An exploration of social identity: The structure of the BBC news‐sharing community on Twitter

Online social media influence the flow of news and other information, potentially altering collective social action while generating a large volume of data useful to researchers. Mapping these networks may make it possible to predict the course of social and political movements, technology adoption, and economic behavior. Here, we map the network formed by Twitter users sharing British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) articles. The global audience of the BBC is primarily organized by language with the largest linguistic groups receiving news in English, Spanish, Russian, and Arabic. Members of the network primarily “follow” members sharing articles in the same language, and these audiences are primarily located in geographical regions where the languages are native. The one exception to this rule is a cluster interested in Middle East news which includes both Arabic and English speakers. We further analyze English‐speaking users, which differentiate themselves into four clusters: one interested in sports, two interested in United Kingdom (UK) news—with word usage suggesting this reflects political polarization into Conservative and Labour party leanings—and a fourth group that is the English speaking part of the group interested in Middle East news. Unlike the previously studied New York Times news sharing network the largest scale structure of the BBC network does not include a densely connected group of globally interested and globally distributed users. The political polarization is similar to what was found for liberal and conservative groups in the New York Times study. The observation of a primary organization of the BBC audience around languages is consistent with the BBC's unique role in history as an alternative source of local news in regions outside the UK where high quality uncensored news was not available. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity 19: 55–63, 2014     

A Longitudinal Study of Middle and Secondary Level Science Textbook Vocabulary Loads

Middle and secondary science textbooks have long been a primary support for instruction, often leading to heavy emphasis on domain‐specific vocabulary. A longitudinal study was conducted to compare vocabulary loads of science textbooks published since 2010 to results of two previous studies going back to 1983. In each study, textbooks chosen represent convenience samples of commonly used middle and secondary science textbooks. Vocabulary emphasis in science textbooks remains high, and may present a problem for struggling readers and English language learners (ELL). Some vocabulary loads were found to approach or even exceed recommended limits for vocabulary instruction in modern foreign language courses. Also, science vocabulary can present an additional challenge for native English speakers and ELLs since many terms have no common colloquial English or native language equivalents. Recommendations for how to promote effective science vocabulary development are provided. Overall, over three decades there has been little change in heavy emphasis on vocabulary in middle and secondary science textbooks.     

Language and communication in mathematics education: an overview of research in the field

Within the field of mathematics education, the central role language plays in the learning, teaching, and doing of mathematics is increasingly recognised, but there is not agreement about what this role (or these roles) might be or even about what the term ‘language’ itself encompasses. In this issue of ZDM, we have compiled a collection of scholarship on language in mathematics education research, representing a range of approaches to the topic. In this survey paper, we outline a categorisation of ways of conceiving of language and its relevance to mathematics education, the theoretical resources drawn upon to systematise these conceptions, and the methodological approaches employed by researchers. We identify four broad areas of concern in mathematics education that are addressed by language-oriented research: analysis of the development of students’ mathematical knowledge; understanding the shaping of mathematical activity; understanding processes of teaching and learning in relation to other social interactions; and multilingual contexts. A further area of concern that has not yet received substantial attention within mathematics education research is the development of the linguistic competencies and knowledge required for participation in mathematical practices. We also discuss methodological issues raised by the dominance of English within the international research community and suggest some implications for researchers, editors and publishers.     

Genome size,self‐organization and DNA's dark matter

Chromosomes exhibit several features indicating that its spatiotemporal dynamics is self‐organized. It has been recently suggested that a negative correlation between genome size and mean chromosome number would also be a fingerprint of selforganization, related to how human language is organized at the level of words and syllables. However, the vast dominance of non‐coding DNA in eukaryotic genomes should prevent an interpretation of genome/chromosome size based on functional trade‐offs related to information storage and transmission. Moreover, the reported negative correlation is shown to be an inevitable consequence of the definitions of chromosome and genome length and it is thus unrelated to any type of special generative process. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity 16: 20–23, 2010     

