Curriculum, instruction, and assessment: A snapshot of world language education in Massachusetts

This large-scale study used a survey to collect data on K-12 world language classrooms in Massachusetts public schools, focusing on core instructional practices, curriculum, and assessment. The study resulted in 383 individual teacher completed responses, representing 188 districts, which was analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results indicate encouraging signs in the adoption of core proficiency-based instructional practices, thematic curriculum design, and the use of performance-based assessments. Further support for teachers in how to implement these practices is needed, along with attention to school leaders who may have no background in world language education but are tasked with supporting and evaluating world language teachers. Survey data were collected at the beginning of school closures due to COVID-19, capturing a picture of K-12 world language education and a point of comparison for future research.

Psychological analysis of injuries in a first category softball national championship in Cuba

Introduction: the systematic analysis of the relationships between relevant psychological variables for sports performance and injuries is essential to contribute to their prevention in specific sports. Material and methods: a descriptive-correlational and cross-sectional study was carried out in the first category women's national softball championship in Cuba. 88 athletes participated with an average chronological age of 22.91 (SD=6.13) and a sports experience of 10.83 years (SD=4.92). A specific questionnaire, the Competitive Sport Anxiety Inventory and the Psychological Inventory of Sport Execution was applied. Descriptive statistics and Kendall's Tau_b nonparametric correlation coefficient was used for data analysis. Results: A high injury load was verified with a low perception of the role of psychological factors in its etiology, as well as a notable occurrence of new injuries with negative emotional repercussions. Negative correlations of self-confidence, negative coping control, visual-imaginative control, positive coping control, and attitude control with history of injuries were obtained. The high anxiety showed significant relationships with previous injuries and new injuries during the analyzed competition. Conclusions: the findings are especially congruent with previous results in elite softball players, although new and greater relationships between variables were determined. All this means that stimulating psychological skills to control anxiety in competition could contribute to the prevention of injuries. However, longitudinal analyzes are required to confirm the predictive role of these variables before proposing psychological interventions in this regard.

Do oil shocks affect the green bond market?

This study examines the predictive power of oil shocks for the green bond markets. In line with this aim, we investigated the extent to which oil shocks could be used to accurately make in- and out-of-sample forecasts for green bond returns. Three striking findings emanated from our results: First, the three types of oil shock are reliable predictors for green bond indices. Second, the performances of the predictive models were consistent across the different forecasting horizons (i.e. H = 1 to H = 24). Third, our findings were sensitive to classifying the dataset into pre-COVID and COVID eras. For instance, the results confirmed that the predictive power of oil shocks declined during the crisis period. We also discuss some policy implications of this study's findings. © 2022 The Author(s)

Application of machine learning approaches to predict the impact of ambient air pollution on outpatient visits for acute respiratory infections

With a remarkable increase in industrialization among fast-developing countries, air pollution is rising at an alarming rate and has become a public health concern. The study aims to examine the effect of air pollution on patient's hospital visits for respiratory diseases, particularly Acute Respiratory Infections (ARI). Outpatient hospital visits, air pollution and meteorological parameters were collected from March 2018 to October 2021. Eight machine learning algorithms (Random Forest model, K-Nearest Neighbors regression model, Linear regression model, LASSO regression model, Decision Tree Regressor, Support Vector Regression, X.G. Boost and Deep Neural Network with 5-layers) were applied for the analysis of daily air pollutants and outpatient visits for ARI. The evaluation was done by using 5-cross-fold confirmations. The data was randomly divided into test and training data sets at a scale of 1:2, respectively. Results show that among the studied eight machine learning models, the Random Forest model has given the best performance with R2 = 0.606, 0.608 without lag and 1-day lag respectively on ARI patients and R2 = 0.872, 0.871 without lag and 1-day lag respectively on total patients. All eight models did not perform well with the lag effect on the ARI patient dataset but performed better on the total patient dataset. Thus, the study did not find any significant association between ARI patients and ambient air pollution due to the intermittent availability of data during the COVID-19 period. This study gives insight into developing machine learning programs for risk prediction that can be used to predict analytics for several other diseases apart from ARI, such as heart disease and other respiratory diseases. © 2022 Elsevier B.V.

