This study explores how secondary school English teachers in Portugal and Spain perceive extramural English (EE) and integrate it into English Language Teaching (ELT). EE involves any exposure to English outside the classroom, through watching videos, listening to music, or playing games – these being the activities identified by teachers in both countries as the most common among their students. The study analyzes teachers’ perspectives on the frequency of students’ exposure to EE activities, the impact of these activities on different language areas, and, more broadly, the relationship between EE and ELT. A total of 244 participants took part in the study. A survey was used as the research instrument. Data were analyzed by means of mixed ANOVA and an exploratory factor analysis. Findings showed that Portuguese teachers reported higher frequencies of student engagement in all EE activities compared to their Spanish counterparts. However, teachers from both countries shared similar perceptions of the impact of EE on language learning, and identified listening skills, informal language use, and the development of vocabulary as the areas most positively influenced by EE. Finally, teachers from both territories supported the integration of EE into ELT.

Underwater three-dimensional (3D) scanning systems play a crucial role in marine archaeology, offshore engineering, and underwater robotics by capturing detailed representations of areas of interest. However, conventional underwater scanning methods are often time-consuming and inefficient, frequently collecting redundant data points that add little value to the overall representation. This study introduces an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven approach to underwater surface scanning that leverages machine learning techniques such as Bayesian optimisation and Gaussian Process regression to address these inefficiencies. A prototype 3D scanner, controlled by machine learning algorithms, was developed and tested in laboratory conditions that replicated the conditions of offshore deployment. Surfaces with different geometries, including flat, conical, and wavy shapes, were scanned to evaluate the performance of the proposed method against traditional approaches. The new scanning method autonomously selects the most informative measurement locations, reducing the number of scans required while exceeding the accuracy of conventional techniques. The results demonstrate that the proposed approach provides more precise surface representations for most geometries while significantly reducing scanning time. The approach not only reduces computational and storage requirements but also enables efficient data transmission in low-bandwidth scenarios, such as with underwater wireless communication systems. This research highlights the potential of machine learning-enhanced scanning systems to outperform traditional methods, offering a faster, more adaptable, and more accurate solution for underwater visualization in diverse scientific and engineering applications.

Early health technology assessment (HTA) has recently been defined as a process for evaluating the “potential value” of technologies at early development stages. This analysis examines how value is characterized in early stages compared to standard HTA. Using the MAPS framework (Methods, Attributes, Procedures, and Social Preferences), the findings indicate that a broader value framework may be applicable to early HTA relative to standard HTA. This framework includes systematic consideration of attributes beyond health-related benefits, such as real option value and innovation, as well as additional methods like fiscal impact analysis and social return on investment. Additionally, there is potential for less variation in early HTA processes globally, given that these assessments are less tied to local funding decisions. Finally, the role of social preferences in early HTA may also involve considering trade-offs and impact modifiers that are particularly relevant in initial stages, and which deserve further research.

Public perception matters for policy outcomes. Most research finds that, in contrast to past drug waves, the public views the contemporary opioid epidemic as a medical rather than criminal justice issue, although a smaller body of research suggests that criminal justice frameworks persist. We know less, however, about how issue publics with direct experience—who are more likely to take action and have the ear of policy makers—understand it. How do people involved in the ecosystem of drug use and policy understand the opioid epidemic, and what are the implications for policy and policy change? We identify the competing issue publics that people with experience represent by the frameworks they draw from and the perceptions they hold. Through in-depth interviews and participant observation, we, too, find that people with direct experience more often use language of the medical framework than the criminal justice framework. Yet underlying the seemingly strong surface-level support for the medical framework, the criminal justice approach remains in place. Within the issue publics critical for policy debates, individuals apply the medical framework selectively to people proximate to them, or they are ambivalent, holding multiple frames (including criminal justice) at once, even among those outside the criminal justice field. Further, our research reinforces how even the medical framework is compatible with many punitive elements. The hidden persistence of a punitive framework allows differential treatment for specific populations today and paves the way for dramatic policy change, potentially in the future. Our research has implications for public perception and policy change more broadly.

Multicore fiber is a prospective medium for high-power lasers. All-fiber cavities based on fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) inscribed by femtosecond pulses in uncoupled cores generate beams independently at wavelengths defined by the individual FBG reflection. However, separate core generation spectra collapse into a single narrow and stable line at strong optical coupling between the cores. The developed model shows that the collapsed spectrum linewidth depends on the number of cores, their coupling strength and the geometric-mean reflection width of individual FBGs. It is revealed that physical mechanisms and quantitative features of linewidth broadening defined by spatial hole burning and Kerr effects are sufficiently modified in comparison with single-core lasers. A performed comparison of the theory with experiment demonstrates a fairly good correspondence of key characteristics, namely the generation wavelength, spectrum shape and the linewidth value depending on power. An extreme linewidth narrowing is predicted for a high-power multicore fiber laser with a greatly increased number of cores and their coupling strength.

The founder of the Hong Kong branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, John Francis Davis, published the first translation of a Chinese play into English, Laou-Seng-Urh, or ‘An Heir in Old Age’, in 1817. While significant in both literary and scholarly terms, Davis’s work is also worthy of attention for its political undercurrents. An anonymously penned introduction draws connections between Davis’s translation and theatrical performances in the context of Qing diplomacy, including Macartney’s embassy of 1793, while an accompanying ‘Advertisement’ highlights Davis’s role as interpreter on Amherst’s subsequent embassy of 1816. This article conclusively attributes these paratexts to the second secretary of the Admiralty, Sir John Barrow. Records from the East India House library, the John Murray Archive, and back-numbers of The Quarterly Review reveal how Barrow exploited Davis’s translation to promote British diplomatic engagement with China and celebrate the embassy on which he had staked his own reputation as a China expert. Though Laou-Seng-Urh achieved few of its political objectives, it nevertheless inadvertently influenced the trajectory of nineteenth-century academic sinology in Europe.

This study investigates the role of working memory (WM) in the development of receptive and productive abilities in Spanish among intermediate second/additional language (L2/A) learners. Participants completed WM assessments and receptive and productive language tasks targeting grammatical gender agreement on articles and adjectives (receptive: acceptability judgment task [AJT]; productive: information gap activity). Results showed group-level improvement for productive performance, but substantial variability in growth for both receptive and productive performance. WM did not significantly predict growth in either ability, suggesting that WM may not strongly influence the development of gender agreement accuracy at this intermediate proficiency level. To extend the analysis beyond behavioral outcomes, an exploratory post hoc analysis examined associations between WM and neural responses during receptive processing. By examining parallel receptive and productive performance and integrating behavioral and neurocognitive approaches, this study highlights the value of interdisciplinary methods moving forward for understanding the role of WM in L2/A development.

The public local inquiry in the planning system is expected to facilitate public participation in environmental decision-making. Public participation in environmental decision-making has the aim of enhancing environmental democracy, making better decisions and improving environmental protection. This paper argues that, despite the long history of participation in the planning system, public local inquiries in their present state are limited in their capacity to facilitate public participation. It contends that the public participation responsibilities of the public local inquiry are hampered by its adversarial procedures. Planning scholars have argued that the formal, adversarial nature of the public local inquiry makes it difficult for people with little legal experience to participate, thus acting as an obstacle to public participation and good decision-making. Drawing on inquiry case law and scholarship, this paper investigates the multiple purposes of the inquiry and how tensions between these purposes have been interpreted by the courts. In exploring the reasons for these conflicts, the paper provides an opportunity to refine the system to facilitate public participation and to ensure that the public local inquiry is fair to its participants and serves the democratic purpose it is expected to meet.