Abstract: Students who stall in the final stage of their degree rarely do so because they lack technical skill. More often, confidence erodes under sustained uncertainty, motivation shifts from intrinsic engagement to anxious compliance, and the demands of organizing months of research exceed what willpower alone can sustain. This study examines those emotional and motivational dynamics directly, treating research self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation not as background variables but as the affective-motivational core of thesis performance. Using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) grounded in self-determination theory and social cognitive theory, we tested an integrative model with data from 396 undergraduate students actively completing theses at public and private universities in the northern region of Peru. Four enabling factors — methodological competencies, intrinsic motivation, tutorial support, and resources and conditions — were linked to thesis quality and process efficiency through two mediating mechanisms: research self-efficacy (the confidence to face methodological difficulty without retreating) and project management (the behavioral self-regulation that converts motivation into organized work). Resources and conditions showed the strongest associations in the model, with the largest effects on both project management (β = 0.533) and research self-efficacy (β = 0.418). Self-efficacy, in turn, was the primary predictor of thesis quality (β = 0.518), while project management and quality together drove process efficiency. The model explained 70.5% of variance in thesis quality and 81.4% in process efficiency. These pa

Abstract: This mixed-methods study investigates primary school teachers’ perceptions of giftedness in girls and how gendered recognition processes may contribute to their under-identification in everyday educational practice. International research suggests that teachers’ professional judgement can be shaped by cognitive biases and gendered classroom norms, while many gifted girls may appear less visible because they tend to adapt to school expectations and remain under the radar. Against this background, the study examines whether similar dynamics emerge in the Italian context, where early recognition often relies on teachers’ classroom observation and educational decision-making. Quantitative data were collected through an online questionnaire administered to Italian primary school teachers in 2024. The survey explored teachers’ reported experience with pupils perceived as gifted (not formally assessed), their estimates of how many such pupils are present in their class, and the gender distribution they attributed to these pupils. Qualitative data were collected in 2025 through three focus groups, designed to deepen understanding of the observational criteria teachers use and the instructional decisions associated with recognising giftedness. Focus group transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis. Across the Italian sample, teachers widely reported having taught pupils they considered gifted; however, recognition was disproportionately attributed to boys, with girls mentioned substantially less often. Focus group discussions corroborated this pattern and helped clarify its educational mechanisms: teachers frequently linked giftedness to behavioural salience and participation styles (e.g., visibility, assertiveness, and, at times, disruptiveness), whereas gifted girls were more often described as compliant, discreet, and therefore less likely to be identified through the same informal criteria. Overall, the findings point to a visibility gap in early classroom recognition and underscore the need for teacher education and practical, gender-responsive observational tools that broaden conceptions of giftedness beyond overt performance and support more equitable differentiated instruction, reducing the risk of missed recognition of gifted girls in primary school.

Abstract: Smart manufacturing depends on operational data that remain continuous, interpretable, and reusable in practice. In constrained small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) factories, however, the main bottleneck often lies not in later-stage analytics or AI applications, but in securing an operationally viable data foundation under real deployment conditions. A lifecycle-based analysis of smart manufacturing data pipelines, together with recurrent SME deployment constraints identified in prior studies, led this study to derive six recurring operational risks. On that basis, the study proposes an Operational Data Foundation Framework structured around core requirements of continuity, governance, diagnosability, operability, reprocessability, and evolvability. These requirements are further articulated through design principles and assessable operational invariants. The framework was instantiated in a real SME factory, where heterogeneous field sources were integrated into a coherent operational data foundation for smart manufacturing through constrained communication paths, durable edge-side capture, cloud-side stream processing, controlled data normalization, and monitoring and alerting functions. Requirement-based evidence from the field implementation showed that the system preserved stable semantics across the pipeline, made failures traceable to specific lifecycle segments, preserved historical records for later reprocessing, and remained manageable under constrained deployment conditions. A representative field case further demonstrated the framework's practical value: severe communication instability was diagnosed through lifecycle-segment discrepancy analysis and improved from approximately 33% to 95% packet reception after targeted intervention. The study contributes a field-grounded and assessable design logic for making smart manufacturing practically achievable in constrained SME factories.

