A keyword on the footer: the Furtadian and the (re)current meaning of structural reforms

ABSTRACT A semantic change has occurred in the scope of structural reforms’ term. This article reviews Celso Furtado’s work, in particular, the ones related to this specific topic, and compares it with the current literature. It appears that structural reforms in the Furtadian conception connoted base transformations and were guided by the developmentalism school of thought. Nowadays, it is of general knowledge that, under the new-institutionalist influence, “structural reforms” are associated with liberal policies for monitoring fiscal consolidations, without consensus as to the power of effectiveness. The effort to rescue and understand the original conceptions of certain keywords in the economic development literature, as well as the way in which their interpretations and practices modify over time, is shown to be of paramount importance as the capitalist system struggle to find ways of adapting itself to the current situation of developing economies.

Validated tests for language research with university students: Tests of vocabulary, general knowledge, author recognition, reading comprehension, reading frequency, attention check

We present five studies aimed at developing a new vocabulary test for university students. Such a test isuseful as an indication of crystallized intelligence and because vocabulary size correlates well withreading comprehension. In the first study, a list of 100 words based on Nation’s Vocabulary Size Test waspresented to 195 participants and compared to other tests of crystallized intelligence. Analysis suggestedthe presence of two distinct factors, which we interpreted as evidence for the possible existence of twotypes of difficult words: Unfamiliar words for general knowledge and unfamiliar words for specializedknowledge. In the subsequent studies we tried to develop vocabulary tests for each type of words, at thesame time trying out various reading comprehension tests to use as validation criterion. However, in thefinal study a high correlation (r =.82) was found between our two vocabulary tests, indicating that theymeasure the same latent factor, contrary to our initial assumption. Both tests have high reliability (r >.85) and correlate well (r > .4) with general knowledge, author recognition, and reading comprehension.As part of our research efforts, a collection of new and existing tests was used and (often) improved toverify the validity of the vocabulary tests. An exploratory factor analysis on all tests established 3 factors(text comprehension, crystallized intelligence, and reading rate), with the vocabulary tests loading on thefactor of crystallized intelligence, which in turn correlated with reading comprehension. Structuralequation modeling corroborated the interpretation. We end by providing an overview of the differenttests that were developed or improved throughout the studies. They are freely available for researchpurposes at https://osf.io/ef3s4/.

Permeability Prediction of Sandstones Based on Mercury Intrusion Method

The use of the mercury intrusion method has been one of the most relevant trends in determining the permeability of porous media in the past decades. In this paper, general knowledge of sandstone reservoir evaluation is delineated including the pore distribution of sandstones and air permeability measurement. Based upon the paradigmatic study conducted by Purcell, a schematic diagram illustrating apparatus used in mercury intrusion is shown and introduced, and the relevant procedure is also outlined. Four significant permeability prediction models are described respectively and compared based on researches focusing on tight rocks. By doing so, this article reveals that the performance of the models is different despite the painstaking analysis and the significance of these studies. The contribution of this present study is providing a general reference of permeability prediction by mercury intrusion method as well as its previous momentous studies, giving a comparison among the given models.

CRIMINAL AND ARCHITECTURAL PREVENTION

The article presents the most important aspects of the geographic dimension of criminology. Referring the considerations to areas such as sociology or, in general, knowledge about society, the subject matter was formulated in an interdisciplinary way, indicating its complexity and, at the same time, importance from the point of view of social sciences. In this work, space is seen in many perspectives - as a factor that has both a direct and indirect impact on the distribution of crime. Human activity in a given area and the possibility of spatial development of the area in terms of the tasks it is to fulfill are also important. The article is a theoretical analysis in which the analysis of Polish and foreign-language literature was used, as well as a descriptive historical method. There were also comparative analyzes in legal terms. The applied methodology contributed to the implementation of in-depth inferences, the results of which are the conclusions and research postulates presented at the end of the work. The article is dedicated primarily to people who have an impact on architectural changes in the area of towns and villages. The issues presented make a reference to the still valid problem of crime prevention. Spatial prevention should not only account for the so far unused opportunities that lie open to civil society, but also be a real change in the approach to construction. The process of space revitalization will be effective only through meta-analyzes consisting in the first place in recognizing, identifying existing or potential threats, and then implementing, in the course of social consultations, well-thought-out solutions that fit into a given space architecturally. These actions will require changes in the approach to the current protection against undesirable behaviors, focusing not on reducing the effects of adverse effects, but leaning towards criminal and architectural prevention. For this purpose, new legal solutions adequate to the existing national conditions will also be necessary.

