Encyclopedia, Volume 5, Issue 4 (December 2025) – 15 articles

Derived from the Community Attitudes Toward Sex Offenders scale (CATSO), the Perceptions of Sex Offenders (PSO) scale is 20-item instrument designed to be a practical and accurate assessment of perceptions of those who have offended sexually. The PSO was developed by Harper and Hogue through a revision of the CATSO scale, incorporating exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses with new validation samples. A three-factor scale emerged which assesses perceptions related to the sentencing and management of sexual offenders, stereotype endorsement of the person who offends sexually, and perception of the person who has offended sexually as a continued risk. This entry outlines the historical context of the PSO and the social science literature in which the instrument has been used. As well, this entry describes the development and psychometric properties of the PSO as well as the potential uses of the instrument in non-academic settings (e.g., judicial, restorative justice). Full article

The COVID-19 pandemic represents an unprecedented event in contemporary history, with far-reaching repercussions for the global economy and society. This article examines the economic challenges and consequences of this pandemic for women. It further explores the pandemic effects on women’s health and well-being, exacerbated by the limited access to basic healthcare and mental health resources, and it points out the challenges facing women in frontline occupations (namely, healthcare). This article also highlights the alarming surge in domestic violence and abuse against women during the pandemic, aggravated by lockdown measures and isolation from support networks. In addition, this article discusses various social and political implications of this pandemic for women, and it reveals how women demonstrated significant resilience over the pandemic-related struggles. The implications of the COVID-19 pandemic are likely to persist in the post-pandemic era as they intersect with ongoing social and economic transformations and new events/crises. At this point, it remains to be determined to what extent this pandemic has decelerated (or even reversed) the progress that was made over the past few decades in terms of reducing gender inequality and enhancing women’s social status, and to what degree women’s resilience in the face of this pandemic has mitigated its adverse effects on their economic opportunities and social positions. Nevertheless, this article aims to provide a reference for governments, women’s organizations, and policymakers in assessing the implications of this pandemic for women and in designing sustained and targeted measures to support women vis-à-vis future crises. Full article

Adolescence, one of the most crucial developmental phases in life, was previously commonly considered a vulnerable period, characterized especially by risk factors that can lead to a variety of internalizing or externalizing problems. The present work goes beyond the classical view of adolescence as a vulnerable stage by supporting a more recent conceptualization of adolescence as a “window of opportunities”, driven by the interplay and influences between individual and environmental factors. The authors considered individual differences related to temperament and personality to account for individual factors, and school, family, and peer support as social factors. Moreover, the authors specified the contexts in which individual differences are particularly relevant for youths’ adjustment and psychological well-being, considering the main adaptive and maladaptive facets that adolescent development can assume. Lastly, the authors also considered the main intervention approaches to prevent risks and foster positive development in youths over time, especially accounting for social and environmental resources accessible to adolescents. Full article

Rectal cancer has become a significant health concern in current years, but there are very effective current neo-adjuvant treatment modalities which can result in the complete disappearance of the disease without surgery, which is often associated with severe post-surgical sequelae. Therefore, a significant effort has been made to identify the subset of patients who can avoid surgery and to investigate the long-term oncologic and functional results associated with the Non-Operative Management of such a disease. Full article

Ocean Literacy (OL) can be broadly defined as a framework for understanding the complex and evolving relationships between people and the ocean. It is increasingly recognized as a vital component of marine conservation and sustainability efforts. OL is inherently interdisciplinary, and psychology, while being a particularly relevant field, remains an underutilized field in this space. This paper demonstrates how psychological theories, frameworks, and validated measures can meaningfully inform OL strategies across its ten proposed dimensions: knowledge, awareness, attitudes, behavior, activism, communication, emotional connections, access and experience, adaptive capacity, and trust and transparency. Full article

Vibocracy refers to societal conditions in which public life and decision-making are shaped by affective resonance, performative legitimacy, and unstable epistemic frames, often amplified by algorithmic media and neo-oral communication environments. Unlike wicked problems, which presuppose shared intelligibility, and post-truth politics, which emphasize the erosion of factual authority, vibocracy designates contexts where problems themselves are enacted and sustained through affective circulation. Recent years have seen the emergence of societal challenges where public life and decision-making are shaped less by shared evidence and deliberative reasoning than by affective resonance and performative legitimacy. This entry introduces the concept of vibocracy to describe these conditions and distinguishes it from existing categories such as wicked problems and messes. The analysis is based on a conceptual synthesis of scholarship from planning, organizational studies, media theory, and political science, combined with illustrative examples from recent societal controversies. The main finding is that vibocratic problems resist not only solutions but stable framing itself, creating volatile, performative arenas where legitimacy is enacted rather than negotiated. The entry concludes by proposing vibocracy as a distinct conceptual lens for understanding emerging societal challenges and outlines methodological implications for researchers and practitioners. Full article

