This research aims to investigate the effects of parental pressure on students' academic achievement at the school level. The research objectives include examining the relationship between parental pressure and academic achievement and identifying potential moderating variables. A sample of middle and high school students will be utilized in this study.

This study was conducted to investigate the correlations between social-emotional competence (SEC) and academic achievement (AA) among nursing students and to compare students’ level of each core skill of SEC (critical thinking disposition, self-directed learning, creativity, emotional intelligence, problem-solving, and collaboration) and academic achievement (clinical performance and subjective academic achievement). A cross-sectional design was adapted. Data were collected from 195 nursing students in the junior and senior years who had participated in clinical practicum from four universities in South Korea. General characteristics, levels of critical thinking disposition, self-directed learning, creativity, emotional intelligence, problem-solving, collaboration, and academic achievement were collected via self-reported questionnaire. Canonical correlation analysis was performed to evaluate the relationship between SEC and AA. The canonical correlation coefficient between SEC and AA was .762. Critical thinking disposition (Rs = .89), problem-solving (Rs = .86), cooperation (Rs = .80) made the most important contributions to SEC. Clinical performance (Rs=.95) and subjective AA (Rs=.57) were correlated with AA. SEC should be addressed to improve the AA of nursing students. All core skills of SEC should be regularly promoted. It is particularly urgent for nursing students to improve their creativity.

Background University students’ psychological health is linked to their academic satisfaction. This study aimed to investigate students’ psychological health and academic satisfaction in the context of COVID-19 and academic year-end stress. Methods Standardized self-filled scales for anxiety, depression, stress, psychological well-being, and an ad-hoc COVID-19 stress scale were used in this cross-sectional study. Participants were first- to third-year students of eight different health-related tracks in Geneva, Switzerland. Descriptive statistics and hierarchical regression analyses were applied. Results In June 2020, out of 2835 invited students, 433 (15%) completed the survey. Academic satisfaction was a stronger mental health predictor than COVID-19, which mainly predicted stress and anxiety. Lower academic satisfaction scores were significantly associated with stress (β = -.53, p < .001), depression (β = -.26, p < .001), anxiety (β = -.20, p < .001), while higher scores with psychological well-being (β = .48, p < .001). Being female was strongly associated with anxiety and stress but not with depression or psychological well-being. Lower age was associated with stress only. The nature of the academic training had a lesser impact on mental health and the academic year none. Compared to students starting the academic year, year-end students reported significantly lower academic satisfaction, higher depression, and particularly higher anxiety and stress. There was, however, no difference in psychological well-being. Conclusion Students suffer more from anxiety, stress, depression, and lower satisfaction with studies at the end of the academic year than at the beginning. Academic satisfaction plays a more substantial role than COVID-19 in predicting students’ overall mental health status. Training institutions should address the underlying factors that can enhance students’ academic satisfaction, especially during the COVID-19 period, in addition to ensuring that they have a continuous and adequate learning experience, as well as access to psychosocial services that help them cope with mental distress and enhance their psychological well-being.

Background and Objectives: Optimal learning achievement is often obtained through the consumption of nutritious and balanced food, which prevents poor nutritional statuses, such as severely underweight, underweight, overweight, and obese. This is particularly relevant to Junior High School students aged 11-16 years, who are more prone to malnutrition. Therefore, this study aimed to improve learning achievement through balanced nutrition among Junior High School students. Materials and Methods: The study procedures were carried out using a quantitative approach with a cross-sectional design. The sample population consisted of 350 Junior High School students in Jayapura Municipality, Papua Province, Indonesia. Primary and secondary data were obtained from relevant sources and analyzed using frequency distribution analysis and statistical path analysis tests. Results: The results showed the indirect effect of exogenous variables on the endogenous, where nutritional knowledge and a balanced diet influenced nutritional status (p-value = 0.001), but physical activity had no impact (p-value = 0.167). Meanwhile, the direct effect of exogenous variables on the endogenous showed that nutritional knowledge, interest in learning, and nutritional status influenced students’ achievement (p-value = 0.001). Based on these results, nutritional status played a crucial role in improving the learning achievement of junior high school students.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of academic advising on changing or maintaining majors in university degrees. It is also a goal of the study to determine which semester of the course study is most likely or less likely witness the change of major and whether advising contributes to that change. Through this correlational study, the researchers explored students’ perceptions about the academic advising they received and the relationship of its absence on students’ major change. The participants were 1725 undergraduate students from all year levels. One survey is used to collect the data for this study: Influences on Choice of Major Survey. Based on the findings, it is found that university advisors have a very poor effect on students' decisions to select their majors as 45.6% of the 1725 participants indicate NO influence of advising in their survey answers. Whereas career advancement opportunities, students' interests, and job opportunities indicate a strong effect on their majors’ selections as they score the highest means of 3.76, 3.73, 3.64 respectively. In addition, findings show that students are most likely changing their majors in their second year and specifically in the second semester. Second year major change scored 36.9% in the second semester and 30.9% in the first semester. More importantly, results indicate that there is a positive significant correlation between college advisor and change major in the second year (p = 0.000). It is to researchers understanding based on the findings that when students receive enough academic advising in the first year of study and continues steadily to the next year, the possibilities of students changing their majors decreases greatly.

Education setting evolved from historical open learning system to traditional classroom set-up to distance learning modality. Teaching-Learning practice is transformed with an evolution of teaching-learning materials. With technological advancement in progressive manner and it’s increasing use in academic setting, distance learning has been the on-demand and on-debate topic in current educational discourse. Comparatively fresh topic in Nepali academic setting, this paper intended to analyze the perception of Nepali students towards online modality in Nepali academic setting. This paper further analyzed the student’s preference towards distance learning in current Nepali academic setting. Research findings were analyzed based on data collected through literature review, interview with students and professor and quantitative data collection through use of google form. Study identified opportunities as revenue generation; continuation of academic career from any part of country; increase learning outcome among jobholders. Study identified challenges as unequal access and quality of internet facilities; affordability of laptops/computers; limited interaction; and frequent disturbances. Seeing the better prospects, study strongly supported the need of shift in academic shift from traditional setting to non-traditional setting in Nepali context to meet the global needs of competitive and quality education.

Educational institutions must identify students who are academically struggling to provide them with necessary support to improve their performance. In this context, recommendation systems powered by deep learning techniques are vital for detecting and categorizing such students. These systems help students plan their future by uncovering patterns in their historical academic data. This study introduces a new deep learning model designed to classify academically underperforming students in educational settings. The model incorporates a Gated Recurrent Neural Network (GRU) and includes specific neural network features like a dense layer, max-pooling layer, and the ADAM optimization algorithm. The model's training and evaluation were conducted using a dataset comprising 15,165 student assessment records from various academic institutions. The performance of the developed GRU model was benchmarked against other educational recommendation systems, including Recurrent Neural Network models, AdaBoost, and the Artificial Immune Recognition System v2. The proposed GRU model demonstrated remarkable accuracy, achieving an overall rate of 99.70%.

Trait anxiety, emotion regulation strategies, and metacognitive beliefs influence executive functions (EF) and academic achievement. This study examines their interplay and impact on academic success. In total, 275 adolescents (10-17 years) and parents completed an online questionnaire assessing trait anxiety, emotion regulation strategies, metacognition, parent-reported behaviors related to executive functioning, and overall school average. Preliminary analyses confirmed consistency with existing literature for each variable and their interaction. Furthermore, we conducted a network analysis among the main variables. This analysis supports the need to pay more attention to reflective variables - maladaptive emotion regulation strategies and metacognitive beliefs about worry - when studying trait anxiety. These variables were linked to problematic executive functioning in adolescents. These latter had a negative link to academic achievement. This study offers innovative insights by investigating less-explored relationships in the scientific literature. It reveals high and significant correlations between metacognitive beliefs, maladaptive emotion regulation strategies and trait anxiety (r &gt; .500, p &lt; .001) but also between these variables and both executive functioning and academic achievement. These findings offer new perspectives for research and underscore the importance of holistically examining psychological factors related to academic success.

Background Research on the mental health of students in health disciplines mainly focuses on psychological distress and nursing and medical students. This study aimed to investigate the psychological well-being and distress and related factors among undergraduate students training in eight different health-related tracks in Geneva, Switzerland. Methods This cross-sectional study used established self-filled scales for anxiety, depression, stress, psychological well-being, and study satisfaction. Descriptive statistics and hierarchical regression analyses were applied. Results In October 2019, out of 2835 invited students, 915 (32%) completed the survey. Lower academic satisfaction scores were strongly associated with depression (β=-.26, p<.001), anxiety (β=-.27, p<.001), and stress (β=-.70, p<.001), while higher scores with psychological well-being (β=.70, p<.001). Being female was strongly associated with anxiety and stress but not with depression or psychological well-being. Increased age was associated with enhanced psychological well-being. The nature of the academic training had a lesser impact on mental health and the academic year none. Conclusion Academic satisfaction strongly predicts depression, anxiety, stress, and psychological well-being. Training institutions should address the underlying factors that can improve students’ satisfaction with their studies while ensuring that they have access to psychosocial services that help them cope with mental distress and enhance their psychological well-being.

Generative artificial intelligence tools are flourishing across various sciences, particularly in the educational domain. ChatGPT, with its versions 3.5 and 4.0, stands out for its multilingual capabilities, catering to both students and educators. This research aimed to evaluate the performance differences between these versions, and importantly, to compare the accuracy of ChatGPT's responses in English versus Arabic. In our study, we presented ChatGPT with 39 chemistry problems related to 6th-7th grade curriculum, including twenty-five open questions and fourteen multiple-choice questions. Each response was categorized as accurate, partially accurate, or inaccurate. Our analysis, focused on trends across versions and languages, revealed significant enhancements in version 4.0, particularly in its ability to process Arabic. However, despite these improvements, our findings indicate that responses in English consistently outperformed those in Arabic in terms of accuracy. In light of this discrepancy, we suggest that ChatGPT either incorporates additional Arabic databases into its training regimen or develops a code that adopts the following strategy to ensure more accurate responses in science education: questions should first be translated from Arabic to English, addressed, and then retranslated into Arabic before being presented to the user. This approach takes advantage of the greater accuracy of responses in English to benefit Arabic-speaking users, and it may also improve outcomes for speakers of other languages who experience less precise answers in the fields of chemistry or science education.

The concept of Emotional Intelligence (EI) has gained prominence due to its substantial impact on a range of life outcomes, including academic performance. The present study aims to examine the relationship between Emotional Intelligence and academic accomplishment in the context of a school environment. Analyzing students' emotional skills and competencies makes it possible to uncover the potential of emotional intelligence (EI) in predicting their academic achievement. Additionally, the study emphasizes the importance of integrating emotional intelligence (EI) training within the educational curriculum. Developing students' emotional awareness, empathy, self-regulation, and social skills can yield notable academic benefits, cultivating an environment more favorable to learning. This systematic review examines the relationship between emotional intelligence and its impact on children and teachers by synthesizing several relevant research studies. This study encompasses a comprehensive review conducted from 2016 to 2023. A total of 64 publications were examined in this study, specifically chosen based on their relevance to the review's parameters. These articles were sourced from reputable academic databases, including Scopus, PsycINFO, PubMed, and WoS. The study revealed a correlation between the five dimensions of personality and emotional intelligence, creativity, resilience, the educational framework, and specific experimental programs about its education. The results mentioned above are of great significance, as they demonstrate that emotional intelligence (EI) is not solely a non-essential skill but a vital factor in education that can provide significant perspectives for students, educators, and politicians.

Abstract: Social media has become a vital tool in ensuring productivity among Undergraduates, as studies have shown an increased number of users globally. This study assessed the impact of social media usage on undergraduates’ academic performance and working memory. Participants from three different universities such as the University of Georgia (UG), Eastern European University (EEU), and Batumi State University (BSU) completed this study using online google forms. UG and EEU are in the capital city, and BSU is in Batumi City. The study questionnaires were approved by the institutional review board before the data collection. Descriptive analyses were assessed for all study populations, characteristics, frequencies, percentages, means, and standard deviations using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, version 25.0 for Windows) software. 41.3% were male students, as most of the participants were foreign students living and studying in Georgia. Male students had the risk of ‘conflict’ with families and friends because of social media. Female students are at increased risk of using social media as an ‘escape’ from negative feelings. 89.7% of students that perform physical activities, considering their academic workload had the risk of preoccupation complaints. 87.9% felt dissatisfied regularly because they wanted to spend more time on social media. Utilization of social media differed based on the characteristics of the participants such as age, gender, and geography. We observed the increase in prevalence of social media addiction, its effect on academic performance and working memory among undergraduate students.