Abstract: A fundamental limitation in human–AI systems lies not only in how decisions are produced, but in how they are cognitively understood. While existing research has advanced models of trust, performance, and human–AI interaction, it provides limited conceptual tools for explaining how individuals construct meaning within system-mediated environments. This gap suggests that the challenge of human–AI integration is not only computational, but fundamentally conceptual.This paper develops a structured conceptual framework of conscious leadership to organize the cognitive processes through which individuals interpret, engage with, and act within AI-supported systems. Rather than introducing isolated definitions, the framework is articulated as an interconnected system of constructs that collectively shape perception, interpretation, and decision coherence.Building on prior work on perceptual integrity as a condition of cognitive coherence, the study identifies and integrates a set of foundational constructs, including cognitive balance, meaning gap, leadership latency, and cognitive governance. These constructs are positioned within a unified cognitive architecture that explains how meaning is formed, disrupted, and restored in human–AI interaction.The paper makes three contributions. First, it reframes leadership as a cognitive–interpretive system rather than a purely behavioral or relational construct. Second, it introduces a structured framework as a methodological tool for analyzing and designing human–AI systems. Third, it provides a foundation for future empirical research by defining constructs that can be operationalized and tested across contexts.As intelligent systems increasingly shape decision environments, structuring how meaning is constructed becomes as critical as optimizing decisions. A decision may be technically correct yet cognitively unintegrated. This study positions conceptual structure not as a descriptive layer, but as an active mechanism shaping cognition, leadership, and human–AI coherence.

Abstract: The rapid proliferation of digital technologies has transformed the landscape of gen-der-based violence globally. This quantitative study used an online survey to explore the experiences of women with disabilities in relation to technology facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV) in South Africa. Findings from 204 participants highlight patterns across age, province, education, employment, income, disability type, and forms of TFGBV experienced. They show that cyberbullying, hacking, and hate speech were the most prevalent forms of TFGBV, disproportionately affecting women with various disa-bilities. The study further reveals how socioeconomic disadvantage manifested in limited access to secure technologies, digital literacy, and support systems intensifies exposure to harm and constrains access to justice. The study calls for inclusive, power-conscious ap-proaches to research, policy and interventions that centre lived experiences of women with disabilities. Addressing TFGBV in LMICs therefore requires not only legal reform and digital safety initiatives but also broader strategies for socioeconomic empowerment and systemic transformation to end gendered-disability violence in both the material and virtual world.

Abstract: Large language models (LLMs) have made visible a long‑standing philosophical tension: sophisticated symbolic cognition can arise from large‑scale pattern extraction even in the absence of consciousness. This observation motivates a minimalist conceptual framework grounded in an ontological distinction between conscious regulation and symbolic structures. Language is treated as a crystallized form of human cognition—an externalized, culturally accumulated substrate created by conscious agents over millennia—while the human brain is understood as a biological system that evolved to operate over this symbolic layer. Within this view, consciousness and symbolic cognition are not different degrees of the same process but distinct kinds of cognitive organization: consciousness generates, grounds, and regulates symbols, whereas symbolic cognition manipulates them.LLMs illuminate this asymmetry by reproducing symbolic reasoning without conscious access, motivation, or subjective experience. Their performance therefore raises epistemological questions about the nature of meaning, grounding, and cognitive stability. The proposed framework situates these questions within a broader account of human cognitive evolution shaped by gene–culture coevolution and the emergence of culturally scaffolded symbolic systems. Finally, the article introduces an information‑theoretic constraint (the AI Theorem) suggesting that purely computational systems inevitably accumulate drift in the absence of a regulatory layer, offering a philosophical explanation for why artificial cognition may remain structurally distinct from biological minds.

