This article explores the cross-cultural significance of three iconic fairy tales: Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty. Using a comparative analysis approach, the study investigates recurring themes, motifs, and symbolism found in these tales across different cultures and time periods. The research draws on primary and secondary sources such as literary works and scholarly articles to uncover the underlying messages that resonate with audiences worldwide. The historical and cultural contexts of the tales are also examined to provide a deeper understanding of their significance in shaping cultural identity and values. The findings of the research demonstrate the enduring legacy of these tales and their continued relevance in contemporary society. The study highlights how the tales have evolved and adapted over time to reflect changing cultural values and beliefs. The interpretation of the findings offers insights into the role of storytelling in shaping cultural identity and values, and the ways in which these stories continue to inspire and captivate audiences worldwide. Overall, this research provides a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the significance of these three fairy tales across cultures and time. By illuminating the similarities and differences in these tales, the study offers a fresh perspective on the power of storytelling and its ability to transcend cultural boundaries. The research contributes to the fields of folklore, cultural studies, and cross-cultural communication, inspiring further exploration into the captivating world of fairy tales.

Two welcome extensions of evolutionary thinking have come to prominence over the last thirty years: the so-called “extended evolutionary synthesis” (EES) and debate about biological kinds and individuals. These two agendas have, however, remained orthogonal to one another. The EES has mostly restricted itself to widening the explanations of adaptation offered by the preceding “modern evolutionary synthesis” by including additional mechanisms of inheritance and variation; while discussion of biological kinds has turned toward philosophical questions of essential vs. contingent properties of life forms and realist vs. epistemological approaches to categorization and classification. Here we attempt to broaden the explanatory scope of evolutionary theory by linking these two agendas. We expand on the mechanistic orientation of the EES, using new understandings of networked systems of components in order to engage the distinct intellectual challenge of the origination of historical kinds. With this phrase we designate a subset of natural kinds that acquires, through evolutionary processes, a quasi-independent lineage-history. Such kinds emerge in both biology and culture, and we enlarge the limited number of historical kinds that have thus far been recognized in evolutionary biology in a series of paradigmatic exemplars, from genes and cell types to rituals and music. For each exemplar we discern specific mechanisms by which it arose and persists; comparing these, we suggest a general unity in the ways in which diverse historical kinds originate.

Aims of the paper are the results of a research on a wooden box that holds an important historical document, which is a hand Bible handwritten in the thirteenth century. The tradition connect this Bible to the name of Marco Polo (Venice, 1254 - Venice, 1324), who would be the owner and that it would accompany him on his travels (1262 and 1271) in China. The Bible, of fine workmanship, written on thin parchment, and its container, along with a yellow silk cloth, is preserved in the ancient and prestigious Laurentian Library in Florence. The manuscript was in very poor condition and in the course of the study (2011) was being restored. Aims of survey were to determine the place and period of realization of the box, or rather if it be contemporary or later than the manuscript it contains and whether it was made in the East or in Europe.

Energy and institutional quality are two factors that determine economic output, but these two factors are often neglected in the search for economic output. Therefore, this study examines the relative importance of energy use and its interaction with institutional quality for economic output. We employ a robust econometric estimation technique on a panel sample of 21 African countries between 2002-2019. Our results show that energy use is significant and negatively related to economic output while moderating terms of institutional quality are significantly associated with economic output, but the direction of the association depends on the specific quality. We find the moderating term control of corruption and government effectiveness to be negative and significantly associated with economic output, whilst political stability, regulatory quality, rule of laws, voice, and accountability positively impact. Our results imply that improved economic output is possible when there are specific institutional strategies.

As a result of the influence of geographical environment and historical heritage, food preference has significant regional differentiation characteristics. However, the spatial structure of food culture represented by the cuisine culture at the regional level has not yet been explored from the perspective of geography. This study aims to explore such patterns by focusing on the restaurants of the eight most famous cuisines in Mainland China. Initially, the density based geospatial hotspot detector method is proposed to analyze and mapping the spatial quantitative characteristics of the eight major cuisines. A heuristic method for geographical regionalization based on machine learning was used to analyze spatial distribution patterns in accordance with the proportion of these cuisines in each prefecture-level city. Results show that some types of single-category cuisines have a stronger spatial concentration effect in the present, whereas others have a strong diffusion trend. In the comprehensive analysis of multicategory cuisines, the eight major cuisines formed a new structure of geographical regionalization of Chinese cuisine culture. This study is helpful to understand regional structure characteristics of food preference, and the density based hotspot detector proposed in this paper can also be used in the analysis of other type of POI data.

In this paper, I give readers an idea of what some scholars are interested in, what I found interesting, and what may be of future interest in the philosophy of emotion. I begin with a brief overview of the general topics of interests in the philosophy of emotion. I then discuss what I believe to be some of the most interesting topics in the contemporary discourse, including questions about how philosophy can inform the science of emotion, conceptions of the mind and the mind-body problem, concerns about perception, cognition, and emotion, along with questions about the place of 4E approaches and meta-semantic pluralist approaches in the embodied cognitive tradition. Finally, I discuss the emerging field of cultural evolution, the import of a dual-inheritance theory in this emerging field, and I propose a possible way to integrate the frameworks of dual-inheritance theory and meta-semantic pluralism to demonstrate at least one way in which the philosophy of emotion can contribute to the emerging field of cultural evolution.

The prevalence of back pain (BP) among children and adolescents has increased over recent years. Some authors advocate promoting back-health education in the school setting. It is therefore important to adopt a uniform suite of assessment instruments to measure the various constructs. The present study aimed to perform a cultural adaptation of a validated measurement instrument (BackPEI), beginning with a translation and cultural adaptation phase, followed by a second phase to test reliability using a test-retest design. The translation and cross-cultural adaptation were performed based on the guidelines. Reliability was tested by applying the questionnaire to 224 secondary school students, at two different times with a 7-day interval between the tests. In general, the Spanish version presented adequate agreement for questions 1–20, with only question 9 achieving a low Kappa range of .312 [-.152- .189]. The question about pain intensity did not show differences between the averages for the test (4.72 ± 2.33) and re-test (4.58 ± 2.37) (p = .333), and the responses for these two tests were highly correlated (ICC= .951 [.928- .966]; p= .0001). Psychometric testing indicated that the Spanish version of the BackPEI is well-adapted and reliable, based on the test-retest design, providing similar results to the original Brazilian version.

Parental stresses are normal responses to raising children. They are affected by stresses parents and children accumulate and bring to their interrelations. Background factors like economic difficulties or the relations between the parents may affect parental stresses as well as demographic and environmental factors like noise and access to urban parks. Most studies on parental stress are based on a verified psychological questionnaire. We suggest using frequency domain heart rate variability index (HRV) to measure parental stress enabling, by thus, the measurement of physiological aspects of stress and risk to health. Parental stress is measured as the difference between HRV accumulated at home while staying with the children and without the husband and HRV measured in the neighborhood while staying without the children and the husband. We use the index to compare differences among Muslim and Jewish mothers in exposure to maternal stress at their homes and to expose the factors that predict differences in maternal stress. We found that Muslim mothers suffer from home-related maternal stress while Jewish mother do not. Number of children and ethnically related environmental aspects predict differences in maternal stress between Muslim and Jewish mothers. Muslims' lower access to parks stems from lack of home garden and parks in their neighborhoods in the Arab towns but mainly by restrictions on Muslim women's' freedom of movement to parks. Despite differences in levels of noise at home and in the status of the mother in the household, these factors did not predict differences in parental stress. Instead, the study highlights the crucial role of greenery and freedom of movement to parks in moderating home-related maternal stress.

As an important research content in cultural geography, the exploration and analysis of the laws of regional cultural differences has great significance for the discovery of distinctive cultures, protection of regional cultures and in-depth understanding of cultural differences. In recent years, with the "spatial turn" of sociology, scholars are paying more and more attention to the implicit spatial information in social media data and the various social phenomena and laws they reflect. One important aspect is to grasp the social cultural phenomena and its spatial distribution characteristics through the text. Using machine learning methods such as the popular natural language processing (NLP), this paper can not only extract hotspot cultural elements from text data but also accurately detect the spatial interaction pattern of some specific cultures and the characteristics of emotions towards non-native cultures. Taking the 6,128 answers to the question “what are the differences between South and North China that you never know” on the Zhihu Q&A Platform as an example, with the help of NLP, this paper has explored the cultural differences between South and North China in people’s mind. This paper probes into people’s feeling and cognition of the cultural differences between South and North China from three aspects, including spatial interaction patterns of hotspot cultural elements, components of hotspot culture and emotional characteristics under the influence of cultural differences between North and South. The study reveals that 1) people from North and South China have great differences in recognizing each other’s culture. 2) Food culture is the most popular among many cultural differences. 3) People tend to show negative attitude towards the food cultures different from their own. All these findings shed light upon the understanding of regional cultural differences and addressing cultural conflicts. In addition, this paper also provides an effective solution to the study from a macro perspective, which have been difficult for new cultural geography.

The agro-biodiversity present in agro-ecosystems is fundamental in guaranteeing sustainability and resilience. However, there are very few proposals for evaluating it and, even less, ones that include indicators to analyze the influence of the structural and spatial configuration of a landscape in order to favor agro-biodiversity connectivity to productive systems, management and conservation practices, and the producer (farmer)’s perceptions, awareness and ability to favor it on his farm. The Main Agro-ecological Structure MAS is redefined as an environmental agro-biodiversity index. New indicators are established for a total of 10 criteria and 29 indicators of systems that describe the agro-biodiversity of agro-ecosystems. Methodologies for its evaluation are also described, and the possibility of adapting certain indicators according to the ecological and cultural contexts where the farms are located is discussed.

Recent years have seen a proliferation of platform-based “shared mobility services” (SMS) such as car-, bike-, and e-scootersharing in many cities in Germany and around the world. At the same time, these services have become the subject of intense debates: Are they replacing private car travel, thus contributing to sustainable mobility in cities? Or are they drawing users away from public transit and cycling while obstructing public space? From the perspective of sustainable mobility politics it seems far from clear which role these new services could play in transitioning to a less car-centric mobility system. While a number of potential effects and ensuing governance issues of shared mobility services (e.g. regarding questions of equitable access, data governance, the role of public versus private actors) have already been studied this article explores the role of shared mobility services (SMS) in triggering system dynamics and feedback loops in the context of sustainability transitions. The article connects questions regarding the sustainability effects of “shared mobility services” with the role of “push” measures to reduce private car traffic in cities. Using a theoretical framework from socio-technical transitions research and from the sociology of technology it describes the recent growth of shared mobility services in Berlin as an example of the upscaling dynamics of socio-technical niche innovations. Drawing on a series of workshops with mobility service providers and representatives of public authorities it analyses the potential for conflict as well as for coalition building between service providers and public authorities. Based on the theoretical concept of the role of feedback loops and windows of opportunity for transitions it shows how the market growth of shared mobility services added momentum to an already ongoing political debate over the legitimate use of public space in Berlin. Against this backdrop the article shows how growing numbers of car-, bike-, and e-scootersharing vehicles could open up windows of opportunity for re-distributing space away from private cars. The article concludes that supporting and regulating SMS will be key to steering their growth into the direction of sustainability.

This paper introduces a groundbreaking approach to enriching the museum experience using GPT4, a state-of-the-art language model by OpenAI. By developing a museum guide powered by GPT4, we aim to address the challenges visitors face in navigating vast collections of artifacts and interpreting their significance. Leveraging the model’s natural language understanding and generation capabilities, our guide offers personalized, informative, and engaging experiences. However, caution must be exercised as the generated information may lack scientific integrity and accuracy. To mitigate this, we propose incorporating human oversight and validation mechanisms. The subsequent sections present our own case study, detailing the design, architecture, and experimental evaluation of the museum guide system, highlighting its practical implementation and insights into the benefits and limitations of employing GPT4 in the cultural heritage context.

The international debate on the adaptive re-use of cultural heritage sites following the Sustainable Development Goals becomes more central than ever in the implementation of circular economy models for urban policies. The new values that characterise the cultural assets, considered as the result of a collaborative process, can enhance both the manufactured capital and the human capital, and to carry out the system of relationships that bind them. At the same time, the values of historical-artistic assets and produced by community-based regeneration processes are particularly relevant when they characterise abandoned commons and cult buildings, to which communities attribute an identity and symbolic value. Starting from the definition of the concept of Complex Social Value, we propose a methodological process that combines approaches and techniques typical of deliberative evaluations and collaborative decision-making processes. The aim is to identify the complex value chains generated by adaptive re-use, in which intrinsic values can play a driving role in the regeneration strategies of discarded cultural heritage. The experimentation, tested with the project “San Sebastiano del Monte dei Morti Living Lab” (SSMOLL), activates a creative and cultural Living Lab in the former church of “Morticelli”, in the historic centre of Salerno, in southern Italy. The re-use project is part of a more comprehensive process of social innovation and culture-led urban regeneration triggered in Salerno starting from SSMOLL.

