Institutional and policy-related implications on quality education access in Shanghai: Middle-class locals, outsiders and foreigners compared

This article examines China's national education system focusing on the city of Shanghai, in order to evaluate the school-related institutional constraints and opportunities of three major institutional categories: locals, Chinese outsiders and foreign expatriates. The study sheds light on the generated and perceived education-related inequality of each category and is aimed at stimulating reflection and discussion on a more inclusive education system. The empirical findings hereby presented are the result of qualitative research, which highlights a pattern in the educational evaluations of the different groups: the farther the geographical (and institutional) identity, the stronger the tendency to select private or international schools. This argument quite naturally spurs from institutional policies, which tend to favor locals as receivers of national education. The article is divided into three main sections: key educational policy elements for the city of Shanghai; institutional constraints and advantages for each of the aforementioned categories; school offer in Shanghai, as well as main research findings related to institutional frame, limitations, primary options and decisive factors related to the educational decisions of locals, outsiders and foreigners compared

Understanding and Evaluating Stereotypes towards Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Symptom Subtypes

Public stigma has detrimental impacts on those with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Yet, stereotypes associated with OCD are poorly understood. Given the heterogeneity of OCD symptom presentations, a conceptualization of stereotypes associated with symptom subtypes is warranted to inform stigma reduction efforts. In Study 1 (N = 60), participants read one of five vignettes on OCD subtypes (Symmetry/Just Right, Contamination, Sexual, Harm/Aggression, or Scrupulous) prior to responding to Internet-delivered open-ended questions. Study 1 methods followed the qualitative description framework, such that data were derived from participant responses and findings were presented using participant language. Prior to final coding and theme evaluation, all qualitative codes were validated by a subset (n = 23) of participants (i.e., Study 1 member check). An inductive content analysis was used to allow qualitative themes to emerge from Study 1 data. These methods followed the systematic, empirical approach of the postpositivist conceptual framework. In Study 2, (N = 698) participants completed an Internet-delivered quantitative survey in which they were randomized to read one of seven vignettes (OCD subtypes, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Schizophrenia) prior to completing previously established stigma measures and an OCD stigma measure developed from Study 1 themes. In Study 1, a total of fifteen themes and two subthemes emerged across conditions. Stereotypes associated with anxiety-relevant stigma (e.g., trivial symptoms, social awkwardness) most commonly emerged for Symmetry/Just Right and Contamination, while stereotypes associated with serious mental illness stigma (SMI; e.g., dangerous, disturbed) emerged for Harm/Aggression and Sexual Vignettes. The Scrupulous vignette was associated with both anxiety-relevant and SMI stereotypes. Additionally, unique themes (e.g., odd, nuisance, and withdrawn) that are not typically associated with anxiety or SMI-stigma also emerged. For Study 2, data suggested that the Sexual and Harm/Aggression vignettes appeared to be associated with the greatest stigma across measures compared to all other vignettes. However, the Scrupulous vignette was associated with the greatest stigma on the anxiety-relevant subscale of the OCD stigma measure. Across measures, the Sexual, Harm/Aggression, and Schizophrenia vignettes demonstrated similar stigma endorsements, which were often greater than the Symmetry/Just Right, Contamination, and GAD vignettes. Like Study 1, the Scrupulous vignette was associated with both groupings; that is, of autogenous (i.e., repugnant/unacceptable thoughts; Sexual and Harm/Aggression) and reactive obsessions (i.e., thought content perceived as rational; Contamination and Symmetry/Just Right). Further, and aligned with hypotheses, prior mental health treatment and more frequent contact with symptomatic individuals were associated with lower stigma across assessments. Across studies, results suggested that OCD stigma shares stereotypes with anxiety-relevant and SMI stigma. Though stereotypes emerged for specific OCD subtypes (e.g., withdrawn, nuisance), these do not appear to be unique to OCD (given their shared occurrence for Schizophrenia and GAD on the OCD stigma measure). In general, these studies support groupings of autogenous and reactive obsessions with regards to their SMI and anxiety-relevant stigma endorsement. However, the Scrupulous vignette appears to be strongly associated with both SMI and anxiety-relevant stigma (and thus, both autogenous and reactive groupings). Stigma reduction interventions for OCD should focus on macro-level stereotypes (i.e., stereotypes that exist across symptom groupings, such as perceptions of blame or a social outcast). Moreover, interventions should include psychoeducation about obsessional content and be targeted to address contextual factors (e.g., sociodemographic characteristics, cultural considerations, symptom presentations) relevant to the population of interest to allow for frequent contact, and thus, stigma reduction

Mnemonic Discrimination and Social Anxiety: The Role of State Anxiety

The Mnemonic Similarity Task (MST) measures mnemonic discrimination, or the ability to correctly identify new stimuli from highly similar, old stimuli. Neuroscientific and theoretical suppositions suggest that poor mnemonic discrimination may represent a potential risk or maintenance factor for anxious individuals. However, state affect appears to moderate the relation between mnemonic discrimination abilities and trait anxiety. The current study aimed to elucidate the nascent research on mnemonic discrimination and anxiety by evaluating the MST in a specific subtype of anxiety (i.e., social anxiety) and utilizing a clinically relevant stressor task (i.e., knowledge of a future speech). Participants (N = 131) were recruited based on their high or low-levels of social anxiety and were randomly assigned to a stressor condition (i.e., learning about the delivery of a future speech) or a control condition prior to the MST. Participants’ levels of self-reported state anxiety were measured throughout the study. Results did not indicate any significant effects related to social anxiety group (high vs. low social anxiety) or condition (stressor vs. control) on mnemonic discrimination abilities. However, this may have been due to the instability of the stressor manipulation or generally low levels of state anxiety across timepoints. Implications or results and future directions are discussed

