Abstract:

The global demand for argane oil has grown considerably in recent years, creating economic opportunities while raising concerns about ecosystem degradation and the sustainability of production systems. To support long-term viability, several initiatives have promoted environmentally friendly practices and fair value-chain models. However, the effective market integration of these initiatives depends on understanding consumer behavior and preferences toward sustainable products. This study aims to identify the determinants influencing consumers’ purchase intention for sustainable argane oil using an extended framework of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). A structural equation modeling approach was applied to analyze responses from adult consumers with a minimum secondary education level. The results show that consumer attitude, perceived behavioral control, and willingness to pay have significant positive effects on purchase intention, while ecological literacy exerts an indirect influence through attitude, social norms, perceived behavioral control, and willingness to pay. In contrast, ecological literacy has no significant direct impact. These findings improve the understanding of behavioral mechanisms underlying green product consumption and offer insights for designing marketing strategies that align with sustainability values and promote responsible consumer choices.

Abstract: This paper proposes Trace & Trajectory (T&T) Semantics, a pre-representational framework for understanding meaning as intent-driven navigation through informational space. Motivated by fieldwork with multimodal, intersubjective communication—where meaning emerges through gesture, prosody, and embodied coordination rather than propositional structures—I extend Hoffman and Prakash's trace logic to continuous semantic trajectories. The framework models meaning not through Euclidean feature spaces but through attractor dynamics: meaning stabilizes where intent-driven trajectories converge under dissipative constraints, creating basins that guide navigation without representational anchoring. The critical innovation is operator σ's fractal architecture. As meta-awareness intensifies, trace patterns achieve self-similarity across scales, enabling collapse and reconjunction without infinite regress. This mechanism naturalizes prototype effects, conceptual metaphor, image schema stability, and abstract reasoning as emergent from how conscious agents navigate meaning-space under intent, dissipation, and σ-modulation—not from mental representations. T&T dissolves the hard problem of semantic content by grounding meaning in informational dynamics during concrete intersubjective engagement, where patterns maintain semiotic coherence through intent-driven navigation, without reference to external representational targets. This preserves systematicity while respecting embodied intuition. The framework offers cognitive linguists, anthropologists, and semantic theorists an approach that is formally rigorous (utilizing attractor dynamics, Markov kernels, and σ-operators), empirically tractable (applicable to actual discourse and interaction), and phenomenologically adequate. Crucially, the formalism describes patterns in conscious, intentional dynamics—not neural mechanisms—making it appropriate for phenomena in which agent purpose drives semantic organization.

Abstract: AI-generated content and misinformation are increasingly prevalent on social networks. While prior research primarily examined textual misinformation, fewer studies have focused on visual content's role in virality. In this work, we present the first large-scale analysis of how misinformation and AI-generated images propagate through repost cascades across five ideologically diverse Reddit communities. By integrating textual sentiment, visual attributes, and diffusion metrics (e.g., time-to-first repost, community reach), our framework accurately predicts both immediate post-level virality (AUC=0.83) and long-term cascade-level spread (AUC=0.998). These findings offer essential insights for moderating synthetic and misleading visual content online.

Abstract: Previous studies have shown that a lack of air quality monitors in the US makes it difficult to understand air pollution at local scales. Access to local air pollution information can inform actions to reduce pollution and exposure that is detrimental to human health. Recognizing where exposure is concentrated helps determine where conditions need to be improved. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sets standards on air quality required by the Clean Air Act (CAA) to protect human health. Regulatory monitoring requires nonattainment areas (places where air quality exceeds the set threshold by the EPA) to take action, but only in places where there are monitors. This systematic review assesses if existing studies on the current placement of EPA regulatory air quality monitors provides equitable monitoring of air quality in the US. Existing studies find that monitoring is not distributed equitably across social groups and is concentrated in Whiter, wealthier, and urban neighborhoods. The articles reviewed in this study also found that unmonitored communities are more racially diverse. Nonetheless, it remains uncertain whether these disparities persist over time, representing a critical limitation of existing research reviewed in this systematic review.