Onchocerciasis volvulus is the second highest infectious cause of blindness in the world, and is estimated to affect 37 million people, of whom 99% reside in sub-Saharan Africa. As a public health problem the disease is most closely associated with Africa, where it constitutes a serious obstacle to socio-economic development. Using the human ecology triad, this paper evaluates the dynamic interplay of population, habitat and behavioural factors in predicting perceived exposure to onchocerciasis among coastal inhabitants in Tanzania. Generalized linear models with log-log link function were fitted to cross-sectional survey data on 1253 individuals in three contiguous coastal regions. A significant proportion of respondents (28%) perceived that they were exposed to onchocerciasis. Residents in urban locations irrespective of wealth status were less likely to report living in onchocerciasis endemic environment compared with their rural counterparts. This is understandable given that urban areas of Tanga and Dar es Salaam are definitely non-endemic and perceived risk of onchocerciasis is related to the fact of living in an endemic area with active onchocercasis transmission. Individuals who had attained secondary (OR=0.51, p<0.01) or tertiary education (OR=0.37, p<0.001), and reported easy access to health facility (OR=0.53, p<0.001) were all less likely to report perceived exposure to onchocerciasis. This is not surprising because higher level of education and easy access to health facilities are characteristics of urban compared with rural areas. Policy implications suggest the need for the Tanzanian national neglected tropical disease control programme (TZNTDCP) to intensify health and educational campaigns at the community level and address susceptibility of vulnerable populations to the disease especially, for rural dwellers.

PrEP uptake in the Netherlands is growing but remains at suboptimal levels. Hence, the analysis of hurdles is paramount. Given the initial focus of PrEP provision among men-who-have-sex-with-men (MSM) via a demonstration project that was launched in June 2015, AmPrEP in Amsterdam, and pharmacies in the main urban areas (so called “Randstad”, entailing Amsterdam, Utrecht, Leiden, The Hague and Rotterdam), investigating regional differences is necessary. This study seeks to unravel regional differences jointly with psycho-social determinants of PrEP uptake. This cross-sectional study included 3,232 HIV-negative Dutch MSM recruited via the EMIS survey in late 2017. Prevalence and standardized prevalence ratio (SPR) of PrEP awareness, intention and uptake were measured on a regional level (Randstad vs. the rest of the country). Multilevel logistic modelling was conducted to identify the association of PrEP uptake with PrEP awareness and intention, sociodemographic, psycho-social determinants, and random effects from regional differences. MSM from the Randstad used more PrEP (SPR=1.4 vs. 0.7) compared to the rest of the country, but there were minor differences for awareness and intention. The regional distinction was estimated to explain 4.6% of the PrEP use variance. We observed a greater influence from PrEP intention (OR=4.5, 95%CI 2.0-10.1), while there was limited influence from the awareness of PrEP (OR=0.4, 95%CI 0.04-4.4). Lower education (OR=0.4, 95%CI 0.2-0.9) was negatively associated with PrEP uptake, however, no significant difference was found between middle and high education (OR=1.2, 95%CI 0.7-2.0). We showed that regional differences – MSM in non-urban regions – and other psycho-social determinants account for lower PrEP uptake. Based on these findings, more fine-tuned PrEP access with a focus on non-urban regions can be implemented, and tailored campaigns increasing intention/use can be conducted among target populations.

Critically the paper argues that a truly people-centered technology supported chronic care system can only be designed by understanding and responding to the needs, attributes and capabilities of the most vulnerable in society. The paper suggests innovative ways of supporting interactions with these ‘end-users’ and highlights how reflection on these approaches can contribute to emancipating both the health system to move towards more socially inclusive e-health solutions.

Urbanization has impacted biodiversity and ecosystems at a global scale. At the same time, it has been recognized as a driver of the gap between humans and nature. The lack of direct contact with nature can deteriorate several aspects of human wellbeing, and change knowledge and attitudes of people towards the environment. However, this phenomenon is still poorly understood in Megacities outside developed countries. Here, we explore the relationship between ecological knowledge and self-reported wellbeing in an important urban park in Santiago, Chile. We conducted semi-structured surveys to park users to explore their notions, preferences, ecological knowledge of plants and birds and self-reported wellbeing. Citizens associated urban parks mainly with “nature”, and particularly with the presence of trees and plants. Trees were recognized as the most relevant elements of urban parks, in turn, birds were ranked as the less relevant. Regarding ecological knowledge, respondents correctly identified an average of 2.01 plants and 2.44 birds out of a total of 10 for each taxon, and exotic species were more likely to be recognized. Park users also reported high scores for self-reported wellbeing. Interestingly, variance of self-reported wellbeing scores tended to increase at low levels of ecological knowledge of trees, but no significant relationship was detected with knowledge of birds, nor native species. These results suggest that parks can positively contribute to bring people closer to nature. Ecological knowledge was related to self-reported wellbeing. Improving ecological knowledge can be critical to restore the relationship between humans and nature in megacities.

Socio-ecologic, socio-economic, and socio-technical transitions are opportunities that require fundamental changes in the system. These will encounter matters associated with security, service adoption by end-users, infrastructure and availability. The purpose of this study is to examine and overcome the risks to take advantage of opportunities through the novel Risky-Opportunity Analysis Method (ROAM). A novel quantitative method is designed to determine when, after making some changes, the risks become acceptable so that the opportunity does not deviate from the objectives. The approach provided a quantitative evaluation of the possible changes in parallel with digitization, towards providing a green Service Supply Chain (SSC). The result of ROAM shows that the most cost-effective change to increase the resilience of the system is a solution (SMS) which is different from that identified by a TOPSIS multi-criteria method. Real-word decisions in change management should tackle the complexity of systems and uncertainty of events during and after transition through a careful analysis of the alternatives. A case-study was carried out to evaluate the alternatives of an ancillary service in the Payment Service Providers (PSP). The comparison of the ROAM results with the traditional TOPSIS of the case-study unveils the priority of the ROAM in practice when the alternatives are Risky-Opportunities. The existing risk assessment tools do not take advantage of risky opportunities. To this aim, the current article introduces the term Risky-Opportunity, and two indexes Stress and Strain of the alternatives that are designed to be employed in the new quantitative ROAM approach.

Acknowledging the diverse perceptions about science-religion relationships among learners who come from various religious environments may increase learners’ willingness to learn about evolution. This study is based on a zoology course designed for in-service teachers, which aimed to provide basic scientific knowledge about evolution using the Religious Cultural Competence in Evolution Education framework. The study explores whether learners who were resistant to evolution modify their attitudes and willingness to learn about it, and whether they develop respect toward learners who hold contradicting views. Using qualitative methods, the findings indicate that using the Religious Cultural Competence in Evolution Education framework increased some formerly "resistant" learners’ willingness to learn about evolution and include it in their own teaching, albeit in varying degrees and with various reservations. The learners appreciated the freedom to express their challenges concerning evolution learning or teaching and became more willing to respect opposing perspectives, even though not all the religious learners accepted evolution as an explanation for the development of organisms. This study has international implications for bridging the gap between science and religion, thus reducing resistance to learning and teaching about evolution.

This paper looks at key elements of global culture that are driving a new paradigm shift in museums causing them to question their raison d'être, their design and physical space, recognizing the need to accommodate visitor interaction and participation, and to reprioritize institutional outcomes and goals reexamining their priorities. As heritage sharing in online spaces reaches across national, political, and social boundaries on platforms and networks, this has been driven by museum engagement with Internet life during the pandemic. Museum relationships and interactions with communities both local and global, continue to challenge core values and precepts, leading to radical changes in how museums define their roles and responsibilities. In this new cultural landscape, museums are responding to human digital identity in a tidal wave of human interactions on the Internet, from social media to online sharing of images and videos. This is revealing shared perspectives on cultural conflict as being tied to freedom of expression of one’s heritage embedded in digital identity.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), locally known as Khaliji, is a group of six Arab nations, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a significant public health concern in the GCC region, but the research that synthesized the trend has received scant attention. The present narrative review examines existing research on the prevalence and frequency of IPV among Khaliji women in GCC nations. This review synthesized studies on physical violence, sexual violence, emotional abuse, and controlling behaviors perpetrated by an intimate partner. The prevalence rates of IPV among Khaliji women are observed to be high: women reported facing different types of abuse from their partners, namely physical (7% - 71%), sexual (3.7% - 81%), financial (21.3% - 26%) and psychological (7.5% - 89%), which is a culmination of controlling behavior (36.8%), emotional (22% - 69%) and social violence (34%). The extant studies in the GCC suggest that the most endorsed IPV was psychological abuse (89%) followed by sexual violence (81%). Qualitative content analysis of the associated factors resulted in four meaningful descriptors such as demographics of the victim, sociocultural factors, socioeconomic, and perpetrator-related issues. The study on IPV is still nascent and few. The way forward will require developing culturally appropriate interventions that address unique risk factors for IPV among Khaliji populations, strengthening institutional responses, and increasing awareness and social support for the victim of IPV.

Cultures in Mediterranean climate zones (MCZs) around the world have long been reliant on groundwater and springs as freshwater sources. While their ecology and cultural sustainability are recognized as critically important, inter-relationships between springs and culture in MCZs has received little attention. Here we augmented a global literature review with case studies in MCZ cultural landscapes to examine the intensity of cultural and socio-economic impacts on springs ecohydrogeology. MCZs are often oriented on the west and southern coasts in tectonically active landscapes, which control aquifer structure, the prevalence of westerly winds, and aridity, and generally expose associated habitats to harsh, afternoon sunlight. Cultural appreciation and appropriation of springs ranges widely, from their use as subsitence supplies to profound traditions, such as Greco-Roman nymphs, and Asian and Abrahamic spiritual cleansing and baptism. Commoditization of water resources for agriculture, industry (e.g., mining, water bottling, geothermal resorts), and urban needs is placing ever-increasing, non-sustainable demands on aquifers and springs. When economic values approach or exceed cultural values, these irreplaceable aquatic resources are degraded and lost. Sustainable stewardship of springs and the aquifers that support them are a little-recognized, but central conservation challenge for modern society facing global climate changes.

Despite the abundance of tree diversity in the natural world, and generally high tree species richness in urban areas, urban forests continue to be dominated by a limited number of species. As socio-ecological systems, urban forests are shaped by historical and current management efforts and decision-making of a wide range of human actors. Drawing on past research, we offer a conceptual framework for describing the complex interactions among tree producers and consumers as trees are selected, grown, specified, and planted in private and public urban areas. We illustrate how multiple layers of selection criteria filter down the entirety of potential local tree diversity to a handful of commonly used and accepted tree species. We detail the actors and decision makers who impact tree composition and diversity across several land types. Finally, we identify research, education and outreach needs as they relate to creating more diverse and resilient urban forest ecosystems.

Having valid and reliable tools that help health professionals to assess fear in children undergoing medical procedures is essential to offer humanized and quality of care in the paediatric population. The aim of this study was to develop the cross-cultural adaptation and the evaluation of the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the “Child Medical Fear Scale” in its shortened version (CMFS-R). The design consisted of two phases, first of cross-cultural adaptation and second of the psychometric validation of the CMFS-R with a sample of 262 children from Spain. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to assess construct validity and the Cronbach alpha and the adjusted item-total score correlation coefficients were performed to study reliability. The results confirmed internal consistency and construct validity of the Spanish version of the CMFS-R, indicating that the scale has an acceptable level of validity and reliability. Therefore, this study brings a new version of the scale to assess fear related to medical procedures for use in the Spanish paediatric population.

Primocane-fruiting (PF) blackberries are adaptable to different production systems. To increase yields in PF blackberries, their primocanes are typically tipped or topped in summer to encourage branch formation from axillary buds below the cut. In this study, we determined in PF ‘Prime-Ark Traveler’ whether early emerging primocanes were more productive than those that emerged later in the season and the effect of primocane bending and defoliation on flowering. The primocanes that emerged in April produced 64% more flower shoots than those that emerged after May. Also, these findings indicate the alternative primocane management practices of selecting the early emerging primocanes and bending to orient primocanes horizontally and leaf removal increase budbreak and flower shoot emergence. The present work contributes toward a better understanding of primocane emergence time and orientation-flowering relations and how they mediate crop performance in PF blackberry.

