Inclusive sport or institutional discrimination? New FIFA regulations,organized football and migrant youth in Italy

Over the last decade, the international governing body of association football, FIFA, has introduced new regulations for the registration of young players. The regulations are aimed at ‘protecting minors’ at being trafficked from developing countries to clubs based in the majority of cases in Europe. While strengthening control on the status of players as young as ten, the FIFA norms and their intersection with national and European norms have laid the legal basis for forms of institutional discrimination meted out to youth of immigrant background living in Europe. This paper emerges from a study on youth of immigrant background’s participation in Italian football. It uses the theoretical framework of Agamben’s analysis of Western democracies’ citizenship crisis to highlight the contradictions implicit in the Italian FA’s implementation of FIFA regulations in a scenario permeated by nationalistic values, which create different levels of participation according to the legal status of young people.     

Human resources for Big Data professions: A systematic classification of job roles and required skill sets

The rapid expansion of Big Data Analytics is forcing companies to rethink their Human Resource (HR) needs. However, at the same time, it is unclear which types of job roles and skills constitute this area. To this end, this study pursues to drive clarity across the heterogeneous nature of skills required in Big Data professions, by analyzing a large amount of real-world job posts published online. More precisely we: 1) identify four Big Data ‘job families’; 2) recognize nine homogeneous groups of Big Data skills (skill sets) that are being demanded by companies; 3) characterize each job family with the appropriate level of competence required within each Big Data skill set. We propose a novel, semi-automated, fully replicable, analytical methodology based on a combination of machine learning algorithms and expert judgement. Our analysis leverages a significant amount of online job posts, obtained through web scraping, to generate an intelligible classification of job roles and skill sets. The results can support business leaders and HR managers in establishing clear strategies for the acquisition and the development of the right skills needed to leverage Big Data at best. Moreover, the structured classification of job families and skill sets will help establish a common dictionary to be used by HR recruiters and education providers, so that supply and demand can more effectively meet in the job marketplace.     

Nonlinear Control of pressurized water reactors with uncertainties estimation via high order sliding mode

In this work, dynamic controllers are designed for reactor power, pressurizer water level, and pressure control in the primary circuit of a pressurized water reactor. These nonlinear controllers use super-twisting sliding-mode estimators to enhance their robustness versus parameter variations and external disturbances. Hence, the perturbative terms can be canceled by the control, thus improving the dynamic behavior of the controlled system. The designed controllers ensure good performances and better transient behavior, also in the presence of uncertainties and disturbances. A performance study of the proposed controllers is carried out in the presence also of unmodeled dynamics.     

One year of anatomy teaching and learning in the outbreak: Has the Covid-19 pandemic marked the end of a century-old practice? A systematic review

At the end of 2019, the Covid-19 pandemic spread caused restrictions in business and social spheres. Higher education was also severely affected: universities and medical schools moved online to distance learning and laboratory facilities closed. Questions arise about the long-term effects of this pandemic on anatomical education. In this systematic review, the authors investigated whether or not anatomical educators were able to deliver anatomical knowledge during this pandemic. They also discuss the challenges that anatomical education has faced over the last year. The search strategy was conducted between July 2020 and July 2021. Two hundred and one records were identified, and a total of 79 studies were finally included. How best to deliver anatomy to students remains a moot point. In the last years, the advent of new technologies has raised the question of the possible overcoming of dissection as the main instrument in anatomical education. The Covid-19 pandemic further sharpened the debate. Remote learning enhanced the use of technologies other than cadaveric dissection to teach anatomy. Moreover, from the analyzed records it appears that both from students' perspective as well as teachers' there is a clear tear between those who endorse dissection and those who believe it could be easily overcome or at least integrated by virtual reality and online learning. The authors strongly believe that the best anatomy teaching practice requires the careful adaptation of resources and methods. Nevertheless, they support cadaveric dissection and hope that it will not be replaced entirely as a result of this pandemic.     

Impact of an inquiry unit on grade 4 students’ science learning

This paper concerns the identification of teaching strategies that enhance the development of 4th grade students’ experimental design skills at a public primary school in Argentina. Students’ performance in the design of relevant experiments was evaluated before and after an eight-week intervention compared to a control group, as well as the persistence of this learning after eight months. The study involved a quasi-experimental longitudinal study with pre-test/post-test/delayed post-test measures, complemented with semi-structured interviews with randomly selected students. Our findings showed improvement in the experimental design skills as well as its sustainability among students working with the inquiry-based sequence. After the intervention, students were able to establish valid comparisons, propose pertinent designs and identify variables that should remain constant. Contrarily, students in the control group showed no improvement and continued to solve the posed problems based on prior beliefs. In summary, this paper shows evidence that implementing inquiry-based units involving problems set in cross-domain everyday situations that combine independent student work with teacher guidance significantly improves the development of scientific skills in real classroom contexts.     

Maternal Support of Children's Early Numerical Concept Learning Predicts Preschool and First‐Grade Math Achievement

The primary goal in this study was to examine maternal support of numerical concepts at 36 months as predictors of math achievement at 4½ and 6‐7 years. Observational measures of mother–child interactions (n = 140) were used to examine type of support for numerical concepts. Maternal support that involved labeling the quantities of sets of objects was predictive of later child math achievement. This association was significant for preschool (d = .45) and first‐grade math (d = .49), controlling for other forms of numerical support (identifying numerals, one‐to‐one counting) as well as potential confounding factors. The importance of maternal support of labeling set sizes at 36 months is discussed as a precursor to children's eventual understanding of the cardinal principle.     

Children and Adolescents’ Attitudes Toward Seeking Help From Professional Mental Health Providers

Counseling services are only likely to be effective if individuals are willing to seek help. Although much of the research on youth help-seeking has focused on adolescents, few studies have examined this in regard to children. Constant comparison analysis of focus group discussions revealed differences based on age and gender. Knowledge, sources of help, willingness, concerns regarding confidentiality, levels of interpersonal openness and stigma tolerance differed based on age. Gender differences were also highlighted. Implications focus on enhancing help-seeking among youth.