Abstract: Background/Objectives: Caring for a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is often associated with elevated psychological distress and reduced life satisfaction. Mindfulness-based interventions may offer substantial benefits by enhancing emotional regulation, reducing maladaptive cognitive patterns, and strengthening mindful parenting. This randomized controlled trial (RCT) examined the effectiveness of an eight-week Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) program, enriched with mindful parenting practices, on parental mental health and parent-reported child behavior outcomes. Methods: Fifty-six parents of children with ASD were randomly assigned to an MBCT intervention group (n = 30) or a waitlist-control group (n = 26). Participants completed assessments at baseline (T0), post-intervention (T1), and one-month follow-up (T2), including the DASS-21, PANAS, and SWLS. Parents rated the overall severity of their child’s behavior problems to explore indirect treatment effects. Results: All participants receiving MBCT (100%) completed the program successfully and reported high acceptability. At baseline, no significant differences were observed between groups. Compared to controls, the MBCT group demonstrated significant reductions in depression, anxiety, and stress, alongside increases in positive affect and life satisfaction at T1. These improvements were further strengthened or maintained at T2. However, the control group showed no significant changes across time. Additionally, parents in the MBCT group reported indirect improvements in their children’s behavioral adjustment at T1 and T2. Conclusions: Findings demonstrate that MBCT constitutes an effective intervention for reducing parental psychopathology and indirectly enhancing child positive behavior, emphasizing the importance of incorporating mindfulness and mindful parenting components into family-centered interventions for parents of children with ASD.

Abstract: This comprehensive analysis examines the American AI Exports Program through a multi-dimensional framework encompassing technical architecture, governance structures, market strategy, and policy implementation. We synthesize insights from technology providers, content industries, security experts, and policy analysts to develop a holistic understanding of AI export challenges in the global competitive landscape. The paper presents a multi-layer framework architecture with strategic, governance, technical, and market layers, supported by detailed visualizations including architectural diagrams, decision matrices, risk assessment frameworks, and implementation roadmaps. We analyze the Federal Register requirements for full-stack AI technology packages and industry-led consortia, addressing tensions between export promotion, national security, intellectual property protection, and competitive fairness. Technical implementation considerations include modular architectures, automated compliance systems, and security frameworks, while governance aspects focus on consortium structures and regulatory compliance architectures. Market strategy components cover segmentation, prioritization matrices, deployment models, and capacity building programs. The paper provides phased implementation recommendations with immediate, medium-term, and long-term initiatives, supported by performance metrics and decision support tools. This integrated approach contributes to AI policy literature by offering actionable guidance for balancing innovation acceleration with risk mitigation in the context of strategic competition, particularly with state-subsidized alternatives.

Abstract: The Arousal Appraisal Model (AAM) is proposed as a theoretical framework in which emotion is understood as one phase in a broader process of arousal regulation. In this account, low-load contemplation, matched-load action, excess-load emotion, and overload collapse/freeze all arise from the dynamic regulation of physiological arousal within the human nervous system. Drawing on affective neuroscience, cognitive appraisal theory, and contemplative research, the model reframes emotion as part of a regulatory process that emerges when amygdala-driven activation overshoots behavioral capacity, leaving surplus energy to be carried as tension and affect. Extending Schachter and Singer’s (1962) two-factor theory, the AAM situates arousal, appraisal, and integrative awareness along a single regulatory axis: when mobilization remains below the level needed to organize action, it is registered as low-load contemplation or passing wishes; when mobilization and capacity are well matched in a given task, matched-load action arises, with flow-like states as vivid exemplars; when activation exceeds available capacity, emotion is experienced as differentiated feeling; and when activation surpasses even this range, overload can result in collapse, freezing, or functional shutdown. Synthesizing empirical findings from misattribution studies, neuroimaging of arousal–appraisal coupling, and flow-state research, the Arousal Appraisal Model offers a testable account of how shifts in physiological activation are organized, through appraisal, into cognition, behavior, and subjective experience across the full range from contemplative low load to survival-driven shutdown. Unlike Yerkes–Dodson, circumplex, or “window of tolerance” frameworks, which remain largely descriptive, the Arousal Appraisal Model offers a mechanistic account of how changing mobilization–capacity ratios organize arousal into contemplation, action, emotion, and collapse along a single regulatory axis.