The IRRESISTIBLE Project (FP7, Grant 612367) had the aim of involving teachers, students and the public in the discussion on Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI), promoting both the construction of knowledge on cutting-edge (and controversial) research topics and the discussion about the criteria that these research/innovation processes should respect in order to be considered as responsible. These criteria also represent a strong contribution to a more sustainable future for all. This quantitative research evaluates the impact of IRRESISTIBLE’s student-curated exhibitions – about the RRI dimensions of cutting-edge research topics (socio-scientific issues) – on students’ perceptions regarding their scientific competences and the science classes. A pre and post-questionnaire was developed, validated and applied to students from 10 countries. The overall results of the statistical analysis indicate that students improved their perceptions regarding their competences for developing exhibitions in science classes as a way of creating awareness on topics relating science-technology-society. This activity reinforced students’ perceptions that in science classes they: a) discuss current issues and how they impact their lives; b) develop socially and relevant projects; and c) learn how to influence other citizens’ decisions about social issues related to science, technology and environment with the aim of assuring a more sustainable future.

Cultural ecosystem services has been increasingly influential in both environmental research and policy decision-making, such as for urban green spaces However, its popular definition conflates the concepts of ‘services’ and ‘benefits’ which made it challenging for planners to employ it directly for urban green space management. One the most widely used definition of this non-tangible ecosystem services are “functions of environmental spaces and cultural activities which may then result in the enjoyment of cultural ecosystem benefits”; yet the latter itself have never found its way into official laws and regulations. In this study, via a case study in Singapore, we propose new evidence to re-evaluate and re-position the two of the most important emerging concepts in managing the green spaces in urban areas. Using the transdisciplinary mixed methods of public participation GIS and social media text mining analysis, a wealth of cultural ecosystem services and their associated benefits were reported. This was especially so with regards to recreational and aesthetic services and experiential benefits. Recommendations to improve the park were also suggested, alongside sharing of methodological considerations for future research. Overall, this paper recommends the employment of the redefined cultural ecosystem services conceptual framework to generate relational, data-driven and actionable insights to better support urban green space management, which is not only useful to Singapore governments but also world-wide relevant.

This paper presents an Artificial Intelligence approach to mining context and emotions related to olfactory cultural heritage narratives, in particular to fairy tales. We provide an overview of the role of smell and emotions in literature, as well as highlight the importance of olfactory experience and emotions from psychology and linguistic perspectives. We introduce a methodology for extracting smells and emotions from text, as well as demonstrate the context-based visualizations related to smells and emotions implemented in a novel Smell Tracker tool. The evaluation is performed using a collection of fairy tales from Grimm and Andersen. We find out that fairy tales often connect smell with emotional charge of situations. The experimental results show that we can detect smells and emotions with F1 score of 92.7 and 79.2, respectively.

This paper focuses on the characterization approach to evaluate the decay state of Pietra Serena of historic buildings in Florence (Italy). Pietra Serena is a Florentine sandstone largely used in the city especially during the Renaissance; it is a symbol of cultural heritage of Florence and constitutes a large part of the city center, which was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982. Unfortunately, many environmental factors negatively affect the stone, increasing damage and the danger of falling material. Any detachment of stone fragments, in addition to constitute a loss in cultural heritage, can be dangerous for citizens and the many tourists that visit the city. The use of Non-Destructive Techniques (NDTs) as ultrasonic and Schmidt hammer tests can quantitatively define some mechanical properties and help to monitor the decay degree of building stone. In this study, the NDTs were combined with mineralogical, petrographical, chemical and physical analyses to investigate the stone materials, in order to correlate their features with the characteristics of the different artefacts in Pietra Serena. Correlations between the NDTs results and the compositional characteristics of the on-site stone were carried out; such discussion allows to identify zones of weakness and dangerous unstable elements.

In the last years, the development of low-cost GNSS sensors allowed monitoring in a continuous way movement related to natural processes like landslides with increasing accuracy and limited efforts. In this work, we present the first results of an experimental low-cost GNSS continuous monitoring applied to the unstable slope affecting the Madonna del Sasso Sanctuary (NW Italy). The courtyard of Sanctuary is built of two unstable blocks delimited by high cliff. Previous studies and non-continuous monitoring showed that blocks suffer a seasonal cycle of thermal expansion and long-term trend to downslope of few millimeters per year. The presence of continuous monitoring solution, could be an essential help to better understand the kinematics of unstable slope and to recognize the beginning of a possible paroxysm phase that could end with a failure of the unstable area. We tested the accuracy of the instruments and the first year of experimental measurements are presented. We also propose a methodological approach that considers the use of automatized procedures for the identification of anomalous trends and a risk communication strategy based on monitoring data.

Earth Observation (EO) techniques have significantly evolved over time, covering a wide range of applications in different domains. The scope of this study is to review the research conducted on EO in the Eastern Mediterranean, Middle East, and North Africa (EMMENA) region and to identify the main knowledge gaps. We searched through the Web of Science database for papers published between 2018 and 2022 for EO studies in the EMMENA. We categorized the papers in the following thematic areas: Atmosphere, Water, Agriculture, Land, Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), Cultural Heritage, Energy, Marine Safety and Security (MSS) and Big Earth Data (BED); 6647 papers were found with the highest number of publications in the thematic areas of BED (27%) and Land (22%). Most of the EMMENA countries are surrounded by sea, yet there was a very small number of studies on MSS (0.9% of total number of papers). This study detected a gap in fundamental research in the BED thematic area. Other future needs identified by this study are the limited availability of very high resolution and near real time remote sensing data, the lack of harmonized methodologies and the need for further development of models, algorithms, early warning systems and services.

While Neural Radiance Fields (NeRF) are gaining increasing interest in various domains as innovative methods for novel view synthesis and image-based reconstruction, their potential application in the realm of Cultural Heritage remains unexplored. Purpose of this paper is to assess the effectiveness of applying NeRF to sets of images of digital heritage objects and sites. The study’s findings demonstrate that NeRF could be valuable when used in combination with or as a comparison to other well-established techniques such as photogrammetry, to expand the possibilities of preserving and presenting heritage assets with enhanced visual fidelity and accuracy. Particularly, NeRF show promising results in improving the rendering of translucent and reflective surfaces, objects with homogeneous textures, and elements with intricate details. In addition, we demonstrate that, when considering the same set of input images (with known camera poses), reducing the image quality or the number of images results in significantly less information loss with NeRF compared to photogrammetry. This suggests that NeRF is preferentially suited for scenarios involving sparse information or low-quality photos or videos, which could be especially valuable in risky or challenging situations.

Digital storytelling is a powerful tool for language learning that has gained popularity in recent years. By incorporating different modes of communication such as text, images, audio, and video, digital storytelling provides learners with engaging and interactive experiences that promote language acquisition and cultural awareness. Digital storytelling can also promote interaction among learners, which is crucial for language learning, and provide learners with opportunities to receive feedback and support from their peers. Additionally, digital storytelling can be used to promote cultural sensitivity and intercultural dialogue among language learners. Through storytelling, learners can gain insights into the customs, values, and beliefs of different communities, and create stories that reflect their own cultural backgrounds and experiences. This paper provides an overview of the benefits of digital storytelling for language learning and highlights the various ways in which it can be used to enhance language acquisition and cultural awareness. It concludes with recommendations on how to effectively incorporate digital storytelling into language teaching practices.

Although research has long established that the interaction with the natural environment is associated with better overall health and well-being outcomes, the Western model mainly focuses on treating the symptoms. In Aotearoa-New Zealand, the Indigenous Māori have long demonstrated significantly more negative health outcomes than non-Māori. Little research has examined the causes compared to Western populations or the role of the natural environment in health outcomes for Māori. An exploration of rongoā Māori (traditional healing system) was conducted to ascertain the importance of landscape in the process of healing. Eight rongoā healers or practitioners took part in semi-structured narrative interviews from June to November 2020. Transcribed interviews were analysed using an interpretative phenomenological analysis and Kaupapa Māori techniques. The findings show how rongoā is underpinned by a complex set of cultural values and beliefs, drawing from the connection to wairua (spirit), tinana (body), tikanga and whakaora (customs and healing), rākau (plants), whenua (landscape) and whānau (family). Incorporating such constructs into the landscape can foster our understanding of health and well-being and its implications for conceptualising therapeutic environments and a culturally appropriate model of care for Māori and non-Māori communities.

There has been limited research on improving Internet-delivered Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (ICBT) in routine online therapy clinics that serve people from diverse ethnocultural groups (PDEGs). This article describes a patient-oriented adaptation approach used to address this gap in research. A working group consisting of people with lived experience, community stakeholders, ICBT clinicians, managers, and researchers, was formed. The working group examined archival feedback on ICBT from past clients who self-identified as being from diverse ethnocultural back-grounds (N=278) and results of interviews with current patients (N=16), community stakeholders (N=6), and clinicians (N=3). The archival data and interviews revealed the majority of the pa-tients reported being satisfied with and benefitting from ICBT. Suggestions for improvement were not related to the cognitive-behavioural model and techniques, but rather to making treatment materials more inclusive. Consequently, the ICBT adaptation focused on adding content related to cultural influences on mental health, addressing stigma, diversifying case stories, examples and imagery, adding audiovisual introductions, and replacing English idioms with more descriptive language. Moreover, further training was offered to clinicians and efforts were made to improve community outreach. This study demonstrates a process for using patient-oriented research to improve ICBT within routine care serving patients of diverse backgrounds.

This paper aims to explore the development of the field of Intangible Cultural Heritage Design. It seeks to understand the global trends in this field and provide insights for its growth and development. The objectives are achieved through a mixed-methods approach that combines bibliometric methods and content analysis. This approach allows for a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the scientific literature related to Intangible Cultural Heritage Design. The findings of the work include an analysis of the most productive countries/regions, institutions, journals, and authors in the field of Intangible Cultural Heritage Design. It also includes citation and co-citation analysis, which helps identify influential scholars and popular journals in the field, as well as patterns of col-laboration within the field. The outcomes and implications for practice include a better understanding of the global trends in Intangible Cultural Heritage Design and insights for its growth and development. The research find-ings have important theoretical and practical implications for the field, and future research directions are pro-posed. The value of the paper lies in its contribution to a better understanding of the global trends in Intangible Cultural Heritage Design. It provides insights and assistance for its growth and development, mak-ing it valuable to researchers and practitioners in the field.

Development of the continental shelf has accelerated significantly as nations around the world seek to harness offshore renewable energy. Many areas marked for development align with submerged palaeolandscapes. Poorly understood and difficult to protect, these vulnerable, prehistoric landscapes provide specific challenges for heritage management. Indeed, there now appears to be a schism between what underwater cultural heritage policy intends and what it is achieving in practice. Shortcomings in international and national legislature ensures that large parts of the continental shelf, including areas under development, may have little or no legal protection.

The documentation and management of the cultural heritage of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the heritage digital age are emerging discourses in cultural heritage management. The enthusiastic uptake of a generative artificial intelligence application (ChatGPT) by the general public and academics alike has provided an opportunity to explore i) whether, and to what extent, generative AI can conceptualize an emergent, not well-described field of cultural heritage (the heritage of COVID-19, ii), whether it can design an exhibition on the topic and iii) whether it can identify sites associated with the pandemic that may be(come) significant heritage. Drawing on an extended ‘conversation’ with ChatGPT, this paper shows that generative AI is capable of not only developing a concept for an exhibition of the heritage of COVID-19 but also that it can provide a defensible array of exhibition topics as well as a relevant selection of exhibition objects. ChatGPT is also capable of making suggestions on the selection of cultural heritage sites associated with the pandemic, but these lack specificity. The discrepancy between ChatGPT’s responses to the exhibition concept and its responses regarding potential heritage sites suggests differential selection and access to data that were used to train the model, with a seemingly heavy reliance on Wikipedia. The ‘conversation’ has shown that ChatGPT can serve as a brainstorming tool, but that a curator’s considered interpretation of the responses is still essential.

Indigenous knowledge is proven to be one of the foundations of sustainable land and marine management. While indigenous knowledge is acknowledged as of important factors on maintenance of biodiversity of the planet, it also ensures the sustenance of social and economic system of indigenous community. To facilitate the application of indigenous knowledge on management of customary forest in Indonesia, since 2012, the Government of Indonesia has been providing formal access for indigenous communities to their forests to maintain forest sustainability and to enhance the welfare of indigenous community. Nonetheless, the achievement of sustainable development goals in the scope of forest and conservation area management is threatened by various competing interests and power imbalance, which mostly leads to conversion of naturally vegetated area, as well as the inability of the community to integrate new economic opportunities to its institution. Moreover, the Government of Indonesia has not been regulating the involvement of indigenous community on the management of conservation area. Most importantly, such a program provides no reference on indigenous community, especially on the assessment of authenticity of indigenous community’s forest. Cultural space methodology may fill the aforementioned gaps. The methodology was developed based on the notion of cultural space and land administration, particularly the people-and-land/marine space relationship. Moreover, such a methodology was also constructed based on the experiences of agricultural and maritime communities in Indonesia on the administration of their territories. The methodology provides a procedure to convert information on the interrelation of indigenous community, its cultural space in forest and conservation area, and indigenous knowledge into geospatial information and data that represent the cultural space unit as a geographic feature. Therefore, such methodology may be utilised to assess the authenticity of a long-existing relationship between a community, especially an indigenous one, and its land, particularly that serves conservational function.