Working from home vs working from office in terms of job performance during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis: evidence from China

Despite being a worldwide disaster, the COVID-19 pandemic has also provided an opportunity for renewed discussion about the way we work. By contextualizing in the early periods of China's ending of lockdown policy on COVID-19, this paper offers evidence to respond to an essential discussion in the field of working from home (WFH): In terms of job performance, can WFH replace working from the office (WFO)? The present study compares job performance in terms of quality and productivity between WFH and WFO from 861 Chinese respondents using entropy balance matching, a quasi-experimental methodology. Results reveal that WFH enhances job performance in terms of job quality but lowers it in terms of job productivity. In addition, the present study aims to capture and empirically measure the variations in fundamental job characteristics in terms of job control and job demand between WFH and WFO by applying the job demand control support model. More specifically, we find that job control items, such as ‘talking right' and ‘work rate', and job demand items, such as ‘a long time of intense concentration' and ‘hecticness of the job', are vital factors that contribute to how these differences exert influence on employees' performance in the context of the pandemic. © 2022 Australian Human Resources Institute (AHRI).

Do smart cities perform better in governing the COVID-19 crisis? Empirical evidence from Indonesian cities

The COVID-19 pandemic has shocked the world due to its pronounced mortality rate, rapid worldwide spread, and profound socioeconomic effects across all societies. As the spearhead of urban policies, local governments play an important role in crisis management during the pandemic. In the context of smart cities, innovative solutions have been required, especially to improve the local government's capacity to manage health crises. This study asks whether smart cities perform better in governing the COVID-19 pandemic. This article focuses on how urban governance impacted cities' performance in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a city-level data set from Indonesia, we constructed a COVID-19 response performance index using principal component analysis that is used in an empirical strategy with quasi-experimental cross-sectional methods to minimize the influence of unobserved covariates and selection bias. This study concludes that smart city status does not have a statistically significant impact on the COVID-19 performance index. We offer three possible accounts based on expert insights, previous empirical studies, and digital upshots on data monitoring and reporting cases. Both theoretical and practical implications can be drawn, thus highlighting the lack of effective integration of technological dimensions into health and urban governance systems in the context of a public health crisis.

Crossing the Same River Multiple Times: Cautiously setting aside pandemic practices, pharma workers appear ready for flux, change, evolution, and expanding molecular diversity

The article presents results of an employment survey on trends and the state of the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry in 2022. Findings reveal COVID-19 measures that are important to daily operations, stagnation of wage growth and decline in overall salary satisfaction, job security changes and drop in job satisfaction, and business concerns including corporate performance and industry growth.

Assessment of building energy performance integrated with solar PV: Towards a net zero energy residential campus in India

Building Applied Photovoltaics (BAPV) such as Roof-top Solar PV has gained significant attention in recent years for harnessing the untapped potential of renewable energy sources. However, rooftop PV poses hurdles of space restriction and shadowing in densely packed urban residential neighborhoods. This study aims to design and assess the feasibility of an integrated grid-connected Rooftop and Façade Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) for meeting the energy demand of residential buildings on an academic campus. Three distinctive groups of residential typologies have been investigated in this study, categorized based on built area and occupants' past energy usage. Additionally, the variation in the measured Energy Performance index of the three different residential groups is illustrated to pave the path for the development of a typology-based residential energy benchmarking and labelling system. The Solar PV system has been designed for the maximum household energy demand recorded in CoVID-affected years due to high residential electricity usage in this period. The study showcases that integration of façade BIPV for low-rise residential buildings increases the system energy production to up to 62.5 % based on the utilized surface area for active PV. Furthermore, the Net Zero Energy Building (ZEB) potential for each typology has been achieved by integration of the proposed Solar PV, evaluated as a function of the Energy Performance Index (EPI) and Energy Generation Index (EGI). The designed nominal PV power of the proposed grid-connected plant is 5.6 MW, producing 7182 MWh annually, meeting the maximum residential energy demand in the studied academic campus in CoVID affected year. © 2022 Elsevier B.V.