Abstract: Housing insecurity is one of the most urgent social problems in the United States, with eviction serving as an important contributor to poverty, health inequities, and insecure housing. Federal and state policymakers established eviction moratoria and emergency rental assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic that dramatically decreased filings. This paper analyzes eviction filings in Florida from 2019 through 2025 to see if these actions had a lasting impact. Using the theory of institutional temporality, we employed descriptive, inferential, and time-series analyses, including segmented regression and joinpoint analyses, using data collected from the Eviction Lab. Results demonstrated that filings dropped to an average of 6,551 per month during the moratorium, compared to 10,766 prior to the pandemic; however, filings rose to 11,754 per month after protections were lifted in July 2021. Peaks in January and October also influenced the risk of eviction. The moratoria provided short-term relief, but Florida’s “eviction cliff” illustrates the limits of crisis-focused eviction policies and highlights the need for structural changes that integrate eviction prevention into long-term housing policy.

Abstract:

This paper examines the relationship between mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) and creativity in workplace settings. Because only three — and highly heterogeneous — studies met the criteria for a systematic review, the authors conducted a critical narrative synthesis instead. A comprehensive search was performed in PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science (up to February 2025) following PRISMA guidelines. Included studies, using randomized or non-randomized designs, assessed effects of MBIs on creativity-related outcomes (divergent/convergent thinking, innovation, idea generation, problem solving) and secondary outcomes such as cognitive flexibility, emotion regulation, working memory, adaptability and coping. The three randomized controlled trials reported improvements in creativity and problem-solving, as well as in emotion regulation, working memory and coping. However, due to the limited number and heterogeneity of studies, firm conclusions cannot yet be drawn. Nevertheless, the emerging findings highlight potential cognitive and emotional mechanisms underlying the mindfulness–creativity link, offering a basis for more integrated conceptual models and evidence-based applications in organizational contexts. Further research into stronger designs is needed to clarify causal mechanisms and consolidate this relationship.

Abstract: Uzbekistan's transition from a state-regulated to a market economy represents a policy outcome aimed at balancing growth, stability, and equity. Gradual changes observed during the former President Karimov’s term maintained macroeconomic stability but entrenched structural and regional inequality, with rural provinces relying on low-productivity agriculture and labor emigration. This paper aims to assess the policy of the former president post-2016 and the changes introduced by Mirziyoyev, including currency deregulation, trade openness, and privatization, which have transformed regional development, income distribution, and migration flows. Focusing on qualitative research of government papers, international organizations, and academic articles, the study traces historical legacies, the development of the financial sector, and reform stages as drivers of inequality. The results show how an urbanized core and networked regions have benefited disproportionately from liberalization, while rural provinces lag, increasing spatial imbalances. Yet labor migration and remittances act as a hidden equalizer, reducing household poverty but leaving uneven regional outcomes and a heavy reliance on external labor markets. The paper concludes with the argument that while reform in Uzbekistan accelerates growth and modern development, inclusive development is constrained and requires targeted responses to address rural underdevelopment, labor market imperfections, and uneven rewards from migration flows.