This paper aimed to use social media impact on student studies in higher education. Apart from enjoyment and academic purposes, many educational practices and processes have been influenced by social networks. This paper highlighted the use of media tools in higher education as well as indicates out some of the factors. Moreover, through a literature review of related articles, we aim to provide insights into the impacts of a social network on educational quality, actual use of social media, and performance impact in higher education. A questionnaire survey on constructivism was circulated among a total of 206 university students as the key method for collecting data. This research hypothesizes educational quality and actual social media use indicates a positive effect in education, all of which also hypothesizes constructivism for educational quality and actual social media that in turn improve students’ satisfaction, and performance impact. Moreover, all research findings were attained through a quantitative method using the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM-AMOS). Findings of this research to indicate a positive effects students on their academic through behavioral intention to utilize social media to actual social media use for teaching and learning on higher education. Moreover, the results mention the use of social media for learning purpose, as well as social media to enables the sharing of knowledge, discussions, and information to enhance students' learning activities, Further studies are recommended which universities educators should take this into consideration when planning their curricula; it comes to the inclusion of technology in the teaching process.

Abstract: (1) Background: The Covid-19 pandemic has spread globally since January 2020 and is a threat to public health. This study aims to highlight the psychosocial impact on Greek nursing students and the challenges they received regarding the new sustainable educational reality, in the context of the sudden and exclusive application of distance education during the pandemic Covid-19; (2) Methods: Questionnaires were distributed through an online form (Lime Survey) to undergraduate nursing students enrolled in online courses. Data were collected between De-cember 2020 and January 2021 (3) Results: A total of 341 participants were included in the study. Some of the participants (9.1%) reported that being unemployed because of the Covid-19 affected their sustainability of life. Similarly, distance education had a negative impact on students' par-ticipation in social activities with their classmates (64.5%), while many of the participants were concerned that the sudden transition from face-to-face to distance education would have a negative impact on their future career (46.3%). Furthermore, the majority of students in this study seemed to disagree that distance education could be more effective than face-to-face education (72.1%); (4) Conclusions: It is undoubtedly proven that the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic have a great impact on the educational sector. These social and psychological changes endangered the viability of students in the Greek educational reality.

Introduction: The academic landscape is increasingly recognizing the complex interplay of personal and professional responsibilities on scholarly productivity. For women scholars, particularly those with significant parenting duties, this balance is even more precarious. This study aims to explore how family responsibilities, personal vulnerabilities, and motivational theories such as Imposter Syndrome and Self-Determination Theory (SDT) influence the motivation to publish scholarly work. Understanding these dynamics is crucial for developing supportive mechanisms that can enhance academic productivity and personal fulfilment. Methods: Utilizing a Qualitative Evidence Synthesis (QES) framework, this study will systematically review and synthesize qualitative research on women scholars' experiences in academia, focusing on the challenges and motivators related to publishing. Data sources will include academic databases, grey literature, and first-hand narratives. Thematic analysis will be employed to identify key themes and patterns across the collected data. Results/Findings: Preliminary findings suggest that the dual demands of parenting—especially in extreme cases such as assuming responsibility for seven children—and academic work significantly impact women scholars' publishing activities. Personal vulnerabilities, including imposter syndrome and low self-efficacy, further exacerbate these challenges. However, the data also highlight resilience strategies and the potential for intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors to mitigate these effects. Discussion: The study underscores the nuanced impact of familial and personal factors on academic motivation. The preliminary findings suggest that addressing imposter syndrome and enhancing self-determination could be pivotal in supporting women scholars. The role of institutional policies and academic culture in either exacerbating or alleviating these challenges is also discussed. Significance: By elucidating the specific challenges and motivators for women scholars in publishing, this study will contribute to the development of targeted interventions and policies that support work-life integration and promote academic productivity. The insights that will be gained could inform mentorship programs, institutional support systems, and policy reforms aimed at fostering a more inclusive and supportive academic environment.

This study examined the effect of an educational hybrid physical education (PE) intervention on cognitive performance and academic achievement in adolescents. A 9-month group-randomized controlled trial was conducted in 150 participants (age: 14.63 ± 1.38) allocated into control group (CG, n = 37) and experimental group (EG, n = 113). Inhibition, verbal fluency, planning and academic achievement were assessed. Significant differences were observed in the post-test for cognitive inhibition, verbal fluency in animals, and the average from verbal fluency in favour of the EG. With regard to the intervention, verbal fluency in animals, verbal fluency in vegetables, the average of verbal fluency, cognitive inhibition, language, the average of all subjects, the average of all subjects except PE, and the average from the core subjects) increased significantly in the EG. The last five variables (the academic ones and cognitive inhibition) also increased in the CG, in addition to mathematics. This study contributes to the knowledge by suggesting that both methodologies produced improvements in the measured variables, but the use of a hybrid program based on TPSR and gamification strategies produce improvements in cognitive performance, specifically through the cognitive inhibition and verbal fluency.

Although the relations between sleep and academic performance have been extensively examined, how sleep predicts future academic performance (e.g., 2 -3 years) remains to be further investigated. Using wearable smartwatches and a self-report questionnaire, we tracked sleep activities of 45 college students over a period of approximate half a month to see whether their sleep activities predicted their academic performance, which was estimated by grade point average (GPA). Results showed that both nighttime sleep awakening frequency and its consistency in the tracking period were not significantly correlated with the GPA for the courses taken in the semester during sleep tracking (current GPA). However, both nighttime sleep awakening frequency and its consistency inversely predicted the GPA for the rest of the courses taken after that semester (future GPA). Moreover, students with more difficulty staying awake throughout the day obtained lower current and future GPAs, and students with lower inconsistency of sleep quality obtained lower future GPA. Together, these findings highlight the importance of nighttime sleep awakening frequency and consistency in predicting future academic performance and emphasize the necessity of assessing the consistency of sleep measures in future studies.

Background: This qualitative systematic review protocol aims to explore the experiences of African customers in white-owned restaurants and hotels in post-apartheid South Africa, focusing on the dynamics of service interactions and their implications for racial relations within the hospitality industry. Despite the end of apartheid in 1994, the echoes of historical racial disparities and power imbalances persist, potentially influencing customer experiences in this sector, particularly in establishments owned by individuals of European descent. In view of above, the research question for this study is “How do African customers in white-owned restaurants and hotels in post-apartheid South Africa perceive and experience service interactions, and what are the underlying factors influencing these perceptions, considering historical power imbalances, societal perceptions, lingering effects of apartheid, inclusive practices, and the varied experiences across different hospitality establishments? Study Objectives: Objectives include examining the dynamics of service interactions, identifying factors influencing perceptions and experiences, evaluating alignment with inclusive practices and post-apartheid ideals, and describing African customers' experiences regarding service. Methods: The study will employ the SPIDER Framework to craft a nuanced research question that seeks to understand how African customers perceive and experience service interactions in these settings, considering historical power imbalances, societal perceptions, the lingering effects of apartheid, inclusive practices, and varied experiences across different types of hospitality establishments. This approach aims to dissect the intricate interplay of historical, societal, and economic factors that shape these experiences, providing insights into the complexities of achieving a truly inclusive and equitable hospitality landscape in post-apartheid South Africa. Expected Contribution to knowledge and practice: This review will contribute to a deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing the hospitality industry in fostering environments that reflect the nation's diversity and commitment to reconciliation and social cohesion. By highlighting the lived experiences of African customers and examining the extent to which white-owned establishments embody post-apartheid ideals, this study aims to offer valuable recommendations for industry practitioners and policymakers to promote cultural sensitivity, equity, and inclusivity, thus enhancing the role of the hospitality industry in South Africa's broader societal transformation.

Background: Visual acuity (VA) assessments are crucial in ophthalmology but traditionally rely on in-clinic evaluations. The emergence of telemedicine has spurred interest in creating dependable self-administered VA tests for use beyond standard clinical environments. This study evaluates the practicality and validity of a self-administered Near VA card test against traditional Snellen and Rosenbaum Pocket Vision Screener (RPVS) methods for home monitoring and enhancing clinical workflow. Methods: In a cross-sectional study a near VA card (Hadassah Self-Visual Acuity Screener-HSVA) was developed with written and videotaped instructions for self-use. Patients with a minimal best corrected VA (BCVA) of 1.0 LogMAR in at least one eye were recruited from Ophthalmology and Optometry clinics. Outcomes included mean BCVA difference between the self-administered and those obtained by the examiner, and correlations among BCVA values obtained by Snellen, RPVS, HSVA and previous distance BCVA according to the patient electronic medical records. Results: A total of 275 participants (mean age: 42.5±19.4 years, range: 18-89 years, 47% female) were included. Test-retest reliability analysis for the HSVA demonstrated very good correlation and repeatability (n=38 patients.; Rs=1.0, P

Social networking opened up new avenues for learning and knowledge sharing. Due to its document exchange, virtual communication, and knowledge production capabilities, social media is a helpful tool for learning and teaching. The research embraces multiple goals. First, this study examines Bangladeshi university students' social value, communication and collaboration, trust, and perceived benefits of knowledge sharing through social media in academic advancement. The second goal is to examine how families and technology support mediates those aspects of social media knowledge sharing with student academic development. We used Technology Acceptance Model and Social Exchange Theory as examples of how social media sharing of knowledge impacts academic progress in Bangladeshi university students through family and technological support. PLS-SEM was used using survey data from 737 Bangladeshi students to test the model. Social value, communication and collaboration, trust, and perceived benefits of sharing knowledge through social media significantly enhance Bangladeshi students' academic growth. In the case of mediation, family and technological support mediates the relationship between communication and collaboration, trust, perceived benefits and academic development. However, there is no mediation with the social value of knowledge sharing in social media with student’s academic development. The article concludes with implications, limitations, and future research.

Differentiated instruction has been implemented in classrooms where students who come from various backgrounds require appropriate lessons that are tailored to their varied learning preferences. As the spread of coronavirus 19 (Covid-19) is becoming more rampant, online learning has been lifted up as the main platform of teaching and learning, forcing the need to shift from the conventional face-to-face classroom to online, or virtual, mode of knowledge transfer. Having such global phenomenon affecting education, how does it affect the implementation of differentiated instruction that has been practised regularly by teachers before the wake of Covid-19? Previous studies have shown how it is done in the normal classroom setting, and that the practice of differentiated instruction contributes to students’ motivation as well as academic performance. However, there is a need to explore how do teachers go about with online differentiated instruction and how does it affect the students, since online learning poses various threads to both teachers and students; and thus, one might argue the effectiveness of not only the teaching approach but also the overall teaching and learning outcomes. Borg’s framework of teacher cognition, which has been extensively used in exploring how teachers teach, can be utilized to document the practice of online differentiated instruction. This study aimed to explore the practice of online differentiated instruction by teachers and examined its impact on students’ motivation and academic performance during the Covid-19 outbreak. The participants of this study consists of 247 gifted students from a public school in Malaysia. To meet these aims, this study employed a mixed method research design, utilizing the framework of teacher cognition to explore the teachers’ practice of online differentiated through interviews; and, utilizing a survey design using a questionnaire to determine the impact of online differentiated instruction towards students’ motivation and academic performance. The findings revealed that although online differentiated instruction is feasible, however, appropriate combination of differentiation constructs need to be applied in order to achieve higher motivation and better academic performance among the students.

Background: Educating college students about the importance of good sleep habits could lead to the adoption of healthier sleep routines, including sufficient sleep duration and sleep quality. The current pre-post study examines the impact of completing a sleep education program called “Sleep 101” on (1) sleep hygiene practices, (2) sleep quality, and (3) weekday and weekend sleep behaviors among college students. “Sleep 101” is an interactive online course developed to educate college students about the importance of sleep by addressing basic sleep physiology, the impact of sleep on mood, academic and physical performance, the interactions between sleep and various substances, and common sleep disorders. Methods: 338 college students were recruited from a midsized public university in the US and invited to participate in “Sleep 101”, of which 25 participants completed the baseline and post-intervention questionnaire. The Sleep Hygiene Index (SHI) was utilized to evaluate sleep hygiene practices, while standard questions were employed to assess weekday and weekend sleep behaviors and overall sleep quality. Results: Those who completed the study demonstrated a significant increase in weekday sleep duration and were less likely to engage in negative prior bedtime activities. In addition, 40% of those who completed baseline and post-intervention assessments noticed improvements in their sleep quality. Conclusion: These findings suggest that a brief online program is beneficial in improving sleep behaviors among college and could be a scalable approach to addressing current sleep issues and preventing future sleep problems in college students.

