Underneath the Red Carpet: Government Intervention in the Spanish Movie Industry

Despite its glamour and elevated social status, the movie industry receives much assistance from governments around the world. Governments mainly use both direct (subsidies and tax credits) and indirect (screen quotas or censorship) tools to help their own domestic motion picture industries. This article presents evidence of an indirect government intervention in the Spanish movie industry. In 1999, the Spanish government mandated that operating TV networks invest 3% of their receipts on the production of movies in the Spanish language. Using a new dataset of Spanish movies produced between 2000 and 2008, this article studies the empirical relation between TV network participation on movie production and box office success. Private TV network participation (as opposed to public networks) through production (and not distribution) was found to be associated with higher box office revenues and gross profitability rates, even after controlling for movie production budgets.     

Theoretical and numerical local null controllability of a quasi-linear parabolic equation in dimensions 2 and 3

This paper is devoted to the theoretical and numerical analysis of the null controllability of a quasi-linear parabolic equation. First, we establish a local controllability result. The proof relies on an appropriate inverse function argument. Then, we formulate an iterative algorithm for the computation of the null control and we prove a convergence result. Finally, we illustrate the analysis with some numerical experiments.     

Extending the language modeling framework for sentence retrieval to include local context

Employing effective methods of sentence retrieval is essential for many tasks in Information Retrieval, such as summarization, novelty detection and question answering. The best performing sentence retrieval techniques attempt to perform matching directly between the sentences and the query. However, in this paper, we posit that the local context of a sentence can provide crucial additional evidence to further improve sentence retrieval. Using a Language Modeling Framework, we propose a novel reformulation of the sentence retrieval problem that extends previous approaches so that the local context is seamlessly incorporated within the retrieval models. In a series of comprehensive experiments, we show that localized smoothing and the prior importance of a sentence can improve retrieval effectiveness. The proposed models significantly and substantially outperform the state of the art and other competitive sentence retrieval baselines on recall-oriented measures, while remaining competitive on precision-oriented measures. This research demonstrates that local context plays an important role in estimating the relevance of a sentence, and that existing sentence retrieval language models can be extended to utilize this evidence effectively.     

Effects of stimulant medication on learning in children with ADHD

It is well established that stimulant medication improves classroom manageability and attention in terms of time on task, but does stimulant medication improve learning or long-term academic achievement in children with ADHD? There is no clear evidence that it does, but there are at least two reasons why beneficial effects may be obscured in research studies and clinical practice: (1) Higher-than-optimal doses may be prescribed if behavioral response (rather than cognitive response) is used to titrate the dose, and (2) treatment may be overinclusive if diagnostic groups are targeted in which a significant proportion of cases do not have favorable cognitive responses to medication. This article addresses these two issues and describes a large clinical series of patients who were evaluated using a double-blind medication assessment protocol designed to overcome some of the theoretical deficiencies suggested by these issues.     

Communication workers in Spain: The reward of appearance

This article presents the views of rank‐and‐file Spanish journalists about working conditions for media professionals in Spain, based on interviews conducted in 1996.     

How to Engage with Younger Users on Instagram: A Comparative Analysis of HBO and Netflix in the Spanish and US Markets

ABSTRACT

Social media have become useful tools for audiovisual promotion, especially to reach niche audiences. Twitter promotional strategies have been widely studied, yet other growing platforms such as Instagram have been less analyzed. This paper examines the Instagram promotional strategies of two pay-per-view platforms (HBO and Netflix) in two markets (the USA and Spain). A total of 731 messages, posted between May and November 2017, were analyzed to identify their formal features, objectives, and their content’s emotional and cognitive elements posted on HBO and Netflix’s Spanish and US accounts. The results showed acute differences between how HBO and Netflix use their Instagram accounts in the two markets (Spain and the USA). The Spanish accounts mostly provided information, while the US accounts both provided information and promoted program content. Posts from US accounts more frequently included links to social media, particularly to celebrity accounts. Spanish accounts relied more on diegetic images, whereas US accounts emphasized non-diegetic and off-set images. Netflix used humor more than HBO did, and a stronger focus on celebrities. Humor and positive tone were found to be linked to higher engagement.     

LEARNING POTENTIAL ASSESSMENT AND ADAPTATION TO THE EDUCATIONAL CONTEXT: THE USEFULNESS OF THE ACFS FOR ASSESSING IMMIGRANT PRESCHOOL CHILDREN

The objective of this study was to test the usefulness of dynamic assessment for determining cognitive abilities such as classification, auditory and visual memory, pattern sequences, perspective taking, verbal planning, learning potential, and metacognition in immigrant preschool children with and without competence in the dominant language (Spanish). One hundred seventy‐six preschool‐children were distributed in three groups according to the cultural background of their parents (native Spanish/Spanish‐speaking immigrants/non‐Spanish speaking immigrants). The children were assessed by means of the K‐BIT, the Application of Cognitive Functions Scale (ACFS), and metacognition, language competence and academic performance estimates. The results show that although there are initial differences in execution between the two groups (Spanish/immigrants), there are no differences with regard to learning potential. The study also demonstrates the importance of behavioral, attitudinal, and metacognitive variables in children's test execution and academic performance.     

Mapas conceptuales y diagramas uve: dos estrategias en la enseñanza-aprendizaje de la historia

La base espacial y visual de la representación no sólo opera con material no verbal (regletas, juguetes, fichas, etc.) sino que sigue teniendo una eficacia fundamental cuando la docencia pasa a vehicularse predominantemente a través de la palabra. Los diagramas y mapas de palabras pueden ser así un apoyo que para el aprendizaje hace visible y explicita mejor las estructuras conceptuales transmitidas por el lenguaje verbal.     

Thinking emotions with two-year-old children: an educational programme to improve emotional knowledge in young preschoolers / Pensando las emociones con niños de dos años: un programa educativo para mejorar el conocimiento emocional en primer ciclo de Educación Infantil

Abstract

This article aims to present preliminary data to validate and show the effectiveness of the educational programme Thinking emotions with a sample of children aged two years. To test its effectiveness, a sample of 57 children was selected. The sample was divided into experimental group (N = 38) and control group (N = 19). Participants were evaluated for overall development (Brunet-Lezine) and emotional understanding through two tests (AKT and TEC) before and after the implementation of the programme in the classroom. The tutors implemented the programme during school hours in weekly 45-minute sessions over six months. The results show significant advances in emotion understanding of children in the experimental group versus the control group. Results are discussed considering the implications of early education on emotions and the consequences on psychological wellbeing.