Abstract: Virtual agents powered by large language models are increasingly deployed in digital mental health services, yet the influence of avatar appearance on users’ emotional, cognitive, and physiological responses remains insufficiently understood. This study examined how three avatar designs—animal-like, human-like, and object-like—shape affective experience, user evaluation, autonomic activity, and attentional allocation during virtual doctor interactions. Forty-two participants completed a within-subjects experiment involving self-reported affect ratings, multidimensional user-experience assessments, heart rate variability (HRV) measures, and eye-tracking indicators. Avatar type did not significantly affect changes in positive or negative affect. However, physiological data revealed clear divergences. The animal-like avatar elicited the strongest parasympathetic activation, reflected by significant increases in RMSSD and HF power, whereas the object-like avatar produced a sympathetic-dominant response. Across six user-experience dimensions, the animal-like avatar consistently received the highest evaluations. Eye-tracking results showed faster first fixation and longer face-directed fixation duration for the animal-like avatar, indicating stronger social attention. The human-like avatar demonstrated slightly delayed initial fixation, consistent with subtle yet nonsignificant uncanny-valley tendencies. These findings underscore the critical role of avatar visual design in shaping emotional safety, engagement, and social processing in virtual mental health interactions.

Abstract: As corporations increasingly integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into everyday life, particularly with the emergence of GenAI tools such as ChatGPT, the inability to integrate these tools into school curricula leaves students unprepared for the future job market and societal demands. Moreover, without a foundation in writing prompts and evaluating models' responses, students may not recognize ethical concerns, such as deepfakes, which may contribute to misinformation and irresponsible use of technology in personal and professional settings. This article introduces AMERH, a structured framework for writing prompts. The framework includes five principles: Ask, Museful, Evaluate, React, and Chain/Refine, to optimize interactions with GenAI models, such as ChatGPT. While various frameworks have been introduced to help learners craft prompts, addressing the role of these learners in evaluating their prompts and model responses remains underexplored in these frameworks. Crafting prompt writing within the AMERH framework aligns with Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) by providing learners with scaffolded support as they develop their skills. This framework provides learners with step-by-step guidance and serves as a support tool for diverse learners regardless of prior experiences. This framework enables learners to think critically and creatively, preparing them to transition from guided to independent prompt designers.

Abstract:

This article examines the emergence of post-GDP civilizational indicators in Africa through the lens of informal economies, relational wellbeing, and pluriversal epistemologies. Conventional economic metrics erase the complexity and creativity of African livelihoods, particularly the informal, communal, and spiritual dimensions that sustain resilience across rural and urban lifeworlds. Drawing from anthropology of value (Graeber), wellbeing theory (Nussbaum, Sen), pluriversal philosophy (Santos, Escobar), and African relational ethics, the paper conceptualizes wellbeing as a multidimensional constellation encompassing ecological embeddedness, relational solidarity, capabilities, meaning-making, and community resilience. Informal economies—often dismissed as “unproductive”—are in fact crucial laboratories for post-GDP thinking. Empirical insights from Kinshasa, Lagos, Dakar, and Kigali show the emergence of hybrid value systems based on cooperation, digital micro-innovation, spiritual cohesion, gendered care networks, and ecological reciprocity. These dynamics provide fertile ground for a new generation of African indicators centered on regenerative value, relational flourishing, and community capabilities. The paper introduces the concept of Pluriversal Wellbeing Matrices (PWM)—a methodological and conceptual tool for capturing Africa’s post-GDP prosperity landscape, integrating ecological data, socio-cultural relations, informal economic creativity, and spiritual foundations of resilience.

Abstract:

This paper presents a fully articulated semi-presidential constitutional scheme (Scheme C) that embraces parliamentary fragmentation and minority governments as the new normal rather than pathologies requiring cure. Evolved from Schemes A and B, it strengthens prime-ministerial counterweights against the assembly. The scheme fuses (i) Westminster-style executive continuity and prime-ministerial dissolution initiative, (ii) French-style presidential authority in foreign and defence policy plus a robust legislative veto, (iii) synchronised presidential-legislative elections complemented by semi-mid-term legislative contests, and (iv) a game-based investiture rule paired with an innovative two-tier no-confidence procedure, both anchored in formal legislative confidence. Scheme C thereby achieves an unprecedented synthesis: more parliamentary than classic president-parliamentary or premier-presidential systems, more stable than Westminster models amid fragmented legislatures, and endowed with stronger mid-term democratic correctives than existing benchmarks. Its architecture simultaneously shields the prime minister from presidential overreach, the president from parliamentary extortion, and the state from governmental paralysis or authoritarian drift---even under unified political control of both branches. Scheme C is thus advanced not as theoretical speculation but as a coherent, stress-tested model ready for adoption in contemporary democracies facing persistent legislative fragmentation.