Coastal areas are highly vulnerable to climate change hazards (e.g., sea-level rise, flooding, coastal erosion), which can lead to significant impacts at the ecosystem and societal level. Interest in Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) is gaining importance due to its potential multiple benefits, including social and environmental aspects, when compared to more traditional approaches such as hard engineering interventions. When assessing EbA strategies, further understanding of the nature-society functions, processes, values, and benefits is needed to increase its application. This study contributes to a better knowledge of EbA by developing a systematic literature review of studies performing socio-economic assessments of climate change adaptation in coastal areas. The analysis of 54 publications revealed that most of the studies assessed adaptation solutions through cost-benefit analysis, followed by multi-criteria analysis, and other techniques. Hybrid adaptation strategies based on different combinations of hard, soft and EbA interventions were considered as potential optimal solutions in a significant part of the assessments. This study suggests the potential co-benefits of EbA in the form of ecosystem services, livelihood diversification or biodiversity conservation, but also stresses the need for further research on this topic, as well as on evaluating how EbA perform in the long-term under climate changing conditions scenarios.

This research article aims to uncover the mysteries surrounding Mindanao’s cultural heritage by examining its myths, symbols, and philosophies. Through a multidisciplinary approach, this paper reveals the deeper meanings behind Mindanao’s mythology and encourages critical thinking and a deeper understanding of the connections between myth, culture, and identity.

This paper proposes the utilization of large language models as recommendations systems for museums. Since the aforementioned models lack the notion of context, they can’t work with temporal information that is often present in recommendations for cultural environments (e.g. special exhibitions or events). In this respect, the current work aims at enhancing the capabilities of large language models through a fine-tuning process that incorporates contextual information and user instructions. The resulting models are expected to be capable of providing personalized recommendations, aligned with user preferences and desires. More specifically, Generative Pre-trained Transformer 4, a knowledge-based large language model is fine-tuned and turned into a context-ware recommendation system, adapting its suggestions based on user input and specific contextual factors such as location, time of visit, and other relevant parameters. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is evaluated through certain user studies, which ensure an improved user experience and engagement within the museum environment.

Understanding aspects of maritime/underwater cultural heritage (MUCH) and the associated cultural values and integrating them into maritime spatial planning (MSP) endeavors, is a new global challenge, alongside the rapid increase of human activities at sea and climate change impacts on the seas and the oceans. The article highlights the significance of cultural values in shaping human interactions with the marine environments, and how MSP can address the cultural dimensions of marine resources management. To this end, a systematic literature review was carried out to address the research question on how maritime/underwater cultural heritage is incorporated into MSP and map relevant academic literature. Following, a methodology that entailed an academic database search and the application of exclusion criteria, 346 articles resulted from Scopus. These articles were classified using science mapping techniques (i.e the VOSviewer Software ) and several categories (clusters) were created. The research showed a diversity of literature addressing the relationship between MUCH and MSP with a strong focus on sustainability, the significance of cultural ecosystem services (CES) and cultural values, the role of indigenous and local communities, but also of local stakeholders, the transfer of traditional knowledge to MSP and the participatory approaches and tools. The article concludes that for MSPlans to be innovative and acceptable by local communities, the “missing layer”of socio-cultural values and data is indispensable. In the MSP process, MUCH should be understood within this broader framework of socio-cultural considerations and values.

The Romani are the main European ethnic minority. The Romani people’s situation of social vulnerability and their difficulties in accessing the health system, make their health indicators worse than those of the non-Romani population. The present study will delve into the health beliefs and experiences with health services and their professionals through the perspectives of Romani women. In this qualitative study, 16 women of different ages were interviewed in a city located in the South of Spain. Four themes emerged from the analysis of data: the construction of the identity of Romani women, difficulties in life, health and disease beliefs and barriers in the access to the health system. We conclude that every project for the improvement of the health of the Romani community must take into account the active participation of Romani women and must consider the principles of Cultural Safety, by delving into the intercultural training of health professionals and addressing the social determinants of health which affect the Romani collective.

This review resumes published data on fungal diversity in and within monuments (e.g., religious and secular monuments, museums, and statues), covering a multidisciplinary investigation into the complex interactions between fungi and cultural heritage structures. Fungi represent remarkable adversaries to monuments, potentially compromising their structural integrity and aesthetic value. Based on a bibliographic search of manuscripts published, the knowledge of fungal communities colonizing monuments was comprehensively assessed. This work first describes the diverse fungal species implicated in the degradation of monument materials (e.g., stone, metal, and glass). It elucidates the factors governing fungal colonization and proliferation in and within these structures (e.g., environmental conditions, construction materials, and human interventions). Finally, the efficacy of preservation and restoration techniques to mitigate fungal threats and safeguard our cultural heritage is also discussed. This synthesis highlights the pivotal role of mycological research in heritage conservation, and a platform for future studies to address critical knowledge gaps is provided. Understanding fungal diversity in and within monuments is critical to preserving these invaluable cultural treasures, as it informs targeted conservation strategies and ensures their longevity in the face of fungal challenges.

Architecture plays a crucial role in expressing identities. This study aims to create a model of sustainable continuity of cultural heritage as an approach to study architectural identity in Erbil City. The study combined visual analysis using graphical representation, analysis of previous studies, field surveys, and questionnaire surveys as methods of data collection. The rationale behind selecting Erbil City is related to its unique sustainable developments related to its cultural heritage through the ages, as the oldest continiously inhabited city in the world. The proposed model revealed a strong correlation between independent variables that represent cultural heritage frameworks of (typo-morphology of house layouts and façade, sociocultural factors, sustainable development factors) and the (continuity of architectural identity in houses situated in Erbil city) as a dependent factors. The regression analysis demonstrated that the most effective factor contributing to the continuity of the architectural identity of houses in Erbil city is the physical characteristics related to the typo morphology of the house's plan layout. The study revealed a comprehensive model that includes the relation between inherited and created sustainable elelments related to cultural heritage that effects on the continuity of architectural identity.

The increased cultivation of high THC-containing Cannabis sativa L. (cannabis), particularly in greenhouses, has resulted in a greater incidence of diseases and molds that can negatively affect the growth and quality of the crop. Among them, the most important diseases are root rots (Fusarium and Pythium spp.), Botrytis bud rot (Botrytis cinerea), powdery mildew (Golovinomyces ambrosiae), cannabis stunt disease (caused by Hop latent viroid), and a range of microbes that reduce post-harvest quality. An integrated management approach to reduce the impact of these diseases/microbes requires combining different approaches that target the reproduction, spread and survival of the associated pathogens, many of which can occur on the same plant simultaneously. These approaches will be discussed in the context of developing an integrated plan to manage the important pathogens of greenhouse-grown cannabis at different stages of plant development. These stages include maintenance of stock plants, propagation through cuttings, vegetative growth of plants, and flowering. The cultivation of cannabis genotypes with tolerance or resistance to various pathogens is a very important approach, followed by the maintenance of pathogen-free stock plants. When combined with cultural approaches (sanitation, management of irrigation, and monitoring for diseases) and environmental approaches (greenhouse climate modification), a significant reduction in pathogen development and spread can be achieved. The use of preventive applications of microbial biological control agents and reduced risk biorational products can also reduce disease development at all stages of production in jurisdictions where they are registered for use. The combined use of promising strategies for integrated disease management on cannabis plants during greenhouse production will be reviewed. Future areas for research are identified.

children is challenging. An important advance is the 15-questions Pictorial Personality Traits Questionnaire for Children. A study on students from 10 to 13 years old in Poland validated the questionnaire but with some observations. Thus, there is a need for replication and stronger evi-dence in this age group. In Chile, we replicated the study with 3,423 4th-graders (9 to 12 years old). Teachers, in regular sessions, applied the questionnaire to their entire classes. We found similar results, including that asexual pictograms worked well in both genders. We also found positive relationships between conscientiousness, openness, and extraversion with mathematical performance. Furthermore, a combination of these three traits has a relationship with math performance twice as big as each trait alone. Moreover, students with the lowest scores in this combination of personality traits (6.6% of students) have 0.27 standard deviations less in mathematical performance than those with the highest score, which is 74.3% of students. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that a study finds a strong relationship between a combination of personality traits gathered with a 15-question questionnaire and fourth-graders´ math perfor-mances.

Abstract: This study investigates the transition to sustainable shipping industry within the framework of the IMO's 2050 carbon neutrality objective, focusing on socio-technical systems analysis. The research delves into the sustainable paradigm shift towards alternative marine fuels such as LNG, methanol, ammonia, and hydrogen from a socio-technical transition perspective, analyzing the multi-level per-spective challenges and opportunities. Specifically, it scrutinizes the implications of adopting these al-ternative fuels for global shipping, identifying technical uncertainties, financial constraints, and infra-structure needs. Through a comprehensive review of existing literature on ship emissions and alterna-tive fuels, coupled with socio-technical transition theory, the study addresses the multifaceted chal-lenges and opportunities in meeting the IMO's environmental objectives. It emphasizes the necessity of collaborative governance, innovative niche strategies, and a holistic approach to leverage the current window of opportunity in facilitating the maritime industry's transition to sustainable fuel options. Fi-nally, this research enhances our understanding of the intricate interplay between technological, social, industrial, and cultural dynamics in the greening of shipping and offers insights into the strategic adop-tion of environmentally friendly marine fuels for a sustainable future.

Seafloor mapping is crucial for sustainable Ocean management, but the distribution, drivers and origins of deep-sea biodiversity remain uncharted at global scales. The deep ocean is the largest and least-explored ecosystem on Earth, and the greatest source of unknown lifeforms. This con-tribution is firstly the story of a merge between exploration, science, education and technology for humankind cultural heritage advancement in one of the formally recognized protected areas of the Pacific Ocean. The data herein described are the outcome of a series of underwater surveys fi-nalized during the 2023 Exploration Campaign onboard E/V Nautilus, led by the Ocean Explo-ration Trust within the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, which is the largest conservation area established in the U.S. and one of the largest marine protected areas of the world. Our findings provide an advanced approach to scientific research combining the tradi-tional approach of marine sciences to the cultural and social dimension of local traditions, in or-der to empower the indigenous people in the underwater cultural heritage knowledge advance-ment process, aimed at deep-sea biodiversity detection and unexplored seafloor surveying. Be-side the high potential for this human dimension inclusion, the indigenous voices allowed to in-tegrate the mere scientific aspects commonly shared in every at-sea exploration, with the cultural values and practices respected from the local people who traditionally lived in sync with the Ocean for millennia. As a result, this approach allowed to enforce a trust relationship between the science world and some local representatives who joined the exploration onboard, providing an added value to the extant expertise.

The size of the home is considered the most critical issue affecting the quality of life. This can be measured by the quality of the house and its environment. This paper highlights the housing quality index at the urban axis level in Bistrita-Nasaud county and the impact of socioeconomic activities on the index. The Household Quality of Life Index (HQLI) was calculated based on 11 variables. Household quality of life comprises two distinctive indices: the Housing Conditions Index (HCI) and the Asset Possession Index (API). The study found a variation in the housing condition variables across the urban focus areas. The impact of the socioeconomic environments is disproportionately dependent on the social-economic profile of the urban environments that make up the Urban Axis and the related economic activities that take place in the area of influence in the administrative-territorial units and the variability of the Housing Conditions Index This can be measured by the quality of the house and its environment. This paper highlights the housing quality index at the urban axis level in Bistrita-Nasaud county and the impact of socioeconomic activities on this index. The study area comprises territories in the municipality of Bistrita. The socio-economic context of the area has been the basis for understanding the patterns of evolution identified in the urban landscape, and being a driver in ongoing urban transformations and processes. The impact of the socio-economic is disproportionate to the socioeconomic profile of the urban environments that make up the Urban Axis and the economic activities related to the economic activities taking place in the catchment area in the administrative-territorial units, hence the variability of the Housing Conditions Index which is a system Housing Quality Indicator (HQI) is a tool for measuring and evaluating housing systems based on quality and not just cost.