Effects of recycled tyre rubber and steel fibre on the impact resistance of slag-based self-compacting alkali-activated concrete

Accumulation of waste tyres causes an environmental disaster because of the rapid rise in transport vehicle demand resulting from modern developments, Covid-19 and similar pandemics. Thus, recycling waste tyres in the form of aggregates as a sustainable construction material can be a solution to reduce the environmental problems. Current research focuses on the impact resistance and mechanical properties of the crumb rubber self-compacting alkali-activated concrete reinforced with 1% steel fibres (SFs) where fine and coarse crumb rubbers (CR) are partially replaced with 10% and 15% replacement ratios. The compressive, flexural, splitting tensile strengths and modulus of elasticity were investigated;impact resistance was found using a drop hammer impact test. The incorporation of CR reduced the mechanical properties, and the reduction was found more with increased rubber contents, whereas the incorporation of SF compensated for the strength loss. The impact performance was enhanced with the CR and SF incorporations. The 15% CR incorporation improved the impact energy up to three times, whereas both 1% SF and 15% CR incorporations significantly enhanced the impact energy up to 30 times. Similar mechanical strengths were obtained for the different sizes of CR. However, impact performance was significantly influenced by the sizes of CR. © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

The effect of corporate governance elements on corporate social responsibility reporting of listed companies in Vietnam

This paper examines the impact of various corporate governance characteristics on the disclosure of corporate social responsibility (CSR) information in the context of developing markets during the COVID-19 pandemic. We used data from the annual reports of the top 100 companies listed on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange from 2019 to 2021 to investigate the relationship between board independence, board size, CEO duality, foreign ownership, government ownership, and the disclosure level of CSR reporting. We employed a content analysis to measure CSR disclosure level by using the CSR reporting index (CSRRI) with 17 items. The panel regressions including three techniques like the pooled-ordinary least squares (OLS), fixed effects model (FEM), and random effects model (REM), were used to analyze the data, and FEM) shows its best fit to the model. The results suggest that board independence and government ownership correlate positively and significantly with companies' decisions to disclose CSR information. In contrast, board size, CEO duality, foreign ownership and was found to be insignificant. Our study extends the literature on CSR particularly in developing countries where governments play a significant role in promoting economic development. It also evaluates the CSR disclosure level of the top listed companies in Vietnam. Since then, the paper's results provide several insights to the policymakers to identify the corporate governance characteristics that will promote CSR reporting in Vietnam's listed companies.

Performance Analysis of Indian Mutual Funds During Covid-2019

The outbreak situation of the COVID-2019 pandemic is an Unpredictable shock to the world economy. World Economy faces the slowdown of share market prices, especially the value of mutual fund value decreases. Companies and Businessmen primarily invested in the mutual funds to play a safer role, modify their risk into the return, and increase the Net Assets Value (NAV). This study attempts to describe the state of mutual funds in India during this COVID 2019 period. Thus the performance of mutual funds when compared with before and during COVID 2019, the proposed model specifies on testing the performance of mutual funds both in the public and private sectors and attains to access the impact of COVID 2019 on mutual funds. The author has used correlation for finding out the relation of COVID 2019 and Mutual Funds. This paper mainly addresses the causes of investors during economic fluctuation and the return of top mutual companies by comparing the return of 1 year and during these last three months. COVID 2019 is not only on particular sectors;it affects almost every sector like construction, manufacturing, business, agriculture. While all the sectors are affected by COVID 2019 pandemics, it hits the society and the economy;once the economy comes down, the inflation rate increase, the Forex rate will increase, and it affects our whole country. In this paper, the author included sectors that are affected and their performance now and how well the different types of funds are performing, which will be helpful for the reader to analyze the affected areas. The paper concluded with the help of a survey and statistical tools whether the investors can make a further payment and hold for some period or continue with the investment whatever situation crisis impacts our economy. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Hybrid Peptide–Agarose Hydrogels for 3D Immunoassays

