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This chapter discusses findings from a multiple case study of language learning programmes offered to adult migrant learners in Cyprus, Scotland, Malta and Estonia. First, using a cross-comparative policy analysis, the discussion synthesizes indicators of integration embedded in education policies and provisions for adult migrant learners. This analysis brings to light an overall inclusive approach: providers and programmes emerged as comparable in terms of type of programmes (formal, informal and nonformal; academic, vocational and interest-based); options available (academic, vocational and interest-based) and providers (state and civil society). However, policy analysis also illuminates restrictive indicators, such as traits of monocultural, generalizing policymaking that lacks consideration of sociodemographic differences between adult migrant learners. Secondly, the discussion validates the synthesized indicators by means of an analysis of qualitative data concerning the language programmes and related micro classroom-based practices, retrieved using qualitative research with adult migrant learners, their educators and related policy executives. Validated indicators include an inclusive approach to learners' entitlement to educational provision, as testified by educators' and policy executives' values and pedagogical approaches. Indeed, despite traits of monoculturalism and generalizing or homogenizing approaches identified at policy level, micro context data illuminated stakeholders' critical acknowledgement of the need of differentiated teaching and learning. Research-based recommendations include increased cooperation between state entities (e.g., inter-ministerial collaboration) and between state and civil societies, as well as professional development for adult educators that elicits their agency in proactively resisting and changing restrictive aspects of existent policies and practices.

Using Shanghai as an example, the purpose of this paper is to perform grade evaluation and zoning for different land use spaces by GIS by identifying the major restrictive factors in current socio-economic development.

Based on short plate theory, 11 major restrictive indicators that will restrict socio-economic development in Shanghai are identified, and urban land is divided into four subspaces and the restrictive grade evaluation of urban land subspace is achieved with GIS spatial analysis; then, land development zoning is processed according to the results of the evaluation.

In all, 11 major restrictive indicators that will restrict socio-economic development in Shanghai are identified. The restrictive grades of the agricultural production, urban construction and ecological protection subspaces are mainly common, weak and weaker, and the relatively strong restrictive grade of industrial development subspace is mainly concentrated in the more developed industrial districts (counties). The areas of the common and good regions of constructive development and ecological development zones account for 87.4 and 98.3 per cent of each total area, respectively, and urban land still has significant development potential in Shanghai.

This paper proposes various urban land space evaluations and zoning strategies based on restrictive indicators and perspectives, enriching the ideas and methods of urban land use evaluation.

The two most used citation impact indicators in the assessment of scientific journals are, nowadays, the impact factor and the h-index. However, both indicators are not field normalized (vary heavily depending on the scientific category). Furthermore, the impact factor is not robust to the presence of articles with a large number of citations, while the h-index depends on the journal size. These limitations are very important when comparing journals of different sizes and categories. The purpose of this paper is to propose an alternative citation impact indicator, based on the percentage of highly cited articles in the journal.

This alternative indicator is empirically compared with the impact factor and the h-index, considering different time windows and citation percentiles (levels of citation for considering an article as highly cited compared to others in the same year and category). The authors use four journal categories (Clarivate Analytics Web of Science) which are quite different according to the publication profiles and citation levels (Information Science & Library Science, Operations Research & Management Science, Ophthalmology, and Physics Condensed Matter).

After analyzing 20 different indicators, depending on the citation percentile and the time window in which citations are counted, the indicator that seems to best homogenize the categories is the one that considers a time window of two years and a citation level of 10 percent.

The percentage of highly cited articles in a journal is field normalized (comparable between scientific categories), independent of the journal size and also robust to the presence of articles with a high number of citations.

This study aims to present diverse proposals for the measurement of tourism destination competitiveness that serve as alternatives to the travel and tourism competitiveness index (TTCI).

The proposal includes principal component analysis, the DP2-distance method, goal programming, data envelopment analysis and the Borda count. The study evaluates 17 destinations from Central America and the Caribbean.

These include the feasibility that the methodologies provide reliable competitiveness rankings and the possibility of using less information due to the strength of the statistical methodologies. International tourist arrivals, income from international tourism and travel and tourism contribution to the gross domestic product could be used as approximations of tourism destination competitiveness.

The main limitation is the absence of major destinations from the region that constitutes fierce competitors.

New aggregation methods can build composite indicators for competitiveness measurement and their presentation in a more comprehensible way.