The current study is to examine the disparities in physical activity (PA), sedentary behavior (SB), and stress levels in Korean adolescents concerning changes in their perception of family socio-economic status (SES) during COVID-19. Among a total of 6144 Korean adolescents aged 12 to 18, the participants were categorized into two groups based on their responses regarding changes in their family SES during COVID-19: Lower SES (n = 3072) and Non-changed SES (n = 3072), with matching in terms of age, gender, and BMI. All variables were assessed using the 16th year (2020) of the Korean Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS 26.0 version, employing independent t-tests to examine anthropometrics’ differences and multinominal logistic regression to predict the impact of perception of family SES on PA, SB, and stress while comparing the two groups. The significance level was set at α = 0.05. Adolescents in the Lower SES group were less likely to engage in vigorous-intensity PA (VPA) and muscular strength activities compared to those in the Non-changed SES group (p < 0.001) and were 2.3 times more likely to experience a very-severe stress level than the Non-changed SES group (p < 0.001). These results shed light on the importance of promoting VPA and muscular strength activities in adolescents for their physical and mental well-being, particularly during potential future pandemics. Understanding the impact of perceived SES changes on health behaviors can inform targeted interventions and support strategies to improve the health outcomes of adolescents during challenging times.

This article investigates the dynamics of socio-ecological systems (SESs) unsustainability. By adopting a theoretical standpoint grounded in systems’ theory, the analysis shows how SESs’ teleology (or final cause) is of the utmost relevance for understanding unsustainability and how it is pivotal for envisioning possible evolutionary trajectories towards sustainability. Building on the contributions of both system and social scientists, the study argues that SES’s teleology is determined by dominant social ontologies that require a dialectical lens to be properly dealt with. The article therefore proposes the adoption of the adaptive cycle heuristic complemented by an historical-geographical approach based on world-ecology theory as a means to dynamically model of SESs’ behaviour. Such a perspective allows for the direct comparison between the four stages of the panarchy cycle (reorganization, exploitation, conservation, and release) and the four stages theorized by the world-ecology dialectics (expansion, appropriation, capitalization, crisis). In conclusion, the article claims that both system and social scientists would benefit from including in their analysis concepts and definitions from the other field, since both provide valuable insights about SESs' processes of change and both are necessary to envision transition pathways towards sustainability.

In an era of global connectivity, language and literature education faces the challenge of navigating multilingualism, cultural diversity, and technological advancements. This paper explores the challenges and opportunities in language and literature education in the era of global connectivity. Through a qualitative research approach, interviews, focus group discussions, and classroom observations were conducted with 30 Arts and Sciences students and teachers. The findings reveal significant themes related to cultural diversity, multilingualism, and the integration of technology in language learning. The study emphasizes the importance of inclusive pedagogies, critical thinking development, and the incorporation of authentic and diverse literary works. Recommendations are provided for educators and policymakers to promote intercultural understanding and enhance language and literature education. The limitations of the study suggest areas for future research, including long-term language proficiency and diverse contextual considerations. Overall, this paper calls for ongoing innovation and collaboration to meet the evolving needs of language and literature education in an interconnected world.

Regional organisations (ROs) are important in that they can enable states in their regions to pros-per and develop for improvement. Interest here lies in the European Union (EU) and the Associa-tion of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). Their political development involves complex process-es for collective actions involving ingroup member RO states. To explore development, we firstly examine the rise of both the EU and ASEAN. The literature gives some attention to the behaviour-alist political approach to explain developmental differences using social organisation theory, often in terms of the Gemeinschaft-Gesellschaft paradigm of Tönnies. However, here we adopt a social psychology approach that distinguishes between operative structure (which directly determines behaviour), and substructure (housing normative personality deemed to be responsible for behav-ioural imperatives). This enables a relationship to be made between the Tönnies paradigm and the Collectivism-Individualism paradigm of Triandis. The theoretical approach adopted involves a complex adaptive systems model deriving from metacybernetics, and this also delivers Mindset Agency Theory as a qualitative methodology. Consistent with the general view, it is shown that the EU is more or less a coherent rational organisation, while ASEAN is more idealistic delivering pragmatic paradox. In particular, ASEAN is frequently descried as an organisation with contra-dictions, and for this reason its pathologies are explored in some detail

This study aimed to conduct a cross-cultural adaptation of the development of the cat-owner/dog-owner relationship scales. The method encompassed several stages: conceptual, item, semantic, operational, measurement, and functional equivalence. Processes included translations, synthesis of translations, back-translations, consensus on the English versions, external evaluation by the original authors, expert committee evaluation, and pre-tests. The study involved surveying 342 pet owners throughout Brazil using a 20-item questionnaire. Data analyses utilized confirmatory factor analysis, covariance-based modeling, and multigroup analysis. The techniques confirmed that the scale preserved its psychometric properties and showed no variance between dog and cat owners, indicating that the measured constructs are universal and unaffected by specific cultural nuances. Hence, the cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the scale facilitate applying and testing concepts and measures in diverse contexts, enriching our understanding of the dynamics between owners and their pets (dogs and cats) in different living situations. In addition, this research holds particular significance in Brazil, given the country’s vast cultural diversity.

Keywords: Ecosystem services; Cultural Ecosystem Services; marine/maritime spatial planning; mapping, assessment, tools, methods, PPGIS

This paper explores the challenges faced by blue-collared international migrants in adapting to new and unfamiliar climates while pursuing job opportunities, with a focus on poverty alleviation. Drawing on existing research and empirical evidence, the study investigates the trials encountered by these migrants as they navigate climate shocks and assesses the potential impacts on poverty reduction efforts. The findings underscore the significant difficulties blue-collared migrants experience when confronted with abrupt changes in climate conditions, adversely affecting their physical and mental well-being, as well as their employment prospects. The process of adjustment involves not only acclimating to new climate patterns but also navigating cultural nuances and social dynamics, exacerbating stress and feelings of isolation. Consequently, these challenges can perpetuate poverty by disrupting employment stability and limiting opportunities for career advancement. To address these issues, the paper proposes comprehensive support measures, including targeted pre-departure training programs, access to retraining opportunities, and assistance in securing sustainable livelihoods. By prioritizing climate resilience and empowering blue-collared migrants to adapt effectively to new climates, it becomes possible to enhance their livelihood prospects, reduce poverty levels, and foster sustainable development. The paper concludes by highlighting the significance of integrating climate adaptation strategies with poverty alleviation efforts to create a more inclusive and resilient future for blue-collared migrants in their pursuit of sustainable livelihoods.

The World Health Organization estimates that every year air pollution kills seven million people worldwide. As it is expected that climate change will affect future air quality patterns, the full understanding of the links between air pollution and climate change, and how they affect human health, are challenges of future research. In this scope, a methodology to assess the air quality impacts on health was developed. The WRF-CAMx modelling framework was applied for the medium-term future climate (considering the SSP24.5 scenario) and for the recent past (considered as baseline). Following the WHO recommendations, mortality health indicators were used to estimate health impacts of long-term exposures. For that, the Aveiro Region, in Portugal, was considered as a case study. Future climate results indicate the occurrence of higher temperatures, and lower total precipitation. Despite that, improvements in the main pollutants’ concentrations, and consequently in the reduction of the related premature deaths are foreseen, mainly due to the reduction of pollutants emissions imposed by the European legislation for the upcoming years. The applied approach constitutes an added value in this research field, being crucial to anticipate the effects of climate change on air quality and evaluate their impacts on human health.

Amidst the rapid urbanization of cities worldwide, there is a pressing need for practical tools to manage and preserve the invaluable architectural heritage contained within them. This research introduces a systematic methodology for digitalizing and interpreting architectural heritage through augmented Reality (AR). The primary goal is to enhance the documentation, preservation, and accessibility of cultural assets, addressing both educational and touristic needs. Focusing on the historic district of Pelourinho in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, the study showcases how 3D digitalization combined with AR can provide users with an interactive experience with historical structures, bridging the temporal divide. By integrating the digital replicas of historic buildings into a real-time environment, users gain enriched insights into these structures’ history, architecture, and cultural significance. Though the preliminary results underscore the potential of this approach, comprehensive user testing remains an area for future exploration. This paper thus highlights the potential of AR in historical and cultural preservation, suggesting its broader implications for education, tourism, and heritage management.

This paper presents the results of quantitative research examining the impacts of demographic and socioeconomic factors on community resilience to disasters. The survey was carried out utilising a questionnaire distributed and subsequently collected online from 321 participants during January 2024. The study employed an adapted version of the '5S' social resilience framework, encompassing five sub-dimensions – social structure (10 variables), social capital (9 variables), social mechanisms (17 variables), social equity and diversity (13 variables), and social belief (13 variables). This customized framework includes 62 indicators, providing a thorough assessment of community (social) disaster resilience in the research context. To explore the relationship between predictors and community (social) disaster resilience in Serbia, their attitudes towards the mentioned five sub-dimensions, as well as their engagement in preventive measures and their perception of resilience to various disasters with a particular focus on demographic and socio-economic impacts, statistical methods including t-tests, one-way ANOVA, Pearson’s correlation, and multivariate linear regression were employed. The results of the multivariate regressions across various community disaster resilience subscales indicate that age emerged as the most significant predictor for the social structure subscale. At the same time, education stood out as the primary predictor for the social capital subscale. Additionally, employment status proved to be the most influential predictor for both social mechanisms and social equity-diversity subscales, with property ownership being the key predictor for the social beliefs sub-scale. Despite being considered in the analyses, gender, marital status, income level, and number of household members did not emerge as the most significant predictors across the investigated community (social) disaster resilience subscales. The determined mean value of the community (social) disaster resilience index is M = 2.62, and the findings reveal that participants assigned the highest ratings to the social beliefs subscale (M = 2.76), while the lowest values were observed in the social structure subscale (M = 2.46). Findings can be used to create strategies and interventions aimed at enhancing the resilience of communities in Serbia by addressing the intricate interplay between demographic characteristics, socio-economic factors, and their ability to withstand, adapt to, and recover from different disasters.

Background Frequent presenters (FPs) define a group of individual who visit hospital emergency depart-ment (ED) frequently for urgent care. Many among the group present with main diagnosis of mental health conditions. This group of individual tend to use ED resources disproportionally and significantly affect overall healthcare outcome. No previous reviews have examined the profiles of FPs with mental health conditions. Aims This study aims to identify the key socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of patients who frequently present to ED with mental health primary diagnosis by performing systemic review from existing literature. Method PRISMA guideline was used. PubMed, PsycINFO, Scopus and Web of Science (WOS) were searched in May 2023. A manual search on reference list of included articles were conducted at same time. Covidence was used to perform extraction and screening, completed by two authors independently. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were defined. Results The abstracts of 3341 non-duplicate articles were screened with 40 full texts assessed for eligi-bility. 20 studies were included from 2004-2022 conducted in 6 countries with total patient number of 25688 (52% male, 48% female, mean age 40.7 years old). 27% were unemployed, 20% married, 41% homeless, and 17% had tertiary or above education. 44% had history of substance abuse or alcohol dependence. Top 3 diagnosis are found to be anxiety disorders (44%), depressive disorders (39%) and schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders (33%). Conclusion On average, FPs are middle aged and equally prevalent in both gender. Current data lacks rep-resentation for gender diverse group. They are significantly associated with high rate of unem-ployment, homelessness, lower than average education level, and being single. Anxiety disor-der, depressive disorder, and schizophrenia spectrum disorders are the most common clinical diagnosis associated with the group.

From the perspective of human cognitive evolution to analyze the origin and sustained development of science, there is a puzzle, because the driving force behind cognitive evolution is natural selection, which favors biological traits improving individual adaptation rather than seeking the truth. Some scholars argue that cultural evolution provides an explanation for the development (or progress) of science, wherein scientific beliefs can be transmitted intergenerationally within the scientific community, thus continually converging toward truth. However, this explanation has ecological validity problem. Research on cultural learning strategies suggests that when choosing beliefs for imitation learning, people tend to consider contextual and content factors rather than the truth value of beliefs. On the other hand, due to the absence of universally accepted criterion for theory selection recognized by all scientists, the best theory choice always fails. I will develop a minimum model for the best theory choice to defend the scientific progress's cultural evolution approach. The criterion for the best theory choice is the mark of a scientific school's establishment and the demarcation line with each other. As a scientific school's member, a scientist could select the best theory as his/her learning model according to the school's criterion. Hence, it is plausible for the approach to explain scientific progress. Finally, my model will show a scientific school is a driver to improve the local scientific progress, and the competition between schools promotes global scientific progress. The school's size and the scientific reasoning diversity decide a result of the competition.

This review article explores the convergence of virtual reality (VR) and architectural design from an inclusive lens. It underscores the crucial role of virtual reality (VR) in serving as a catalyst for the incorporation of social and cultural sustainability principles in architectural projects. The exploration is guided by inclusive design principles, which encompass several aspects such as accessibility, cultural sensitivity, diversity and inclusivity, user-centered design, and empathy. These concepts serve as the basis for further investigation into the potential of virtual reality (VR) technology to enhance and heighten these features within architectural design, therefore promoting the progress of social and cultural sustainability. The review article highlights the profound impact that virtual reality (VR) may have, going beyond mere visualisation to generate architectural experiences that are immersive, interactive, and empathetic. These experiences are designed to take into account diverse perspectives and needs.