Recent advances in biosensing analytical platforms have brought relevant outcomes for novel diagnostic and therapy-oriented applications. In this context, 3D droplet microarrays, where hydrogels are used as matrices to stably entrap biomolecules onto analytical surfaces, potentially provide relevant advantages over conventional 2D assays, such as increased loading capacity, lower nonspecific binding, and enhanced signal-to-noise ratio. Here, we describe a hybrid hydrogel composed of a self-assembling peptide and commercial agarose (AG) as a suitable matrix for 3D microarray bioassays. The hybrid hydrogel is printable and self-adhesive and allows analyte diffusion. As a showcase example, we describe its application in a diagnostic immunoassay for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 infection. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

Is intellectual capital related to telecommunications industry financial performance during COVID-19?

This study aims to examine the influence of intellectual capital on the financial performance of the telecommunications industry during the COVID-19 pandemic. The population includes the telecommunications companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2019-2020. Moreover, the intellectual capital performance was measured by the value-added intellectual capital coefficient (VAICTM) approach while the model was developed and hypotheses tested using linear regression analysis. The results showed that intellectual capital has a positive and significant effect on return on assets and return on equity but has no influence on earning per share. Recommendations are later made for researchers and practitioners. Copyright © 2023 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

OTN-over-WDM optimization in 5G networks: key challenges and innovation opportunities

The continued growth of both mobile broadband and fixed broadband subscriptions as well as the added deployment of Internet of Things devices has led to making 5G networks a reality. More specifically, 5G networks are expected to support a diverse set of new applications/services in addition to existing applications/services from previous generations (2G/3G/4G). The COVID-19 pandemic has further increased the demand for such services which has resulted in a further surge in the Internet usage. Thus, 5G networks are expected to have a highly flexible architecture at all levels including at the radio, core, and transport levels. Optical Transport Networks (OTN) have been proposed as one potential and promising supporting technology for 5G networks at the transport level, particularly for next generation transport networks featuring large-granule broadband service transmissions. This is because it allows for more flexible, efficient, and dynamic networks. However, adopting and deploying OTNs in 5G networks comes with its own set of challenges including control, management, and orchestration of such networks as well as their security. Accordingly, this paper overviews 5G networks along with their requirements and provides a brief summary of OTNs and the corresponding optimization mechanisms. Additionally, this work discusses the challenges facing OTNs and their optimization within the context of 5G. Moreover, it outlines some of the key research areas and opportunities for innovation stemming from the data-driven intelligent networking paradigm using Machine Learning techniques.

Investing in virtue and frowning at vice? Lessons from the global economic and financial crisis

Socially responsible mutual funds (SRMF) , the "antisocially conscious", Vitium Global Fund Barrier Fund (formerly known as the Vice Fund, the term used in this paper) returns, volatility patterns , causal effects are examined in this study within the context of the lessons learned from the 2008 Global Economic and Financial Crisis (GEFC). In times of a new and unprecedented crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a look back to our recent past reveals that volatility patterns on daily stock returns presented some level of predictability on prices for both types of funds. The research findings are significant as funds' potential predictability could help market players when designing their investment strategies. More specifically, an increase in volatility persistence is found after the GEFC, together with an increase in the Vice Fund's resilience to market shocks. Although all funds, without substantial differences, take time to absorb the shocks. A noteworthy outcome relates to SRMF that was able to achieve higher returns and exhibited lower volatility levels during the crisis period. Whereas the Vice Fund revealed long-run sustainable performance offering fund managers and investors investment opportunities that are endorsed by the fund performance over the period. Furthermore, unidirectional causality was found running from the Vice Fund to the SRMF, exhibiting a clear dominance during the GEFC period. The research findings contribute to the debate on the future of socially responsible investment, indicating that SRMF appears to be driven by "antisocially conscious" funds signaling limited rewards for investors inclined to invest in funds that are considered socially responsible.