Abstract: The current article explores how people in contemporary America understand George Washington’s national authority through their daily cultural activities. It examines how individuals understand national symbol through ethical beliefs. Using thirty-three semi-structured online interviews and qualitative narrative analysis, the findings reveal that participants see Washington as a national symbol through personal understanding, emotional ties and their judgment of his moral character. Washington serves as a national figure whom people learn about in schools and see in popular culture yet his historical connection to slavery creates discomfort and mixed feelings for many individuals. Participants resolve this conflict through selective reverence, distancing, qualification, and informal critique. These practices illustrate a process of symbolic governance in which national authority persists because individuals continuously negotiate their understanding of national symbols through emotional and moral evaluation. Consequently, Washington is revealed as a figure whose authority is culturally constructed, maintained through varied cultural readings of his persona. This research shows how national symbols persist in modern culture, a process shaped by the continuous interplay between individual interpretation and historical awareness.

Abstract: This qualitative study investigates how AI applications that support or replace instructional tasks influence teachers’ professional judgment, cognitive load management, and sense of agency. Drawing on interviews with 23 high school teachers from multiple countries using diverse AI platforms, the study explores teachers’ lived experiences of working in AI-mediated environments. Data were analyzed thematically using Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) as an analytical lens to examine shifts in intrinsic, extraneous, and germane cognitive load. The findings indicate that while AI tools reduce workload and streamline planning and assessment, they also displace diagnostic reasoning, instructional sequencing, and evaluative judgment. Teacher agency persists but becomes conditional, shaped by institutional pressures, algorithmic opacity, and professional confidence. Ethical and equity concerns related to transparency and authority emerged as everyday cognitive and emotional challenges. By extending CLT to teachers’ work, the study highlights the need for AI integration that preserves reflective practice, professional judgment, and sustainable teacher agency.

Abstract: The Compiled Edition of the Yuan History Bibliography《元史藝文志輯本》, compiled by Luo Zhuyun 雒竹筠and Li Xinqian李新乾, represents the definitive modern reconstruction of the Yuan dynasty's scattered literary corpus, synthesizing and correcting earlier Qing supplements. Moving beyond a simple catalogue of errors, this study employs a critical historical epistemology to analyze the persistent inaccuracies within its Buddhist categories. It argues that these mistakes—including paleographic corruptions, misreadings of monastic institutions and anachronistic inclusions of Ming works—are not random oversights. Rather, they are systematic artifacts that reveal the inherent limitations of reconstructing a lost bibliographic tradition. These limitations manifest as a knowledge disjunction between later compilers and Yuan-specific socio-religious structures, and as temporal stratification, where later historical layers and scholarly contexts inadvertently permeate the reconstructed past. By examining these entries as a palimpsest—a composite text bearing traces of its own production—this paper demonstrates that the Compiled Edition is both an indispensable scholarly achievement and a historically mediated construct. The conclusion emphasizes the necessity of using this foundational reference work with source-critical awareness, understanding it as much for the insights it offers into Yuan textual history as for what it reveals about the perennial challenges of historical reconstruction itself.

Abstract: Technological and social development is desirable and even indispensable, which necessarily involves the restriction of new life situations within a legal framework. European legislation has been visibly struggling with this problem in recent years, but the established/ongoing regulation may be an obstacle to development. Among other things, this includes the issue of regulating platform work. The emergence and spread of platform work has numerous advantages from an economic point of view, but from a legal point of view, the cautious regulation of this relatively new employment construction is not acceptable to the majority dealing with labour law. In our opinion, the relevant EU legislation is fundamentally flawed, as it basically seeks to answer the question of whether a given legal relationship is an employment relationship or not. This is similar to trying to decide whether a mule is a horse or a donkey. Obviously, neither. Similarly, in the case of platform work, we can start from this and treat it accordingly. Thus, the present study examines why platform work can be considered a special construction and what are the labour law guarantees that are justified to be extended – at least as a rule – in this regard. Our aim is to examine whether it is possible to develop a minimum guarantee system that allows for easier transparency, greater legal certainty and a more uniform application of the law, unlike the current regulation.

