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This study provides a systematic literature review of research in the field of teaching and learning mathematics through Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), Content-Based Instruction (CBI), and English Medium Instruction (EMI). The review aims to examine the most relevant literature with a focus on mathematics and CLIL, CBI, or EMI in Scopus and Web of Science per the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews (PRISMA) guidelines. Based on 151 sources, 52 papers were selected according to predefined selection criteria. The papers were analysed and coded according to the following categories: (1) geographical productivity, (2) diachronic productivity growth, (3) main objectives, (4) methodology, and research design, (5) variables and measurement instruments, (6) context and sample details, and (7) main findings. The results reveal that most of the research analysed has been carried out in the Asian continent, followed by Europe. The analysis of diachronic productivity shows that the study of the application of CLIL, CBI, and EMI programs in the teaching-learning process of mathematics has notably increased in recent years, especially in the last triennium (2020–2022). Regarding the objectives of the selected corpus, the majority aimed at teaching practices and learning processes, and outcomes in mathematics and language proficiency in CLIL, CBI, and/or EMI classrooms. The corpus analysed fits within one or more of the following categories: empirical, qualitative, descriptive, correlational, and cross-sectional. The samples utilized in different studies differ significantly, both in terms of quantity –ranging from one person to 700– and in the educational level being studied, which would be primary, secondary, or tertiary education. The main variables studied in the corpus focus on mathematical competence, language proficiency, teaching practices, teacher training, science competence, and teachers' perceptions. The most widely used instruments have been objective tests, such as questionnaires, together with standardized tests to measure some aspects related to mathematical competence and language proficiency. They are followed by an analysis of documents (academic records, teaching materials, official documents...), participant or non-participant observation, interviews, and video and audio recordings. In summary, in the scientific literature analysed, a positive or neutral view predominates on the effects of the CLIL, CBI, and EMI approaches on the learning of mathematics and the L2. This can be due to methodological issues fundamentally related to the methodology, research design, sample, and measurement instruments. Thus, we must highlight that some of the results from the selected papers must be interpreted with caution. Taking this factor into consideration, further comparative studies on a wider scale are required to examine thoroughly the effects of CLIL, CBI, and EMI on the teaching and learning of mathematics in an L2. Besides, it is important to study in greater depth the different levels of language acquisition since the research analysed shows that these have not been sufficiently addressed in the mathematical field of knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we present a new construction of evaluation codes in the Hamming metric, which we call twisted Reed–Solomon codes. Whereas Reed–Solomon (RS) codes are MDS codes, this need not be the case for twisted RS codes. Nonetheless, we show that our construction yields several families of MDS codes. Further, for a large subclass of (MDS) twisted RS codes, we show that the new codes are not generalized RS codes. To achieve this, we use properties of Schur squares of codes as well as an explicit description of the dual of a large subclass of our codes. We conclude the paper with a description of a decoder, that performs very well in practice as shown by extensive simulation results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many countries have some kind of energy-system transformation either planned or ongoing for various reasons, such as to curb carbon emissions or to compensate for the phasing out of nuclear energy. One important component of these transformations is the overall reduction in energy demand. It is generally acknowledged that the domestic sector represents a large share of total energy consumption in many countries. Increased energy efficiency is one factor that reduces energy demand, but behavioral approaches (known as “sufficiency”) and their respective interventions also play important roles. In this paper, we address citizens’ heterogeneity regarding both their current behaviors and their willingness to realize their sufficiency potentials—that is, to reduce their energy consumption through behavioral change. We collaborated with three Swiss cities for this study. A survey conducted in the three cities yielded thematic sets of energy-consumption behavior that various groups of participants rated differently. Using this data, we identified four groups of participants with different patterns of both current behaviors and sufficiency potentials. The paper discusses intervention types and addresses citizens’ heterogeneity and behaviors from a city-based perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outcomes of bargaining over losses, the subject of this paper, have rarely been studied. But experimental studies of related situations, such as those involving bankruptcies or bequests in which the sum of the legal claims that can be made against a bank or firm or estate are greater than their values, have produced strong support for the proportionality principle. To test whether this principle would find support in other situations involving losses we designed an experimental game in which four players start out with differing initial endowments of real money. They are then informed that a certain amount of this resource has to be given back to the experimenter. How should the loss be shared among the agents? This game was run at different locations and under different treatments over a period of almost three years. We found that the proportionality principle was rarely proposed and even less frequently accepted as a solution to this problem. One of the main reasons for this result was that the two players with the smallest endowments opposed most of the proposals which asked them to contribute at least some positive amount of their own initial resource. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecoregionalization is the process by which a territory is classified in similar areas according to specific environmental and climatic factors. The climate and the environment strongly influence the presence and distribution of vectors responsible for significant human and animal diseases worldwide. In this paper, we developed a map of the eco-climatic regions of Italy adopting a data-driven spatial clustering approach using recent and detailed spatial data on climatic and environmental factors. We selected seven variables, relevant for a broad set of human and animal vector-borne diseases (VBDs): standard deviation of altitude, mean daytime land surface temperature, mean amplitude and peak timing of the annual cycle of land surface temperature, mean and amplitude of the annual cycle of greenness value, and daily mean amount of rainfall. Principal Component Analysis followed by multivariate geographic clustering using the k-medoids technique were used to group the pixels with similar characteristics into different ecoregions, and at different spatial resolutions (250 m, 1 km and 2 km). We showed that the spatial structure of ecoregions is generally maintained at different spatial resolutions and we compared the resulting ecoregion maps with two datasets related to Bluetongue vectors and West Nile Disease (WND) outbreaks in Italy. The known characteristics of Culicoides imicola habitat were well captured by 2/22 specific ecoregions (at 250 m resolution). Culicoides obsoletus/scoticus occupy all sampled ecoregions, according to its known widespread distribution across the peninsula. WND outbreak locations strongly cluster in 4/22 ecoregions, dominated by human influenced landscape, with intense cultivations and complex irrigation network. This approach could be a supportive tool in case of VBDs, defining pixel-based areas that are conducive environment for VBD spread, indicating where surveillance and prevention measures could be prioritized in Italy. Also, ecoregions suitable to specific VBDs vectors could inform entomological surveillance strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This paper focuses on the issue of intimate partner violence and, specifically, on the distribution of femicides over time and the existence of copycat effects. This is the subject of an ongoing debate often triggered by the social alarm following multiple intimate partner homicides (IPHs) occurring in a short span of time. The aim of this research is to study the evolution of IPHs and provide a far-reaching answer by rigorously analyzing and searching for patterns in data on femicides. Methods: The study analyzes an official dataset, provided by the system VioGén of the Secretaría de Estado de Seguridad (Spanish State Secretariat for Security), including all the femicides occurred in Spain in 2007-2017. A statistical methodology to identify temporal interdependencies in count time series is proposed and applied to the dataset. The same methodology can be applied to other contexts. Results: There has been a decreasing trend in the number of femicides per year. No interdependencies among the temporal distribution of femicides are observed. Therefore, according to data, the existence of copycat effect in femicides cannot be claimed. Conclusions: Around 2011 there was a clear change in the average number of femicides which has not picked up. Results allow for an informed answer to the debate on copycat effect in Spanish femicides. The planning of femicides prevention activities should not be a reaction to a perceived increase in their occurrence. As a copycat effect is not detected in the studied time period, there is no evidence supporting the need to censor media reports on femicides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autonomous Vehicles (AV) technology is emerging. Field tests on public roads have been on going in several states in the US as well as in Europe and Asia. During the US public road tests, crashes with AV involved happened, which becomes a concern to the public. Most previous studies on AV safety relied heavily on assessing drivers’ performance and behaviors in a simulation environment and developing automated driving system performance in a closed field environment. However, contributing factors and the mechanism of AV-related crashes have not been comprehensively and quantitatively investigated due to the lack of field AV crash data. By harnessing California’s Report of Traffic Collision Involving an Autonomous Vehicle Database, which includes the AV crash data from 2014 to 2018, this paper investigates by far the most current and complete AV crash database in the US using statistical modeling approaches that involve both ordinal logistic regression and CART classification tree. The quantitative analysis based on ordinal logistic regression and CART models has successfully explored the mechanism of AV-related crash, via both perspectives of crash severity and collision types. Particularly, the CART model reveals and visualize the hierarchical structure of the AV crash mechanism with knowledge of how these traffic, roadway, and environmental contributing factors can lead to crashes of various serveries and collision types. Statistical analysis results indicate that crash severity significantly increases if the AV is responsible for the crash. The highway is identified as the location where severe injuries are likely to happen. AV collision types are affected by whether the vehicle is on automated driving mode, whether the crashes involve pedestrians/cyclists, as well as the roadway environment. The method used in this research provides a proven approach to statistically analyze and understand AV safety issues. And this benefit is potential be even enhanced with an increasing sample size of AV-related crashes records in the future. The comprehensive knowledge obtained ultimately facilitates assessing and improving safety performance of automated vehicles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Family resources may play an important role in the wellbeing of older people. In this paper, we examine the association between living arrangement and cognitive decline among people over 65 living in different European countries. The underlined hypothesis is that living with others (i.e. spouse or/and children) vis-à-vis living alone may have a positive role in maintaining cognitive functioning, but also that such beneficial influence varies according to the circumstances. To this end, we used data from the first two waves of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), which provides indicators of several cognitive functions: orientation, immediate recall, delayed recall, verbal fluency and numeracy. Net of both the potential biases due to the selective attrition and the re-test effects, the evidence shows that the association between living arrangement and cognitive decline depends on the geographical area and on the starting level of cognitive function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]