Search results for "PPI"

Measuring foreland container port connectivity disaggregated by destination markets: An index for Short Sea Shipping services in Spanish ports

2020

Abstract The present research aims to develop a Foreland Port Connectivity Index (FPCI) including both qualitative and quantitative variables related to the characteristics of the maritime services provided. To that end, the FPCI incorporates two discount factors—the number of shipping services and destination countries—as penalties to correct for the quality of a port connection. After defining the FPCI, the index is applied to Spanish ports to study their connectivity in terms of container Short Sea Shipping (SSS) services. Although the connectivity of SSS traffic has not been widely studied, it is an interesting case study as small ports play a more relevant role in facilitating access t…

System Dynamics in the Predictive Analytics of Container Freight Rates

2021

This study proposes a two-tier cross-validation and backtesting procedure, including expanding and rolling-window test metrics in predictive analytics of container freight rates by utilizing the system dynamics approach. The study utilized system dynamics to represent the nonlinear complex structure of container freight rates for predictive analytics and performed univariate and multivariate time-series analysis as benchmarks of the conventional approach. In particular, the China containerized freight index (CCFI) has been investigated through various parametric methodologies (both conventional time-series and system dynamics approaches). This study follows a strict validation process cons…

A stochastic dynamical social model involving a human happiness index

2018

[EN] This paper presents a new human happiness index built through five dimensions: development, freedom, solidarity, justice and peace. These five dimensions are evaluated through quantitative variables obtained from the Human Development Reports, World Data Bank and Eurostat. The new happiness index has been built following the guidelines set by the Human Development Reports of the UN for the construction of quality indices, and it has been compared on a set of 13 EU countries with the Overall Life Satisfaction Index, which is used by the UN. Moreover, the new index has been included in a dynamic mathematical model through the demographic rates to study the evolution of the population. Th…

Studying the visual and material dimensions of education and learning

2018

Visual Methods in Researching Language Practices and Language Learning: Looking at, Seeing, and Designing Language

2016

The changing ways of using language and various understandings of what language is have consequences for the way we research language practices and language learning. When engaging in social contact, people use diverse and complex forms, modes, and varieties of language to communicate, and moreover, these resources often include icons, images, and other semiotic ways of meaning making. Visuality thus has a natural position in people’s language practices. In this chapter, we discuss how visual methods have been adopted and used as a methodological tool in researching language practices and language learning. With this focus, attention is geared to the materiality of language, on the one hand…

Material scaffolding : Supporting the comprehension of migrant cleaners at work

2016

Linguistic diversity is growing in labour markets throughout Europe, including Finland, where cleaning is the most common job for immigrants. This paper explores material scaffolding provided for second language users in tasks involved in cleaning work. The notion of ‘scaffolding’ refers to temporary and adaptive support, and here the emphasis is especially on ‘material scaffolding’, that is, material artefacts and body movements employed in mentoring. The theoretical framework of the study is van Lier’s (2004) ecological perspective on language learning, and a discourse-ethnographic perspective of nexus analysis (Scollon and Scollon 2004) is adopted to analyse the ethnographic data collect…

Relationship between students' opinions, background factors and learning outcomes: Finnish 9th graders learning English

2017

Constructed Action, the Clause and the Nature of Syntax in Finnish Sign Language

2017

AbstractThis paper investigates the interplay of constructed action and the clause in Finnish Sign Language (FinSL). Constructed action is a form of gestural enactment in which the signers use their hands, face and other parts of the body to represent the actions, thoughts or feelings of someone they are referring to in the discourse. With the help of frequencies calculated from corpus data, this article shows firstly that when FinSL signers are narrating a story, there are differences in how they use constructed action. Then the paper argues that there are differences also in the prototypical structure, linkage type and non-manual activity of clauses, depending on the presence or non-prese…

CLIL: A European Approach to Bilingual Education

2016

Content and language integrated learning (CLIL) is a term used especially in Europe for forms of bilingual education where an additional language, in most cases English, is used as the language of instruction in non‐language school subjects. This chapter outlines the development of CLIL, embedded both in European level policies and in growing awareness of the new orientations to language learning introduced, for example, in language immersion research. Because of its potential to serve as a context for meaningful language use and situated language learning, CLIL has been regarded by EU institutions as an important instrument to foster European citizens’ bi‐ and multilingualism, to be offere…

Finländska svensklärares undervisningspraktiker och deras samband med elevers inlärningsresultat

2019

Lärarens val av undervisningspraktiker spelar en avgörande roll för elevers inlärningsresultat. I lärarkognitionen ingår förmågan att på adekvata sätt styra och handleda elevens inlärningsprocess och utvärdera dess utgång med livslångt lärande som huvudsyfte. I artikeln kartläggs och analyseras vilka samband som finns mellan undervisningspraktiker och elevers inlärningsresultat i svenskans långa lärokurs i slutet av den grundläggande utbildningen. Materialsamplet härstammar från den finländska nationella utvärderingen från 2013 och omfattar 1679 elever och 98 lärare, vars respons genomgick en fördjupad analys. Ur analysen framgick en tämligen traditionell bild av lärarnas arbetssätt. Vissa …