Trade-off between power and bandwidth consumption in a reconfigurable xhaul network architecture

The increasing number of wireless devices, the high required traffic bandwidth, and power consumption will lead to a revolution of mobile access networks, which is not a simple evolution of traditional ones. Cloud radio access network technologies are seen as promising solution in order to deal with the heavy requirements defined for 5G mobile networks. The introduction of the common public radio interface (CPRI) technology allows for a centralization in BaseBand unit (BBU) of some access functions with advantages in terms of power consumption saving when switching off algorithms are implemented. Unfortunately, the advantages of the CPRI technology are to be paid with an increase in required bandwidth to carry the traffic between the BBU and the radio remote unit (RRU), in which only the radio functions are implemented. For this reason, a tradeoff solution between power and bandwidth consumption is proposed and evaluated. The proposed solution consists of: 1) handling the traffic generated by the users through both RRU and traditional radio base stations (RBS) and 2) carrying the traffic generated by the RRU and RBS (CPRI and Ethernet flows) with a reconfigurable network. The proposed solution is investigated under the lognormal spatial traffic distribution assumption. After proposing resource dimensioning analytical models validated by simulation, we show how the sum of the bandwidth and power consumption may be minimized with the deployment of a given percentage of RRU. For instance we show how in 5G traffic scenarios this percentage can vary from 30% to 50% according to total traffic amount handled by a switching node of the reconfigurable network

Cultural mega-events in heritage-rich cities: Insights from the European capital of culture and broader policy perspectives

The European Capital of Culture (ECoC) is a well-known and long-standing European policy that annually awards the title of Capital to two or more cities that deliver cultural initiatives throughout one year of celebrations. The programme has been hosted by over 60 cities throughout Europe during the last 35 years. Some host cities have used the ECoC to develop large projects that contribute to urban rebranding and regeneration (e.g. the facilities on the new waterfront of Marseille, made for the 2013 ECoC) and, more frequently, projects that adapt existing facilities and places, or smaller scale and less spectacular interventions in the city fabric. As a wide variety of differing cities have hosted the event, the ECoC has contributed to urban transformations at different scales, often with particular reference to historic and heritage-rich settings, but also brings about long-term effects in terms of cultural facilities and venues, tourism appeal and even the intangible heritage narratives attached to places. Drawing on the HOMEE Research Project and on recent publications by the authors, this paper discusses the range of large-to-small-scale planning, the (re)generation of cultural facilities and places in historic cities and heritage-rich areas to accommodate cultural mega-events and the effects they have on host cities over time. In the conclusions, the paper expands beyond the ECoC (in the direction of sport mega-events) to consider and highlight forthcoming challenges for urban policy-making and the planning of mega-events in Europe

The hydrogeological role of an aquitard in preventing drinkable water well contamination: a case study.

Groundwater pollution has become a worrisome phenomenon, mainly for aquifers underlying industrialized areas. In order to evaluate the risk of pollution, a model of the aquifer is needed. Herewith, we describe a quasi-tridimensional model, which we applied to a multilayered aquifer where a phreatic aquifer was coupled to a confined one by means of an aquitard. This hydrogeological scheme is often met in practice and, therefore, models a number of situations. Moreover, aquitards play and important role in the management of natural resources of this kind. The model we adopted contains some approximations: the flow within the aquifers is assumed to be horizontal, whereas leakage is assumed vertical. The effect of some wells drilled in these aquifers is also taken into account. In order to evaluate the leakage fluxes that correspond to different exploitation conditions, we numerically solve a system of quasilinear and time-dependent partial differential equations. This model has been calibrated by the hydrogeological data from a water supply station of the Milan Water Works, where water is polluted by some halocarbons. Our simulations account for several experimental facts, both from the hydrogeological and hydrogeochemical viewpoints. Maxima of computed downward leakage rates are found to correspond with measured pollutant concentration maxima. Other results show how the aquitard can help in minimizing the contamination of drinkable water

Changing mega-events’ spatial strategies and cultural policy: scaling down, spacing out, and assembling organizations in the cases of London and Milan

Despite the proposed ‘certainty’ in a city or region hosting a mega-event, there has long been issues of uncertainty surrounding the planning and implementation of what have until now essentially been mega-projects. Large events have found a variety of ways to adapt and respond to unforeseen circumstances due to political conflicts, planning of oversize venues, limited time of implementation, and legacies that are difficult to manage. Considering the further increased uncertainty surrounding the planning of mega-events as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper examines how an accompanying cultural component—e.g., the Cultural Olympiad—may help cities that plan for events like the Olympics transition toward diversified drivers and long-term legacy. In particular, the case of cultural offering in Milan between the two mega-events of Expo 2015 and the upcoming 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympic Games shows how host cities can address growing uncertainty through the expanded role of a cultural programme combined with the rescaling of traditional mega-event formats. With this purpose, 2012 London Cultural Olympiad has been selected as an antecedent example—with positive and negative outcomes—to critically review the relationships between the Olympics and the Cultural Olympiad, as well as their widespread spatial strategy and public engagement. In addition, the paper offers more general conclusions regarding learning potentials of jointly studying mega-events and cultural policy

Demonstration of Flexible mmWave Digital Beamforming Transmitter using Sigma-Delta Radio-Over-Fiber Link

This work demonstrates a millimeter-wave digital beamforming transmitter based on a sigma-delta radio-over-fiber link. The digital beamforming is controlled from a central unit and distributed to a remote radio unit using a standardized quad small form-factor pluggable 28 (QSFP28) fiber connection. The experimental results demonstrate 26.2 GHz transmission with high-quality beamforming functionality up to 130 MHz effective radio bandwidth at 2.2 m wireless distance. The solution offers a flexible transmitter solution suitable for millimeter-wave distributed active antenna systems