To address the gaps in cyber range survey research, this entry develops and applies a structured classification taxonomy to support the comparison, evaluation, and design of cyber ranges. The entry will address the following question: What are the objectives and key features of current cyber ranges, and how can they be classified into a comprehensive taxonomy? The entry synthesizes existing frameworks and analyzes and classifies a variety of documented cyber ranges to find similarities and gaps in the current classification methods. The findings indicate recurring design elements across ranges, persistent gaps in standardization, and demonstrate how the University of West Florida (UWF) Cyber Range exemplifies the taxonomy application in practice. The goal is to facilitate informed decision-making by cybersecurity professionals when choosing platforms and to support academic research in cybersecurity education. Pulling information from studies about other cyber ranges to compare with the UWF Cyber Range, this taxonomy aims to contribute to the documentation of cyber ranges by providing a clear understanding of the current cyber range landscape. Full article

The axisymmetric geometries of both internal and external profiles of church bells, along with the properties of the bell metal, are of vital importance to their acoustics. The role of “golden geometry” in determining the visual characteristics of the outer profile of a modern English church bell is presented. It is shown that a golden rectangle, a golden triangle, and a golden angle are all important factors. Three angular parameters are identified as measures of these attributes of the bell’s “goldenness”. Two of these features are shown to result from an underlying regular pentagon with one side defined by the bell’s mouth. The centre of this pentagon determines the location of the bell’s shoulders. Further minor features are also shown to be determined by golden geometry. The evolution of the three angular parameters over the previous millennium is included, showing a tendency to trend quickly towards the golden values in all the cases. Ultimately, the angular parameters for the English church bell of focus here are used for comparison with other modern European bells studied previously. The bells considered all displayed at least two of the three major golden features to an agreement of better than 1%. Full article

Cognition is often modeled in terms of abstract reasoning and neural computation, yet a growing body of theoretical and experimental work suggests that the roots of cognition lie in fundamental embodied regulatory processes. This article presents a theory of cognition grounded in sensing, feeling, and affect—capacities that precede neural systems and are observable in even the simplest living organisms. Based on the info-computational framework, this entry outlines how cognition and proto-subjectivity co-emerge in biological systems. Embodied appraisal—the system’s ability to evaluate internal and external conditions in terms of valence (positive/negative; good/bad)—and the capacity to regulate accordingly are described as mutually constitutive processes observable at the cellular level. This concept reframes cognition not as abstract symbolic reasoning but as value-sensitive, embodied information dynamics resulting from self-regulating engagement with the environment that spans scales from unicellular organisms to complex animals. In this context, information is physically instantiated, and computation is the dynamic, self-modifying process by which organisms regulate and organize themselves. Cognition thus emerges from the dynamic coupling of sensing, internal evaluation, and adaptive morphological (material shape-based) activity. Grounded in findings from developmental biology, bioelectric signaling, morphological computation, and basal cognition, this account situates intelligence as an affect-driven regulatory capacity intrinsic to biological life. While focused on biological systems, this framework also offers conceptual insights for developing more adaptive and embodied forms of artificial intelligence. Future experiments with minimal living systems or synthetic agents may help operationalize and test the proposed mechanisms of proto-subjectivity and affect regulation. Full article

The human eye is a complex organ that is prone to visual impairment from both modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors. While some lifestyle choices, such as smoking, can negatively influence the eye’s visual system, others can have a positive impact. For instance, a healthy diet that includes nutrients such as lutein, zeaxanthin and meso-zeaxanthin can have a beneficial effect on macular health. Similarly, exercise can have a beneficial effect not only on general health and wellbeing but also on ocular health. This article will provide an overview of the link between modifiable risk factors such as diet, exercise, psychological stress and others on ocular diseases including dry eye disease, age-related macular degeneration, myopia, glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy. It will also evaluate whether there is a need to raise awareness amongst the general population on how simple lifestyle changes can improve ocular health. Full article