Coexistence in exotic scenarios of a modified Abrams–Strogatz model

We work on a model that has succeeded in describing real cases of coexistence of two languages within a closed community of speakers, taking into account bilingualism and incorporating a parameter to measure the distance between languages. The dynamics of this model depend on a characteristic exponent, which weighs the power of the size of a group of speakers to attract new members. So far, this model had been solved only when this characteristic exponent is greater than 1. In this article, we have managed to solve the nature of the stability of all the possible situations for this characteristic exponent, that is, when it is less or equal than 1 and covering also the situations produced when it is 0 or negative. We interpret these new situations and find that, even in such exotic scenarios, there are configurations of the resulting societies where all the languages coexist. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity 21: 86–93, 2016     

Dominance or maximin: How to solve an English auction

It is widely believed that the English auction is solved after the dominated strategies are eliminated. This paper demonstrates that the dominance criterion is not very effective in many English auction models. To bid more than the true willingness to pay is dominated but a stronger solution concept is needed to deduce that the buyers increase the price in small steps up to their valuation. An iterated application of the dominance criterion does not solve the problem, but if it is assumed that the buyers use their maximin strategies the usual argument holds. Received May 1995/Final version May 1998     

Comparative performance measurement in regulation: the case of English and Welsh sewerage services

This paper discusses the use of comparative performance measurement by means of Data Envelopment Analysis in the context of the regulation of English and Welsh water companies. Specifically, the use of Data Envelopment Analysis to estimate potential cost savings in sewerage is discussed as it fed into the price review of water companies carried out by the regulator of water companies in 1994. The application is used as a vehicle for highlighting generic issues in terms of assessing the impact of factors on the ranking of units on performance, the insights gained from using alternative methods to assess comparative performance, and the issue of assessing comparative performance when few in number but highly complex entities are involved. The paper should prove of interest to those interested in regulation and, more generally, in the use of methods of comparative performance measurement.     

Coherent mortality forecasting with generalized linear models: A modified time-transformation approach

In this paper, we propose an alternative approach for forecasting mortality for multiple populations jointly. Our contribution is developed upon the generalized linear models introduced by Renshaw et al., (1996) and Sithole et al., (2000), in which mortality forecasts are generated within the model structure, without the need of additional stochastic processes. To ensure that the resulting forecasts are coherent, a modified time-transformation is developed to stipulate the expected mortality differential between two populations to remain constant when the long-run equilibrium is attained. The model is then further extended to incorporate a structural change, an important property that is observed in the historical mortality data of many national populations. The proposed modeling methods are illustrated with data from two different pairs of populations: (1) Swedish and Danish males; (2) English and Welsh males and U.K. male insured lives.     

Centripetal and centrifugal language forces in one elementary school second language mathematics classroom

Research on the learning and teaching of mathematics in contexts of language diversity has highlighted a number of common tensions that arise in a variety of contexts. These tensions can be explained by Bakhtin’s characterization of two sets of forces that are present in any utterance: centripetal forces represent the drive for unitary language, standardisation and linguistic hegemony; centrifugal forces represent the presence of heteroglossia, stratification and decentralisation. In this paper, I use this theoretical perspective to examine ethnographic data from a study of a second language mathematics classroom in Canada, in which the students are almost all speakers of Cree, one of the original languages of Canada. My analysis highlights three situations in which the tension between centripetal and centrifugal forces is particularly salient: the students’ use of Cree; working on mathematical word problems; and producing mathematical explanations.     

FROM ONE LANGUAGE TO ANOTHER: A SEMIOTIC INTERPRETATION OF THE TRANSLATION OF MATHEMATICAL WORDS

The teaching and learning of Primary school mathematics in Malta involves the use of code-switching between the local language Maltese, and English Mathematical terms themselves are usually retained in English and teachers may use various strategies to share the meaning of these words with their pupils. One strategy that may be used in a bilingual situation is translation from one language to another. In this paper I explore how a teacher used this strategy to teach her 7 to 8-year-old pupils mathematical vocabulary related to the topic'Money and Shopping'. While Maltese equivalents for these words exist, it is the English versions that form part of the school mathematics register. I develop a semiotic model where a mathematical word is considered to be a sign, and the process of translation is viewed as a chain of signification from one language to another.     