The results serve as an alternative for countries that have yet to be considered in international tourism competitiveness comparisons.

A better explanatory power of the proposed index is given, thanks to their decomposition capacity and the reduction of the limitations of the original TTCI. Moreover, the proposals facilitate the inclusion of external information or the execution of a completely objective methodology.

本研究旨在为衡量旅游目的地竞争力提出多样化的建议, 并作为旅行和旅游竞争力指数的替代方案。

该提案包括主成分分析、DP₂ 距离方法、目标规划、数据包络分析和 Borda 计数。 该研究评估了中美洲和加勒比地区的 17 个目的地。

结果包括这些方法提供可靠的竞争力排名的可行性, 以及由于统计方法的优势而使用较少信息的可能性。 国际旅游人数、国际旅游收入以及旅行和旅游对 GDP 的贡献可以用作旅游目的地竞争力的近似值。

主要局限是该地区没有竞争激烈的主要目的地。

新的聚合方法可以为竞争力测量建立综合指标, 并以更易于理解的方式呈现。

结果可作为国际旅游竞争力比较中, 衡量尚未考虑国家的替代方案。

由于其分解能力和原始 TTCI 限制的减少, 所提出的指数具有更好的解释力。 此外, 这些建议有助于纳入外部信息及执行完全客观的方法。

El presente estudio busca presentar diversas metodologías para medir la competitividad de los destinos turísticos, de modo que sirvan como alternativa al Índice de Competitividad de Viajes y Turismo.

La propuesta incluye Análisis de Componentes Principales, el método de distancia DP₂, Programación por Metas, Análisis Envolvente de Datos y el Recuento de Borda. Se analizan 17 destinos de Centro América y el Caribe.

Estos incluyen la validez de las metodologías para obtener rankings de competitividad fiables y la posibilidad de emplear menor cantidad de información, dadas las fortalezas de los procedimientos estadísticos propuestos. Las Llegadas de Turistas Internacionales, los Ingresos por Turismo Internacional, y la Contribución del Turismo al PIB podrían ser buenas aproximaciones para medir competitividad turística

La principal limitación es la ausencia de destinos importantes de la región, que se consideran importantes competidores.

Novedosos procedimientos de agregación para crear indicadores sintéticos para medir la competitividad turística y su presentación de un modo más comprensible.

Los resultados sirven como alternativa para otros destinos que aún no han sido considerados en comparaciones internacionales de competitividad turística.

Un mejor poder explicativo de los índices propuestos, gracias a su capacidad de descomposición, y la reducción de las limitaciones del índice del WEF. Además, las propuestas facilitan la inclusión de información externa o la ejecución de un método completamente objetivo.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether regulatory restriction on executive compensation in Chinese state-owned enterprises is beneficial to firm performance. The authors also examine the role of monitoring mechanisms in offsetting the effect of compensation restriction.

Multivariate analysis is conducted using archival data from Chinese listed companies over the period of 2007-2014.

The findings show that the restriction on executive compensation is negatively associated with a firm’s accounting performance, and this negative effect is ameliorated in firms with good internal control and a high level of institutional shareholding. Additional analysis reveals that the negative effect of pay restriction on firm performance is more pronounced in central government-controlled listed SOEs than in those controlled by local government.

This study is the first to investigate a government’s say-on-pay policy. Specifically, the findings pinpoint the inefficacy of regulatory intervention in corporate executive compensation. The findings add to compensation literature using China’s unique institutional setting.

The purpose of this research is to study the relation between “restrictiveness” of a country's trade policy and its socio‐economic well‐being as reflected in the indicators of human development.

A recently‐developed trade‐restrictiveness‐index (TRI), which seems superior to almost all existing indexes of trade policy or “outward orientation”, is related with infant‐mortality, child‐mortality, maternal‐mortality, access to safe water, access to basic sanitation, and secondary‐school enrollment, which are well‐known and important measures of a country's human development and are closely related to several Millennium Development Goals. In addition to a consideration of the covariation between TRI and the six human‐development measures, estimates from parsimonious regression models are studied. Sensitivity checks are conducted by considering covariations and regression estimates for another trade‐policy index and different country groups.

The evidence overwhelmingly shows that, contrary to the position shared and disseminated widely, there is no indication that a more restrictive international trade policy has a significant negative association with human development or socio‐economic well‐being. Every correlation between trade restrictiveness index and human‐development measures is close to zero. Almost every regression coefficient of trade‐restrictiveness‐index lacks statistical significance at any meaningful level, and a consistent pattern is noted across two measures of trade policy and different country groups.