Abstract: Spinal disorders are some of the most prevalent health concerns, especially among stu-dents. Based on student demographics, this cross-sectional study evaluated the correlation be-tween functional tests (FT) and spinal range of motion (ROM). This study included 206 students from Vasile Alecsandri University of Bacău. Participants' assessments were conducted using the following tests: (i) Ott, (ii) Schober, (iii) Stibor, (iv) finger-to-floor distance, (v) lateral flexion of the cervical and lumbar spine, and (vi) flexion of the cervical spine. Correlation analyses were evaluated using Spearman correlation coefficient analysis. The results indicated a very strong re-lationship between lateral flexion of the lumbar spine on the left (LFLSL) and right (LFSR) for all departments (r = 0.85 to 0.97, p < 0.05). There was a stronger relationship between FT results and spinal ROM of physical education department students compared to students from other de-partments (n = 17, r = -0.38 to 0.93, p < 0.05). There was no statistically significant correlation be-tween FT and spinal ROM based on age (p > 0.05). The study results provide evidence of the pri-mary risk factors that predispose students to postural deviations. Practitioners and physiothera-pists can utilize these values as a reference for potential therapeutic interventions.

The circumstances arising from the exceptional situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have affected all socioeconomic areas in the last two years. The field of Education has not been an exception and the management of the situation seems to have caused an increase in the level of perceived stress of university students. On this basis, this research that aims, first, to analyze the student’s level of perceived stress during the de-escalation and return to normality period, secondly, to evaluate its relationship with life satisfaction and, finally, to detect the students' needs in stress management, has been developed. An exploratory-descriptive study of quantitative and cross-sectional nature has been carried out. 222 university students of the Childhood and Primary Education Degrees of the University of Jaén (Spain) have participated. The instruments, Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) have been used. The results show a moderate and partial relationship among the dimensions of the used instruments. The obtained coefficients of determination are, Academic Performance (r² = .019) and Life Satisfaction (r² = .402), with a mean square error (SRMR) of .079. These findings show the need to develop actions within the university training program in effective stress management strategies.

Vaccines decrease morbidity and mortality. Nevertheless, their benefits depend on public response. During COVID-19, vaccine hesitancy and refusal were rampant, threatening public health. A thorough understand-ing of opponents' arguments is required to address the diffusion of unreliable information on social media and prevent vaccine hesitancy from developing into vaccine refusal. Accordingly, the article examines vac-cine opponents' justifications on social media. Textual content analysis of reader comments on three health-related Israeli Facebook pages was conducted. Data collection encompassed the Israeli COVID-19 vaccination period from October 2020 to May 2022. The comments were analyzed according to the health beliefs model (HBM). We found that vaccine opponents were characterized by low perceptions of the severity of the disease combined with high perceptions of the damages of the vaccine; low perceived benefits of vac-cine compliance; vaccine hesitancy and fear along with public distrust as barriers to change; and call for ac-tion to resist the vaccine and spread related anti-establishment views on the web. As vaccination hesitancy was found to develop into public distrust in the state systems and escalate into conspiracy beliefs and an-ti-vaccination activism, its early detection may prevent future vaccine resistance.

The study examines academic burnout syndrome and its relation to personal and academic variables among university students in nursing and early childhood education programs in Spain. A total of 606 university students (Primary Education: 49.7%; Nursing: 49.7%) of both sexes (71.5% female), and average age 20.68 years (SD = 1.65) participated. An ex post facto retrospective single-group design was planned. The instruments used were the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Student Survey (MBI-SS) and the NEO Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI). Nursing students, who showed more study hours, less sleep, and lower grades, had higher academic burnout scores. Linear regression models were proposed to analyze the relationship between academic burnout, personality, and sociodemographic variables. Nursing students scored higher in emotional exhaustion and lower in cynicism, and they scored higher in neuroticism and openness. Furthermore, 16.1% of the variance in academic burnout was explained by personality variables as degree, course and study hours. These findings suggest the importance of considering both academic and personality variables in understanding academic burnout in university students.

The aim of this work is to compare two softwares (MAUD and TOPAS) based on the Rietveld algorithm and to test the concept of tolerance factor using the dissolution at high temperature of yttrium into BaTiO₃. In general, both softwares give up different values of the crystalline parameters however the trends are similar in most cases but the analysis of the strain and crystallite size in the BaTiO₃ crystals suggests that, in this particular case, MAUD offered results more consistent with the expected behavior. Using the crystalline parameters calculated by Rietveld, the tolerance factor values were obtained and these data suggest even better stability in the crystalline structure than that expected using theoretical parameters. Tolerance factor concept also indicates that Ti⁴⁺ should be preferred.

Psoriasis is a lifelong, systemic, immune mediated inflammatory skin condition, affecting 1-3% of the world’s population, with an impact on quality of life similar to diseases like cancer or diabetes. Genetics are the single largest risk factor in psoriasis, with GWAS studies showing that many psoriasis risk genes lie along the IL23/Th17 axis. Potential psoriasis risk genes determined through GWAS can be annotated and characterised using functional genomics, allowing the identification of novel drug targets and the repurposing of existing drugs. The pathogenesis of psoriasis is complex and focusing on the IL23/Th17 axis can provide insight into key cell types, cytokines and intracellular signaling pathways involved. Examination of currently available biological treatments, time to relapse post drug withdrawal and rates of drug primary/secondary drug failure show the need for greater understanding of the underlying genetic mechanisms of psoriasis and how they can impact treatment. This could allow for patient stratification towards the treatment most likely reduce dis-ease burden for the longest period possible.

Background: Gender stereotypes and biases can influence perceptions of competence and suitability for certain medical specialties. Empathy is an important component of an optimal doctor-patient relationship. The scope of our study is to verify the correlation between “empathetic" behavioral style with attention and sensibility to the gender differences of patients of the medical students. Methods: An online survey was conducted using the Jefferson Scale for Empathy (JSE), to measure empathy in the context of health professions education and patient care; and the Nijmegen Gender Awareness in Medicine Scale (N-GAMS), which measures attitudes and assumptions about gender. A total of 234 students (52.1% M; mean age: 22.68±2.48) from Medicine and Surgery at the University of Salerno (Italy) participated, of whom n° 175 were third-year students and n° 59 were fifth-year students. Results: The JSE score shows that male students have higher scores (77.29±12.38) than females (75.91±10.39). Conversely, female students have higher perspective-taking (JSE Factor 1: Male= 51.26±11.84; Female= 52.72±11.88). In addition, third-year students are much more empathetic than their fifth-year colleagues (JSE Score: 3°ys= 77.35±11.46; 5°ys= 74.49±11.33). With reference to the GS, we found that male students have greater sensitivity than their female colleagues (GS: Male= 2.67±0.68; Female= 2.37±0.48); conversely, they have higher scores of gender stereotype towards patients (GRIP: Male= 2±0.88; Female= 1.59±0.61) and doctors (GRID: Male= 1.88±0.89; Female= 1.64±0.63). Also, the third-year students compared to their fifth-year colleagues are characterized by greater gender sensitivity (GS: 3°ys= 2.57±0.62; 5°ys= 2.42±0.57), less bias with respect to patients (GRIP: 3°ys= 1.77±0.79; 5°ys= 1.90±0.78) but, on the other hand, show more stereotypes and prejudices towards doctors (GRID: 3°ys= 1.77±0.81; 5°ys= 1.75±0.74). Conclusions: Humanistic attitudes, including empathy, should be instilled, and evaluated among trainees as an essential part of their postgraduate medical education.

Recent research emphasises the importance of Artificial Intelligence applications as supporting tools for students in higher education. Simultaneously, an intensive exchange of views has started in the public debate in the international educational community. However, for a more proper use of these applications, it is necessary to investigate the factors that explain their intention and actual use in the future. With the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) model, this work analyses the factors influencing students' use and intention to use artificial intelligence technology. For this purpose, a sample of 199 Greek students at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences from the University of Patras participated in a survey. The findings highlight that expected performance, habit, and enjoyment of these Artificial Intelligence applications are key determinants influencing teachers' intentions to use them. Moreover, behavioural intention, habit, and facilitating conditions explain the usage of these Artificial Intelligence applications. The study did not reveal any moderating effects. The limitations, practical implications, and proposed directions for future research based on these results are discussed.

This paper presents a brief account and rationale for implementation of competency-based learning in any form of management and leadership development programmes in South Africa. The fact that competency-based learning (CBL), also known as outcomes-based learning has been scrapped from the schooling system in South Africa is unfortunate as this method enhances critical thinking skills and practical problem-solving skills. This paper presents CBL as a model of meta-cognitive approach to learning that integrates both theory and practice into experiential learning through six dimensions, namely, active learning, constructive learning, cumulative learning, goal-oriented learning, learner-centred and curriculum design strategies. In the advent of the fast-paced global economy, managers and leaders need to seek those business schools that value real-time practical approach to curriculum for relevance and to maximize shareholder value through human resource development. This brief presentation ends by recommending an approach through CBL that fosters three critical pillars of leadership development, namely: intellectual, behavioural and emotional agenda.

Perceived peer support is a critical factor in the academic adjustment of higher vocational college students. While previous studies have explored this relationship, few studies have delved into the underlying mechanisms. This study surveyed 9782 students from 35 higher vocational colleges in 13 provinces and cities in China to explore the relationship and mechanisms between perceived peer support and academic adjustment. Drawing on Conservation of Resources theory and Social Support Resource theory, the findings revealed that perceived peer support not only directly predicted the academic adjustment of higher vocational college students, but also indirectly through the independent mediating effect of academic hope and professional identity, as well as the chain-mediating effect of academic hope to professional identity. Additionally, students from vocational high schools showed a more significant increase in academic hope due to perceived peer support compared to those from general high schools, highlighting the moderating effect of educational background. The study provided a new theoretical perspective for understanding the complex mechanisms of academic adjustment in students and offers valuable guidance for educational practice, emphasizing the importance of fostering perceived peer support, academic hope, and professional identity in higher vocational education.

The anthropometric features offer an overall image of the nutritional status. The investigated groups were aged 19 and 21. The anthropometric measurements of height and weight were recorded following standard procedures. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the harmonious body development, the nutrition status and the body composition. The evolution of the stature increases until 20 years after which stagnation follows. The body mass index of subjects was found to be normal. The body fat may vary over time in subjects depending on age and gender. Body water and body muscle mass content increased with age. The harmony of body development was assessed by means of the Amar index. Regarding the constitutional index, the women subjects belong to the leptosome type and the male subjects belong to the picnic type. The status of the investigated subjects is within the average stature.

Chronic conditions like type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), arterial hypertension (HTN), and obesity are major global health issues, causing significant morbidity and mortality. In Latin America, these conditions contribute to millions of premature deaths annually, posing challenges exacerbated by limited healthcare access and poor primary care quality, particularly in Mexico. Complementary medicine presents a potential solution, offering minimally invasive techniques to improve physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. Effective treatment adherence, crucial for positive outcomes, is influenced by self-efficacy, the ability to manage one's behavior in response to medical conditions. However, treatment adherence rates remain low, indicating a pressing public health concern. This study aimed to explore how perception of complementary medicine and treatment adherence predict self-efficacy among individuals with chronic conditions in Mexico. Analyzing data from 113 participants revealed significant correlations between variables, with treatment adherence positively associated with self-efficacy and perception of holistic medicine negatively correlated with self-efficacy. Regression analysis showed that incorporating perception of complementary medicine and treatment adherence significantly explained self-efficacy levels, suggesting the potential of complementary therapies in holistic healthcare approaches. However, collinearity between variables highlights the need for further research to better understand these relationships and their implications for improving healthcare outcomes in Mexico. Integrating complementary therapies with conventional treatments could enhance overall well-being and treatment adherence, offering promising avenues for addressing chronic conditions in the region. These findings underscore the importance of comprehensive healthcare approaches that integrate both conventional and complementary modalities to optimize health outcomes and quality of life for individuals with chronic conditions in Mexico and beyond.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition, characterized by persistent deficits in communication/social interaction and restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior, interests or activities. It is usually identified in childhood, despite late diagnoses in cases of greater functionality. Havighurst proposes a set of fundamental tasks throughout the life cycle, whose achievement is probably compromised in the ASD, even though it lacks scientific evidence. This study innovates, as it is based on Havighurst's theoretical model for understanding the development process of three adults and one young person, diagnosed with ASD level I, at different life stages. Through the methodology of life histories, interviews were subject to content analysis. Results pointed out the early detection and interventions importance, minimizing adversities, above all by those who had late diagnoses. Self-perceived success, not expected, was found in some development tasks (e.g. conscience and morality development). Also were noticed expected limitations related to ASD (e.g. difficulties in relationships with peers and in the labor market inclusion). Probably, in cases of greater severity and less functionality/autonomy, there would be greater failure in development tasks. It is crucial to improve research on this developmental model and on the factors that delay the diagnosis, including cases of different levels of severity.