The age pattern of transitory mortality jumps and its impact on the pricing of catastrophic mortality bonds

To value catastrophic mortality bonds, a number of stochastic mortality models with transitory jump effects have been proposed. Rather than modeling the age pattern of jump effects explicitly, most of the existing models assume that the distributions of jump effects and general mortality improvements across ages are identical. Nevertheless, this assumption does not seem to be in line with what we observe from historical data. In this paper, we address this problem by introducing a Lee–Carter variant that captures the age pattern of mortality jumps by a distinct collection of parameters. The model variant is then further generalized to permit the age pattern of jump effects to vary randomly. We illustrate the two proposed models with mortality data from the United States and English and Welsh populations, and use them to value hypothetical mortality bonds with similar specifications to the Atlas IX Capital Class B note that was launched in 2013. It is found that the features we consider have a significant impact on the estimated prices.     

An evaluation of technical efficiency and managerial correlates of solid waste management by Welsh SMEs using parametric and non-parametric techniques

Strong economic growth and environmental regulation stimulus make Welsh small and medium enterprises' (SMEs) sustainability performance merit investigation in the context of European Union (EU) sustainability initiatives. This is due in part to strong economic growth and the stimulus provided by environmental regulation. We use stochastic frontier analysis, a parametric econometric technique to generate estimates of the technical efficiency of solid waste management by 299 Welsh SMEs in 2003. We demonstrate that the ranking and efficiency scores of the Welsh SMEs studied correlate significantly with non-parametric data envelopment analysis efficiency measures and are related to the use of environmental auditing practices and the use of local business support groups, but not to monitoring of waste expenditures and publication of environmental policies.     

Cognitive Demands and Second-Language Learners: A Framework for Analyzing Mathematics Instructional Contexts

The issues involved in teaching English language learners mathematics while they are learning English pose many challenges for mathematics teachers and highlight the need to focus on language-processing issues related to teaching mathematical content. Two realistic-type problems from high-stakes tests are used to illustrate the complex interactions between culture, language, and mathematical learning. The analyses focus on aspects of the problems that potentially increase cognitive demands for second-language learners. An analytical framework is presented that is designed to enable mathematics teachers to identify critical elements in problems and the learning environment that contribute to increased cognitive demands for students of English as a second language. The framework is proposed as a cycle of teacher reflection that would extend a constructivist model of teaching to include broader linguistic, cultural, and cognitive processing issues of mathematics teaching, as well as enable teachers to develop more accurate mental models of student learning.     

Cognitive Demands and Second-Language Learners: A Framework for Analyzing Mathematics Instructional Contexts

The issues involved in teaching English language learners mathematics while they are learning English pose many challenges for mathematics teachers and highlight the need to focus on language-processing issues related to teaching mathematical content. Two realistic-type problems from high-stakes tests are used to illustrate the complex interactions between culture, language, and mathematical learning. The analyses focus on aspects of the problems that potentially increase cognitive demands for second-language learners. An analytical framework is presented that is designed to enable mathematics teachers to identify critical elements in problems and the learning environment that contribute to increased cognitive demands for students of English as a second language. The framework is proposed as a cycle of teacher reflection that would extend a constructivist model of teaching to include broader linguistic, cultural, and cognitive processing issues of mathematics teaching, as well as enable teachers to develop more accurate mental models of student learning.     