Abstract: The 2026 education reforms in Sri Lanka require a paradigm change towards competency-based formative assessment (FA) as opposed to summative assessment, which is examination-based. But policy documents are not built into a solid pedagogical structure that can support this transition and would be at risk of implementing it superficially. This review conceptualizes recent empirical developments (2024-2026) in Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and research in the field of formative assessment to fill this gap. Three major contributions are presented by us. First, by combining a dual-process SDT model, we posit that the motivational power of FA is not only based on the support of autonomy, competence, and relatedness, as well as the active prevention of controlling, chaotic, or rejecting teaching behaviors, a difference that has far-reaching implications for intervention design. Second, we generalize findings of recent intervention studies that SDT-congruent FA practices are strongly associated with better learner attitudes and achievement, but with mediators of teacher assessment literacy. Third, we situate our findings in the specific implementation context of Sri Lanka, consisting of large classes, resource inequality, and an established exam culture, to suggest a context-sensitive, tiered implementation plan and a research agenda in the future. We are able to conclude that to make the 2026 reforms deliver on its transformative potential, FA needs to be applied not as a peripheral method but as an overhaul of pedagogy, which is based on the principles of SDT and grounded in ongoing and practice-based professional development grounded in teacher assessment literacy.

Abstract: Land degradation, characterized by declining soil fertility and erosion, is a major constraint to maize productivity in Malawi, where more than half of the arable land is degraded. Although knowledge of soil fertility is critical for efficient input allocation, most smallholder farmers rely on subjective assessments of soil quality, potentially leading to imprecise decisions. This study examines how farmers’ perceptions of soil fertility and erosion influence input allocation and maize productivity among smallholder farmers in Malawi. Using plot level data from the Malawi Integrated Household Survey, we apply a Conditional Mixed Process estimator and Stochastic Frontier Analysis to assess input use behaviour and technical efficiency. Results indicate that farmers allocate more labour and inorganic fertilizer to plots perceived as fertile, and adoption of improved maize varieties is lower on plots perceived as poor. In contrast, organic manure is more frequently applied on degraded plots. Mean technical efficiency is estimated at 0.62, indicating substantial inefficiency relative to the production frontier. Technical efficiency declines monotonically with worsening soil conditions, falling from 0.76 on good plots to 0.52 on poor plots and 0.47 on highly eroded plots. These findings highlight sustainability risks and underline the need for improved soil diagnostics and targeted extension services.

Abstract: Background/Objectives: Since the 2010s, Korea has implemented policies to promote physical education for female students. This study aimed to examine changes in self-rated health among Korean men and women in their 20s and 30s over the past 15 years. Methods: This study used data from the Korea Community Health Survey conducted by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency from 2010 to 2024. The study population comprised adults aged 20–39 years selected through a two-stage sampling process—probability proportional to size sampling followed by systematic sampling. The data were analyzed using frequency analysis, descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, independent samples t-test, and two-way analysis of variance. Results: First, self-rated health was highest among men in their 20s, followed by women in their 20s, men in their 30s, and women in their 30s across all years. Second, self-rated health showed a positive correlation with year, indicating higher levels in more recent surveys. It also showed a correlation with age, with younger individuals reporting higher levels of self-rated health. Third, men consistently reported higher self-rated health across all years compared with women. Fourth, individuals in their 20s consistently reported higher self-rated health than those in their 30s. Fifth, the difference between men and women remained relatively consistent over the 15-year period. Conclusions: The findings did not show a clear improvement in women’s self-rated health or a substantial reduction in the gender gap. These results suggest the need for a systematic redesign of policies promoting physical education for female students in Korea.