Multi-tier analysis of the medical equipment supply chain network: empirical analysis and simulation of a major rupture

Purpose: While a global supply network can provide stability to address localized interruptions, however, the recent global pandemic materialized many concerns and risks associated with the global supply network. Considering the short-term and long-term effects of changes in the global supply chain, this research explores how the location characteristics of the firms across the supply chain affect their performance. Design/methodology/approach: Using the mined data from five tiers of the backward supply chain of medical equipment, the authors constructed a large supply chain network consisting of close to 160,000 dyadic connections. The authors used various network centrality and clustering algorithms to measure the influence of each firm across the supply chain structure. Furthermore, the authors ran a scenario to simulate the elimination of Chinese firms from the global supply chain and recalculated all centralities. Regression analysis was used to measure the effect of supply chain network centralities on firms' performance across the supply chain with and without Chinese firms. Findings: The complexity of global purchasing across global tiers of supply networks had been recognized as a source of uncertainty before the COVID-19 pandemic. This pandemic was the black swan that the medical supply chain professionals had noted its threat in recent years. While a global supply network can provide stability to address localized interruptions, however, the recent global pandemic materialized many concerns and risks associated with the global supply network. Considering the short-term and long-term effects of changes in the global supply chain, this research explores how the location characteristics of the firms across the supply chain affect their performance. Research limitations/implications: This research has three main implications. First, it provides a benchmark for manufacturing firms and distributors around the world operating in the post-COVID-19 business environment to better understand the relationship of their supply chain strategy and firms' financial performance. Second, investors and asset managers can evaluate their portfolios in light of the changing relationship as a result of possible protectionism initiatives. Finally, policymakers can apply the research methodology of this work in various industries while reevaluating post-COVID-19 international relations and trades policies at the firm, industry and country levels. Practical implications: Policymakers working on global connection can utilize the outcome of this research to explore the consequences of local and global policies on trade patterns, organizational performance as well as individuals' movements. Another implication of this study for policymakers is that it provides a powerful simulation and analytical tool to launch or combat the global ruptures, including trade wars and natural disasters stemming from natural events (e.g. climate change) and human-made events (e.g. wars, supply-chain interruptions, sanctions). Originality/value: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first large-scale empirical study that measures the effect of supply chain structure across multiple (five) tiers of the global supply chain on firms' performance. The present study uses the original supply chain network data mined by the authors from financial publications. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

The relationship between student motivation and academic performance: the mediating role of online learning behavior

Purpose: This paper aims to use a quantitative approach to explore the role of online learning behavior in students' academic performance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, the authors probe its mediating effect in the relationship between student motivation (extrinsic and intrinsic) and academic performance in a blended learning context. Design/methodology/approach: Survey data were collected from 148 students taking an organizational behavior course at one Chinese university. The data were paired and analyzed through regression analysis. Findings: The results show that students should actively engage in online learning behavior to maximize the effects of blended learning. Extrinsic motivation was found to positively influence academic performance both directly and indirectly through online learning behavior, while intrinsic motivation affected academic performance only indirectly. Originality/value: Through paired data on extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, online learning behavior and academic performance, this study provides a more nuanced understanding of how online learning behavior affects the focal relationship, and it advances research on the mechanisms underlying the focal relationship. Practitioners should enhance students' online learning behavior to boost blended learning effects during the COVID-19 pandemic. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

A Bibliometric and Co-Occurrence Analysis of Work-Life Balance: Related Literature Published Pre- and During COVID-19 Pandemic

Work-life balance helps to maintain an attractive organizational culture and remove work-life conflicts and show the path to employees of how to be more efficient in different work roles. This balanced practice is giving a care and feeling of protection to the employees. It motivates better performance that contributes to employee engagement indices. The main purpose of this study is to report work-life balance pre- and during the COVID-19 pandemic by bibliometric analysis. This study analyzed 4,030 "work-life balance” studies published between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2019, from the pre-pandemic era, and 1,143 studies published during the pandemic (between January 1, 2020-March 24, 2021). The data were extracted from the Scopus database using keywords "work-life balance” and keywords in titles (items) analyzed using VOSviewer software. Co-occurrence connection between keywords in titles and density visualization based on the total link strength clearly shows that COVID-19 significantly impacted work-life balance and related research. © 2023 IGI Global. All rights reserved.