With a worldwide growing concern for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and their impact on human health and the environment, transportation has become a central theme in mitigation, responsible for 14% of human GHG emissions. To build endurance to climate change, transportation services must adapt to the current scenario and act quickly to avert future changes. Deeply rooted changes in socio-technical systems will be necessary to achieve significant CO2 reduction and secure the well-being of future generations. This study's objective is to comprehensively review the current state of carbon mitigation in the transportation sector. This is done through a systematic literature review engrained in the socio-technical transition theory and the structural theory of contingency. Twenty-six review papers covering 2,983 original articles are selected for full-text examination concerning carbon emissions in transportation. Enablers, barriers, benefits, disadvantages and metrics in carbon emissions reduction are identified, and a comprehensive framework is built. Results provide a view of the current sustainability scenario in transportation and allow a better understanding of the factors influencing carbon emission initiatives in transportation and its outcomes.

The purpose of this article is to present a multi-criteria model designed to evaluate the potential of Sincelejo's cultural identity for tourism development. A descriptive quantitative methodology was used, which included a survey of 211 participants. A decision support method was applied, using the Weighted Additive Sum approach, following the multi-attribute method. Based on the information gathered, the elements of cultural identity shared by most of the criteria were identi-fied, highlighting the gastronomic, social, and cultural traditions and customs of the region, the results of which made it possible to design a composite indicator to evaluate the tourism potential of cultural identity in the area.

Machine Learning can be used for social good. In this paper, we discuss how it can be used to combat climate change and facilitate land management and farming in developing countries and in particular in Côte d’Ivoire. This paper explores models that improve land and water management and agricultural farming cultivation to contrast climate change. Côte d’Ivoire is the largest producer of cocoa beans (43%) in the world, but deforestation, lack of rainfall, drought, and climate change threaten crops and the already fragile economy of Ivorian farmers. It is important to combat climate change with methods and techniques that are affordable to the local farmers and also induce positive effects in production. We discuss the use of low-cost sensors to collect data on the soil and open data and open source software to develop AI tools. We show that using deep neural networks (YOLOv5m) is effective for detecting healthy plants and pods of cocoa from damaged ones only using mobile phone images. Focusing on a single land is not enough to combat climate change, which has different causes and involves also knowledge at a higher scale. We propose a new method of forecasting for the analysis of remote sensors. Remote sensor data come from GRACE NASA Mission and ERA5 produced by the Copernicus Climate Change Service at ECMWF. We implement a new deep neural network architecture named CIWA-net. It is based on a Fully Convolutional Neural Network (FCN) [ 1] and it is a U-net like architecture [2]. The aim of CIWA-net is to forecast Total Water Storage Anomalies (TWSA). We show the quality of our model with a comparison to a vanilla Convolutional Neural Network. CIWA-net could be used also for the detection of lands that interfere with agricultural work and yields, such as deserted areas, water-soaking soil areas, zones at risk of desertification, and poor land use. The employment of AI at the service of agriculture can decrease crop losses and waste, lower the inputs onto the soil of fertilizers, responsible for the increase of Greenhouse Gases. It could be useful to help the small farmers (at a local scale) and also the policy-makers and farmers’ cooperatives (at the regional scale) to take valid and coordinated countermeasures to improve the correct use of the lands, helping to contrast and adapt to climate change.

Through an investigation of recently discovered Incantation of Wish-Fulfillment amulets from the Silla kingdom, this paper reveals that early Korea had more diverse forms of dhāraṇī practices than previously assumed. This paper’s analysis of these amulets from Korea contributes toward filling the gap in our current understanding of the material practice pertaining to the Incantation of Wish-Fulfillment widely practiced in medieval East Asia. Based on an interdisciplinary analysis of the two amulet sheets of the Incantation of Wish-Fulfillment from Silla, this paper explored hitherto unknown aspects of early Korean dhāraṇī practice. Previously, the only material dhāraṇī practice in early Korea was thought to be the enshrinement of textual relics in pagodas based on the Pure Light Incantation, which has little connection to contemporaneous Chinese dhāraṇī practice. However, the newly discovered Incantation of Wish-Fulfillment amulets, whose date this paper inferred to be between the eighth and ninth century, show that the Unified Silla also had a dhāraṇī practice closely linked to the Chinese practice. However, unlike the Chinese Incantation of Wish-Fulfillment amulets that were buried in tombs, the Silla amulets were likely enshrined in one of the pagodas erected on Mount Nam, Gyeongju. At the same time, the Silla epigraph from Myogilsang Pagoda at Haeinsa shows that the Incantation of Wish-Fulfillment was placed in the pagoda so as to wish for good afterlives of the soldiers who died at the battle, suggesting that placing the Incantation of Wish-Fulfillment in a pagoda had a function similar to that of burying the Chinese amulet in the tomb.

Plant endophytic fungi and rhizosphere soil fungi are often reported as biocontrol agents against plant pathogens or with plant growth promotion potential. Four treatments were performed in field and greenhouse experiments where cucumber plants were inoculated with Trichoderma harzianum and Fusarium oxysporum in 2022. The roots, stems and leaves of cucumber plants and their rhizosphere soil were collected twice individually from the field and greenhouse for isolation of cucumber endophytic and rhizosphere soil fungi. All 74 genera and 1275 fungal strains were sequenced by rDNA ITS. The PDA media yielded the highest number of genera isolated from cucumber plants, rhizosphere soil and both compared to other media. There were no significant differences among the 4 media for the isolation of cucumber endophytic fungi. The best media for isolating fungi from roots and stems were MRBA and PDA, respectively. PDA and CZA had higher isolation efficiency for the rhizosphere soil fungi than MRBA. The 28 fungal genera had high isolation efficiency, and the endophytic Trichoderma strains were best isolated by MEA. It is suggested that PDA can be used as a basic medium, and different media can be considered for specific fungal genera.

Introduction: SARS-CoV-2 infection was first reported in 2019 and has since spread throughout the world. This is a cross-sectional study in cooperation with 118 Department of Pre-Hospital and Territorial Emergency (118 SET) of Taranto City and the University of Bari, Aldo Moro, and the School of Medicine from Italy. We conducted a study on how the COVID-19 epidemics evolved and how it was contained by different countermeasures by taking into account data showing socio-demographic and that older persons, as well as individuals with comorbidities and poor metabolic health, and people coming from economically depressed areas with lower quality of life in general, are more likely to develop severe COVID-19 infection. Objective: Examine the association between county-level socio-demographic risk factors and COVID-19 incidence and mortality, determining the possible emo-biological markers, ferritin, and lymphocytes, that could be indicative of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Methods: Descriptive cross-sectional study on 600 patients examined and treated at general hospital Ninh Thuan from January to September 2022. Results: 33/600 patients were confirmed to be infected with SARS-CoV-2 (5.5%), males 4.8% and females 5.8%, the median age of infected patients is 36 years. Most infections were mild (75.8%). Our results revealed that the structure and the spatial arrangement of socio-demographic arrangements are important either as epidemiological determinants or as disease markers. Conclusion: Approximately 5.5% of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 come to examination and treatment at the hospital, these findings suggested that possible infection rate in the burden of the COVID-19 pandemic, the sociodemographic risk factors, and their root causes must be addressed. In addition, lab results obtained from affected patients showed that lymphocytes and ferritin could be considered traits of mild COVID-19 infection.

The variety of risks due to climate change with a potential impact on Cultural Heritage CH requires a multidisciplinary approach and a preliminary overview of the existing methods for risk analysis and assessment in different fields. Thus, the starting point of the research conducted by the Sapienza PNRR working group consists in a systematic literature review of risk assessment approaches, methods and indicators. As a first outcome, the research has designed a multidisciplinary comprehensive framework consisting of the definition of risk categorization, the framework represented by a measurable index and the main target, according to the classification of Cultural Heritage based on the harmonization of European vocabularies definitions and protocols. The risk assessment framework sets the methodological core of a future multi criteria matrix and digital platform for decision focused on the historic built environment and it is functional to the definition of specific operational guidelines connected to each risk for elaborating descriptive/predictive Architectural Heritage’s transformation scenarios to support the development of mitigation and adaptation strategies.

Heritage monuments are religious, historical, strategic or civil edifices and could be deteriorated, even damaged due to their exposure to natural and human induced processes. The Roman Edifice with Mosaic (II-IV A.D.), the largest one in Eastern Europe is an ancient civil edifice built on the steep cliff in the western part of Black Sea, Constanța, Romania and being exposed to geomorphological and hydrogeological processes is affected by degradation. The main objective of this paper is to assess the current state of this ancient historical site in relation with the environmental instability in order to offer scientific support for rehabilitation process through interdisciplinary and non-destructive methods. Geophysical methods had been applied to analyze comparatively the spatial variations and flows of groundwater around Roman Mosaic over 10 years. Geomorphological hazards had been inventoried and mapped. The results emphasize the state of degradation of the roman mosaic pavement and ancient walls mainly through high variations of the deposits moisture due to poor maintenance which caused suffusion, slip processes, bring the mosaic into highly vulnerability range. Zoning vulnerability map of the Roman Mosaic environment is a necessary tool for continuously improvement of risk management because emphasize clearly the sectors which still confronting with hazards.

Since 2017 Cartagena UNESCO World Heritage has threatened to be categorized as "in Danger" by UNESCO. This research analyzes two main critical aspects, Governance and Current state of the Site. Regarding Governance, the study aims to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and treats in the UNESCO Site. Exemplary heritage management systems are studied to propose an adaptable management approach specifically for Cartagena. On the other hand, a comprehensive analysis is conducted utilizing a photographic report that highlights the major issues arising from inadequate heritage management. Hyperspectral images obtained from a previous study are employed to identify vegetation and asbestos-cement roofs within the cultural heritage Site. The study reveals that the ambiguity surrounding decision-making authority for heritage management, distributed between the Mayor's Office and the Ministry of Culture, is a primary challenge. This fragmentation has resulted in duplicated efforts and a lack of coordinated action, significantly compromising the conservation and protection of the cultural heritage Site. Moreover, twelve current shortcomings of cultural heritage in Cartagena are identified through authors' five-year on-site regular visits, photographic reports and observation. To address the prevailing concerns, a new line of command for cultural heritage management is proposed as the most effective means of tackling these challenges. Additionally, general recommendations are presented to mitigate the existing problems and prevent the classification of Cartagena's heritage as "at risk" by UNESCO in the near future. This research provides a scientific perspective, drawing upon years of experience studying heritage and residing in the city, devoid of political influences or conflicts of interest.

Non-woody forest products play a vital role in the economic uplifts of the local communities living in forest areas. This study was conducted in the Shishikoh Valley, district Chital to identify the economic importance of the Chilghoza nuts. The study was based on interviews and questionnaires, and a total of 50 questionnaires were collected from the whole valley. The results showed that before 2003, the people were unaware of the high economic value of the Chilghoza nuts, they used to sell the Chilghoza nuts at a very low price (US$ 1.7 to 2.4 per bag: approximately 5 Kg) and harvest it for fuelwood purposes. After the IPRP interventions, training and awareness, the local people started conservation of Chilghoza trees and sustainable cone harvesting. The total collection and sell out of Chilghoza nuts in the Shishikoh valley jumped to 87.9 tons and US$ 7.64/kg in 2005 from 32.7 tons and US$ 0.34-0.48/kg, respectively. This study concludes that IPRP interventions improved the economic values of Chilghoza nuts as well as the living standards of the local people.

In reservoir operations rule curves, it is necessary to apply rule curves to guide long-term reservoir management. This paper proposes an approach to optimize the reservoir operation rule curves (RORC) using intelligent optimization techniques from the Firefly Algorithm (FA) and a unique combination method utilizing the Artificial Bees Colony and Cultural Algorithm (ABC-CA). The aim is to establish a connection with the simulation model to determine the optimal RORC for flood control. The proposed model was used to determine the Nam-Oon Reservoir (NOR) is optimal flood control RORC in Northeastern Thailand. The minimum frequency and a minimum average of ex-cess water were given as an objective function for assessing the efficiency of the search process. The evaluation of the effectiveness of flood control RORC involved expressing water scarcity and excess water situations in terms of frequency, magnitude, and duration using historical inflow data syn-thesized from 1000 events. The results demonstrate that when using the obtained RORC to simulate the NOR system for reducing flooding in long-term operations, situations of excess water were smaller than those using the current RORC. The results indicated that situations of excess water using the obtained RORC from the proposed model were smaller than those using the current RORC situations. In decreasing flood situations, the newly acquired RORC from the suggested FA and ABC-CA models performed better than the current RORC.