The American 'House of Cards' – A View from a Cultural, Political and Translation-Related Perspective

The present article offers an introduction to the relationship between the entertainment and translation industry, arguing that dubbings and subtitles are by-products of the entertainment industry, directly contributing to the success of the show. It also deals with the translator’s competence, offering examples of translation challenges from the (in)famous American TV show, House of Cards, connected to terms and expressions pertaining to general knowledge of the world and of the United States. The Introduction offers an insight into audiovisual translation and its successful branches and explains binge-watching and binge-translation as well, also including several scholars’ analyses of the TV show. The Methodological Background describes how a collection of term bases came into being starting from the original English script and several Romanian subtitles of the episodes of official (DVD-release and Netflix) and amateur (freely available online) versions. This is followed by thirty examples in two sets, discussing the translation of terms belonging to general knowledge and US geopolitics in particular. The Conclusions section discusses the terms of ‘professional’ and ‘amateur’ translator irrespective of their qualifications, focusing instead on ‘quality assurance’, a rather subjective term. Certain corpus-based findings are also highlighted connected to the possibilities of relying on generalization, explicitation or calque referring to general culture and US politics focusing on the intelligibility of politicotainment, a term recently coined by Riegert.

National attitudes of medical students towards mandating the COVID-19 vaccine and its association with knowledge of the vaccine

Background With the introduction of the novel COVID-19 vaccine, public hesitancy is being experienced with many turning to healthcare professionals for advice. As future physicians, medical students play a critical role in the public’s view of the vaccine. Objectives To determine the attitude of U.S. medical students toward mandating the COVID-19 vaccine to healthcare workers and patients, as well as whether their knowledge of the vaccine plays a role in their view. Methods The authors emailed a survey link to all U.S. medical schools with request to distribute it to their medical students. The survey remained open from 02/09/2021 to 03/15/2021 and included questions to determine the attitude of the medical students toward recommending the COVID-19 vaccine, and general knowledge questions about the vaccine. Chi square, Fisher’s exact test, and linear regression were conducted to determine associations between willingness to recommend the COVID-19 vaccine and general knowledge of the vaccine. Results Among the 1,899 responses from medical students representing 151 U.S. medical schools, 57.82% approved of making the COVID-19 vaccine mandatory to healthcare workers, and 16.27% approved of making it mandatory to patients. Additionally, those who tested most knowledgeable of the vaccine were less likely to approve of making the vaccine mandatory for patients (66.67% vs. 72.70). Those that tested most knowledgeable were also more likely to personally receive the vaccine (72.35% vs 62.99%) as opposed to those that tested the least knowledgeable who were less willing to personally receive the vaccine (4.12% vs 14.17%). Conclusions The data revealed that a slight majority of medical students support a vaccine mandate toward healthcare workers while a minority of medical students support a vaccine mandate toward healthcare workers. Additionally, medical students that had relatively high knowledge of the vaccine correlated with not approving of making the vaccine mandatory for patients. However increased knowledge of the vaccine correlated with increased willingness to personally receive the vaccine.

What Influences Attitudes and Confidence in Teaching Physics and Technology Topics? An Investigation in Kindergarten and Primary-School Trainee Teachers

This study investigated the correlations of general knowledge, vocational interests, and personality with trainee teachers’ attitudes and perceived capabilities in teaching physics and technology topics in kindergarten and primary school. A quantitative survey was composed using the Nature–Human–Society questionnaire, the general knowledge test BOWIT, the general interest structure test AIST-R, and the 10-item Big Five Inventory. The sample consisted of 196 female trainee teachers for kindergarten and primary school, and the results showed that only a few trainee teachers favoured teaching physics and technology topics. The bivariate analyses indicated that investigative and realistic interests were highly correlated with their confidence in teaching physics and technology topics, followed by significant relationships with possessing general knowledge in science and technology. The relationships with personality, especially neuroticism and extraversion, were also evident, but they were not as strong. The results were further differentiated in various subgroups (i.e., a group who favoured teaching physics and technology topics versus a group who did not, as well as a group with the typical interest profile of kindergarten and primary-school teachers versus a group with a social and investigative interest profile), which provided additional insights.

