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Providing accessible audiovisual content which caters for diverse user needs is one of the challenges of today’s digitized society. Easy-to-understand language is currently being explored as a powerful tool to foster accessibility among different user groups, including persons with cognitive disabilities and reading difficulties. Audio description is an access service that provides an aural translation of visuals for those who cannot access the images in audiovisual content. This paper discusses whether audio description could incorporate the principles of easy-to-understand language in order to produce easy-to-understand audio descriptions by focusing on the Catalan working context. Specifically, the paper reports on a survey distributed among experts in Easy-to-Read and Plain Language in Catalonia and a focus group which brought together audio description and Easy-to-Read experts working in Catalonia to discuss the feasibility and potential means of implementation of an easy-to-understand audio description. Both research actions were undertaken in the framework of the EASIT project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Catalana de Dret Públic is the property of Revista Catalana de Dret Public and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Estudios sobre el Mensaje Periodistico is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Accuracy tops most of the codes of ethics for public service interpreting. This dominant position is not accidental, since the lack of truth in the transmission of the message may entail a violation of the users' and providers' fundamental right to truth. In Catalonia, where intercultural mediators have taken on the role of interpreters for many years, the issue of accuracy becomes even more complex due to their dual roles as professional mediators and non-professional interpreters. Drawing on more than four hours of video recordings and post-task interviews with study participants, this paper analyzes the accuracy of five intercultural mediators working with Arabic, Spanish, and Catalan when in the role of interpreter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Memoria y Civilizacion is the property of Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Navarra, S.A. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The traditional pottery industry was an important activity in Catalonia (NE Spain) up to the 20th century. However, nowadays only few workshops persist in small villages were the activity is promoted as a touristic attraction. The preservation and promotion of traditional pottery in Catalonia is part of an ongoing strategy of tourism diversification that is revitalizing the sector. The production of authenticable local pottery handicrafts aims at attracting cultivated and high-purchasing power tourists. The present paper inspects several approaches to set up a scientific protocol based on the chemical composition of both raw materials and pottery. These could be used to develop a seal of quality and provenance to regulate the sector. Six Catalan villages with a renowned tradition of local pottery production have been selected. The chemical composition of their clays and the corresponding fired products has been obtained by Energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF). Using the obtained geochemical dataset, a number of unsupervised and supervised machine learning methods have been applied to test their applicability to define geochemical fingerprints that could allow inter-site discrimination. The unsupervised approach fails to distinguish samples from different provenances. These methods are only roughly able to divide the different provenances in two large groups defined by their different SiO2 and CaCO3 concentrations. In contrast, almost all the tested supervised methods allow inter-site discrimination with accuracy levels above 80%, and accuracies above 85% were obtained using a meta-model combining all the predictive supervised methods. The obtained results can be taken as encouraging and demonstrative of the potential of the supervised approach as a way to define geochemical fingerprints to track or attest the provenance of samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Loggia, Arquitectura & Restauración is the property of Universidad Politecnica de Valencia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Didáctica. Lengua y Literatura is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Quaderns de Politiques Familiars. Revista de l'Institut d'Estudis Superiors de la Família is the property of Institut d Estudis Superiors de la Familia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

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Copyright of Revista de Investigación Lingüística is the property of Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Murcia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Medievalismo is the property of Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Murcia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Futuro del Pasado: Revista Electrónica de Historia is the property of Futuro del Pasado: Revista Electronica de Historia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista General de Información y Documentación is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper introduces a special issue on the Tutte polynomial derived from the Second Workshop on Tutte Polynomials and Applications, 2005, held at the Centre de Recerca Matemàtica, Bellaterra, Catalonia. We discuss the prehistory of Tutte polynomials and two current areas of research, to what extent a graph is determined by its chromatic or Tutte polynomial and generic versions of Tutte polynomials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the