This paper explores the challenges and opportunities of balancing cultural preservation and tourism investment in historic Syrian cities in the post-war period. The Syrian conflict has caused significant damage to the country's cultural heritage, including its ancient cities, which are UNESCO World Heritage sites. Key issues raised include what challenges local governments to face, the impact of the war on the preservation of historic sites, how tourism can be used as a tool for economic development, and how to ensure that cultural heritage is preserved while also allowing for tourism investment. To gain an in-depth understanding of the old Syrian cities, extensive research has been conducted, including a review of existing literature and interviews with key stakeholders. The researcher found that rebuilding historic Syrian cities is a complex task that requires balancing cultural preservation with tourism investment. It will require collaboration between government officials, preservationists, developers, and local communities to ensure that these cities are restored in a way that respects their history and culture while also promoting economic growth through tourism.

As digital technologies rapidly integrate into Health Professions Education (HPE), gaining a comprehensive understanding of cyberethics becomes crucial. This scoping review aimed to explore the pedagogy of cyberethics within HPE, with an emphasis on its definitions, conceptualizations, theoretical foundations, and interventions. Drawing from 37 documents spanning 2012-2022, primarily originating from the U.S. and encompassing both peer-reviewed and grey literature, the study highlighted a significant gap in the explicit definition and conceptualization of cyberethics. Additionally, the evident lack of specific theoretical frameworks in the majority of these documents could hamper the progression and replicability of research. Among the reviewed articles, only four introduced cyberethics educational interventions, indicating a substantial avenue for future research. While the study utilized comprehensive search methods, limitations such as language biases and the potential omission of pertinent documents were present. Future investigations should broaden the cyberethics discourse to encompass emerging technologies and their ethical implications within HPE. Crafting comprehensive, culturally sensitive, and inclusive guidelines is pivotal in nurturing ethical digital practices in the health care community.

This research paper aimed to explore the impact of childhood and adolescent experiences on the leadership development of Emirati women in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Using a qualitative research methodology, the study utilized in-depth narrative semi-structured interviews, document analysis, and diary writing to understand the complex issue of leadership development. Findings indicate that childhood and adolescent experiences, including family upbringing, education, culture, and societal expectations, have significant impacts on the leadership development of Emirati women. Specifically, family upbringing and cultural values shape Emirati women's leadership aspirations and behaviors, while education and societal expectations provide opportunities and barriers for women's leadership development. The implications of these findings for policymakers and practitioners seeking to promote women's leadership development in the UAE are discussed.

Depression and anxiety are the most common mental health disorders worldwide. Internet-Delivered Cogni-tive Behaviour Therapy (ICBT) can reduce barriers to care for broad cross sections of the population. How-ever, People of Diverse Ethnocultural Backgrounds (PDEGs) other than White/Caucasian underutilize mental health services and are underrepresented in clinical trials of psychological interventions. To address this research gap, we adapted an evidence-based ICBT program for PDEGs. The current pilot study explores the effectiveness, satisfaction, and engagement in the adapted ICBT by PDEGs (N=41) when benchmarked against a sample of PDEGs (N=134) drawn from a previous non-adapted version of the ICBT program. Inntent-to-treat analyses showed that the adapted ICBT program is effective in reducing anxiety and de-pression symptoms among PDEGs. Large within-group pre-to-post-treatment Cohen’s effect sizes of d = 1.23, 95% CI [0.68, 1.77] and d = 1.24, 95% CI [0.69, 1.79] were found for depression and anxiety, respectively. Further, 81.8% of the PDEGs who received the adapted ICBT program reported high overall satisfaction, 90.9 % reported increased confidence in managing symptoms, and 70.7% of participants completed the ma-jority of the psychoeducational lessons in the ICBT program. No statistically significant differences in clinical outcomes, engagement, and satisfaction were found between the pilot study and benchmark sample. Future directions for ICBT research with PDEGs are described.

Delayed diagnosis and a lack of adequate care for people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are related to worse outcomes and quality of life. This study aimed to identify the profile of service use, barriers to access care, and factors related to those barriers in Brazilian families with children with ASD. A total of 927 families with ASD children (3-17 years) from five Brazilian regions completed an online version of the Caregivers Needs Survey. Results showed that the most used services were behavioral interventions and pharmacotherapy, while the most used professionals were neurologists, nutritionists, speech therapists, psychiatrists, psychologists, and pediatricians. The main barriers included waiting lists, costs, and the absence of services or treatment. Service use varied according to age, the region of residence, the type of health care system used, and the parents/caregivers' education. Access to behavioral interventions was more frequent among users of the private system/health insurance and families whose caregivers had higher education. The absence of specialized services/treatments was less frequent among residents of state capitals and families whose caregivers had higher levels of education. This study highlights how families with children/adolescents with ASD in Brazil face significant barriers to access care related to sociodemographic factors.

In order to cope with the challenges of physical and psychological aging in the indigenous people in Taiwan, most of the tribes in Taiwan set up cultural health stations for indigenous elderly. These community care facilities have practiced many health promotion activities, such as the reminiscence, life review, and arts activity. However, there was little exploration into the benefit of indigenous people’s practice the life review activity in Taiwan—the gap this study aimed to fill. This study adopts life review therapy through a set of innovative life review activity designs in indigenous older adults, including activity planning, and indigenous cultural elements. A qualitative study design using semi-structured interviews was used to obtain data from a purposive sample. Ten participants who assessed to the cultural health stations services and participated in the life review activities of the indigenous older adults in southern Taiwan were interviewed individually. The data were analyzed using Graneheim and Lundman’s qualitative content analysis. The theme—“experiences and benefits of participating”—and two categories with six subcategories emerged. The results demonstrated that the participation of the indigenous elderly in life review activities with cultural elements had obvious benefits for their mental health. Life review therapy can be incorporated as a supplementary LTC treatment for the indigenous people, thereby, promoting the positive emotions of the indigenous elderly.

This paper argues that the neoliberal consensus about education finance has broken down due to growing economic inequality. First, I use a comparative historical analysis of political alliances to examine patterns of world trade and nations’ policies for economic and educational development since World War II. The United States emphasized STEM-collegiate preparation for all students, while most countries continued the dual emphasis on technical-tertiary and higher education. Educational policy in the US and Pacific region also shifted to reliance on markets and student loans resulting in worsening economic inequality in access. Nations with dual technical and academic pathways in secondary and postsecondary education systems expand college enrollment rates more rapidly than the US. They also experience class conflict between the working-middle class and the new technology elite. Next, I examine how education policy shifted from national planning aligned with public funding to market-based incentives for institutional development, further exposing gaps in opportunity within nations. Finally, recognizing the variations in systemic causes of inequality, I argue that governments, education agencies, and civic activists can best promote equity by organizing to address barriers to opportunity for groups left behind in the wake of withering neoliberal education policy.

This research explores the influence of nationality and financial literacy on satisfaction with neobank services among university students. Through a comparative analysis between German and international students, the study unveils that international students exhibit significantly higher satisfaction levels, suggesting that cultural differences and the requirement for international financial services play a crucial role Oishi et al., 1999. Although financial literacy was anticipated to have a strong impact, its effect on satisfaction did not reach statistical significance, indicating a nuanced relationship. This perhaps because the study sample of students partaking in the survey was mostly Graduate students in the field of Economics, Finance and Management. Demographic factors such as gender and age were found to be less influential compared to nationality and financial acumen Gelfand et al., 2011. These findings highlight the importance of tailored financial services and the potential of financial education in enhancing neobank satisfaction Gerrans et al., 2014. The study contributes to the understanding of consumer behavior in digital banking, offering insights for neobanks aiming to improve service adoption and customer loyalty within the university student demographic.

Focusing on the implementation of the 2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), this article highlights the fact that the cataloging procedures, the way records are stored, and the metadata models used during recording, visualization, and storage of ICH expression elements, vary from country to country. Especially in these days of great uncertainty, war conflicts, and the systemic risks that may arise, it is vital to clarify what techniques will be used in the storage of ICH to ensure its unhindered preservation and dissemination over time across the globe. Using the systems thinking approach indicated for cases of great complexity, the process followed in Greece for depositing a new element in its local repository is described to demonstrate the need for a well-defined process by UNESCO, which must be followed worldwide and which has not been defined so far. What are the potential challenges not only in determining the type of data but also in choosing the best metadata model to use in each case when capturing this data? What technologies must be used for storing digital cultural heritage in such a way that will preserve it over time, defying physical and technological hazards? The article finally suggests how Blockchain Technologies (BT) can be effectively used to store the global ICH and ensure its continuity in future generations by creating a decentralized worldwide network between the heritage stakeholders.

Cross-cultural mobility is a phenomenon that is increasingly growing, and the resulting stress has become a severe health issue. Thus, we conducted a systematic review of articles reporting research on stress measures of cross-cultural mobility or acculturative stress, emphasizing its internal structure. We adopted the PRISMA procedures for scoping reviews (e.g., searching articles in databases), resulting in the inclusion 20 articles in the final analysis that present evidence of validity based on the internal structure of 16 measures. The most common factors identified were related to cultural stressors, language stressors, and discrimination stressors. After analyzing a cross-cultural mobility stress concept implicit in the definitions used in the articles, we found that most measures of acculturative stress did not evaluate it according to the Stress and Coping Model of Lazarus and Folkman. Most measures only focused on part of the phenomena (some estimated the stressors, others the coping strategies). Few took into account the physiological and psychological responses to internal or external stressors, and even fewer considered its positive aspects (eustress). Consequently, it is pivotal to develop measures that take into account the multiple dimensions of the cross-cultural mobility stress. Other results (e.g., validity evidence of the measures) and limitations of this systematic scoping review are presented and discussed.

The worldwide competition to vaccinate against COVID-19 has highlighted the importance of immunization measures in containing the virus. Saudi Arabia, like the rest of the globe, must assess socio-demographic subtleties, chronic illnesses, vaccination effects, and public health policy implications as it navigates this complicated environment. This cross-sectional study examined Saudi COVID-19 vaccine in many ways. It examined the socio-demographic makeup of vaccine recipients, the prevalence of chronic conditions in this population, vaccine administration patterns, post-vaccination side effects, and vaccine-infection rates. A questionnaire-based online survey of 401 participants ensured gender, nationality, age, weight, and educational diversity. We analyzed vaccine manufacturer choice for each dosage, side effects after the first and second doses, and chronic diseases in the sample. Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines are preferred for all three doses, reflecting worldwide vaccination acceptance patterns. Side effects were not significantly different between vaccination kinds. Interestingly, immunization reduced infection rates, demonstrating the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines. The data fills important information gaps and illuminates Saudi COVID-19 vaccination kinetics. These data support the global preference for mRNA vaccines, demonstrating the faith in this breakthrough technology. They also sponsor COVID-19 vaccine safety and effectiveness studies. The dramatic drop in infection rates among vaccinated people shows how vaccinations suppress the pandemic. These findings inform Saudi Arabia's immunization efforts. As booster doses become more common, long-term vaccination research is crucial. Vaccine reluctance, especially in certain demographics, must be addressed. Due to vaccines' protective potential, equitable vaccine distribution and large immunization programs are essential for herd immunity and pandemic management. This thorough cross-sectional study helps policymakers and healthcare practitioners build successful and inclusive COVID-19 immunization regimens in Saudi Arabia.

When the majority of museums and other cultural institutions were shut down due to the pandemic, mixed museum visits became a hot issue. After the epidemic, mixed visits, in the opinion of many experts, would become the new norm for experiencing cultural content. Diverse types of merging online and onsite visits are already being investigated by researchers, not only to avoid the spread of a disease but also to enable visits of people who were previously excluded, such as persons in remote geographic areas or people with mobility challenges. The current work takes into account the Contextual Model of Museum Learning to define potential use scenarios for visits from people of different cultural backgrounds and offers an evaluation of current practices.

Few assessments and indicators on cultural sustainability have been applied to national and local development policies in Indonesia. Said policies have had the notion of space solely defined through its physical aspect. This study aims to establish the cultural aspect of space as a workable indicator for sustainability in development planning. The study grounds itself in the coastal area of Kalibaru Subdistrict, North Jakarta, a region characterized by dense and culturally diverse residential areas located in between heavy industrial development. Primary data are gathered from 10 informants of varying occupations with residence in the area for more than 20 years. In-depth interviews and Spatial Cognitive Mapping were conducted to articulate the cultural spaces of their everyday activities. Prevalent themes of spatial practice were identified and described in 3 categories of 1. core cultural spaces, 2. tactical cultural spaces, and 3. spaces of cultural conflict. The participatory procedures to identify cultural spaces as described in the study were concluded to be operable within existing indicator or index frameworks for sustainability policy. The availability of cultural spaces and its enumeration may be incorporated into national surveys for effective data collection and use.

