategy that starts from a particular governance instrument and tries to identify its effects cannot work. I propose to reverse this strategy by starting from the observation of epistemic change and applying a strategy of "causal reconstruction" (Mayntz), which identifies the causes of this epistemic change and among them the contribution by governance. This approach has the advantage of starting from well-identified change. Challenges posed by the new approach include the empirical identification of epistemic change and the need to integrate sociological methods in science policy studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a novel framework for systematic reviews, the conceptual systematic review (CSR), incorporating elements of content analysis that often implicitly precede synthesising research but are rarely made explicit. We argue that a CSR has the possibility to conceptually map a tangled term, to prepare systematic reviews, to advance interdisciplinary communication, and to offer guidance in tangled fields of scientific discourse. The proposed methodological framework involves a six-stage procedure aimed at systematically unravelling tangled terms through the deductive–inductive coding of a systematically retrieved literature corpus, thereby going beyond the quantitative synthesis of research findings. We call the elements of such a framework heuristics, classifications, and systematics; they provide insight into the quality of term disentanglement and can be viewed hierarchically: heuristics do not (necessarily) satisfy any quality criteria, classifications adhere to analytical quality criteria, and systematics also meet empirical quality criteria. The six quality criteria through which the quality of a CSR can be made explicit are introduced to allow for professional scrutiny and critique. It is argued that making conceptual elements of systematic reviews explicit is especially relevant in the field of educational research. Finally, we discuss the relation of the CSR to similar methods and address weaknesses in the proposed framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genetic relatedness figures heavily in contemporary ethical debates on egg freezing, although the arguments lack empirical‐based evidence. Rather than adding another theoretical view on the moral relevance of genetic connections, this paper instead proposes an empirically grounded perspective based on two independent qualitative interview‐based studies conducted in Belgium and France. Three themes emerge from our empirical data: (1) prioritizing family building; (2) centering the gestational experience of motherhood; and (3) identifying the complexities and limitations of adoption. These themes suggest that the relationship between egg freezing, genetics, biological motherhood, and adoption is highly complex and less straightforward than what is often assumed in the egg freezing debate. Our study provides more detailed insights into women's ambivalent experiences regarding those reproductive options. We discuss the ethical implications of our empirical findings and hold that pursuing genetic desire is not necessarily the main moral reason why women freeze their eggs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Canada, in the early 2000s, the decriminalization of cannabis for recreational use seemed imminent. Between 2003 and 2005, three government decriminalization bills were introduced in the Canadian House of Commons, but none were adopted, and decriminalization efforts were abandoned. Subsequently, Canada went beyond decriminalization and legalized recreational cannabis in 2018. This paper examines why the Canadian decriminalization efforts failed, using the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) and ACF policy change theory. Three ACF-based hypotheses to explain the failed reform attempts are developed and investigated, but none are empirically supported. A fourth hypothesis is developed using information processing insights from Punctuated Equilibrium Theory (PET) but adapted to the ACF. This hypothesis is empirically supported showing that Canada's decriminalization efforts failed, despite a supportive advocacy coalition, favourable conditions in the cannabis policy subsystem and favourable conditions in the Canadian political system, because its systemic advocates did not give it priority relative to other issues from other subsystems. This finding has implications for ACF policy change theory, identifying a necessary condition for major policy change that has been potentially overlooked, and illustrates the potential for cross-fertilization between PET and ACF theories of policy change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1980's, the growing involvement of private consultancy firms in the public sector worldwide has instigated concerns about the outsourcing of public policy advising to market-driven actors. Although these firms participate in spreading policy ideas, their roles have not received sustained attention, despite being observed by a few scholars. Against this background, the aim of this paper is threefold. First, from established policy concepts relating to policy diffusion, we identify the potential roles that consultancy firms may take on in spreading policy ideas. Second, we use a systematic literature review to collect and distil what is currently known about what different roles consultancy firms fulfil, and what kinds of tensions arise in their interactions with both clients and other actors. Third, we draft an agenda for future research on consultancy firms' impact in governance processes. To focus our study, our review hones in on environmental governance, more specifically water governance, a significant area of activity for such firms where they play an important in-between role in providing policy ideas. We found indications that consultancy firms possess six types of capabilities (trusted facilitators, reactors to environmental policies, shapers of environmental policies, market drivers, interest navigators, and managers of public participation), and face various dilemmas around biases, decontextualized global practices, market interests, and manipulative practices. We conclude that more attention should be given to empirically refining capabilities involved in shaping policies and markets and to further highlighting how consultancy firms impact the diffusion of governance ideas in and beyond the water and environmental sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although tourism researchers have begun to explore the behavioral effects of envy, there has been limited empirical research on the effects of benign and malicious envies on conspicuous consumption intention in tourism. Based on the integration of cognitive appraisal theory, compensation theory, and self-control resource theory, using two scenario-based questionnaires, this paper applies structural relational and mediation analyses to explore the effects of benign and malicious envies on conspicuous travel consumption intention. The results indicate that benign envy can directly positively influence conspicuous consumption intention, and also can indirectly rely on self-enhancement motivation positively, thereby influencing conspicuous consumption intention. However, malicious envy cannot directly influence conspicuous consumption intention. This envy needs to rely on self-enhancement motivation to have an indirect negative influence and rely on weakened self-control to have an indirect but positive influence. The important theoretical and practical implications of these findings are then discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over recent decades there has been growing interest in amplifying children and young people's views (CYP) within policy debates. Despite this, they are rarely invited to participate in key policy‐making discussions, and when they are, this tends to be tokenistic. This paper presents an intergenerational methodological framework 'The Causeway Approach', inspired by the mythology of the Giant's Causeway, which addresses the challenge of CYP's voices being drowned out by adult stakeholders. This contextualised approach has significant potential to benefit CYP and communities through capacity building, strengthening of social capital and fostering intergenerational connections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on empirical evidence from a 3‐year research project in Northern Uganda examining the educational experiences of refugees with disabilities. The authors present the compounded and interrelated challenges children with disabilities and their families face as they navigate their educational experiences and seek out opportunities to live well. The authors seek to make a contribution towards improving educational experiences by first highlighting compounding challenges faced by refugee children living with disabilities and their families and related policy gaps that have ramifications for refugee children's access to education in particular, and second by expanding discourse about refugee children with disabilities agency in relation to these liminal gaps and the impact the gaps have for accessing education. The authors use Powell and McGrath's (in Skills for human development: Transforming vocational education and training, Routledge, 2019; Handbook of vocational education and training, Springer, 2019) concept of critical capabilities and relationality, to expand Klocker's (in Global perspectives on rural childhood and youth: Young rural lives, Routledge, 2007) notions of thick and thin agency and to interrogate refugee children living with disabilities' agency in relation to education opportunities and rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]