existing literature on industrial location by discussing the territorial levels that are used in location analysis. We use data for new manufacturing firms and analyse the advantages and disadvantages of performing location analyses at three levels: municipality, county and travel-to-work areas. We show that location determinants vary according to the territorial level used in the analysis and conclude that the level at which the investigation is performed should be carefully selected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alternaria and Cladosporium are the most common airborne fungal spores responsible for health problems, as well as for crop pathologies. The study of their behavior in the air is a necessary step for establishing control and prevention measures. The aim of this paper is to develop a logistic regression model for predicting the daily concentrations of airborne Alternaria and Cladosporium fungal spores from meteorological variables. To perform the logistic regression analysis, the concentration levels are binarized using concentration thresholds. The fungal spore data have been obtained at eight aerobiological monitoring stations of the Aerobiological Network of Catalonia (NE Spain). The meteorological data used were the maximum and minimum daily temperatures and daily rainfall provided by the meteorological services. The relationship between the meteorological variables and the fungal spore levels has been modeled by means of logistic regression equations, using data from the period 1995–2012. Values from years 2013–2014 were used for validation. In the case of Alternaria, three equations for predicting the presence and the exceedance of the thresholds 10 and 30 spores/m3 have been established. For Cladosporium, four equations for the thresholds 200, 500, 1000, and 1500 spores/m3 have been established. The temperature and cumulative rainfall in the last 3 days showed a positive correlation with airborne fungal spore levels, while the rain on the same day had a negative correlation. Sensitivity and specificity were calculated to measure the predictive power of the model, showing a reasonable percentage of correct predictions (ranging from 48 to 99%). The simple equations proposed allow us to forecast the levels of fungal spores that will be in the air the next day, using only the maximum and minimum temperatures and rainfall values provided by weather forecasting services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of sociopolitical instability on the peer-to-peer market for tourist accommodation. Design/methodology/approach: The author studies for the case of Barcelona the impacts of the events occurring in the past months of 2017, which consisted of a terrorist attack and the calling for a referendum on the independence of Catalonia, by fitting a fixed effects regression model to a data panel of Airbnb listings, using New York and Paris as a control group. Findings: The results show that, after controlling for individual and time effects, listing reviews and revenues fall in the last quarter of 2017 and do not recover until the second quarter of the next year, in spite of a notable effort to decrease prices in the same period. They also indicate that peer-to-peer hosts react fast to demand shocks and as those from traditional markets. Originality/value: This is the first study to evaluate the impact of terrorism or political uncertainty in the peer-to-peer market and the first to evaluate their combined effect in any market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flooding is one of the main natural hazards in the world and causes huge economic and human impacts. Assessing the flood damage in the Mediterranean region is of great importance, especially because of its large vulnerability to climate change. Most past floods affecting the region were caused by intense precipitation events; thus the analysis of the links between precipitation and flood damage is crucial. The main objective of this paper is to estimate changes in the probability of damaging flood events with global warming of 1.5, 2 and 3 ∘ C above pre-industrial levels and taking into account different socioeconomic scenarios in two western Mediterranean regions, namely Catalonia and the Valencian Community. To do this, we analyse the relationship between heavy precipitation and flood-damage estimates from insurance datasets in those two regions. We consider an ensemble of seven regional climate model (RCM) simulations spanning the period 1976–2100 to evaluate precipitation changes and to drive a logistic model that links precipitation and flood-damage estimates, thus deriving statistics under present and future climates. Furthermore, we incorporate population projections based on five different socioeconomic scenarios. The results show a general increase in the probability of a damaging event for most of the cases and in both regions of study, with larger increments when higher warming is considered. Moreover, this increase is higher when both climate and population change are included. When population is considered, all the periods and models show a clearly higher increase in the probability of damaging events, which is statistically significant for most of the cases. Our findings highlight the need for limiting global warming as much as possible as well as the importance of including variables that consider change in both climate and socioeconomic conditions in the analysis of flood damage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista d'Estudis Autonòmics i Federals is the property of Revista d'Estudis Autonomics i Federals and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista d'Estudis Autonòmics i Federals is the property of Revista d'Estudis