高等数学课堂教学语言探究

高等数学是学生进入大学以后最先碰到的“重头课”,教师课堂中的教学语言直接影响到学生学习效果,提高高等数学教师的教学语言水平显得尤为重要．教师在教学中要能做到：准确运用文字语言描述数学问题;重视符号语言的教学;合理利用图像语言进行教学;口头语言简洁规范、生动、亲切．     

Chinese and English Mathematics Language: The Relation Between Linguistic Clarity and Mathematics Performance

In Study 1, 48 judges rated the clarity of Chinese, English, and "Chinglish" (Chinese words translated into English) mathematical words-for example, the Chinglish version of the Chinese word for quadrilateral is "four-side-shape." Native Chinese-speaking judges achieve greater agreement on the relative clarity of Chinese words than do native English-speaking judges on the relative clarity of English words. More Chinese words are rated clear than are English. Chinglish mathematical words tend to be rated more clear than English. The inherent compound word structure of the Chinese language seems well suited to portray mathematical ideas.

In Study 2, we examined the relations among the clarity of Chinese mathematical terms, U.S. urban junior high school students' Chinese reading ability, and their mathematics performance. There is a strong correlation between Chinese reading ability and performance on test items with mathematics words rated clear by Chinese judges. The relative clarity of mathematical terms in the Chinese language may contribute to Chinese-speaking students' understanding of mathematics and to superior mathematics performance.     

An analysis of managerialism and performance in English and Welsh male prisons

This paper fills a noticeable gap in the current economic and penology literature by proposing new performance-enhancing policies based on an efficiency analysis of a sample of male prisons in England and Wales over the period 2009/10. In addition, we advance the empirical literature by integrating the managerialism of four strategic functions of prisons, employment and accommodation, capacity utilization, quality of life in prison and the rehabilitation and re-offending of prisoners. We find that by estimating multiple models focussing on these different areas some prisons are more efficient than other establishments. In terms of policy, it is therefore necessary to consider not just an overall performance metric for individual prisons, as currently undertaken annually by the UK Ministry of Justice, but to look into the administration and managerialism of their main functions in both a business and public policy perspective. Indeed, it is further necessary to view prisons together and not as single entities, so as to obtain a best practice frontier for the different operations that management undertakes in English and Welsh prisons.     

146号初等元胞自动机的演化语言的复杂性

Symbolic dynamics of cellular automata is introduced by coarse-graining the temporal evolution orbits. Evolution languages are defined. By using the theory of formal languages and automata, the complexity of evolution languages of the elementary cellular automaton of rule 146 is studied and it is proved that its width 1-evolution language is regular, but for every n ≥ 2 its width n-evolution language is not context-free but context-sensitive. Also, the same results hold for the equivalent （under conjugation） elementary cellular automaton of rule 182.     

英语语调性别差异的统计分析

本文主要采用语料库语言学的研究方法,选取IViE语料库中英国剑桥地区6男6女共12位母语朗读者的不同句型的单句和段落朗读中的相关句型,从英语语调的核心声学参数调核音高入手,分析男女朗读者在5种不同句子类型(陈述句、陈述疑问句、一般疑问句、特殊疑问句和感叹句)上的异同。我们针对408句声音语料,利用先进的计算机语音分析软件获取研究数据,再通过严格的统计分析,以定量分析的方式考察英语不同句型的调核音高差异程度和调核音高的性别差异,分析英国英语语调在调核音高上的性别差异和特点。     

Chinese and English Mathematics Language: The Relation Between Linguistic Clarity and Mathematics Performance

In Study 1, 48 judges rated the clarity of Chinese, English, and “Chinglish” (Chinese words translated into English) mathematical words-for example, the Chinglish version of the Chinese word for quadrilateral is “four-side-shape.” Native Chinese-speaking judges achieve greater agreement on the relative clarity of Chinese words than do native English-speaking judges on the relative clarity of English words. More Chinese words are rated clear than are English. Chinglish mathematical words tend to be rated more clear than English. The inherent compound word structure of the Chinese language seems well suited to portray mathematical ideas.

In Study 2, we examined the relations among the clarity of Chinese mathematical terms, U.S. urban junior high school students' Chinese reading ability, and their mathematics performance. There is a strong correlation between Chinese reading ability and performance on test items with mathematics words rated clear by Chinese judges. The relative clarity of mathematical terms in the Chinese language may contribute to Chinese-speaking students' understanding of mathematics and to superior mathematics performance.