Spectral characteristics of CDOM in water column are a key parameter for bio-optical modeling. Knowledge of CDOM optical properties and spatial discrepancy based on the relationship between water quality and spectral parameters in Yinma River watershed with in situ data collected highly-polluted waters are exhibited in this study. Seasonal field data sets collected over a period of 2 months in 2015 in Yinma River Watershed. Based on the comprehensive index method, the riverine waters showed serious contamination, especially the COD, Fe, Mn, Hg and DO were out of range contamination warning. Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and total suspended matter (TSM) with prominent non-homogenizing were significantly high in the riverine waters, but chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) was opposite. Ternary phase diagram showed that non-algal paritcles absorption played an important role in total non-water light absorption (>50%) in most sampling locations, and mean contribution of CDOM were 13% and 22% in summer and autumn respectively. Analysis of ratio of absorption at 250-365 nm (E_250:365) and spectral slope (S_275-295) indicated that CDOM had higher aromaticity and molecular weight in autumn than in summer, is consistent with the results of water quality and relative contribution. Redundancy analysis (RDA) indicated that the environmental variables OSM had a strong correlation with CDOM absorption, followed by heavy metal, e.g., Mn, Hg and Cr⁶⁺. However, for the specific UV absorbance (SUVA₂₅₄), the seasonal values showed opposite results compared with the reported literature. The potential reasons were the more UDOM (uncolored Dissolved Organic Matter) from human source (wastewater effluent) existed in waters. Terrigenous inputs simultaneously are in relation to the a_CDOM(440)-DOC relationship with the correlation coefficient was 0.90 in summer (2-tailed, p<0.01), and 0.58 in autumn (2-tailed, p<0.05). Spatial distribution of CDOM parameters exhibited that the downstream regions focused on dry land have high CDOM molecular weight and aromatic hydrocarbon. Partial sampling locations around the cities or countries generally showed abnormal values due to terrigenous inputs. As a bio-optical model parameter, spectral characteristic of CDOM is helpful in adjusting the derived algorithms in highly-polluted environments. The study on organic carbon and pollutants in highly-polluted waters had an important contribution to global carbon balance estimation and water environment protection.

Ethical considerations regarding our treatment of animals have gained strength, leading to legislation and a societal focus across various disciplines. This is a subject of study within curricula related to agri-food sciences. The aim was to determine the perceptions of agronomy university students concerning animal welfare in livestock production systems. A survey was conducted to encompass various aspects, from participants' sociodemographic attributes to their attitudes and behaviors regarding animal welfare and the consumption of animal products. Statistical analysis, performed using R software, delved into the associations between participants' characteristics and their perspectives on the ethical, bioethical, and legal dimensions of animal welfare. Associations between demographic factors and ethical viewpoints among students were identified. Gender differences emerged in animal treatment perceptions, while rural and urban environments impacted perspectives on various animals. Bioethical considerations revealed distinctive disparities based on gender and education in concerns for animal welfare, value perceptions, evaluations of animal behaviors, and opinions on animal research. It is crucial to distinguish between animal welfare and ethical considerations arising from coexisting with sentient beings capable of experiencing suffering. Ethical theories provide a lens through which we perceive our obligations toward animals. The responsibility to ensure animal welfare is firmly rooted in recognizing that animals, like humans, experience pain and physical suffering. Consequently, actions causing unjustified suffering or mistreatment, particularly for entertainment purposes, are considered morally unacceptable.

Precision medicine (PM), also termed stratified, individualised, targeted or personalised medicine, embraces a rapidly expanding area of research, knowledge, and practice. It brings together two emerging health technologies to deliver better individualised care: the many “-omics” arising from increased capacity to understand the human genome; and “big data” and data analytics including Artificial Intelligence (AI). PM has the potential to transform an individual’s health, moving from population-based disease prevention to more personalised management. There is however a tension between the two, with a real risk that this will exacerbate health inequalities and divert funds and attention from basic healthcare requirements leading to worse health outcomes for many. All areas of medicine should consider how this will affect their practice, with PM now strongly encouraged and supported by government initiatives and research funding. In this review we discuss examples of PM in current practice and its emerging applications in primary care, such as clinical prediction tools that incorporate genomic markers and pharmacogenomic testing. We look towards potential future applications and consider some key questions for PM including evidence of real-world impact, its affordability, the risk of exacerbating health inequalities, and the computational and storage challenges of applying PM technologies at scale.

The main objective of this study was to compare the removal efficiency of nutrients using Lactuca sativa, Medicago sativa and Phragmites australis in subsurface flow constructed wetlands with horizontal flow. In order to test water quality, fabricated reactors designed and the plants cultivated in the soil while their root were inside the wastewater. A long time study carried out from spring till end of autumn (9 months) in order to evaluate the difference in removal rate based on the seasonal changes. The highest removal rate was during summer which followed by spring and autumn. Thus, the effect of plants on the removal efficiency of organic matter (COD, BOD), TSS and nutrient (P and TN) appeared to be dependent on the seasonal growth. Phragmites australis the most sensitive species in order the removal of nutrient from wastewater.

Disgust evolved as a way to protect one’s self from illness. DS-R measures disgust propensity of three kinds of disgust (Core, Animal Reminder and Contamination). Although the DS-R scale was refined mainly with young and largely female student population its impact on educational orientation has not been assessed. In the present study we examined the DS-R scoring and the choice of postgraduate studies in medical (n= 94) and psychology (n= 97) students. They responded to an anonymous web-based survey and completed the DS-R and a questionnaire on their demographics and plans for postgraduate studies. Female students outnumbered males (3:1) and scored higher in Total DS-R score (median: 59 vs. 50, p<0.05). Psychology students scored higher in all three kinds of disgust (p<0.05), indicating a higher level of disease avoidance. Medical students willing to follow Internal Medicine scored higher in Core Disgust (p<0.05) while psychology students willing to study Experimental Psychology scored lower in Animal Reminder subscale (p<0.001). Also, the higher the psychology students scored in Core Disgust scale the higher was the probability to choose Experimental Psychology. In conclusion, disgust propensity as rated by DS-R differentiates medical from psychology students and is also related to orientation preferences in postgraduate studies.

Vocational interest inventories are widely used by career counselors to help individuals to make career choices. The most common approach to assess vocational interests is based on verbal or textual stimuli. However, some of them are based on pictorials to overcome reading limits and provide additional information about the working environment and the activities related to a particular job. This article aims to present two studies on the development and first validation of the Multilingual Iconographic Professional Interest Inventory (MIPII) on two samples, one composed of 792 high-school students, and one composed of 366 middle school students. The inventory aimed to assesses the vocational interests of people over 19 areas by illustrations representing 95 jobs, five for each one, combined with their title in six different languages (Arabic, German, English, Spanish, French and Italian in this order). Both illustrations and titles are provided separately in the male and female version on the same page.

The meaning of a good social outcome in land use transport policy/planning has been relatively underdeveloped, compared to economic and environmental sustainability goals, but this is now changing. Cities are increasingly prioritizing reducing social exclusion, with the allied intent of providing all residents with equitable access to the benefits of their city. However, in jurisdictions that use cost-benefit analysis to guide government decision-making, this poses a challenge: monetization of the benefits of reducing social exclusion is poorly developed. An evaluation gap thus confronts benefit-cost based assessment of initiatives intended to reduce social exclusion, compared to initiatives directed towards societal economic and environmental goals. This is a particular problem for public transport services that primarily enable people at risk of mobility-related social exclusion to access more opportunities in their society (social transit). The benefits of reducing social exclusion associated with these services have not been monetized, so social transit initiatives are poorly placed to argue their merits against competing initiatives where benefit monetization is more advanced (e.g., mass public transport and roads). The paper summarizes Australian research that has developed monetized measures for the value of increased trip making, bridging/bonding social capital, sense of community and several conceptions of wellbeing, and of reducing neighbourhood disadvantage, as these contribute to reducing social exclusion. New Singaporean research on the value of trip making to support reduced exclusion is also presented, affirming the Australian trip values. Trip values are then used in case study examples to show they can make a material difference to the societal worth of initiatives intended to reduce exclusion. Using these trip values, and other pathway values linked to reducing social exclusion, closes or at least substantially reduces the evaluation gap confronting social goal achievement in land use transport policy and planning, strengthening the case for reducing exclusion. These values will assist jurisdictions that are seeking to provide their residents with more equitable access to the benefits of their city.

Despite the increase in popularity of Zero Waste (ZW) concept, the successful implementation of this concept in waste management is still facing many challenges. The plastic recycling rate in Australia is currently only about 9.4%, which could leave up to 90.6% of plastic consumption being sent to landfills. The state of Victoria (in Australia) has proposed an ambitious plan to upgrade its waste and recycling system and to divert about 80% of waste from landfills by 2030. The aim of this research is to study Victoria’s current waste management plan and to develop a simulation model to assess the feasibility of it achieving zero plastic waste by 2035. In this direction, a fundamental knowledge of global ZW implementation needs to be acquired in order to understand the challenges, obstacles, and uncertainties in achieving ZW target. A simulation model is established using a method called double baselines. This method was developed as an improvisation to address the limitation of data availability for the model development. The model will run on 4 scenarios including one from Victoria’s current plan. Outcomes from the model are produced in comparative charts covering 6 key considerations including the rates of plastic consumption, waste to landfill, diversion, recycling, relative accumulative cost and effort. The findings of this study pointed out that Victoria’s current plan are feasible for its goal and presented with opportunities for improvement especially towards zero plastic waste. Besides, study results also reveal that the Victoria’s current plan to achieve 80% diversion rate by 2030 is possible but the zero plastic waste target by 2035 is less likely to happen.

This article integrates existing theory from distributed computing and cryptology with anecdotal material from the cryptocurrency industry, to provide a comprehensive description of the minimum requirements of the hypothetical academic blockchain. The paper argues that such a community could significantly reduce the biases and misconduct that now exist in the academic peer review process. Theory suggests such a system could operate effectively as a distributed encrypted telecommunications network where nodes are anonymous, do not trust each other, and there is minimal central authority. To incentivize the academic community to join such a proposed community, the paper proposes a pseudo-cryptocurrency called litcoin (literature coin). This litcoin-based system would create economic scarcity based on proof of knowledge (POK), which is a synthesis of the proof of work (POW) mechanism used in bitcoin, and the proof of stake (POS) mechanism used in various altcoin communities. The paper argues that the proposed POK system would enable the academic community to more effectively develop the research it finds valuable.

Transition from basic to higher education is regarded as a ‘juggle of many balls’ because students ought to balance between theoretical and clinical requirements, including social life. As a result, a significant number of undergraduate first-year nursing students succumb to these challenges due to lack of coping mechanisms emanating from poor resilience. As a result, the aim of this study was to determine the factors that influence resilience among undergraduate first-year nursing students at a South African university. A quantitative cross-sectional descriptive research design was followed. Data was collected using an adapted self-administered online questionnaire. Principal component analysis extraction method and Varimax rotation were used to analyse data. A total of 123 participants completed the questionnaire. The eigenvalues showed that the first factor explained 23.9% of the variance, the second factor 11.2%, a third factor 7.5% while the fourth factor explained 5.9% of the variance. The fifth until the eight factor had eigenvalues greater than 1 but less than 2. This study showed that resilience can be dependent on various factors such as lecture support, parental support, academic achievement, peer and mentor support, optimism about the future and being self-determined.

Plasma being the fourth and most abundant form of matter extensively exists in the universe in the inter-galactic regions. It provides an electrically neutral medium of unbound negative and positive charged particles, which has been produced by subjecting air and various other gaseous mixtures to strengthen the electromagnetic field and by heating compressed air or inert gasses for creating negative and positive charged particles known as ions. Nowadays, many researchers are paying attention to the formation of artificial Plasma and its potential benefits for mankind. The literature is sparsely populated with the applications of Plasma. This paper presents specific methods of generation and applications of Plasma, which benefits humankind in various fields, such as in electrical, mechanical, chemical and medical fields. These applications include hydrogen production from alcohol, copper bonding, semiconductor processing, surface treatment, Plasma polymerization, coating, Plasma display panels, antenna beam forming, nanotechnology, Plasma Torch, Plasma pencils, low-current non-thermal Plasmatron, treatment of prostate cancer, Plasma source ion implantation, cutting by Plasma, Plasma etching, pollution control, neutralization of liquid radioactive waste, etc. Resultantly, worth of Plasma technology in the medical industry is increasing exponentially that is closing the gap between its benefits and cost of equipment used for generating and controlling it.

Gifted students are usually known as students who have exceptional cognitive and learning abilities. This can be made clear through their learning performance or test scores. However, there are other students who have been identified as gifted and talented, yet have some learning and /or physical disabilities, and these are called twice-exceptional students. Identifying this population of gifted students is usually problematic because their disabilities and difficulties may mask their abilities and vice versa. It has been suggested that twice-exceptional students’ skills and abilities cannot be improved simply by working harder. Instead, these students need teachers to understand their strengths and weaknesses, use teaching strategies that fit their disabilities and serve their needs, and include their parents and educators in their learning process. Thus, this conceptual paper provides an extensive overview of the needs, challenges, and teaching strategies related to twice-exceptional students.