Autonomics i Federals and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Gunflints represent a worldwide feature of lithic technology in modern times. This type of artefact was used to ignite the powder of firearms through a flintlock mechanism from the middle-seventeenth to the early-twentieth century in different contexts around the world. Taking what is a novel and exploratory approach in historical archaeology, this paper offers a quantitative analysis of a random sample of 200 unused gunflints recovered from the British shipwreck Deltebre I. This cargo ship belonged to an allied convoy that unsuccessfully tried to liberate Tarragona city from the Napoleonic forces, and sunk in the Ebro river delta, Catalonia, Spain, in 1813. The results from size and shape characterisation of the unused gunflints using geometric morphometric methods are presented. In order to assess morphometric variation between used and unused artefacts, this sample was compared with published images of 22 used British gunflints from different archaeological contexts. Finally, the usefulness of applied methodology to quantitatively characterise the design and morphometric variations of this kind of artefacts is highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Regional Science Policy & Practice is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Regional Science Policy & Practice is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper provides evidence on the effectiveness in the implementation of an educational program which offered public schools in Catalonia (Spain) the opportunity to improve the quality of educational provision. We employ a difference-in-differences approach on rich balanced panel data of public schools. The results confirm that the program did effectively improve students' achievement and reduce absenteeism, albeit not for all modules and school types or across all years. Our results highlight that it is important to condition the delivery of resources upon specific academic goals depending on the characteristics of the treated population. Additionally, program results suggest the need to enhance educational program design in order to get better evaluation feedback. Abbreviations: DoE: Department of Education; EU: European Union; PMQCE: Projecte per a la Millora de la Qualitat dels Centres Educatius; DiD: Differences-in-Differences; SFDC: Schools Facing Disadvantaged Conditions; OECD: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development; REA: Regional Educational Authority [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In studies concerned with sustainability the underlying models are, in most cases, not strictly numerical since they depend on many conditions that can be regarded as qualitative. In this paper, a model to evaluate citizens' satisfaction learnt from data collected from a survey is presented. The model, which involves the use of RBF neural networks, will provide local councillors with useful information, enabling them to evaluate trends and improve strategies focused on enhancing sustainability. In this paper a contribution describing a practical experience with a model-based system applied to a study commissioned by the town council of Vilanova i la Geltrú (Catalonia, Spain) is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of the parliamentary simulation project that arose from the joint efforts of the University and the Parliament of Catalonia. We analyse the advantages of using this method in motivating the students to learn parliamentary constitutional law, and the impact it has on improving the links between the legal education system and the political institutions. Parliament is one of the basic institutions of our political and democratic system, and also one of the topics in the subject of constitutional law. Therefore, a theoretical knowledge of parliamentary proceedings is traditionally acquired within the classroom. However, the parliamentary system has evolved and it has progressively become more technically complex. This means that students perceive both the institution and its peculiar rules, the parliamentary proceedings, as distant, obsolete, excessively rigid or even absurd; to sum up, they are alien to the students' everyday world. Furthermore, a comprehensive learning scheme also requires student to participate actively, so that they can develop such skills as teamwork, the immediate analysis of actual conflicts, the ability to react, to argue and to make a coherent speech, etc. In this context, parliamentary simulation is an excellent instrument for drawing students closer to the highest representative institution in our country, for it allows them to act like real MPs for a week. Not only do they use the same juridical tools and the same skills as the politicians do, they also use them in the same real scenario, that is, in the Parliament Buildings of the Catalan Assembly. Consequently, the students experience how Parliament works and understand the need for the rules governing its functioning and the reason behind the proceedings. In this way they acquire a comprehensive vision of the Catalan political panorama and parliamentary dynamics, and are prepared to become better citizens. Our paper focuses first on the programme of activities organized during the academic year and the goals of each one: these activities include guided visits to both regional and national parliamentary institutions; meetings with MPs, in which students share the political agenda of the chosen MPs for one day; and the assistance and participation in radio talk shows and interviews. Second, the paper describes the actual simulation, which took place in building of the Catalan Parliament, during the first week of July. Finally it ends with some conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to identify the factors with the greatest influence on the changeover process and to quantify how company policy and traits have informed currency adoption. Special attention is given to the role of the public sector in facilitating the currency changeover process. With this aim, we estimate different logit models using micro data from three data surveys, from 1999, 2000, and 2001, taken from a representative sample of eurozone firms located in Catalonia, Spain. The findings of the paper clearly underline the role of the public sector in the success of the changeover process and provide policy advice for countries in the process of acceding to the European Union and, subsequently, to the eurozone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents econometric evidence of the effects of knowledge capital and institutions on technology transfer funding. A model is proposed and fitted for 31 research units on agricultural, forestry, and food sciences in Catalonia, Spain from 1990 to 1996. We find a strong impact of knowledge capital and institutional variables on technology transfer funding. Considering administrative costs strengthens the main points of the model and in some cases greatly changes the results. In particular, we reject the hypothesis that administrative costs do not matter. We also find evidence of the existence of free-rider strategies and that increasing returns-to-scale economies exist when bidding for technology transfer funding. (JEL Q10) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Commuting exists because an important fraction of workers in developed countries do not live close to their workplaces, but at long distances from them, so that they must travel to their jobs and then back home daily. This paper studies commuting in Catalonia (a Spanish region) for the 1986-91 period. We introduce the main facts of commuting in Catalonia by a descriptive analysis using several statistical methods, first on its sectoral side (de-composing the Catalonian economy into 24 sectors), then on its territorial side (dividing Catalonia in 16 homogeneous territorial units called regions) and an analysis of the professional categories. Then, we comment briefly on the theory of residential location, which provides us with the theoretical framework needed for the study of commuting. The last part of the paper consists of an estimation of commuting using a logit model with individual data from the 1991 Spanish Population Census, in order to select the most relevant variables and estimate their effect on commuting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Zenith sky brightness maps in the V and B bands of the region of Catalonia are presented in this paper. • The maps have been created using the light pollution numerical model Illumina v2. • The methodology was tested successfully by comparing simulated values to measurements. • The resulting maps have been compared to the zenith sky brightness world atlas and also to Sky Quality Meter (SQM) dynamic measurements. Zenith sky brightness maps in the V and B bands of the region of Catalonia are presented in this paper. For creating them we have used the light pollution numerical model Illumina v2. The maps have a sampling of 5 × 5 km for the whole region with an improved resolution of 1 × 1 km for one of the provinces within Catalonia, Tarragona. Before creating the final maps, the methodology was tested successfully by comparing the computed values to measurements in nineteen different locations spread out throughout the territory. The resulting maps have been compared to the zenith sky brightness world atlas and also to Sky Quality Meter (SQM) dynamic measurements. When comparing to measurements we found small differences mainly due to mismatching in the location of the points studied, and also due to differences in the natural sky brightness and atmospheric content. In the comparison to the world atlas some differences were expected as we are taking into account the blocking effect of topography and obstacles, and also due to a more precise light sources characterization. The results of this work confirm the conclusion found in other studies that the minimum sampling for studying sky brightness fine details is of 1 × 1 km. However, a sampling of 5 × 5 km is interesting when studying general trends, mainly for vast areas, due to the reduction of the time required to create the maps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the built environment is among the main contributing sectors to climate change, it is needed to investigate new paradigms to push decarbonization efforts towards the ambitious objectives defined internationally. It is a shared understanding that shifting the perspective from the single building to the district perspective is required to fully take into consideration the complexity of all interactions undergoing within the built environment, thus the concept of Positive Energy District emerged as a district with annual net zero energy import and net zero CO 2 emission working towards an annual local surplus production of renewable energy. In this framework, this paper explores the investigation of the potential for achieving the level of Positive Energy District in a group of non-residential buildings in Balaguer, Catalonia, Spain. These buildings, occupying 8,825 m2 in the city centre, require significant refurbishment for improved energy performance. The analysis includes building energy modelling and simulation, renovation studies, several alternative balance calculations, and carbon emissions assessment. The paper also considers mobility and embodied energy and their impact on energy/carbon balances. The results show that Positive Energy Districts carbon and primary energy balances are not met with rooftop PV installations when retrofitting an existing district towards the Positive energy target but further significant PV areas (roughly + 50%) are required to meet merely the use stage balances: negative results are traced when mobility and embodied energy are computed. A formulation alternative to the simple mathematical balance to facilitate the diffusion of Positive Energy District as catalyst of urban decarbonisation could be needed, including context factors and alternative systems (e.g., rating systems). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Education Policy Analysis Archives / Archivos Analíticos de Políticas Educativas / Arquivos Analíticos de Políticas Educativas is the property of Educational Policy Analysis Archives & Education Review and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper focuses on Northern Catalonia, a territory ceded to France by Spain through the signing of the Treaty of Pyrenees in 1659. The focus is placed not only on the demography and the number of speakers using the Catalan language in Northern Catalonia but also on the linguistic politics and the use of the Catalan language in various areas of social life, especially in education. The school plays the most important role in the revitalization of the Catalan language, and without its active contribution, it is not possible to restore bilingualism in French Catalonia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research in first (L1) and second language (L2) acquisition has provided evidence that linguistic confidence is a key construct that can explain linguistic behaviour. In this paper, we apply previous research in the socio-contextual model of L2 learning to data from Catalonia. More specifically, the paper investigates linguistic confidence towards Catalan and Spanish by students in Catalonia for a period of 5 years, that is, from their last year of primary education to their last year of secondary education. The methodology for the longitudinal study was based on a survey on linguistic confidence in Catalan and Spanish and other sociolinguistic and demographic information by students in five different locations in Catalonia. The results of the study show evidence that (a) linguistic confidence is very high for Catalan and Spanish; (b) there is a relationship between confidence in Spanish and Catalan and the students’ L1; and (c) over time linguistic confidence in both languages increases. These results are discussed in light of current discussions on the stable or dynamic nature of linguistic confidence. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Despite the well-known educational possibilities afforded byRhythm And Poetry(RAP) for the development of musical, lyrical and critical skills [Morrell, E., & Duncan-Andrade, J. M. R. (2002). Promoting Academic Literacy with Urban Youth through Engaging Hip-hop Culture.The English Journal, 91(6), 88–92. Retrieved fromhttp://www.jstor.org/stable/821822; Hill, M. L. (2009).Beats, Rhymes, and Classroom Life: Hip Hop Pedagogy and the Politics of Identity. New York, NY: Teachers College Press; Low, B. E. (2011).Slam School: Learning Through Conflict in the Hip-Hop and Spoken Word Classroom. Chicago, IL: Stanford University Press], it remains a lyrical genre often excluded from Catalan secondary education. This paper focuses on a four-day series of rap workshops given in 2012 by a famous local Catalan rap artist in a multicultural and multilingual state school in Catalonia. It analyses the impact that the workshops had, above all in terms of classroom engagement, linguistic empowerment and textual ‘agency’ [Moje, E. B., & Lewis, C. (2007). Examining Opportunities to Learn Literacy: The role of critical sociocultural literacy research. In E. B. Moje, C. Lewis, & P. Enciso (Eds.),Reframing sociocultural research on literacy: identity, agency and power(pp. 15–48). Mahwah, N. J.: Lawrence Erlbaum], on a range of students with varying degrees of command of the Catalan language and with different degrees of experience with rap music. Through the classroom activity described herein, we show the pedagogical opportunities that rap music offers as a hybrid text in-between oral and written codes that makes it a powerful vehicle for self-expression, whilst enabling the acknowledgement of real uses of languages and genres related to the cultural practices of urban students, in the classroom. In particular, we argue that bridging Catalan rap culture to the goals of the school curriculum, especially in highly multilingual and multicultural school contexts, helps to promote the socialisation of the Catalan language in and beyond the school. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The topic of the internationalisation of academia has recently attracted attention from sociolinguists and language-policy scholars. In this paper, we compare two different universities from two contrasting contexts in Europe in order to find out more about their projected stance [Jaffe, A. (2009). Stance in a Corsican School: Institutional and Ideological Orders and the production of Bilingual Subjects. In A. Jaffe (Ed.),Stance: Sociolinguistic perspectives(pp. 119–145). New York, NY: Oxford University Press] and attitudes towards the different languages present in their immediate contexts. In particular, we compare the University of Tartu (Estonia) with the University of Lleida (Catalonia, Spain), analysing several key parameters. The purpose of the comparison is to contrast, from a sociolinguistic point of view, the higher education setting of two medium-sized language contexts in Europe [Vila, F. X., & Bretxa, V. (Eds.). (2015).Language policy in higher education. The case of medium-sized languages. Bristol: Multilingual