Filling in the (gendered) gaps: How observers frame claims of sexual assault

Claims of sexual assault are especially prone to scrutiny and (re)interpretation as something else. We investigated how people judged the veracity of sexual assault claims and how they subsequently framed their interpretations of these claims using ‘general knowledge’ in the form of sexual scripts, rape myths, and gender stereotypes. Participants ( n = 161) read about a sexual assault allegation by a male or female claimant and were asked to describe in more detail what they thought had happened. Data were analyzed using a combination of quantitative and qualitative frame analysis. A key finding was that although participants mostly accepted the facts of the claim, this did not automatically imply they shared the claimant’s interpretation of the event as (serious) sexual assault. The analysis revealed that participants drew upon distinct frames to interpret the claim, including frames – such as regretted consensual sex and miscommunication – that exonerated the accused and emphasized claimant responsibility. Frames were differentially employed in response to male and female claims of sexual assault. We discuss how our research design and findings can contribute to an increased understanding of the underlying mechanisms of victim acknowledgment.

Level of Knowledge of Agricultural Science Graduate Students about Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Practices of Agriculture

Climate change (CC) is a global environmental problem and source of concern. Effective planning and implementation of CC mitigation and adaptation may arise from knowledge of its causes and effects. Therefore, dissemination of knowledge is highly important for ensuring that the knowledge grows and spreads amongst the various stakeholders and that it is turned into action. The students of today are the leaders and policy makers of tomorrow. They will effectively serve as change agents once their knowledge base has been well established. This study provides analysis of graduate students' level of knowledge of CC, its nature, causes, effects, mitigation, and adaptation. The study population was 57 agricultural science master's students in the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences in Jarash University, Jordan, and the sample consisted of 50 of those students. The study used online test as the knowledge assessment and data collection tool. Frequency distribution analysis uncovered that the sample students possess high level of general knowledge of CC, moderate level of knowledge of mitigation of CC, and high level of knowledge of adaptation to CC. As to the three investigated facets of general knowledge of CC, these students have high levels of knowledge of the nature and the effects of CC and moderate level of knowledge of its causes. These findings contribute to understanding of students' knowledge achievements and gaps and of the need for curricular reform in terms of structure and content that can be shared by agricultural science faculties around the World with similar CC graduate programs.

Comprehension of Ukrainian by Estonians via Russian: Structural and extra-linguistic aspects

This study explores how people use and expand their linguistic resources in the situation when they have some proficiency in L2 and try to understand L3 that is related to L2. The focus of the study is on the comprehension of Ukrainian by Estonian L1 speakers via their proficiency in Russian (L2). This situation is labeled as mediated receptive multilingualism. The aim of this research is to investigate the role of cross-linguistic similarity (objective or perceived, in the terms of Ringbom 2007) and extra-linguistic predictors of success in comprehension. In addition to measuring the success rate, we pay attention to the participant's perspective. The experiment was conducted with 30 speakers of Estonian as L1 and included a questionnaire, C-test in Russian, three Ukrainian texts with different groups of tasks, and debriefing. In this article, we focus on the task of defining Ukrainian words from the text and on debriefing interviews. The results showed that similarity, perceived or objective, is not the only decisive factor in facilitating understanding. The participants explanations confirmed our previous findings that similarity, albeit important, is only partly responsible for successful comprehension. This became clear from the debriefing interviews. In many cases, the participants' choice was affected by a range of extra-linguistic factors: general knowledge, context, exposure to various registers of Russian, M-factor, meta-linguistic awareness, and learnability. In some instances, context and general knowledge outweighed similarity. These findings show how similarity worked together with extra-linguistic factors in facilitating successful comprehension in challenging multilingual settings.