Internationalization and alternative ways for strategic management have been an objective for stakeholders in cultural industry, especially after COVID-19 pandemic crisis. During the past years “internationalization” has been almost exclusively related with promoting creation or content to larger audiences. Such a strategy seemed sufficient, even if empirical data did not always support such a belief. Technological progress and costs reduction in developing Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) applications, provides to cultural industry the opportunity to reach global audiences and to enrich their experience. Current research provides evidence about developing VR and AR tools that can act as internationalization facilitators when it comes to cultural industry. Research conducted during “VARSOCUL” project funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the Greek National Scope Action entitled "RESEARCH-CREATE-INNOVATE". The project’s main result, alongside with VR and AR tools developed are presented.

This paper constitutes a comprehensive literature review within the field of cultural tourism, with a particular focus on the concept of the cultural route as a tourist-cultural product. Within this framework, the paper offers an overview of contemporary technological challenges, concerns, and limitations. It thoroughly explores cutting-edge technologies pertaining to the promotion of cultural heritage, both in general and in the specific context of realizing the concept of the cultural route, a tourist-cultural service enriched by the utilization of new media. Additionally, it extensively references the latest techniques and models for enhancing the user experience of digital cultural tourism products. Moreover, the paper showcases existing digital platforms and tools that encapsulate and emphasize the notion of cultural tourism. It assesses the respective methodologies, technologies, and techniques employed in each case, accompanied by illustrative instances of their applications.

A regional organisation (RO) is a group of states that, through the formation of mutual relationships, work together for shared regional goals such as economic growth, social welfare, security, and democracy. The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) is one such organisation, of interest because of its operative paradoxes. However, current theory to study ROs is both fragmented across the field of study, and inadequate. Taking ROs to be complex adaptive systems, diagnosing ROs requires theory that can to explore their hidden aspects. The metacybernetics framework enables the creation of a critical realism configurative a-priori inquiry approach to theory building, the configurations providing coordinative schemas able to respond to predefined complex modelling needs. To analyse ROs using metacybernetics, we offer a derivative schema, Cultural Agency Theory (CAT). Currently this is limited to exploring modes of information acquisition processes through cognitive style, and until now has had no inherent mechanism to explore social relationships as is required to explore ROs. To enable CAT to explore such relationships, we configure the Tönnies social organisation paradigm for CAT. Mindset Agency Theory (MAT) is a specific elaboration of CAT, and creates an empirical setting for the set of formative traits that de-fine an RO character. A related derivative of CAT is that of Multiple Identity Theory (MIT) which enables organisational pathologies to be explored in terms of identity conflicts. This multifaceted paradigm provides a relatively simple approach to the RO diagnosis, in particular in terms of stability/coherence. This paper is in two parts. In this part 1, the CAT theory will be further developed through the joint configuration of Tönnies social organisation paradigm allowing its pathologies to be diagnosed. In part 2 of the paper, the theory will be applied to ASEAN and the diagnosis will show that it is an inherently incoherent organisation.

The pride of power of the Spanish preachers of religious art is reflected in the church of Santo Domingo built between 1541 and 1688. This work of heritage architecture, one of the first to be built in the colonized city, was affected by multiple earthquakes, interventions, and constructions that do not have a clear record. A total of 13 samples were taken from the lining mortar inside the cloister, central nave, and side chapel, following the nondestructive testing protocols and standards suggested by the research team. The analysis included mineral characterization studies and quantitative analysis by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy with microanalysis of the samples. The results showed the presence of volcanic aggregates and lime lining and joint mortars, mortars of rustic composition and coarse manufacture. The resolution of the data of mineralogical composition and texture has allowed us to corroborate the historical information described by the chroniclers and to date relatively the studied sites and to establish a hypothesis of constructive stages.

With the increasing of China's international status and the acceleration of the process of global economic integration, the internationalization strategy of Chinese enterprises is getting deeper and deeper. This paper analyzes the problems and challenges faced by the international supply chain management of Chinese bamboo weaving and creative products, and puts forward a set of supply chain management model that ADAPTS to the international development. Firstly, the concept, connotation and types of supply chain management are sorted out through literature review. Secondly, this paper analyzes the current situation of international supply chain management of bamboo editing and creative products, and points out the existing problems. Thirdly, based on the theory and practice of international supply chain management, this paper puts forward a set of supply chain management model suitable for the international development of bamboo editing and creative products. Finally, taking a bamboo weaving and creative products enterprise as an example, the application effect of the supply chain management model is empirically analyzed. The results show that the supply chain management model can effectively reduce the cost and improve the efficiency, and is conducive to the international development of bamboo editing and creative products.

The objective of this research article is to determine if social and cultural capital are factors that cause inequalities in the level of knowledge in civic and citizenship education, between Latin American and European countries. To achieve this purpose, information from the National Study of Civic and Citizen Education -ICCS-, of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement -IEA-, of the year 2016, is used. Methodologically speaking, the Educational Production Function -EPF- is estimated and subsequently, the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition technique is applied to quantify the differences in civic and citizenship education and see how much they are explained by the characteristics of the student and their family. the school, the social and cultural capital. As a main result, educational inequalities were found in favor of European countries, and are due to a greater extent to differences in school resources, between Latin American and European countries, followed by differences in social and cultural capital, therefore, it is the European students who make the best use of and benefit from the differences in school endowments and in social and cultural capital.

In this paper, we thoroughly explore the complex realm of cryptography, examining its historical, cultural, and metaphorical aspects. We delve into the roots of cryptography, tracing back to its Ancient Greek origins where it meant the study of secure and hidden writing. We also reveal the historical significance of cryptography in times of war and conflict, showcasing how it has been a vital tool for encoding messages and maintaining confidentiality. Furthermore, we uncover the surprising connection between cryptography and love, highlighting moments from history, such as the encrypted letters between Marie Antoinette and Axel von Fersen during the French Revolution, which showcase the human desire to communicate and connect even during times of turmoil. This paper delves into the cultural and metaphorical representations of cryptography, with a specific focus on the iconic characters Alice and Bob and how they are reinterpreted in different cultural contexts. The paper draws parallels between the complexities of the intertwining of logical, emotional, technical, and personal narratives in cryptographic discourse, offering insights into the lasting legacy of cryptographic metaphors in explaining complex concepts and emphasising the universal human desire for secure and intimate connections.

Urban waterways are significant natural elements in urban development activities, which might cause long-term changes in the historic built environment. As it runs through the historic city center of Bursa, a World Heritage Site in Türkiye, Cilimboz (Phillippoz) Creek has witnessed urban development activities along its surrounding landscape. Its valley, the study area, is composed of natural, residential, and industrial heritage as well as archaeological remains dating to ancient times while having undergone permanent changes as a result of the rapid increase in population and squatting, since the 1960s. This study aims to assess the challenges of sustainability in a multi-layered historic urban landscape while discussing the outcomes of various land use implementations along Cilimboz Creek. The cultural assets in the study area are presented by using a combination of interpretive-historical and case-study research methods to understand historic urban texture. Afterward, the changes in the composition of natural and architectural heritage are described to assess the impacts of urban development activities on the sustainability of its multi-layered historic urban identity. Consequently, this evaluation reveals the need for a holistic approach by the participation of all relevant stakeholders to co-develop solutions for architectural, social, and environmental conservation issues in this cultural landscape.

The guthi, an ancient institution deeply embedded in Nepal's social, cultural, and economic fabric, has long overseen the maintenance of temples, shrines, festivals, and heritage sites since the Lichchhavi era (400-750). Since 1960, however, this system has been challenged by government land reforms, which has impacted its influence on sustainable heritage conservation. Nevertheless, there's compelling evidence that land nationalization and the guthi's declining authority have harmed local heritage conservation. Nevertheless, the guthi system has endured, serving as an important informal means of heritage conservation and highlighting the adaptability of traditional institutions. These community-based trusts, originally established for social and religious purposes, have played a pivotal role in preserving cultural practices, monuments, and temples for future generations. This article aims to demonstrate the central role of the guthi as the cornerstone of Nepal's efforts to conserve and manage both tangible and intangible cultural treasures. Using observational techniques, case studies, and a qualitative approach, it explores the historical evolution of heritage conservation through the lens of the guthi, taking into account subjective, valued, and constructed realities. The paper concludes by urging policymakers to recognize the significant contribution of indigenous systems such as the guthi in achieving sustainable heritage conservation. Embracing such traditional strategies can mitigate multifaceted problems and effectively preserve Nepal's cultural heritage through the guthi.

A regional organisation (RO) is a group of states that, through the formation of mutual relation-ships, work together for shared regional goals such as economic growth, social welfare, security, and democracy. The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) is one such organisation, of interest because of its operative paradoxes. However, current theory to study ROs is both fragmented across the field of study, and inadequate. Taking ROs to be complex adaptive systems, diagnosing ROs requires theory that can to explore their hidden aspects. The metacybernetics framework enables the creation of a critical realism configurative a-priori inquiry approach to theory building, the configurations providing coordinative schemas able to respond to predefined complex modelling needs. To analyse ROs using metacybernetics, we offer a derivative schema, Cultural Agency Theory (CAT). Currently this is limited to exploring modes of information acquisition processes through cognitive style, and until now has had no inherent mechanism to explore social relationships as is required to explore ROs. To enable CAT to explore such relationships, we configure the Tönnies social organisation paradigm for CAT. Mindset Agency Theory (MAT) is a specific elaboration of CAT, and creates an empirical setting for the set of formative traits that de-fine an RO character. A related derivative of CAT is that of Multiple Identity Theory (MIT) which enables organisational pathologies to be explored in terms of identity conflicts. Thes multifaceted paradigm provides a relatively simple approach to the RO diagnosis, in particular in terms of stability/coherence. This paper is in two parts. In this part 1, the CAT theory will be further developed through the joint configuration of Tönnies social organisation paradigm allowing its pathologies to be diagnosed. In part 2 of the paper, the theory will be applied to ASEAN and the diagnosis will show that it is an inherently incoherent organisation

The reviews usefulness has been the aim of several research studies. However, results regarding the significance of usefulness determinants are often contradicting, thus decreasing the accuracy of reviews’ helpfulness estimation. Also, bias in user reviews attributed to differences e.g. in gender, nationality, etc., may result into misleading judgments thus diminishing reviews’ usefulness. Research is needed for sentiment analysis algorithms that incorporate bias embedded in reviews, thus improving their usefulness, readability, credibility, etc. This study utilizes fuzzy relations and fuzzy synthetic evaluation (FSE) in order to calculate reviews’ usefulness by incorporating users’ biases as expressed in terms of reviews’ articulacy and sentiment polarity. It selected and analysed 95.678 hotel user reviews from Tripadvisor, for five nationalities. The findings indicate that there are differences among nationalities. The British are most consistent in their judgments expressed in titles and review documents. The British and the Greek review titles suffice to convey any negative sentiments. The Dutch use fewer words in their reviews than the other nationalities. This study suggests that fuzzy logic captures subjectivity which is often found in reviews, and it can be used to quantify users’ behavioral differences, calculate reviews usefulness, and provide the means for developing more accurate voting systems.

This study explores the complexities of risk communication practices in orthodontics, specifically examining the perspectives of orthodontists in Greece and Slovakia. Informed by the foundational importance of effective communication in health sciences, particularly in facilitating valid consent and shared decision-making, this research addresses gaps identified in the literature concerning the consistent communication of potential treatment risks based on demographic and cultural characteristics. The study identifies 15 potential critical risks with orthodontic treatment. These risks include root necrosis; temporary undesired changes to the occlusion; sleep difficulties; not achieving an ideal result; development of black triangles between teeth; taking additional X-rays; speech difficulties; using a protective splint during sports; duration of treatment; number of visits; transmission of infectious diseases; and swallowing orthodontic appliances. The questionnaire, distributed electronically to orthodontists in Greece (n=570) and Slovakia (n=210) from Sept. 2022 to Dec. 2022, aimed to assess risk communication practices, with consideration to country, gender, and degree-related variations. 168 valid questionnaires (91 from Slovakia and 77 from Greece) were obtained indicating significant disparities in the risks emphasized and preferred forms of consent. The Greek orthodontists focused more on the risks involved such as on relapse, root resorption, temporal occlusal changes, and failure of desired movement, while the Slovak practitioners tend to be interested more about sleeping difficulties, temporal occlusal changes and not achieving an ideal result. They also tend to obtain written or digital consent from patients or their parents/guardians more frequently than the Greek team. Male orthodontists discussed specific risks more frequently, including relapse and extractions, whereas females preferred written or digital consent. PhD-trained orthodontists prioritized certain risks, indicating the need for tailored approaches. This study underscores the dynamic nature of risk assessment in orthodontic practice, emphasizing its ethical and strategic dimensions. The findings advocate for tailored risk communication strategies, that recognize individual, contextual, and cultural factors and the need of an orthodontic informed consent protocol for tailored communication approach for patients to elevate the standard of care in European orthodontics. The reliance on digital tools reflects contemporary trends in enhancing patient understanding, thereby supporting ongoing innovation in orthodontic practices.