Matters] with different demolinguistic and language political features. The results show that both institutions adopt a similar stance in connection to their respective national language (a protectionist attitude), but they take different approaches towards the other societal language and English. We read these differences in light of the broader historical and socio-political backgrounds, which we suggest are reflected in the microcosm of the universities here analysed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Historia Agraria is the property of Historia Agraria and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article examines the demographic impact of the phylloxera crisis on the Penedès wine-growing region in Catalonia, Spain, during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It analyzes population changes in the region's municipalities before, during, and after the crisis, focusing on migration patterns and birth rates to understand the socio-economic repercussions of the pest on the viticultural community.

During the warm months of the year in Catalonia, the marine air overcomes the coastal mountain range and reaches the eastern Ebro sub-basin. This phenomenon is called marinada and has recently been thoroughly characterized for the first time by , based on surface climatological data. However, the main physical mechanisms involved in its arrival and propagation remain to be discovered. This study aims to understand how the marinada is formed and how it interacts with the already developed atmospheric boundary layer. Surface and atmospheric observations are used in combination with the coupled surface–atmosphere model Meso-NH to reveal the mechanisms at play. It is shown that the marinada is generated by the advection of a cool marine air mass over the Catalan Pre-coastal Range by the action of the sea breeze and the upslope wind. This marine air mass then flows into the Ebro basin, creating what is known as the marinada. The characteristics and dynamics of the marinada allow it to be classified as a fall wind. It is also shown that the arrival, propagation and decay of the marinada is strongly dependent on the larger-scale weather situation: westerlies or thermal low. The current study provides a consistent framework for understanding the marinada, paving the way for better modeling and prediction of the phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Water-scarce regions, like the Mediterranean, face worsening conditions due to climate change, intensifying pressure on key economic sectors such as hydropower. Additionally, environmental conservation policies, particularly the implementation of environmental flows, present challenges for hydropower systems. Certainty regarding the impact of these factors on future hydropower production is crucial for informed decision-making in the transition to sustainable energy. This study introduces S + HydPower, a tool coupled with SWAT+ to assess climate change and watershed management effects on small hydropower plant (SHP) systems. In this study, we used this tool to investigate the consequences of implementing environmental flows and climate change on run-of-river SHPs in the Catalan River Basin District (CRBD), in Catalonia. The results show that applying environmental flows would lead to a significant 27% reduction in SHP production. However, this reduction would represent only 0.25% of the region's current energy demand. Furthermore, the study reveals a potential 38% to 73% reduction in SHP production by the end of the twenty-first century due to the combined effects of environmental flows and climate change. This suggests a substantial decline in run-of-river SHP's contribution to the CRBD's electricity supply. These findings emphasize the need to explore alternative and sustainable energy sources to ensure the long-term reliability and resilience of the region's energy supply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are secessionisms from and within the EU comparable? What motivates them and to what extent do they pose similar challenges to EU territorial governance? This article addresses these questions by comparing the framing of the British Leave campaign and the Catalan independence movement. Drawing on the FraTerr database and method, the analysis suggests that secessionism from the EU and secessionism within the EU are different political phenomena despite sharing an emphasis on sovereignty and the common goal of breaking-up from an existing polity. Secessionism from the EU is primarily a call for the recovery of lost sovereignty and of classical functions of the state such as border control. Secessionism within the EU invokes sovereignty as the right to external self-determination and adds narratives around a better future and greater democratic quality and social justice. These two types of secessionism pose different challenges to EU territorial governance because the first entails a full rejection of the European project while the latter calls for a review of European multi-level governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustainable, integrated, and representative management of water is one of the main challenges faced by governments worldwide, especially where water resources are not abundant, such as the Ebro River basin in Spain. The Spanish state has granted powers in matters related to water that has adhered river basins. The main objective of this study is to examine the specific case of water management in Catalonia, a region within the Ebro basin, through literature review and interviews conducted with key informants in water organizations operating in Catalonia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patients with cancer were excluded from pivotal randomized clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccine products, and available observational evidence on vaccine effectiveness (VE) focused mostly on mild, and not severe COVID-19, which is the ultimate goal of vaccination for high-risk groups. Here, using primary care electronic health records from Catalonia, Spain (SIDIAP), we built two large cohorts of vaccinated and matched control cancer patients with a primary vaccination scheme (n = 184,744) and a booster (n = 108,534). Most patients received a mRNA-based product in primary (76.2%) and booster vaccination (99.9%). Patients had 51.8% (95% CI 40.3%−61.1%) and 58.4% (95% CI 29.3%−75.5%) protection against COVID-19 hospitalization and COVID-19 death respectively after full vaccination (two-doses) and 77.9% (95% CI 69.2%−84.2%) and 80.2% (95% CI 63.0%−89.4%) after booster. Compared to primary vaccination, the booster dose provided higher peak protection during follow-up. Calibration of VE estimates with negative outcomes, and sensitivity analyses with slight different population and COVID-19 outcomes definitions provided similar results. Our results confirm the role of primary and booster COVID-19 vaccination in preventing COVID-19 severe events in patients with cancer and highlight the need for the additional dose in this population. Observational studies are needed to understand the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines in groups not included in randomised controlled trials, such as patients with cancer. Here, the authors estimate effectiveness of COVID-19 primary and booster vaccine doses in individuals in Catalonia, Spain using primary care data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-sectional energy benchmarking in the building domain has become crucial for policymakers, energy managers and property owners as they can compare an immovable property performance against its closest peers. For this, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are formulated, often relying on multiple and heterogeneous data sources which, combined, can be used to set benchmarks following normalization criteria. Geographically delimited parameters are important among these criteria because they enclose entities sharing key common characteristics the geometrical boundaries represent. Linking georeferenced heterogeneous data is not trivial, for it requires geographical aggregation, which is often taken for granted or hidden within a pre-processing activity in most energy benchmarking studies. In this article, a novel approach for Linked Data (LD) generation is presented as a methodological solution for data integration together with its application in the energy benchmarking use case. The methodology consists of eight phases that follow the best principles and recommend standards including the well-known GeoSPARQL Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) for leveraging the geographical aggregation. Its feasibility is demonstrated by the integrated exploitation of INSPIRE-formatted cadastral data and the Buildings Performance Certifications (BPCs) available for the Catalonia region in Spain. The outcomes of this research support the adoption of the proposed methodology and provide the means for generating cross-sectional building energy benchmarking histograms from any-scale geographical aggregations on the fly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the major challenges for edu-communication research is to analyze the influence of social media on young and adolescent users. This article examines the evaluation of gender inequalities - real and symbolic - in the consumption of social networks such as YouTube and Instagram among young people. Within the framework of a Research & Development & innovation (R&D + i) project, it presents a discursive-theoretical analysis of how young users of social media perceive the presence and representation of gender on social media and whether such digital representations can be associated with an empowering gender perspective. This study presents results from 14 focus groups (N = 83), composed of students aged 12 to 18, drawn from three Spanish Autonomous Communities (Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and the Basque Country). The results show that gender issues arise in participants' conversations, especially among female participants, who perceive the importance of physical appearance on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok. Female participants feel more pressure in terms of appearance and dress compared to male participants. Among male participants there are more expressions of self-affirmation and more mentions related to fun and social prestige. Both male and female participants express concern about the impact of that pressure on younger girls. The influence of social media on self-image is more evident among female participants, who make frequent mention of the importance of self-esteem in relation to beauty standards and exposure to idealized body images. Notably, there were no comments by male participants that acknowledge any influence of social media on their self-image. The findings are in line with existing research and taken as a whole gives rise to concern as to the gender disparities observed in the use of social media, which do not constitute a picture of female empowerment. This research underlines the importance of promoting a respectful and equitable environment in relation to gender equality within digital spaces. Thus, this study provides support for the need to develop and implement edu-communicative initiatives to foster critical thinking around the influence of social media in this context and the evaluation of the impact of such initiatives in future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]