(1) This study aimed to examine the prevalence of depression and its correlation with acculturative Stress and Social Connectedness among domestic and overseas students in Japan International University. (2) Methods: A Web-based survey was distributed among students of International University, which resulted in 263 responses. On the survey together with socio-demographic data, a nine-item tool from the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), was used to measure the prevalence of Depression and its relationship with socio-demographic data, Social Connectedness Scale was used to measure Social Connectedness, and Acculturative Stress Scale for International Students (ASSIS) was used to measured acculturative stress. (3) Results: Depression was significantly high in international and domestic students (37.81% and 29.85% respectively). English language proficiency and students age (20 years old) showed a significant correlation with depression among domestic students (β=-1.63, p=0.038 and β=2.24, p=0.048). Stay length (third year) also displayed a significant correlation with depression among international students (β=1.08, p=0.032). Among international and domestic students statistically significant positive correlation between depression and acculturative stress, negative associations of social connectedness with depression and acculturative stress were also found. Suicidal or self-hurting ideation thoughts are found among around 20% of all students. (4) Conclusions: These findings indicate a relatively high prevalence of depression among students of International University, and overseas students are more affected. Depression, Acculturation stress and Social Connectedness show statistically strong intercorrelation, which highlights the need of host University to recognise the role of Acculturation and Social Connectedness in the development of Depression among students.

Framed in a context with an emerging economy and with a high percentage of school failure, this study aimed to identify the factors that turn students with socioeconomic disadvantages into resilient students. Two questions guided the research: Can resilience be supported in students in adverse socioeconomic situations? What factors influence building resilient students? A cross-sectional study was carried out from 2011 to 2015 in Chile, using a multilevel logistic regression model with three levels, considering the hierarchical data structure. The behavior of 63100 to 76400 sampled students was analyzed. Results show five relevant factors in building resilience: self-efficacy in language, minor aggressions and violence perceived by students, norms and values of the establishment, interest in study, and self-efficacy. Some risk factors identified were an atmosphere of less respect and trust, engagement in physical education activities and good performance in carrying them out. These results could orient educational leaders interested in supporting the educational community in order to improve the academic success of disadvantaged students.

Sustainable development goals (SDGs) are a global agenda consisting of 17 goals which are to be achieved in 2030 by all member states. SDGs are more holistic goals i.e. these goals are closely interrelated and they affect the progress of one another. Sub-Saharan Africa countries are, once more lagging behind in the implementations of SDGs despite the efforts by governments, non-government organisations and international agencies. Rwanda, South Africa and Zambia where the three Sub-Saharan Africa countries on which the study focused. The three countries in this study were chosen on the basis that they cater to the general overview of African countries performance on SDGs. To conduct this study, a desk research method was adopted and secondary data was utilised. An in-depth analysis was done on the on three subs Saharan African countries i.e. Rwanda, South Africa, Zambia. Those goals where serious attention is needed are goals 1-9, 16 and 17. Most Sub-Saharan African countries performed better on goals 11, 12 and 15. It was concluded that the achievement of Sustainable development goals remains a mere dream for Sub Saharan Africa unless serious interventions are made.

Commuting is a vital travel channel for college students throughout their higher education career; nevertheless, excessive commute time negatively impacts students’ school satisfaction, academic achievement, health, and quality of life. Meanwhile, few studies have explored students’ commute time, covering a large population and scope. Therefore, this study analyzes the dwelling type that influences college and graduate students’ school commute times in the Seoul Metropolitan Area, using data from the 2016 Household Travel Diary Survey. This study uses spatial data on housing development to classify five dwelling types (i.e., new town, housing site development, Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggi-do). A multiple linear regression model empirically analyses students’ household and personal characteristics. The results reveal that dwelling type significantly affects students’ commute time. Specifically, Students living in Seoul have a shorter commute to school than those living in new towns. Socioeconomic characteristics have less effect on college and graduate students' school commute time. This study discusses the problem of excessive commuting of college and graduate students in new towns.

The objective of the present study is to evaluate and analyze styles and dimensions of attachment, its possible relations and how they become evident in the people involved in this study, For accomplishing it, a quantitative focus methodology was applied of descriptive type and crosscut, in which 105 Clinical Psychology university career students participated. The CaMir-R questionnaire was applied to evaluate the different styles and dimensions of attachment. In regard to the main found results it can be mentioned that - as much in men as in women -. the disorganized attachment is the most representative, followed by safe attachment. In turn, there exists a significant difference established by gender in these dimensions: family worry, parental permissiveness and infantile traumatism; In addition, as much positive correlations like refusals ones among the renowned dimensions were observed, where bulges out the positive link of self-sufficiency and resentment against the parents with the infantile traumatism. It came to an end that the dependence between the type of relation and the predisposal of offering a sure attachment on behalf of the progenitor, it will generate in the person an atmosphere of satisfaction and a capacity to face the penalties of life everyday.

In response to a perceived epidemic of coronary heart disease, Ancel Keys introduced the lipid-heart hypothesis in 1953 which asserted that high intakes of total fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol lead to atherosclerosis and that consuming less fat and cholesterol, and replacing saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat, would reduce serum cholesterol and consequently the risk of heart disease. Keys proposed an equation that would predict the concentration of serum cholesterol (DChol.) from consumption of saturated fat (DS), polyunsaturated fat (DP), and cholesterol (DZ): ΔChol. = 1.2(2ΔS − ΔP) + 1.5ΔZ. However, the Keys equation conflated natural saturated fat and industrial trans-fat into a single parameter and considered only linoleic acid as the polyunsaturated fat. This ignored the widespread consumption of trans-fat and its effects on serum cholesterol and promoted an imbalance of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids in the diet. Numerous observational, epidemiological, interventional, and autopsy studies have failed to validate the Keys equation and the lipid-heart hypothesis. Nevertheless, these have been the cornerstone of national and international dietary guidelines which have focused disproportionately on heart disease and much less so on cancer and metabolic disorders, which have steadily increased since the adoption of this hypothesis.

For doctoral students, publishing in peer reviewed journals is a task many face with anxiety and trepidation. The world of publishing, from choosing a journal, negotiating editors and navigating reviewers’ responses is a bewildering place. Looking in from the outside, it seems that successful and productive academic writers have knowledge that is inaccessible to novice scholars. While there is a growing literature on writing for scholarly publication, many of these publications promote writing and publishing as a straight-forward activity that anyone can achieve if they follow the rules. We argue that the specific and situated contexts in which academic writers negotiate publishing practices is more complicated and messy. In this paper, we attempt to make explicit our publishing processes to highlight the complex nature of publishing. We use autoethnographic narratives to provide discussion points and insights into the challenges of publishing peer reviewed articles. One narrative is by a doctoral student at the beginning of her publishing career, who expresses her desires, concerns and anxieties about writing for publication. The other narrative focuses on the publishing practices of a more experienced academic writer. Both are international scholars working in the Canadian context. The purpose of this paper is to explore academic publishing through the juxtaposition of these two narratives to make explicit some of the more implicit processes. Four key themes emerge from these narratives. To publish successfully, academic writers need: 1) to be discourse analysts; 2) to have a critical competence; and 3) to have writing fluency and 4) to be emotionally intelligent.

SDG target 12.3 calls for halving food waste at retail, food service, and household by 2030. The food waste index for this purpose includes parts attached to food that are usually removed intentionally ("unavoidable food waste") and allows counting the conversion to animal feed and utilisation as biomaterial as means of reduction. In Japan, the "Food Waste Recycling Law" which has been in effect since 2001, promotes the recycling of food waste generated from businesses, designating feed conversion as top priority. On the other hand, based on the more recent "Food Loss Reduction Promotion Act" of 2019, the government is currently promoting the reduction of avoidable food waste, as to meet the SDG target. Based on statistical sources and interviews with Ministry officers, this paper explains the history and achievements of Japan's 23-year policy based on the Food Recycling Law, as well as the tension between the two legislations.

Development of early math skills is linked to future success in mathematics and other academics. Educational videogames have been shown to promote academic achievement; however, few rigorous studies have evaluated the use of educational videogames in supporting math development, especially in early primary education. In the current study, an open-label randomized controlled trial was conducted involving 134 first grade students to determine, using standardized assessments, the impact of the educational mathematics tablet-based videogame, Knowledge Battle, on math scores and self-competency. Overall, Knowledge Battle did improve math skills in participants who played the game. Among those with lower pre-game math skills, the Knowledge Battle group’s mean math score increased more than the control group’s mean math score (9.7 vs. 6.0; p=0.02). There was no association between perceived sense of self-competency and total math score (p=0.8141). However, players who had a higher sense of self-competency were more likely to enjoy playing the game. In conclusion, our findings suggest that Knowledge Battle was an acceptable and enjoyable educational mathematical videogame for first grade students, and may be most impactful for those with low math skills.

Cold plasma (CP) is an ionised gas containing excited molecules and ions, radicals, free electrons, and emits electric fields and UV radiation. CP is potently antimicrobial and can be applied safely to biological tissue, birthing the field of plasma medicine. Reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS) produced by CP affect biological processes directly or indirectly via the modification of cellular lipids, proteins, DNA, and intracellular signalling pathways. CP can be applied at lower levels for oxidative eustress to activate cell proliferation, motility, migration, and antioxidant production in normal cells, mainly potentiated by the unfolded protein response, Nrf2-activated antioxidant response element and PI3K/Akt pathway, which also activates NFκB. At higher CP exposures, inactivation, apoptosis and autophagy of malignant cells can occur via degradation of PI3K/Akt and MAPK-dependent and -independent activation of the master tumour suppressor p53, leading to caspase-mediated cell death. These opposing responses validate a hormesis approach to plasma medicine. Clinical applications of CP are becoming increasingly realised in wound healing, while clinical effectiveness in tumours is currently coming to light. This review will outline advances in plasma medicine and compare the main redox and intracellular signalling responses to CP in wound healing and cancer.

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has been developing with many incredible achievements like ChatGPT and Bard. Deep generative model (DGM) is a branch of GenAI, which is preeminent in generating raster data such as image and sound due to strong points of deep neural network (DNN) in inference and recognition. The built-in inference mechanism of DNN, which simulates and aims to synaptic plasticity of human neuron network, fosters generation ability of DGM which produces surprised results with support of statistical flexibility. Two popular approaches in DGM are Variational Autoencoders (VAE) and Generative Adversarial Network (GAN). Both VAE and GAN have their own strong points although they share and imply underline theory of statistics as well as incredible complex via hidden layers of DNN when DNN becomes effective encoding/decoding functions without concrete specifications. In this research, VAE and GAN is unified into a consistent and consolidated model called Adversarial Variational Autoencoders (AVA) in which VAE and GAN complement each other, for instance, VAE is good at generator by encoding data via excellent ideology of Kullback-Leibler divergence and GAN is a significantly important method to assess reliability of data which is realistic or fake. In other words, AVA aims to improve accuracy of generative models, besides AVA extends function of simple generative models. In methodology this research focuses on combination of applied mathematical concepts and skillful techniques of computer programming in order to implement and solve complicated problems as simply as possible.

The measurement of discrimination in employment is a key variable in understanding dynamics in the nature of and change in ‘race relations’. Measuring such discrimination using ‘situation’ and ‘correspondence’ tests was influenced by John Rex’s sociological analyses, begun in in England in the 1960s, and replicated in Europe and America in later decades. This literature is reviewed, and the methodologies of testing for employment discrimination are discussed. Recent work in Britain and The Netherlands is considered in detail in the light of changing social structures, and the rise of Islamophobia. Manchester, apparently the city manifesting the most discrimination in Britain, is considered for a special case study, with a focus on one individual, a Muslim woman seeking intermediate level accountancy employment. Her vita was matched with that of a manifestly indigenous, white Briton. Submitted vitas (to 1,043 potential employers) indicated significant discrimination against the Muslim woman candidate. Results are discussed within the context of Manchester’s micro-sociology, and Muslim women’s employment progress in broader contexts, drawing on our work in Jordan and Palestine. We conclude with the critical realist comment that the “hidden racism” of employment discrimination shows that capitalist societies continue to be institutionally racist, and the failure to reward legitimate aspirations of minorities pushes ethnic minorities into a permanent precariat, with implications for social justice and social control, which denies minority efforts to “integrate” in society’s employment systems.

