1,721,012 research outputs found
Disentangling the Impact of Bilingualism and SES in Literacy Skills of Language-Minority Bilingual Children and Monolingual Peers Exposed to French
Full text linkIn the present study, we aimed to disentangle the impact of bilingualism and socioeconomic status (SES) on literacy in language-minority bilingual children (LMBC) and monolinguals exposed to French. We also wanted to explore the role of these two factors on cognitive and language skills, i.e., verbal knowledge (VK), morphosyntactic comprehension (MC), and phonological short-term memory (PSTM), well known to be important predictors of literacy acquisition. We compared LMBC with low and medium-high SES, and monolinguals with low and medium-high SES. All the children attended Grades 3, 4, and 5. We found that LMBC underperformed monolinguals on VK and MC. Low SES children showed lower scores compared to medium-high SES children on VK, MC, and PSTM. With regard to literacy, LMBC underperformed monolinguals on text and irregular word reading. Low SES children underperformed medium-high SES children only in regular word reading and pseudoword spelling. As a whole, bilingualism had an effect on measures involving lexical components, while SES had a more widespread effect on cognitive and language skills. The results are discussed considering implications for research, clinical, and educational settings
Analysis of the Impact of Electric Vehicle Penetration on Italian Electric Supply System
Full text linkElectric vehicles are progressively emerging in the light-duty passenger market as a promising alternative to oil-dependent road transport in the attempt to achieve greenhouse gas and pollutant emissions reduction. However, it is necessary to study in detail and to assess how a high penetration of electric vehicles in the private passenger vehicle fleet would affect strategic planning of large scale energy systems in the medium-long term period.
This study evaluates the integration of electric vehicles in the Italian energy scenario, assessing the impact on power generation capacity, energy consumption, CO2 emissions on a medium-long term perspective (up to 2030–2050), with the support of the EnergyPLAN software tool.
The national energy system has been accurately characterized using currently available data and its operation has been simulated with varying degrees of electric vehicle penetration through an integrated analysis method. The energy scenarios developed take into account realistic growth trends for variable renewable energy sources.
The results obtained assess the potential impact of electric vehicles in cutting transport carbon emissions and highlight potential sensible primary energy savings. Nevertheless, the analysis also reveals that an increase in electric vehicle penetration does not necessarily correlate directly to a growth in generation from renewable energy sources, because electric vehicle recharging strategies, and in particular the time of day when most vehicles are recharged, influence which power plants are mostly used to cover the additional electric energy needs
Oral language predictors of word reading and spelling: A cross-linguistic comparison in bilingual and monolingual children
Full text linkThe current study investigated linguistic predictors of word reading and spelling skills in a cross-linguistic comparison (French vs. Italian) in heritage bilinguals (HBs) and their monolingual peers. The sample included 265 children (French: n = 113; 67 monolinguals and 46 HBs; Italian: n = 152; 82 monolinguals and 70 HBs) attending Grades 3, 4, and 5 while performing oral language, reading, and spelling tasks. The battery included verbal knowledge, morphosyntactic comprehension, nonword repetition, word reading (speed and accuracy), and spelling tasks. Results showed that for reading speed, there were no main effects of single predictors, but a significant interaction of morphosyntactic comprehension by language of schooling emerged. For reading accuracy, there was a main effect of verbal knowledge and syntactic comprehension, with a significant interaction of verbal knowledge and language of schooling. Finally, spelling accuracy was predicted only by linguistic status. The results suggest different pathways for word reading and spelling, with oral language skills’ main role in reading accuracy and linguistic status's main role in spelling skills, possibly hindered by linguistic exposure and lexical access. Discussions are focused on potential implications for multilingual settings and cross-linguistic research
Assessing the effectiveness of hydrogen pathways: A techno-economic optimisation within an integrated energy system
Full text linkWith the world still far off-track from averting relentless global warming, and most countries struggling in meeting their self-imposed goals, hydrogen can potentially play a crucial role in tackling the major challenge of decarbonising the global economy in the framework of a sustainable development. Capable to store, carry, and convert energy in a variety of ways, hydrogen can be a versatile tool to exploit fully the potential of renewable energy sources. Using a holistic approach within a techno-economic optimisation, this study aims at analysing quantitatively the effect of different possible energy pathways employing hydrogen, taking the Italian energy system as a case study, assuming a progressive growth in both renewable power generation capacity and electric mobility in private transport. Results confirm the beneficial impact of hydrogen and identify three hydrogen-based pathways in the optimised energy scenarios: production of synthetic natural gas to partially replace natural gas in the grid and both direct hydrogen consumption and production of synthetic liquid fuel in the heavy transport sector. Direct hydrogen injection in the gas grid plays a negligible role instead. At most, CO2 emissions can be reduced by 49 % within the investigated scenarios, with an increase in annual costs of 8 %
Impact and costs of proposed scenarios for power sector decarbonisation: An Italian case study
Full text linkIn the face of ever more ambitious global energy challenges, the European Union has set striving climate targets for 2030, planning to increase renewable energy penetration in the electricity generation as a key measure towards a clean energy transition. To respond to the challenge of keeping the increase in power sector costs, that inevitably arises when a profound reconfiguration of the electricity generation sector is expected, to the lowest possible, this paper aims to quantify the economic burden associated with the reduction of direct CO2 emissions through a comparative assessment of various alternatives proposed for 2030 ranked in terms of their cost-effectiveness. A sensitivity analysis is also applied to the main economic and energy parameters that make up CO2 mitigation costs to include those uncertainties that characterise future projections. The impact of electricity generation shares on CO2 mitigation costs is assessed thus providing a basis for the definition of alternative configurations for the Italian electricity sector capable to achieve the desired environmental performance with a limited economic impact. Finally, results reveal that those scenarios based largely on natural gas and solar source are characterized by high mitigation costs, while energy efficiency is essential for a virtuous and clean electricity sector along with the use of all available sources in appropriate shares, both renewable and non-renewable, to pursue the highest environmental objectives in a cost-effective manner. Although related to the Italian case, the methodology provided in this study can be applied to any other electricity sector to ultimately evaluate the economic burden arising from possible different configurations
On the role of electric vehicles towards low-carbon energy systems: Italy and Germany in comparison
No full textElectric vehicles can play a major role in the transition towards low-carbon energy systems, but the related increase in electricity demand inevitably affects the strategic planning of the overall energy system as well as the definition of the optimal power generation mix. With this respect, the impact of electric vehicles may vary significantly depending on the composition of both total primary energy supply and electricity generation sector. In this study Italy and Germany are compared to highlight how a similarity in their renewable shares not necessarily leads to similar results in CO2 emissions reduction. Different energy scenarios are simulated with the help of EnergyPLAN software assuming a progressive increase in renewable energy sources capacity and electric vehicles penetration. Results show that, for the German case, the additional electricity required leads to a reduction in CO2 emissions only if renewable capacity increases significantly, whereas the Italian energy system benefits from transport electrification even at low renewable capacity. With a sixfold increase in renewables capacity and assuming a complete electrification of private transportation where electric vehicles charging strategy is regulated to enhance renewable integration, CO2 emissions can be reduced by 22% and 39% for Italy and Germany respectively. However, this comes along with a remarkable renewable surplus, respectively equal to 15% and 28% of the total national production unless large-scale energy storage systems are deployed
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
- …