Self, ethics, morality and accountability: a case of a public university

Purpose: This paper explores why and how, and in what context, individuals' accounting of self, ethics and morality and self-knowledge of the limits of accountability can frame their account giving and judging in an organisational formal performance evaluation process. Design/methodology/approach: Building upon the Butlerian notions of accountability as advanced by Messner (2009) and Roberts (2009), the authors conducted a qualitative field study at a Vietnamese public university, involving face-to-face interviews, observation of performance evaluation meetings and examination of archival documents. Findings: The authors found that individuals experience conflicting ethical and moral values when they rely on their self-knowledge of accountability (the ability to self-account) in their account giving and judging in the university's formal academic performance evaluation process. In addition, the authors found that when individuals want to provide the best account to the account demander, their understanding of their ability to self-account and the formal organisational accountability process influence their views on what authentic account giving means. As a result, enhanced ethics-to-others has the potential to be an ethical burden and may not lead to authentic or beyond minimum accounting of "self”. Yet, in the Vietnamese socio-cultural and political context within which the university operates, and in the situation of ethical and moral conflicts in self-accountability, the authors found evidence of individuals' self-accountability behaviours that is based on the co-existence of a sense of responsibility to others and self-knowledge of the limits of accountability. Research limitations/implications: Although this study was limited to one Vietnamese public university, its findings enhance the knowledge about how individual ethical and moral values, self-knowledge of the limits of accountability and the formal organisational accountability process connect with each other in the socio-cultural and political context within which an organisation operates. Practical implications: The study highlights the role of the context of local socio-cultural norms and values and of physical social interaction in developing the sense of connection to others, which influences the way individuals' ethical and moral values are mobilised to shape account-giving and judging behaviours. Social implications: The emphasis on the role of the sense of connection to others on personal accountability and the emphasis on physical, face-to-face interaction in developing sense of connection to others leads to an interesting issue regarding the sense of connection in the virtual social interaction setting, which has become increasingly popular globally, especially during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, and its implication for the use of personal ethical and moral values in organisational accountability practices. Originality/value: Adding to the conversation on how a formal organisational accountability process can be effective, this study identified (1) the unpredictable outcomes of using ethics as rules for accountability practices due to potentially conflicting ethical values;(2) the diverse understandings of self-accounting, leading to different ideas of authentic accounting;and (3) the possibility of moral accountability behaviours based on the co-existence of a sense of connection to others and an understanding of the limits of accountability. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Academic performance prediction associated with synchronous online interactive learning behaviors based on the machine learning approach

With long-term impact of COVID-19 on education, online interactive live courses have been an effective method to keep learning and teaching from being interrupted, attracting more and more attention due to their synchronous and real-time interaction. However, there is no suitable method for predicting academic performance for students participating in online class. Five machine learning models are employed to predict academic performance of an engineering mechanics course, taking online learning behaviors, comprehensive performance as input and final exam scores (FESs) as output. The analysis shows the gradient boosting regression model achieves the best performance with the highest correlation coefficient (0.7558), and the lowest RMSE (9.3595). Intellectual education score (IES) is the most important factor of comprehensive performance while the number of completed assignment (NOCA), the live viewing rate (LVR) and the replay viewing rate (RVR) of online learning behaviors are the most important factors influencing FESs. Students with higher IES are more likely to achieve better academic performance, and students with lower IES but higher NOCA tend to perform better. Our study can provide effective evidences for teachers to adjust teaching strategies and provide precise assistance for students at risk of academic failure in advance.