This study presents the validation process of the Questionnaire on Academic Stress in Secondary Education –QASSE-, designed to assess the wide variety of school sources and situations related to academic stress in adolescence, and their relationship with students’ physical and psychological well-being. Participants were 860 Spanish high school students (52.9% girls) with an average age of 14.62 years (SD = 1.8). Through a cross-validation process, EFA and CFA supported QASSE multifactorial structure with four first-order factors -academic overload, interaction with classmates, family pressure, and future-oriented perspective- and a second-order factor of academic stress, showing a significant and intense relationship with adolescents’ psychological and physical well-being. Results also highlight the effects of the gender*educational level interaction on the students’ stress, with girls showing higher levels of stress in the transition courses between educational phases (sophomore and junior years). The QASSE demonstrates good validity and reliability, showing potential for both research and educational application. The results show the high impact of the QASSE dimensions on psychological and physical well-being in adolescence, highlighting its special usefulness for designing and adjusting educational prevention and intervention actions in this area to the students’ specific characteristics and needs

(1) Background: Executive functioning is a concept that suggests a scheme of relationship between brain-mind and behavior, through a plan and control of individuals actions on tasks and context. This work is an approach to the study between relationship of abilities (flair) and the execution, between cognitive development and executive functioning as intelligence and creativity and reading writing learning association. The objective is trying to give a definition of neuropsychological profile of Gifted Students; (2) Methods: We studied 20 Gifted Student assessments by a school counselor, under some characteristics as having greater than 125 IQ. The age range was 6:8 to 11:8 from Primary School. Instruments were WISC-V. BRIEF-2 and TTCT; (3) Results: We observed a positive correlation between IQ and Inhibition, that would keep relation with behavioral mechanism (guide work, autonomy, impulse control, ...) of students to develop cognitive and metacognitive abilities as going in-depth in habits, skill, and strategies of intellectual work in the classroom; (4) Conclusions: There is a distance between executive functioning and IQ. Correlations, considering our sample, would express a halfway association between both variables. Association that would be explained for the connection or underlying cognitive mechanism in some factors of variables.

Background: Bangladeshi students from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) often struggle with solving many mathematical problems in different pedagogic contexts. They mostly lack the considerable prior learning or strong basics required to cope with the teaching and learning materials used at the undergraduate levels, which leads many students to take readmissions every year. Objective: This research aims at investigating the factors affecting the success and deficit of university undergraduate mathematics students in Bangladesh. The mixed-method research incorporates quantitative and qualitative data analysis on the students' and teachers’ perspectives regarding the issues. The authors focus more on categorizing the reasons influencing effective mathematics pedagogies than on identifying new or unknown causes. Methodology: This study is outlined in three phases. The phases include i. Exploratory qualitative survey ii. Quantitative triangulation survey, iii. Explanatory semi-structured interviews. Findings: First, the qualitative survey exposes the important factors that highlight the student’s success and failure in mathematics. Next, the quantitative data confirm that there are some similarities and dissimilarities between students’ and teachers’ perceptions. Also, the coefficient correlation analysis shows male students lack consistency and passion for study resulting in poor performances. Conversely, female students emphasize the inability to connect mathematical theories to real-life usages, curriculum loads, and unavailable resources as the reasons for underperformance. Finally, the interview data demonstrate the students attribute their failure to inadequate practices, memorizing habits, poor teaching, low motivation, and external distractions. Also, students acknowledge the necessity of steady practice, clear understanding, regular study, and working strategies for successful mathematics education. Teachers emphasize students’ clear concepts, aptitude, motivation, and curiosity for successful learning. Conclusion: This conclusion proposes a fresh start with the local mathematics pedagogic practices by analyzing teacher-student feedback on the success and failure factors impacted by varied individual and contextual elements. The study offers inclusive feedback on the part of both stakeholders. However, an open discussion or interaction between students and teachers might be needed to enhance mutual trust and understanding between them.

Water literacy is the ability to feel familiar with and get actively involved in water to face issues about it. This study aims to analyze the water literacy of students who come from areas that have indigenous knowledge related to water conservation and do not have indigenous knowledge but have come from the same province with a similar abundance of water. The samples of this study were 439 people consisting of 184 boys and 255 girls aged 11-18 years from junior and senior high school students in Palembang Municipality and three sub-districts in Muara Enim Regency, namely Semende Darat Laut, Semende Darat Tengah, and Darat Ulu and both are indonesian. There were 39 questions for measuring water literacy in the form of a Likert scale (1-5) to measure practical and living literacy with Cronbach alpha values of 0.692 and 0.773, respectively, and were analyzed with SPSS version 21 through the Mann-Whitney (u) and Cronbach alpha statistical tests. The total alpha was 0.838. Social literacy was measured in the open-ended question instrument and analyzed descriptively. The results showed that practical water literacy in Palembang was significantly different from Semende's but not with living water literacy. Students' social water literacy in the Semende had two different answer patterns, while, in Palembang, it was more diverse with six different response patterns. Meanwhile, when asked to describe a diagram of the flow of water in nature in Semende, no students think that it is the neglect of customs that results in reduced water in Semende as understood by some students in Palembang who are not involved with these customs.

Academic entrepreneurship focuses on commercialization of research. Even though it is practiced worldwide for decades, Bangladesh is a newcomer in this segment. In Bangladesh only 2 Universities have Technology Transfer Offices or TTOs which are established with the sole focus of commercialization of researches of the students and the faculty members of the Universities. This article focuses on worldwide practices of technology transfer and academic entrepreneurial activities and also explores the opportunities and challenges of such entrepreneurs through detail investigation of the existing body of knowledge. Apart from exploring the problems and prospect of academic entrepreneurship in Bangladesh, this article also introduces the concept of Full-Service Knowledge Transfer Office (KTO), which existing literatures do not offer. The authors believe that by establishing such KTOs as a self-sustaining body, it is possible for an academic entrepreneur to stimulate, support and sustain their activities in Bangladesh. The concept of full service KTOs can also become models for other nations, specially the developing ones, to establish and nurture a culture of academic entrepreneurship.

Some evidence suggests that personality types are a useful construct to understand stress and coping. However, further research is needed, especially on academic stress. Our aim was to explore how personality types and gender relate to coping strategies for academic stress and perceived coping efficacy. A total of 810 university psychology students completed the NEO-FFI Inventory and the Coping Strategies Inventory. Post-hoc tests for MANOVA and ANOVA were performed, where personality types and gender were treated as predictors and use of coping strategies and perceived coping efficacy as criteria. Finally, a one-way ANOVA followed by post hoc comparisons was performed to analyse the associations between personality types and perceived coping efficacy. Those with personality types combining low neuroticism with high conscientiousness chose the most adaptive coping strategies and showed the highest levels of perceived coping efficacy, while those whose personality types combined high neuroticism with low conscientiousness opted for maladaptive coping strategies and presented the lowest level of perceived coping efficacy. As for gender, women chose emotional expression more frequently. The personality type classification provided useful information on individual differences in coping with academic stress, which can help guide specific strategies to manage it.

Computer and Smart Device-assisted Learning (CSDL) has gained increasing attention from educational researchers and practitioners in recent years. However, it remains controversial whether student can benefit from CSDL and what moderator could affect the impact of CSDL. Within the specific context of Korea, where the interest in digital education is steadily increasing, the number of empirical studies exploring the causal effect of CSDL remains relatively scarce. The primary objective of this empirical study was to investigate the impact of CSDL on students' academic achievement in Korea. To achieve this objective, a two-way fixed effect model was employed, utilizing a panel dataset spanning three years derived from the 'Korean Education Longitudinal Study 2013'. The findings revealed a significant positive impact of CSDL on students’ Mathematics achievement. Notably, higher income levels, increased availability of computer resources provided by schools, and the implementation of more individualized education were identified as factors that moderate the effect of CSDL on students' achievement levels in Korean and English subjects. These findings underscore the need for an approach that optimizes the educational benefits of CSDL by considering subject-specific characteristics. Furthermore, this study highlights the importance of allocating educational resources, such as computers and smart devices, and integrating individualized educational activities within the classroom environment.

One of the needs of the teaching and learning processes is the lack of information during the process, such as the emotions of students. Emotions influence learning, the ability to process information and accurately understand what we are dealing with. They profoundly affect students’ academic engagement and performance. One new way of getting such information is monitoring students' emotions. This research aims to expose 6 groups of secondary school students to video recordings for further analysis and categorization of their emotions. A model of emotional recognition (ER) during classroom learning was designed, with a custom-made code, from recorded videos to images to identify faces, action units (AUs) and consequently the emotions of each of the students shown on the screen. In addition, the ER model was optimized, from detecting few students to many students during a class. Emotions were then analysed according to the academic year, subject, and comparing the emotions at the beginning and at the end of the class. The results indicate the presence of a variety of emotions in the classroom and we found significant differences in the presence of some emotions depending on the time of class, subject and academic year, although there are no clear patterns. We discussed how emotions influence students' academic performance, and we suggest future research focus on teachers utilizing tools like this to improve student well-being and performance.

This paper provides a comparative analysis of AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) and Salsa20 algorithm implementations, focusing on power consumption efficiency in passive RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tags and ultra-low-power devices. The main objective of this work is to determine which of these algorithms is more suitable to operate in these types of devices. For this purpose, ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit) implementations of AES and Salsa20 based on low-power approaches were developed and their power consumption was evaluated. Results demonstrate that Salsa20 power consumption is lower than AES (2.82μW and 4.01μW, respectively - both in 0.18μm), indicating that Salsa20 is a better choice than AES for passive RFID tags.

Academic researchers publish their work in various formats, such as papers, patents, and research reports, on different academic sites. When searching for a particular researcher's work, it can be challenging to pinpoint the right individual, especially when there are multiple researchers with the same name. In order to handle this issue, we propose a name disambiguation scheme of researchers with the same name based on heterogeneous academic sites. The proposed scheme collects and integrates research results from these varied academic sites, focusing on attributes crucial for disambiguation. It then employs clustering techniques to identify individuals who share the same name. Additionally, the proposed rule-based algorithm name disambiguation method and the existing deep learning-based identification method. This approach allows for the selection of the most accurate disambiguation scheme, taking into account the metadata available in the academic sites, using a multiclass classification approach. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, we conduct various performance evaluations, measuring accuracy, recall, and the F1-measure, highlighting the scheme's superior performance in the name disambiguation.

With the exponential growth in today’s technology and its expanding areas of application it has become vital to incorporate it in education. One such application is Knowledge Discovery in Databases (KDD) which is a subset of data mining. KDD deals with extracting useful information and meaningful patterns from the database that were not known before. This study is a detailed application of KDD and focuses on analyzing why a particular set of students performed better than others and what factors influenced the results. The study is conducted on a dataset of 480 students and across 16 different features. The authors implemented 4 major classification techniques namely Logistic Regression, Decision Tree, Random Forest and XGB classifier. Obtaining the key features from the top performing ML algorithms that have a major impact on the performance of the student, the study takes these features as a baseline for further analysis. Further data analysis highlights patterns in the data. The study concludes that there are a lot of non-academic factors that influence the overall performance of a student and should be taken into consideration by universities and other relevant bodies.

Now when the whole world is still under COVID-19 pandemic, many schools have transferred the teaching from physical classroom to online platforms. It is highly important for schools and online learning platforms to investigate the feedback to get valuable insights about online teaching process so that both platforms and teachers are able to learn which aspect they can improve to achieve better teaching performance. But handling reviews expressed by students would be a pretty laborious work if they were handled manually as well as it is unrealistic to handle large-scale feedback from e-learning platform. In order to address this problem, both machine learning algorithms and deep learning models are used in recent research to automatically process students' review getting the opinion, sentiment and attitudes expressed by the students. Such studies may play a crucial role in improving various interactive online learning platforms by incorporating automatic analysis of feedback. Therefore, we conduct an overview study of sentiment analysis in educational field presented in recent research, to help people grasp an overall understanding of the sentiment analysis research. Besides, according to the literature review, we identify three future directions that researchers can focus on in automatically feedback processing: high-level entity extraction, multi-lingual sentiment analysis, and handling of figurative language.

Nowadays, the European Union and the governments of the different countries have focused on the development of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and the 2030 agenda, something that has been translated into education itself. Video Games, Gamification, and Game Based Learning have become different strategies and tools to enhance the learning process and some of the growing approaches used by teachers to develop sustainable education in the classrooms. This research aims to analyze the characteristics to promote sustainability in education using games and technology, specifically its learning benefits for Higher Education. A systematic review of the literature was conducted following the PRISMA methodology. At first, 2025 documents were found which, after the filtering phases, the number of articles has been reduced to nine, which subsequently were analyzed in depth. The results indicated that among the benefits of the use of games mediated by technologies are the following: it favors education for sustainability and it promotes the educational inclusion and the work of various social skills such as collaborative and cooperative work. Also, showed an increase of the number of publications between 2019 and 2023, reflecting the growing interest in the topic. However, there are some research gap in this field.