Abstract: Metaverses integrate technologies that push the boundaries of human experience. Their potential to transform areas such as education, mental health, and social-emotional support has sparked growing academic interest. However, despite their expansion, one of the main challenges for their implementation lies in the proliferation of metaverse platforms with diverse characteristics, architectures, and purposes, which complicates the task of informed technology selection. Given this diversity, a systematic approach is required to compare platforms based on functional and non-functional attributes relevant to specific application contexts. The objective of this study was to propose a model for evaluating the quality of metaverse-type platforms based on a hybridization of the aspects defined in the ISO/IEC 25000 family of standards, a maturity model extracted from recent literature, and the Metagon metaverse characterization typology. Using this model, 23 metaverse platforms were evaluated, with statistical analysis including PCA and k-means, achieving a kappa coefficient of 0.7643 between evaluators. The results show that platforms such as Decentraland, Overte, and Roblox achieve the highest levels of maturity (NM5), while JanusXR and Sansar remain in experimental categories. The results provide a taxonomy of characteristics refined and validated by experts that were used in the evaluation of a set of platforms, offering a rigorous and reproducible classification useful for guiding technology adoption decisions in emerging contexts. The discussion presents the basis for future studies focused on the evaluation of specific categories, such as educational, therapeutic, or social interaction platforms.

Abstract: Background: During social foraging, individuals typically adopt one of two mutually exclusive strategies: (1) producing, which involves searching for, discovering, and acquiring resources, or (2) scrounging, which entails exploiting resources previously discovered by others. The distribution of these strategies within a group is referred to as the Producer–Scrounger (P–S) Game. Although the influence of personality on the Producer–Scrounger Game has been examined in non-human species through measures of individual differences such as behavioral flexibility and exploratory tendencies, few studies have yet explored this relationship in humans. Objective: The present study aimed to examine the association between social foraging strategies and personality traits in human participants, using the Big Five dimensions, their higher-order metatraits, and psychopathy traits from the Antisocial Process Screening Device (APSD). Methods: Forty-five participants completed the Guaymas Foraging Task (GFT), designed to simulate a social foraging scenario under two conditions lasting four minutes each: one in which the cost of producing was 0 seconds, and another in which it was 8 seconds. Participants also completed the Big Five Inventory and the APSD. Results: The openness, agreeableness, extraversion, stability, and plasticity traits were associated with higher producer indexes. However, these correlations emerged only under the low-cost condition. Similarly, participants above the APSD’s cutoff score scrounged more but only in the low-cost condition. Conclusions: Individual differences such as personality seem to be correlated with different foraging strategies, nonetheless, the behavioral expression of these traits seems to diminish when the environment isn’t favorable for their preferred strategy.