Abstract: This paper proposes a sociological approach to chronic disease using diabetes as an exemplary case. It examines how biological mechanisms, clinical practices, and institutional frameworks are intertwined in shaping how diabetes is defined, studied, and managed. Rather than treating biological and social domains as separate, the analysis emphasizes their mutual embeddedness. Decisions about what counts as evidence, which mechanisms are emphasized, and how uncertainty is interpreted have technical dimensions, but they are also shaped by governance structures, professional norms, and policy contexts. Understanding chronic disease, therefore, requires attention both to biological processes and to the conditions under which these processes are investigated, interpreted, and translated into medical knowledge and practice.

Abstract: This study examines the shifting research on social media and psychological well-being. Prior work is split between a connection discourse (social support, belonging) and an anxiety discourse (social comparison, FoMO, problematic use), but remains largely cross-sectional. Building upon this context, this study employs BERTopic dynamic topic modeling on 7,254 Web of Science articles (2010–2025), identifying 110 topics and revealing three thematic clusters: anxiety, connection, and contextual/methodological themes. The findings indicate that anxiety-related topics are more semantically cohesive, whereas connection-related topics are more dispersed. Notably, the field experienced a turning point around 2016–2017, marking the rise and sustained dominance of anxiety-related research. Taken together, these results provide a longitudinal, computational perspective on the field and demonstrate the value of BERTopic for tracking knowledge evolution.

Abstract: While much of the current research on early specialization focuses on physical outcomes, training models, and policy implications, little is known about how athletes themselves make sense of their developmental experiences. This study aimed to examine how ice-hockey players perceive and experience early specialization, with the goal of gaining a nuanced understanding of the athlete perspective. In this study, a qualitative study design was used where eight current and former ice-hockey players with experience of early specialization participated. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and analysed using qualitative conventional content analysis. Three overarching themes emerged, highlighting experiences of loneliness, pressure, and elevated expectations within elite sport environments, alongside the vital importance of support networks and team community: ‘Thrown into adulthood with premature expectations’, ‘Balancing Support and Pressure in Athlete Development’, and ‘The Struggle Between Dream and Reality’. Players described feeling pressured, isolated, and prematurely professionalized, often at the expense of personal development. The findings highlight the psychological and structural challenges of early specialization in elite ice-hockey. While support systems played a crucial role, they also contributed to performance anxiety and external expectations. These insights underscore the need for youth sport systems that prioritize long-term athlete well-being over short-term success.

Abstract: Rapid advancements in digital payment technologies have completely changed how customers perceive spending, frequently making money less psychologically visible and promoting impulsive buying. This study creates a dual-mechanism framework to explain how digital spending environments both facilitate and regulate consumer purchasing decisions, building on the idea of Spendception. Spendception has been break into two dimensions: Perceived Spendception Control (PSC), which measures consumers' perceived capacity to keep an eye on and control their financial behavior in extremely stimulating online environments, and Perceived Spendception Ease (PSE), which describes the seamless and cognitively effortless character of digital spending. The study investigates how Digital Twin Environment (DTE) affects impulsive purchasing behavior through these two mechanisms, using survey data from Generation Z consumers involved in social commerce. PSE mediates the relationship between DTE and impulse buying by lowering psychological spending barriers, while PSC moderates this relationship by enhancing consumers' financial self-regulation and decreasing impulsive purchasing tendencies, according to the results of a study that used structural equation modeling in conjunction with machine learning techniques. These results show that the degree to which emotional stimuli result in impulsive consumption is determined by two opposing psychological forces produced by digital payment systems: spending facilitation and spending control. By viewing Spendception as a multifaceted concept, the study advances Spendception theory and offers crucial insights into how digital financial technologies affect consumer behavior in social commerce settings. The results emphasize the significance of creating digital payment systems that strike a balance between transactional ease and features that promote responsible consumption and financial awareness from a sustainability standpoint.