Functional analysis is a methodology used within the field of Behavioral Analysis to explain, predict, and influence behavior. This is achieved by identifying the functional relationships between behavior, the antecedent stimuli that elicit or evoke behavior, and the consequences of behavior that influence its future occurrence. Within this context, a functional relationship refers to a consistent and observable change in behavior (the “dependent variable”) that results from the systematic manipulation of environmental conditions (the “independent variables”). Functional analyses typically focus on the immediate environmental context, where stimuli functionally related to the behavior are observed. In applied and clinical settings, however, behavior analysts may consider additional variables (e.g., genetic predispositions, social context, learning history) to enhance the accuracy and relevance of their analyses. These variables are usually controlled for or excluded in experimental settings but can play a meaningful role in naturalistic behavior assessment. Full article

Phyllodes tumors are rare fibroepithelial neoplasms of the breast, and their malignant forms present significant diagnostic and therapeutic challenges. This review summarizes current knowledge across the benign-to-malignant spectrum, focusing on diagnostic approaches, histopathological classification, molecular alterations, and treatment strategies. While recent molecular studies have revealed recurrent genetic mutations, their clinical implications remain under investigation. Surgical excision remains the cornerstone of treatment, and systemic therapies are generally adapted from soft tissue sarcoma protocols. Future efforts should focus on improving diagnostic accuracy, identifying molecular targets for therapy, and fostering international collaboration to advance clinical research in this rare tumor type. Full article

This study is intended to conduct a comprehensive review of federalism. This study starts from the institutional aspect and analyzes how federalism, as a compound structure, divides power between the central and local governments. Then, this study mentions that federalism also has its normative connotations, which are traceable to the theological concept of a covenant. We also elaborate on how the success of the United States’ federalism strengthened its institutional aspect while overshadowing the older covenant tradition. Next, this study presents a typological framework of federalism, introducing concepts such as coming-together federalism and holding-together federalism; dual federalism and cooperative federalism; decentralization and non-centralization; and asymmetrical federalism, non-territorial autonomy, and consociationalism, presidential and parliamentary federalism, as well as democratic federalism and authoritarian federalism/facade federalism. Next, this study compares monist federalism with multinational federalism. Then, this study examines the specific applications of federalism in fiscal, environmental, health-care, and social-welfare policies. By reviewing the history, theoretical origins, institutional development, and contemporary manifestations of federalism, this study provides a roadmap for scholars in the field of federal studies. Finally, this study also puts forward several testable hypotheses, aiming to provide operational research agendas for future studies. Full article

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a software-based technology that uses configurable algorithmic software agents (bots) to replicate manual user activities across digital systems. It represents an evolution from earlier workflow scripting tools, and is distinguished by its ability to be used without requiring substantial IT infrastructure modifications or extensive programming knowledge. In the banking and insurance sectors, organizations face increasing pressure to adopt modern technologies that streamline operations and reduce costs while complying with strict regulatory requirements. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has emerged as a viable and cost-effective solution, enabling automation of repetitive and rule-based tasks without requiring major changes to legacy IT systems. This paper conducts a literature review to examine the current use cases of RPA technologies in banking and insurance, analyzing how these technologies are employed to enhance corporate efficiency and performance. The review draws from recent academic publications and case studies between 2017 and 2025, identifying core implementation areas such as customer onboarding, claims processing, compliance reporting, and underwriting automation. The results highlight substantial improvements in processing speed, error reduction, and resource optimization, along with evolving metrics for measuring effectiveness. The study concludes by identifying key success factors, performance measurement approaches, and challenges in RPA implementation, offering insights for both practitioners and researchers aiming to understand the role of automation in financial services transformation. Full article

Digital Entrepreneurial Capability (DEC) is the integrated and learnable capacity that equips individuals, or founding teams, to sense, evaluate, and exploit entrepreneurial opportunities within digitally intermediated, platform-centric markets. The construct synthesises four interlocking elements. First, it requires technical dexterity: mastery of data engineering, AI-driven analytics, low-code development, cloud orchestration, and cybersecurity safeguards. Second, it draws on accumulated human capital—formal education, sector experience, and tacit managerial know-how that ground vision in operational reality. Third, DEC hinges on an opportunity-seeking mindset characterised by cognitive alertness, creative problem framing, a high need for achievement, and autonomous motivation. Finally, it depends on calculated risk tolerance, encompassing the ability to price and mitigate economic, technical, algorithmic, and competitive uncertainties endemic to platform economies. When these pillars operate synergistically, entrepreneurs translate digital affordances into scalable, resilient business models; when one pillar is weak, capability bottlenecks arise and ventures falter. Because each pillar can be intentionally developed through education, deliberate practice, and ecosystem support, DEC serves as a practical roadmap for stakeholders. It now informs scholarship across entrepreneurship, information systems, innovation management, and public-policy disciplines, and guides interventions ranging from curriculum design and accelerator programming to due-diligence heuristics and national digital literacy initiatives. Full article