Abstract: This article develops a comprehensive theoretical and empirical exploration of post-extractive development as a new paradigm for twenty-first-century societies, particularly in the Global South. Contemporary economic models remain anchored in extractive logics, linear industrial thinking, and indicators such as GDP that inadequately reflect ecological, relational, cultural, and spiritual dimensions of wellbeing. Drawing from recent scholarship in ecological economics, political anthropology, resilience studies, and post-growth transitions (Hickel, 2020–2023; Latour, 2022; Scoones et al., 2022), the article proposes an integrative value framework called Ecologies of Flourishing. This approach conceptualizes prosperity as the dynamic interaction of ecological regeneration, sociotechnical resilience, cultural meaning-making, political inclusion, and spiritual vitality.Through an interdisciplinary synthesis, the article demonstrates how emerging empirical evidence—from community forests in Central Africa to Indigenous environmental governance in Latin America and circular innovation systems in Asia (UNDP, 2023; UNEP, 2024)—reveals a shift toward relational and regenerative forms of development. The paper introduces two analytical levels: systemic level analysis, which examines how institutions, infrastructures, and ecological boundaries shape macro patterns of prosperity, and lifeworld level analysis, which focuses on subjective and intersubjective experiences of wellbeing, belonging, and purpose. The article argues that post-extractive development offers a scientifically grounded alternative to conventional economic models by integrating ecological boundaries, social capabilities, and cultural-spiritual foundations of value. The framework proposed provides insights for policymakers, scholars, and practitioners seeking to design value systems that support civilizational resilience in an era of global instability.

Abstract: Peer action coordination in middle childhood is thought to benefit from socio-cognitive abilities such as emotion understanding and inhibitory control, but empirical evidence for their role is limited. This study replicates and extends a previous study by examining whether emotion understanding and inhibitory control correlate with children’s peer action coordination in a cooperative sensorimotor problem-solving task. To test this hypothesis, 6- to 10-year-old children (N = 108, Mage = 8 years, 8 months, 46.3% girls, 53.7% boys) completed the Test of Emotion Comprehension, and the Attention Network Task. To assess children’s performance in coordinating their actions with a peer, they were asked to complete the Labyrinth Ball Game—a sensorimotor task that they first performed individually and then together with a peer. Contrary to expectations, there was no direct association between emotion understanding or inhibitory control and children’s peer action coordination after controlling for age, gender, and individual sensorimotor skills. However, a significant interaction between age and gender revealed that older boys showed greater cooperative action coordination performance than younger boys, whereas girls’ performance remained stable across age. These findings challenge the view that individual socio-cognitive abilities straightforwardly support cooperative success, suggesting that peer action coordination in middle childhood may rely on more complex mechanisms, such as gender-specific communicative strategies or social play, rather than on emotion understanding and inhibitory control.

Abstract: In this report Italian researcher and engineer Alberto Donini and Swiss researcher and journalist Tomas Hrico present several photographs of unusual artifact discoveries they made at Cerro del Toro (Hill of the Bull) near the Mexican town of Ojuelos de Jalisco. Additionally, they describe the finding circumstances and show solid evidence regarding the ancient age at least of one of the three small objects excavated – a figurine of burned clay with big almond shaped eyes and an elongated head. In the last chapter “Final words” the two authors conclude the article by asking some significant questions and invite other researchers to collaborate with them on the next phase of their project.

Abstract: Globalization is an inescapable process of the twenty-first century. In this process, political and economic borders fade, communication expands, and cultural interactions increase. The phenomenon of globalization transforms societies in three dimensions – economic, political, and cultural. In its cultural dimension, globalization consists of the formation and expansion of a particular culture on the global stage, creating a wave of cultural homogeneity that affects national identity – the tool that separates one nation from another. Meanwhile, the country’s education system, which on the one hand is tasked with safeguarding national values and on the other hand faces the challenges of globalization, plays a pivotal role in consolidating national identity while at the same time seizing the opportunities of globalization through a better understanding of this process. This research examines the role of the education system in confronting the impacts of globalization on national identity and answers the question of whether the education system has played an effective role in consolidating the national identity of youth so that it can have a constructive interaction with globalization. The findings from the reviewed studies showed that, despite the ideals and goals of this system, practically, in the field of educating citizens who, in addition to possessing characteristics appropriate to an Iranian citizen, can also act as global citizens while preserving national identity, it has not been successful. As a result, an effective education system in Iran, if based on Islamic-Iranian sources with various approaches including cultural-educational approaches, will be able to educate global citizens who, while preserving national identity, can also have a constructive interaction with the changing world.