Abstract: By integrating the Norm Activation Model (NAM) with cognitive and behavioral variables, the study reveals mechanisms that translate into increased waste reduction intention. Data from 382 domestic tourists in Vientiane, Laos were analyzed using ordinary least squares regression. The results reveal that ascription of responsibility (AR) is the strongest predictor of intention, followed by personal norms (PN) and actual waste management behavior. Environmental knowledge and awareness of consequences show no significant influence. The findings confirm that fostering internalized moral sentiments, such as AR and PN, is more crucial in enhancing tourists’ waste reduction intention than mere cogni-tive awareness. Environmental campaigns and education to increase knowledge and heighten awareness of the negative impacts caused by poorly managed waste at popular destinations cannot guarantee an increase in tourists’ waste reduction intention.

Abstract: This study investigated the records management systems employed in the education and health sectors in Zambia, with a focus on their role in improving service delivery and decision-making. Using a mixed-methods triangulation design, data was collected through surveys, interviews, observations from registry users and key informants with a sample size of 150. 100 teachers where purposively sampled from the Education department specifically at the District Education Secretary registry with 5 key informants and 40 from the Livingstone Teaching Hospital registry with 5 key informants. Chi-square t-test and descriptive analysis was used in quantitative data, while thematic analysis was used for qualitative data. The research demonstrated that Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems are extensively utilised within the healthcare domain with 100% (n=40) response whereas responses at 100% (n=100) in the Education indicated a manual records management system was used. The study further explored the speed and efficacy of the two systems in record retrieval. Majority of records were accessed in a matter of minutes (70%, n=28) or seconds (20%, n=8) in the Health Sector, contrary to the Education domain where it was discovered majority took minutes (51%, n=51), 17% (n=17) took seconds and some records took days to be retrieved (8%, n=8). Furthermore, the study determined that records retrieval systems were generally viewed as effective, especially within the healthcare sector, despite the ongoing presence of challenges such as insufficient IT infrastructure, data integration difficulties, and deficient records management practices. Overall, while digital transformation has improved records management, the study highlights the need for continued investment in technology, staff training, and system integration to enhance efficiency and reliability across sectors.

Abstract: The fishing processing industry in Chimbote, Peru, reflects structural vulnerabilities common in extractive sectors of the Global South, including labour informality, weak occupational safety, and limited Internal Corporate Social Responsibility (ICSR). These conditions hinder progress toward Sustainable Development Goal 8 (SDG 8). While prior studies link ICSR to positive employee outcomes, the mechanisms through which its effects translate across organisational levels remain theoretically underdeveloped, par-ticularly in high-informality contexts. A quantitative, explanatory, cross-sectional design was employed using data from 384 workers in fishing processing firms. Data were col-lected through a 26-item Likert-scale instrument. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was applied to test a sequential mediation model, where ICSR in-fluences organisational-level labour management through individual and group-level processes. Reliability and validity were confirmed using Cronbach’s alpha, Composite Reliability, AVE, Fornell–Larcker, and HTMT. Structural relationships were assessed via bootstrapping (5,000 subsamples), and predictive relevance was evaluated using Q² and PLS Predict. The measurement model showed adequate reliability and validity. The direct effect of ICSR on organisational-level labour management was non-significant (β = 0.029, p = 0.567). However, all mediated paths were significant: ICSR → Individual (β = 0.608), Individual → Group (β = 0.526), and Group → Organisational (β = 0.396), all p < 0.001. Sequential mediation was confirmed (β_indirect = 0.127; 95% CI [0.090, 0.164]). Model fit (SRMR = 0.045) and predictive relevance (Q² = 0.150–0.361) were satisfactory. ICSR does not directly influence organisational outcomes; instead, its impact operates through a bottom-up multilevel mechanism, reinforcing individual, group, and organ-isational dynamics. These findings contribute to sustainable labour governance and multilevel organisational theory.