The COVID-19 pandemic measures have negatively impacted education worldwide via travel restrictions, student visas, and physical attendanc,e among many other fac-tors. As one of the first places to impose strict pandemic measures and one of the last places to lift the measures, Mainland China provided a unique venue to investigate the effect of public health pandemic control policies on tertiary education. Considering the large portion of international students in medical schools and the higher susceptibility to the pandemic measures due to the natural synergy with teaching hospitals, medical schools can be an early forefront indicator of the impact of the pandemic on tertiary education. We surveyed 513 participants international medical students from Wen-zhou Medical University’s school of international studies in 2019 and 2022 about their satisfaction and demographic and cultural adaptation parameters. We found that the pandemic restrictions did not generally impact student satisfaction. Further analyzing the associated parameters, we found teaching satisfaction to be independent of age (P=.159), years in China (P=.896) and Chinese Level (P=.577) in the medical university. Teaching satisfaction is associated with the region of origin (P <0.001), acceptance of local social norms (P <0.001), satisfaction with the core values of Chinese culture (P <0.001), acclimatization to life in China (P <0.001), can easily make Chinese friends (P <0.001) among other factors. The findings of this study provide an understanding of the effects of pandemic measures on tertiary education satisfaction and other factors that can aid in international student satisfaction.

Recent evidence suggests the existence of shared neural resources for rhythm processing in language and music. Such overlaps could be the basis of the facilitating effect of regular musical rhythm on spoken word processing previously reported for typical children and adults, as well as adults with Parkinson’s disease and children with developmental language disorders. The present study builds upon these previous findings by examining whether musical rhythmic priming also influences visual word processing, and the extent to which such cross-modal priming effect of rhythm is related to individual differences in musical aptitude and reading skills. EEG was recorded while participants listened to a rhythmic tone prime, followed by a visual target word with a stress pattern that either matched or mismatched the rhythmic structure of the auditory prime. Participants were also administered standardized assessments of musical aptitude and reading achievement. ERPs elicited by target words with a mismatching stress pattern showed an increased fronto-central negativity. Additionally, the size of the negative effect correlated with individual differences in musical rhythm aptitude and reading comprehension skills. Results support the existence of shared neurocognitive resources for linguistic and musical rhythm processing, and have important implications for the use of rhythm-based activities for reading interventions.

Native Americans are the single most underrepresented racial group in American higher education today; those enrolled in college are also disproportionately first-generation students. In order to help universities attract and retain Native American students, this study utilizes the four R’s of indigenous research to document the motivations of first-generation Native American students to attend and remain at a mid-sized public university in the northwest. Student participants report that social and cultural support were key factors in their decisions to attend and remain at their institution. Implications of these findings are discussed, and recommendations are made to higher education institutions seeking to attract and retain Native American students.

The aim of our study was to assess university students’ sleep quality and fatigue before and during the academic exam period and identify potential associated factors. A Web-based survey was completed by 940 students of 20 different Tertiary Institutions including demographics, sleep habits, exercise, caffeine, tobacco, alcohol use, subjective sleep quality (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index - PSQI) and fatigue (Fatigue severity scale – FSS) at the beginning of semester and at examination period. During exam period, PSQI (8.9 vs 6.1, p&lt;0.001) and FSS scores (36.9 vs 32.7, p&lt;0.001) were significantly elevated compared to pre-exam period. Increase of PSQI score was associated with age (β=0.111, p=0.011), presence of chronic disease (β=0.914, p=0.006), and depressive symptoms (β=0.459, p=0.001). Increase of FSS score was associated with female gender (β=1.658, p&lt;0.001), age, (β=0.198, p=0.010), increase in smoking (β=1.7, p=0.029), coffee/energy drinks consumption (β=1.988, p&lt;0.001), decreased levels of physical exercise (β=1.660, p&lt;0.001), and depressive symptoms (β=2.526, p&lt;0.001). In conclusion, our results show that sleep quality and fatigue are affected in university students during exam periods. Potential factors were identified which may lead to development of strategies for better quality of sleep, and wellbeing.

Background:. Knowledge and positive perception of climate change are crucial for public participation in activities that contain climate change. Limited studies, particularly in South Africa have reported on the knowledge and perceptions of climate change by university students. Study Aim: This study aimed to assess the level of knowledge and perceptions of climate change by the science students at the University of South Africa (UNISA). Methods: This was a quantitative cross sectional survey, undertaken among science students using questionnaire emailed to 500 students in the School of Science through Unisa email system. Bivariate logistic regression was used to test the association between socio-demographics, level of knowledge and perceptions of climate change. Results: A total of 420 students participated in the study. They were predominantly male (70.3%), mostly younger than 35 years of age. Most of the respondents were in the 2nd (34.7%) and 3rd (33.8%) year of study. Majority of respondents (97.9%) knew and perceived (93.6%) that climate change was happening. Overall, 93.8% of respondents had an excellent knowledge and basic concepts of climate change. Conclusion: The majority of students were knowledgeable and had positive perceptions about the basic concepts of climate change. However, the year of study was not significantly associated with positive perceptions of climate change. There is need to include climate change modules in South African university curriculum.

Existing research lacks studies that explore the impact of government fiscal support on the high-quality development of regional economy and society from the perspective of livelihood-based infrastructure construction. The investigation in this paper explores the economic and social effects of government fiscal support behavior from the perspective of livelihood infrastructure construction. On the basis of the TOPSIS-Entropy Method, this paper constructs an evaluation indicator that closely conforms to the denotation and requirements of high-quality development and then carries out empirical regressions in combination with government expenditure on people's livelihood to verify the theoretical hypothesis, whose transmission mechanism and moderating effect are further empirically tested. The results reveal that increasing government expenditure on people's livelihoods can effectively improve regional high-quality development, but the marginal improvement degree varies with different periods and locations. The mechanism test proves that the regional consumption level plays a significant part in the mediating effect, accounting for 24.27% of the total effect. Urbanization is also the critical impetus for regional high-quality development and positively moderates the promotion effect of people's livelihood fiscal expenditure. Our study presents a theoretical basis and policy inspiration for improving residents' quality of life and welfare level and improving people's livelihood in the midst of high-quality economic development.

In the era of disruption, to achieve food sustainability and the SDGs, Indonesia is faced with changes in the values, attitudes, and behavior of the community to be adaptive to environmental and technological changes. This study aims to analyze the factors that influence social transformation in peri-urban communities and their impact on food sustainability and the achievement of SDGs. The research method is a qualitative approach, triangulated by conducting in-depth interviews, field observations, and focus group discussion (FGD) in two districts. The results showed that factors influencing social transformation in peri-urban communities include: strengthening public awareness of the importance of food sustainability, access to information and technology, collaborative synergetic of government, companies, academics, and community participation in decision-making on empowerment programs. This social transformation leads to increased food production and poverty reduction. Private facilitators through CSR programs play a role in achieving food sustainability and achieving several SDG indicators related to poverty. The occurrence of collaborative synergetic between community participation, extension workers, village government, media utilization, academics, and companies contributes significantly to transforming the values, attitudes, and behavior of people managing community resources.

Intellecta dataset emerges as an innovative synthetic dataset, engineered to enhance the cognitive processing capabilities of contemporary language models. With a composition of 11.53 billion tokens, integrating 8.01 billion tokens of synthetic data with 3.52 billion tokens of rich textbook data, Intellecta is crafted to foster advanced reasoning and comprehensive educational narrative generation. Leveraging the Mixtral-8x7B-Instruct-v0.1 model, the dataset facilitates the generation of complex thought processes and detailed, textbook-style explanations, thus enabling language models to engage in both critical thinking and profound educational discourse. This hybrid dataset stands as a testament to the potential of synthetic data in pushing the boundaries of AI, offering a repository that is not only vast and varied but also refined to align with ethical standards and intellectual rigor.

Feedback is a type of formative evaluation linked to student learning and academic achievement. However, it is not known how students perceive this process since there are no instruments to measure attitudes towards feedback. The objective of this work was to develop and validate an attitude scale towards academic feedback through an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), using the principal components method and an internal consistency analysis using Cronbach's Alpha. The sample consisted of 274 students from 2015, 2016, and 2017 cohorts of pedagogy careers from five Chilean universities. The results showed the consolidation of the instrument and its final conformation in four components (Negative experience towards feedback, Effectiveness of feedback, Feedback as an opportunity, and Resistance towards feedback) with a total of 15 items, which allow measuring the students' attitude towards this written formative evaluation.

Women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields are under-represented, and women are also less likely than men to be in leadership positions generally. Little is known about the intersection of these areas: women in leadership in STEM. To determine what sort of barriers and assistance female STEM leaders have encountered, a survey was developed asking women who are in academic leadership positions in STEM about their experiences. The main barriers were similar in the STEM area and in leadership: balancing work/home life, devaluing of achievements, and imposter syndrome. The main two types of assistance in both STEM and leadership were support from spouse/partner, and encouragement from peers. The main barriers women encounter are cultural and will take time to overcome. The main assistance women have had comes from people, not training or institutional structures.

Background: Children's environmental health encompasses a wide range of factors that impact the well-being of children, including physical, chemical, biological, and social elements in their immediate environment. Safeguarding children from harmful substances is the crucial role of nursing students. Nursing students play a vital role as valuable resources for individuals, families, communities, and policymakers. This study aims to assess the knowledge and skills of nursing students concerning children's environmental health at academic institutions delivering nursing program in Nekemte town, Ethiopia. Methods: An institutional-based cross-sectional study design was carried out from August 1–30, 2023, among nursing students in Nekemte Town, and 634 study participants were selected through simple random sampling. Data was entered into Epinfo version 6.4 and exported to STATA version 14 for analysis, and multicollinearity was checked. Finally, from the bivariate analysis, variables of < 0.2 were included in the multivariate analysis; an adjusted odd ratio with a 95% CI was computed; and variables with a P-value <0.05 in the multivariable analysis were taken as significant associated factors. Results: The overall nursing students' level of knowledge about children's environmental health was insufficient (56%). More than one-third (34%) demonstrate their skill towards children's environmental health insufficiently, and one-fourth (25%) and 27% of the learners conduct their craft to prevent children from ecological hazards to a good and better level, respectively. While gender of the participant, age of the participant, year of the study, training history of the participants, and field of study of the students were significantly associated variables with their knowledge of children's environmental health. Conclusion: The study reveals that nursing students' knowledge of children's environmental health is limited, with factors such as gender, age, training history, and field of study significantly influencing their understanding. Therefore, female students should be considered for more tutorials to be effectively knowledgeable regarding children’s environmental health.

Gambling among college students can start as a pastime activity. However, this pastime can lead to problem gambling and pathological gambling. This cross-sectional study aimed to identify and explain gambling behavior among university students using a novel fourth-generation multi-theory model (MTM) of health behavior change. Data were collected from a sample of 1,474 university students at a large southwestern university in the U.S. between January 2023 and February 2023, utilizing a validated 39-item survey. The statistical analyses employed in this study encompassed descriptive statistics, independent samples t-tests, and hierarchical regression modeling. Among students who engaged in gambling in the past month, the constructs of participatory dialogue (β = 0.052; p &lt; 0.05), behavioral confidence (β = 0.073; p &lt; 0.0001), and changes in the physical environment (β = 0.040; p = 0.0137) accounted for 27.7% of the variance in the likelihood of initiating the behavior change. Furthermore, the constructs of emotional transformation (β = 0.104; p = 0.0003) and practice for change (β = 0.060; p = 0.0368) accounted for 22.6% of the variance in the likelihood of sustaining quitting gambling behavior. The Multi-Theory Model (MTM) can be employed to design interventions aimed at reducing problem gambling among college students.

We investigate if anyone is being left behind in accessing safely managed drinking water (SM) in achieving the 2030 agenda. We use 23 countries grouped globally as critically insecure water (CIWC). The results indicate none of the CIWC had over 50% of the population accessing SM, N. America and Europe had highest percentages while Sub Saharan Africa had the least. People left behind are found in rural areas, in countries vulnerable to climate change because of poor governance, low-income, and women’s low education. Institutional quality, equity and equality should be improved in using resources critical to leaving no one behind.

The number of citations that a paper has received is the most commonly used indicator to measure the quality of research. Researchers, journals, and universities want to receive more citations for their scholarly publications to increase their h-index, impact factor, and ranking respectively. In this paper, we tried to analyses the effect of the number of available Google Scholar versions of a paper on citations count. We analyzed 10,162 papers which are published in Scopus database in year 2010 by Malaysian top five universities. Then we developed a software to collect the number of citations and versions of each paper from Google Scholar automatically. The result of spearman correlation coefficient revealed that there is positive significant association between the number of Google Scholar versions of a paper and the number of times a paper has been cited.

The study introduces a novel method to identify potential citation manipulation in academic papers using perturbations of a deep embedding model, incorporating Graph Masked Autoencoders. This approach integrates textual information with graph connectivity evidence, resulting in a more sophisticated model of citation distribution. By training a deep network using partial data and reconstructing masked connections, the method leverages the inherent characteristics of central connections under network perturbations. Quantitative evaluations demonstrate its remarkable ability to pinpoint trustworthy citations in the analyzed data and raise concerns about potentially unreliable references due to potential manipulation.