The evidence suggests much caution in the articulation and dissemination of the widely‐shared view that a more restrictive trade policy is detrimental to a country's socio‐economic well‐being. In particular, it implies that international organizations and developed‐country governments may not force developing‐country governments to adopt more “outward‐oriented” trade policies, but may let them choose the trade‐policy stance they find appropriate for their country. The estimates also reinforce the view that great care be exercised by scholars in the choice of trade‐openness measures for studying the relation between trade policy and economic well‐being.

In the vast literature on the nexus between trade policy and economic well‐being, this is probably the only study that relates six important measures of human development with what seems to be the best available index of restrictiveness of a country's trade policy. Therefore, the research, which is based on a fairly large cross‐country sample, may be deemed as highly significant on a topic of much scientific and policy relevance.

Guided by Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological System’s model, this study documented acculturation and parental involvement in low-income Chinese immigrant homes that serve as predictors of parental mediation. By surveying 165 parents of 3–13-year-old immigrant children, this study found that low-income Chinese parents enacted restrictive mediation the most and exhibited a slow acculturation process even after an average of seven years of emigration. Higher parental acculturation was related to a higher use of active and restrictive mediation. Additionally, different aspects of parental involvement also served as predictors of the three mediation strategies. Chinese cultural emphasis on academic excellence and success was used to help interpret the findings. Future research should consider implementing research-based adult media literacy programs for immigrant parents to help them practice their parental mediation skills in the host culture.

This chapter explores a US state-endorsed tool for reviewing district, school, and classroom inclusive practices. The Best Practices for Inclusive Education (BPIE) assessment tool was developed through a collaborative initiative between state personnel, University faculty, and representatives from a federally funded technical assistance project, Florida Inclusion Network. The tool supports a facilitated review and subsequent action planning for greater inclusive practices that includes learners with severe intellectual disabilities. This chapter describes the BPIE process and offers examples of its application in districts across Florida with particular reference to practices that support learners with severe intellectual disabilities.

Analysis and comparison of three existing indicators of the air quality: the American air quality index, the French Atmo, and the Italian Indice di Qualità dell'Aria.

International general and organic regulations to control air quality do not exist yet. Consequently many countries have independently implemented specific indicators to monitor the air pollution and then alert people of resulting health risks. The paper focuses on three of them. Each one is independently presented showing the peculiarities. Therefore, these indicators are compared to identify the features they have in common, as well as those that set them apart, and to figure out which are either restrictive or permissive, and what are their qualities and drawbacks.

The three mentioned indicators convert the real health risk due to air pollution into numerical information, in different ways. Doing this, they carry out some simplifications or assumptions, which can be questionable. The main difficulty is to understand if the indicators aggregate the different pollutant concentrations consistently with the real effects on human health.

This paper analyses only three specific indicators of the air quality, selected among the existing ones.

Indicators should carefully be analysed to understand if they properly represents the real effects of pollutants on human health. The most critical aspect to consider is the aggregation of the different pollutant concentrations in one information.

This paper analyses the efficacy of representation of some air quality indicators. It discusses if indicators aggregation is consistent with the real effects on human health.

Little is known as to the breadth and diversity of Open Source Software (OSS) applications for libraries and the development characteristics that influence the sustainability and success of projects creating them. The purpose of this paper is to address this gap by analyzing a large sample of library OSS projects.

A total of 594 library OSS projects (469 from SourceForge and 125 from Foss4lib) are classified by type and further differentiated and assessed across a number of criteria including, but not limited to, sponsorship status, license type, and development status.

While various types of library OSS applications were found to be under development and in use, the results show that there has been a steady decrease in the number of projects initiated since 2009. Although sponsorship was significantly positively associated with several indicators of OSS project success, the proportion of sponsored projects was relatively small compared to the proportions reported in some other contexts. In total, 71 percent of the projects have a restrictive license scheme, suggesting that the OSS ideology is valued among library OSS projects. The results also indicate that library OSS projects exhibit several characteristics that differ from the traditional developer-oriented OSS projects in terms of their technical environment.

This study, as the first of its kind, offers a broader, more quantitative picture of the state of library OSS applications as well as the development characteristics of projects developing them. Several implications for research and practice, and directions for future research are provided.