Here we present a blockchain-backed token recognition system to reward the contributions that academics make to the scientific ecosystem. Recognition is important in science but current methods, systems and incentives are limited. Specifically, the traditional focus on narrow publication metrics means diverse contributions are not captured, while bias toward senior, established scientists is common. To tackle this challenge, we explore the potential of harnessing blockchain’s collaborative, decentralised and trust-brokering properties to develop a token reward system for use by research funders. Academics would be awarded tokens for undertaking common but vital tasks such as peer review, sitting on funding committees and submitting reports. These tokens would not be tradable or specifically monetisable but would serve as a validated record of scientific contribution. They would have value in professional recruitment and job placement, support grant and award applications, and inform performance appraisals and file reviews. Coordination and cooperation across multiple funding agencies in developing the platform would provide an opportunity to aggregate and standardise recognition, given academics often work with several funders. This system’s goals are to expand recognition metrics, promote efficiencies, improve the robustness of professional assessments and enable cross-funder collaboration, thereby optimising research processes and practices in a decentralised and democratised manner.

During 2010, at the Facultad de Medicina Veterinaria y Zootecnia of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (fmvz-unam) we analyzed the influence of metadata over its website according to the search engines used by the academic community. This document serves only the second specific objective of the research: to know the academic profile, the informative behavior and the veterinary information needs of the academic community of the fmvz-unam. The methodological tool was the design and implementation of an online survey. We received 215 responses, two thirds answered academic staff, the rest, undergraduate and postgraduate students. In relation to information behavior, an Internet-usage index was developed, with which it was determined that 64 % of this community uses four or five information services on the Internet, This means that the network is widely used to seek information and as communication media. This community search for more veterinary information related to dogs, dairy cattle and sheep, compared to other animal species; while animal welfare, zoonosis and molecular biology are the topics of greatest interest.

Objectives: To determine the effects of caffeine consumption on the sleep habits and lifestyle of medical students. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at Jinnah Sindh Medical University (JSMU) and Hamdard College of Medicine. On 422 undergraduate students aged 18-25 years, through random sampling. The duration of the study was from January 2019 to June 2019. The data was collected through self-administered questionnaire which included data regarding sleep habits and lifestyle of medical students. Results: Majority (81.6%) of the students consumed caffeine while only (18.4%) did not. One third of the participants (31.8%) reported caffeine consumption increased their academic performance and (57.3%) reported that it does not. More than half of the participants (63.3%) who consumed caffeine slept during class, whereas (47.2%) never had difficulty in falling asleep during the night. Conclusion: This research concluded that caffeine does have some role on sleep habits of medical students as they tend to have less sleep hours, experience day time dysfunction, average quality of sleep, and falling asleep during class. It has been concluded that caffeine has no effect on eating habits of medical students however, it does increase the screening time, keeping them active.

Background: A comprehensive response to the unprecedented SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) chal-lenges for public health and its impact on radiation oncology patients and personnel for resilience and adaptability is presented. Methods: The general recommendations included working remote-ly when feasible, implementation of screening/safety and personal protective equipment (PPE) guidelines, social distancing, regular cleaning of treatment environment, and testing for high-risk patients/procedures. All teaching conferences, tumor boards, and weekly chart rounds were con-ducted using a virtual platform. Additionally, specific recommendations were given to each sec-tion to ensure proper patient treatments. The impact of these measures, especially adaptability and resilience, were evaluated through specific questionnaire surveys. Results: These comprehen-sive COVID-19 related measures resulted in most staff expressing a consistent level of satisfaction in regards to personal safety, maintaining a safe work environment, continuing quality patient care and continuing educational activities during the pandemic. There was a significant reduction in patient treatments and on-site patient visits with an appeciable increase in the number of tele-medicine e-visits. Conclusions: Survey results demonstrated substantial adaptability and resili-ence, including in the rapid recovery of departmental activities during the reactivation phase. In the event of a future public health emergency, the measures implemented may be adopted with good outcomes by radiation oncology departments across the globe.

The aim of the existing study is to investigate the influence of teacher expectation on students’ achievement and their attitudes towards English lesson and to increase the students’ academic success and positive attitudes towards this issue. In the study, a process which defined the existing situtation and which provided the educational processes to improve by changing the existing situation could be seen. For this reason, emancipatory/improving/critical action research model was used. The study was carried out on a sample group consisting of 87 students; 43 6th graders and 44 8th graders attending a school located in the city center of Düzce during the 2015-2016 academic year. In order to collect the data, “Teacher Expectancy Scale” developed by the researchers, “Attitude Scale towards English Course” and 7 test exams prepared by Turkish Ministry of National Education (MoNE) were used. The study was conducted for a total 48 hours in 12 weeks, 4 hours a week. As the result of the study, it was revealed that teacher expectation influenced the attitudes of the students towards the English lesson in a positive way and increased their academic achievements.

Introduction: The Get Active Questionnaire (GAQ), developed by the Canadian Society for Ex-ercise Professionals (CSEP) was recently recommended for pre-participation screening for the general population in Singapore before increasing exercise levels. This review examines the evi-dence behind the GAQ and relevance to our tropical environment. Methods: Searches were done via Pubmed, MEDLINE and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials. Resources referenced by the CSEP were hand-searched. The CSEP was also contacted for further information. Evidence behind each GAQ question was compared to inter-national literature and guidelines, where applicable. Results: Out of 273 studies, 49 were suitable for analysis. Two GAQ studies commissioned by the CSEP showed a high negative predictive value but high false negative rate. Of the nine GAQ questions, those on dizziness, joint pains and chronic diseases appear justified. Those on heart disease/stroke, hypertension, breathlessness and concussion require modification. That on syncope can be amalgamated into the dizziness question. The remaining question may be deleted. No long-term studies were available to validate use of the GAQ. Heat disorders were not considered in the GAQ. Conclusions: Modification of the GAQ, including inclusion of environmental factors, may make it more suitable for the general population and should be considered.

Science evolves over a gentle arc spanning centuries, with scientists building upon and extending the hypotheses and discoveries of their forebears when nurturing their own work from ideation to crystallization and finally implementation. However, evidence suggests several limitations of our modern academic pursuits including major inertia and epistemological biases to implement even major advancements. For instance, the transformative uncertainty principles of quantum mechanics are yet to be satisfactorily integrated in modern analyses and publications, even almost a century after Heisenberg received the Nobel prize for these. Another example is ever expanding reliance on mathematics to validate the hypotheses of Physics, and undermine the opinions to the contrary. In addition, modern science limits itself to the era post fifteenth century and hastily rejects premodern achievements despite glaring examples. This reluctance and inertia to capitalize on existing knowledge is a challenge that imperils our intellectual pursuits. A salient facet of science is "the willingness to admit ignorance". Only on this foundational principle can science meaningfully evolve. It is time we take a step back to evaluate widely accepted and foundational premises of modern science and institute structured processes to implement the treasure trove of knowledge amassed by our predecessors. This essay highlights some of the opportunities that can and should be availed capitalizing upon the recent developments of computational and analytical capabilities along with artificial intelligence.

Sleep deprivation (failure to get enough sleep) is a public health issue that can negatively impact our body including cognitive function. Many studies have been done in Saudi Arabia to evaluate the impact of poor sleep and academic performance but almost all of them were done at university level. To investigate the relationship between sleep quality and general degree of academic achievement in school students. This is a cross-sectional, school-based study, conducted at Jazan Region, Saudi Arabia. A total of 957 participants (615 male and 342 female) were recruited from a state school. The study used a standardized, confidential, validated self-administered questionnaire to assess sleep quality and habits. By using Statistical Package for Social Studies (SPSS 22), achievement of the students was significantly related to the following parameters; laziness and fatigue after wake-up time and during school time, lack of concentration during school time, difficulty in complete tasks during school time and inability to maintain wakefulness during school time. Furthermore, students with poor academic degrees reported more significant incidence of sleeping at school, excessive daytime sleepiness, and other sleep related disorder than good academic degrees. Students with poor sleep quality have lower school grades.

Overweight and obesity, including its prevalence and consequences reflect a leading public health problem. Studies have already shown that physical activity leads to a reduction in body weight in children and adults. However, the university setting has rarely been investigated. The aim of this review is therefore to examine and summarize the effectiveness of physical-activity-based interventions to reduce obesity and overweight in university students. Three databases (PubMed, Scopus &amp; Web of Science) were searched for relevant studies published in English between January 2010 and February 2022. Quantitative studies, conducting a physical-activity-based intervention with overweight or obese university students and reporting changes in BMI, were included. Data were described in a narrative synthesis. Eleven of 16 included studies reported a significant reduction in BMI. However, all studies except one were able to demonstrate some BMI improvements, whereas all studies reported significant changes in at least one health-related indicator. Aerobic exercises were able to demonstrate the greatest reductions in BMI. This review is the first systematic presentation on the effectiveness of physical-activity-based interventions on overweight and obese university students. Future work should reconsider BMI as the primary outcome because it is prone to bias. More interventions are needed to improve strategies.

Background: Our study aimed to assess the differences between domestic and international students in terms of social support, vital exhaustion, and depression during the time of COVID-19. Methods: The online cross-sectional survey was conducted via Google Forms® at three time intervals during the pandemic. Results: Respectively 1320, 246, and 139 students completed our questionnaires in the different time intervals. International students reported significantly lower values of perceived social support. Women reached higher scores regarding vital exhaustion in both samples. Concerning depression, international female students had higher values than their male counterparts but the difference diminished with time. No differences could be found in the comparison of depression between domestic female and male students. Significant correlations were found between depression, perceived social support, and vital exhaustion. Discussion: International students perceive diminished social support just when they need more. Decreased levels of perceived social support may contribute to the development of their psychological problems.

Body-Esteem Scale is an assessment tool for adolescents and adults that evaluate three dimensions of self-evaluations of one’s body. Body-Esteem Scale has been translated and validated in some countries since America down to Europe. Lack of translation and reliability evidence in Portugal was detected. This study aimed to translate and test the validity and reliability of the Body Esteem Scale for Adolescents and Adults (BESAA) in students in the context of Portuguese higher educa-tion. A total of 173 students (60.7% are female) with a mean age of 19.7 (standard deviation = 2.2) years participated. Categorical Principal Component Analysis was used to assess the underlying dimensions of BESAA. Construct validity was evaluated through correlation with the Appearance Schemas Inventory – Revised and a three-factor model (“Appearance”, ‘‘Weight’’ and “Attribu-tion’’) was established. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed to verify the construct validity of the instrument. Items that had factor weights (λ)<.40 were removed, as well as those that were considered redundant by the modification indices estimated by the Lagrange Multipliers (LM) method (LM>11, p<.001). We observed high correlations between theoretically similar factors, and low correlations between different factors. The Portuguese BESAA showed adequate validity and reliability.

Many academics are critical of the current publishing system, but it is difficult to create a better alternative. This review relates to the Sciences and Social Sciences, and discusses the primary purpose of academic journals as providing a seal of approval for perceived quality, impact, significance, and importance. The key issues considered include the role of anonymous refereeing, continuous rather than discrete frequency of publications, avoidance of time wasting, and seeking adventure. Here we give recommendations about the organization of journal articles, the roles of associate editors and referees, measuring the time frame for refereeing submitted articles in days and weeks rather than months and years, encouraging open access internet publishing, emphasizing the continuity of publishing online, academic publishing as a continuous dynamic process, and how to improve research after publication. Citations and functions thereof, such as the journal impact factor and h-index, are the benchmark for evaluating the importance and impact of academic journals and published articles. Even in the very top journals, a high proportion of published articles are never cited, not even by the authors themselves. Top journal publications do not guarantee that published articles will make significant contributions, or that they will ever be highly cited. The COVID-19 world should encourage academics worldwide not only to rethink academic teaching, but also to re-evaluate key issues associated with academic journal publishing in the future.

Among the most popular learning management systems available worldwide is Moodle [1]. This current study examines how learners' attitudes toward English as a foreign language (EFL) and their language proficiency are affected by Moodle's interactive language learning activities. Thirty-three undergraduate students participated in this study. We investigated the effects of engaging language learning exercises that were practiced on Moodle using an experimental re-search design. To find out if the experimental and control groups differed significantly from one another on pre- and post-measures regarding the development of language skills and attitudes toward language classrooms, a number of statistical tests were employed. We conducted data analysis using SPSS software. Results demonstrated that there were differences favoring the ex-perimental group in the language skills developments and attitudes of learners toward the lan-guage classroom. There were no apparent differences in the forming structures, speaking, or listening of the control group's learners. On the other hand, there were notable differences in the overall score, writing and reading skills, and lexical item mastery. Additionally, significant dif-ferences in the language acquisition growth of the experimental and control groups were found using an Independent Samples T-test in the post-test, with the experimental group benefiting.